All the candidates focused their gazes, waiting for the feathers to descend.
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention something."
Kruke's unhurried voice drifted over. "The feathers are ordinary feathers. If they're damaged while being grabbed, they still won't count as a pass."
Those words made the candidates' expressions grow even heavier.
There had originally been 555 people competing for 150 feathers, which was hard enough.
And the feathers themselves were fragile. If the fight over them got any more intense...
Everyone silently pondered this.
"Ba ba ba!"
Suddenly, the sound of a trumpet blared behind them.
The crowd turned in astonishment and saw Morin holding a strange trumpet with seven holes, playing it.
And at the very instant Morin blew the trumpet—
"Screech!!"
The 150 feathers falling from the sky seemed to slam on the brakes, all stopping in midair.
Thoughts on Going Premium! Please Support Me!!
At last, the moment had come again—the moment that determined whether a book lived or died.
I realized my release schedule had always been quite stable. All three of my Hunter books went premium after eleven days.
Of course, I couldn't compare to those tentacle-level masters who went premium after seven or eight days, or even five or six.
That was because my typing speed wasn't fast. I could only manage two thousand characters per hour.
On top of that, work had left me with all sorts of occupational ailments, and I couldn't sit for long. So I squeezed out time whenever I could and wrote a little over ten thousand characters per day.
Let me report this book's current results to all you esteemed readers.
The other figures were quite good, and they let me know that plenty of people were supporting me.
It was just that the VIP bookmarks had only barely passed fifteen thousand.
The site's bookmark algorithm was a little inflated, roughly three to one.
In other words, there might only be five thousand people who had genuinely bookmarked the book to read it, perhaps not even that many.
The niche status of Hunter fanfiction was fully reflected in this regard.
It truly couldn't compare to hugely popular series like One Piece or Naruto.
I had considered writing One Piece for my new book, since I was also a die-hard One Piece fan.
But when I finally started writing, I still chose Hunter.
There was no other reason, just as I said when I wrote my previous corpse-looting book:
Hunter x Hunter was my favorite anime, without exception.
Every fan desperately waiting for Author Togashi to update should understand exactly how I felt.
I saw readers say, "Anyone who writes Hunter fanfiction does it out of true love." But weren't all of you readers who kept supporting Hunter fanfiction the same?
It was just that some people were limited by ideas, time, and other factors, and couldn't write it themselves.
At one point, I had desperately searched for Hunter fanfiction too, but unfortunately, most of it was boys' love.
So later, I got the urge to write some myself. And once I started, I kept writing until now.
I sincerely hoped all you esteemed readers could offer a little support. Please subscribe, so I knew I wasn't walking forward alone in loneliness.
There were many fellow Hunter supporters holding this ground alongside me.
I knew my abilities were limited, but every time I wrote, I absorbed new things to make up for my shortcomings.
From my first book, to corpse looting, and now gadgets.
With all three Hunter books, I hoped to present everyone with something different.
My first book was overly righteous, corpse looting was neutral with lawful leanings, so this one, I planned to write with a somewhat chaotic and darker tone.
That was why I chose to join the Phantom Troupe instead of always doing the right thing like in the previous two books.
This was my sincerity. The content might have flaws, but as for my intentions, I believed I had been quite earnest.
Alright, I accidentally said so much. Everyone might be tired of it already; I simply had too many feelings about Hunter.
I had also wanted to thank all the esteemed readers who tipped me, but I'd put those thanks under the work-related section later so they wouldn't take up space here.
Also, I read every comment and take in every suggestion. But I haven't deleted a single comment so far; they were all deleted by the site itself. So please watch your wording, everyone. Getting muted wouldn't be good.
The book would go premium at midnight tonight. After that, I would definitely release a huge batch of chapters.
I begged all fellow Hunter fans who liked this book to subscribe. Your support was the driving force that kept Hunter fanfiction going.
Once again, I was counting on all of you!
Kruke Injured! The Examiners Take Notice! A Tough Opponent Has Arrived! Please Subscribe!
Under the trumpet's sound, all the feathers, after freezing for a second, simultaneously flew back into the sky along their original paths.
The 555 candidates: "??? M"
Kruke: "???"
