"He's emitting such an alluring scent before he's even fully grown. If he matures..."
"Oh!!!"
At that thought, Hisoka couldn't help but stand on his tiptoes. An unnatural flush crept across his face, and a sinister moan escaped his lips.
*Hiss...*
The sound of collective gasps echoed from the surroundings.
The other examinees near Hisoka were already on high alert, so they naturally heard his sound imdiately.
Upon noticing Hisoka's bizarre and sinister state, the surrounding examinees didn't hesitate. They scrambled back, as if afraid of being contaminated by sothing filthy.
'I can't see it, but I can vaguely sense so kind of aura surrounding these two.'
Hisoka's gaze was intense. Not only was he making no effort to hide it, but the intensity was steadily increasing.
An average person would have surely kept their distance when faced with such a perverted stare.
But for Zane?
What a joke. As a man who had cut down thousands, what kind of freak hadn't he encountered on the lawless seas?
Strength aside, Hisoka was just another eccentric in his eyes.
Filtering out Hisoka's gaze, Zane carefully observed the hazy aura around him and Illumi.
Since he knew about Nen, he understood that this blurry aura was likely the life energy they were binding to their bodies using Ten.
He couldn't truly see it, but he could vaguely sense it.
This left Zane deep in thought.
To truly see Nen, one needed to open the nodes in their eyes, perhaps even using the Gyo technique.
It was perfectly normal that he couldn't see it right now.
Being able to feel it was already a promising start.
At least Nen wasn't completely out of his reach, which gave him hope that he could learn it.
After observing for a while, Zane called out to Leorio and the others before walking over to sit on a pipe along the tunnel wall, pondering ways to open his nodes.
Aside from the rare natural-born Nen users, there were two ways to awaken Nen.
The first was through constant, hard training, using thods like ditation and Zen to sense the existence of life energy, gradually learning it step-by-step.
The second was forced awakening—having another Nen user strike you with an attack imbued with Nen to forcefully open your nodes.
Both thods had their pros and cons.
The forr was slow but safe.
However, if soone lacked talent, they might never open their nodes in their entire life.
The latter was fast but extrely dangerous.
Setting aside whether the attacker included malice in their Nen, even without it, opening the nodes was only the first step.
If the leaking Nen couldn't be controlled, the person would at best be exhausted, and at worst, their very life force would drain away until they died.
'My main priority right now is confirming whether I have nodes, so the second thod is the fastest way to verify it,' Zane mused.
In this Hunter Exam, the suitable candidates—besides Illumi and Hisoka—were the examiners.
Based on his knowledge of the story, if he had a choice, Zane would definitely choose an examiner.
After all, neither Illumi nor Hisoka was sane.
"Here, these are your number tags!"
Zane's musings lasted only a mont. Just as he sat against the pipe, Beans, Netero's assistant, approached the four of them and handed out several number tags.
Leorio and the other two curiously took theirs.
Zane also looked at the tag he had received.
Because of his inclusion, they had arrived at the exam site a day earlier than in the original tiline, so the numbers had changed.
Zane was 375, Leorio was 376, Kurapika was 377, and Gon was 378.
"To avoid losing them, please be sure to pin your number tags to your chests."
"Oh, okay..."
Hearing Beans' instructions, Leorio and the others responded instinctively and pinned the tags to their chests without a second thought.
Zane watched Beans turn to leave, then glanced down at the tag in his hand.
'So they've set the trap right from the start.'
Zane knew that a later phase of the exam would involve a struggle for these tags.
In other words, Beans telling the examinees to pin the tags to their chests was actually a setup and information deploynt for the upcoming test.
Zane weighed the tag in his hand, gave a light chuckle, and pinned it to his chest as well.
Even though he knew what was coming, playing it safe wasn't his style.
"Hey, you guys are new, aren't you?" Suddenly, a friendly voice called out from nearby.
The voice ca from a higher pipe, where a short, stout man with a sowhat sleazy look sat. He appeared to be a middle-aged man.
Zane glanced over and imdiately looked away.
It was just Tonpa, the Rookie Crusher. No need to pay him much attention.
"Huh? Can you really tell?"
Nearby, the sociable Gon naturally struck up a conversation with Tonpa upon being greeted.
Although Leorio and Kurapika were much more alert than Gon, they didn't flat-out reject him. They even thought about prying so information about the place out of Tonpa.
Seeing Gon take the bait, Tonpa was quite satisfied.
Sure enough, this was what a good rookie looked like—unlike that difficult number 187, Nick, or number 294, Hanzo.
Wait, he still had to be careful. This kid might be like that number 99 brat, Killua—looking easy to talk to, but actually a little monster.
Maintaining a hint of caution in his heart, Tonpa kept a friendly smile on his face.
Tonpa hopped down from the pipe and landed in front of Gon.
Things proceeded just like the original story. As a Rookie Crusher, Tonpa's only reason for striking up a conversation was to toy with the newcors.
By proactively sharing information on several examinees, Tonpa gradually earned the trust of Gon, Leorio, and even Kurapika.
"Argh!!!"
Suddenly, just as the three were listening intently, a scream rang out through the tunnel.
Looking toward the sound, they saw an examinee kneeling on the ground in terror amongst the crowd.
Most bizarre of all, the man's arms were disintegrating into red flower petals and vanishing.
"Oh my, how marvelous. His hands turned into petals and vanished. I didn't pull any tricks, though."
"Be careful. If you bump into soone, you should know how to apologize!"
Standing next to the wailing examinee was none other than Hisoka.
He spread his hands innocently, looking around at the other examinees before gazing down at the kneeling man with a sinister smile.
*Hiss...*
There was another chorus of gasps.
Seeing such a macabre scene, the surrounding examinees once again backed away in terror.
As Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Tonpa looked at Hisoka, they all instinctively felt a sense of danger, cold sweat breaking out on their skin.
Zane stared, but his eyes weren't on Hisoka. Instead, he looked upward, staring at the ceiling of the tunnel above the man.
There, a pair of severed arms had appeared at so point.
They were stuck to the ceiling as if held by glue.
[BUNGEE GUM]
[TEXTURE SURPRISE]
These were the two Nen abilities that, while seemingly simple, were used to perfection by Hisoka.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comnts are highly appreciated to keep going.....( 40 chapters) patre0n.c0m/Royal_ink]
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