Chapter Summaries

After Ging effortlessly awakened Nen, the surviving Hunter Exam examinees were taken to the Heavenly Arena for the third exam. Biscuit announced that the Heavenly Arena Sign-in Match would begin the next morning, leaving the examinees to choose whether to compete alone or in teams.

• Ging told Russell that he had not planned to awaken Nen and had only tried it, while Russell explained that he had been waiting for a safer way to learn Nen.
• The second exam ended with 206 examinees passing, and Annie led them to the Heavenly Arena.
• The examinees climbed to the 200th Floor, where they met Biscuit, their examiner for the third round.
• Biscuit announced that the third exam was the Heavenly Arena Sign-in Match, with examinees competing individually or in teams of up to five.
• Biscuit said only ten individual or team slots would pass and gave the examinees the evening to rest and choose their approach.

Russell formed a team with Ging, Dupont, Dennis, and Mark for the third Hunter Exam at the Heavenly Arena. Biscuit explained the Sign-in Match rules, and the team went to plan how to find sign-in points.

• Russell invited Ging, Dupont, Dennis, and Mark to join his team, and they discussed how to prepare for the exam.
• Russell's team searched the Heavenly Arena for information about the exam but found nothing useful before morning.
• Biscuit explained that examinees had to collect 10,000 sign-in points from 100 sign-in points, each with its own condition and rules for repeat sign-ins.
• Biscuit distributed devices that displayed team totals and started the exam, after which Ging's team went to Dupont's room to discuss their strategy.

Russell, Ging, and the others discussed how to approach Biscuit’s Hunter Exam, while Russell was prevented from using his family’s influence. Ging found and activated a Sign-in point, discovering its scoring and team rules, which left the group uncertain about whether their allies would stay together.

• Russell tried to ask his family for help locating Sign-in points, but Julia told him to take the exam without relying on the family’s power.
• Ging analyzed the exam’s Sign-in points and their possible rules, then bought a phone so the teammates could communicate.
• An advertisement announced a Basen Rainforest challenge that promised participants a safe way to master Nen Ability, drawing huge interest across the Heavenly Arena.
• Ging found a Sign-in point in a 203rd-floor Gravity Room and endured ten times Gravity for half an hour to activate it, earning a score of 50.
• Ging learned that Sign-in points awarded 10 points per hour and that points could be spent on team functions, challenges, information, and deductions.
• Ging realized that forming a team required points, so the group’s initial agreement might not hold if teammates chose to join someone with a higher score.

Ging reset his challenge and began planning how his team could use the exam’s Sign-in point and trading rules to their advantage. By nightfall, his team agreed to stay together and considered raising point requirements to keep other candidates from signing in.

• Ging spent 30 points to reset his challenge, searched for another Sign-in point, and called Russell to explain the completion rules.
• Biscuit, Annie, and Elliot discussed how candidates might form teams, avoid becoming targets, and deal with Sign-in requirements that increased when more people acted alone.
• Ging and Dennis reported finding Sign-in points, while Dupont and Mark had found none; Ging checked the teams’ totals and discovered one team had over 300 points.
• Ging, Russell, Dennis, Dupont, and Mark agreed to form a team rather than seek new teammates.
• Ging proposed controlling Sign-in points by raising their requirements and explained how candidates might trade for points, while warning that trades could involve already-known locations.

Biscuit visited Lucky to discuss his Hunter Exam and identify promising examinees, then asked him for a fight after the exam. Meanwhile, Ging secretly manipulated Examinee No. 187 into returning to his Sign-in point.

• Biscuit asked Lucky about his exam, but he said she would find out when she saw it in person.
• Lucky displayed the examinees across the Heavenly Arena, and Biscuit praised Ging and Chariel among the candidates she was watching.
• Biscuit asked Lucky to fight her after the Hunter Exam, and he agreed.
• Ging followed an unaffiliated examinee to a Sign-in point and secretly attacked the examinee's points to make him think his location had been discovered.
• Examinee No. 187 returned to his Sign-in point, confirmed it had not been found, and realized something was wrong.

