[Hunter x Hunter] Scamming My Way to the Top

[Deidalous]

The MC is a conman, swindler and serial liar and the kind of guy that has stole the lifetime savings of grannies. He totally deserves getting fucked over by his own system.

Also it wouldn't be as fun if his system was the kind that gave ultimate power easily. This guy should struggle at every step of the way.

Click to shrink...

I'm not implying that he should not struggle, I'm criticizing the way the Gacha was handled.

Rather than giving him nothing, it should just give straight up worthless items like a half-eaten apple or an torn plastic bag.

-It'd be ten time funnier that way.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 29: A Belated Reward

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •


​

[The Host has obtained a Skill.]

Most of Tonpa's anger vanished immediately.

He straightened on the bed and fixed his eyes on the new window. After seven unwanted messages thanking him, he was prepared to accept almost anything—a weapon, a technique, an artifact, or even a mysterious pill, as long as it did not come with the words "Thank You for Trying."

A silver card slowly formed before him, and the name of his reward appeared upon it.

[Oh, Is That You?]

Tonpa's eyes widened.

'...What?'

He read the name once.

Then he read it again, hoping exhaustion had somehow distorted his vision.

Nothing changed.

"Of course."

His first Skill was called [Is That Your Mother?], and now he had received [Oh, Is That You?]. Apparently, the System did not collect its abilities from the treasures of countless worlds. It gathered them from conversations between strangers who happened to meet in crowded markets.

'My next Skill will be: Where have you been all this time?'

The remaining details appeared beneath the name.

[Type: Consumable Skill.]

[Remaining Uses: 3.]

Tonpa's small smile froze.

"Consumable?"

He leaned closer to the window, as though reducing the distance between them might force the words to improve.

[Description: Allows the user to make anything appear to be something else for one minute.]

He waited for another line to appear.

None did.

Tonpa reread the description slowly.

Anything.

The word was broad enough to sound powerful and vague enough to get him killed if he relied upon it incorrectly. Could he make a stone look like a piece of gold? Could he disguise one card as another? Did the Skill work on people? And did it alter only the target's appearance, or its apparent size and texture as well?

He directed each question toward the System.

It gave him no answer.

'Naturally. Why would the System answer a question that might save my life?'

Tonpa looked toward the cup on the table. He could use the Skill now and make it resemble a knife, a Hunter License, or anything else, but he pulled his hand back before touching it.

Only three uses.

After spending eight hundred points to obtain the Skill, he was not prepared to waste a third of his reward merely to confirm that it worked. It was enough that he had tested his previous Skill on a weak applicant, only to later use it against Netero without understanding its actual limits.

'Learning from your mistakes is a virtue. Especially when every mistake costs at least a hundred points.'

He read the description again.

The Skill was not entirely useless. A professional con artist could accomplish a great deal with one minute of false appearances. He could make a worthless object look valuable, conceal a dangerous tool beneath an innocent appearance, or create a temporary visual copy of something whose appearance he needed to imitate.

In the right situation, one minute might be enough to deceive someone and open a path of escape.

In the wrong situation, that minute would expire while he was still explaining the lie.

As for the three available uses, they turned the ability from a reliable tool into three emergency cards he would be afraid to expend.

Tonpa sighed and dismissed the Skill's description.

"I spent eight hundred points on a trial version."

The System showed no concern for his objection.

He summoned his balance despite already knowing the number.

[Nen Points: 96]

Tonpa stared at it until the number began to resemble a personal insult.

If he had spent one thousand points from the beginning, he could have upgraded Strength, Speed, or Flexibility from Rank D to Rank C and would have been left with exactly the same balance. Instead, he had upgraded Endurance and Intelligence to Rank D, then burned the rest of his points inside a wheel that had thanked him seven times and awarded him a Skill that could not last longer than a minute.

He had not lost everything. His body was now more balanced, and the new Skill might prove invaluable at a decisive moment.

Seeing the number did not help him appreciate the positive side.

'My Speed could have been Rank C.'

He imagined himself moving faster, perhaps drawing slightly closer to Gon and Killua's level instead of always arriving after the important part of an attack had already ended.

Then he imagined the wheel stopping on an empty segment seven times.

His fingers tightened around the edge of the bed.

"I'm never using the Lottery again."

He knew he was lying before the sentence had even ended, but at least the System did not reward him for it.

Tonpa dismissed his Nen Points, and the main status panel returned. His eyes moved across his newly balanced Stats—Strength, Speed, Flexibility, Endurance, and Intelligence. All five were now at Rank D.

Above them, one option had continued blinking since the end of the ball game.

[Level Advancement Available.]

Tonpa paused.

He had nearly forgotten about it while discovering just how many ways he could ruin a simple decision. He had deliberately saved it for last, but he had not expected the end to find him a full one thousand points poorer.

Still, advancing his Level did not require Nen Points. He had already surpassed the necessary amount of Experience Points. All he needed to do was confirm it.

His previous Level Advancement had not directly made him stronger, but it had made his body capable of learning Nen and unlocked a new part of the System.

Perhaps the next advancement would provide something similar.

Or perhaps it would change the number from two to three and then thank him for trying.

He focused on the option.

[Level Advancement Requirements Met.]

[Would the Host like to advance to Level 3?]

"Yes."

The window disappeared for a moment.

Tonpa waited for the warmth he had experienced while upgrading his Stats, or the strange sensation that had accompanied his advancement to Level 2.

Nothing happened.

He remained seated on the bed with both hands resting on his knees while the airship's engines vibrated steadily behind the walls.

Several seconds passed.

He moved his fingers.

Then he rolled his shoulders, took a deep breath, and carefully tested his legs.

He did not feel stronger or faster. His awareness had not become sharper, and no Nen aura had appeared around his body. Even the faint pain in his back remained exactly where it had been.

A single message appeared before him.

[The Host has advanced to Level 3.]

Tonpa waited for whatever came next.

Nothing did.

"That's it?"

The status panel appeared again. The number beside his Level had changed from two to three, and the Experience Points required for the next advancement had increased.

[Level: 3]

[Experience Points: 1,536/1,800]

His Experience Points had not been consumed. They were now being measured toward the new requirement. His body, however, showed no difference whatsoever.

Tonpa stared at the new number.

"I spent more than a thousand points today, risked attracting Netero's attention, and now own a Skill that will function for three minutes over its entire lifespan... and my Level reward is a larger number?"

The System remained silent.

Tonpa slowly rose from the bed.

"I should have known. Anything you give away for free has to be useless."

He clenched his teeth and pointed at the window as though addressing someone standing behind it.

"You damned System, if you consider changing a number a reward, I'll show you exactly where you can put—"

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull before he could finish the insult. His shoulders stiffened, and his finger remained pointed toward empty air.

Golden light gathered before him, forming a window unlike the System's ordinary messages.

[Reward for reaching Level 3 has been calculated.]

Tonpa's eyes widened slightly.

'Wait... it's going to give me something?'

The rest of the message appeared.

[The Host has received one free Stat Upgrade.]

[One Stat may be upgraded to the next Rank without consuming Nen Points.]

Tonpa froze.

His eyes moved across his five Stats, all of which were at Rank D. Upgrading any one of them to Rank C would cost one thousand Nen Points.

A full thousand points.

The same amount he had been regretting not spending only moments earlier.

The corners of his mouth began to rise, and his earlier anger nearly transformed into satisfaction.

Ding!

Another chime pierced his skull before he could enjoy the moment. His smile stopped halfway, and he regarded the empty air before him with renewed caution.

A second window appeared beneath the reward.

[Requirements for unlocking an Additional Feature have been met.]

Tonpa blinked slowly.

'This generosity is starting to frighten me.'

The final line appeared.

[Skill Upgrade System Unlocked.]

The remainder of the curse he had been preparing vanished from his mind.

Tonpa stared at the two golden windows, then slowly sat back down on the bed.

'All right... perhaps we can negotiate.'



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[Deidalous]

Got his ass apologizing.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 30: A Free Choice

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa continued staring at the two golden windows, all the curses he had prepared for the System temporarily gone from his mind.

One free Stat Upgrade.

And a Feature that allowed him to upgrade his Skills.

Since arriving in this world, Tonpa had grown accustomed to receiving the System's demands wrapped in threats of death or compulsory expeditions to the Dark Continent. Being given something without a punishment written beneath it was rare enough to make him suspicious.

'Either Level Three is genuinely generous, or the bill will arrive later.'

He temporarily dismissed the reward window and focused on the newly unlocked Feature.

[Skill Upgrade System.]

The window expanded, displaying the two Skills he possessed.

[Is That Your Mother?]

[Level: 1]

[Upgrade]

Beneath it appeared his newest prize.

[Oh, Is That You?]

[Type: Consumable Skill.]

[Remaining Uses: 3.]

The Level displayed beside his first Skill was something new. When he had obtained it, the System had never mentioned that it could be upgraded. Tonpa had assumed he would simply have to live with an ability that forced weak targets to turn around and made powerful ones experience an unexplained disturbance.

He focused on the Upgrade option.

[Skill Upgrade: Is That Your Mother?]

[Level 1 → Level 2]

[Cost: 200 Nen Points.]

Tonpa's eyes moved slowly toward his balance.

[Nen Points: 96]

Silence returned to the room.

"Two hundred?"

The System did not respond.

"You unlocked this Feature after making sure I couldn't use it?"

The window remained before him with perfect indifference, displaying the same price.

'Opportunist.'

The accusation was somewhat ironic coming from a man who had spent years selling people things they did not need, but Tonpa could think of no more accurate description. The System had waited until he had spent nearly everything he possessed before revealing a new shop he could not afford to use.

He tried to learn what the upgrade would change, but the window offered no description of Level Two. Would the Skill become more difficult to resist? Would Netero actually turn around the next time instead of merely feeling an unexplained pressure? Or would Tonpa gain the ability to shout about two people's mothers at once?

No answer appeared.

Tonpa dismissed the Skill window before the Upgrade option irritated him any further.

Only the other reward remained.

[One Free Stat Upgrade.]

[One Stat may be upgraded to the next Rank without consuming Nen Points.]

His enthusiasm quickly returned.

All five of his Stats were now at Rank D. Whichever one he selected would rise to Rank C, saving him a full one thousand Nen Points. The decision could not be reversed once confirmed, so he refused to choose with the same enthusiasm that had transformed three Lottery draws into eight.

Still seated on the edge of the bed, Tonpa folded his arms.

Strength was the most obvious choice for any fighter. Raising it to Rank C would make his blows more powerful and might give him a genuine chance against ordinary applicants. But Tonpa was not a fighter, and he had no desire to discover how much Strength his face needed to withstand a punch from someone stronger than him.

Flexibility had already proven useful during the ball game. It had helped him change direction and recover his balance, but improving it alone would not keep him alive if he could not move out of an attack's path in the first place.

Endurance would help him survive lengthy trials, but it had already reached Rank D. His body no longer behaved as though it wanted to retire after every short distance.

Intelligence was tempting for an entirely different reason. Every plan and deception he created depended upon it, and improving it might prove more valuable than adding muscle. Yet upgrading it from Rank E to Rank D had not transformed him into a genius. It had merely made his thoughts clearer and more orderly. There was no guarantee that Rank C would provide an immediate advantage he could actually use.

That left Speed.

His thoughts moved toward the Third Phase and everything that would follow it. He did not remember every detail of the Hunter Exam, but he remembered enough to know that the coming phases would involve movement, fighting, and escape.

