[Hunter x Hunter] Scamming My Way to the Top

[Boumargood]

Chapter 14: A Con Artist's Luck


His eyes had not deceived him.

The number remained exactly where it was, no matter how many times he reread the panel.

[Host: Tonpa]

[Level: 1]

[Experience Points: 345/100]

[Level Up]

[Talent: E]

[Strength: E] [Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Speed: E] [Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Flexibility: E] [Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Endurance: E] [Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Intelligence: E] [Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Nen Points: 305]

[Nen Status: Unawakened]

Three hundred and five Nen Points.

Three hundred and forty-five Experience Points.

The forty-point difference was not a mistake. Ten Nen Points had gone into unlocking the Hunter's Lottery, and another thirty into raising his first three stats. Experience, unlike Nen Points, had remained untouched.

Only a few hours ago, he had been chasing rookies through the tunnel for a single point, often needing several attempts to find someone Tonpa's reputation had not reached before him. Now, he had enough Nen Points to raise three entire stats to D—or waste it all on three draws from the lottery.

The second option was worryingly tempting.

"Tonpa?"

He raised his eyes and found Killua still watching him.

"I asked what's wrong with you."

Tonpa loosened his grip on the edge of the table and restored a normal expression to his face.

"Nothing. I just remembered that I'm rich."

Killua looked at his clothes, then at the cheap bag lying beside his feet.

"You don't look rich."

"That's why I said remembered, not noticed."

Killua narrowed his eyes but did not press the question. Tonpa returned his attention to the panel and opened the point log. A long list of notifications appeared before him, arranged according to when he had received them.

Most of the entries were clustered around a single moment.

His speech.

He scrolled through them quickly, then slowed when he realized just how many there were. One point from an applicant convinced by his remorse, two from another who believed his protest, and three from someone who knew his reputation but had begun questioning their previous judgment. The entries continued until he lost count and had to rely on the difference between his old and current balance.

Two hundred and ninety Nen Points—and the same amount of Experience—had come from that lie alone.

More than ninety-five percent of the Nen Points he currently possessed.

'Hours of scraping together points left me with fifteen. One minute of talking gave me two hundred and ninety.'

He had been trying to deceive people one at a time when the answer had been in front of him all along. He did not need to search for a hundred separate victims if he could make a hundred people listen to the same lie.

'I should have lied to everyone from the beginning.'

He closed the log before anyone noticed his smile.

Now he had to decide what to do with his balance. Three guaranteed upgrades were the sensible choice. The Hunter's Lottery, on the other hand, cost one hundred Nen Points per draw, with a high chance of giving him something he did not need.

He knew how systems like this worked. The hope of winning the grand prize was what kept people paying after every loss. In his previous life, he had been the one profiting from that hope—not the one handing over his money because of it.

Even so, the image of the wheel returned to his mind.

'Just one draw.'

He did not believe the words even as he thought them.

Still, he made his decision. He would reserve one hundred points for the lottery and spend two hundred on guaranteed upgrades. Even if the draw gave him something completely useless, he would not lose everything he had earned.

As for the Level Up button, he left it alone for now. He did not know what the upgrade would do, and he wanted to test the changes one at a time. Pressing options without thinking was what had left him with a lottery he could no longer resist.

He rose from his seat.

Gon looked at him. "Where are you going?"

"To stretch my legs."

Leorio glanced at his stomach. "You're starting to care about your fitness now?"

"Regret changes a man."

Tonpa did not give them time to respond. He walked away from the tables and rounded the side of the building until the walls concealed him from the other applicants. Several crew members were working near the airship on the opposite side, and no one paid any attention to a man standing alone near the trees.

He summoned his stats again.

Endurance would be useful, and Flexibility might save him in confined spaces. Even Intelligence tempted him for a moment, for reasons he refused to examine too closely. But right now, he needed two clear advantages.

Speed, so he could run away from a fight.

Strength, for when running away failed.

He focused on Speed.

[Would you like to upgrade Speed from E to D?]

[Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Yes/No]

He selected Yes.

[Upgrade Successful.]

[Speed: D]

[Remaining Nen Points: 205]

A sudden warmth spread through his legs before climbing through his back and arms. His muscles contracted so sharply that he had to brace one hand against the wall, but it was not painful. The sensation was closer to parts of his body waking up—parts he had never known were asleep.

He waited until his breathing steadied, then selected Strength.

[Would you like to upgrade Strength from E to D?]

[Upgrade Cost: 100 Nen Points]

He confirmed the choice.

The warmth returned, heavier this time. He felt his shoulders and arms tighten, and his fists clenched with a force he had not intended. His muscles did not visibly grow, but the body itself was no longer the same one he had possessed moments ago.

[Upgrade Successful.]

[Strength: D]

[Remaining Nen Points: 105]

Tonpa moved his fingers, then stepped forward.

His foot carried him farther than expected, forcing him to correct his balance at once. His body felt lighter and responded to his commands before his mind could prepare for the result. For a moment, it felt as though he had been transported into another body for the second time.

This body, however, was considerably better.

He bent down and picked up a small stone. Placing it in his palm, he squeezed, expecting the pressure to hurt his fingertips.

A faint crack sounded.

Fractures spread across the stone before it split into several pieces between his fingers.

Tonpa opened his hand and stared at them.

'This is only D-rank?'

He raised his fist and threw an experimental punch into the air. His arm shot forward faster than expected, vanishing from his field of vision for an instant before stopping in front of him. He quickly pulled it back and glanced around to make sure no one had noticed.

The strength was real.

So was the speed.

He still did not know how to fight, but that had become a problem he could solve later instead of a death sentence decided in advance.

He had one hundred and five Nen Points remaining.

Tonpa opened the Hunter's Lottery.

The silver wheel appeared before him, surrounded by indistinct symbols and images. A golden pointer rested above it, while the Draw button appeared at its center.

