Hunter Exam Officially Begins

Time flew by, and thirty hours passed in the blink of an eye.

As more and more examinees arrived at the venue, the once spacious, empty passageway suddenly became crowded.

With so many people around, Allen did not use this time to enter a Dungeon. Instead, he honestly sat where he was with his eyes closed, resting and gradually adjusting both his body and mindset until they reached their peak condition.

During this time, no one knew whether the Nen released by the two of them earlier had frightened the other examinees, or whether Hisoka's constant emission of bone-chilling killing intent had made everyone tense. In any case, everything remained unusually quiet.

Even Tonpa, who usually loved secretly causing trouble and tormenting newcomers, unusually took no action.

Hanzo, Pokkle, Ponzu, the Amori Brothers, Bodoro... It seemed these were the only ones with the potential to truly become Hunters.

As Allen drank sweet-and-sour Strawberry Juice to replenish his fluids, he observed the various examinees, particularly the life energy unconsciously radiating from their bodies—the aura repeatedly mentioned in Nen abilities.

According to Wing in the anime, Nen was essentially the development and use of one's own life energy. In theory, anyone could learn it.

Even Ordinary People released Nen without realizing it when their emotions fluctuated or when they were highly focused, sometimes even infusing it into their creations and preserving it permanently.

What was more, the Nen Beast—the Red Dragon of Life—had a special ability in this regard. It could sense everyone's aptitude and potential, making it easy to distinguish who would become more powerful after learning Nen abilities and who would remain relatively mediocre.

Of course, this referred only to their aura capacity limits, not the various specific abilities they might develop.

As Morel had mentioned during the Chimera Ant arc, battles between Nen users were not decided solely by the amount of aura they possessed. They also involved combat wisdom, experience, mental strength, willpower, endurance, observation, judgment, environmental factors, and whether one possessed the powerful desire and resolve at a crucial moment to make enormous sacrifices in order to strengthen one's Nen.

In theory, there were no absolutes in a battle between two Nen users.

As long as the gap in strength was not so vast that there was not even the slightest hope of victory, the weaker side always had a chance to turn things around.

Without a doubt, Allen had been in an advantageous position from the very beginning in his upcoming match against Hisoka.

He knew the two Nen abilities Hisoka possessed—Stretchable Love and False Swipe—as well as his opponent's habits and way of thinking During Battle.

But what about Hisoka?

He knew absolutely nothing about the abilities his opponent currently possessed.

On that point alone, Allen had gained a tremendous advantage.

But from another perspective, Hisoka seemed never to care about letting his opponents know his abilities.

He always had absolute confidence that he could freely wield two seemingly unimpressive abilities in battle, deceive his opponents completely, formulate targeted plans According to the situation at hand, and then achieve his goals through deception and tactics.

Simply put, he was the type of extreme Nen user who loved adapting on the fly in battle. He never needed to prepare beforehand and could unleash one hundred percent of his strength anytime, anywhere.

The complete opposite extreme was the Phantom Troupe's Leader—Chrollo.

This Guy almost never fought unknown powerful enemies unless he was absolutely certain of victory.

Once he decided to fight someone, it meant he had already fully gathered information on them, prepared Nen capable of countering them through his Specialist-type ability—Bandit's Secret—then considered every parameter and carefully designed a Script, ensuring the entire battle proceeded strictly according to it until the enemy fell.

In other words, if he agreed to fight someone one-on-one, then the outcome was already decided from the moment he agreed.

This had been displayed to the fullest in his battle with Hisoka during the Dark Continent arc. He had even borrowed the powers of his fellow members, turning the referee and spectators in the arena into tools to be used.

The latter could not even touch the former's clothes from beginning to end, much less fight him, before being killed by tactics formed from a series of combined Nen abilities.

To a certain extent, this was no longer a one-on-one duel, but the entire Phantom Troupe ganging up on Hisoka. Perhaps several members had even been hidden among the audience, secretly lending assistance.

After Hisoka revived through his powerful obsession after death, it was not difficult to understand why, out of revenge, he killed Shalnark and Kortopi, who had lent their abilities to Chrollo, to vent his anger.

Just as Allen was absorbed in thoughts of the Nen users who had appeared in the anime, their various Nen abilities and fighting styles, intending to find some patterns or draw inspiration from them, the elevator chimed once more.

The next second, Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio stepped out from inside.

Gon, whose sense of smell was exceptionally sharp, immediately found the man and wolf sitting in the corner. He ran over and greeted them with a smile. "Allen! We meet again! And you too, Lupos."

"Yeah, we meet again. Want some Strawberry Juice?" Allen asked with a smile, handing him a drink.

"Thanks! I was just getting a little thirsty!"

Without another word, Gon raised the cup and Gulp Gulp drank it dry. Then his eyes lit up as he Shouted, "Wow! This is so delicious! It feels like all my mental exhaustion has been swept away! Can I have another cup?"

"Of course."

Allen immediately refilled his cup, secretly marveling that Gon truly possessed top-tier Enhancement-type talent. His instincts and perception were frighteningly sharp—he had actually tasted the energy contained within the Strawberry Juice right away.

You must know, this Strawberry Juice was not ordinary Strawberry Juice. It was loot dropped from Dungeons above level forty. Drinking it all could restore nearly two thousand points of Mana.

But Hunter World had no such thing as Mana, so when Ordinary People drank it, it instead restored mental energy and dispelled mental fatigue.

"Yo! Looks like you got here early and had a pretty good rest," Leorio said as he walked over and waved.

"Strange... Why are the other examinees staying so far away from here? They actually left such a large empty space." Kurapika stroked his chin, looking puzzled.

With his meticulous mind, he keenly noticed that the surrounding examinees' attitudes toward Allen and Hisoka were somewhat strange. Not only had they voluntarily left a huge space around the two of them, but their eyes were also filled with complicated emotions such as wariness and fear.

"Heh, maybe I'm just too unlikable." Allen shrugged, putting on a helpless expression.

It could not be helped!

Although he did not constantly radiate Nen expressing his frenzied desire for battle like Hisoka did, Lupos emitted a warning aura that told all living beings to stay away.

Anyone who entered that range immediately felt fear, killing intent, and difficulty breathing.

Just as animals used scent to mark their territory, it used Nen to mark an area that others were forbidden to approach.

However, because Gon and the other two had met them on the ship before, and Allen had ordered that they were not to be attacked, Lupos classified them as its master's friends and temporarily stopped releasing its Nen.

Just as Gon eagerly began preparing to recount the interesting adventures he had experienced over the past two days, the tightly shut iron gate at the front of the tunnel finally opened once again.

Satotz, the examiner for the first test, sounded the Alarm Clock in his hand and publicly explained the dangers of the Hunter Exam, asking every examinee present whether anyone wished to withdraw.

After confirming that no one was voluntarily withdrawing, he decisively began the first test. Taking the lead, he moved forward along the tunnel, and within just a few minutes increased his pace to a speed the examinees had to run to keep up with.

For Allen, whose Hunter class template meant that as long as his health did not drop to zero, he would never become fatigued, this test posed not the slightest difficulty.

He even summoned the Night Elf race's unique mount that he had recently spent a "fortune" to buy—the Swift Thunderclaw Leopard—and mounted it under everyone's watchful eyes.

After all, something like the Thousand Gold Horse was bought precisely to show off.

If he could not flaunt it in public, what was the point of wasting all that money...

PS: Please bookmark and recommend the new book. Many thanks.