After Trick Tower would come the badge hunt on Zevil Island, where every applicant would become both hunter and prey.

There, a single step could mean the difference between stealing someone's badge and being forced to fight its owner.

More importantly, his first Skill could steal a fraction of a second from an opponent's attention. That moment would be worthless if Tonpa remained too slow to exploit it.

Strength would allow him to confront danger.

Speed would allow him to decide whether to confront it at all.

For Tonpa, the comparison was hardly fair.

He focused on Speed.

[Would you like to use the Free Stat Upgrade?]

[Speed: D → C]

He hesitated for one final moment before answering.

"Yes."

The golden reward window disappeared.

In the next instant, the muscles in his legs contracted sharply. Heat spread from his thighs to his ankles before climbing through his back and shoulders. The sensation was not painful, but it was far more distinct than his previous upgrades, forcing him to press both hands against the bed.

His body felt lighter.

His weight had not actually changed, but the distance between his desire to move and his limbs responding seemed to have narrowed.

Tonpa carefully stood and stepped forward.

He reached the other side of the room faster than expected.

His shoulder nearly struck the wall. He twisted his torso at the last moment and planted one hand against it to stop himself. Remaining still for a second, he looked back at the distance he had crossed.

The room was not large, but he had not pushed himself to full speed either.

A slow smile spread across his face.

'Finally, a Stat suited to my survival instincts.'

He tested two more short steps, then stopped before breaking something or accidentally launching himself through the doorway. Controlling his new Speed would require practice, but the difference from Rank D was unmistakable.

Tonpa summoned his status panel.

[Level: 3]

[Experience Points: 1,536/1,800]

[Strength: D]

[Speed: C]

[Flexibility: D]

[Endurance: D]

[Intelligence: D]

[Talent: E]

[Nen Points: 96]

Tonpa smiled at the sight of his Speed, then focused on the cost of its next upgrade.

[Speed: C]

[Upgrade to Rank B: 10,000 Nen Points.]

His smile vanished.

Ten thousand points.

Only hours ago, one thousand had seemed like a fortune. Now the System was informing him that the next step would cost ten times as much.

'Wonderful. I reached the middle of the ladder only to discover that the remaining steps are made of money.'

His eyes moved toward his Experience Points.

[1,536/1,800]

Reaching Level Three had required six hundred Experience Points. Reaching Level Four would require one thousand eight hundred.

The requirement had tripled in a single jump.

Tonpa did not have enough information to know whether that pattern would continue, but the System had shown no tendency to make his life less expensive over time.

At least his previous Experience Points had not disappeared when he advanced. Only two hundred and sixty-four more Experience Points stood between him and Level Four. One good deception or another Side Quest might earn them faster than expected.

He had no desire to calculate what would come afterward.

If the requirement continued tripling, the numbers would quickly become large enough to demand deceiving an entire city rather than a handful of applicants.

Tonpa dismissed the status panel and stretched out on the bed.

He needed to sleep. The Third Phase would begin in the morning, and Rank C Speed would be of little use if he entered it with eyes that could barely remain open.

The steady vibration of the airship's engines continued behind the walls. Tonpa tried to review what he remembered about the next phase, but exhaustion gradually overcame him.

A tall tower. A route leading downward. Prisoners. And terrible decisions made by committee.

Most importantly, he remembered the role the original Tonpa had played there.

'Wonderful. Now I have to convince them I won't do the one thing I'm famous for doing.'

He closed his eyes.

For the first time since awakening inside Tonpa's body, sleep came quickly, without frogs, clowns, or the Chairman of the Hunter Association demanding anything from him.

He awoke to a burst of static from a speaker mounted near the ceiling.

Tonpa opened his eyes and pushed himself halfway upright, trying to identify the source. A member of the airship's crew spoke through the intercom, their voice carrying clearly through every corridor.

"Attention, all applicants. We have arrived at the site of the Third Phase of the Hunter Exam. Please prepare yourselves and proceed to the assembly area."

The announcement ended, leaving only

the hum of the engines.

Tonpa sat on the bed and looked toward the door.

They had reached Trick Tower.

________________________________

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[Ggcosti]

Noce fic so far

Is there a reason he didn't keep the stat upgrade for now? He couldve upgraded one of his stats to C normally and the use the upgrade. Did I miss something?

 

[Lewdhandholding]

Noce fic so far

Is there a reason he didn't keep the stat upgrade for now? He couldve upgraded one of his stats to C normally and the use the upgrade. Did I miss something?

Click to shrink...

He needs it now to help him pass the Hunter Exam.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 31: Doors Beneath Their Feet

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The crew member's voice faded from the airship's speakers after announcing their arrival at the site of the Third Phase.

Tonpa remained seated on the edge of the bed for several moments, staring at the door as he tried to convince his body that sleep was over. It was not exhaustion that kept him there, but the fact that the Hunter Exam had awakened before him and already prepared another way for him to die.

He planted his feet on the floor. His body responded with greater lightness than he was accustomed to, reminding him of the Speed he had upgraded to Rank C before going to sleep.

The improvement was unmistakable, but the cost of the next upgrade immediately surfaced in his mind.

'Ten thousand Nen Points. Apparently, Rank B is reserved for the wealthy.'

Tonpa rose with a frown.

'At that price, hiring Netero himself might be cheaper.'

He entered the washroom and splashed cold water over his face, then straightened his clothes and left the room. The smell of food led him toward the section of the main hall that the crew had converted into a temporary assembly area while the airship completed its descent.

There, he found Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio gathered around the same table.

Gon was eating as though the next phase would be a competition to finish breakfast, while Killua had taken enough food to feed two people. Kurapika sat quietly, and Leorio held a steaming cup with an expression suggesting that mornings were a form of assault the law had inexplicably failed to criminalize.

Tonpa stopped beside the empty seat.

"Is this taken?"

Gon answered immediately.

"No. Sit down."

Tonpa sat without anyone objecting or moving their drink farther away from him. A few days ago, his approach alone would have been enough to trigger a state of emergency. Now, his presence among them had become almost natural.

'No objections and no wary looks. Familiarity is cheaper than trust, but it serves its purpose.'

Killua looked at him.

"If we need a plan today, try to choose one that doesn't involve the Chairman's mother."

Leorio stopped drinking.

"What is he talking about?"

Gon eagerly explained how they had forced Netero to use all four of his limbs. When he reached the part involving Tonpa's shout, Leorio's eyes moved between Tonpa and Killua, searching for some indication that they were joking.

"You confronted the Chairman of the Hunter Association by asking about his mother?"

Tonpa picked up a piece of bread.

"I distracted him at the right moment. The wording was a technical detail."

Kurapika asked:

"But it worked?"

Gon nodded.

"He had to use his other hand and leg."

Leorio studied Tonpa for a moment before shaking his head.

"The more I learn about you, the less I understand you."

Tonpa answered solemnly:

"That is a sign of depth."

A short laugh escaped Killua.

Their conversation continued until the airship shuddered, signaling the beginning of its final descent. The others tried to guess what form the next phase might take, while Tonpa contented himself with listening. He knew what awaited them, yet that knowledge brought him little comfort.

During the conversation, he noticed that Gon now directed questions toward him without hesitation, and Leorio no longer interrupted every answer with an accusation. Even Kurapika, despite the caution that remained in his eyes, listened instead of treating Tonpa like noise to be ignored.

As for Killua, he now mocked him the way he would mock someone whose presence he had grown accustomed to—not an enemy waiting for him to turn his back.

It was not complete trust, or anything close to it, but it was considerably better than the suspicion with which they had first greeted him.

'A few more days, and they might even let me pour the juice myself.'

Unfortunately, his knowledge of future events was no longer complete.

In the original course of events, forty-two applicants had passed the Second Phase, but only forty had reached Trick Tower. Killua had killed two applicants aboard the airship after leaving the ball game.

This time, Killua had remained until their game with Netero ended, leaving those two applicants alive. On top of that, six additional applicants had survived the Second Phase.

Forty-eight applicants were now approaching the tower—eight more than the number that should have reached it.

'Eight variables walking on two legs, and my memory is the only plan. Reassuring.'

The airship landed upon a vast stone surface. The applicants descended one after another, and the moment Tonpa moved away from the stairs, he saw the edge of the platform and the clouds gathered beneath it.

They stood atop an enormous tower whose sheer walls plunged downward until they vanished inside the mist.

'Trick Tower.'

Beans stood before them and announced that the Third Phase required them to reach the base of the tower alive within seventy-two hours. A large timer began counting down while the applicants looked around for an entrance that did not appear to exist.

A man near the edge spoke confidently.

"We don't need an entrance. We can climb down from the outside."

He lowered himself over the edge and began descending, using the gaps between the stones as handholds. He moved quickly enough that several applicants began to believe he had found the solution.

Then came the sound of wings beating beneath the clouds.

Winged creatures with long claws emerged from the mist. One of them swooped toward the man and tore him away from the wall.

His scream did not last long.

The creatures converged upon him before disappearing back into the mist with their prey.

Everyone retreated from the edge.

Tonpa took two additional steps out of respect for his survival instincts.

He remembered the scene, but a screen had not conveyed the weight of the man's scream or the drops of blood falling into the void.

'Forty-seven applicants left searching for a way down, and one confirmed way to become breakfast.'

The applicants spread across the roof and began examining the floor and its edges. Tonpa studied the stone tiles while trying to reconstruct the scene from the anime, but his memory offered him little more than an image of Gon standing upon gray stones indistinguishable from the thousands surrounding them.

One applicant suddenly disappeared on the other side of the roof.

Two more vanished shortly afterward.

Amid all the movement, not everyone noticed, but the number of people remaining on the surface was clearly decreasing.

A faint headache began pulsing behind Tonpa's eyes.

He knew that the entrances were hidden trapdoors, but he could not remember which ones led to the majority-rule route. If one of the additional applicants claimed the required door before him, he might find himself separated from the other four and trapped inside a route that had never appeared in the anime.

Tonpa looked toward Gon, then Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio.

Remaining with them was not merely a matter of convenience. The success of his Trust Quest depended upon them, and his knowledge of the tower's events was tied specifically to their route. Being separated from them now would mean losing his human shields, his guide to future events, and his four best sources of Nen Points at the same time.

'The moment I lose the route I know, my knowledge of the future becomes a collection of useless memories.'

He approached the group before they could disperse.

"Don't search for a path along the walls. Watch the applicants."

Kurapika looked around before answering:

"Their numbers are decreasing."

Tonpa nodded, pleased by how quickly he had noticed.

"And we haven't seen any of them reach the edge. That means they're descending from here—from beneath the roof. There must be hidden doors between the tiles."

Gon crouched and began running his fingers along the gaps in the stone. Killua did the same.

Leorio looked at Tonpa.

"How did you know where to search?"

Tonpa gestured toward the center of the roof, adopting the expression of a man who had completed a brilliant analysis rather than one following a blurred image from his memory.

"The central area is less exposed to those creatures. Most of the applicants who disappeared were also standing away from the edge."

The first half was a guess. The second was a genuine observation.

It was an appropriate mixture for convincing intelligent people without making his answer appear suspiciously prepared.

The five of them moved toward the center while remaining close to one another.

Several minutes later, Gon stopped over a tile and crouched to examine a thin line surrounding it.

"I found a door."

Killua discovered a second one nearby. Kurapika and Leorio soon found two more.