[Draw Cost: 100 Nen Points]

[Would you like to proceed?]

[Yes/No]

Tonpa hesitated. This was his last chance to return to the tables with one hundred points still in his possession—points he could spend on Endurance or Flexibility instead. Nothing guaranteed that the wheel would give him anything better.

'Anything useful. A skill, a weapon, even a decent pair of shoes.'

He remembered the description mentioning items of limited usefulness.

'Just don't give me a spoon.'

He selected Yes.

[100 Nen Points deducted.]

[Remaining Nen Points: 5]

The wheel began to spin.

The images blurred together, transforming into continuous silver streaks. The pointer passed over a sword, then a book, then a blue vial as the wheel accelerated. Tonpa watched in silence, holding his breath despite knowing that staring would not change the result.

The wheel began to slow.

The pointer passed over a black mask and continued onward. It approached an image resembling a scroll, only to slip past it at the last moment. The wheel completed another half turn at an agonizing pace before finally stopping over a strange silhouette whose shape Tonpa could not identify.

The pointer remained still.

Nothing happened for two seconds.

Then a chime rang inside his head.

[Result Confirmed.]

[Congratulations!]

[You have obtained—]

 

[Dacraun]

Aaaaafkzvflfbzlfbzke.
I just found this story earlier today. Enjoyed it and watched it.
New chapter comes out and I'm excited.
Another cliffhanger to keep me hooked. Aaaaaaaaaaaah.
Hope you drop them chapters friendo.

 

[Despacitoleo]

You have obtained—]

Click to shrink...

Neferpitou

 

[Boumargood]

Chapter 15: The Grand Prize


[You have obtained—]

[A Special Skill!]

Tonpa kept staring at the two lines, waiting for a third to appear and inform him that there had been some mistake.

Nothing appeared.

He had actually obtained a skill on his very first draw.

It wasn't an ordinary item, an unknown material, or one of those prizes of "limited usefulness" the description had warned him about. Skills were among the best rewards the Hunter's Lottery could grant, and he had landed one after approaching the wheel with no ambition beyond avoiding a spoon.

He glanced at his remaining balance, then back at the result.

'Maybe being transferred into Tonpa's body used up my entire allotment of bad luck.'

He refused to trust that thought for long. Luck willing to hand him something this easily might simply be planning a more creative way to humiliate him.

A new window appeared.

[Would you like to acquire this skill?]

[Yes/No]

There was no reason to refuse. He had already paid a hundred Nen Points, and the skill was theoretically his. Even if it turned out to be useless, leaving it suspended inside the system wouldn't improve the result.

He selected Yes.

[Skill successfully acquired.]

A strange sensation seeped into his mind, far gentler than the heat that had accompanied his stat upgrades. No new information entered his memory, yet he instinctively understood how to select a target and activate the skill. It felt like recalling a movement he had practiced for years, despite being certain he had never performed it once.

Tonpa waited for the name of the ability luck had finally seen fit to grant him.

[Skill Name: Is That Your Mother?]

The smile froze on his face.

He blinked slowly, then read the name again. His gaze lingered on the final word, expecting the rest of the sentence to appear once the window made room for it.

Nothing appeared.

"Shit."

The word escaped before he could stop it. He stared at the wheel as it vanished, then returned his attention to the name as though objecting hard enough might force the system to reconsider.

'Is That Your Mother? That's the skill I spent a hundred Nen Points on?'

For a moment, he suspected the prize itself was a scam—something he might have respected if he weren't the victim.

He opened the description, most of his earlier excitement already gone.

[Type: Mental Distraction Skill]

[Cost: None]

[Uses: Unlimited]

[Activation Condition: Ask the designated target, "Is that your mother?" aloud.]

[Effect: Upon successful activation, the target will instinctively turn and search their surroundings for their mother.]

[The target's resistance increases according to their strength and willpower relative to the Host.]

[The effect may partially or completely fail against targets with high resistance.]

Tonpa reread the description, hoping he had somehow misunderstood it.

He hadn't. Again.

His grand prize was the power to make someone look for their mother.

'Who designed this system? A seven-year-old?'

The Con Artist System, the Hunter's Lottery, and now "Is That Your Mother?" He was supposed to become the strongest Hunter in the world and conquer the Dark Continent, while his secret weapon sounded like something children shouted before stealing one another's seats.

Still, he didn't close the description.

The skill cost no Nen, had no daily limit, and came with no cooldown. The only problem was that stronger targets could resist it, but he had no idea what "high resistance" meant in practice. Perhaps the target would ignore the question entirely. Perhaps they would turn for only a fraction of a second.

He needed to test it.

Tonpa stepped away from the wall and headed back toward the front of the building, but he didn't approach the table where Gon and the others were sitting. Instead, he stopped at the corner and studied the applicants, searching for someone weak enough for the skill to work and unimportant enough not to remember him afterward.

He found a thin young man sitting alone on a low stone, rubbing his exhausted leg while drinking water. He looked younger than most of the applicants and carried no visible weapon.

More importantly, he wasn't watching Tonpa with suspicion.

'The perfect candidate for an involuntary search for his mother.'

Tonpa approached at an easy pace.

The young man looked up.

"Do you want something?"

Tonpa stopped a short distance away and selected him as the target, just as the system had taught him.

"Is that your mother?"

The young man turned immediately.

He didn't merely glance over his shoulder. He raised his head and searched between the tables, then swept his gaze across the applicants standing near the building. It lasted less than two seconds, but the effect was unmistakable.

His body had moved before his mind could question the command.

"Where?" he asked, still searching.

Tonpa watched him closely.

"I thought I saw her."

The young man looked back at him, confusion seeping into his expression.

"Wait... Why did I turn around in the first place?"

He glanced once more toward the place he had searched, then frowned.

