January 6, 1998, 9:00 p.m.
The speakers installed in every corner of the airship blared to life at once.
"All examinees aboard the airship, please gather in the training room."
"Please gather..."
The announcement repeated three times in a row.
Su Wu had just climbed into bed. His face darkened as he grabbed his backpack and walked out of his room.
He looked like he was about to kill a hundred people at any moment.
Apparently, he was the only one who'd gone to bed so early. By the time he reached the training room, the other examinees had already arrived.
He was the last one there.
Only examinees were in the training room; there were no examiners.
Once everyone had arrived, the speakers crackled to life again. "Ahem, this is Bindo..."
"It's 9:03 p.m. on January 6. Please be at the venue on time on the seventh."
"Well then, goodbye for now." The examiner's voice was light and teasing.
As he finished speaking, the floor of the training room suddenly split in two and slid open. The examinees standing inside were caught completely off guard and tumbled down.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"Help!"
"I can't swim!"
Their piercing screams echoed through the night. Below them stretched an empty sea.
The vast, dark ocean seemed ready to welcome them all.
The examinees plunged into the water one after another.
"They're dropping like dumplings into a pot." Su Wu hovered in midair, leisurely enjoying the sight of everyone else in such a sorry state.
Watching the others make fools of themselves eased some of his irritation at having his sleep interrupted.
He used his Six Eyes to observe the surroundings.
The airship had dropped the examinees into the sea some distance from the Aijin Continent. But judging by the distance...
They could reach the edge of the continent after swimming for two or three hours.
Did "the seventh" mean midnight, a little over two hours from now?
That was a pretty tight schedule.
"The moonlight is gorgeous tonight, so you'd better do your best. It'll shine on your determined faces." Su Wu hovered above the sea, waving cheerfully at the examinees splashing around below.
As for himself, he used Cang to travel an extremely long distance.
Just a few minutes later, he reached the forest at the edge of the Aijin Continent.
Eighty percent of the continent was covered in deep green. Plants filled the landscape as far as the eye could see.
And most of those plants had stronger life energy than the majority of the examinees.
What the Six Eyes showed him looked rather like a mass of tightly packed thermal images.
Besides the plants, there were plenty of moving life forms, likely animals in the forest.
The Six Eyes also picked up signs of humans.
Hundreds of people were already waiting in the edge forest.
Su Wu approached without a sound and perched on a branch, keeping a moderate distance from the other examinees as he quietly watched everything.
Everyone there was silent, and the atmosphere was heavy.
As for the strongest life energy in the area...
Su Wu's gaze fell on a figure leaning against a tree, playing with a deck of cards. The man had a star and a teardrop painted beneath his eyes, wore earrings, and had red hair. Su Wu's expression turned complicated.
It was Hisoka...
Had he taken the 286th exam? Wasn't he supposed to take the next one with Gon and Killua?
Seeing him up close was much more thrilling than watching him on a screen.
That martial arts outfit made his waist look unbelievably slender. He was even wearing high heels. If Su Wu remembered correctly, he walked with a catlike stride, too. Now that he thought about it, what a flashy guy.
Back when Su Wu had watched the anime, he'd known about Hisoka, of course. Even though he knew the man was a pervert, he didn't dislike him. He didn't dislike any anime characters. Even when a villain was truly evil, a handsome face was enough to keep him from disliking them.
He never got too emotionally invested in anime, and he never especially loved or hated any particular character.
When characters fought and killed each other, he just found it entertaining. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been chosen by the Fun System.
He'd watched hundreds of anime, yet never become a fan of any character. That was a talent in its own right.
Now that they were in the same world, he still didn't dislike Hisoka, and he didn't care whether the man was good or bad. It wasn't as if Su Wu was a good person himself.
But the main problem was, Hisoka was a pervert.
And Su Wu himself was young, good-looking, strong, and had a high ceiling for future growth.
Any way he looked at it, he was a walking Hisoka lure—a natural weakness for Hisoka in particular...
If Hisoka spotted him, he'd definitely latch on to him.
Just imagining that self-proclaimed "fruit farmer" calling him "a little unripe apple" over and over...
Especially the scene in the original anime where he stared at Gon and Killua's butts, not to mention the way his crotch would occasionally glow...
This was bad. Just thinking about it gave Su Wu the chills.
He couldn't accept it. Not at all.
Su Wu thought it over for a moment, then shook his head.
He was already looking forward to seeing Hisoka get all worked up in front of Gon and Killua in the future.
It would be a scene worthy of a masterpiece.
Being targeted by a pervert himself—unacceptable.
Watching someone else get targeted by a pervert—delightful.
In any case, he'd keep his distance from Hisoka. As long as he didn't hit whatever weird buttons the man had, he should be safe.
But who knew how many buttons a pervert like that had? It was best not to run into him at all.
Besides, there was no way this guy was an examiner. Wait, come to think of it, if he was taking the next exam, he must have failed this one.
With his strength, there was no way he could fail, was there? So had something happened during this exam?
He should've paid more attention when he watched the anime. Now he was like someone who'd only heard about it secondhand, barely understanding the plot.
Su Wu rubbed the tree trunk and sighed helplessly.
As for the other people with abundant life energy...
His gaze fell on two figures standing close together, dressed in outfits that looked like matching couple's clothes—or maybe parent-and-child outfits.
Their clothes were bizarre, covered in goat heads and strange eyes. Were they priests of some mysterious religion?
The shorter one was a girl holding a snow-white little lamb in her arms. The taller one was a boy with a cheerful smile. Both had two horns resembling those of an argali on their heads.
Were they decorations? But those were clearly real horns...
Were they... siblings? No, wait... they weren't even human.
No matter how Su Wu looked at them with his Six Eyes, they were just two dark, amorphous masses of moving matter. There was no way to mistake them for humans.
Two nonhumans had somehow gotten into the Hunter Exam?
The girl looked like a normal, gentle young woman, but the man was... downright bizarre and attention-grabbing.
Even Su Wu had to admit that the man's outfit drew more attention than his own.
So it wasn't strange that Hisoka was fixated on the two of them.
Su Wu glanced at Hisoka, whose gaze was fixed on the two nonhumans and whose smile was positively dreamy, then wordlessly looked away.
The person with the next-strongest life energy among the examinees—though not as strong as the two nonhumans, Hisoka, or Su Wu—was a man carrying two swords.
Hmm... He looked normal enough, but he wasn't very strong...
Someone weaker than him could be an examiner, while he was still only an examinee. That was irritating.
Hisoka probably felt the same way, right?
Su Wu swung his little legs, dangling in midair.
Two hours later, several drenched figures came rolling and scrambling into the crowd.
The man carrying two swords glanced at his watch, then announced, "It's midnight on January 7. Registration is now closed."
"Anyone who didn't make it is disqualified."
Before you continue