The Starting Horn

In the vast, enclosed underground waiting hall, time seemed to stretch. Dim overhead lights cast a steady, oppressive yellow glow, while the walls, forged from dark metal, bore no decoration. Hundreds of examinees from around the world gathered in this stifling space, some whispering among themselves, others silently sizing each other up. The air was thick with tension, curiosity, and a trace of barely concealed killing intent.

Ryan stood near a corner, maintaining Zetsu. He did not release the slightest aura, and no one within several meters noticed his presence, as though he were a transparent pebble in the air. His gaze swept across unfamiliar yet familiar faces—Killua, Gon, Kurapika, Leorio, Hisoka, Illumi... They were all here. The curtain was finally rising on the Hunter Exam.

Satotz, the chief examiner dressed in a yellow shirt and red suspenders, round-headed and round-bodied yet carrying an inexplicable pressure, slowly stepped onto the platform ahead. Without any amplification equipment, he merely cleared his throat softly, and the noise throughout the hall seemed to be instantly suppressed.

"Welcome to the 287th Hunter Exam."

His voice was not loud, yet it seemed to drill into every examinee's ears. Ryan silently kept time in his head: the intervals between his words, the placement of his pauses, the angle of his gaze as it swept across the crowd... He was like a well-trained guide, but also like some kind of quiet lure.

"This year's first trial will be a 'simple long-distance run.'" Satotz paused, an inexplicable smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "Please follow me."

With a click, one wall of the hall slid silently aside, revealing a narrow, deep passageway. Dim yellow light poured down from above, outlining the rusted steel framework along both sides of the corridor and the faint cracks in the floor.

The examinees began to move. Some were excited, some wary, and some already wore vicious expressions. Ryan maintained his original pace, steadily placing himself in the middle of the group, neither rushing ahead nor falling behind. He had no need to attract attention from the start. What he was better at was—observing.

Beyond the passage was a spiraling staircase that descended underground. Everyone silently made their way down, their footsteps dense and overlapping, like a herd of prey destined to be culled.

Satotz walked at the front, his pace neither hurried nor slow, as though he were waiting—or keeping time. At one point, he suddenly stopped and turned around halfway down the stairs.

"You may begin from here." He pointed toward the tunnel entrance ahead. "All you need to do is keep up with me."

"Remember: do not stop moving, do not fall behind, and do not leave the route—or you will be eliminated."

The moment he finished speaking, Satotz turned and strode forward, abruptly accelerating. His round body was surprisingly agile at high speed, and he quickly disappeared into the dim shadows at the end of the tunnel.

"Has the exam started?" one examinee cried out softly, only to be swallowed by the restless crowd.

Everyone instinctively sped up to follow.

Ryan, however, had already settled into a running rhythm. He did not use his full strength. Instead, he swiftly judged the direction and length of the path ahead based on the underground passage's airflow, the echoes from the walls, and the frequency of the lighting. He knew this run was far more than a test of endurance. The Hunter Association never played boring games.

All kinds of footsteps echoed behind him, some steady as hammer blows, others chaotic as scurrying rats. Some people rushed ahead to seize a "leading" position; some fell and cried out as they were trampled; while even more people—without realizing it—were being "left behind."

The early trial... is a rhythm trap meant to eliminate the weak, Ryan thought calmly. Not a competition of running speed.

Just then, the ground trembled faintly.

Ryan immediately sensed that something was wrong. "The trap—is here."

When Satotz's footsteps came to a stop, a dim, open wetland landscape appeared at the end of the tunnel. Thick fog hung everywhere, and wild vegetation sprawled across the land. The ground had long lost any sign of artificial construction, replaced by mud, puddles, and the faint growls of beasts hidden in the damp forest.

Satotz turned around and stood at the edge of the fog. His gaze was stern, his tone low. "The first phase of the test is... running after me."

He spoke without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as though reading an announcement rather than beginning a life-or-death elimination. After briefly glancing over the crowd, he added:

"Fall behind, and you fail."

The next second, without any warning, he shot forward—a lean, capable figure instantly rushing into the misty wetlands, his footsteps steady and swift, without a hint of hesitation.

