“Wait!
There’s something you didn’t notice during Menchi’s jump.”
Movement near the edge came to a halt, and dozens of faces turned toward him.
Even Menchi folded her arms and waited to hear what he had to say.
Tonpa opened his mouth, the words already prepared.
He would explain the timing of the updraft and allow as many applicants as possible to succeed.
In the later phases, having more competitors would give him more room to avoid the stronger ones while filling the exam with weaker targets he could deceive or use.
Then an image of the Final Phase surfaced in his mind.
The number of participants was not some meaningless detail.
The interviews Netero would conduct, the arrangement of the matches, and the people chosen to face one another…
all of it depended on who reached the end.
If more applicants survived here, the entire bracket might change.
Perhaps Illumi would never face Killua.
Perhaps Killua would not collapse under his brother’s pressure or kill Bodoro.
He might receive his Hunter License instead of returning home.
And if Killua did not return to his family’s estate, Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio would never go after him.
The entire Zoldyck Family Arc would disappear.
The problem was not merely losing events Tonpa already knew.
Every change would create more changes until the future preserved in his memory became worthless.
Then he would be nothing more than Tonpa, cursed with Rank E Talent, in a world where a child could tear out a man’s heart before the body even hit the ground.
‘Knowledge is the only weapon I have that doesn’t require Nen Points.’
Coldness crept into his stomach.
He would not alter another major event unless his life depended on it.
He could slip through the smaller details, deceive people, and raise their Trust Levels, but the main course of events had to remain intact whenever possible.
The problem was that everyone was still waiting for him to finish his sentence.
Tonpa pointed toward the threads stretching across the ravine.
“Menchi chose a thread away from the others.
Don’t all jump from the same place, or you’ll block one another’s way back.”
It was useful advice, but it revealed nothing about the timing of the updraft and would not save anyone who had failed to understand the demonstration.
Menchi appeared satisfied, while several applicants spread out along the edge.
‘An elegant retreat.
I didn’t save anyone, and I didn’t make a complete fool of myself.’
Three men did not wait long.
They jumped together, each catching a different thread.
Cheers rose behind them, but one released his grip too early while trying to reach the eggs.
There was no current to carry him.
He vanished into the darkness.
The second man panicked and let go after him, disappearing as well.
The third attempted to climb back up, but his grip slipped before he could reach the edge.
The voices surrounding the ravine faded.
Tonpa’s stomach tightened, yet a cold part of him felt relieved.
He was not proud of it, but their fall made him believe that the exam’s overall result was still close to the one he remembered.
The applicants retreated from the edge and began studying the wind instead of rushing forward.
Gon waited until the commotion subsided, then approached with Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio.
Leorio leaned toward the others and whispered in a voice that could probably have reached the opposite side of the mountain.
“Should we trust what Tonpa told us?
He knew about the eggs, but he also knew far more than he should.”
Kurapika replied, “What he told us about the nests and the currents was true.
That doesn’t prove his story, but it does prove that his information is useful.”
“Useful information can still be part of a trap,” Killua added.
Gon looked into the ravine.
He only warned us.”
Tonpa was standing only a few steps away.
He waited a moment before speaking.
“You can raise your voice a little more, Leorio.
I don’t think the bottom of the ravine heard you.”
Leorio straightened abruptly.
“We weren’t talking about you.”
“Of course.
You were discussing another Tonpa who happens to know the test’s secret.”
Kurapika sighed, while Killua smiled without attempting to hide his amusement.
Tonpa approached the edge and looked at the threads below.
“If you don’t trust what I told you, I’ll jump with you.
We won’t release the threads until Gon gives us the signal.”
Gon blinked.
“Me?”
“You’ve sensed things that no one else noticed since the exam began.
Trust your instincts.
When you feel the updraft coming, tell us.”
Killua studied him.
“You trust him that much?”
“I trust him more than I trust myself near a ravine.”
It was not a complete lie.
Tonpa trusted Gon to succeed because he had already done so in the original course of events.
The deep faith in Gon’s instincts—and Tonpa’s supposed willingness to risk his life because of it—was merely the wrapping he used to sell them the truth.
Gon jumped first, followed by Killua and Kurapika.
Leorio hesitated at the edge, released a curse, and then jumped after them.
Tonpa remained alone at the top.
He looked into the void and then at the faces turning toward him.
‘I could have stopped at the speech.’
Leorio raised his head from below and shouted, “Aren’t you coming?
You’re the one who said you would jump with us!”
“I was leaving some distance between us.
I don’t want to collide with one of you on the way down.”
Killua called back, “You were waiting to see whether the threads could hold us.”
Tonpa did not deny the accusation.
That was precisely what he had been doing.
Seeing four people hanging safely below made the ravine slightly less hostile to his plan.
“The result is the same.”
He took a breath and jumped.
Air surged around him, and his heart leaped into his throat before his fingers closed around one of the threads.
His body jerked violently, and the impact nearly tore his grip open, but his arms held his weight thanks to his Rank D Strength.
Before the upgrade, his fingers would have slipped before he had the chance to worry about whether the thread could support him.
They hung over the darkness as the eggs swayed beneath them in the wind.
Several long seconds passed without anything happening.
Leorio spoke through clenched teeth.
“Gon…
I hope your instincts are fast.”
Gon closed his eyes.
One heartbeat later, Tonpa felt a cold current rising from the depths of the ravine.
Gon opened his eyes.
“Now!”
They released the threads together.
Tonpa reached out and snatched an egg as he fell, and then the updraft struck them from below.
His body spun through the air as the current carried them upward, lifting them past the edge before they crashed onto the rocky ground.
Tonpa hugged the egg to his chest and drew a trembling breath.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to die.
My body could have shown that information a little respect.’
Gon laughed happily, and Leorio slapped him hard on the shoulder.
“Well done!
If you had been one second late, we’d be at the bottom by now.”
“Your timing was precise,” Kurapika said.
Killua merely gave Gon a small smile.
“Your instincts aren’t bad.”
Menchi approached while carrying her own egg and looked down at the group sprawled across the ground.
“Celebrate after you boil the eggs,” she said.
“If you break one now, you’ll have to jump again.”
Leorio immediately pulled his egg against his chest, making Gon laugh.
Tonpa tightened his grip around his own egg with considerably more care.
He had no desire to repeat a jump whose outcome he knew, much less attempt one that no longer existed anywhere in his memory.
Notifications appeared before him.
[Gon Freecss’s Trust Level: 6% → 10%]
[Leorio’s Trust Level: 3% → 6%]
[Kurapika’s Trust Level: 0.5% → 2%]
[Killua Zoldyck’s Trust Level: 0.5% → 2%]
Four similar notifications followed.
Each of them believed Tonpa had jumped because he trusted Gon and genuinely wanted to help them.
They did not know he had been relying on an outcome preserved in his memory, making the leap seem far less dangerous to him than he had allowed them to believe.
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Gon Freecss]
[Nen Points +30] [Experience Points +30]
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Leorio]
[Nen Points +30] [Experience Points +30]
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Kurapika]
[Nen Points +30] [Experience Points +30]
[Deception Registered.]
[Target: Killua Zoldyck]
[Nen Points +30] [Experience Points +30]
[Total Nen Points: 161]
[Experience Points: 501/600]
Tonpa lowered his head toward the egg to conceal his smile.
He had preserved the future, earned their trust, and received one hundred and twenty points in a single stroke.
Knowledge truly was a weapon.
Better yet, he could sell it to other people in the form of courage.
________________________________
Want to keep reading?