Tonpa continued searching as the tension inside him steadily grew. At last, a stone sank slightly beneath his foot, revealing a rectangular outline around it.

Five adjacent doors.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief before remembering that he had no proof they still led to the same place.

Gon smiled.

"We'll meet below."

He pressed down on his door. The stone slab flipped open, dropping him into the darkness before closing again.

Killua followed, then Kurapika and Leorio. Each trapdoor closed after swallowing its occupant.

Tonpa remained alone above the final door.

In the original course of events, the other four had spent nearly two hours waiting for Tonpa to fall into the same room. This time, he had found his door immediately.

That should have reassured him.

It did not.

He could only trust that the five adjacent doors still led to the same chamber and that the additional applicants had not altered the routes inside the tower.

'After eight draws, this door is no longer the most dangerous decision I've made today.'

Tonpa pressed his foot against the stone.

'Betting my life on a door seems like a natural extension of my decisions.'

The slab opened beneath him, and he plunged into the darkness.

Only one hope remained inside his mind.

'Please... don't invent any new events before I hit the floor.'



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[Pollyamorous]

He could only trust that the five adjacent doors still led to the same chamber and that the additional applicants had not altered the routes inside the tower.

Click to shrink...

Hm, in the original they found 4 doors close together and got lucky, but in reality there's only so much space on the top platform. There must be other doors close together, possibly other team adventures as well.

It'd be super awkward if they ended up on a different path, or on a more funny note the main four entered the same one but Tonpa ended up falling through a conveniently placed sixth door that led away. We don't know which door he actually entered after all.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 32: The Voice of the Majority

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa's fall did not last long.

The opening swallowed him, and his feet struck a sloping passage that sent him sliding through the darkness too quickly to assume a position that might preserve what remained of his dignity. He emerged from the other end shoulder-first, rolled across the stone floor, and finally came to rest on his back.

He remained still for a moment, making sure every part of his body was still where it belonged.

Tonpa tried to push himself upright too quickly, only for the room to tilt before his eyes and force his palm back against the floor. Apparently, Rank C Speed did not include the ability to land gracefully inside a dark hole.

The upgrade had improved his body's responsiveness, but it had not granted him a new agreement with gravity. He slowly sat upright and decided to reserve his experiments with speed for places where the ground could be trusted.

"Tonpa!"

He raised his head and saw Gon approaching. Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio were also inside the room, each having arrived through a different opening in the ceiling.

A long breath escaped Tonpa's chest.

'So my knowledge of the future hasn't become obsolete information just yet.'

Reaching the same room was far more important than it appeared. If his door had led him to an individual route, he would have been forced to face tests he did not remember with the strength of an applicant far better at escaping fights than winning them.

The presence of the other four meant the story had not broken yet—and that he still had four people to hide behind whenever necessary.

That, in Tonpa's opinion, was the true value of friendship.

Gon took his arm and helped him to his feet.

"You were right about the doors. I didn't expect you to be that observant."

Tonpa brushed the dust from his clothes and tried not to look too pleased.

"The disappearing applicants told me the doors existed. The difference in the echo near the center of the roof told me where to look."

Killua regarded him with narrowed eyes.

"I thought you were pretending to know what you were talking about again, but your analysis was right."

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

"A person can pretend to know what they're talking about and still be correct. It requires talent."

Gon laughed while Killua shook his head. Neither of them realized that the statement was the closest thing to an honest confession they were likely to receive.

Kurapika added while examining the openings in the ceiling:

"Keeping us close together was also a good decision. It appears the adjacent doors led to the same place."

Leorio folded his arms.

"Well, you managed to do something useful without being swallowed by an animal this time. That's progress."

Ding!

A single notification appeared before Tonpa.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 4.]

[Nen Points +20]

[Experience Points +20]

[Total Nen Points: 116]

[Experience Points: 1,556/1,800]

Tonpa dismissed the window and maintained a modest expression.

His analysis had not been entirely false. The number of applicants had genuinely been decreasing, and the doors had indeed been hidden beneath the stone tiles.

The difference in the echo, however, had existed nowhere except inside the lie he had invented moments earlier.

They believed his ears had helped him locate the doors, and that was enough for the System.

'Twenty Nen Points for a sound I never heard. My Intelligence Stat is finally beginning to repay its debts.'

Tonpa turned to examine the room.

It was small and circular, with stone walls and no windows. A single metal door stood before them, but it had no visible handle or lock. A short pedestal rose from the center of the room, with five broad black wristwatches resting upon it.

Tonpa's mocking smile slowly faded.

The five watches. The sealed room. The single door.

Everything was where it belonged.

'Good. Don't change now.'

The sight of the five watches was reassuring and unsettling in equal measure. Reassuring because this was the route he remembered, and unsettling because they had reached this point almost two hours earlier than the original group.

He did not know whether the tower merely measured time or adjusted its tests according to when the applicants entered. The idea sounded ridiculous, but eight additional applicants had taught him to treat ridiculous possibilities with more respect than they deserved.

He had no desire to discover the answer while trapped inside a mountain of stone that doubled as a prison filled with professional killers.

Tonpa approached the pedestal with the others.

'I've forgiven you for the eight additional applicants and the way Netero looked at me. Just let this part happen the way I remember it.'

Gon picked up one of the watches. A small screen above the pedestal lit up, and glowing words appeared across it.

[Majority Rules Path.]

[The Path cannot begin unless five applicants are present.]

[All decisions will be determined by majority vote using the O and X buttons.]

The screen continued displaying the instructions. No single applicant could make a decision alone. Any choice that received at least three votes would become binding upon everyone, whether they agreed with it or not.

Tonpa read the lines without allowing his unease to appear on his face. He possessed advance knowledge of the tests, but the path was no longer subject to his will alone. If three people voted against him, even a perfect memory could not open the correct door.

'Wonderful. A system designed specifically to let four people control my chances of survival.'

Then he remembered that the original Tonpa had been exactly the sort of problem the majority-rule system appeared designed to contain.

'Perhaps justice really exists in this world. That's the worst news I've heard today.'

Killua turned one of the watches between his fingers.

"So we have to agree every time."

Leorio replied:

"Or three of us have to agree."

He looked at Tonpa as he spoke, and no one needed to ask whom he expected to become the source of their problems.

Tonpa raised his watch with an injured expression.

"That look hurts me."

"You'll recover," Killua said. "You have a protective layer."

Each of them put on a watch. The band automatically tightened around Tonpa's wrist, and two large buttons appeared on its screen: an O and an X.

He ran his thumb over the buttons without pressing either one. In his previous life, he would have loved a system like this—five people, two choices, and only three votes required to sell a decision as the will of the majority.

He would only need to persuade two people, then leave the others believing they had been defeated by logic.

The problem was that the four people around him were not customers sitting behind screens, and at least one of them could break his arm if he realized Tonpa was manipulating the vote.

The screen above the door lit up.

[Would you like to open the door?]

[O: Yes.]

[X: No.]

Tonpa stared at the two buttons.

In the original story, the old Tonpa had pressed X simply to annoy the group and test the system. It had not stopped the door from opening because the other four had chosen O, but it had immediately revealed that he had no intention of making their journey easy.

The current Tonpa needed their trust and their success. Before either of those things, he needed to avoid being punched by Leorio inside a locked room.

He pressed O.

Five circles lit up above the door.

[O: Five Votes.]

[Majority Decision Confirmed.]

The metal door rose, revealing a narrow stone passage.

Leorio looked at Tonpa with mild surprise, as though he had expected him to choose X.

"What?" Tonpa asked. "I like open doors."

They entered the passage, with Tonpa walking among them and feeling slightly lighter. His vote had changed, but the result had remained the same. Not every minor difference was a disaster, provided the next landmark remained where it belonged.

The unanimous decision even seemed better than the original outcome. Leorio had not glared at him, Killua had not begun watching his fingers, and Tonpa had not needed to invent an excuse for his vote.

He had gained another small step toward earning their trust, this time through an honest decision that required neither an additional lie nor a journey through an animal's stomach.

'Personal growth is suspiciously convenient.'

After a short distance, they reached a fork blocked by two doors, one on the right and the other on the left. Their watches lit up again.

[Choose a Path.]

[O: Right.]

[X: Left.]

Tonpa froze for a moment.

He remembered this decision.

In the anime, the group had chosen the right-hand path by three votes to two. That route had taken them to the trial whose details he knew.

This time, he did not need to guess or rely upon a faded image from his memory.

He only needed to choose the right-hand path and allow the others to repeat the same decision.

Gon approached the doors.

"I can feel a faint draft coming from the right."

Killua placed his palm near the seam in the stone, then narrowed his eyes.

"You're right, but it's a little too obvious. It could be bait."

"I agree," Leorio said. "They might have placed a fan behind it to make us think it's the correct path. I'm choosing left."

Kurapika studied the two doors without announcing his opinion.

Tonpa made no attempt to influence them. Offering too much explanation might arouse Kurapika's suspicion, and he was confident the original result would repeat itself.

He already knew the path. There was no need to persuade anyone as long as two others chose it with him.

Tonpa pressed O.

He watched the others' fingers hover above their buttons. He could not see their choices before they were confirmed, but every small movement appeared to contain ten different possible meanings.

Killua's thumb moved first, followed by Leorio's. Kurapika remained still for another second, as though reconsidering a decision whose contents Tonpa could not know.

For the first time, pressing a button felt easier than waiting for four other people to do the same.

The votes appeared above the doors one after another.

[O: Two Votes.]

[X: Three Votes.]

Tonpa's eyes widened.

He looked at the faces around him and understood how the votes had been divided. Gon had selected the right-hand path with him, while Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio had chosen the left.

Three against two.

A clean majority he could not challenge without revealing that he possessed an unnatural reason for knowing which path they should take.

A deep rumble came from the wall. The door on the left began to rise while the right-hand door remained closed.

Tonpa did not move.

'Left?'

Gon and Killua entered the new passage, followed by Kurapika and Leorio. Tonpa remained where he was, staring at the door on the right as though waiting for it to apologize and open.

It did not.

This had not happened in the anime.

They were supposed to take the right-hand path.

Had he remembered incorrectly?

No. He was certain about this moment. Three votes had sent them to the right, and then they had reached the prisoners' chamber.

So why had the decision changed?

Had his early arrival altered the way they thought? Had the draft existed in the original scene, only for him to forget it? Or had the presence of the additional applicants changed something within the tower's mechanisms?

He remembered the decision he had made after the Cooking Trial diverged from the original events: he would not alter anything important unless absolutely necessary.

But he had done nothing significant this time. All he had done was refrain from pressing a stupid button to irritate the group, yet the tower had opened its mouth in the opposite direction.

'So good behavior is dangerous to the timeline as well.'

Possibilities accumulated inside his mind, and none of them were comforting.

If the left-hand path led to a different trial, then his knowledge of future events had become worthless from the very first moment inside the tower.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[Major Events have diverged from their original course.]



________________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 33: One Percent

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The System's chime continued echoing inside Tonpa's head. Then another message appeared beneath the warning.

[Major Event Divergence Rate: 1%.]

He stopped breathing for a second.

One percent.

The previous divergence had been only one-tenth of that, and reaching it had required him to interfere with the Cooking Trial and suggest Spider Eagle eggs before Menchi could.

Now, immediately after they chose a different door, the number had increased tenfold.

One ridiculous choice, settled by five people wearing watches uglier than the tower itself.

