The Airship was descending.
Outside the porthole, the outline of Glasses Island grew clearer.
Sunlight shone on the island, revealing dense woods and the coastline.
Lippo stood at the cabin door, a list in his hand.
"Candidates will jump in order. Landing points are random. The test begins once you land."
Huh?!
What was going on now?
Hearing an arrival procedure completely different from the plot he knew, Odin was stunned again.
In the anime Hunter x Hunter, the fourth test should have involved taking a boat to Glasses Island, then going ashore at intervals of a few minutes.
But now?
Despite his confusion, the situation still seemed manageable, and Odin recovered his composure.
The cabin door opened, letting cold wind rush in.
The first candidate walked to the door, glanced down, took a deep breath, and jumped.
Five minutes later, the second followed.
Another five minutes passed, and it was the third candidate's turn.
Standing in the middle of the line, Odin watched the people ahead disappear into the forest one by one, five minutes apart.
When his turn came, he walked to the cabin door and looked down.
They were a little over ten meters up, above the edge of a forest. He could clearly make out the treetops in the sunlight.
He jumped.
Wind roared in his ears, and the weightless sensation lasted for a second.
He adjusted his posture, bending his legs slightly to prepare for landing.
Thud.
His feet hit the soft soil, and the impact sent him stumbling two steps forward before he steadied himself.
Woods surrounded him. Sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, casting dappled patterns on the ground.
There were no other candidates.
Odin stood still, listening closely.
He faintly heard footsteps in the distance, but they soon faded.
He scanned his surroundings, confirmed there was no danger, then quickly moved behind a thick tree and leaned against its trunk.
He took his number 48 badge out of his trouser pocket.
After looking around, he crouched and dug a small hole among the roots.
He wrapped the badge in waterproof cloth, buried it, stamped the soil down, and scattered a layer of dead leaves over it.
Then he stood and made a mark on the trunk that only he would understand.
With that done, Odin took a slip of paper from his pocket.
It held the information about his target that he had written down aboard the Airship.
Number 38. A burly man skilled in close-quarters grappling, with a scar at the corner of his right eye.
He tore the paper to pieces and burned it.
"Let's begin," he said quietly.
First, he needed to familiarize himself with the terrain.
Odin activated the Rabbit Talisman, raising its speed output to thirty percent.
The world slowed down.
He began darting through the woods.
In the sunlight, his figure swept past tree after tree like a shadow.
At thirty percent output, the Rabbit Talisman gave him a speed of at least a hundred meters per second.
After running for about ten minutes, he had a rough understanding of the area.
There was a rocky beach to the southeast, dense forest to the west, and a small stream to the north.
The terrain was not especially complicated, but it offered plenty of hiding places.
He returned to the area where he had buried his badge and found a hollow in a tree.
The hollow was small, just big enough for one person to curl up inside.
He crawled in, placed his backpack behind him as a cushion, and leaned back against it.
Outside, everything was quiet except for insects chirping and leaves rustling in the wind.
Suddenly-
A scream came from the distance.
It was brief, as though something had cut it off.
Then came a second scream, and a third.
Odin did not move.
He leaned back inside the hollow, listening as the sounds rose and fell.
Someone was running, their footsteps heavy, the snapping of branches clearly audible.
Someone was shouting for help, but their voice grew more distant.
Someone made no sound at all; there was only the dull thud of something heavy hitting the ground.
Odin closed his eyes.
"It's started," he said softly.
He took no action that day or the following night.
It was not that he did not want to complete his hunt. The previous test had drained a great deal of his stamina, and he needed to recover first.
Besides, he was in no hurry.
Every half hour, there was some disturbance: footsteps, screams, sounds of fighting.
Once, someone ran past the hollow where he was hiding, panting hard as their footsteps drew closer.
Odin ignored them because they were not his target.
The person ran past without stopping.
Their footsteps gradually faded.
As dawn approached, the woods finally fell quiet, and Odin had recovered as well.
Morning light slipped through a gap in the hollow, casting a long, narrow strip of light on the ground.
Odin stretched his slightly stiff body and crawled out.
Outside lay the woods, sunlight spilling through the foliage and the scent of dew hanging in the air.
He stood at the entrance to the hollow and listened closely.
Silence.
Only birdsong.
Odin moved his arms and legs, loosening up.
He walked a few circles around the tree to get his blood flowing.
Then he stopped and looked deeper into the woods.
"Time to get to work."
He activated the Rabbit Talisman, raising its speed output to fifty percent.
The world slowed down.
He began moving rapidly through the woods.
This time, he was not scouting the terrain. He was searching for his target.
He darted through the forest like a shadow.
Every so often, he stopped to listen closely and scan his surroundings.
After running for about half an hour, he found the first signs of a fight.
A patch of shrubs had been trampled into a mess, and blood on the ground had not yet dried.
The trail of blood led behind a tree.
Odin slowed and circled behind it.
A candidate sat slumped against the trunk. His badge was missing from his chest, and several footprints marked his clothes.
He was still alive, but unconscious.
Odin crouched and glanced at him.
Then he stood again and continued onward.
He had not gone far when he found another scene.
This one was even more chaotic. Signs of a struggle scarred the ground, several branches had been broken, and footprints covered the soil.
There was more blood, trailing all the way to a small puddle.
Odin walked to the puddle and looked into it.
The water was red.
There was no one there.
He straightened and continued searching.
At noon, he found his target.
Number 38.
The man was crouching beside a stream, washing a wound on his arm with the water.
Odin lay in the grass fifty meters away, watching through gaps between the blades.
The burly man did indeed have a scar at the corner of his right eye. Several scratches marked his arm, probably left by last night's fighting.
A bulging backpack lay beside him, its contents unknown.
After washing his wound, the man stood and rolled his shoulders.
His movements were a little stiff. He was clearly injured.
Odin stayed still.
He continued watching.
The burly man stood beside the stream for a while, then returned to his backpack, took out a canteen, and drank a few mouthfuls.
He drank slowly, but his eyes kept scanning his surroundings.
He was a cautious one.
After drinking, he put the canteen back in his backpack, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes.
He seemed to be resting, or perhaps gathering himself.
Odin waited another ten minutes.
The burly man did not move.
Odin stood up from the grass.
He did not use the Rabbit Talisman. He simply walked over at a normal pace.
His footsteps made a faint rustling sound in the grass.
The burly man's eyes snapped open.
When he saw Odin, he immediately rose and took a fighting stance.
"Who's there?"
Before you continue