The doors of Trick Tower slammed shut behind them, cutting off the last sliver of light from outside. Inside, darkness reigned. Only a dim emergency lamp every dozen meters or so along the walls cast a faint orange-red glow, barely illuminating the stone floor beneath their feet. The air smelled of damp mold and rust. It was so quiet that all they could hear was their own breathing and the faint drip of water in the distance. The place was as eerie as an enormous tomb. Leorio instinctively tightened his grip on his scalpel, swallowed, and whispered, "My God, isn't this place a little too creepy? There aren't even any doors. How are we supposed to get down?" Kurapika took out the flashlight he carried with him, switched it on, and swept its beam around. Solid stone walls surrounded them, without a trace of doors or windows. The paving slabs beneath their feet fitted tightly together, and nothing seemed unusual. He frowned and said gravely, "This should be Trick Tower's entrance level. The passage down must be hidden somewhere. Examiner Lippo said the tower was full of traps. Everyone, be careful. Don't touch things at random." Gon, however, showed no fear at all. Instead, he crouched curiously and tapped the slab beneath his feet, his eyes sparkling. "This stone sounds different from the others! There's an empty space underneath!" Lin Ye stood nearby with a gentle smile. His Observation Haki had covered the entire entrance level the moment he stepped through the tower doors. He had already perceived the hidden hatch beneath their feet and the passage beyond it perfectly clearly. But he did not reveal them ahead of time. Gon's animal instincts were his most precious gift, and Lin Ye did not want to rob his companion of the joy of exploring for himself. "Really?" Killua immediately came over, crouched down, and tapped the slab as well. He nodded. "You're right. It really is hollow underneath. Gon, you're amazing. You could tell just by listening." Gon scratched his head with a chuckle, hooked both hands into the gaps around the slab, and heaved. With a crack, he lifted the heavy slab outright, revealing a pitch-black opening with a ladder leading down inside-the passage to the lower levels. "Found it!" Gon shouted excitedly, waving to the others. "Let's go down here!" Leorio leaned over to look, astonished. "My God, it was hidden that well? Without Gon, we might have spent an entire day looking and still missed the entrance!" Kurapika also breathed a sigh of relief and gave Gon a thumbs-up. "Well done, Gon." Without hesitation, the five climbed down the ladder one after another. It was not particularly long, only a dozen meters or so, and they soon reached the bottom. Below was an enclosed room. Five identical iron doors stood side by side on the opposite wall, numbered one through five. A sign stood in the center of the room, displaying clearly written rules. [Welcome to the majority rule challenge.] [Rules: 1. Five people must participate in this challenge together. All decisions follow the principle that the minority yields to the majority. Any choice approved by more than half the participants becomes the final choice. 2. The five doors lead to five different routes, each with different difficulties, traps, and required times. All five participants must enter the same door and may not split up. 3. Each door may only be selected once. Once a choice is made, it cannot be changed. If the chosen route proves impassable, the challenge is considered failed. 4. This challenge has no separate time limit, but time spent here counts toward the overall seventy-two-hour limit. Please choose carefully.] After reading the rules, everyone fell silent. Leorio frowned at the five identical iron doors, looking troubled. "Five doors, all looking exactly the same, and we have no idea what's behind them. How are we supposed to choose? One wrong choice and we fail outright? That's a rotten trick!" "Yes, this is testing our ability to make decisions as a team." Kurapika nodded, surveying the doors. "Five doors, five routes. We have to agree on the safest one." Killua folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "It's a gamble either way, so why not just pick one? We don't know what's inside, and guessing won't tell us anything." "Absolutely not!" Leorio immediately objected. "What if we pick a dead end? We only have seventy-two hours. We can't waste time here, much less fail outright!" While they argued, Lin Ye walked up to the doors and calmly studied each one. His Observation Haki had already penetrated the iron doors, revealing the conditions along every route. Door one led to a passage filled with deadly mechanical traps. It was passable, but extremely difficult and the most time-consuming, requiring at least a dozen hours to get through. Door two was a dead end. It ended at a cliff with no exit at all, guaranteeing failure. Door three contained a complicated maze with countless branching paths. It would be easy to become trapped inside, making the time required unpredictable. Door four offered the shortest route and the fewest traps. It contained only a handful of simple mechanisms and would take no more than two hours to traverse, making it the safest option. Door five led to a challenge involving fights against prisoners. It