'Where did I go wrong?'

Tonpa looked toward the open passage on the left, then at the right-hand door that had remained closed.

He had not altered the instructions or lied to the group to force them into choosing a particular direction. On the contrary, he had selected the right-hand path himself in an attempt to preserve the anime's course.

The majority had overruled him anyway.

Tonpa replayed the sequence of events in his mind. The chain that had led to that vote had begun long before they reached the fork.

This time, he had helped them locate the entrances and entered the chamber without delay, allowing the Majority Rules Path to begin nearly two hours earlier than it originally had. When the first question appeared, he had pressed O with everyone else instead of choosing X simply to provoke them.

He had not interfered with the tower's mechanisms directly, but he had changed the circumstances surrounding the decision—their arrival time, the group's mood, and the way they regarded him. Somewhere among those differences, the original outcome had been lost.

Perhaps their early arrival had altered something inside the tower. Perhaps their changed relationship with him had made them more willing to examine the draft as possible bait instead of repeating the decision he remembered from the anime.

Or perhaps every minor change he had caused since entering this world was finally beginning to accumulate.

'So my mistake was not being unpleasant enough.'

Tonpa dragged a hand over his face.

'Wonderful System. It rewards me for deceiving people and punishes me for treating them well. I've finally found a world that respects my professional experience.'

The mockery offered him no comfort.

One percent was not catastrophic by itself, but it proved that even the smallest change in his behavior could carry him away from the events he knew. If the number continued rising this quickly, the characters' names would soon be the only things left from the anime.

Tonpa asked the System what reaching one percent actually meant and how high the divergence would need to climb before his knowledge of the future became completely useless.

He received no answer.

The percentage remained suspended before him with perfect indifference, as though the System's only responsibility was to inform him that the ship was sinking after the water had already reached his feet.

'Thank you for the report. I might have mistaken the wrong door for good news.'

Leorio's voice came from inside the passage.

"Tonpa! Are you going to stare at that door all day?"

Tonpa dismissed the windows and turned toward them.

"I was trying to determine why this path opened."

"Because three of us pressed X," Killua said. "It wasn't complicated."

"I was searching for the deeper reason."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face.

"Of course. Depth."

Tonpa hurried after them before the door closed behind him. Stone ground heavily against stone, and the last thread of light from the fork disappeared.

Going back was no longer an option.

The passage stretched ahead at a gentle downward slope, illuminated by small lamps spaced along the walls. Gon and Killua walked together at the front, followed by Kurapika and Leorio. Tonpa remained several steps behind, watching every corner and stone.

He recognized nothing.

Not the placement of the lamps, the shape of the passage, or the first turn that led them toward a short staircase. He searched his memories for anything resembling this route, but every image he possessed belonged to the other path: the prisoners' chamber, the confrontations, and all the time the original Tonpa had wasted by surrendering.

This route had never appeared in the anime.

For the first time since awakening in Tonpa's body, he possessed exactly the same information as everyone else.

No advance knowledge. No memorized events. No protagonist he could wait for to provide the answer.

'Equality is a noble idea until it costs me my only advantage.'

He reviewed the tools available to him.

His Speed had reached Rank C, while his Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, and Intelligence remained at Rank D. His Talent was still trapped at Rank E.

More importantly, he had yet to awaken Nen.

He possessed [Is That Your Mother?] at Level 1 and the Consumable Skill [Oh, Is That You?], which could make anything appear to be something else for one minute. With only three uses remaining, however, he could not afford to waste one inside an unknown passage.

Those tools were useful when he knew the danger in advance and had time to prepare a suitable plan.

Here, they resembled a first-aid kit containing a fake mustache and an embarrassing question about his opponent's family.

'It's fine. If the trap asks me to prove I'm one of its relatives, I'm perfectly prepared.'

Tonpa slowed his steps at every turn, expecting a prisoner to emerge, a wall to open, or the floor to collapse beneath him.

Nothing happened.

That was worse.

Trick Tower had not been built to offer them a safe passage simply because they had chosen a different direction. The longer the silence continued, the more convinced Tonpa became that something was waiting for the perfect moment to ruin his day.

Kurapika looked back at him.

"You've been quiet since we entered this route. Have you noticed something?"

Four faces turned toward him.

Only moments ago, Tonpa would have treated the question as a perfect opportunity to sell them an analysis constructed from his knowledge of the future. Now, he had nothing except silent walls and an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

Even so, he could not admit that he was as lost as they were.

He gestured toward the floor.

"The passage has continued sloping downward, which means we're still moving toward the base of the tower. But the absence of obstacles so far doesn't reassure me."

"Can't you say something optimistic for once?" Leorio asked.

"I can, but I prefer lies that provide me with some benefit."

Leorio regarded him for a moment, attempting to determine whether he was joking, while Gon laughed. Killua turned his attention forward again, now visibly more cautious.

They continued walking.

They passed another staircase, and the passage turned twice before gradually widening. At its end, a rectangular opening led into a large chamber.

Gon stopped at the entrance, and the others gathered behind him.

The chamber was completely empty.

Its stone floor extended toward the opposite side, where an open exit led into another passage. There were no watches, no instructions, and no doors requiring a vote. The path appeared straightforward—almost suspiciously welcoming.

That was precisely what made Tonpa's skin crawl.

Nothing inside the tower was free. Even the first door had required five people and a vote. Presenting them with an entire chamber without instructions was like a merchant smiling while assuring his customer that the contract did not need to be read.

In Tonpa's previous life, that had always been the moment to start searching for the fine print.

'An empty chamber and an open exit inside a place called Trick Tower. All it needs is a sign telling us to trust it.'

He examined the walls.

He saw no slits from which arrows or blades might emerge, nor did he notice any suspicious cracks in the ceiling. The tiles were uniform, and the layer of dust covering them was too thin to reveal any previous footprints.

"Looks like all we have to do is cross it," Leorio said.

"If it were that simple, they wouldn't need this chamber," Kurapika replied.

Killua crouched, picked up a small stone from the edge of the passage, and tossed it across the floor. It bounced twice and came to rest without anything happening.

Gon studied the chamber.

"I don't smell anyone inside."

That did not reassure Tonpa. The absence of people only meant the trap did not require a human operator to kill them.

Killua took half a step forward.

"Wait."

Killua stopped, and everyone turned toward Tonpa.

Tonpa remained at the entrance, examining the nearby tiles, but he was not relying upon his eyes alone.

He was waiting for a familiar chime inside his head.

The System had warned him about Netero's scrutiny and the divergence of major events, just as it had warned him of dangers he had failed to recognize on earlier occasions. Without realizing it, Tonpa had begun treating those warnings like an additional survival instinct.

Most of them had arrived only after the danger was already present, but fear made that detail remarkably easy to ignore.

If the chamber contained a genuine threat, perhaps the System would warn him before anyone entered.

Perhaps.

'Blindly relying on a System that refuses to explain its own abilities is a terrible idea.'

Nevertheless, Tonpa remained close to the threshold instead of retreating, testing whether a warning would appear. His gaze moved between the floor and ceiling while part of his attention waited for the chime.

Nothing appeared.

The System's silence granted him a small measure of confidence he did not deserve.

He failed to notice that the tile he had mistaken for part of the passage was actually the chamber's first tile.

His foot shifted sideways, and his weight settled upon it.

The stone abruptly sank beneath his shoe.

A single faint click was enough to make his stomach clench.

Tonpa froze. His eyes widened, and his breath caught as his gaze slowly dropped toward his foot.

He did not know what he had activated.

Nor did he know what would happen if he lifted his foot.

'Damn it...'

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull.

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

________________________________

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[Pollyamorous]

Huh, I had a small suspicion that both routes would lead to the same location, but it looks like we're getting some original content already! Very nice.

It'd be funny if this starts closing the door behind them, causing a cascade of them needing to rush through the room before they get stuck but therefore triggering more and more traps until it turns into an over-the-top gag for a bit. With Tonpa taking the most painful blows, of course.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 34: Eight Meters of Heroism

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa needed no further explanation.

He kicked off the floor and threw himself backward with everything his Rank C Speed could give him. The instant he left the tile, a sharp sound came from the left wall.

A long arrow tore through the air, passing through the space his chest had occupied a fraction of a second earlier before striking the opposite wall and embedding itself in the stone.

Tonpa landed near the entrance off balance, his arms flailing before he managed to keep himself from falling.

The entire group retreated at once.

"That would've gone straight through you!" Leorio exclaimed, staring at the arrow.

Tonpa looked at the spot where he had been standing, then at the arrow whose shaft was still trembling inside the wall.

'Without his medical expertise, I might have mistaken it for decoration.'

Killua approached the left wall without entering the chamber. He narrowed his eyes until he spotted a tiny opening concealed between the stones.

"It came from there."

Kurapika crouched to examine the tile Tonpa had stepped on.

"It sinks under pressure. Some of these tiles must be connected to firing mechanisms."

Gon picked up another stone from the edge of the passage and hurled it forcefully onto the same tile. The moment it struck, a second arrow shot from the opening and followed the same trajectory before embedding itself in the wall beside the first.

"Then we need to find the safe tiles," Gon said.

They looked across the chamber. Dozens of tiles separated them from the exit, and any one of them might conceal a different mechanism. Throwing stones at random would not be enough. Some pressure plates might require the weight of an entire person or sustained pressure, while the openings scattered across both walls made predicting the direction of an attack nearly impossible.

"We could go back and vote for the other path," Leorio suggested.

Kurapika pointed toward the entrance that had sealed behind them.

"There's no way back. We have to cross this chamber."

Tonpa listened with only half his attention. It was not the arrow occupying his thoughts, but the warning that had preceded it.

The System had warned him immediately after the trap was activated, yet a moment before the arrow was released. It had not warned him about the tile before he stepped on it, nor had it revealed the nature of the danger or the direction from which it would come.

But it had given him one extra instant.

With his current Speed, a fraction of a second was something he could exploit.

He looked across the chamber, then at the four people behind him.

An idea occurred to him.

It was dangerous and slightly humiliating, but it carried the scent of Nen Points.

That was his favorite scent after money.

Tonpa slowly straightened and adopted a resolute expression.

"Stay here. I'll cross first and identify the dangerous tiles."

Killua raised an eyebrow.

"You?"

The amount of faith contained in that single word was close to zero.

Tonpa placed a hand over his chest.

"I'm the one who activated the trap, and I know the sensation that comes before it fires now. If we all enter together, one of you might be injured before we understand the pattern."

"We can test the floor with stones," Kurapika said.

"Stones might reveal some of the pressure plates, but not all of them. The first stone landed without activating anything, but that doesn't prove the tile beneath it would remain safe under a person's weight. Testing every tile would take too long, and the countdown isn't waiting for us."

His argument was reasonable enough and rested upon something they had all witnessed. The part he neglected to mention was that the sensation warning him was not some sudden expertise in detecting traps, but a window only he could see.

He looked at Gon and added in a calmer voice:

"There's no reason to risk everyone. I'll be the scout."

Concern appeared on Gon's face.

"But those arrows are fast."

Tonpa gave him a reassuring smile—the sort he had practiced on victims who were wealthier and considerably less capable of punching him.

"That's why you need to stay behind me."

He entered the chamber again.

Tonpa placed one foot upon an adjacent tile and slowly transferred part of his weight onto it. No warning appeared, so he moved forward. He tested another tile, then a third.

