The Third Test Ends

Ponzu's bees scouted ahead first.

They flew along the edges of the sensor plates without landing.

Odin crouched and tapped the floor with the back of his blade.

Some panels sounded solid; others sounded hollow.

"Step on the solid ones," he said. "Go around the hollow ones."

It took them twenty minutes to cross this twenty-meter stretch.

Ponzu stepped wrong once.

The instant she stepped onto a hollow panel, the floor sprang open.

Odin was beside her. He grabbed her backpack strap and pulled her back.

She hung at the edge of the pit, her feet just ten centimeters from the spikes.

Odin hauled her up.

"Thanks," she said, her voice a little shaky.

"Watch your step," Odin said.

The two continued downward.

Soon, they reached the twenty-first floor.

There were no traps here, but there was someone waiting.

A middle-aged man in a prison uniform sat in the middle of the corridor, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

He opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps.

"Examinees?" he asked.

Odin stopped.

"Yes."

"I'm the guard for this floor," the prisoner said. "Beat me, and I'll give you the key to the door to the next floor."

He stood up.

He was around a hundred and seventy-five centimeters tall, with a well-proportioned build and no exaggerated muscles.

But his stance was steady, his heels together, toes angled slightly outward, and hands hanging naturally at his sides.

Odin recognized the stance.

Karate.

"I'll take him," Odin said.

Ponzu stepped back a few paces to give them room.

The guard wasted no words and attacked at once.

His footwork was textbook: a step forward, a lunging punch, a straight-line attack.

Odin turned sideways and dodged.

The guard switched moves, slashing horizontally with his other hand.

Odin dodged again.

The guard kept attacking, using only the most basic moves.

Front kick, side kick, roundhouse kick.

Odin dodged them all.

It wasn't a matter of speed.

His speed could have completely overwhelmed the man, but he wasn't using it.

He was watching.

The guard's movements were textbook.

Every punch and kick looked as though it had come straight off a textbook page. His angles, power delivery, and breathing were all flawless.

But he was too textbook.

After his fifth dodge, Odin found an opening.

The guard's roundhouse kick missed. When he landed, his center of gravity was too high, and the sole of his left foot wasn't firmly planted.

Odin stepped forward. Not a charge, just one step.

He pressed his right hand against the guard's lower back.

He didn't use much force, but it was enough to unbalance someone whose footing was already unstable.

The guard stumbled forward two steps and only kept himself from falling by bracing against the wall.

He turned around and looked at Odin.

"I lost," he said.

He took a silver key from his pocket and tossed it over.

"Next floor. Good luck."

Odin caught the key.

"Thanks."

The guard nodded, sat back down, and closed his eyes.

They continued down to the twenty-fourth floor, where there were still no traps.

There was only an empty room, roughly twenty square meters.

Odin glanced at his watch.

Nineteen hours had passed since they entered through the top of the tower.

"Let's take a break," he said.

Ponzu sat against the wall and took her water bottle out of her backpack.

Odin sat down too and took out some compressed biscuits.

The two ate a little in silence.

After eating, Odin took out his notebook.

He turned to a fresh page and began writing.

Types of traps inside the tower:

1. Weight sensors-fake, psychological test.

2. Needle spray-real, trigger point midway down the corridor, ceiling safe.

3. Mirror corridor-visual misdirection, requires nonvisual navigation.

4. Pressure-sensitive plates-step on solid panels, avoid hollow ones.

5. Gatekeeper-single combat.

He stopped writing, read it over, and closed the notebook.

"You're keeping notes?" Ponzu asked.

"Yeah," Odin said. "It's pretty interesting."

Ponzu looked at him without saying anything.

They rested for a few hours and got some sleep. Once Ponzu woke up, Odin stood as well.

"Let's go."

Time flew, and working together repeatedly had made them much more in sync.

The forty-seventh floor, the bottom of the tower.

Forty-eight hours remained before the seventy-two-hour deadline.

Odin pushed open the final door.

Before him lay a spacious underground plaza, with pipes and ventilation ducts overhead.

Dust drifted through the air.