Ging discovered that a large alliance was accumulating sign-in points and worked with his team to undermine it. He then tried to enlist Floor Master Diana by offering a possible reward from the Basen Rainforest challenge, leaving her to weigh his gamble.

• Ging defeated Candidate No. 187, Baal, tied him up, and signed in for 10 points.
• Ging checked the rankings and inferred that candidates were trading points to build a powerful alliance that might claim every qualifying slot.
• Ging and his teammates agreed to undermine the leading team by seeking allies, trading sign-in point locations, and stirring up competition.
• Ging studied patterns in the sign-in point locations, gathered information from Heavenly Arena staff, and approached Diana for help.
• Ging offered Diana the prize from the Basen Rainforest challenge if it became the fourth exam and he passed, and Diana considered the gamble.

Ging gathered the locations of the Hunter Exam’s Sign-in points and reached the training hall where Lucky was practicing. He collapsed upon entering, and the chapter ended with Lucky and Ging Freecss meeting for the first time.

• Diana told Ging the locations of all the Sign-in points, and Biscuit praised his insight after the information reached her.
• Tonpa’s teammates beat him, took his points, and left him determined to sabotage them while he searched for more Sign-in points.
• Ging visited the Sign-in points and raised his score, leaving only the point inside Lucky’s training hall.
• Ging felt a terrifying Nen pressure in the corridor, pushed open the training hall door, and collapsed as Lucky’s powerful heartbeat filled the room.
• Lucky and Ging Freecss met for the first time.

Lucky tested his Heart Resonance ability on Ging, forcing his heart to race until he stopped the effect before Ging could seriously hurt himself. Ging signed in at Lucky’s Decisive Point, and Lucky promised him a small advantage in the fourth round of the exam.

• Lucky used Heart Resonance to make Ging’s heart beat faster, leaving him red-faced and unable to break free.
• Ging tried to use Nen inside his body to escape the effect, so Lucky stopped Heart Resonance; Ging then collapsed unconscious.
• After waking, Ging asked whether Lucky’s Heart Resonance was a Nen Ability, and Lucky said it probably was.
• Ging signed in at Lucky’s Decisive Point and left after Lucky promised him a little convenience during the fourth round.

Ging's team won the third exam, and Russell used a banquet to recruit candidates and discuss the upcoming trial with Julia. The surviving candidates traveled to Lade Cape, where Lucky arrived with fifty Heavenly Arena fighters, setting the stage for the fourth exam.

• Ging's team defeated Chariel's team and passed the third exam, while Tonpa finally avenged himself.
• Biscuit announced that the candidates would depart the next day, and Russell held a banquet where he recruited candidates who had passed and failed.
• Russell told Julia about his plan to recruit Hunter Exam candidates, and Julia offered the family’s help with intelligence and money for the fourth exam.
• Julia told Russell that Ging Freecss was not someone to recruit and advised him to remain Ging’s true friend.
• Biscuit led the candidates by airship to Lade Cape, where they saw Lucky arrive with fifty Heavenly Arena fighters, including five Nen users.

Lucky announced that the fourth exam required examinees to survive fifteen days in the Basen Rainforest and obtain five cores, while Martial Artists hunted them. Russell led a group to seek information from the Conrad Family, and they learned that the Pachi Tribe controlled the rainforest, where mist and shifting terrain made most maps useless.

• Lucky explained that passing the exam would safely awaken Nen and bring other rewards, and that there was no limit on how many examinees could pass.
• Lucky set the fourth exam as surviving fifteen days in the Basen Rainforest and obtaining five cores, while Martial Artists drew Number Plates to select their targets.
• The examinees left the airport in groups, and Russell led thirty people to meet the Conrad Family's representative for information about the rainforest and the Pachi Tribe.
• Biscuit decided that she and Annie could observe the trial from nearby, while Elliot regretted that he could not learn the Pachi Tribe's secret as an examinee.
• The Conrad Family representative told Russell that the Pachi Tribe controlled the rainforest, its mist made most areas impossible to map, and the terrain changed every month.

Russell and the other examinees learned about the Basen Rainforest, the Pachi Tribe, and the exam’s rules before preparing to enter the forest. Russell’s team equipped themselves with supplies from the Conrad Family and drove toward the Industrial Base to assess the situation.

