Menchi's furious roar exploded over the examinees' heads like a massive bomb.
Everyone had failed.
Those three words plunged the entire estate into deathly silence.
After that brief silence came an eruption like a roaring tidal wave.
"Are you kidding me?"
"What gives you the right? We worked our asses off to get here, and you can just fail us like that?"
"Exactly! You're just a cook! What right do you have to decide our fate?"
The examinees' anger flared in an instant.
They had barely made it through the marathon of death, then escaped the terrifying wetlands with their lives, only to be eliminated over a cooking test?
No one could accept that result.
"You're so noisy."
Menchi looked coldly down at the agitated examinees, her eyes filled with disdain.
A burly examinee with a brutish face stepped out of the crowd, pointed at Menchi, and snarled.
"My name's Takuto, and I'm a professional wrestler! I don't care what kind of Gourmet Hunter you are! I'm going to make you take that back!"
As he spoke, he took an attacking stance.
"I suggest you don't try it."
Menchi rolled her wrist, a dangerous smile spreading across her face.
"Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll die without even knowing what hit you."
Takuto was utterly enraged.
With a furious roar, he charged at Menchi like a raging bull.
Menchi didn't move.
She merely watched Takuto charge toward her, her cold gaze that of someone looking at a dead man.
She was ready to strike.
At that critical instant, an enormous figure appeared without warning between her and Takuto.
It was Buhara.
He didn't even turn around. He simply swung his hand backward, delivering a light slap to the charging Takuto.
The motion looked like he was shooing away an annoying fly.
Smack.
A faint sound rang out.
Then, before everyone's disbelieving eyes, the burly Takuto looked as though a speeding truck had hit him head-on.
His entire body flew backward.
He traced a long arc through the air, sailed over everyone's heads, and smashed through the estate's outer wall with a crash, disappearing into the woods beyond.
An instant defeat.
No, it couldn't even be called that.
He had simply been brushed away.
The entire crowd fell deathly silent.
The examinees who had been shouting their defiance just moments earlier now stood as quiet as mice, their faces pale.
As they stared at Buhara's enormous back, only fear remained in their eyes.
"Menchi."
Buhara turned to his partner, who was still radiating murderous intent, and spoke in his deep, muffled voice.
"Don't attack."
Menchi's brows knotted together.
"Why are you stopping me? Anyone who insults me like that deserves to die!"
"I know."
Buhara scratched his head, looking rather helpless.
"That's exactly why I'm worried you'll actually kill him."
"That would cause a lot of trouble for the Hunter Association."
He added that last remark quietly.
At those words, Menchi's murderous intent faltered slightly.
Not a sound came from the crowd.
Just as the situation reached a stalemate, a leisurely voice broke the silence.
"Ah, now that's more like it."
It was Luo Ye.
He was leaning against a tree with an appreciative smile on his face.
"What's the point of a lifeless exam? This is how it should be. Chaos everywhere-now that's a Hunter Exam."
His words made everyone stare at him as though he were insane.
At a time like this, the guy was still enjoying the show?
Menchi's expression darkened further.
She felt that these examinees, especially that fellow named Luo Ye, had repeatedly trampled on her dignity as an examiner.
Just as she was about to explode again, an enormous shadow fell over the entire estate.
At some point, a massive airship had come to hover overhead.
The airship's hatch opened, and a tiny black speck leaped out from ten thousand meters above.
No parachute. No equipment to cushion the fall.
"Someone jumped out!"
"Is he crazy? He'll be smashed to a pulp falling from that high!"
Cries of alarm rose from the examinees.
Boom!
An enormous crash rang out.
The ground shook violently.
When the dust cleared, a short old man wearing wooden clogs and sporting a long beard stood completely unharmed in the center of an enormous crater.
He brushed the dust off himself and spoke with a cheerful chuckle.
"Well, well. It seems I've arrived at just the right time."
Menchi and Buhara's expressions changed dramatically when they saw him, and they hurriedly bowed in respect.
"Ch-Chairman!"
The twelfth chairman of the Hunter Association, Isaac Netero.
He had descended from the sky.
"Menchi."
Chairman Netero walked up to Menchi, his voice gentle yet carrying unquestionable authority.
"I heard you failed every single examinee?"
"Yes, Chairman."
Menchi kept her head lowered, but her tone remained firm.
"Not one of them showed the proper respect for cooking."
"Hmm, that is indeed a problem."
Netero stroked his beard.
"But isn't it a little too stubborn of you to reject every examinee on that basis?"
"As an examiner, when you discover a flaw in your test, you should offer guidance and demonstrate, rather than simply reject everyone."
Menchi trembled slightly, as though his words had struck a nerve.
"How about this?"
Chairman Netero offered a suggestion.
"Give the examinees a demonstration yourself, then set a new test."
"This time, you'll take part alongside them."
Menchi was silent for a moment before finally nodding.
"I understand, Chairman."
She turned to face all the examinees and took a deep breath.
"An additional test will be added to the second phase!"
"Chairman, may I borrow the airship?"
A few moments later (showing off academic credentials).
Everyone disembarked from the airship.
Menchi pointed toward an enormous, seemingly bottomless rift a short distance away.
"We're going to make boiled eggs!"
"And our ingredients are at the bottom of that rift-Spider Vulture eggs!"
Everyone turned their gaze toward the abyss.
Huge spiderwebs stretched across the rift, where countless enormous birds of prey circled, letting out piercing cries.
As Luo Ye took in the spectacular sight, his smile widened.
"Oh-ho, time for the extreme sports segment?"
Before you continue