"My mother isn't here. I know she isn't here, so why did I believe that nonsense?"

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

"Good question."

He walked away before the young man could come up with a response and returned behind the corner. He had to admit the skill had worked better than expected. The target hadn't hesitated when it activated. He had turned first, and only after the effect ended had his mind begun objecting and asking questions.

Tonpa waited for the familiar notification.

Nothing came.

He opened the system log. His balance remained at five Nen Points, and no Experience had been added.

'He believed his mother was there. Where are my points?'

As if responding to his objection, a message appeared.

[No qualifying deception detected.]

[A response produced by the coercive effect of a System Skill does not qualify as deception or persuasion.]

A small hope he had refused to admit existed quietly withered away. For a moment, he had imagined asking every applicant the same question until the points piled up without end.

Apparently, the system had found the loophole and closed it before he could exploit it.

After reconsidering the scene, Tonpa understood why. The young man had never truly believed his mother was among the applicants. The confusion had remained in his eyes even while he turned. The skill had forced his body to respond before his mind could judge the question.

The system rewarded Tonpa for changing what a target believed, not for forcibly rotating their neck.

'At least it knows how to protect itself from con artists.'

He dismissed the log and peered at the young man from behind the wall. The applicant was still staring at him strangely, but after a few moments, he returned to drinking his water.

The experiment hadn't earned Tonpa any points, but it had changed his opinion of the skill. Forcing someone to turn wasn't impressive during an ordinary conversation, but in a fight, it could make a very real difference.

One second was enough to escape, land a blow, or tear something from an opponent's hand.

And in the Fourth Phase of the exam, when badges became targets, a single moment of distraction might be worth the entire phase.

The name was ridiculous.

The effect wasn't.

The real problem remained the target's resistance. Success against one exhausted applicant didn't mean it would work against someone with powerful will or someone capable of using Nen. Tonpa needed to test it gradually against stronger targets until he understood its limits.

He considered trying it on Gon, then discarded the idea. He had spent far too long raising Gon's Trust Level by five miserable percentage points. He had no desire to waste that progress by suddenly asking the boy about his mother.

Killua would notice that something unnatural had happened. Kurapika would add it to his growing list of reasons to remain suspicious. As for Leorio, he might turn around and then come back swinging.

Tonpa needed someone strong whose reaction he didn't fear.

Unfortunately, that condition disqualified nearly every strong person present.

His gaze drifted toward the crowd on its own.

He didn't have to search for long. Hisoka sat apart from the others, idly turning a playing card between his fingers as he waited for the maintenance work to end without showing the slightest sign of boredom.

The thought entered Tonpa's mind before he could stop it.

'Is that your mother?'

He imagined himself saying it and waiting for the result. If it worked, he would know the skill could affect even someone powerful. If it failed, he would learn where its limits began.

A single test could give him an important answer.

Then he pictured Hisoka turning toward him instead of searching for anyone else.

Tonpa slowly retreated behind the wall.

'Excellent idea—if I was looking for a faster way to die.'

He wasn't in that much of a hurry to discover the skill's limits. He would begin with people who could turn around without removing his head afterward.

As for Hisoka, he could continue searching for his mother on his own.

 

[Boumargood]

Chapter 16: The Red Ceiling

Tonpa waited until Hisoka had disappeared from sight before stepping out from behind the wall and heading back toward the tables.

He didn't hurry.

Running immediately after hiding was an excellent way to announce that he had been doing something suspicious, and Tonpa had spent enough effort over the past several hours presenting himself as a decent man. He wasn't about to ruin that work because of a skill named after a ridiculous family-related question.

He found Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio where he had left them. Killua looked up as Tonpa approached, then glanced toward the direction he had come from.

"Where did you go?"

"To take a walk."

"Behind the building?"

"Walking doesn't become a crime just because you dislike the location."

Killua watched him for another moment, then gave him a small smile that did absolutely nothing to reassure Tonpa.

Tonpa sat down and moved the bag of juice away from his feet. The man he had tested the skill on was still at the other end of the hall, occasionally glancing around with an irritated expression, as though expecting his mother to actually appear and explain why he had obeyed a complete stranger.

Tonpa suppressed a smile.

'At least the hundred Nen Points weren't completely wasted.'

He summoned the Status Window to check his balance. The translucent panel appeared before him, and his eyes settled on the five Nen Points he had left.

The number hurt, but he didn't regret his purchases yet. He now possessed Rank D Strength and Speed, along with a skill that might create one opportunity in a situation where he would otherwise have none.

He was about to close the window when he noticed a small button flashing beneath the Experience field.

[Level Up]

Tonpa stared at it.

Then he closed his eyes for a moment.

'I almost forgot.'

He had spent three hundred Nen Points, tested his new strength, tried the Hunter's Lottery, and then wandered off to ask a stranger whether his mother was standing behind him. Somewhere in the middle of all that, he had forgotten the only reward that hadn't demanded payment.

He focused on the button.

[Experience: 345/100]

[Level-up requirements met.]

[Would you like to level up?]

[Level 1 → Level 2]

[Yes/No]

Tonpa read the message twice, searching for a hidden fee or a penalty written in smaller letters.

He found nothing.

'That alone makes it suspicious.'

Still, he had no reason to refuse.

He selected Yes.

A soft chime rang inside his head.

[Level Up successful.]

[Current Level: 2]

[Experience: 345/600]

Tonpa waited for something to change.

His muscles didn't suddenly grow, nor did a new power surge through his body. He remained seated on the same bench, with the same stomach and the same Leorio staring at him as though his prolonged silence was further proof that he was planning something unpleasant.

Then another message appeared.

[Nen Path unlock condition met.]

Tonpa stopped breathing.

[The Host's body is now capable of learning Nen.]

[Nen Stats unlocked.]