• The person in charge warned Russell that the examinees would likely need to fight the Pachi Tribe for five cores and should avoid injuring its members.
• Ging questioned whether the Pachi Tribe’s insect repellent would reveal their location to the pursuing Martial Artists.
• The examinees entered the Basen Rainforest, received fifteen-day tracking watches, and learned that the exam would begin at six in the evening.
• Russell gave Ging’s team Divine Script Equipment, antidotes, and communicators to prepare them for the forest.
• Russell’s five-person team drove into the Basen Rainforest toward the Industrial Base to observe the route and plan their next move.

Russell and the others entered the Basen Rainforest while Biscuit, Elliot, and Annie visited Water Spirit Land, one of five Pachi Tribe strongholds. There, Biscuit met Huoqila, whose bond with a powerful Water Elemental King made him seem capable of threatening her.

• Russell, Ging, Dennis, Dupont, and their companions reached the Industrial Base, where its manager warned them away from the Blood Jade Bees’ territory.
• The group left the base and entered the mist, while Lucky monitored the examinees from beneath the Divine Tree in Pachi Village.
• Biscuit entered the rainforest with Elliot and Annie, sensed Nen throughout the mist, and led them to Water Spirit Land.
• Pachi Tribe guards recognized Biscuit and let the three enter the stronghold, which was one of five lands guarded by the tribe’s High Priests.
• Biscuit, Elliot, and Annie found a lake filled with Water Elementals, including a towering crowned one, and met Huoqila, the High Priest of Water Spirit Land.
• Biscuit sensed that Huoqila might be strong enough to injure or kill her and noticed his deep connection to the Water Elemental King.

Biscuit learned how the Five Great Spirits and the Pachi Tribe’s contracts shaped the examination in the Basen Rainforest. As the candidates continued their trial, Elliot and Annie considered challenging it themselves to earn the Pachi Tribe’s War Marks.

• Biscuit learned that the five Spirit Lands housed the Five Great Spirits, while candidates only needed to collect cores from nearby elemental creatures.
• The chapter explained that the Pachi Tribe’s High Priests contracted with the Five Great Spirits, gaining immense power within the Basen Rainforest in exchange for severe restrictions.
• Lucky sensed the Five Great Spirits through the Divine Tree and reflected on how developing elemental abilities had expanded his own powers.
• Lucky considered the rules-type power of the Dark Sonata, a dangerous score he had bought at an auction in Yorknew City and kept from being played.
• Elliot and Annie asked whether they could challenge the trial despite not being qualified, and Huoqila said they could try for the Pachi Tribe’s War Marks.

Annie and Elliot challenged a Pachi Tribe priest wielding the Water Elemental and both lost, revealing the spirit’s power in watery terrain. Biscuit then began her own fight, using Emission and a water-walking ability to locate her hidden opponent and strike across the lake.

• Lucky established the Pachi Tribe Trial, where participants could earn Nen assistance, a Divine Tree Contract, or elemental construct Nen Beasts.
• Annie challenged a Pachi Tribe priest and lost to the Water Elemental’s water manipulation, then received advice to seek the Fire Spirit Land.
• Elliot fought the priest next and also lost, while he and the others recognized the Water Elemental’s terrain advantage and ability to trap opponents underwater.
• Biscuit accepted a challenge from another priest and fought from the lakeshore as the Water Elemental hid in the lake.
• Biscuit shattered the spirit’s water-ray attacks with Emission, walked across the lake to find her opponent, and released a Vacuum Slash through the water.

Biscuit tested the Pachi tribesman’s water-controlling ability, then faced Huoqila’s Five Great Spirits in a battle that revealed the water spirit’s formidable power. The fight paused after Biscuit infused her Nen into the lake.

• Biscuit used her Life-Death Talisman to force the Pachi tribesman out of the water and explained how his ability could be detected.
• Huoqila asked Biscuit to fight at full strength, and she agreed to test his power.
• Huoqila summoned a massive water spirit and unleashed waves, vapor, and a trident against Biscuit.
• Biscuit blocked the spirit’s attacks, landed on the lake, and praised Huoqila’s strength.
• Biscuit infused her Nen into the water, changing the situation before Huoqila could continue his attack.