"Does it start now?" "That was too sudden!" "Hurry, follow him!" Cries rang out as countless examinees began running, the crowd flooding into the wetlands like a breached mountain torrent.

Ryan had already anticipated this kind of start with no warning whatsoever. He did not rush to the front, but he certainly did not fall behind. His steps were swift and steady as he activated Zetsu while running, shutting off his Nen aura to completely conceal his presence.

The wetlands were slick, tangled with exposed roots, and filled with mud pits and pools of water. The terrain was as complicated as a breathing web of traps. Many examinees quickly fell into panic. Some stepped into mud and fell, some were tripped by coiling vines, and some even collided with each other and tumbled into a heap.

What's frightening isn't the trap, but oneself, Ryan silently reminded himself. He knew the real elimination did not require the examiner to act. The examinees would fall into panic amid the chaos on their own.

Someone ahead shouted in complaint, "Is this examiner crazy?"

"Why won't he tell us how far we have to run?"

Satotz's voice drifted from far ahead once more, still calm and emotionless. "You only need to follow me. You may stop only when I stop."

The dialogue from the original story had been reproduced with precision, and that familiar chill struck again—there was no explanation of the distance, no mention of the destination, and no indication of when it would end. This was not a simple test of physical strength, but a double drain on willpower and endurance.

Ryan deliberately slowed by two steps, settling into the front-middle of the group so he would not become the focus of attention. He had already noticed that the "illusions" within the wetlands were quietly taking effect.

To his front left, a muscular young examinee suddenly shouted, "Watch out—there's a monster ahead!!" He veered sharply off the path and leaped into a patch of woods, but there was no movement there at all.

Another, smaller examinee stared wide-eyed. "No... He saw it wrong! There's nothing there!"

"Illusions?" "No way..."

Chaos quickly spread. Some were misled by the illusions, some were affected by the panic of others, and some took advantage of the confusion to trample their companions as they rushed ahead.

Ryan, meanwhile, remained utterly calm. In his Zetsu state, he sensed the flow of the surrounding aura and constructed an "illusion activity map" in his mind: a sudden rise in humidity, abnormal sound-wave reflections, and a continual wavering of visual direction—these all indicated that the illusions were being guided layer by layer into the group, creating accidental injuries and mistaken judgments.

Not far away, he noticed a short-haired boy walking forward at an unhurried pace, his expression composed. It was Kurapika.

At the same time, on the other side, Leorio was trying to help up an examinee who had fallen while shouting, "Don't move! Stop struggling!"

Ryan vaguely heard their exchange and silently reminded himself, I have to remember—not to directly interact with the main group, but I can observe them.

He continued onward along a low-vine area near the edge of the wetlands. There were fewer people here, and the illusions were weaker, making it suitable for hiding.

Just then, an aura carrying a sense of danger quietly approached—Hisoka was making his way through the fog, moving leisurely, as elegant and deadly as a nocturnal cat.

"Hehe... It's quite lively, isn't it?" Hisoka said, licking his fingertips as he swept his gaze over the surroundings.

His gaze briefly passed over the direction where Ryan was hiding, but Ryan's Zetsu was so perfectly restrained that Hisoka ultimately did not stop.

His instincts are sharp, but not sharp enough to see through Zetsu, Ryan judged. I can't have direct contact with him... Not yet.

The fog ahead thinned slightly, and Satotz's silhouette became faintly visible. He was still running, without slowing in the slightest, as though he did not care at all about the chaos behind him.

At that moment, from the corner of his eye, Ryan caught the ground beneath a floating log caving in slightly—a trap mechanism had been activated.

"Tonpa's scheme." Ryan reacted immediately.

He did not warn anyone. Instead, he sped up, stepped on the log to launch himself into the air, and landed steadily at the edge of a patch of dry grass. Several examinees behind him screamed as they fell into the mud, while Tonpa stood farther away with an "innocent and wronged" expression.

Ryan glanced at him and had already marked him in his mind as a "hypocritical danger," yet he still did not make a move.

Acting too early would expose my judgment.

He slipped back into the rhythm of the group and continued running.

The first phase of the Hunter Exam had truly begun amid the fog and illusions of the Numere Wetlands.