For a moment, every other sound around him disappeared.

Nen.

This wasn't a minor increase in strength or a skill that made someone turn their head. Nen was the true divide between those who could survive in this world and those who died without ever understanding what had killed them.

Every dangerous person Tonpa remembered possessed it. Every objective the system had placed before him was impossible without it.

The corner of his mouth lifted before he could stop it.

'Finally.'

He no longer had to wait for a teacher simply to discover whether Tonpa's body was capable of learning Nen at all. Reaching Level 2 had opened the path for him.

Five years was still an insane deadline, but it no longer felt like a death sentence passed on a man who couldn't even see his opponent's weapon.

Tonpa opened the new section immediately.

Four fields appeared beneath a single heading.

[Nen Stats:]

[Ten: 0%] [10%]

[Zetsu: 0%] [10%]

[Ren: 0%] [10%]

[Hatsu: 0%] [10%]

[Hatsu Type: Undetermined]

His smile faded slightly.

The first values made sense. He had never trained in Nen, so he hadn't expected the level increase to hand him mastery for free.

What caught his attention was the second number repeated beside every field.

Ten percent.

All four numbers were red, unlike the rest of the white text on the interface.

Tonpa focused on Ten.

[Technique not acquired.]

[Development option unavailable.]

He tried Ren.

[Technique not acquired.]

[Development option unavailable.]

He moved on to Zetsu and then Hatsu, only to receive the same answer. No cost appeared, no learning button became available, and there were no instructions explaining what he needed to do.

'So it unlocked the Stats just so I could monitor my zeroes professionally.'

He tried selecting the red number beside Ten.

[No additional information available.]

He did the same with the others.

[No additional information available.]

His brows drew together.

He knew the four basic principles from the anime. Ten kept the aura surrounding the body. Zetsu shut it off. Ren released a greater quantity of aura, while Hatsu expressed the user's individual nature and ability.

Knowing their names didn't mean he knew how to perform any of them.

Watching someone swim didn't teach a drowning man how to breathe underwater.

He needed to open his aura nodes and train under someone who understood Nen. Trying to force them open by himself could injure him, and if his memory was accurate, it might even kill him.

That explained the zeroes.

It did not explain the red tens.

Tonpa reopened his full Status Window and compared the lines one by one. There was no development option beside the Nen techniques. The same percentage appeared four times. The number was red, and the system refused to explain it.

Then his gaze stopped on a line that had bothered him ever since he woke up in this world.

[Talent: E]

He remained perfectly still for several seconds.

A cold sensation began to spread through his stomach.

'No.'

He returned to the Nen Stats.

[Ten: 0%] [10%]

[Zetsu: 0%] [10%]

[Ren: 0%] [10%]

[Hatsu: 0%] [10%]

The system had never said the red number represented a maximum. It hadn't provided a single word explaining what the percentage meant.

But placing the same fixed number in red beside every technique, while his Talent remained at Rank E with no development option, did not leave him many comforting interpretations.

What if ten percent was the highest this body could ever reach?

The elation of leveling up vanished completely.

Tonpa was supposed to become the strongest Hunter in the world. The system hadn't merely demanded that he pass the Hunter Exam or learn Nen. It expected him to surpass monsters like Netero, then conquer the Dark Continent and bring it under his control.

With ten percent.

Even Gon and Killua, with their terrifying potential, needed teachers, training, and time. Tonpa might have started the race with a ceiling that didn't even reach one-tenth of the path.

He focused on the Talent field, trying to summon some option the system might have hidden from him.

[Talent: E]

[Talent cannot be developed through the Status Window.]

Tonpa felt his chest tighten.

'It allowed me to learn Nen, then told me I was destined to fail at it.'

"Tonpa?"

Gon's voice came from the other side of the table.

Tonpa looked up and found all four of them watching him. His expression must have changed more than he had realized.

"Are you all right?" Gon asked.

Tonpa forced his fingers to release the edge of the bench.

"I'm fine. I just remembered something unpleasant."

Leorio frowned. "You've been staring into empty space ever since you sat down."

"Thinking is a useful habit. You should try it sometime."

Leorio straightened, but Kurapika caught his arm before another argument could begin.

Tonpa didn't care.

His attention returned to the numbers no one else could see.

Perhaps his conclusion was wrong. The percentage might represent his current compatibility, or an initial value that would rise after he acquired each technique.

The system had offered no conclusive evidence.

But fear didn't need conclusive evidence.

It needed only one reasonable possibility, and that possibility hung before him four times in red.

Tonpa cursed the system in silence.

Then he cursed the body he had inherited, the mission that had never suited him, and the entity that had combined all three and decided to call it an opportunity.

'How am I supposed to become the strongest Hunter with ten percent?'

The system gave him no answer.

In the corner of the interface, the five-year countdown continued to fall.

And before his eyes, the red numbers remained unchanged.

Ten percent.

 

[Boumargood]

━━━━━━━《 ◇ 》━━━━━━━



Chapter 17: The Right Bait



━━━━━━━《 ◇ 》━━━━━━━


​

The four red ten-percent figures remained suspended before Tonpa until he closed the Nen Stats section.

The unease did not disappear with them, but there was little point in staring at a problem whose meaning he did not understand and for which he had no solution. Perhaps his conclusion was wrong. Perhaps it was not. Either way, neither the table nor Leorio's vigilant glances would tell him how to raise his Talent.

'I'll worry about my future after I survive today.'

He filed the problem under Later, where he had already placed most of the troubles he had accumulated since arriving in this world. The list was becoming crowded, but it was still preferable to the Dark Continent.

Before closing the interface completely, Tonpa shifted his attention to his physical Stats.

