[Total Nen Points: 10]
[Condition for revealing the first feature has been met.]
[Revealing new feature…]
Tonpa watched the final line flicker before his eyes.
His irritation with the endless running quickly gave way to curiosity.
Ten points was hardly a fortune, but it was the first thing he had earned since arriving in this world—and the first proof that the system might offer him a genuine means of survival.
A new window appeared.
[New Feature Revealed: Hunter Lottery.]
[Feature Locked.]
[Unlock Cost: 10 Nen Points.]
[Would you like to unlock this feature?]
[Yes/No]
Tonpa nearly stopped running from sheer indignation.
‘You’re making me pay after announcing that I met the requirement?’
His objection received no response, naturally.
Satotz continued running at the front of the crowd without changing his steady pace.
The gaps between the applicants were gradually widening.
Some still spoke with confidence, but others had already begun panting heavily.
Tonpa did not have the luxury of standing around and arguing with a window no one else could see.
He looked at the two options again.
His ten points were enough to raise his Strength, Speed, or Flexibility from Rank F, but he had no idea how significant the improvement would be.
The new feature, on the other hand, might offer him something mere statistics could not.
It could also be a trap designed by a system bearing the name “Scammer.”
That particular detail made the offer feel strangely familiar.
‘The worst purchase is the one that leaves you wondering what you might have received if you had paid.’
He selected Yes.
[10 Nen Points deducted.]
[Current Balance: 0]
Seeing the zero caused him genuine pain, even though he had possessed those points for only a few minutes.
[Feature Unlocked: Hunter Lottery.]
A dark wheel appeared before him, surrounded by small silver symbols.
Blurred images were scattered across its surface: a sword, a book, a mask, a bottle, and several shapes he could not identify.
A golden pointer rested at the center, with a single button beneath it.
[Spin]
The corner of Tonpa’s mouth rose.
Skills, techniques, weapons, and strange items…
If he obtained something powerful from the beginning, his chances could change completely.
Perhaps he would not have to spend the next five years fleeing from monsters and Nen users.
One fortunate result might give him exactly what he needed to turn everything around.
Then he read the line beneath the button.
[Cost per Spin: 100 Nen Points.]
His smile disappeared.
‘One hundred?’
He had deceived seven people, pushed his lungs to the brink of collapse, and earned only ten points.
Now the system had calmly informed him that all of that was not enough to purchase even a single spin.
He opened the feature description, hoping the rewards would justify the cost.
[The Hunter Lottery grants the host a chance to obtain random rewards, including skills, techniques, weapons, tools, materials, and items of unknown origin.]
His hope began to return.
[Rewards vary in value and rarity.]
[Probability of receiving a high-value reward: Extremely low.]
[Results may include common items or items of limited utility.]
Tonpa stared at the final line.
‘So I pay one hundred points and might end up with a spoon.’
The system did not deny the possibility.
He closed the lottery interface in annoyance, causing the abbreviated feature panel to reappear.
[Nen Points: 0]
[Additional Features:]
[Hunter Lottery: Unlocked]
[???: Locked]
[???: Locked]
Tonpa dismissed the panel and focused on the tunnel.
The question was no longer whether he would try the lottery, but how he was supposed to collect one hundred points without dropping dead before the exam ended.
The method was obvious.
Deception and persuasion.
He scanned the applicants around him, searching for a suitable target.
Exhausted faces were not difficult to find, and fear had begun showing even among those attempting to conceal it.
This should have been easy.
All he needed was someone who did not recognize Tonpa and a lie they wanted to believe.
He approached a young man wearing a red headband and noticed that his breathing was becoming irregular.
“Don’t exhaust yourself this early,” Tonpa said in a friendly tone as he matched the young man’s pace.
“Satotz will give us a break at the first gate.”
The young man turned toward him, then looked at the orange bottles hanging from Tonpa’s bag.
“And will you be serving us juice during the break?”
A mocking smile appeared on his face before he accelerated and pulled away.
No notification appeared.
Tonpa watched him for a moment, then slowly exhaled.
‘All right…
perhaps he wasn’t as new as he looked.’
He did not give up.
He spotted two young applicants running beside each other and approached them.
“A word of advice from a veteran applicant: the running isn’t the real test.
There’s a side passage after several kilometers, and anyone who misses it—”
“Don’t listen to him.”
The voice came from behind them.
Its owner was a short-bearded man who ran alongside the pair before pointing at Tonpa with contempt.
“That’s Tonpa.
He comes here every year to ruin the rookies’ chances.
If he offers you food or a drink, throw it in his face.”
The two young men immediately moved away, whispering to each other as they glanced back at Tonpa suspiciously.
Tonpa pressed his lips together.
He was beginning to understand the real problem.
Asnos had not created this reputation, but he had inherited its full cost.
The original Tonpa had spent years deceiving applicants, poisoning them, and sabotaging their chances until his face became well known among the veterans.
Worse, they did not merely avoid him—they warned the newcomers as well.
In his previous life, Asnos had changed his name, picture, and accent whenever one of his identities became compromised.
Now he was trapped inside a face whose reputation had been ruined before he ever arrived.
‘I inherited a weak body, a heavy stomach, and the reputation of a low-rent criminal…
What a generous welcome package.’
He tried a third time.
He chose a large man who appeared preoccupied with watching Satotz and told him that the examiner was deliberately keeping the pace low to lure the applicants into relaxing.