When he pressed down on the fourth, the stone sank slightly beneath his shoe.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

A metallic scrape came from the right wall immediately after the chime.

Tonpa jumped backward. An arrow shot past his stomach, close enough to stir the hem of his jacket.

He held his breath for a moment before pointing at the tile.

"That one is dangerous."

"We noticed," Killua called from behind him.

Tonpa ignored him and continued.

The process was slower than he had expected. The warning did not tell him where the attack would come from, but it gave him an instant to catch the sound of the mechanism before it fired. After that, his survival depended upon his reflexes and choosing the correct movement.

Some tiles launched arrows from the right and others from the left. One sent two arrows from opposite directions in rapid succession, forcing him to duck beneath the first and throw himself flat against the floor to avoid the second.

Each time, the chime preceded the arrow by a single instant, and the sound of the mechanism revealed its direction. The margin was terrifyingly small, but his Rank C Speed allowed him to jump, duck, or retreat in time.

To the group, his movements resembled astonishing intuition.

To Tonpa, they felt like a dance choreographed by someone with a personal grudge against his back.

Ten minutes passed.

Tonpa looked at the distance behind him, then toward the exit still waiting ahead. After all that tension and humiliating jumping, he had crossed no more than eight meters.

'At this rate, we'll reach the bottom after the tower becomes a historical monument.'

Then he noticed the way the others were looking at him.

Gon no longer appeared merely concerned; he seemed genuinely affected by Tonpa's persistence. Even Kurapika watched him with less suspicion, while the mockery had temporarily disappeared from Killua's face.

Ding!

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 4.]

[Nen Points +40]

[Experience Points +40]

[Total Nen Points: 156]

[Experience Points: 1,596/1,800]

Four more messages followed.

[Gon Freecss's Trust: 10% → 11%]

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust: 6% → 7%]

[Kurapika's Trust: 2% → 3%]

[Leorio's Trust: 6% → 7%]

Tonpa almost smiled.

Forty Nen Points, forty Experience Points, and four percentage points of Trust distributed among his targets. Suddenly, the past ten minutes and all those humiliating jumps seemed like a reasonable investment.

'Perhaps I can manage another two meters before my dignity starts demanding compensation.'

He prepared to test the next tile, but Gon stepped into the chamber.

"I think I understand it now."

The boy leaped across the tiles that had not fired any arrows, then changed direction midway through the chamber, following the route Tonpa had uncovered. When he reached the final safe point, he surged forward and cleared three tiles in a single jump.

Arrows fired, but they passed behind him.

He reached the opposite exit within seconds.

Killua moved next. He did not even follow the entire safe route. He sprinted across the tiles and changed direction whenever he heard one of the mechanisms, leaving the arrows to pass behind him before reaching Gon with ease.

Kurapika observed the timing of the attacks, then crossed with measured steps, using the safe tiles Tonpa had uncovered and the brief intervals between each arrow.

In less than a minute, all three were standing on the other side.

Tonpa remained in the middle of the chamber with one foot suspended above the next tile.

Leorio lacked the other three's speed and agility, so he studied the route Tonpa had uncovered instead of looking at him. Most of the chamber could now be crossed using the safe tiles, leaving only two jumps near the end that needed to be timed correctly.

Even the one person who should have appreciated Tonpa's sacrifice was preparing to leave him behind.

'Betrayal spreads quickly once the path becomes clear.'

Tonpa looked at them, then at the distance that had taken him ten minutes to cross.

"You could do that so easily?"

"After you spent ten minutes showing us how the trap works, yes," Killua called from the other side.

"And you understood it that quickly?"

"After the last two arrows, more or less," Gon answered honestly. "I moved as soon as I was sure about the route."

Tonpa's eyes widened.

"Wonderful. Couldn't you have figured that out before I tested the floor with my stomach?"

A grin spread across Killua's face.

"You looked very committed to being the scout."

Kurapika tried to maintain a serious expression, but the corner of his mouth shifted.

"Your attempts weren't useless. You identified the safe tiles and helped us confirm the timing of the mechanisms."

Leorio burst out laughing behind Tonpa.

"Especially when you threw yourself flat to avoid those two arrows. That was an important scientific observation."

Tonpa stared at the four of them in turn.

'Forty Nen Points and four points of Trust.'

He forced himself to swallow the humiliation and began following the route he had mapped toward them, with Leorio moving behind him.

'An excellent deal.'

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

A metallic snap came from the wall.

Tonpa's stomach clenched. He jumped just as an arrow sliced past his foot and embedded itself in the stone ahead.

'But the clients were bastards.'

________________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 35: Off Script

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Knowing the less dangerous route did not mean crossing it had become easy.

Tonpa discovered that immediately.

The arrow that had passed close to his foot a moment earlier had forced him to leap away from his chosen path. The instant he landed on the next tile, the stone sank beneath his weight.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

The System gave him no time to object.

An arrow shot past his thigh, forcing him to pull back his leg and twist his body aside. Another followed from the opposite wall, passing directly above his shoulder before embedding itself in the stone behind him.

Gon shouted from the exit:

"Don't move! The tile you're standing on fires two arrows in succession!"

Tonpa looked down at his feet. His desperate leap had landed him on one of the dangerous tiles he had tested earlier. It had already discharged its arrows, giving him several seconds before the mechanism reset.

'Wonderful. Even the resting places here operate on short-term leases.'

Leorio had only just entered the chamber, but he remained close to the entrance, studying the route with a face that had lost most of its earlier amusement. He could take advantage of the tiles Tonpa had uncovered, but he possessed neither Killua's speed nor Gon's agility. A single misplaced jump could turn him into a medical case he would never have time to study.

Kurapika raised his voice and pointed toward a diagonal row of tiles.

"Follow the same route until you reach Tonpa. The traps we've already triggered need several seconds before they reset. Move immediately after an arrow fires."

Leorio drew a deep breath, then ran.

He crossed the first few tiles with tense, uncertain steps. When he heard a small panel slide open in the wall beside him, he ducked just late enough to feel an arrow slice through the air above his hair. He cursed and continued running until he reached Tonpa and crashed into his back.

The two of them staggered atop the tile.

"Get off me!" Tonpa hissed through clenched teeth. "This tile isn't built for family gatherings."

"And where do you expect me to go?"

Killua pointed toward the final section of the route from the other side.

"Wait for the arrow from the left, then run right behind it. There's a short gap before the next one fires from the right."

Tonpa stared at the openings scattered across both walls. Taking survival instructions from a child wounded his dignity, but not nearly as much as an arrow would, so he decided to arrange his priorities accordingly.

The first arrow fired.

"Now!" Killua shouted.

Tonpa and Leorio surged forward together. Their feet nearly became tangled on the final tile, prompting Leorio to shove Tonpa by the shoulder. Tonpa instinctively shoved him back, sending both of them tumbling through the exit.

They rolled across the stone floor of the passage. An instant later, an arrow tore through the space they had occupied and buried itself in the chamber wall.

The moment Leorio pulled his leg across the threshold, a stone slab concealed in the ceiling dropped and sealed the chamber entrance behind them with a heavy crash.

Tonpa remained on his back for two seconds, listening to stone grind against stone.

Leorio spoke while catching his breath.

"You nearly got us killed."

Tonpa turned his head toward him.

"You pushed me first."

"Because you were slow."

"I was being careful. Living people usually understand the difference."

Gon offered Leorio a hand and helped him to his feet, while Tonpa stood on his own before anyone could offer him the same assistance. His clothes were covered in dust, and his knee ached from the fall, but his body remained intact.

Inside this tower, that counted as a respectable success.

They did not linger. The countdown displayed on their watches continued to fall, and the descending passage was their only way forward.

Gon and Killua walked side by side, with Tonpa following two steps behind them. Kurapika and Leorio brought up the rear. Tonpa had chosen his position carefully. Standing at the back no longer seemed wise after watching the stone door fall, but he had no desire to become the first person to test whatever awaited them ahead.

It was a modest position, but it offered the survival benefits of both directions.

Tonpa ran his fingers along the wall as he walked. The stones were cold, and the small lamps were spaced far enough apart that only a limited section of the passage could be seen at any given time.

His unease no longer came solely from losing the route he remembered from the anime. He had encountered his first unknown trap and nearly become target practice. It was a practical demonstration of what a one-percent divergence truly meant.

'Just one percent, and I've gone from a man who knows the future to someone following two children through a basement.'

He looked at Gon's back, then at Killua, who continued forward without hesitation.

'At least the children are more qualified than I am.'

Kurapika slowed at the first turn and examined the floor before crossing it. Leorio approached him while rubbing his shoulder.

"Do you think there's another trap?"

"After that chamber, it would be safer to assume there is one until proven otherwise."

Killua spoke from the front.

"I don't hear any mechanisms inside the walls."

Gon listened for several moments, then nodded.

They continued forward, but the silence brought Tonpa no comfort. Noisy traps, at least, possessed the courtesy to announce themselves before killing him. The silence merely gave him ample room to imagine what the tower might do next.

Several minutes later, the passage widened slightly until it measured approximately four meters across. The ceiling also rose, leaving enough room for all five of them to move together instead of forcing them into a single file.

Gon suddenly stopped.

Tonpa raised his head and fixed his eyes on the shadow standing at the edge of the illuminated section.

It was a man.

The man stepped forward, revealing his entire body beneath one of the lamps. He was enormous, with the muscles of his bare arms bulging beneath a coarse prison uniform. He did not need a weapon. His fists alone looked large enough to rearrange Leorio's face without the aid of any tools.

There was room to move on either side of him, but that did little to make his presence less threatening. He stood in the center of the passage with his feet firmly planted, slowly shifting his gaze from one member of the group to the next. Some distance behind him, a broad stone door blocked the path leading farther down.

The group stopped at a distance.

Tonpa studied the man's footing and the space surrounding him. The passage was wide enough for them to spread out and attack together. Tonpa might even be able to exploit his Rank C Speed and rush past him along one of the walls.

He could potentially reach the door and search for a way to open it, but the way the man followed their every movement made one thing clear: he had no intention of allowing them to pass easily.

Leorio spoke in a low voice.

"Don't tell me we have to fight that thing."

No one answered.

A faint click came from the ceiling, followed by an unfamiliar voice emerging from a hidden speaker in the passage.

"Applicants, to reach the next section of the route, you must get past the prisoner standing before you and continue your descent."

The enormous man raised his chin slightly, and a slow smile spread across his face.

The voice continued with the same cold indifference:

"If you fail to get past him before your remaining time expires, all five of you will fail the Hunter Exam."

Tonpa looked toward the door behind the prisoner, then at the space available on either side of him. No voting option appeared, nor was there a side passage that could transfer the problem elsewhere. The corridor gave them enough room to fight together, but first they needed to learn what the tower meant by "get past."

'Wonderful. We escaped a path filled with arrows only to find one with muscles.'

The prisoner interlocked his fingers and extended his arms, producing a series of heavy cracks from his joints that echoed through the passage. He stepped forward, his smile widening as he examined them.

"Well? Are you going to attack, or stand there until your time runs out?"



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[Pollyamorous]

Hm, this is very different from the alternative fight against prisoners. There, they were at a distinct disadvantage, as even if they'd won all five fights it'd still take as long as five 1v1's.

This guy, on the other hand, is a single prisoner who's coming up against all five of them at once. I'm sure Killua could one-shot him without blinking, but for the examiner to set up a 5v1 situation, where each of the 5 are Hunter candidates? And the requirement isn't even to "defeat" him, it's just to "get past" him.

