Because he had already made arrangements with Lippo, after Ronin's group came out of the harbor, they boarded an airship and flew toward the continent where Trick Tower was located.
There were no airships that went directly to Trick Tower, so after arriving in a nearby city, the group bought a used car and drove straight toward it.
By this point, it was already January 1st, 1997.
There were still two years before the main plot began, but Ronin felt he had already stirred the story into a complete mess.
After all, one of the major villain groups from the original plot, the Phantom Troupe, had practically been wiped out by him.
Even if a few members remained, in Ronin's eyes, they were no longer capable of causing any real waves.
In that case, once Gon and Killua set out, perhaps the only person they would meet during the Hunter Exam would be Leorio.
And Ronin most likely wouldn't have any connection to the two of them, because there was no way he would wait until 1999 just to take the Hunter Exam again. He even suspected that the Chimera Ants might no longer wait until the year 2000 to land in NGL.
Lippo was a man with round glasses who didn't exactly look like a good person.
When Ronin's group arrived at Trick Tower, he was already waiting there with people.
Behind Lippo stood two others. One was an ugly man who looked like a witch, and the other was a young man wearing a fur vest.
Ronin didn't have much impression of the ugly one, but he recognized the young man in the vest at a glance. He was the guy who would be injured by Hisoka in next year's Hunter Exam.
He was also the guy whose head Hisoka would cut off directly in the exam the year after that.
Just from their appearances, Ronin could tell the three of them weren't particularly strong. They were the kind of 200th-floor challengers who would have a hard time winning much even in Heaven's Arena.
"Welcome." Lippo had a smile on his face, though it looked somewhat sly.
Of course, that was mostly because of his face.
"I'll be counting on you from here," Ronin said.
He had invested two billion Jenny precisely so Lippo could cause some trouble here at Trick Tower and lure the chairman of the Association over.
Lippo had confidently promised that he could do it.
After leading Ronin and the others into Trick Tower, Lippo began introducing the situation inside the tower to them.
From the way he acted, it was as if he genuinely treated Ronin as an investor.
"To be honest, I don't really need to do anything," Lippo finally said after bringing Ronin's group into a lounge. "According to the arrangements, the chairman will bring the applicants to the top of Trick Tower by airship. So as long as the applicants aren't all eliminated in the first two stages, all you need to do is wait on the platform at the top of Trick Tower. Once the airship arrives, you can board it and meet the chairman."
After hearing that, Ronin nodded.
When he had first approached Lippo, he had already calculated that the chairman's airship would come here.
After all, the way the applicants entered Trick Tower was by taking hidden passages from the very top of the tower, and each hidden passage was itself a test for the applicants.
However, Ronin couldn't afford to alert anyone too early. That was why he had been willing to spend money to bribe Lippo and wait inside Trick Tower for the airship's arrival.
Everything unfolded exactly as Lippo said.
On the third day after Ronin arrived at Trick Tower, Lippo came to him again and informed him that the airship was about to arrive.
Ronin took the elevator straight to the top of Trick Tower. Standing at the edge of the tower, he saw a massive airship shaped like a shark appearing in the sky above the forest below. He also saw many man-faced birds rising from the forest.
They were enormous birds several meters tall, with wingspans exceeding ten meters.
Their heads looked like those of big-nosed humans, except when they opened their mouths, rows of saw-like yellow teeth were revealed.
The appearance of the airship seemed to provoke their displeasure. They let out sharp cries like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, warning the airship away.
When their warning had no effect, they flapped their relatively short fleshy wings and charged toward the airship.
But before they could even get close, thick iron spears fired down from the airship.
The spears pierced through the bodies of the man-faced birds one after another. In less than ten seconds, the flock that had been so arrogant moments earlier completely scattered. The surviving birds fled back into the forest below in panic.
The airship slowly approached Trick Tower and gradually descended.
Ronin had already walked back from the edge of the platform to the spot where the airship would land. The moment it touched down, he went straight to the hatch.
Once the hatch opened, one applicant after another stepped out. Among them was even Ronin's old acquaintance, Tonpa.
The instant Tonpa saw Ronin, he thought Ronin had become the examiner.
But that didn't make sense. This wasn't his first time at Trick Tower, and he hadn't heard anything about the examiner being replaced.
Still, regardless of the reason, Ronin had left him with a bad impression during last year's exam, so he ducked away from Ronin's gaze like a quail.
Ronin ignored Tonpa. After Beans got off the airship, Ronin took the initiative and started walking toward the aircraft.
"Hello, you are…?" Beans found Ronin's actions strange and couldn't help asking.
The applicants who had disembarked were also surprised.
After all, from Beans' tone, Ronin's group clearly weren't examiners.
"Is the chairman on the airship?" Ronin didn't answer who he was. Instead, he asked a question in return.
"You're looking for the chairman?" Beans felt a bad premonition in his heart. He strongly suspected that the person currently in charge of Trick Tower might no longer be the officially appointed examiner, Lippo.
"Yeah," Ronin replied. Then he waved his hand and simply ignored Beans, boarding the airship directly.
There were no guards on the airship, only attendants, and none of them dared question Ronin's group.
What surprised Ronin pleasantly was that the moment he boarded, he saw Chairman Netero wearing his usual cheerful smile.
Clearly, even though he had only brought the applicants to the test site, he hadn't chosen to hide in the background.
"Ronin?" Chairman Netero's gaze swept over Ronin repeatedly, and he spoke Ronin's name.
"That's me, Chairman," Ronin said with a smile. "I have something to discuss with you, so I used this more convenient method to find you."
"What is it?" The chairman's gaze passed over Ronin and looked outside.
There, Beans had already begun quickly explaining the rules of this stage to the applicants. He was speaking rather fast, and his eyes kept darting toward the airship. Clearly, compared to explaining the rules to the examinees, he was far more interested in knowing what Ronin was saying to the chairman.
"First, it's about your son, Beyond Netero," Ronin said directly.
"Oh? You've met him?" Chairman Netero sounded rather surprised.
"Yes," Ronin replied.
"Come with me. This isn't the place to talk." Chairman Netero turned and led the way.