was also passable, but required winning five one-on-one duels. The time required was unpredictable, and the risk was extremely high. He already understood every route, but did not simply announce the answer. This was a team challenge, testing the five participants' cooperation and trust. He could not make everyone's decision for them. Turning to the arguing group, he said evenly, "There's no need to argue. We're a team. Since this is majority rule, everyone should state their choice, and then we'll vote. The minority follows the majority." The others immediately quieted down and nodded in agreement. "I'll go first!" Leorio spoke up, pointing at door four. "I choose door four! It's one of the middle doors, neither at one end nor the other. It should be the safest!" "I also choose door four," Kurapika immediately added with a nod. "With conventional trap layouts, the doors at either end are usually the riskiest. A door toward the middle is most likely to offer the safest route." "I pick four!" Gon immediately raised his hand, beaming. "Leorio and Kurapika both chose it, so it must be right!" "No objections from me. Four it is." Killua shrugged, sounding unconcerned. All four had chosen door four, and everyone turned to Lin Ye. Lin Ye smiled and nodded. "I choose door four too. Five to zero. Unanimous." Leorio pumped his fist excitedly. "Great! Door four it is! Let's go!" They walked over together and pushed the heavy iron door open. Beyond it lay a long, narrow corridor, even darker than the room outside. They could only see a dozen meters ahead. "Be careful, everyone. Stay close behind me." Lin Ye took the lead, extending his Observation Haki to its fullest to sense the traps and mechanisms ahead and warn the others. Sure enough, the corridor was riddled with traps: pressure-sensitive mines in the floor, poisoned-needle launchers in the walls, and falling-rock mechanisms overhead, one after another, all exceptionally well concealed. But nothing could hide from Lin Ye's Observation Haki. He warned the others where the traps were and how to avoid them, leading them steadily through the corridor. Gon and Killua were exceptionally agile. Even when a mechanism activated unexpectedly, they dodged it with ease. Meticulous as ever, Kurapika always prepared his response ahead of time. Leorio was less nimble, but under the others' protection, he encountered no danger either. Working seamlessly together, the five advanced without obstruction, avoiding every trap. In less than two hours, they had traversed the entire corridor, reached its end, and pushed open the iron exit door. Beyond it was a spacious room. Another sign stood in its center beside a timer displaying their elapsed time: five hours and twenty-three minutes. They had cleared the first two challenges in just over five hours, leaving plenty of time within the overall seventy-two-hour limit. Looking at the timer, Leorio jumped with excitement. "Fantastic! We actually got through that fast! I thought we'd be stuck here for an entire day!" "It's all thanks to Lin Ye." Kurapika looked at him gratefully. "Without your advance warnings about every trap, we never could have made it through so smoothly." Gon ran over to Lin Ye as well, his face full of admiration. "Lin Ye, you're incredible! You spotted every trap ahead of time. You're even more accurate than my instincts!" Killua nodded too, looking at Lin Ye with admiration. He had grown up in the Assassin Family and seen countless traps and mechanisms, but even he could not have predicted every trap with such precision, without a single mistake. Lin Ye smiled and waved a hand. "No need to thank me. We're a team. Looking out for each other is what we should do." His gaze settled on the sign. It displayed a new set of rules for the next stage-the Candle Challenge. [Candle Challenge rules: 1. There are five candles of different lengths in this room. All five participants must jointly choose one candle to light. 2. From the moment the candle is lit until it burns out, participants must find and pass through this challenge's exit. 3. Once the candle goes out, the exit will be permanently sealed, and the challenge will be considered failed. 4. While the candle burns, every trap in the room will activate. Participants must search for the exit while avoiding the traps. 5. This challenge has no other time limit. The time available is determined by how long the candle burns. Please choose carefully.] Sure enough, five candles of different lengths were set into the wall. The longest was as long as an arm, while the shortest was only finger-length-a striking difference. After reading the rules, Leorio immediately pointed to the longest candle. "Do we even need to choose? Obviously we take the longest one! It'll burn the longest and give us the most time to find the exit!" Kurapika frowned and shook his head. "No. Hunter Exam challenges are never that simple. The longest candle might burn the fastest, while the shortest could burn the slowest. This is a psychological trap." "Then what do we do?" Leorio looked troubled. "Choosing the long one is wrong, and choosing the short one is wrong. Surely we're not supposed to take the middle one?" Gon and Killua also approached the candles and examined them carefully, but neither could