Either this path is massively easier compared to the canon one, or there's something else up with this battle.

...Oh dang, he could be a Nen user, couldn't he? Considering his reaction to Zushi, a Nen user in a controlled environment where killing wasn't an option for either side, this might push Killua into not fighting at all.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 36: The Line of Death

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

No one answered the prisoner's question.

Before any of them could decide how to respond, the voice returned through the hidden speaker in the passage.

"The path leading to the base of the tower will remain sealed until the prisoner declares his surrender. Simply reaching the other side without his surrender will not count as passing."

So slipping past him and reaching the stone door behind him would not be enough. They had to defeat him and force him to admit it.

The true surprise came when the air inside the passage suddenly changed.

A crushing pressure settled across Tonpa's shoulders, and his chest tightened until drawing air into his lungs required conscious effort. Nothing visibly moved, yet his skin prickled and the hair at the back of his neck stood on end.

Leorio retreated half a step. Kurapika's expression hardened as he watched the prisoner, while the last traces of curiosity vanished from Gon's face. Killua's eyes narrowed, his relaxed posture shifting into readiness within an instant.

Tonpa swallowed.

'Don't tell me the muscles were only the introduction.'

He lowered his gaze toward the watch fastened around his wrist. Not even an hour had passed since the phase began, leaving them with more than seventy-one hours of the time Beans had given them.

That should have been reassuring, or so he tried to convince himself.

All that time for a single phase. It made no sense for them to be given an opponent who was impossible to defeat. Perhaps the trial was meant to test their cooperation. Perhaps the prisoner was weaker than he appeared. Or perhaps wearing him down would be enough to make the rest of his sentence seem preferable to fighting five applicants.

'This phase can't be that difficult—'

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull, and a blue window appeared before him.

[Warning.]

[The Host is being subjected to pressure from a Nen user's aura.]

The thought died before it could finish.

Tonpa stared at the message, then slowly raised his eyes toward the man.

What he felt was not ordinary fear or mere bloodlust. The prisoner was truly using Nen, pressing down on them with his aura without moving a finger.

Anyone who had mastered Nen was now officially removed from the list of people Tonpa was willing to antagonize.

'Of course. Why face an ordinary prisoner when the tower can provide a criminal armed with supernatural power? Excellent service.'

Tonpa dismissed the window before anyone noticed him staring into empty space.

He felt Leorio move slightly closer before hearing him whisper:

"What is this feeling?"

Gon rubbed his arm, where goosebumps had risen across his skin.

"It's coming from him."

Kurapika answered without taking his eyes off the man.

"I don't know what it is, but it's deliberate. He's trying to frighten us before we make a move."

"And it's working," Leorio muttered.

Killua studied the prisoner's breathing and the movement of his eyes.

"He hasn't attacked us yet. He wants to see how we react under pressure."

Kurapika glanced toward him.

"Then whoever acts recklessly first will give him exactly what he wants."

Killua did not respond, but his eyes remained fixed upon the man.

Tonpa kept what he knew to himself. Explaining a power none of them understood seemed unwise, especially when all he possessed was a window that informed him he was in danger without offering any solution.

The System excelled at diagnosing problems and became considerably less enthusiastic when it was time to provide treatment.

The prisoner finally moved.

He walked toward one side of the passage, pressed his heel against the stone floor, then crossed toward the opposite wall while dragging his foot behind him. A harsh scraping sound followed his movement. By the time he stopped, a broad white line stretched from one wall to the other, separating him from the group.

The prisoner returned to the center of the passage and stood on the far side of the line.

He pointed toward it with one thick finger.

"This line is your last chance to remain alive."

His gaze moved between them, pausing briefly upon Killua.

"Anyone who crosses it will die."

Tonpa studied the line. The voice had mentioned no rule concerning it, and nothing indicated that it was connected to the tower's mechanisms. It was merely a mark the prisoner had carved with his heel—a clear threat intended to make them retreat before the fight even began.

Leorio lowered his voice.

"The voice said we have to force him to surrender. He won't do that while we stand here."

"That doesn't mean we should attack without a plan," Kurapika replied. "He wants the first person who crosses that line to act alone."

Gon leaned forward slightly, studying the line and the distance beyond the prisoner.

"Maybe we should learn how he fights first. If we all attack after understanding his movements, we might be able to bring him down."

Tonpa looked at the prisoner's broad shoulders, then at the space available on either side of him. The passage was wide enough for them to spread out and attack together, but the man's unwavering stance and the way he followed every movement made passing him appear far more dangerous than it should have been.

"First, we'll need to convince him that saying 'I surrender' won't damage his reputation."

No one laughed.

Tonpa counted that as further proof of how bad their situation was.

Killua remained silent.

His eyes moved over the prisoner's feet, shoulders, and hands, measuring distances Tonpa could only guess at.

Then, almost too subtly to notice, Killua's heel shifted backward.

Tonpa caught it.

Strange.

Killua had been the calmest person in the passage since the prisoner appeared, yet his body had just tried to create distance on its own.

The boy seemed to notice it too.

His eyes hardened.

A moment later, his fingers slowly curled into claws.

"Killua?" Gon said.

Killua did not look at him.

"I just need to see whether he can follow me."

Tonpa's stomach tightened.

Before Kurapika could object, Killua moved.

Tonpa's eyes failed to follow him. He saw dust rise near the white line, then Killua appeared to the prisoner's left, low beside his waist, one outstretched hand aimed toward the soft space beneath his ribs.

The man moved at the final instant.

His massive forearm dropped and intercepted Killua's hand.

The impact thundered through the passage, and the prisoner's body shifted for the first time.

One foot slid backward, and his blocked arm shuddered beneath Killua's hand. He looked down at his forearm before slowly raising his eyes toward the boy. The mockery vanished from his face, replaced by a brief flicker of genuine surprise.

"Fast..."

The prisoner gave Killua no opportunity to exploit that surprise. He planted his foot, and the astonishment in his eyes hardened into caution.

Before Killua could withdraw his arm, the prisoner's open palm struck his shoulder in a short movement that did not appear nearly powerful enough to explain what happened next.

Killua was hurled backward.

His feet struck the floor behind the line, but he continued sliding for several meters as he struggled to steady himself. He staggered and planted one hand against the ground before completely losing his balance.

Gon rushed forward and caught his arm, helping him straighten.

The prisoner did not pursue him. He lowered his forearm and resumed his position on the far side of the line. His breathing remained unchanged, and he had yielded no more than a single step.

It appeared that he had not intended to injure Killua so much as return him to his place and prove that he could do so whenever he wished.

"Killua!" Gon said, remaining beside him. "Are you all right?"

Killua rolled his shoulder once before lowering his arm.

"I'm fine."

Tonpa watched him for another second.

'Wait...'

His brows drew together.

'Wasn't this exactly the kind of fight Illumi planted that needle to keep him away from?'

Killua had felt something was wrong before attacking. Tonpa had seen his body try to retreat.

And yet he had crossed the line anyway.

Then another possibility occurred to him.

'Unless...'

Tonpa's eyes settled on Killua.

'Maybe he wasn't overcoming his fear at all. Maybe he went in convinced he was faster and stronger than this guy.'

Killua's gaze never left the prisoner.

A moment later, he added, with none of his earlier indifference left in his voice:

"But he saw my attack."

"Saw it?" Leorio said, staring at the prisoner. "I didn't even see you."

Kurapika stepped forward but remained behind the line.

"He didn't merely see it. He was waiting until Killua came close enough to block him."

Tonpa swallowed.

In the original story, Killua had torn the butcher's heart from his chest before the man even understood what had happened. Here, he had failed to get past this prisoner.

Worse, the giant did not appear tired and had yielded only a single step during the entire exchange.

'All of this because I pressed O instead of X.'

Tonpa looked at the white line stretching across the passage.

'A one-percent divergence, and the price is a Nen user. I'm afraid to discover what I'll receive at two percent.'

The prisoner fixed his eyes upon Killua.

"This time, I merely sent you back where you belonged," he said, his calm voice more intimidating than his earlier threat. "Cross that line again, and I'll make good on my promise."



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[Pollyamorous]

The prisoner did not pursue him. He lowered his forearm and resumed his position on the far side of the line. His breathing remained unchanged, and he had yielded no more than a single step.

It appeared that he had not intended to injure Killua so much as return him to his place and prove that he could do so whenever he wished.

Click to shrink...

"This time, I merely sent you back where you belonged," he said, his calm voice more intimidating than his earlier threat. "Cross that line again, and I'll make good on my promise."

Click to shrink...

Oof, I was right, Nen user.

The interesting thing here though is that while he smacked Killua through the air with ease, meaning that he's at the very least a stronger fighter than any of them individually, he didn't actually go for a follow-up attack, and his attack on Killua was nothing more than a smack instead of a killing blow.

Knowing that the people here are prisoners who are working off their sentences he probably gets a massive reduction on his sentence for each hour he delays them, like how the 5v5 games were exchanging hours with years. And just like before, he probably can't actually kill them, because that cuts down on how much of a reduction he gets, and his drawing a line on the ground probably means that he also can't pass a certain point, meaning he can't go on the offensive. So the deck is actually stacked in favour of the examinees...

Except even though the rules are easy to figure out, that doesn't mean that they'll be easy to use intelligently, and at the end of the day he's still a Nen user who could cripple any of them with a single punch.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 37: Borrowed Experience

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Gon remained beside Killua after catching his arm and helping him regain his balance, while Kurapika and Leorio approached cautiously without taking their eyes off the prisoner.

Leorio bent slightly to examine Killua's shoulder.

"Can you move your arm normally?"

Killua rotated it once, then let it fall back to his side.

"I'm fine. I didn't take the full force of the blow."

Kurapika studied the point of impact before lowering his voice.

"Even so, you forced him back one step, but he stopped you and threw you all the way over here with a single move. The same attack won't work twice."

Killua kept his eyes fixed on the man. Nothing in his expression revealed whether Kurapika's warning had convinced him or merely irritated him further.

Leorio was about to say something, but Tonpa spoke first.

"Don't rush."

He approached with measured steps and placed two fingers against his chin, adopting the expression of a man who had spent his life analyzing opponents like this one rather than avoiding them. In truth, he needed a few seconds for his heart to stop trying to escape his chest.

All eyes turned toward him.

"Did you notice something?" Kurapika asked.

Tonpa looked at the prisoner, then at the line separating them.

"I think he's using Nen."

A brief silence followed.

Gon blinked.

"What is Nen?"

Leorio looked equally confused, while Killua narrowed his eyes at Tonpa. Kurapika's expression shifted from surprise to focused attention.

"How do you know that?"

Tonpa maintained his composure. He knew about Nen from the anime and understood its theoretical foundations, but knowing that a car ran on an engine did not qualify someone to repair one.

"Nen is a method that allows a person to perceive and control their aura. Aura is the life energy emitted by the body. The pressure we're feeling is coming from him. He isn't relying on his size alone—he's surrounding his body with aura and using it as protection. That's why Killua's attack couldn't hurt him."

Gon regarded the prisoner with newfound interest.

"Can you use it?"

"I know its principles, but I can't use it right now. And this isn't the time for a long lesson. I'll explain after we get out of here."

Tonpa cut the question off before it could lead him somewhere expensive.

'Once we're out, I'll have time to invent a convincing reason why an expert like me is helpless.'

