"That should do it."
After finishing his work, Luke clapped his hands together while nodding with satisfaction.
But when he turned his head and saw Tonpa still standing there, frozen in shock, he frowned.
"What are you still doing here?"
Luke's tone sharpened. "What should you be doing right now?!"
"Ah, y-yes, sir!"
Tonpa snapped out of it immediately.
Only then did he realize that the metal wire coil in his hands had been pointing in one direction for a while, while he himself had been completely entranced, staring blankly at Luke's fight.
His feet hadn't moved an inch.
"I'll get to it right away!"
After personally witnessing Luke take down over a hundred applicants, Tonpa didn't dare say a word more.
He hunched over, bowing repeatedly, and jogged off to start digging.
"If you ever slack off like that again…"
Luke's lazy yet chilling voice drifted over: "Or treat my words like they mean nothing..."
"Then I'll just have to let you experience the same fate as those people."
"After all, I don't keep useless people under me."
Hearing that, Tonpa's body trembled slightly.
He lowered his head further and worked even harder.
He knew exactly who Luke meant by those people, the fallen applicants.
Even if Luke said he didn't keep useless people under him, Tonpa still had no intention of ending up like them.
"When those guys wake up, they'll be crushed emotionally..."
Tonpa thought with a complicated expression while working.
"The gap in strength is just too despairing."
"And that helpless feeling of knowing you're in danger, but being completely powerless to resist or change anything..."
"That kind of feeling can destroy a person from the inside out."
Yes, Tonpa knew all about that.
Over the years, many applicants who took the hunter exam had been utterly broken by this kind of defeat, not only giving up on ever trying again, but even having their entire lives frozen at that moment of failure.
If you were to ask why Tonpa knew this so well… naturally, it's because that's exactly what he used to do to the rookie applicants.
In previous years, he had done plenty of things like this, so he knew better than anyone what kind of blow these people were about to suffer.
"The hunter exam next year might have fewer familiar faces..."
Tonpa muttered to himself, but outwardly, he just shook his head.
Right now, the most important thing was to finish the task Luke had assigned him.
Otherwise, he might end up just like those other guys.
Tonpa kept his head down and worked in silence.
But aside from him and Luke, there were still a few others standing steadily, retaining their consciousness.
"Y–you… Why are you doing this?!"
Bushidora Ambitious looked at Luke, who stood there calmly with his arms crossed while watching Tonpa work.
He couldn't hold it in any longer and finally blurted out the question.
"Why?"
Hearing that, Luke finally turned his head and said, "No real reason… Mainly just to speed up the progress of this hunter exam and get it over with."
Bushidora Ambitious: "Speed up the progress? Get it over with?"
"That's right."
Luke nodded. "Didn't you set sixty questions for this second phase of the test?"
Bushidora Ambitious: "..."
Luke turned to look at Tonpa, who had just followed the Digging Wire's indication to dig up one of the sheets of question paper.
He walked over and directly snatched the paper from Tonpa's hands.
Then…
Rip!
Luke tore the question sheet into pieces with a pull of his hands!
"I'll let him dig up all sixty of those questions, and then destroy them, leaving only one that lets me pass."
Luke smiled at Bushidora Ambitious.
"That way, I'll be the only one who passes this round."
"Then, for the rest of the hunter exam, the progress will depend solely on me."
"That'll make things much simpler and move along much faster."
Luke's words sounded light and casual, but to Bushidora Ambitious, they carried a heavy silence.
"Can… Can you even do that?!"
He looked at Luke, who spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Then at Tonpa, whose question sheet had just been taken, and who now wore a bitter expression.
Finally, his gaze drifted to the hundred-plus applicants lying unconscious across the desert.
Those figures lying sprawled out in the sand were clear proof that Luke was not joking.
But this kind of situation… This was the first time Bushidora Ambitious had ever encountered anything like it.
And…
It was also the first time something like this had ever happened in the history of the hunter exam!
Seeing Bushidora Ambitious fall silent didn't surprise Luke at all.
When he decided to take this course of action, he already knew this would be the outcome.
Just like in the original storyline, when Killua, during the second Hunter Exam, took down over a thousand other applicants in the first round.
And even though the examiner had only required each applicant to defeat five opponents and take their number badges to pass, Killua still collected all of their number badges.
Right now, Luke was imitating exactly what Killua had done back then.
If he had told Bushidora Ambitious from the start that he planned to destroy all the other question sheets, the other party would never have believed him.
Even if he did believe, he would think that with so many applicants around, Luke could never actually pull it off.
That's why Luke used direct action, knocking out all the other applicants, to prove he wasn't joking.
His intentions and determination were both absolutely real.
Afterward, Luke had Tonpa use the Digging Wire to dig up every one of the question sheets, one by one.
This also indirectly answered the question that Bushidora Ambitious had at the very beginning: Why had Luke brought out such an invention?
Of course, it was for the purpose of finding all the question sheets and tearing them up, ensuring that only he, himself, could clear the round.
Bushidora Ambitious quickly realized this and froze.
This applicant, No. 404, had just proven through his actions that he wasn't joking; he was truly doing exactly what he said.
The hundred-plus applicants lying all over the ground were proof enough.
And that short, block-nosed, pudgy applicant No. 101, he was still miserably following orders, using this strange wire contraption to dig up more question sheets for applicant No. 404.
Perhaps most pitiably, even without being told, he now automatically tore up each question sheet as soon as he unearthed it.
He didn't dare hide even one, terrified of ending up like the others lying unconscious on the ground.
Even though doing this meant he himself couldn't pass, well, that was inevitable.