Three people sat at the edge of the plaza.

Hisoka leaned against the wall, playing with cards as he built a card pyramid.

At the sound of the door opening, he raised his head, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

Gittarackur sat nearby, covered in needles and as motionless as a statue.

Hanzo sat cross-legged on the floor with his arms folded. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Odin and Ponzu.

Odin said nothing and walked out with Ponzu.

He scanned the plaza, then went to a corner, set down his backpack, and sat against the wall.

Ponzu carefully avoided Hisoka and Gittarackur and sat beside Odin.

Compared with those two, Ponzu thought Odin was simply wonderful.

The only sound in the plaza was the faint rustle of playing cards turning over.

Odin closed his eyes, but he didn't sleep.

He mentally reviewed every step he had taken inside the tower.

Weight sensors: one error in judgment, costing an extra three minutes.

Needle corridor: correct approach, two minutes and forty seconds.

Mirror corridor: relied on Ponzu for navigation, twenty minutes, too slow.

Pressure-sensitive plates: one wrong step himself, one from Ponzu, an overly high error rate.

Combat: forty seconds, accurate identification of the opening, but he could have acted faster.

He went through them one by one, analyzing every mistake and every moment of hesitation.

Forty-seven hours and forty minutes remained before the seventy-two-hour deadline.

He closed his eyes and continued resting.

Time ticked by, second after second.

More people gradually arrived in the hall.

A middle-aged man in a martial arts uniform emerged from another door: Bodoro. He looked to be in good condition, his breathing steady, with only a little dust on his clothes.

A young man with a headband and a sharp gaze arrived: Pokkle. He walked to the center of the hall, scanned his surroundings warily, then found a corner to stand in without speaking to anyone.

There was a burly man with a brutish face and injuries on his body. He walked with a slight limp, but his expression was vicious, and he glared at everyone.

There were also several examinees whose names Odin didn't know.

Everyone arrived in a different state. Some were covered in wounds, some merely needed a few breaths, some had tattered clothes, and some had lost most of their equipment.

But they had all made it.

Ponzu suddenly nudged Odin with her elbow.

Odin opened his eyes and followed her gaze.

A door on the other side of the hall opened, and three people came out.

Leading them was a spiky-haired boy carrying a fishing rod on his back: Gon.

Behind him came a silver-haired boy with his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face: Killua.

Last came a blond youth dressed in traditional ethnic clothing, his expression serious: Kurapika.

All three were in good shape, with only a few stains on their clothes and slightly messy hair.

As soon as Gon entered, he looked around. His eyes lit up when he saw everyone in the hall. "So many people!"

Killua yawned. "Finally here."

Kurapika scanned his surroundings, letting his gaze linger on each person for a second or two. When he saw Hisoka, his brow furrowed slightly, but he said nothing.

They found a place to stand, and Gon excitedly chatted with Killua.

A little later, the door opened again.

This time, only one person came out.

Leorio.

He braced himself against the doorframe, gasping for breath. His clothes were torn in several places, his face was dusty, his hair was a tangled mess, and his briefcase was gone. He looked up at the people in the hall and let out a long breath.

"F-finally..." He couldn't even finish his sentence before dropping straight onto the floor.

Gon ran over. "Leorio! Are you okay?"

Leorio waved a hand, unable to speak, and just kept panting.

Kurapika handed him a bottle of water. Leorio took it and gulped down several mouthfuls before finally recovering.

"Damn... this tower really isn't fit for humans..." he muttered.

Gon smiled. "But you passed!"

Leorio paused, then smiled too. "Yeah, I passed."

The number of examinees in the hall kept growing.

Odin made a rough count. There were somewhere in the teens.

He glanced at the clock on the wall.

More than forty hours had passed since they began descending from the top of the tower.

There were still more than twenty hours left before the seventy-two-hour deadline.

In other words, the main characters had arrived early.

No Tonpa? Odin pondered. Could it be because they didn't take the five-person majority-rule route from the original story?

Things had changed so much that Odin no longer felt he had the same foreknowledge of the plot as before.