Killua said:

"So you're an expert in theory and nothing else."

Tonpa ignored him and raised a hand toward the massive prisoner.

"His aura may protect his body, but it doesn't allow him to watch all of us at once. If we attack together and force him to divide his attention between different directions, we can knock him off balance and pin him down until he surrenders. No one moves alone this time."

He gestured toward the prisoner's knees and arms before continuing:

"We don't need to overpower him through strength alone. Gon keeps his arms occupied with the fishing rod, while Killua uses his speed to target his knees. Kurapika and Leorio pressure him from either side. If he falls, we stop him from getting up and force him to surrender."

"And what about you?" Leorio asked.

"I'll watch his movements and move in when an opening appears."

Killua gave him a brief look.

"In other words, you'll stay in the back."

"In other words, I won't ruin the attack by charging in blindly. Try to appreciate the difference."

Killua did not look pleased by the final remark, but he raised no objection. Gon and Kurapika exchanged a brief glance, then nodded. Leorio clenched his fists and took half a step back, preparing to charge.

Tonpa, meanwhile, took up a position a short distance behind the four of them.

The strategist needed a clear view of the battlefield.

And the coward needed bodies between him and the punches.

They advanced toward the line.

The prisoner planted his feet, and his smile widened.

"Didn't like my warning?"

"The path won't open until you surrender," Kurapika said calmly.

"Then make me."

Tonpa gave the signal with one hand, and all four moved at once.

Gon attacked first. He swung his fishing rod and sent the weight at the end of its line toward the prisoner's head, forcing the man to raise his forearm. The metal struck his arm with a sharp clang, but his body did not budge.

The weight rebounded violently, and the line pulled Gon a step forward. The boy planted his feet and swung the rod again, directing the next strike toward the prisoner's leg to keep him occupied.

This time, the prisoner lifted his foot and allowed the weight to pass beneath it before planting it back on the ground without giving up his position.

Killua appeared at his right side and targeted his knee, while Kurapika attacked from the opposite direction. The prisoner moved faster than his size suggested. He twisted his leg out of Killua's reach, deflected Kurapika's strike with his elbow, and shoved him backward.

Leorio charged through the opening that appeared between them.

"This is my chance!"

He drove his fist toward the man's jaw, but the prisoner tilted his head, leaving his shoulder to take the blow. For an instant, it appeared that Leorio had finally struck him directly.

Before Leorio could pull his arm back, however, the prisoner snapped his forearm outward. The back of it slammed into Leorio's chest.

Leorio was lifted off his feet and hurled into the wall. He struck it with a dull thud, then collapsed onto his side without moving.

"Leorio!" Gon shouted.

Kurapika turned toward him, his expression changing when no answer came.

He tried to reach Leorio, but the prisoner shifted half a step and extended an arm across his path, forcing him to retreat before he could get there. Leorio's chest continued to rise with labored breaths, but his eyes remained closed and his head lolled without resistance.

Tonpa should have retreated.

It was the correct, rational decision—and one perfectly aligned with his desire to remain alive.

But the prisoner half-turned to face Gon and Killua, exposing his flank to Tonpa for an instant.

An opening.

Tonpa's body moved before his mind finished objecting. Fragments of the body's memories surfaced: old brawls with applicants, a low punch, a sidestep, and a shoulder used to drive an opponent backward. They were not martial arts, but they seemed better than nothing.

'All right. This body has taken part in more than thirty Hunter Exams. It must have learned something useful.'

Tonpa crouched low and charged toward the prisoner's flank, driving a fist toward the soft space beneath his ribs. If he struck a vulnerable point while the man was distracted, he might give the others a chance to bring him down.

But the prisoner turned toward him at the last instant.

Their eyes met.

The courage that had driven Tonpa forward vanished, replaced by a cold fear that clamped around his chest. He saw the prisoner's fist shooting toward his stomach and realized he had charged straight into its reach.

He tried to stop, but his momentum betrayed him.

'No—'

He tensed his muscles and dropped his elbow to protect his stomach.

The fist arrived first.

BOOM!

The impact thundered through the corridor, and all the air vanished from Tonpa's lungs at once. His body folded around the fist, and for an instant, he felt as though his insides had been driven back into his spine.

He was hurled backward and crashed down onto his knees behind the line. His mouth hung open as he tried to breathe, but no air would enter his lungs. Then his stomach convulsed violently, and he vomited onto the stone floor.

Pain spread from his abdomen into his back all at once. He tried to draw a breath but managed only a dry cough and a sour taste in his throat. Even the Endurance he had raised to Rank D did nothing to dull the pain; it merely kept him clinging to the edge of consciousness.

He heard Gon calling his name, but the voice sounded distant. The corridor swam before his eyes, and the prisoner blurred into a dark mass that refused to remain in one place.

Tonpa tried to raise his head, but his arms trembled, and darkness began creeping in from the edges of his vision.

'Thirty Hunter Exams... and he never even learned how to take a punch?'

That was the last clear thought he had before the floor tilted beneath him.

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 38: An Expired Expert

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa did not lose consciousness completely.

He remained trapped in that miserable space between wakefulness and oblivion, hearing the voices around him as though they were passing through layers of water. The pain in his stomach spread with every breath, bringing the entire punch back with it—the fist, the emptiness beneath his feet, and then the ground rushing up to meet him.

"Tonpa! Can you hear me?"

It took several moments for the voice to become clear enough for him to recognize it.

Tonpa opened his eyes with difficulty and found Gon's face above him. The boy helped him prop himself against the wall, while Kurapika took advantage of the prisoner's return to the opposite side of the line to drag Leorio away from the middle of the corridor.

Killua remained standing between them and the prisoner, holding his injured shoulder slightly lower while keeping his eyes fixed on the man.

Tonpa drew several breaths before the walls stopped spinning around him. The pain did not disappear, but it settled enough for him to remain conscious and understand what was happening.

His gaze returned to the prisoner, and the name of a Skill surfaced along with the memory of what he had intended to do.

[Is That Your Mother?]

Tonpa's fingers tightened against the floor.

He had not forgotten it during his charge. On the contrary, it was the reason he had continued closing the distance. He did not trust Level 1 to buy him more than a brief instant. If he shouted the question from behind the others, the prisoner might recover before Tonpa could reach him.

So he had waited until he entered striking range. He had intended to activate the Skill, exploit the moment the man's attention shifted, and drive his fist beneath the prisoner's ribs.

But the prisoner had turned faster than Tonpa expected.

By the time their eyes met, the man's fist was already moving. The question froze in Tonpa's throat, and fear erased what remained of his plan. He had barely managed to lower his elbow and protect his stomach, and even that had accomplished very little.

'Wonderful. I moved closer to create an opening, so he saved time and made one in my stomach.'

Tonpa swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth and continued watching the prisoner.

He would not enter the man's reach during the next attempt.

The massive prisoner made no attempt to stop them this time.

He remained on the opposite side of the white line he had drawn, watching them with the confidence of someone who saw no opponents before him—only a group of children who had failed to understand his warning the first time.

Even so, he no longer looked exactly as he had before the fight. His chest rose at a slightly heavier rhythm, and a thin layer of sweat had appeared along his temples. The signs were subtle, but they proved that he had not emerged from their assault without paying a price.

"Nothing we did hurt him," Killua said irritably.

"He had to move more than before," Gon said, looking at the prisoner. "His breathing changed too."

Kurapika nodded after confirming that Leorio was still breathing.

"He's tired, but not as much as he should be after fending off that entire assault."

Tonpa swallowed the sour taste tinged with metal in his mouth. He had an answer, and for the first time since the confrontation began, his knowledge of the anime seemed more useful than the body's miserable memories.

More importantly, three people in front of him desperately wanted that answer.

He slowly raised his head, maintaining the expression of someone who knew more than he was willing to reveal.

"Your attacks weren't useless, but most of their force never reached his body."

Gon looked at the prisoner.

"Because of the aura you mentioned?"

"Exactly. Think of it as an invisible layer that softens attacks before they can hurt him. But maintaining it costs energy. That's why his breathing has changed and he's begun to sweat, even though he isn't showing any obvious injuries."

Gon looked down at his hands, while Kurapika continued studying the prisoner as though attempting to see the layer Tonpa had described.

A brief silence followed.

Then Kurapika turned toward him with a stare more unsettling than another punch.

"You said earlier that you couldn't use Nen."

'Of course he remembered.'

Tonpa rested his head against the wall, using his genuine pallor and pain as props in a new performance.

"I never said I knew nothing about it."

Killua raised an eyebrow.

"Are we supposed to believe you're some kind of Nen expert now?"

"I was learning it when I was young." Tonpa allowed the words to emerge slowly, as though each one dragged a painful memory behind it. "My family didn't train its children only in theft and lockpicking. A thief who doesn't know Nen users exist might enter what looks like an easy house, only to discover that its owner can kill him with a finger."

The lie fit neatly with the story about a family of professional thieves that he had already sold to Killua. The best lies did not require a new foundation—only another floor built upon a structure the customer had already accepted.

"Then why can't you use it now?" Gon asked.

Tonpa lowered his eyes toward his palm.

"The person training me forced my aura nodes wider and pushed more aura through them than my body could handle before I had learned to control the flow. My body was damaged in a way that left my aura flow unstable. I retained the knowledge, but I couldn't continue training or properly use what I had learned."

Killua stared at him for a long moment. He did not appear to believe every detail, but he accepted Tonpa's explanation for the time being and raised no objection.

Kurapika, however, asked:

"Why did you hide something like that until now?"

Tonpa raised his eyes toward him wearily.

"How did you expect me to introduce myself? Hello, I'm Tonpa, a former con artist and Nen expert who can't use Nen? I was trying to improve my reputation, not bury it permanently."

The corner of Killua's mouth twitched, while the answer seemed reasonable enough to Gon. Even Kurapika could not immediately refute it; Tonpa possessed knowledge for which none of them had a better explanation.

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull, and a blue window appeared before him.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 3.]

[Nen Points +45]

[Experience Points +45]

[Total Nen Points: 201]

[Experience Points: 1,641/1,800]

Tonpa's eyes stopped on the total number of Nen Points and widened slightly before he forced his expression back under control.

Two hundred and one.

This was hardly the time to celebrate, but he suddenly possessed one point more than he needed.

"Even if your explanation is correct, we don't know how to use our aura to break through his defense," Kurapika said.

"We don't need to break through it immediately." Tonpa forced himself to sit a little straighter. "Stop trying to hit him directly. Make him think you're going to. Use quick attacks from different directions, and don't remain within reach of his fists. Force him to keep moving and maintain his defense the entire time."

Killua understood first.

"We wear him down."

"And keep his attention divided," Kurapika added.

Tonpa nodded.

"Gon keeps him occupied from the front with the fishing rod. Killua pressures him from one side, while Kurapika closes off the other. None of you commits to a full attack until a genuine opening appears."

Leorio opened his eyes beside the wall and released a faint groan before attempting to rise. Kurapika placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Did... we win?" Leorio muttered.

Killua looked at the massive man still standing before them.

"Yes. That's why we're all sitting on the floor."

Leorio closed his eyes again while muttering a weak curse.

The three began taking their positions, and Kurapika drew his twin wooden swords. Gon advanced toward the line, while Tonpa remained propped against the wall, safely outside the prisoner's reach.

This time, he would not need to close the distance himself.

He opened the System interface.

