Gon suppressed the pounding in his chest.
Ever since landing on the island, watching another examinee hunt had set his heart racing.
That examinee’s technique for erasing his presence had been truly incredible. It made Gon think, That’s it!
The number tag Gon had drawn was No. 44.
Hisoka’s number—the most dangerous one at this examination site.
‘I can’t take him head-on. I have to snag his tag in one go with my fishing rod.’
Unlike the examinee he had watched earlier, Gon had neither tranquilizer-coated arrows nor the power to knock Hisoka unconscious in a single blow.
That meant he had no choice but to exploit an opening...
‘But how?’
He simply could not think of an answer.
At the very least, he needed to be able to hit a bird in flight, but aiming at a moving target was harder than he had expected.
It was really difficult.
Gon was still a complete beginner at both erasing his presence and snatching a moving target.
And his opponent was Hisoka, of all people.
Gon felt that even the slightest sign would alert Hisoka to his presence.
He absolutely could not be discovered before getting close...
Anyone else would have given up on targeting Hisoka and instead aimed to steal the tags of three other people, but Gon did not want to do that.
‘What would Killua have done? What about Gotoh?’
Gon thought of the two strongest people he knew here.
The two of them always moved with their presence completely erased.
Even when running at high speed, they were quieter than the examinee he had seen earlier.
It must be a technique of an assassin family, like they had mentioned before.
‘Hmm, so was it like this?’
Recalling the way the two of them walked, Gon carefully tried to imitate it.
‘I definitely couldn’t hear their footsteps, either.’
It took only a few minutes for Gon to start getting the hang of it.
The animals around him began to gather on him without noticing him.
Even so, he still had a long way to go.
Even after erasing his presence and hiding nearby, he had to aim solely for Hisoka’s tag and steal it with perfect accuracy.
If his first attempt failed, Hisoka probably would not let his guard down again.
And even if he succeeded, getting caught afterward would mean he was out too.
So he had only one chance!
‘If I mess this up, I could lose my life.’
Even before an opponent overwhelmingly stronger than himself, Gon chose to fight with his wits.
But first, he had to erase his presence.
With animals hanging all over his body, Gon slowly moved one foot at a time.
The animals still clung to him.
Gon did not know it, but what he was doing now resembled training in Zetsu, the technique of concealing one’s aura.
It did not mean much while he knew nothing of Nen or aura, but this coincidence would greatly help Gon’s training in the future.
It was only his first day on Zevil Island.
If Gotoh had seen this, he would have clutched the back of his neck and yelled, “This fucking bastard lives off raw talent!”
The more infuriating part was that Gon himself probably would not even be able to explain what he was doing.
"Good. I’m used to it now. Let’s practice something else."
Wait for me, Jin.
I’ll definitely pass the exam and come see you.
Definitely...!
.
.
.
No. 405. Gon.
Current score: 3 points.
Target: No. 44, Hisoka.
The hunt begins.
**
Hisoka Moro was currently in an extremely excited state.
A battle with the toy he had recently set his sights on had come together sooner than expected.
It was not a one-on-one stage like Heaven’s Arena, but a stage like this was more than enough to share a beautiful erotic encounter.
He could sense examiners hidden all over the island as monitors.
But they did not seem likely to stop clashes between examinees.
Then there was no problem.
There was only one concern: the unripe fruits might interfere halfway through.
He was not presently at full strength.
One ear had been blown off, he had scorched burns all over his body, and the stab wound near his shoulder was still bleeding.
He had concealed them with Texture Surprise (A Flimsy Lie), but...
Even Hisoka could not afford to look after a bunch of greenhorns while fighting with injuries.
If he got carried away fighting, they would surely be caught up in it and die.
The butler was certainly a fine toy, but he did not want the unripe fruits to fall here either.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if the dessert plate fell while he was swallowing the appetizer?
So, as he headed deep into the island, Hisoka contacted Illumi by radio.
With that, no one would interfere with the fight.
‘Still, that last attack was truly magnificent♥’
The attack the butler had shown at the end of their last game had been genuinely impressive.
Even though Hisoka changed the coin’s trajectory with a playing card and pulled over a dead examinee’s corpse with Bungee Gum he had attached beforehand, using it as a shield, the damage had been severe.
One mistake, and he would have died.
‘In terms of destructive power alone, Uvogin... no, perhaps two levels below him♣’
No matter what, it seemed difficult to compare it to that insane [Big Bang Impact].
