Book 7: Chapter 1: The World of Hunters

World Setting: Hunter x Hunter

Time: September 21, 2071 Yorbian Calendar, 10:00 AM

Location: Meteor Street

Main Quest: Insufficient data

“It stinks!” Qin Lun felt a foul smell hit his nose as soon as he regained consciousness.

After the orange-yellow shield around his body disappeared, he looked around and found himself in a narrow alley.

This alley was squeezed between two abandoned buildings, less than two meters wide. It was piled high with garbage everywhere, like a forgotten temporary dump. The air carried a nauseating odor.

“Zzzt!” Just as Qin Lun frowned and wanted to leave this place, a shabby radio placed on a wooden crate not far from him suddenly emitted static. Though it sounded like meaningless noise to others, in the young man’s Death Notice, it transformed into hints about this world.

“A unique world belonging to Hunters?” Looking at the information in his Death Notice, Qin Lun’s eyes lit up, but he slowly furrowed his brow. “The world difficulty actually jumped directly from Corporal rank to Colonel rank!”

He remembered that during the World War II World, the highest difficulty mission had been Lieutenant rank. Once mission difficulty reached Colonel rank, it meant encountering combat powers equivalent to third-tier Apostles.

Though mission difficulty didn’t represent individual combat power, just thinking about Dean David of the Justice League and Madame Monica, Queen of Sandstorms made it clear this world definitely didn’t lack powerful combat professions.

“No magic system, that’s understandable.” Qin Lun sighed helplessly. He had prepared so many Magic Scrolls, but now Shattered Starry Sky had rendered them all useless. “But why did Shattered Starry Sky reduce pain perception by 70%? Does it think I might not withstand certain forces’ interrogation and involuntarily reveal Shattered Starry Sky’s secrets?”

Qin Lun curled his lips and continued scrolling through other introductions about this world.

According to Qin Lun’s request, Shattered Starry Sky transported him into a human world where the Hunter Profession was prevalent. Apart from various islands in the ocean, this world had six continents. Like the Earth Federation, the dominant intelligent species were humans.

However, this planet’s surface area was much larger than Earth’s. Even the smallest Azia continent was almost twice the size of Earth’s Eurasia. As for the largest Yorbian continent, which also had the most islands, it was nearly ten times the size of Eurasia.

This world’s technology level was roughly equivalent to the Earth Federation’s old calendar late 1990s. Transportation was quite advanced, forming a three-dimensional network of land, sea, and air. Communication also had advanced facilities like mobile phones and computer networks.

But unlike the Earth Federation, this world hadn’t developed thermonuclear weapons. The peak combat power belonged to certain humans with powerful abilities. These humans possessed incredibly powerful Superpowers, with the largest and most representative group being “Hunters.”

The concept of “Hunter” given in the Death Notice differed slightly from Qin Lun’s understanding. In this world, “Hunters” didn’t just hunt beasts—they hunted anything that interested them.

Ingredients, music, paintings, rare beasts, ancient treasures, secret realms, Ruins… All unknown things and dreams humans could possess—powerful humans capable of exploring and researching these, ultimately “capturing” them, were called “Hunters.”

Hunters had existed in this world for over a thousand years and formed a relatively loose Hunter Association. The Hunter Association was a service organization specifically providing information and work for Hunters, with no mandatory constraints on its members.

Therefore, anyone who passed the Hunter Association’s test—including thieves, Rogues, and murderers—could become a member and receive the Hunter Association’s information support and work opportunities.

“Seems somewhat different from what I need. Never mind, there’s too little information now. I’ll wait and see.” Qin Lun’s eyes flashed. He pinched his fingers and stepped out of the alley. The lingering stench here was something he could no longer endure.

This world’s “Hunters” didn’t seem closely related to Qin Lun’s jungle Hunter Profession, almost encompassing all combat professions. There were even exceptional individuals supremely skilled in life arts, fully deserving the title “Hunter x Hunter.”

Apart from having the name “Hunter,” such a world was completely different from Qin Lun’s previous requirements for the Space-Time Locator Sphere, making him somewhat puzzled. However, he had just entered this Quest World and couldn’t make accurate judgments based solely on Shattered Starry Sky’s limited hints.

After exiting the alley, Qin Lun slowly raised his eyebrows, his eyes showing deeper confusion.

In the distance, garbage piles towering like mountains surrounded the street area where he stood, resembling a moat. Qin Lun twitched his nostrils, suddenly realizing the foul smell wasn’t limited to the alley—it was omnipresent throughout this area, having become an environmental norm.

