A Hunter Association airship had been parked in one part of the forest the whole time.
The atmosphere was much colder than it had been when they arrived.
Only Su Wu, Maro, and the assistant examiner boarded the airship.
Of course, Hutori, who still had a breath left in him, was dragged aboard too.
The airship climbed into the sky, and the forest below gradually shrank.
Su Wu sat by the window and looked down. He saw the two inhuman siblings standing at the edge of the continent before jumping into the sea.
They floated on the surface, carried away by the water.
"Here you are, sir." Maro handed him a cup of medicine and a large plate of desserts.
With Maro following him around, his comfort level had visibly improved.
Especially since Maro could spit out gold coins.
Two hundred million Geni was equivalent to ten million RMB.
A housekeeper who didn't take a salary and even gave you ten million RMB—no one would believe that if you told them.
"Speaking of money..." Su Wu took out his phone and called one of the few numbers in his contacts list—there were only two.
The call was answered almost immediately.
"What, have you missed us already, even though you've only been gone a little while?" The person on the other end sounded amused.
Su Wu ignored the question and casually said, "Hey, Pampas, lend me 10.8 billion Geni. I'll pay you back in a while."
There was a brief silence on the other end.
"Huh? What are you talking about? Weird, the signal here in Meteor City is as bad as ever..." The man sounded bewildered.
"Beep, beep—"
The call ended with a click.
"...Ah, Pampas can't get his hands on that much money either." Su Wu sighed at the disconnected call.
Fair enough. If you called someone in real life and asked to borrow 500 million RMB, they'd probably ask if you'd gone crazy.
"What a pain... If 10.8 billion's too much, 800 million would do..." Su Wu put his phone away, leaned back against the sofa, and tilted his head back.
He could at least buy Ugly Treasure first.
Sure, Ugly Treasure looked like a gigantic purple-black caterpillar, but... it was useful.
How much could he borrow if he put his Hunter License up as collateral?
After some time had passed since the airship's departure, Hisoka regained consciousness.
Looking at the surroundings, which had been thoroughly wrecked, he wore an innocent, bewildered expression.
Hm? This was...
Had he done this?
Come to think of it, after he started fighting that little apple with the especially beautiful eyes... what had happened?
Was it the other person's Nen ability? It could not only attack, but also make people lose their minds.
"...They've already left..." There was no regret in his voice, nor any sign of anger. Instead, he sounded remarkably calm.
Yet beneath that calm, it seemed as though he was suppressing some emotion.
In his inner world stood a large toy box. Inside it were all kinds of dolls, including one with a cross on its forehead.
Now, a doll with white hair, blue eyes, and black tattoos had been placed in the box as well.
Looking forward to seeing you again, my delicious little apple. Do your best to become an even more delicious fruit, and don't you dare turn rotten.
"...Come pick me up in the forest over by Ejen." He took out his phone and called someone, giving them instructions.
He walked a couple of steps forward, his body—rather unusually—feeling weak and sore with fatigue. He also struggled to summon any energy.
With his face blank, as if he were utterly exhausted, he almost looked like a normal person.
After walking for a while, he stopped and looked at a tree.
[Come on, give it your all. Do your best to become a stronger, more valuable person, and don't you dare turn rotten.]
Hisoka stared at the words carved into the tree, looking a little dazed. "..."
"I wonder when Hisoka will find the message I carved for him..."
"His expression will be so interesting."
Su Wu sat aboard the airship, sounding regretful, though his expression was tinged with mischief.
Hisoka was always telling people to "become a more delicious fruit." Now Su Wu had told him to "become a stronger person." That was what it meant to give someone a taste of their own medicine!
"Did you leave that guy a message too, sir?" The blond figure stood behind Su Wu. Despite the empty seat, he stubbornly refused to sit down. Hearing Su Wu mutter to himself, he couldn't help asking.
"That's right." Su Wu replied lazily.
In this world, the people he knew best were the characters who had appeared in the original story. As someone who had only watched the old anime—not even all of it—and hadn't watched the new version, but had seen loads of fanworks, the characters he remembered best were Hisoka, Killua, Gon, Kurapika, and Illumi.
They appeared in fanworks all the time, after all.
As for the others... He hadn't gotten far in the story, and they didn't show up much in fanworks. He'd only come across videos of them, so he didn't know them very well.
That familiarity made him treat these characters a lot better than he treated strangers.
After all, the chance to cross dimensions and meet characters in person was incredibly rare! Wouldn't a huge number of shut-in anime fans be green with envy if they heard about it?
The Phantom Troupe members were the same. He'd only seen videos of them, so he didn't know them well and treated them fairly indifferently.
The airship took another week to reach the continent where the final venue was located. The days aboard were terribly dull.
So as soon as the airship landed, Su Wu couldn't wait to get off.
The final venue was a hotel that the Hunter Association had booked out.
A balding old man with his remaining hair tied into a ponytail, long eyebrows and earlobes, and a bushy beard stood at the entrance alongside a smiling, blond man in a suit and a short, bald man in a suit who looked like a hard-boiled egg.
A hale and hearty old man, a smiling schemer who looked ready to seize power at any moment, and... a mascot?
That was Su Wu's first impression of the three. But he soon recognized the old man as the Hunter Association chairman. The egg-shaped man seemed to be an examiner too. As for the blond man who kept smiling...
He seemed like the same type as Pampas. Another Manipulation-type, perhaps? In any case, he didn't look like a good person.
"This is Chairman Netero of the Hunter Association, and this is Vice Chairman Pariston..." For some reason, Reddy, who was walking behind Su Wu, instinctively began to explain.
"Welcome to the final venue. I heard something unexpected happened during the exam. It's wonderful that anyone managed to pass."
"And what a surprise and delight that both of you are first-time applicants."
Chairman Netero smiled amiably, like an ordinary, kindly old man. But he was the chairman of the Hunter Association.
And... Through the Six Eyes, Su Wu could see that Netero's life energy was so abundant it made everyone else seem insignificant.
"What exactly happened? I heard one of you was involved. Could you tell us about it in detail?" Pariston asked gently, smiling.
"I don't know. This and that happened, and then nearly everyone died. Life really is fragile." Su Wu shook his head, looking wistful.
After all, he'd left early, so he really hadn't witnessed Hisoka's killing spree.
A word from the author: Just to be clear, I'm not a webnovel writing studio. Those studio stories aren't nearly this unpopular—calling me one would be insulting to them.
I'm just bad at naming things and bad at writing blurbs.
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