Tonpa Eliminated

The test papers were handed out, and the exam began.

A large countdown timer stood in the library.

Once the papers were distributed, all the candidates handed them to the scholars they had hired to help answer the questions.

Tonpa had hired two of them.

As Lucky watched the examiner smile, he felt that things could not possibly be so simple.

And indeed, they were not. There were far too many books in this private library. Even scholars familiar with the place would not dare claim to have mastered all the knowledge within.

Moreover, the library's collection was still growing.

This library belonged to Tommy Soren, and his current research was related to the books it contained.

The library held information and related knowledge about an ancient kingdom.

Lucky glanced at the questions on the paper and immediately began searching.

Tommy was eagerly anticipating the candidates' performances. He admitted that this batch of candidates was intelligent, but the questions he had set were extremely obscure.

The scholars they had hired probably would not be able to provide the answers immediately.

And in such a short time, the candidates would not be able to find true experts in the field either.

After reading the questions, the scholars all began pondering them.

Then, they began searching the library for books.

By judging what field each question concerned, it was easier to look for relevant books in the library. At least it was far better than the candidates being completely at a loss.

Tommy was quickly drawn to Lucky.

If Lucky used his ability, he would definitely release aura. As the examiner, Tommy would certainly notice.

Then he saw Lucky, who had closed his eyes for some unknown reason, open them and begin writing answers.

That fast?

Tommy was astonished.

Lucky moved quickly. Each time he closed and opened his eyes, he answered another question. If he failed to find something, it was simply because he had not yet come across that question.

After all, no matter how fast Lucky was, he could not read every book in the library.

Still, he was fast enough.

He could definitely score twenty points.

The candidates naturally noticed Lucky's performance, but unfortunately, they did not dare interact with him too much or try to copy his answers.

In the end, Lucky answered only fifty-three questions.

There were one hundred fill-in-the-blank questions, worth one point each. It was already unbelievable that Lucky could answer so many.

He had not even used up half an hour.

After finishing, Lucky did not dwell on the remaining questions.

Instead, he stood up and handed his paper to Examiner Tommy.

There had been no rule against submitting early.

Examiner Tommy looked at the paper, genuinely curious about what Nen Ability Lucky had used to find the answers.

Of course, he knew there were some things he could not ask.

Tommy merely glanced over it and found that every question Lucky had answered was correct.

"You've passed. You may now move freely and wait for the exam to end."

It seemed that Candidate Number One was certain to pass the Hunter Exam.

Unfortunately, neither Tina nor Tommy knew Lucky's identity. Otherwise, they would not have found it so strange.

Keli City had risen to prominence, but it was far from known throughout the world. Many countries might not even know such a place existed.

The exchange of information was far too inconvenient.

Even after the internet emerged, information exchange in this world remained a problem.

Lucky did not leave after finishing the test.

Instead, he continued flipping through the books in the library that he had not finished reading.

He was somewhat interested in this ancient kingdom.

Ancient kingdoms in the Hunter World might not have possessed modern technology, but their power was not necessarily weaker.

Whether it was the Oasis of God he had encountered before, or some of the information Lucky had found in these books.

At the very least, the ancient kingdom described in the books Lucky was reading had mastered supernatural power and was an island nation.

Tommy was not a Ruins Hunter. He had merely once been part of an archaeological team, and these books were the results of their archaeological work.

Every one of these books had been written by Tommy and his companions.

Speaking of it, the arc Lucky remembered most vividly from the anime was not the Chimera Ant Arc, but the preceding Greed Island Arc.

It was not merely a game.

Rather, Ging's team—powerful Hunters in their respective fields—had pooled their abilities to create Greed Island.

Lucky felt that Hunters should not merely discover, excavate, and hunt. Sometimes, they also needed to "create."

For humanity, that was what truly mattered.

Among these books, Lucky found traces of Divine Script.

So did ancient ruins and ancient kingdoms all possess the power of Divine Script?

Lucky thought again of the Nen Urn of the Kakin Empire.

The library was noisy.

Not everyone carried out the cooperation they had initially agreed upon. Instead, they split into small groups.

Even within those groups, everyone had their own schemes.

Different answers began appearing everywhere.

All the candidates waited until the final moment before submitting their papers to the examiner.

In the end, excluding Lucky, only 176 people passed the second exam.

"Why?!" Some candidates asked their "companions" in disbelief.

They could not understand why they had been betrayed.

Some of the scholars they had hired had even been bribed by other candidates and given false answers to the relevant candidates.

So-called teamwork had only been empty words.

One voice among them was especially loud.

Tonpa held his test paper and stared at the handwriting on it. It was not his own.

He angrily looked toward Candidate Number 76, Lautoka, a young man in his twenties.

Earlier, Lautoka had acted like Tonpa's sworn brother. Now, he wore a cold expression.

When the exam ended, everyone in their small group had handed their papers to Lautoka, who then submitted them to the examiner together.

Anyone who had attended school would normally not think there was anything wrong with that.

But Lautoka had switched his own paper with Tonpa's, even changing the names.

Naturally, everyone else in the small group passed. Only Tonpa failed.

He could not understand why he had been singled out like this.

He had even asked the examiner, but the examiner said there was nothing he could do. In this exam, he only looked at the papers. Other methods were not within his consideration.

As for Lautoka's reason, it was that he found Tonpa's behavior irritating, especially how Tonpa bragged about having taken the Hunter Exam several times and being basically familiar with some of its procedures.

To many people, it was a rather baffling reason.

The current Tonpa was still too "naive."

"Since you've taken it so many times already, you won't mind taking it again. You're used to it anyway, aren't you?"

Those words truly cut to the bone.