Boiled Eggs

The airship circled above Mahi Mountain. Below, the gorge split the land like an open wound, its sheer rock walls plunging straight down on either side while a rushing river at the bottom glittered under the noon sun.

Netero stood before the examinees and waved with a smile. "Menchi, you announce the new test."

Menchi crossed her arms and swept her gaze across the crowd. "This test is about—boiled eggs. The ingredient is Grape Spider eggs, which are laid in spider nests on the cliff walls inside that gorge."

The examinees leaned over to look down. It was a bottomless abyss. A few white spider nests clung to the cliff face, and eggs could vaguely be seen inside them.

Leorio took one look over the edge and immediately pulled back. "This is even more ridiculous than those Gang pigs—"

Hanzo frowned. "There's nowhere to stand halfway down the cliff. How are we supposed to get down?"

"I'll demonstrate only once. Watch carefully."

Menchi stood at the edge of the cliff and took off her shoes and socks. Sunlight fell across her bare feet. She glanced back at the examinees, then leaped forward. Her green ponytail traced an arc through the wind as her body dropped straight into the ravine like an arrow.

In midair, she adjusted her posture and drifted toward the cliff wall. She reached into a spider nest and took out an egg, then continued falling. Just before she touched the rushing river at the bottom, an updraft suddenly surged upward and steadily supported her body. She used it to flip over, stepped on several protrusions in the cliff face, and bounded back to the top.

The entire process took less than thirty seconds.

Standing at the cliff's edge, she raised the egg so everyone could see it clearly. It gave off a faint golden sheen under the sunlight, its surface covered in fine patterns.

"This is a Grape Spider egg. The shell is fragile and can't be dropped directly, or it'll crack. But you have to jump down to get one, because the spider nests are deep along the cliff. How to safely obtain an egg while falling, and how to grasp the timing of the updraft to return quickly—that's up to you."

The examinees fell silent. Gon pressed his lips together and silently memorized the spot where Menchi had jumped Gang and the locations of the cliff's protrusions.

Netero added from the side, "These eggs may be rare, but as long as you can bring them up, you can boil as many as you want."

That made quite a few hesitant examinees' eyes light up.

Gon was the first to step forward. "I'll try first."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath—using his nose to sense the wind direction and speed. The other examinees copied him. Some could faintly sense the shifts in the airflow, while others merely held their breath until their faces turned red.

The wind shifted, and Gon's eyes snapped open. "Now!"

He jumped, catching the timing perfectly—he took an egg, flipped with the updraft, and returned to the cliff in one smooth sequence. He held up the egg with a wide grin. "Got it!"

Killua went right after him, moving even more easily than Gon. He was smiling as though he were playing a game.

After watching the jumps of the people ahead of him, Kurapika found the pattern, calculated precisely, and jumped down and returned without a hitch.

Leorio lay at the cliff's edge, his legs trembling nonstop. "How is any of this easy—?" After yelling that, he shut his eyes, gritted his teeth, and jumped. His falling posture was wildly crooked. He shouted, "I'm gonna die!" from the bottom of the gorge, but Gang was caught by the updraft at just the right moment. He seized an egg, was flung back to the cliff top by the wind, and collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Somehow, the egg was still intact.

Hanzo was still analyzing the relationship between the air currents and the algae as he jumped down. After flying back to the cliff top, he did a somersault in midair before steadying himself. Once he landed, he stared at the egg in surprise. "This egg is actually so light?"

Saitama stood at the cliff's edge and peered down. Then he looked at the T-shirt he had Gang cleaned.

"It'll get my clothes dirty."

He turned to leave. Before he had taken two steps, though, he stepped on loose gravel near the edge. The gravel slipped, and his entire body fell downward.

Gon shouted, "Saitama—!"

Saitama fell straight down. He did not adjust his posture or use the airflow. He was like a stone.