“Why did Shattered Starry Sky transport me into this garbage area? Could there be clues for the Guidance Mission here?”

“Clang!” Qin Lun expressionlessly kicked away a soda can by his feet. Looking at the chaotic surroundings resembling a bomb site, he felt speechless. He had thought the inside of the alley was a garbage dump, but it turned out to be the cleanest spot in this area.

“Meteor Street… Such a beautiful name, yet it’s used to refer to a garbage-filled area.” Recalling the hint information from his Death Notice, Qin Lun murmured to himself.

Meteor Street was the name Shattered Starry Sky gave for this area. Meteor Street covered approximately 6,000 square kilometers and was home to eight million humans.

Over a thousand years ago, Meteor Street was already recognized worldwide as a garbage dumping area. Officially, it was a no-man’s-land. All eight million residents here were unregistered, and even infants discarded here didn’t require national identity or birth records.

How the residents lived here, whether they received education, whether they had religious beliefs—outsiders knew nothing about these. In such exceptionally harsh living conditions, many humans with special talents were born here.

Some people with partial inside knowledge heard that the residents survived by collecting and recycling garbage.

Because many residents here possessed special talents and lacked normal human society’s concepts of good and evil, this place was particularly favored by worldwide underworld organizations as an employment market. They used living resources and weapons to recruit special talents from Meteor Street.

“Hmm?” While pondering, Qin Lun suddenly felt a slight disturbance in his heart. His figure swayed, disappearing from his original spot.

“Ting!” The moment he left, a slender iron nail nailed into the spot where he had been standing. The slightly rusty long nail embedded deeply into the brick. Judging by the nail’s angle, the original target had been Qin Lun’s neck.

“Crash!” From a pile of discarded electrical appliances in the distance came panicked fleeing sounds. Apparently, the attacker, seeing the sneak attack had failed, was escaping the scene.

“Doesn’t seem like a skilled attacker!” Hanging mid-air from the ruined building using his Claw Chain, Qin Lun watched two small figures fleeing in panic in the distance. He touched his chin with his free left hand.

“Just entered this world and got attacked nearby… Coincidence? Or…” Qin Lun curled his lips. With a flick of his right hand, he jumped down from the building’s outer wall. Unhurriedly, using the surrounding environment for cover, he quietly followed the two small figures ahead.

…

“Xiaonan, Xiaoya, you haven’t had any gains for three days. As per the old rules, you get no food today.”

On an empty dirt ground, a group of oddly dressed people sat or squatted around the perimeter. In the center stood two children in ragged clothes.

The two children were a boy and a girl. The boy looked about ten years old, his face covered in black grime, hair messy like a bird’s nest. He wore only a torn vest and shorts, seemingly modified from some kind of sack. His limbs were skinny like sticks, his bare feet and arms covered in mud, making his original skin color indiscernible.

The girl was younger and thinner than the boy. She wore an equally ragged dress made from unknown fabric, her messy hair braided into two pigtails hanging behind her. Due to long-term malnutrition, her pigtails were dry, yellowish, and lacked luster.

Currently, she hid behind the boy, tugging at his arm, peeking out with her slender, pointed chin. Her bright black eyes fearfully watched the adults before them.

The person speaking to the two children was a tall, thin man among the group. This man had a slender build, a high-bridged nose, and sharp, hawk-like eyes in deep-set sockets. His exposed limbs had prominent joints, resembling a living skeleton, with one hand tucked in his pocket. His face was full of wrinkles, hair mixed gray and white, making his specific age unclear.

“Boss Gutou, we haven’t eaten for three days. Just a little food, just a little bit!” The boy hesitated for a moment, glanced at the girl behind him, slowly knelt down, and heavily kowtowed on the dirt ground. “I don’t matter, but Xiaoya is too young—she won’t last. I beg you, just give Xiaoya a little!”

“Xiaonan, you should understand—useless people can’t survive in Meteor Street.” The tall, thin Gutou shook his head faintly, a strange glint suddenly appearing in his eyes. “You’ve long known what should be done. Actually, one of you two could survive.”

Hearing Gutou’s words, the clean parts of Xiaonan’s face suddenly turned frighteningly pale. Sweat beads emerged from his forehead where it pressed against the dirt. Behind him, Xiaoya widened her bright black eyes, seeming to understand something. She released the boy’s arm and slowly backed away.