The venue fell into a strange silence.
Everyone stared wide-eyed at one another, utterly bewildered and at a loss.
As for Kruke, her mouth hung slightly open, and she was truly startled by this unexpected scene.
This... where were her feathers?!
Like a machine, she stiffly turned her gaze toward Morin, who had just put away the Seven-holed Trumpet.
Item: Seven-holed Trumpet. Effect: As long as you blow this Seven-holed Trumpet once at something you want to get rid of, whether it is alive or not, it will voluntarily run off into the deep mountains. PS: Blow it upside down to remove the effect.
This was another strange item originally meant for disposing of garbage, yet Morin had used it here.
But judging by the current result, its effect was outstanding.
"Why are you all looking at me?" Seeing many candidates staring at him, Morin said seriously,
"I merely played a few tunes on the trumpet to create some atmosphere and liven up the start of this Hunter Exam."
"As for why those feathers flew away on their own, it has nothing to do with me!"
"You don't seriously think I'm so amazing that I can control feathers, do you? If I could, I'd definitely take all those feathers for myself and pass directly!!" Morin spoke with such righteous conviction that he completely fooled the Nen-ignorant candidates.
The candidates thought about it seriously, and it did seem to make sense.
No one had known the specific contents of the exam beforehand.
Those feathers had clearly been prepared by the examiner, and only the examiner should have been able to control and direct them.
So...
Everyone turned back and looked at Kruke in unison.
Kruke:
Why the hell were they looking at her?!
What did it have to do with her? She was confused too, alright?!
But then again...
Kruke stared with dead-fish eyes at Morin, who remained calm and wore the expression of an innocent good person who had done nothing.
"It was this guy, wasn't it?!"
She secretly gritted her teeth.
What "playing a little tune to lighten the mood"? She was a proper musician herself, and what he had played just now hadn't been a tune at all—it was complete fucking nonsense!!
She didn't know how that trumpet worked, nor why he had done it, but one thing was certain:
The other party was definitely a Nen user, and one who had specifically come to disrupt and sabotage things!!
"Whoever you are, you'd better watch yourself from now on. Don't let me catch you slipping!!"
Kruke silently made up her mind, then noticed more and more candidates directing their gazes at her.
She couldn't help pretending that nothing had happened and gave a light cough.
"Since the feathers encountered an accident for some special reason, all candidates will now proceed directly to the second phase."
Once she said that, most candidates' expressions relaxed somewhat.
Some even let out a long breath, thinking themselves lucky to have advanced directly to the second phase.
But a small number believed that since no one had been eliminated in the first phase, the second phase would definitely be harsher than originally planned.
That included the great Tonpa.
He looked in Morin's direction, shrank his neck, and wore an expression of lingering fear and relief.
With his eye for danger, honed through surviving dozens of extremely dangerous Hunter Exams, he could naturally tell that Morin was absolutely not someone to provoke.
At the same time, he was certain those feathers' runaway flight had definitely been Morin's doing!!
The others did not have Tonpa's sharp instincts, but they could still read the atmosphere and observe the situation.
And when they saw the examiner's increasingly dangerous gaze, they all realized that the next test definitely would not be easy to pass.
"The second phase's rules that I originally set were fairly simple, but since so many people are still left..."
She cleared her throat, not forgetting to glance at Morin twice. "Then prepare yourselves for hell mode."
As she spoke, she took a deep breath.
At the same time, she brought the microphone from the stage to her mouth.
Some candidates who had roughly guessed what Kruke intended to do immediately changed expressions and stuffed their ears shut almost at once.
However—
"AAAAAAAAAH!!"
A piercingly high female soprano poured into their ears like demonic sound, penetrating everywhere.
Even if they covered their ears tightly, that soaring high note followed the flow of the air into their ears and echoed inside their minds. After Kruke's high notes began, most candidates had only one thought:
"My skull is going numb!!"
Usually, people said their scalps went numb, but Kruke's voice echoed directly inside their minds, making their brains tremble!
Smack.
Finally—
A candidate could no longer withstand the torment of that demonic sound and was the first to collapse.
Once there was a first, there would be a second.
One candidate after another fell to the ground like dumplings dropping into a pot.
Before you continue