Meruem and the Royal Guards storm the Royal Palace of East Gorteau and kill the leader Ming Jol-ik and most of the humans inside. They plan for a Selection Day, where the citizens would come to the palace under the belief that it was a celebration, only to be forced to awake their Nen via Initiation; 99% of the citizens would die. Gon, Killua, Knuckle, Shoot, Morel, and Knov head there, planning to work with Netero to take down the Ants. Gon gets his Nen back, and proceeds to show Morel the tremendous amount of power he has when angered. The six members would be divided into 3 teams of two on the day of the palace invasion, which was in 10 days since that was when the Selection was going to happen. Gon and Killua were assigned Pitou; Knuckle and Shoot, Youpi; and Knov and Morel, Pouf; and Netero would battle Meruem. Meanwhile, the Phantom Troupe returns to their hometown, Meteor City. Feitan, Shalnark, Shizuku, Bonolenov, Phinks, and Kalluto are going to take out Zazan and her squadron. The squadron had reached Meteor City, and were turning the citizens into Ants with Zazan's Queen Shot. Whoever managed to kill Zazan would become the de facto leader. It turns out to be Feitan.
Gon and Killua sneak through the East Gorteau border. They enter a small village, only to find it empty. Seeing blood and shallow graves, Killua deduces that the Selection had already begun, and were using the pretense of a celebration to make the mass disappearance of people unsurprising. Killua also explains that to select as many as 5 million people, and not have so many Nen-capable Ants, means that they can control them. Killua plans to attack the ones being controlled, while Gon remains in hiding. As Killua attempts to prevent the citizens from going to their impending doom, many don't believe him and he garners attention. He is attacked by Chimera Ants swarming the forest and Leol's Squad. While claiming victory against Ikalgo, he decides not to kill him because of his admiration for the latter's resolve to never betray his comrades. He is then caught in a dart game with the Ortho Siblings, where he is the dartboard. He nearly dies, but Ikalgo, having a change of heart, saves him. Meanwhile, Gon continues to wander in the East Gorteau's countryside. A Squadron Leader takes an interest in him, so he sends his officers and soldiers after him, only for them to be defeated. He reveals himself to Gon, and joins the boy to get revenge on the King for killing his former self's adoptive father, Peggy. Gon agrees, much to Meleoron's surprise.
Meanwhile, Meruem plays board games with champions from the Republic of East Gorteau to kill time until the Selection. Being the genius he is, he masters them in minutes and defeats the champions, and kills them. However, the final champion is the Gungi champion, a seemingly dim-witted blind girl named Komugi. Despite her seemingly-low intellect, she manages to defeat him in every game, earning his respect. During one of these games, Meruem attempts to throw her off by making her bet on something. He bets on his arm that he would win; she bets on her life. Shocked and intrigued to know why, Meruem asks her about her decision, and Komugi explains her family background and how her only skill was Gungi. In response, Meruem rips off his arm. Pitou stops using its En to repair Meruem, and Pouf activates his. During this time, Knov infiltrates the palace to set doors with his Nen ability. However, after seeing Pouf's heinous aura in a Zetsu state, he retreats after being frightened. He ends up having a mental breakdown due to the aura being so terrible, taking him out of commission.
While fighting Pitou's puppets, Morel once again comes across Cheetu. This time, the latter "tags" him and uses his Nen ability to put him in a world where he must catch Cheetu before a set timer runs out. Morel outwits Cheetu by acting distracted, only to put a smoke rope around him and tags him. Since Cheetu's restriction was that he would lose the technique should he be caught, Leol attacks Morel. He fights him in an abandoned church using Inamura, a technique the Ant stole from Morel's friend Grachan, to drown Morel. However, Morel uses pockets of air stored within the church to inhale oxygen and release carbon dioxide which poisoned and killed Leol. Killua is discharged from the hospital, and Gon tries to contact Palm, who had infiltrated the palace by acting as a prostitute. He does not succeed. Gon, Killua, Knuckle, Shoot, and Meleoron begin to strategize for the infiltration. Their plan is to make it seem as though a rebel would be merged with the crowd. When the Royal Guards focused on the crowd on the Selection Day, the group would intrude the palace and eliminate the King. However, Killua has doubts.
At the palace, Meruem goes back on his word to play in rapid succession and orders Komugi to rest. Seeing how this was the first time he did such a thing, Pouf and Youpi begin to view the girl as a threat. During the later matched, Komugi awakens her Nen, which allows her to see infinite better possibilities in the game. She requests to leave so that she can remember these moves, and Meruem allows her to. When she asks for his name, he realizes that he doesn't know. He consults the Royal Guards on the matter, they are unable to give him an answer of which he approves. As he speaks, Pouf, to his disgust, notices that the King was becoming more regretful and saw value of creatures he deemed inferior. However, he concludes that violence is the most powerful power in the world. Pondering on his little speech, Meruem asserts that she was no longer useful since the Selection was near and she would die in the conditions. He intends on killing her, and is about to do so, until he sees a crow attacking her. He quickly kills the crow, and begins to show signs of caring for her by not killing her and asking why she didn't call for help, something that even he himself notices.
Debriefing on the facts, Killua reveals that the En that Knov came into contact with was that of Pouf's, not Pitou's. Since it had a window in which Knov could infiltrate without being noticed, Killua theorizes that Pitou's healing ability had to be solely concentrated on, which leads him to believe that one of the Royal Guards or King was injured. Ikalgo asserts that Pitou would only do such a thing if the King was injured. Since no one that they knew could do it, Killua concludes that the King injured himself.
