Tonpa had barely concealed his smile when the hall door opened and a member of the airship crew appeared in the doorway.
“Maintenance is complete.
We can depart now.
Please board in an orderly manner and follow the crew’s instructions.”
The applicants moved all at once, shoving their seats back amid a wave of overlapping noise.
Tonpa returned the juice bottles to his bag, rose, and merged with the crowd heading toward the door.
As he crossed the hall, he spotted the man who had lent him money among the applicants.
The man was still watching him with suspicion.
‘Annoying.
I’ll need a better lie…
or I could repay him, which is clearly the worse option.’
The applicants boarded through the metal passage leading into the airship.
Seats lined both sides of the cabin, and wide windows revealed the forest below.
As soon as the door closed, the hull trembled, and the airship slowly rose away from the examination grounds.
Tonpa found Gon and the others seated near one of the windows.
Gon waved the moment he saw him, while Leorio merely gave him a brief look that lacked some of its former hostility.
The effect of Tonpa’s deception was obvious.
Keeping his distance now would waste all the effort he had put into the performance.
He approached and sat across from them.
Killua looked at him.
“Finished with your secret meeting?”
“It wasn’t secret.”
Killua glanced toward Leorio.
“Of course.”
Leorio cleared his throat and turned toward the window.
Tonpa decided to let him preserve what little dignity he had left.
“When we arrive, don’t rush toward the edge.
The mountain isn’t dangerous because of its height alone.
The winds inside it are powerful and unpredictable.
One careless shove could send someone over before the test even begins.”
Leorio regarded him suspiciously, but he did not dismiss the warning as he would have a few hours earlier.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m certain that falling off a mountain is bad for your health.
Menchi can explain the rest.”
The corner of Killua’s mouth twitched, while Leorio reluctantly nodded.
‘Three percent didn’t make him my friend.
It merely made him ask questions before insulting me.
A respectable beginning.’
Curiosity lit Gon’s face.
“Do you know how we’re supposed to get the eggs?”
“I know Spider Eagles build their nests between the two sides of the mountain and suspend their eggs over the ravine to protect them from predators.
If the collection method is the same one I heard about years ago, we’ll have to jump, catch the nesting threads, and wait for an updraft to carry us back to the top.
Menchi will explain the details.”
Gon continued staring at him before asking the question Tonpa had been expecting ever since his speech in front of Netero.
“How did you know about the split mountain and the Spider Eagle eggs in the first place?
You suggested this test before Menchi told us about them.”
The other three turned toward him.
Tonpa did not answer immediately.
“During my twenty-third attempt, the Hunter Exam passed through this region as well.
I failed before reaching the Second Phase, but the pickup point for the failed applicants was near the examiners’ camp.
Our transport didn’t arrive until morning.”
Leorio raised an eyebrow.
“What did you do all night?”
“I pretended to be part of the service staff so I could get dinner.”
The answer suited him so well that it required no acting.
Even Killua did not question it.
Tonpa continued.
“One of the workers made me help carry supply crates in exchange for food.
One of them contained Spider Eagle eggs.
The man spent half the night bragging about how difficult they were to obtain and how much a high-end restaurant would pay for a single egg.
He told me about the mountain, the nesting threads, and the updrafts that pass between its walls.”
“If they were so expensive,” Gon asked, “why didn’t you collect some and sell them?”
Tonpa looked at him seriously.
“Because I love money, but not enough to jump into a mountain for it.”
Leorio laughed, and Gon smiled as though the answer had settled the matter.
Kurapika did not.
“So you never saw the nests yourself.
Everything you know came from a worker whose name you didn’t even know.”
“That’s right.
When I saw that the examiner was a Gourmet Hunter, I remembered the most valuable ingredient in the area.
I wasn’t certain she would accept my proposal, but the alternative was allowing everyone to fail.”
Killua narrowed his eyes.
“And this worker told someone he had just met all those details?”
“He thought I was a new employee.
I saw no reason to correct him.”
Killua remained silent.
He clearly did not believe the entire story, but objecting now required him to assume Tonpa had invented a worker, several supply crates, and an old Hunter Exam merely to explain information that had turned out to be correct.
A chime sounded inside Tonpa’s head.
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Gon Freecss]
[Nen Points +10]
[Experience Points +10]
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Leorio]
[Nen Points +5]
[Experience Points +5]
Two smaller windows followed.
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Kurapika]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Killua Zoldyck]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1] This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
‘They swallowed just enough of the story for the System to count it.
Stingy even when falling for a lie.’
Tonpa dismissed the notifications before they obscured Gon’s face.
Their Trust Levels had not risen, but seventeen points for a story that had taken only a few minutes was still a good result.
[Total Nen Points: 41]
[Experience Points: 381/600]
The airship began to slow shortly afterward.
The forest below ended at a massive mountain split in half by a straight ravine, as though a single blow had cleaved the stone from its summit to its base.
Wind rushed between the two walls, producing a whistle that reached them even through the thick windows.
The airship landed near the edge, and the applicants followed Menchi, Netero, and Buhara outside.
Several approached the ravine, only to retreat the moment they saw the darkness swallowing the depths beneath their feet.
Menchi pointed toward the thick white threads stretching between the rocky walls.
Clusters of eggs hung beneath them, suspended over a void whose bottom could not be seen.
She explained that Spider Eagles chose places like this to protect their eggs from predators.
Their task was to descend, retrieve one egg, and return to boil it.
Anyone who refused to attempt the descent or returned without an egg would be eliminated.
Several applicants immediately protested.
One asked whether jumping into a ravine truly belonged in a cooking test.
Menchi replied that a Gourmet Hunter incapable of reaching an ingredient did not deserve the title.
Her answer did nothing to restore the color to their faces.
Then she stepped onto the edge and jumped without hesitation.
Shouts erupted behind her.
Menchi caught one of the threads as she fell and remained suspended over the ravine.
She reached toward a hanging cluster and pulled one of the eggs free, then waited until an updraft surged between the mountain walls.
She released the thread at exactly the right moment, allowing the wind to carry her back to the top.
She made it look simple.
The applicants’ faces made it clear that no one believed it was.
Tonpa stood a full step back from the edge, watching the current tug at their clothes and hair.
He knew what would happen if he allowed events to follow the course he remembered.
A limited number would succeed, while the rest would be eliminated by fear or poor timing.
If he explained the timing of the updraft, more applicants might pass.
That would alter the story again and could raise the divergence rate beyond 0.1%.
He could remain silent and preserve the path he knew.
Knowledge of the future was his greatest advantage, and deliberately damaging it would be like tearing apart his only map because he disliked the road drawn on it.
However, the additional survivors would not all be strong.
In the coming phases, having weaker competitors around would be better than leaving the field to Hisoka, Hanzo, and the applicants with their strange beasts.
Every weak person who passed now could later become an easier opponent, a target for deception, or simply a body standing between Tonpa and something trying to kill him.
‘Preserve the future, and I face the strong applicants alone.
Change it, and I get more weak ones.’
The decision did not take long.
The first applicant approached the edge, apparently prepared to jump without understanding what the current had done.
Tonpa stepped forward and raised his voice.
“Wait!
There’s something you didn’t notice during Menchi’s jump.”
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