Biscuit countered Huoqila’s control over the lake, but his weather manipulation and water attacks forced her to return to her true form. She overwhelmed him underwater and dragged him out of the lake, while Lucky arrived to watch the fight firsthand.

• Biscuit tainted part of the lake with Nen, weakening Huoqila’s control over its water.
• Huoqila created a whirlpool, controlled the rain, and sent four Water Elemental giants to attack Biscuit.
• Biscuit transformed into her muscular true form and plunged into the lake to confront Huoqila.
• Biscuit broke through Huoqila’s currents with her En and punches, then destroyed the Water Spirit’s avatar.
• Biscuit caught Huoqila underwater and dragged him out of the lake, remarking that Lucky’s Divine Script still needed improvement.

Biscuit defeated Huoqila and accepted Lucky’s challenge to defeat the other four Great Spirits before fighting him. Lucky revived Huoqila and examined the Water Spirit’s Black Pearl, discovering that Biscuit’s fist had altered its Divine Scripts.

• Biscuit used her En to find Huoqila and defeated him with overwhelming strength.
• Lucky told Biscuit to defeat the other four Great Spirits, and she agreed.
• Lucky sent Biscuit, Annie, and Elliot to the other spirits’ territories for combat training.
• Huoqila awoke, admitted defeat, and apologized to Lucky for bringing shame upon the Water Spirit.
• Lucky advised Huoqila not to neglect his own cultivation and summoned the Water Spirit from the lake.
• Lucky examined the Black Pearl at the Water Spirit’s core and realized Biscuit’s fist had affected its Divine Scripts.

Ging and his companions searched the Basen Rainforest for the Pachi Tribe, but after encountering a strange fog phenomenon, they became trapped in an area that seemed to send them back to their starting point. They investigated the fog walls without splitting up, and Dupont tried to clear the path with his Divine Script blade.

• Ging's group killed a Forest Anaconda and continued searching the rainforest, where the creatures had grown unusually large and dangerous.
• After three hours without finding the Pachi Tribe, the group encountered the Forest Anaconda's corpse again and realized they had circled back.
• Ging noticed that the birds and insects had gone silent, and Dennis found that their compass was spinning.
• The five saw different towering fog walls in different directions, but chose to stay together and investigate one route.
• The group returned to their starting point despite walking forward, so Dupont cut down the vegetation with his Divine Script blade to test whether they could still be turned around.

Ging became separated from his companions in a spatially misaligned rainforest and met Karim, priest of the Wood Spirit Land, who explained the exam and summoned a Wood Elemental for him to fight. Ging began the battle, but his Fishing Rod passed through the elemental as vines attacked him.

• The five candidates found themselves circling back to the Forest Anaconda’s corpse and decided to split up to search for a way through the mist.
• Ging noticed the felled trees regenerating and followed an ethereal voice to Karim, a priest of the Wood Spirit Land.
• Karim explained that the Five Great Spirit Lands held the cores needed for the exam and that the Heavenly Arena martial artists faced a different challenge.
• Karim summoned the Wood Elemental, and Ging prepared to fight it.
• The Wood Elemental attacked Ging with vines, but Ging’s Fishing Rod passed through its phantom-like body.

Ging struggled to find the Wood Elemental’s core while Karim explained the exam and offered him another way to pass. Meanwhile, Chariel found the Earth Spirit Land’s core and challenged the Pachi Tribe member to let him take control of it.

• Ging dodged the Wood Elemental’s vines, cut them with his short blade, and briefly slowed down after breathing in its vegetation miasma.
• Karim explained the miasma and told Ging he could pass by defeating him, but Ging refused and decided to keep searching for the core.
• Ging suspected that the Wood Elemental was only a misleading mass of miasma and that its core was hidden among the vines, though he could not yet locate it.
• Chariel found and examined the Earth Spirit Land’s fist-sized core, then tried and failed to control it by injecting Nen.
• The Pachi Tribe member offered Chariel the choice to continue against a stronger Earth Elemental or go to another Spirit Land, and Chariel asked whether defeating them all would let him control the core.