[Strength: D] [Upgrade: 1,000 Nen]

[Speed: D] [Upgrade: 1,000 Nen]

[Flexibility: E] [Upgrade: 100 Nen]

[Endurance: E] [Upgrade: 100 Nen]

[Intelligence: E] [Upgrade: 100 Nen]

[Nen Points: 5]

He could not learn Nen by himself, but that did not mean he had to wait for a teacher while walking around with a half-finished body. The coming phases of the Hunter Exam would demand more than running or cooking. There would be direct confrontations, the Trick Tower, and Zevil Island, where every applicant would become both hunter and prey.

With his new Strength and Speed, Tonpa was no longer completely helpless. But his Flexibility, Endurance, and Intelligence remained at E, and the five Nen Points he possessed were not enough to improve so much as a finger.

He needed another two hundred and ninety-five points to raise all three remaining Stats to D.

'So I need one more successful con—preferably one believed by a large number of idiots.'

The speech before the crowd had been an exceptional opportunity. He could not deliver an impassioned address about justice every time he needed points. If he tried it again tomorrow, the applicants would probably tell him to shut up before he reached his second sentence.

The main characters, however, had already proven more valuable to deceive than ordinary applicants. Earning their trust would also advance his Side Quest.

Two profits from a single lie.

Tonpa considered targeting Gon first, then discarded the idea. The boy's Trust Level had already risen slightly, and one poorly judged move might erase everything he had gained. Killua examined details for his own amusement and would notice the line before Tonpa brought the bait anywhere near him. Kurapika had taken apart Tonpa's previous attempt within minutes.

That left the person who announced his suspicions aloud before he had even finished examining them.

Tonpa's gaze moved across the four people seated with him and settled on Leorio.

The man still glanced at him every so often, as though expecting Tonpa to pull another bottle of juice from his bag and finish what he had started in the tunnel. The speech about justice had not changed Leorio's judgment of him, nor had it made him forget the juice. Even helping Gon had not been enough to earn Tonpa a chance.

On the other hand, Leorio was direct, quick to anger, and the easiest among them to push into action whenever he believed someone was in danger.

'Not the easiest to deceive... but the easiest to steer toward the reaction I want.'

Tonpa did not need to convince him face-to-face. He had already tried that, and the result had been a threat to force every last bottle in his bag down his throat.

What he needed was for Leorio to hear something he had never been meant to hear.

Words spoken directly to you could be lies.

Words you believed you had stolen were much harder to question.

The idea formed gradually, its details settling into place one after another. Tonpa needed people who knew the old Tonpa, a place secluded enough to appear private, and a reason for Leorio to follow him of his own accord.

He rose from the table.

Leorio immediately looked up.

"Where are you going?"

Tonpa gave him a look of feigned surprise.

"Do I need to submit a written request?"

"I don't care where you go."

"Then this has been a productive conversation."

Tonpa walked away before Leorio could answer. He heard the man mutter something behind him while Killua laughed quietly. Tonpa did not turn around. Leorio's irritation was even better than he had expected.

An angry person watched you more closely than a calm one.

He wandered between the tables, allowing the body's memories to guide him. The old Tonpa's memories were neither complete nor orderly. Sometimes they surfaced as a sense of familiarity, a name that entered his mind when he saw a particular face, or a sudden dislike whose cause he could not immediately recall.

He found the men he was looking for near the rear wall.

They were three veteran applicants who had participated in previous Hunter Exams alongside Tonpa. He remembered that one of them had spent an entire night playing cards with him, another had once helped him switch road signs, and the third had lent him money before spending the next two years trying to get it back.

Friends, by the flexible standards the original Tonpa had lived by.

Tonpa stopped before them.

The man with the hooked nose looked at him and gave a short laugh.

"Here comes the champion of justice."

The man beside him added, "Are you going to give us a speech too?"

Their mockery did not disturb Tonpa. He placed both hands on the table and leaned slightly toward them.

"I have something important to tell you, but not here."

The three exchanged glances.

The hooked-nosed man asked, "What kind of something?"

"The kind I don't want half the applicants to hear."

Their mockery gave way to interest. A terrible reputation was not entirely useless. Whenever Tonpa told men like these that he had a secret, they naturally assumed it was profitable or illegal.

Usually both.

He gestured toward a small table on the far side of the hall, partially concealed from the rest of the room by several pillars.

"Wait for me over there. I'll join you in a minute."

The third man—the one whose missing money still lingered in the body's memories—frowned.

"Why don't you tell us now?"

"Because I'm getting the juice first."

All three pairs of eyes dropped toward the bag hanging at his side.

The hooked-nosed man smiled.

"So you're finally back to normal. I was beginning to think you really had hit your head."

"Just sit down and wait for me."

Tonpa left before they could ask more questions. He did not need to convince them of anything yet. Curiosity and their memories of the old Tonpa would keep them at the table.

Now he needed a witness.

He headed back toward Gon and the others, but did not approach their table directly. Instead, he stopped beside one of the nearby tables and began studying the surrounding faces. He looked behind a pillar, then toward the passage leading to the rear of the building, behaving like someone searching for a person while trying not to attract attention.

He deliberately avoided looking at Leorio.

Tonpa passed their table a second time, now carrying three bottles of juice. As he drew close, he slipped them into his bag with a motion obvious enough for someone watching him to notice, yet casual enough to make that person believe they had spotted it by accident.

"What is he doing?" Leorio's voice came from behind him.

Tonpa slowed slightly, pretending to examine one of the nearby tables.

Gon answered, "Maybe he's looking for someone."

"He has passed us twice," Kurapika said quietly. "And he hid those bottles as soon as he came near. That did not look accidental."

"Maybe he found a new group to test the juice on," Killua suggested.

"That's what I'm worried about," Leorio said. "Or maybe he's planning something against us. Every attempt he's made to get close to us since the tunnel could have been a way to lure us somewhere or make us lower our guard."