discern any clues. Standing nearby, Lin Ye had already swept all five candles with his Observation Haki. He instantly saw through the challenge's trick: the longest candle's wick contained an accelerant, making it burn ten times faster than an ordinary candle. It would burn out in under ten minutes. The shortest candle, however, had a specially made wick and burned extremely slowly. It would last at least two hours and was the only correct choice. Rather than reveal the answer directly, he looked at the others and said calmly, "Gon, your instincts are the sharpest. Which one do you think we should choose?" Gon paused, then closed his eyes and carefully sensed the five candles. Opening his eyes, he pointed to the shortest and said earnestly, "I think we should choose this shortest one. It looks the shortest, but I feel like it can burn for a really, really long time." Killua raised an eyebrow at the candle Gon indicated. Though somewhat puzzled, he nodded. "I trust Gon's instincts. Let's pick that one." Kurapika nodded as well. "Gon's instincts have never been wrong. I choose the shortest one too." Leorio still looked worried, but seeing the others choose the shortest candle, he immediately nodded. "All right! I'll choose that one too! The minority follows the majority. We'll take the shortest!" With a unanimous vote, the five chose the shortest candle. Gon took out a lighter and lit its wick. The instant the candle caught, the room's mechanisms activated. Hidden panels opened in the walls, spraying countless poisoned needles toward them. The floor began slowly closing in, and the ceiling overhead began descending as well. "Watch out!" Lin Ye shouted, instantly stepping in front of the others. He drew his Samurai Sword and swung it rapidly, deflecting every poisoned needle flying toward them. Gon and Killua immediately sprang into action, one heading left and the other right. They avoided the closing floor mechanism while searching the walls for signs of an exit. Kurapika unfolded his Nunchucks and blocked the poisoned needles coming from the side, covering Gon and Killua. Leorio stood guard beside the candle, keeping air currents from the mechanisms from blowing it out. With clearly assigned roles and seamless teamwork, the five handled the room's traps while quickly searching for the exit. Just as Lin Ye had predicted, the shortest candle burned extremely slowly. After more than ten minutes, only a tiny amount of wax had been consumed, leaving them ample time. A little over ten minutes later, Gon suddenly shouted, "Found it! The exit's here!" He pointed to an inconspicuous stone slab in the wall and pressed it hard. The slab instantly opened, revealing a passage beyond-the exit from the challenge. "Great! Let's go!" Leorio shouted excitedly. Carefully picking up the still-burning candle, he rushed into the passage first. The others followed one after another. The stone slab slowly closed behind them, and the mechanisms in the room immediately stopped. At the end of the passage lay a new room, housing Trick Tower's central challenge. The moment the five entered, they all stopped, their expressions instantly growing serious. A huge dueling arena stood in the middle, with five contestant passages on each side. Across the room was a tightly closed iron door. A huge electronic screen hung above it, displaying clear rules. [Five-on-five life-or-death duel challenge rules: 1. Five applicants must face five prisoners in individual one-on-one fights. The first side to win three matches clears the challenge. 2. Each duel has no time limit. A winner is determined only when one side surrenders, becomes unable to fight, or dies. 3. Other teammates may not intervene during a duel. Doing so results in forfeiting that match. 4. If the applicants ultimately lose, they must remain here until the seventy-two-hour limit expires, and the challenge will be considered failed. 5. Both sides may determine their own fighting order. The duels officially begin once every contestant on both sides has been assigned a place in the order.] Across the arena, five figures sat in the spectator seats, watching the newcomers with cruel smiles. They were vicious, bloodstained criminals sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. In a corner of the spectator stands, a figure in a golden trench coat lounged in a chair, toying with playing cards. A crazed, excited smile curved his lips, and his gaze was locked firmly on Lin Ye. It was Hisoka. Somehow, he had also entered this route and become the prisoners' final contestant. Looking at the five prisoners opposite them and Hisoka in the corner, Leorio went deathly pale. He swallowed and whispered, "My God... one-on-one fights to the death? And that lunatic Hisoka's here too? We're in serious trouble now!" Kurapika's eyes also turned cold. He tightened his grip on his Nunchucks, his aura beginning to flare. Gon and Killua lost their smiles as well, shifting into combat readiness and watching the prisoners warily. Lin Ye looked at Hisoka in the stands with calm eyes. There was no fear in them, only a trace of cold fighting spirit. He knew this confrontation could no longer be avoided. And Hisoka had finally gained his chance to face him head-on.
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