Because applicant No. 404 had clearly said: Only he himself would pass this round.
That meant he had never intended to let the hardworking applicant No. 101 pass along with him.
It was pure, cold exploitation.
But what could he do?
Applicant No. 101 could only grit his teeth and keep working bitterly for him, with no power to resist.
This was the kind of overwhelming difference in strength that created an insurmountable gap.
And this, Bushidora Ambitious, understood very well.
After all, when applicant No. 404 had attacked earlier, even he hadn't been able to clearly see his movements… This applicant's power was definitely above his own.
Thinking of this made Bushidora Ambitious feel all the more troubled.
The current situation had already gone far beyond what he could handle.
This was no longer something he could resolve on his own.
And so, the ever-rule-abiding Bushidora Ambitious, faced with a situation that had clearly gone far beyond the normal range of rules… he could only pull out his brick phone and report the matter to a higher level.
To ensure the smooth progress of the hunter exam, there was a special committee dedicated to handling unusual incidents.
And the highest person in charge of that committee was naturally…
"Chairman, it seems something unusual has happened in this year's hunter exam."
At the Hunter Association headquarters, a short, round-faced man with greenish skin, known as Mr. Beans, spoke while holding a landline phone.
He was reporting the issue he had received to the elderly man sitting at a tea table inside the room.
A ponytail, a thick beard, and long earlobes.
Dressed in a flowing white robe, he exuded an air of elegance and transcendence, like an immortal sage.
However, his current actions ruined that serene image completely.
"Another special situation?"
The chairman of the Hunter Association, the founder of the Shingen-ryu martial arts, and the strongest Nen user in the world, Isaac Netero.
He didn't seem surprised at all.
After all, in past years, it would have been rarer for the hunter exam not to have any unusual incidents.
The applicants who came to take the exam were anything but ordinary.
All kinds of chaos could happen, and often did.
Every year, the Hunter Association had to step in to handle numerous problems during the exams.
Chairman Netero was long accustomed to it.
Balancing the teacup on his foot that was stretched up to his head, he gently brought it down and took a sip.
"This time, which round of the hunter exam did the incident occur in?"
Chairman Netero stood up on one leg, shaking his sleeve lightly.
"It must be during the third round, right?"
"I remember the examiner for the third round this year was Biscuit, wasn't it?"
"If it's her, then an accident happening is nothing unusual."
Well, Chairman Netero clearly knew this Stone Hunter within the Hunter Association well.
Common sense would dictate that the likelihood of something going wrong was highest during her round.
But this time…
"Actually, no, chairman."
Mr. Beans said quickly. "It happened in the second round!"
"The second round...?"
Netero pondered for a moment. "Who was the examiner for the second round again?"
Mr. Beans: "...?"
"It was Bushidora Ambitious."
Mr. Beans broke into a sweat. "When the examiners were being assigned, you personally reviewed and signed off on them yourself!"
"Did I? Is that so?"
"Of course!"
"Oh..."
Netero replied vaguely, pretending not to remember.
Then he thought for a moment.
"If it's Bushidora Ambitious… Well, his actions and ideas can be a little extreme and naive at times."
"But overall, he's someone who understands the bigger picture."
"Though he tends to jump to conclusions, he's always serious about his assignments and usually does a good job."
"Logically speaking, this shouldn't be his problem..."
"It's not the examiner!"
Mr. Beans interrupted hurriedly. "It's the applicant."
"Over a hundred applicants were participating in the second round."
"And among them, one applicant had taken first place in the first round, giving him a huge advantage."
"But instead of using that advantage..."
"Uh…"
At this point, Mr. Beans couldn't help but stammer a little.
"Instead, he directly attacked and defeated all the other applicants."
Even as he said it, disbelief lingered on his face.
In previous years, fights between applicants weren't unheard of.
But those conflicts were usually small-scale and contained, rarely affecting others.
And if things got too serious, the examiner would always intervene.
Problems almost never spiraled out of control; they stayed manageable.
But this time…
Mr. Beans truly hadn't expected it.
Among the applicants, there was actually someone who was that powerful.
Like a tiger among sheep, he had flattened them all.
"All of them?"
Chairman Netero stroked his beard. "Did that applicant… Kill the other applicants?"
"No, he just knocks them down unconscious."
Mr. Beans said. "And apparently, he did it all in a single move, and not one of them was seriously injured."
"I see..."
Hearing that, Chairman Netero began to understand.
"Since he didn't go after them to kill, and didn't inflict real harm, then he must have had his own reasons."
Netero hit the mark immediately. "What was his motive?"
"Uh, according to Bushidora Ambitious's report..."
Mr. Beans answered truthfully: "That applicant wanted to finish the hunter exam as quickly as possible."
"He did it so that he'd be the only one to pass the second round."
"That way, he could speed up the overall progress and get his hunter license faster."
"Hohoho, so he's the impatient type."
Chairman Netero chuckled. "What's his number? What's his name?"
"Number 404..."
Mr. Beans checked his documents. "His name is Luke."
"Luke, huh..."
Netero's hand suddenly paused.
"Luke..."
He murmured the name softly. "That's quite a familiar name."
"Feels like I've heard it somewhere before."
"Previously, the Hunter Chat Site was created by Ickshonpe and this applicant, named Luke, together."
Mr. Beans flipped rapidly through his documents.
"And earlier, when Ginta returned to report his mission, he also mentioned the name Luke."
"The case about the breeding methods of the Two-headed Wolf, and the capture of the two members of the Kute Gang of Thieves, all had his involvement."
"Judging from his actions so far..."