The citizens of East Gorteau begin their march to the palace. Morel strategizes with Knuckle, Shoot, and Meleoron in Knov's dimension. Knov arrives and announces that he would inform the group of any changes prior to the operation. As he does so, he notices that Pouf is releasing scales, which had a hypnotic effect on the citizens. Gon, Killua, and Ikalgo arrive in Knov's dimension so that all the combatants were ready. Killua is still unsure about the third party, believing that it could ruin all their plans.
Meanwhile, above the palace and past the clouds, two men, Zeno Zoldyck and Netero, jump off a dragon and begin a free fall towards the palace. Zeno uses his Dragon Head to attract the attention of Pitou, who responds by using En. Once the dragon entered the En radius, Pitou releases its En, using its Nen for an upcoming battle. However, Zeno splits the dragon into smaller dragons: Dragon Dive. Pitou leaps through the dragons, trying to find Netero, while Pouf searches for the King to protect him. However, Netero was prepared for this. He uses his Nen ability to send Pitou flying away from the palace. Pitou uses Doctor Blythe to prevent itself from leaving the 20m radius as per its restrictions, and therefore managed to stay near the palace.
As the dragons rain down, the invasion squad infiltrated the palace via the doors that Knov set by the staircase. Everyone but Ikalgo heads towards the stairs; Ikalgo goes to find Palm. There, they unexpectedly encounter Youpi sitting on the stairs. Youpi immediately goes into attack mode. As this is happening, the dragons break through the roof. When the group realized that if Knuckle and Meleoron, who were both invisible and undetectable were killed by the dragons, they could stay invisible forever, Knuckle reassures them by punching Youpi. Gon and Killua rush past him on the stairs, while Morel uses his smoke to hide and escape from him. While Youpi is locked in a direct battle with Shoot, and with Knuckle and Meleoron on the side, Knuckle saves Shoot by punching Youpi again, this time activating Hakoware. Shoot begs Knuckle to beat Youpi up for ignoring him. With Shoot nearly dead, Knuckle is forced to fend for himself.
At the same time, Netero and Zeno hit the ground in front of the palace and enter where they believe Meruem is. Inside, they find a shocking sight: Komugi is gravely wounded by the Dragon Dive. Seeing Meruem's regard for another creature's life shocks them, to the point where Meruem manages to get dangerously close to them without them even realizing it. Meruem orders Pitou to save Komugi, and asks Netero to go somewhere else with him to prevent more innocent deaths, should he wish to fight. Zeno, demoralized by hurting an innocent girl, quits the job, but makes a Nen dragon to fly Netero and Meruem to another location. On the way out, Netero sees Gon and Killua, who had come to find Pitou, and points to the direction where Pitou was healing Komugi. On the way in, Zeno tells Killua to judge what is happening inside for himself. They enter to see Pitou healing Komugi. Gon is enraged at the fact that Pitou is healing this girl but so heartlessly murdered Kite. Pitou, being unable to fight back, begs Gon to allow it to heal Komugi before doing what he wanted, going as far as to break its own arm. Killua reminds Gon that only Pitou can heal Kite, so Gon, reluctantly, gives Pitou one hour to heal Komugi's critical wounds.
Morel heads to the throne room itself where he encounters Shaiapouf. Taking advantage of Pouf's loss of composure, Morel traps Pouf with Smoky Jail. Seeing that he could not escape easily, Pouf turns himself into a chrysalis and uses his Beelzebub ability to split himself into billions of tiny Poufs that can slip through the smoke to create a clone of himself outside the smoke, but leaving his real self inside the chrysalis. Morel attacks the chrysalis, finding that it was empty, and releases Smoky Jail, which ends up releasing the real Pouf. Morel tries to attack Pouf with Deep Purple, but Pouf counters by using Beelzebub once again to split himself up. Trying to catch the clones, Morel is struck by Pouf who ambushed him with his real body from behind. Pouf takes Morel's pipe to strip him of his Nen abilities and throws it into a river. He then heads to the palace where Pitou is in an attempt to kill Gon from behind. Pitou, worried that Gon would get angered and kill Komugi, orders Pouf not to do it. Pouf leaves the situation to Pitou, but when Gon demands that Pouf stay, Pouf uses Beelzebub to send his tiny form out while a clone remained there to keep Gon satisfied. Killua also leaves.
While this was all happening, Ikalgo was in the basement of the palace, searching for Palm while he uses Flutter's body in a truck. He uses Flutter's dragonflies to scout the area, one of them encountering Bloster. After investigating a little, he finds a message from Palm written in Nen, stating that she should be presumed dead should she not return before the mission. While leaving, he encounters Bloster face-to-face, who tricks Ikalgo into revealing that he is not the real Flutter. Ikalgo manages to hide under the truck, while Bloster left, convinced that he had killed the impostor. However, when he enters the elevator, he is trapped in it since he needed a passcode to ascend. He shoots the door, but is trapped once again, this time by Ikalgo closing the shutters from the control room. Bloster just shoots the way out again, but Ikalgo comes up with a plan to use a tank to shoot sleeping gas and kill Bloster. He succeeds in sedating him, but fails to kill him. Welfin then confronts Ikalgo, using his Missile Man Hatsu to interrogate him. However, Ikalgo turns the tables on him by shooting him despite the excruciating pain caused from Missile Man. He questions Welfin on his past life as a human. Welfin admits that he remembered being named Zaiqahal, a friend of Gyro's, and being killed by Yunju's division. He reveals that he wishes to find Gyro. Ikalgo asks him about Palm, and Welfin explains that she was put in a cocoon upstairs after being found by the Royal Guards.
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