The man gave him nothing more than a sideways glance.
“Get away from me.”
His tone was enough to convince Tonpa that insisting might cost him several teeth.
He immediately retreated.
Nearly ten minutes passed before he found another target.
It was a young applicant running on the far side of the crowd, away from most of the veterans.
Tonpa approached him carefully.
“Conserve your strength.
There’s a short rest stop after the next three turns.”
The young man looked at him doubtfully.
“Are you sure?”
“I reached it during a previous exam.”
The young man hesitated, then slowed slightly and began regulating his breathing.
A notification appeared.
[Deception Registered.]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
Tonpa felt a measure of relief.
‘One.’
Before he could move away, a voice called out from behind them.
“Don’t believe him!
That’s Tonpa!”
The young man turned sharply, but Tonpa had already slipped into the crowd.
Finding his second victim took more than ten minutes.
She was a woman who kept looking around anxiously while panting.
Tonpa approached and told her that several assistants to the examiner were running among the applicants in disguise, recording the names of anyone who complained or asked to stop.
She immediately closed her mouth and straightened her back despite her exhaustion.
[Deception Registered.]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
‘At this rate, I’ll afford a spin after the exam is over.’
After that, he could not approach anyone without attracting suspicious looks.
His movements had become obvious.
He would slow down beside an unfamiliar face, speak with them for a few minutes, and then move on to someone else.
It did not take the veterans long to understand what he was doing.
“Watch out for number sixteen!”
“Don’t take anything from him!”
“And don’t believe his advice!”
The warnings spread through the crowd faster than Tonpa could move through it.
He hid the juice bottles inside his bag and crossed to the other side of the tunnel.
Instead of approaching the first unfamiliar face he saw, he waited.
After roughly fifteen minutes, he found a short man who seemed more focused on his feet than on the people around him.
Tonpa told him that Satotz would change their route at the next gate and that remaining near the left side would grant him an advantage.
The man studied the other applicants, then gradually moved toward the left.
[Deception Registered.]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
Tonpa’s satisfaction did not last long.
A veteran applicant approached the man and whispered something to him.
Both of them turned toward Tonpa, so he moved away before their stares could develop into a direct confrontation.
His next four attempts failed.
The first person ignored him.
The second laughed in his face.
The third threatened to break his nose, while the fourth merely pointed at Tonpa’s stomach and asked whether he truly looked like someone qualified to offer advice about passing a physical examination.
Tonpa had no suitable response to the last one.
It took even longer to obtain his fourth point.
He selected an exhausted applicant who had fallen behind his group and told him that the numbers pinned to their chests recorded their running pace, and that changing speed too often could result in disqualification.
The man looked at his number nervously, then forced himself to maintain a steady pace.
[Deception Registered.]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
‘Four.’
The fifth was the most difficult.
By then, most of the rookies knew his face.
Some moved away before he could even open his mouth.
He had to keep running for nearly twenty more minutes before finding someone who had worked his way up from the rear of the crowd and had not heard the warnings.
Tonpa told him that the first one hundred applicants to reach the end of the tunnel would receive an advantage in the next phase.
The man’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
Tonpa nodded confidently.
“Satotz didn’t announce it because it’s part of the test.”
The man gritted his teeth and surged forward, spending what remained of his strength.
The notification rang for the fifth time.
[Deception Registered.]
[Nen Points +1]
[Experience Points +1]
Tonpa quickly opened his status.
[Nen Points: 5]
[Experience: 15/100]
Nearly an hour had passed since he unlocked the lottery.
An entire hour of searching, maneuvering, and enduring insults had earned him only five points.
Worse, the situation grew more difficult with every attempt.
Each person he deceived became another source of warning, while every veteran applicant spread his reputation among the rookies faster than he could reach them.
He dismissed the interface irritably.
‘This method isn’t practical.’
The situation was becoming clear, and he did not like it.
Weak targets were easy to deceive, but they offered very little.
Stronger and more intelligent targets could provide more points, yet deceiving them was far more difficult—and the consequences of failure could be painful.
If he relied on deceiving one person for every point, he would need one hundred victims for a single spin that might reward him with nothing more than an “item of limited utility.”
This was not a plan.
It was a full-time job where the employee paid the employer.
‘Collecting points this way will take forever.
With Tonpa’s reputation, the exam might end before I even reach twenty.’
He needed a better method—either a deception that did not target only one person at a time or a high-value target from whom he could extract a large number of points in one go.
However, executing a larger deception in the middle of the Hunter Exam would require preparation, information, and the right opportunity.
More importantly, it required him to stay alive.
Tonpa forced his body to keep running as some of the applicants at the rear began slowing down.
Ahead of him, Satotz continued moving as if the distance meant nothing, while Gon and Killua ran with an ease that was frankly irritating.
Tonpa was considering alternative targets when a sharp sound rang inside his head.
[Warning!]
His carefully maintained smile froze.
[Potential Hostile Interest Detected.]
[A high-threat individual is observing the host.]
Cold sweat gathered at the back of his neck.
He did not turn immediately.
He continued running, maintaining his pace and expression as best he could while his eyes slowly moved toward the edge of his vision.
Someone really was watching him.
And before Tonpa even knew who it was, he felt certain that the worst thing he could do now was let them notice his fear.
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