Dark.
Damp.
The spacious tunnel was lined with pipes of varying sizes and unknown purposes. This was the hundredth subterranean floor of Zaban City and the testing site for the 287th Hunter Exam.
However, since there was still a long time before the official start, only a little over a hundred veterans who had previously attempted the exam or exceptionally strong rookies had arrived early. They were each occupied with their own affairs, with little to no interaction between them.
Among these people, one figure was the most peculiar: Hisoka, dressed in a clown costume. He sat on the floor, listlessly shuffling a deck of playing cards, his eyes fixed on the elevator leading to the upper levels. He constantly licked his lips with his tongue, occasionally letting out a chilling, abnormal cackle, as if anticipating something.
The candidates who had participated in last year's exam instinctively kept their distance from this madman who was crazy enough to kill even an Examiner when provoked.
Suddenly, a powerful Aura descended without warning, slamming into every person's chest like a heavy hammer.
Heavy.
Oppressive.
Sweat slid down foreheads and cheeks with audible pat-pat sounds. Even breathing seemed difficult.
Only two people remained unaffected: Illumi, the eldest son of the Zoldyck Family, disguised as Gittarackur, and the other was, naturally, Hisoka. The latter's eyes instantly shot out an intense killing intent, and his entire body trembled slightly in excitement.
Ding-dong!
Accompanied by the elevator's chime, the master of this powerful Nen finally appeared: Allen and his pet, Lupos.
Undoubtedly, he did this on purpose, to deliver his declaration of war to his opponent.
"Hehehehehe…"
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Wonderful! This is truly wonderful! You have not disappointed my expectations! My beautiful little apple has finally ripened! Ready to be picked!"
Hisoka laughed incoherently like a lunatic, his eyes those of a hunter who had finally found his long-sought prey. His spirit instantly became extremely high.
"Should we start here?" Allen asked straightforwardly.
"Of course! I don't want to wait a single second! Come! Let's have a fight! Betting our lives on the outcome!" Hisoka responded, spreading his arms wide.
Just from the meticulously trained Ten surrounding Allen's body, he could sense the opponent's power. Normally, no one could train their Nen to this extent in just one year. But the volume of Aura would not lie! And in the world of Nen, nothing was impossible, because Nen itself contained infinite possibilities.
[Summon Nen Beast — Red Dragon]
When Allen fully adopted his Hunter persona, the permanently cloaked Red Whelp immediately surfaced near his left shoulder. However, compared to when it was first born, it was noticeably larger; both its size and the scale thickness had increased.
Allen lightly bit his finger, then inserted it into the Whelp's mouth. He said to Hisoka with an expressionless face, "No. I won't kill you. I will only return the violence you inflicted upon me last time in full. As the stakes: if I lose, I die without regret. But if you lose, then all of your Aura for the next three months will become nourishment for the Red Dragon's growth, and you will be unable to use any Nen during that period."
"Oh? Is that your ability? Taking someone else's Aura to strengthen your Nen Beast? No problem! I accept!" Hisoka agreed immediately without a moment's hesitation.
"Then the contract is established! Battle… commence!"
As the last word left his mouth, Allen immediately activated his Transmutation Nen ability, beginning to liquefy the air around his opponent's body, intending to first freeze or slow down Hisoka's overly agile movements.
But before the bone-chillingly cold droplets could fall, a voice suddenly rang out in their ears. "Stop! There are other candidates here. This is not the place for you two to settle private grievances."
The moment the words were spoken!
The iron gate that had been sealing the passage slowly rose, and a man in a suit with a handlebar mustache walked out. He had clearly sensed the absurdly powerful Aura radiating from both Hisoka and Allen and threatened them directly, "I am Satotz, the Examiner for the First Phase. If you continue fighting, I will immediately disqualify both of you from this Hunter Exam."
"Disqualify from the exam? It doesn't matter! I've already found something more interesting than the Hunter Exam!" Hisoka licked his lips and chose to completely ignore the Examiner.
Allen's reaction, however, was the exact opposite. He immediately restored all the liquid air droplets back to normal air, simultaneously exiting combat mode.
"Understood. I will choose another location to continue this unfinished battle. My apologies, Hisoka. It seems you need to be patient for a while longer. I believe a suitable stage for us will surely present itself during the coming phases of the exam."
"…It's fine. I can wait. Because you are worth the wait!"
Although Hisoka desperately wanted to launch into a fight to the death immediately, he ultimately chose to temporarily restrain himself. However, his already excited cells and emotions were not so easily quelled. He immediately used his Nen-infused playing card to slice the neck of the nearest unfortunate candidate, putting the splattered blood into his mouth to savor.
Seeing that the crisis caused by the two powerful Nen-using candidates was temporarily averted, Satotz visibly relaxed. He retreated back to the other side and closed the iron gate, leaving only the ordinary candidates hiding in the corners, trembling. A few of them had even been so mentally and emotionally crushed by the terrifying killing intent and malice that they immediately gave up on this year's Hunter Exam, taking the elevator back to the surface. They would rather wait another year than share a confined space with two monsters, let alone engage in a cruel, bloody competition with them.
That was no different from suicide.
It seems the number of candidates participating this year will be fewer than the 404 in the storyline…
Allen toyed with the badge bearing the number 105 in his hand. After quickly estimating the number of people who had just taken the elevator, he reached a conclusion in his mind. However, these people would probably never know that this act of fleeing meant they would completely lose their qualification to ever become a Hunter. After all, a Hunter could be greedy, bloodthirsty, insane, and stop at nothing to pursue what they desired, but one quality was absolutely essential: the courage to face danger and curiosity towards the unknown.
Thinking this, he instinctively glanced towards Killua, who was secretly observing him from not too far away. Although the young boy also displayed fear of Nen, he hadn't chosen to run. Instead, he stayed to fight, desperately trying to break free from the Nen implanted in his mind by his older brother, Illumi.
"It looks like this Hunter Exam won't be too lonely…"
Allen flashed Killua a friendly smile, then muttered in a voice only he could hear, "After a full year of isolated training, I need to figure out the level of my power through this exam before I can decide what to do next."