"But he saved me and Killua," Gon objected.

"That's the part I don't understand. Tonpa doesn't risk himself without a reason. Maybe he wants us to trust him now so he can trick us with something worse later."

"That is possible," Kurapika said. "But following him alone may be exactly what he wants."

A chair scraped against the floor.

"I'm not going to confront him. I'll only watch," Leorio said. "Stay here. If he is trying to lure us into something, I'm not letting him drag all of you into the trap."

"I'll come with you," Gon said.

"I said stay here. I'll be back in a minute."

Tonpa continued toward the distant table without changing his pace. Part of the hall was reflected in the glass of a window near the wall, allowing him to observe the group without turning his head.

Gon remained seated reluctantly, with Kurapika beside him. Killua's eyes stayed fixed on Tonpa's back, a faint smile resting on his lips. Tonpa could not tell whether the boy was simply not curious enough to follow or whether he had already noticed more than he should have.

Leorio rose and moved after him, leaving what he believed was enough distance to avoid being noticed.

Tonpa's steps did not change, and he never looked back.

But once he passed beyond the group's line of sight, a small smile appeared on his face.

'The fish swallowed the bait.'


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Want to keep reading?

6 chapters ahead are available here:

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Your support directly helps keep the story going.

Thanks for reading!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 

[juicedmark]

Just finished binging the story so far, really loving it!

 

[Deidalous]

His lack of talent forces him to be reliant on the System and it's features.

Still, with each of Rank being ten times stronger than the previous, at a high enough point his Stat should compensate nicely for his lack of Nen talent.

-There might still be more to Level-ups though.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •



Chapter 18: Stolen Confession



• ────────── ◆ ────────── •


​

Tonpa did not look back.

He maintained the same pace, the bag at his side swaying lightly with every step. The same window he had used moments earlier caught enough of the hall behind him for Tonpa to see Leorio emerge from behind a pillar—then stop abruptly when Tonpa slowed.

Tonpa waited for a heartbeat before resuming his walk.

Leorio was trying to be stealthy, and that alone made the effort worth watching. A man of his height, wearing a suit and displaying every thought that passed through his mind on his face, was not ideally suited for covert surveillance.

But he was the right target.

Tonpa moved between the tables until he reached the far side of the hall. The three veteran applicants he had recognized through the body's memories were already waiting for him: the hooked-nosed man who had once spent an entire night playing cards with him, the man who had helped him switch road signs during a previous exam, and the third man, who had lent Tonpa money and spent the following two years trying to get it back.

The hooked-nosed man raised a hand when he saw him.

"Finally. You said you had something important."

Tonpa sat down, pulled the three juice bottles from his bag, and placed them on the table.

The third man glanced at the bottles.

"If you brought my money with those, I might forgive you for taking so long."

"I brought something more important than money."

"So you didn't bring my money."

Tonpa did not answer. He cast a brief glance toward the passage he had come from, as though checking that no one had followed him, then leaned forward and lowered his voice.

In the curved, polished side of a metal pitcher, he caught a warped reflection of Leorio stopping behind a nearby pillar.

The performance began.

"We need to stop."

The three men looked at one another.

The hooked-nosed man frowned.

"Stop what?"

"All of it. The juice, deceiving rookies, sabotaging their exams. We need to leave this behind and find another way to live."

A brief silence followed.

Then the man who had helped switch the road signs burst out laughing.

"Did you finally drink your own juice?"

Tonpa did not smile. He kept his eyes lowered and tightened his jaw by exactly the right amount—not enough to make it look like a performance, but not so little that the words appeared meaningless to him.

"How many times have we done this?" he asked. "How many applicants have we driven out of the Hunter Exam? And how many times has doing that helped any of us pass?"

The man's laughter gradually faded.

No one answered.

Tonpa continued.

"I started taking the Hunter Exam because I needed money. My mother was sick, and I couldn't afford the treatment she needed. I thought a Hunter License would solve everything."

He paused as if the next words were harder to say.

'A sick mother. Old, but still reliable.'

He had not chosen the story at random. Tonpa knew why Leorio wanted to become a Hunter. He knew that illness and money formed the shortest path to the part of the man hidden beneath his loud voice and quick temper.

"I failed the first time, then the second. After a while, every rookie who succeeded started to look like someone stealing my chance. I convinced myself that reducing the number of applicants would improve my odds. It began with the juice. Then I started enjoying the sight of other people failing, until I forgot why I had entered the exam in the first place."

The third man raised an eyebrow.

"You never mentioned your mother during all those years."

Tonpa looked at him, letting the weariness enter his eyes before it reached his voice.

"Because I didn't want to turn her into a story you could laugh about."

The man's eyebrow lowered slightly, though he still did not look convinced. The mockery, however, had disappeared from the other two men's faces.

Tonpa might have believed himself if he had not been present when the story was invented.

His voice grew firmer.

"Today, I risked my life for a child I tried to trick with laxative-laced juice only hours earlier. When I saw him worried about me, I realized I had become worse than the people I blamed for my failures. If we cannot become Hunters, then the least we can do is stop making certain that everyone else fails with us."

A window appeared before his eyes.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Targets Affected: 2]

[Nen Points +4]

[Experience Points +4]

Tonpa's expression did not change. He continued watching the two men as though their answer mattered more than anything else in the hall, while the faint scrape of a shoe reached him from behind the pillar.

Then came the second chime.

[Deception Registered.]

[Target Difficulty: High]

[Nen Points +15]

[Experience Points +15]

[Leorio's Trust Level: 0% → 3%]

Tonpa needed every year of experience he possessed to keep himself from smiling.

The important part had worked. Leorio had not heard an apology intended for him. He believed he had stolen a truth Tonpa had never wanted him to know.

After a moment of hesitation, the hooked-nosed man asked, "What do you want us to do?"

