Chapter 23: Walking Someone Else's Path
"Look, it's the exit!"
"Finally, we can escape this dark underground!"
...
After nearly ten hours of running, the group finally emerged from that damned underground tunnel.
Before them stretched an endless swampy jungle, now shrouded in thick fog.
Examiner Satotz didn't proceed further but stopped in place, glancing down at the watch in his hand.
One by one, examinees rushed out of the exit.
Some, upon seeing the finish line, couldn't hold back any longer and collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
"Is this the end of the first phase of the exam?" Kurapika asked as he reached the surface.
"No, it's still ahead."
Satotz tucked the watch back into his pocket and raised his head.
At the same time, the massive stone gate connecting the underground tunnel to the surface began to slowly descend.
"Wait! Wait for me!"
A single step too late, one examinee was blocked on the other side by the gate, leaving only his desperate cries echoing from the cracks below.
Such was the cruelty of the Hunter Exam.
Mord quickly scanned the scene—the underground tunnel had eliminated about forty people.
Just then, the thick fog before them began to disperse.
The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
Satotz addressed the examinees: "The place before you is called the Zevil Forest, also known as the Swindler's Swamp. It's the only path to the second phase's venue."
"Most of the peculiar creatures native to this swamp are cunning and greedy beings that rely on deceiving humans to obtain food."
"And their food… is humans."
"From here on, please be very careful and stay close to me."
"If you're deceived… you'll lose your life."
Seeing how serious Satotz was, some examinees wore solemn expressions.
"What nonsense. If you know you're going to be tricked, how could you possibly fall for it?" Leorio, ever the genius, looked completely unconvinced.
What he didn't know was that the most masterful deception was one that openly told you it was a trick—yet you still couldn't avoid it.
Like the Sharingan from the neighboring village, or that sword of Aizen's.
"D-don't… don't be fooled by him!"
Just then, a battered man suddenly stumbled out from a corner. Pointing at Satotz in the distance, he shouted—
"That guy is lying!"
"That guy is a fake, not the examiner. I am the real examiner."
As soon as the words were spoken, an uproar erupted.
"A fake?"
"What's really going on?"
"If this person is the examiner, then who the hell is the guy who's been leading us in the run all this time..."
The candidates immediately broke into heated discussions, seeds of doubt quietly planted in their minds.
Yet, at this moment, the majority still maintained a wait-and-see attitude.
"Look at this." As he spoke, the man presented his evidence—dragging out from the corner a creature with a face identical to Satotz's, but with the body of a monkey from the neck down. "This is a Man-Faced Ape, native to the Trick Tower Wetlands."
"Man-faced Ape?"
"Man-faced Apes love fresh human flesh, but their limbs are thin and weak, with almost no strength. So they disguise themselves as humans, using sweet talk to lure people into the wetlands, then team up with other creatures to hunt them."
"He planned to trap all the Hunter Exam candidates in one fell swoop!"
The evidence was right before their eyes, and most striking of all was that face—identical to Satotz's. It was simply too shocking.
Some candidates had already fully believed this man's words, and a few, recalling earlier incidents, grew even more convinced.
"Now that you mention it, the way he was running earlier didn't seem human at all."
As doubt threatened to spread unchecked—
At that moment, a figure in the crowd shot toward the self-proclaimed examiner like lightning, so fast that most present didn't even react.
The man was no exception.
All he saw was a flash of light before his eyes, and then he froze in place.
He tried to turn his head, to see the true form of that lightning behind him.
His head simply fell off.
Hit the ground.
Rolled forward into the crowd.
Silence.
Everyone looked up at Mord. The scene was deathly still.
Mord pulled out a few throwing knives he'd scavenged earlier and casually flicked them forward. Four blades streaked like meteors toward the "corpse" of the Man-faced Ape on the ground.
"Screeeech!"
Sensing danger, the "corpse" of the Man-faced Ape immediately sprang to life, scrambling to escape—but the four knives struck true, piercing its limbs and pinning it firmly to the ground.
A wretched howl tore through the air.
Mord acted as if he hadn't heard, turning instead to face Satotz.
"Now it's clear who the real examiner is."
"The examiners for the Hunter Exam are current Hunters commissioned by the Hunter Examination Committee, undertaking the task without pay. A Hunter worthy of being our goal would never fail to defend against an attack of this level."
Such a simple truth, yet it had to be proven with strength.
After Mord's display, the candidates finally cast aside their doubts.
Satotz gave Mord a deep look. The speed and decisiveness of Mord's earlier actions had forced him to reassess the young man.
As a Hunter renowned for his own speed, he could instantly grasp just how extraordinary Mord's explosive burst of movement had been.
"Just as examinee number 321 said, the purpose of the human-faced apes was to create chaos and then take a few people as prey amidst the confusion. Life-or-death deceptions like this happen here every moment."
Satotz turned to look at the examinees and said, "Earlier, many of you must have been deceived by the human-faced apes into thinking I was an imposter."
Upon hearing Satotz's words, people like Leorio could only let out awkward chuckles to hide their embarrassment.
If Mord hadn't intervened in time, Leorio would have truly joined the human-faced apes' side.
"If there are no other questions, let's proceed to the venue for the second phase of the exam."
"Make sure to stay close to me."
After this incident, no one dared to doubt Satotz's words anymore. They hurried to follow, afraid of falling behind and encountering unexpected dangers.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
At that moment, a group of vultures suddenly descended from the sky and began pecking at the corpses of the two human-faced apes on the ground.
At the very back of the group.
The magician Hisoka stood still, watching a certain figure gradually moving away in the crowd.
His eyes slowly narrowed into thin slits, his entire face filled with an intoxicated expression as his body trembled slightly.
An extremely terrifying aura emanated from his entire being.
"So delicious!"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to hold back and might just devour him right now!"
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