The First Match

"Here, please take your number tags. Here."

"These are your personal identification numbers for the official phase of this Hunter Exam. They're very important! To avoid losing them, make sure to pin them to your chest."

"..."

Before the short, chubby young man with the square nose could strike up a conversation, a staff member handed them their number tags and reminded them to keep them safe.

Bred was number 514, while Jin was number 515.

"Um... mine...?" Mosquito Girl hesitantly stopped the staff member.

Bred tossed his number tag to Mosquito Girl. "What's mine is yours."

"Hehe~~~ Bred is the best~" Mosquito Girl giggled happily. Ever since she had gotten together with Bred, she seemed to have become much more childish. Perhaps because she now had someone to rely on and no longer needed to pretend to be fierce?

The staff member studied Mosquito Girl carefully for a while, then left without saying a word.

In truth, he "knew" Bred and Mosquito Girl.

When Hunter Exam applicants gathered at the registration site, they had to fill out an application form. Those forms would then be sent to Hunter Association headquarters by the preliminary screening examiners hired by the Hunter Association.

Thus—even among the countless Hunter Exam applicants, there would always be a few who made a deep impression from the very beginning. Bred, the youngest person in history to enter the Hunter Exam, was undoubtedly one of them. Especially since his application had stated that he possessed the ability to control a specific magical beast and was already followed by an insect-type humanoid Super Dangerous Species.

Over the unprecedented question of whether "Bred could participate in the Hunter Exam with the powerful aid of an insect-type humanoid Super Dangerous Species," the Hunter Association had held a special debate. In the end, they ruled that he could. Their reasoning was that, just as other Hunter Exam applicants brought weapons or assistance such as knives, firearms, and tamed beasts, it was all part of an individual's combat capability. There was nothing unfair about it.

"You're newcomers, right? So young!" The short, chubby young man with the square nose greeted them. "Yo~~~ I'm Tonpa. Nice to meet you."

The shy Jin silently lowered his head, as if there were an anthill beneath his feet.

Bred, on the other hand, met Tonpa's gaze with a half-smile and said teasingly, "Your smile isn't friendly enough—there's more sleaze in it. Your approach wasn't natural enough either; it was too abrupt. And... your eyes aren't sincere enough!"

"Uh..."

Tonpa scratched his head, unable to hide his astonishment.

Bred waved a hand with the impatience of someone shooing away an annoying fly. "Go polish your acting before you come back to scam people, Tonpa the Rookie Crusher! Oh, right—what number Hunter Exam attempt is this for you?"

"The fifteenth..."

Tonpa answered instinctively. He immediately realized something was wrong, but his indirect admission had practically confirmed his identity, making him deeply annoyed.

Bred nodded. "Oh. Remember to change your appearance and name often. Not every Hunter Exam newcomer is a gullible fool who does no research."

Sorrow welled up in Tonpa's heart. He thought that his path as the "Rookie Crusher" had probably hit Waterloo this year. The Hunter Exam newcomers he had encountered were each more terrifying than the last. The scariest was the ice-blue-haired girl atop the tree trunk. If he had not known better and decisively knelt to beg for mercy, then in the peculiar environment of Greed Island, the grass on his grave would probably already be ten feet tall.

"Wait." Bred instead called out to the dejected Tonpa, smiling brilliantly. "Want to chat? We're pretty bored anyway."

Tonpa: "..."

A moment later.

After finding a place to rest, Bred pondered for a moment before asking, "Are you happy?"

"Huh?" Tonpa was briefly confused, then realized what Bred meant. Meeting Bred's eyes, which brimmed with pure curiosity, he admitted it without hesitation, feverishly excited. "Yes! Extremely happy! Being surrounded by powerful people in dangerous situations, observing their behavior, honing an instinct for sensing danger, and thereby ensuring my own safety! Then, in those harsh and terrifying trials, preserving my own life while enjoying the death shows constantly playing out around me—and even fanning the flames—until I can witness young people with dreams and promising futures go from life to death, from being full of hope to stepping into the abyss of despair... That thrill is the value of my existence!"

"It's like I'm seeing a boring story about 'a young man who once had dreams and a promising future, whose body and mind were wounded after being repeatedly crushed by veteran Hunter Exam participants, causing his psyche to gradually twist and become deranged until he began taking revenge on society.'" Bred clicked his tongue. There was no longer any pure curiosity in his eyes—only mockery and amusement.

Tonpa: "..."

"You dared to mess with me, you little brat?!" Tonpa flew into a rage from embarrassment.

Swoosh~~~

A flash of chilling sharpness.

"Sit down and apologize." Mosquito Girl held her scythe-like upper-limb claw against Tonpa's throat.

Tonpa immediately dropped to his knees in a deep bow. "I'm terribly sorry. Please forgive my impulsiveness. I apologize."

"A real person with no principles," Jin muttered from the side.

Resting his chin on his hand, Bred said, "I forgive your impulsiveness, Mr. Tonpa! Shall we continue chatting?"

"...Mm~" Tonpa glanced at the weapon at his throat and tearfully agreed, looking utterly aggrieved.

About half an hour later.

Ding-a-ling-ling~~~

A ringing sound exploded through the area.

"I'm Bislerlin, the examiner for your first trial, a Magical Beast Hunter, s~~~ The subject of your first trial is to cross Greed Island and reach the finish line on the opposite shore, then hunt a magical beast, regardless of size." A brawny, heavily muscled man dressed like a barbarian announced in a booming voice, a spiked club slung over his shoulder.

Tonpa, who had been thoroughly tormented by Bred's bizarre questions, let out a long breath and thought, I'm free! That damned brat—is he a devil?

Tonpa had participated in the Hunter Exam without interruption for fifteen years since the age of ten. He probably had not realized himself just how much intelligence he had gathered—for instance, what kind of person Isaac Netero, the Hunter Association chairman, was, as well as information about many Hunter Association members. Bred had learned it all by slipping questions into his strange inquiries, though Tonpa's answers were inevitably somewhat one-sided.

"How would you rate the difficulty of the first trial in this Hunter Exam, Mr. Tonpa?" Bred stretched lazily as he prepared to set off.

Tonpa answered listlessly, "Ten out of ten. Full marks. It's harder than every first trial from all the Hunter Exams I've attended over the years."

"I forgot!" Examiner Bislerlin smacked his own head with his spiked club. "Registration for the official Hunter Exam trials is closed! Now comes the final confirmation for the official Hunter Exam trials. If you have bad luck or insufficient strength, you may be seriously injured or even lose your life. Those who still insist on participating in the Hunter Exam may set out. Everyone else, get the hell out."

"We've come this far—how could we give up!"

"Let's go! Let's go!"

"..."

The crowd surged with excitement.

"One more thing!" Examiner Bislerlin smacked his head again with his spiked club. "Since 3,141 participants is too many, the examiner for the second trial instructed me to leave roughly five hundred people behind. Therefore, during the first trial, competing with one another for number tags is not prohibited. Anyone who loses their number tag will be eliminated. The first five hundred people to cross Greed Island, reach the finish line on the opposite shore, and hunt a magical beast will pass. Everyone else will be eliminated."