"Start by leaving the applicants alone during this exam. Afterward... find another way to live."

The man who had switched the road signs nodded slowly. The third man reached across the table, picked up one of the juice bottles, and turned it between his fingers.

"Beautiful story," he said. "I'll believe you've changed when you return my money and throw these away."

'One of them still has a functioning brain. Unfortunate.'

Tonpa took the bottle back from him.

"I said I had changed. I didn't say I had become wasteful."

A quick footstep reached him, followed by another.

Leorio was leaving.

Tonpa remained where he was and did not look behind him. He ended the conversation with a few terse words. The hooked-nosed man rose first, followed by the man who had helped him switch the signs. Their skeptical companion gave Tonpa one last look before joining them.

Within moments, all three had disappeared between the tables.

Tonpa stayed behind, arranging the juice bottles with unnecessary care as he waited.

Only several pillars and a short stretch of floor separated his table from the one where Gon and the others were sitting. The pillars blocked the view, but they did little to stop sound—especially when the speaker was Leorio, a man seemingly incapable of whispering without informing half the building.

"I heard him myself," Leorio said. "He was talking to his old crew and telling them to stop deceiving the applicants."

Killua's voice followed.

"And you were eavesdropping on him?"

"I was investigating his plan. That's different."

Gon asked, "What else did he say?"

Leorio hesitated before answering.

"He said he started doing this because of his mother. She was sick, and he needed money for her treatment. After failing the exam so many times, he began reducing the number of applicants to improve his chances. Eventually, he forgot why he started and turned it into a habit."

A brief silence followed.

Then Gon said simply, "So he really does regret it. I knew he had changed."

A notification appeared before Tonpa.

[Gon Freecss's Trust Level: 5% → 6%]

"Or he wanted you to hear that exact story," Kurapika said.

"He didn't know I was there," Leorio replied immediately. "I hid well."

Killua made a short sound that Tonpa could not identify as laughter or disagreement.

"I'm not saying I trust him completely," Leorio continued. "But what I heard wasn't meant for us. Even his friends were surprised. It really does look like he's trying to change."

Kurapika answered after a moment.

"Asking them to stop does not benefit him directly. That gives his words some credibility, but it proves nothing by itself."

"I still think he's suspicious," Killua said. "And that's assuming he didn't know you were listening. Still, dragging three other people into the performance just to deceive you would be a lot of trouble, even for him."

The notifications arrived one after another.

[Kurapika's Trust Level: 0% → 0.5%]

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust Level: 0% → 0.5%]

[Total Nen Points: 24]

[Experience Points: 364/600]

Tonpa waited, expecting another chime.

None came.

Apparently, the System did not count people who received a lie in someone else's voice, even when it influenced their judgment. It was only an inference, but his unchanged balance made it a convincing one.

'It accepts free advertising, but refuses to pay commission.'

Tonpa kept his expression solemn in case Leorio glanced back through the pillars. Only when he lowered his head toward one of the juice bottles did the corner of his mouth begin to rise.

He had not needed to convince all four of them individually.

He only needed to deceive the loudest one and let him sell the lie to the rest for free.



━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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6 chapters ahead are available here:

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Thanks for reading!

 

[Deidalous]

He technically has no recollection of what he's Tonpa's done, which makes his speech therefore insincere and technically deception.

 

[bambache]

Hm, Tonpa did risk his life on a regular basis, and if seeing prospective Hunters fail was the ultimate goal, it would really make more sense for him to work to become an examiner.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 19: Investing in the Weak

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa had barely concealed his smile when the hall door opened and a member of the airship crew appeared in the doorway.

"Maintenance is complete. We can depart now. Please board in an orderly manner and follow the crew's instructions."

The applicants moved all at once, shoving their seats back amid a wave of overlapping noise. Tonpa returned the juice bottles to his bag, rose, and merged with the crowd heading toward the door.

As he crossed the hall, he spotted the man who had lent him money among the applicants. The man was still watching him with suspicion.

'Annoying. I'll need a better lie... or I could repay him, which is clearly the worse option.'

The applicants boarded through the metal passage leading into the airship. Seats lined both sides of the cabin, and wide windows revealed the forest below. As soon as the door closed, the hull trembled, and the airship slowly rose away from the examination grounds.

Tonpa found Gon and the others seated near one of the windows. Gon waved the moment he saw him, while Leorio merely gave him a brief look that lacked some of its former hostility. The effect of Tonpa's deception was obvious. Keeping his distance now would waste all the effort he had put into the performance.

He approached and sat across from them.

Killua looked at him.

"Finished with your secret meeting?"

"It wasn't secret."

Killua glanced toward Leorio.

"Of course."

Leorio cleared his throat and turned toward the window. Tonpa decided to let him preserve what little dignity he had left.

"When we arrive, don't rush toward the edge. The mountain isn't dangerous because of its height alone. The winds inside it are powerful and unpredictable. One careless shove could send someone over before the test even begins."

Leorio regarded him suspiciously, but he did not dismiss the warning as he would have a few hours earlier.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm certain that falling off a mountain is bad for your health. Menchi can explain the rest."

The corner of Killua's mouth twitched, while Leorio reluctantly nodded.

'Three percent didn't make him my friend. It merely made him ask questions before insulting me. A respectable beginning.'

Curiosity lit Gon's face.

"Do you know how we're supposed to get the eggs?"

"I know Spider Eagles build their nests between the two sides of the mountain and suspend their eggs over the ravine to protect them from predators. If the collection method is the same one I heard about years ago, we'll have to jump, catch the nesting threads, and wait for an updraft to carry us back to the top. Menchi will explain the details."

Gon continued staring at him before asking the question Tonpa had been expecting ever since his speech in front of Netero.

"How did you know about the split mountain and the Spider Eagle eggs in the first place? You suggested this test before Menchi told us about them."

