The instant they stepped down, the ground vanished beneath everyone's feet.
"Aaaaaah!"
Screams rang out.
This was no staircase, but a steep, smooth slide that plunged into unfathomable depths.
Darkness and the sensation of falling enveloped them all.
After an unknown stretch of time, a series of dull thuds sounded as everyone landed in a crumpled heap on a hard stone floor.
The air reeked of rust and dust, mingled with the stench of decay.
"Where are we...?"
Someone struck a match with trembling hands.
In its feeble light, a straight corridor stretched before them, its end nowhere in sight.
The corridor was paved with square stone slabs, each roughly half a meter across.
At its entrance, a rusty iron sign hung high overhead.
Two lines of large, blood-red lettering were engraved on it.
[Across the narrow bridge, one may pass.]
[Let two walk together, and both shall meet their deaths.]
"What does that mean?"
"Is it saying only one person can cross at a time?"
The examinees murmured among themselves, unease written all over their faces.
"This has to be a trap!"
The examinee with the scar across his face stepped forward again.
His eyes burned with feverish obsession.
"It's a race! Only the first person to make it across will survive!"
"That's right! If you're too slow, you're dead!"
"Charge!"
Before he had finished speaking, he charged onto the stone path like a maddened beast.
Two or three more examinees, their minds clouded by fear, followed with wild cries.
They scrambled to get ahead, even shoving one another.
Kurapika's expression changed.
"You idiots! Stop!"
But it was already too late.
The instant the second person stepped onto the slabs-
Click-
The crisp snap of a mechanism was painfully sharp in the deathly silent corridor.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Without warning, countless poisoned arrows gleaming black shot out of the walls on either side.
Those in front were riddled with arrows before they could even scream.
Blood instantly stained the cold stone slabs red.
The thick stench of blood assaulted every survivor's nerves.
"Ah..."
One female examinee broke down on the spot and collapsed to the floor.
The others were deathly pale, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
Dead.
They had died, just like that.
"Barely a chance of survival..."
Leorio stared at the bodies, chilled to the bone.
At last, he understood that those words were no metaphor, but a bloody reality.
"I... I got them killed..."
The crushing guilt nearly overwhelmed him.
"Tsk. Brilliant."
Luo Ye leaned against the wall, watching it all with keen interest.
"A test of trust. A classic among classics. Using fear to weed out the brainless brutes-the examiner's approach is crude, but surprisingly effective."
He almost felt like giving the designer a thumbs-up.
"See? Much quieter now. Saves me from having a bunch of flies buzzing around and spoiling my fun."
He yawned and straightened away from the wall.
"Hey, Killua. You figured it out too, right?"
He glanced at Killua, who looked just as calm beside him.
Killua nodded.
"Yeah. This mechanism's design really is boring."
Luo Ye walked up to the trembling group and spoke as though he were teaching kindergarten children.
"Listen carefully. This trap isn't triggered by stepping on a particular slab. It's triggered when a second person is on the stone path at the same time."
He pointed down the deadly corridor.
"In other words, only one person can cross at a time. You have to wait until the person ahead has made it all the way across and stepped into the safe area on the other side before the next person starts. Got it?"
As though waking from a dream, the surviving examinees nodded frantically.
Kurapika gave Luo Ye a look filled with conflicting emotions.
Then he went first, walking steadily down the entire corridor, one step at a time.
With one successful crossing to reassure them, the others worked up their courage and crossed carefully, one after another.
When Leorio's turn came, his legs were still shaking.
Gon gave him a push from behind and an encouraging look.
"Leorio, we're still waiting for you to become a doctor."
Leorio drew a deep breath and finally took a step.
Only after everyone else had crossed did Luo Ye stroll over last, whistling.
As he passed the bodies, he even gave them an interested glance.
"Ah, they didn't even qualify as cannon fodder. How pitiful."
He walked up to the others and clapped his hands.
"All right, that's the appetizer finished."
"I wonder what kind of fun the main course will bring?"
His relaxed, cheerful tone, set against the bloody scene behind him, sent a chill rising from the depths of every survivor's heart.
This man was even more terrifying than the trap itself.
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