There had been time to react before the butler’s attack activated.
Uvogin’s brutish fists, on the other hand, burst the air every time he swung them.
Even a fairly capable Pro Hunter would die without leaving a trace if struck head-on.
And in terms of defense, Uvogin was far superior as well. Unlike him, the butler had not used coin bombs within a range where he himself could be caught up in them.
Still, the fact that he had reminded Hisoka of Uvogin, if only for a moment, deserved a high score.
‘81 points♥’
A high score. Last year’s Hunter examiner had barely exceeded ten points, so at least eight times that.
Excluding that boring chairman who concealed his score, this was the highest score at this examination site.
Of course, this was not an assessment of pure combat strength.
These scores were merely a measure of how entertaining someone seemed likely to be for Hisoka.
Still, the only person around with a higher score right now was Illumi. Illumi was at least 90 points.
But he could not fight Illumi yet.
If the butler could fire off those explosive coins from the end repeatedly, his score would rise, but there was no way he could use such a large technique recklessly.
He must normally store aura in a few coins at a time. Once those were used up, he might turn out to be nothing special...
That was fine.
Even that much made him an excellent appetizer.
To begin with, this was a Hunter Exam he had entered to unearth rough gems, without any particular expectations.
And to pick up a license to kill while he was at it.
Yet a rather delicious hors d’oeuvre had appeared, and he was thoroughly satisfied. The owner had even given him permission to eat it.
Hisoka’s original target had been Chrollo, the leader of the Phantom Troupe.
He was the main course.
The butler only needed to whet his appetite before he fought him.
"Just how much will you entertain me, I wonder♣"
Hisoka prepared a trap.
A trap so sinister, so thick with murderous intent.
Just as the butler had done, should he not satisfy him as well?
"Please, don’t die in one hit♥"
The wounded beast was Hisoka.
The one at a disadvantage in a head-on fight was Hisoka.
The one at a disadvantage if the fight dragged on was Hisoka.
And yet, Hisoka was also the one who willingly stepped onto this stage.
The mysterious clown did not avoid the death that might be coming for him.
He merely made even death into a form of amusement and danced with it.
If someone had seen Hisoka’s expression right then, they would have said this:
He looked like a child on Christmas Eve, trying to open his Christmas presents early.
It should be about time for all the participants to have entered.
The island was fairly large, so it would take quite a while to find him.
That was fine.
They had a full week.
He could not avoid him for that entire time.
Now, then.
Let us begin.
A death game with their lives on the line.
.
.
.
No. 44. Hisoka.
Current score: 3 points.
Target: No. 384, Geretta.
‘No♠’
.
.
...Target: No. 300, Gotoh.
‘That’s right♥’
The hunt begins.
**
Hmm. That’s some utterly shitty aura.
That Hisoka bastard must definitely be over there.
"Um, are you still not going to go in...?"
I was still standing blankly on the ship, staring at Zevil Island.
My original departure number was 16.
I was supposed to enter two minutes after Kurapika left.
But had it been about twenty minutes since Kurapika landed?
I had some thinking to do.
Of course, I could not inconvenience everyone under the exam rules, so I asked the attendant for permission and let the people with later numbers disembark first.
This was an exam where going in first gave you an advantage, wasn’t it?
There was no way anyone would object when I was voluntarily giving that up.
But even after every examinee had gotten off on Zevil Island, I did not move.
"Excuse me! Get off already!"
"What happens if I don’t?"
The attendant looked pretty pissed off. Was it because I was delaying the end of her shift?
Office workers suffer wherever they go.
"Then you’ll be forcibly disqualified!"
"Then let’s get going."
"????"
"I forfeit."
"????"
"Ah, should I throw my number tag onto the island? That would be proper. Whoever is hunting me will have a hard time otherwise."
Whoosh.
Tap.
"Let’s get going now."
Why the hell would I walk into a place where I’m going to die?
Am I supposed to dig my own grave?
After you’ve sucked me dry of so much money already.
You spend all damn day busting your ass here, you clown bastard.
I’ll pick up some sweet red-bean jelly for old man Zeno on the way back.
.
.
.
.
No. 300. Gotoh.
Current score: 0 points.
No target.
Forfeited.
**
"Heh heh heh◆. I can’t wait to see when he’ll come♥"
"Though he does seem a little late♠"
"Did I settle down too deep inside the island♠"
"Still, we have a whole week, so we’ll meet eventually♣"
"...Should I call Illumi◆"
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