The other three turned toward him.

Tonpa did not answer immediately. He gazed through the window at the trees passing beneath them, as though recalling an old memory instead of constructing a new one on the spot.

"During my twenty-third attempt, the Hunter Exam passed through this region as well. I failed before reaching the Second Phase, but the pickup point for the failed applicants was near the examiners' camp. Our transport didn't arrive until morning."

Leorio raised an eyebrow.

"What did you do all night?"

"I pretended to be part of the service staff so I could get dinner."

The answer suited him so well that it required no acting. Even Killua did not question it.

Tonpa continued.

"One of the workers made me help carry supply crates in exchange for food. One of them contained Spider Eagle eggs. The man spent half the night bragging about how difficult they were to obtain and how much a high-end restaurant would pay for a single egg. He told me about the mountain, the nesting threads, and the updrafts that pass between its walls."

"If they were so expensive," Gon asked, "why didn't you collect some and sell them?"

Tonpa looked at him seriously.

"Because I love money, but not enough to jump into a mountain for it."

Leorio laughed, and Gon smiled as though the answer had settled the matter.

Kurapika did not.

"So you never saw the nests yourself. Everything you know came from a worker whose name you didn't even know."

"That's right. When I saw that the examiner was a Gourmet Hunter, I remembered the most valuable ingredient in the area. I wasn't certain she would accept my proposal, but the alternative was allowing everyone to fail."

Killua narrowed his eyes.

"And this worker told someone he had just met all those details?"

"He thought I was a new employee. I saw no reason to correct him."

Killua remained silent. He clearly did not believe the entire story, but objecting now required him to assume Tonpa had invented a worker, several supply crates, and an old Hunter Exam merely to explain information that had turned out to be correct.

A chime sounded inside Tonpa's head.

[Deception Registered.]

[Target: Gon Freecss]

[Nen Points +10]

[Experience Points +10]

[Deception Registered.]

[Target: Leorio]

[Nen Points +5]

[Experience Points +5]

Two smaller windows followed.

[Deception Registered.]

[Target: Kurapika]

[Nen Points +1]

[Experience Points +1]

[Deception Registered.]

[Target: Killua Zoldyck]

[Nen Points +1]

[Experience Points +1]

'They swallowed just enough of the story for the System to count it. Stingy even when falling for a lie.'

Tonpa dismissed the notifications before they obscured Gon's face. Their Trust Levels had not risen, but seventeen points for a story that had taken only a few minutes was still a good result.

[Total Nen Points: 41]

[Experience Points: 381/600]

The airship began to slow shortly afterward. The forest below ended at a massive mountain split in half by a straight ravine, as though a single blow had cleaved the stone from its summit to its base. Wind rushed between the two walls, producing a whistle that reached them even through the thick windows.

The airship landed near the edge, and the applicants followed Menchi, Netero, and Buhara outside. Several approached the ravine, only to retreat the moment they saw the darkness swallowing the depths beneath their feet.

Menchi pointed toward the thick white threads stretching between the rocky walls. Clusters of eggs hung beneath them, suspended over a void whose bottom could not be seen.

She explained that Spider Eagles chose places like this to protect their eggs from predators. Their task was to descend, retrieve one egg, and return to boil it. Anyone who refused to attempt the descent or returned without an egg would be eliminated.

Several applicants immediately protested. One asked whether jumping into a ravine truly belonged in a cooking test.

Menchi replied that a Gourmet Hunter incapable of reaching an ingredient did not deserve the title.

Her answer did nothing to restore the color to their faces.

Then she stepped onto the edge and jumped without hesitation.

Shouts erupted behind her.

Menchi caught one of the threads as she fell and remained suspended over the ravine. She reached toward a hanging cluster and pulled one of the eggs free, then waited until an updraft surged between the mountain walls.

She released the thread at exactly the right moment, allowing the wind to carry her back to the top.

She made it look simple.

The applicants' faces made it clear that no one believed it was.

Tonpa stood a full step back from the edge, watching the current tug at their clothes and hair. He knew what would happen if he allowed events to follow the course he remembered. A limited number would succeed, while the rest would be eliminated by fear or poor timing.

If he explained the timing of the updraft, more applicants might pass. That would alter the story again and could raise the divergence rate beyond 0.1%.

He could remain silent and preserve the path he knew. Knowledge of the future was his greatest advantage, and deliberately damaging it would be like tearing apart his only map because he disliked the road drawn on it.

However, the additional survivors would not all be strong.

In the coming phases, having weaker competitors around would be better than leaving the field to Hisoka, Hanzo, and the applicants with their strange beasts. Every weak person who passed now could later become an easier opponent, a target for deception, or simply a body standing between Tonpa and something trying to kill him.

'Preserve the future, and I face the strong applicants alone. Change it, and I get more weak ones.'

The decision did not take long.

The first applicant approached the edge, apparently prepared to jump without understanding what the current had done.

Tonpa stepped forward and raised his voice.

"Wait! There's something you didn't notice during Menchi's jump."



━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Want to keep reading?

6 chapters ahead are available here:

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Thanks for reading!

 

[bambache]

This is a massed opportunity to get major points while changing the road on the map!
Not like divergence is avoidable, I think the last time Tonpa showed up in canon was the exam after this one, when Killua clobbered everyone in the first round.

 

[Boumargood]

This is a massed opportunity to get major points while changing the road on the map!
Not like divergence is avoidable, I think the last time Tonpa showed up in canon was the exam after this one, when Killua clobbered everyone in the first round.

Click to shrink...

That's one way to look at it , but opportunities have consequences, and maps don't always stay reliable once Tonpa starts touching them.

 

[Despacitoleo]

maps don't always stay reliable once Tonpa starts touching them.

Click to shrink...

yeah they start squirming when you touch them