[Is That Your Mother?: Level 1]

[Skill Upgrade Cost: 200 Nen Points]

Tonpa stared at the cost, then at his new balance.

Two hundred and one.

Level 1 had already disrupted Netero's rhythm for a fraction of a second. The prisoner before him was immeasurably weaker than the Chairman, but Tonpa did not know whether that difference would make the effect last longer—or whether the man would recover before the others could exploit the opening.

He had just learned how much pain accompanied the word "maybe."

As for Level 2, Tonpa had no idea what would change. It might strengthen the effect, extend its duration, or add something else entirely. The only certainty was that he was unwilling to wager his stomach on Level 1 again.

'A minute ago, I became a retired Nen expert. Now I'm about to invest my entire fortune in a question about the mother of a man who wants to kill us.'

His career was taking a troubling turn.

He pressed the Upgrade button.

[Skill Upgraded.]

[Is That Your Mother?: Level 2]

[Nen Points: 1]

A different kind of pain passed through Tonpa's chest. This time, it did not come from the punch, but from watching his balance plummet from two hundred and one Nen Points to a single point.

Killua gave him no time to mourn.

"Now!"

Gon moved first, sending the weighted end of his fishing rod toward the prisoner's face. The man raised his forearm to intercept it, but Gon pulled the line back before impact and redirected it toward his leg.

Killua appeared at the prisoner's right side at the same moment, low and close to the ground. The prisoner turned toward him, allowing Kurapika to lunge from the opposite side and strike the back of his knee with one of his wooden swords.

The blow caused no visible damage, but it forced him to shift his weight and retreat half a step.

The man growled, and the pressure of his aura intensified throughout the corridor. Killua hesitated for an instant, but Gon swung the fishing rod again and forced the prisoner to raise his arm. Kurapika moved toward his flank while Killua slipped beyond the prisoner's forward field of view.

The man began pivoting between them, blocking, retreating, and striking empty air whenever one of them withdrew before his fist arrived. His breathing grew louder, and more beads of sweat gathered across his brow.

Then he lost patience.

He ignored Gon's fishing rod and reached toward Killua, his feet settling for an instant into a stance that left him exposed from two directions.

That was the opening.

Tonpa raised his head despite the pain, fixed his gaze upon the prisoner, and activated the upgraded Skill.

"Is That Your Mother?!"

________________________________

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[Dacraun]

Tonpa explaining to everyone that calling out someone's mother is a distraction based nen ability that is embarrassing as hell but works is going to be funny.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 39: A Family Visit

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The prisoner's eyes twitched and slid to the side against his will.

His chin followed by a fraction, but the movement stopped halfway. The muscles in his neck tightened, and his feet remained planted as though they had taken root in the stone. His lips parted, and a broken sound escaped them.

"Mo—"

He cut the word short, then forced his face forward again. There was no shock on his face, only cold fury born from the realization that something had compelled his body to move—even if only for a fraction of a second.

Tonpa felt a smile tug at his lips despite the pain.

'Even you couldn't ignore it completely.'

Level 2 had produced a stronger effect than the momentary disruption Level 1 had caused Netero, but it had not robbed the prisoner of control. The man had resisted the skill and stopped himself before completing the turn.

Even so, his focus had wavered for a single instant.

And a single instant was more than Killua needed.

The boy lowered his body and shot inside the reach of the prisoner's outstretched arm. His palm slammed into the soft area below the man's sternum. The weighted hook of Gon's fishing rod struck the same spot immediately afterward, while Kurapika lunged in from the opposite side and drove one of his wooden swords into the back of the prisoner's knee.

A muffled thud came from the man's chest.

He staggered forward, one knee dipping toward the floor. A violent cough tore through him, scattering dark droplets across the stone.

Tonpa smiled despite the pain twisting through his stomach.

'Excellent. Now surrender, and we can all pretend this went according to plan.'

But the prisoner's knee never touched the ground.

He planted his other foot and arrested his fall, then slowly raised his head. A thin trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, and the pressure of his aura intensified until the air in the corridor felt heavier than before.

Tonpa's smile vanished.

The prisoner roared and swept both arms outward. Killua slipped beyond the attack's reach. Kurapika ducked beneath most of it, but the edge of the man's forearm clipped his shoulder and drove him several steps backward. Gon took the full force of the blow and tumbled across the floor before coming to a stop near the white line.

Then the prisoner turned toward Tonpa.

Tonpa understood the look immediately.

The one who had shouted had just become the most valuable target in the corridor.

He planted a palm against the floor and tried to rise and move away from the wall, but pain stabbed through his stomach and weakened his legs. He barely managed to lift himself before the prisoner crossed the distance between them.

Gon pushed himself off the floor and tried to intercept him, but the man knocked him aside with a single palm to the chest without breaking stride.

He reached Tonpa.

His massive forearm rose.

Tonpa's eyes widened, and he tried to raise his arms to protect his side.

'Not again—'

The forearm crashed into him.

Tonpa's body flew backward and struck the wall. Pain exploded from his shoulder through his ribs, and the back of his head hit the stone before he collapsed, unable to draw air into his lungs.

Through his shaking vision, he saw Leorio still sprawled near the wall, lost in a half-conscious haze. Gon was struggling to rise again, Kurapika was clutching his injured shoulder, and Killua remained the least injured among them.

They had inflicted real damage on the prisoner, but they had not defeated him.

More importantly, he had not surrendered.

The man wiped the blood from his mouth, then reached toward a small stone protruding from the wall beside Tonpa's head and pressed it.

A heavy mechanical sound came from beneath them.

Killua moved, but the floor split open before he could reach the man. Five separate trapdoors opened beneath the group, and the tile below Tonpa vanished before he could so much as move his fingers.

He fell into darkness.

His body struck a sloping stone chute and slid along it before being thrown into another room. His shoulder hit the floor, then the opening above sealed shut, extinguishing the final thread of light.

"Gon! Killua! Kurapika!"

Only the echo of his own voice answered him.

Tonpa crawled to the nearest wall and leaned against it until some air returned to his lungs. The green digits on his Trick Tower watch were the only source of light.

The countdown was still running.

They had not passed, but they had not failed either. The prisoner had not surrendered. He had merely separated them.

Tonpa felt along the walls with one hand. The room was small and bare, with no visible door or air vent. He slowly made his way around it, pressing every stone his fingers could reach. Then he called out again and pounded against the walls, but nothing moved, and no one answered.

Hours passed.

At first, he measured time by the numbers ticking down on his watch. Later, he began measuring it by the dryness in his throat, the throbbing pain in his shoulder, and the growling of his stomach, which grew increasingly furious as the silence continued.

His small bag was still strapped across his body. He opened it and felt the juice bottles inside, then stopped.

Most of them were laced with the laxative that had made Tonpa infamous, and a sealed room without a toilet was not the ideal place to gamble with his digestive system.

As his fingers moved across the bottles, a memory surfaced from the original Tonpa's mind. He had kept one bottle for himself without spiking it and tied a thin thread around its neck so he could distinguish it from the others in the dark.

Tonpa found the thread.

He opened the bottle and smelled its contents, then took a cautious sip and waited. Nothing happened except that his thirst eased, so he drank half and saved the rest.

'Even the original Tonpa had enough sense not to poison himself. A low bar, but still an achievement.'

By the time he had been trapped for nearly ten hours, hunger had become a separate source of pain, and he could no longer find a comfortable position for his body. He remained seated with his back against the wall, staring at the countdown.

'This wasn't in the anime.'

The route he remembered from the original story was supposed to lead them to a group of prisoners and contests that could be overcome through cleverness or voting. They were not supposed to face a Nen user capable of beating all five of them and locking them in separate rooms.

'That monster must be at least as strong as Hanzo.'

It was only a guess, but Tonpa had no better point of comparison. All he knew was that Killua had failed to defeat him and that a single punch from the man had made breathing feel like a paid privilege.

He cursed the one-percent divergence, then the left-hand door and Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio for giving it the majority vote.

He considered cursing Gon as well, but reluctantly remembered that the boy had been the only person who had voted with him for the right-hand door.

So Tonpa went back to cursing himself for becoming useful enough that the group would listen to him, yet not useful enough to earn a majority.

Without warning, a lamp above him flared to life.

Harsh white light exploded through the room after hours of darkness. Tonpa flinched and raised an arm over his eyes. Pain shot from his shoulder into his neck, wrenching a muffled groan from him.

Several seconds passed before he dared to open his eyes.

The room gradually emerged behind the dark spots clouding his vision: four bare walls, a stone floor, and nothing else. It was the same room whose walls he had felt and struck for hours without finding a single crack.

Then he heard stone grinding against stone.

His breath stopped.

The sound came from the opposite wall. Fine dust trickled down its surface, and a vertical seam appeared where none had existed moments earlier. The line extended toward the floor before an entire section of the wall slowly slid inward.

A dimly lit passage opened beyond it.

No one appeared at first.

Tonpa stared into the opening as his heartbeat quickened. His hand swept across the floor in search of something he could use as a weapon, but all it found was the juice bottle.

'Perhaps it's one of the examiners.'

He did not believe the thought even as he clung to it.

A heavy footstep came from beyond the opening. A foot appeared, followed by a thick leg covered by the rough fabric of a prisoner's uniform. A large hand settled against the edge of the doorway, and its owner ducked slightly to pass through.

Tonpa's eyes widened.

He recognized the man by his build before seeing his face—the breadth of his shoulders and the way his body filled the entrance, blocking most of the light behind him.

Tonpa's stomach clenched, and the pain from the first punch came rushing back.

'No.'

The man entered and raised his face toward him while most of his body remained shrouded in the doorway's shadow.

Blood had dried at the corner of his mouth, and a dark bruise had spread below his sternum where their combined attack had landed. The injury did not make him look any less dangerous. It made him look like someone who had spent the past ten hours thinking about the person responsible for it.

The prisoner.

Tonpa tried to stand quickly, but his shoulder betrayed him. His hand slipped, and he nearly fell. He forced his legs to support him and retreated until his back struck the opposite wall.

The stone door remained open behind the man.

But his body filled the entire entrance, making the existence of an escape route little different from having none at all.

Tonpa's eyes moved between him and the empty walls. There was nowhere to run. No Gon to charge in front of him, no Killua to attack from the side, and no Kurapika to devise a plan.

The prisoner took a step forward.

Tonpa tried to retreat despite his back already being pressed against the wall.

A slow smile spread across the man's face.

"Listen..." Tonpa's voice came out rougher than he intended. "I think what happened between us was a simple misunderstanding."

The man stopped several steps away.

"My mother."

Those two words silenced Tonpa.

The prisoner tilted his head slightly.

"You made my eyes shift and my head turn against my will in front of everyone."

"It was a distraction." Tonpa tried to produce a smile, but the muscles in his face refused to cooperate. "Nothing more than a psychological trick. I didn't mean anything personal about your mother. I have the deepest respect for all mothers."

The man's smile widened.

"I know."

The answer brought Tonpa no relief.

The prisoner continued forward until only an arm's length separated them, then extended his enormous hand toward Tonpa's uninjured shoulder.

"Come with me."

Tonpa stared at the hand, then slowly raised his eyes toward the man's face.

The prisoner leaned closer and whispered:

"I'll show you where my mother is."



________________________________

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[Lewdhandholding]

The prisoner leaned closer and whispered:

"I'll show you where my mother is."

Click to shrink...

6ft under. GG.