As he fell, his face happened to line up with a spider nest on a protrusion in the cliff wall. There was an egg inside. The egg popped out on its own and landed right on his head. It bounced once off his bald scalp, then came to a steady stop.

He continued falling. His clothes caught on the sticky threads of a web, making his whole body halt in midair. The egg slid from the top of his head and dropped into the pocket on his chest.

Wind surged up from the valley floor and blew him all the way back to the cliff top. His landing posture was not much different from when he had Gang set off.

He looked down at the egg on his chest. "Oh, got one."

The entire crowd fell silent.

Menchi stared at him. "Gang, you—"

Saitama took the egg out of his pocket. There was a little dust from the pocket stuck to the shell. He looked at the egg, then at Menchi.

"How long do I boil it?"

"...Three minutes after the water boils."

Saitama turned and headed toward the pots. Menchi watched his back with her mouth half open, unable to say a word. Netero stood beside her, stroking his beard. "There are quite a few interesting examinees this year." Menchi bit her lip and said nothing.

The examinees gradually returned to the cliff top and began boiling their eggs. The water bubbled in the pots, and the eggshells slowly turned transparent in the boiling water. Heat control was the key—being off by even one second would not do.

Gon relied on instinct to control the heat and succeeded on his first try. Killua barely passed after boiling his egg three times, nearly smashing the pot. Leorio's egg was covered in cracks like a spiderweb, but the yolk had not spilled out, so he passed as well. Hanzo watched the color changes in the egg white and timed the perfect ten seconds. The white became fully transparent while the yolk was Gang semi-liquid, and he narrowed his eyes in satisfaction.

Saitama tossed his egg into a pot and stood beside it in a daze. The water boiled, bubbling away.

He stared at the bubbles in the pot and remembered something. The last time he had lined up at the supermarket to buy eggs, an old lady in front of him had snatched the last discounted carton. He had stood there staring at the empty shelf for a long time. Later, Genos told him that it had not actually been the last carton—there were more in the warehouse, but they had not been put out. Still, only that one carton had been discounted. Full-price eggs were not worth buying.

The water had been boiling for three minutes. He scooped out the egg. The white was completely transparent, and the yolk was semi-liquid. Perfect.

Menchi cut open Saitama's egg. The blade passed through the egg white as if cutting through solidified water. The golden yolk slowly flowed out.

She stared at the egg for a long time. Then she looked up at Saitama.

"How did you do that?"

"You said three minutes after the water boiled."

"...That's it?"

"Yeah."

Menchi fell silent. She put the egg into her mouth and closed her eyes.

"Pass."

Menchi put away her scorecard. "The second test has ended. Number of successful candidates—forty-two."

Buhara waved with a simple grin. "See you at the next test!"

Netero had disappeared at some point.

The successful examinees were arranged to board the airship and head for the third test site. Food and sleeping cabins were available aboard the ship. Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio, and Saitama sat in the dining area. Leorio sprawled across the table. Hanzo passed by, glanced at him, and sighed with his arms folded. "You're so scared of heights. What are you going to do in the third test? Still, you had some guts when you jumped Gang." Kurapika sat by the window without saying anything, a faint smile lingering at the corner of his mouth.

Saitama was eating the free curry rice on the airship. He was enjoying it immensely.

Killua sat with his legs crossed, eating snacks. He glanced at Saitama. "How did you make that egg fall onto your head by itself?"

Saitama chewed his rice. "I didn't make it. It fell by itself."

Killua stared at him for two seconds, then gave up asking.

The airship's announcement suddenly sounded.

"Examinees, this is Netero, chairman of the Hunter Association. The venue for the third test is Trick Tower. Arrival time—tomorrow morning."

Outside the airship window, a massive cylindrical tower stood amid the morning mist. Its body was pitch-black and windowless, with only one entrance at the top.

Leorio looked at the tower and swallowed. "Trick Tower... That name doesn't sound good."

Saitama looked up at it.

"Does it have an elevator?"