Lu Ou carefully avoided the traps along the road, moving steadily toward his predetermined destination. As for the Man-Faced Ape, he was confident that as long as he didn't need it, it would never be able to find him.
He remembered that in the original storyline, when Kurapika and Gon were tracking Hisoka and Leorio, they had stepped on a Sloth Frog. That meant they had passed through the Sloth Frog's territory.
After thinking it through, Lu Ou realized that spending a great deal of mental energy searching again for the second test site would be inefficient. It would be better to conserve his strength and go directly to meet up with Gon and the others. After all, Gon did eventually make it to the second test site.
"Good thing I activated my cheat," Lu Ou thought. "With Nen, all five senses are massively enhanced. My body feels lighter and more agile. Combined with the stamina I built up from those two marathon runs, this level of walking is completely manageable."
Lu Ou never could have imagined that in such a short time, he would transform from a weakling into something almost inhuman. Nen truly was the ultimate cheat in the Hunter world.
"Ribbit, ribbit—"
Hearing the distant croaking of frogs, Lu Ou knew he was close to his destination. Scanning the area, he spotted a tall, sturdy tree and decided to play Tarzan for a while—perching up there to wait for Gon and the others.
"Sniff, sniff."
"This way," Gon said, repeatedly sniffing the lingering scent in the air as he pushed aside the brush and signaled for Kurapika to follow.
"Gon, you're that sure?" Kurapika asked. Watching Gon simply sniff the air and decide which direction to go made him uneasy. No matter how sharp Gon's nose was, it was still human—mistakes were inevitable. Even the best horses stumble.
Still, with so little information to analyze and no better alternative, Kurapika had no choice but to follow.
"The cologne Leorio uses is very distinctive," Gon said confidently, though modestly. He even emphasized that it was the uniqueness of Leorio's cologne that made tracking him so effective.
"You really are like a dog," Kurapika said, at a loss for any better comparison. He could only liken Gon to the animal with the keenest sense of smell.
It was absurd, really—how could anyone distinguish a faint trace of perfume in a hot, humid swamp filled with countless overlapping odors?
"And look," Gon continued, pointing to the many animal corpses scattered along the roadside. "Most of these animals probably tried to attack Hisoka and were killed instead."
Gon didn't seem particularly disturbed. To him, this was nothing unusual.
Instead, he calmly analyzed the situation based on the bodies and inferred Hisoka's behavior.
"But I don't think Hisoka's goal is necessarily the second test site," Kurapika said grimly. "That man is a devil. He enjoys hunting people for sport. He might deliberately toy with us—and even kill us."
The memory of Hisoka impersonating an examiner was still vivid in Kurapika's mind. The cruelty and bloodshed of that scene were chilling, especially knowing there had been no way to resist.
"Even so, we can't abandon Leorio," Gon said. He knew Hisoka's actions were unpredictable, but no matter what lay ahead, they had to keep going—for Leorio's sake.
What Leorio might be facing alone was something no one could guarantee.
"…Yeah." Kurapika nodded. No matter how they analyzed it, the odds were bad—but rescuing Leorio was non-negotiable. That was their shared resolve.
Step, step, step.
No matter what awaited them ahead, no matter what danger they would encounter, Gon and Kurapika pressed forward. This was their responsibility—to their friend.
"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit—"
Just as Gon was about to step onto what looked like flat ground ahead, the earth suddenly bulged upward—a classic case of danger erupting from nowhere.
"Careful," Lu Ou's voice suddenly rang out from the dense foliage above.
Hearing Lu Ou's voice, Gon instinctively halted. In that single second, a massive blue-green Sloth Frog burst from the ground, its mouth wide open, waiting for prey to deliver itself.
Gon leapt forward, landing in front of the Sloth Frog and narrowly avoiding becoming its meal.
"Ou! What are you doing here?" Gon exclaimed happily, surprised to see Lu Ou. He had been planning to look for him after finding Leorio.
"I finished what I needed to do, so I came to find you," Lu Ou said as he jumped down from the tree and handed Gon a bulging cloth bag.
"Gon, hold onto this for me."
Gon accepted the bag without question. Seeing that it didn't require any special handling, he simply stuffed it into his large backpack.
Somewhere in the swamp, a Man-Faced Ape gnawed bitterly on its fingers, muttering,
"That's something this ape painstakingly sorted and prepared…"
Of course, Gon had no idea about the silent contributor lurking in the swamp, so he naturally stored away the neatly organized food supplies.
"How did you find us?" Kurapika asked, genuinely curious. In this vast swamp, Lu Ou seemed to move as if he had a built-in navigation system—going wherever he pleased.
This place was completely opposite from where Lu Ou had separated from them earlier. Finding it should have been extremely difficult. Kurapika himself hadn't even known they would pass through here. Moreover, Lu Ou looked clean and composed, without any sign of hardship, which only deepened the mystery.
Kurapika thought it over but couldn't come up with a logical explanation. In the end, it was best to ask directly.
"Earlier, I observed that the Wetland of Zevil Island has a 'dual-ring, seven-knot' structure," Lu Ou explained smoothly. "Based on Examiner Satotz's walking speed and direction, this location is where the seven knots intersect. No matter what, you would pass through here—so I waited."
"Dual-ring, seven-knot?" Gon asked blankly.
"You… observed it?" Kurapika was astonished. The swamp was filled with fog so thick that visibility was terrible—how could anyone 'observe' terrain under these conditions?
Still, Kurapika was a gentleman and knew when to stop. This was clearly personal skill or knowledge, and pressing further would be impolite.
"Dual-ring, seven-knot is just a way of categorizing terrain," Lu Ou said. "It's normal that you don't know it, Gon—it's my own classification method. I broadly divide landscapes into types like 'Scorching Mountain City,' 'Frozen Popsicle City,' and so on."
"That's amazing," Gon and Kurapika said in unison.
"Ou, you kept your promise and came to find us—that's really great," Gon said happily. "But first, we need to rescue Leorio."
"What happened to Leorio? Does it have something to do with Hisoka?" Lu Ou asked cautiously.
He couldn't just jump to conclusions and say Leorio had been taken by Hisoka. This wasn't a simple pathfinding problem. Without sufficient strength, reckless assumptions could only invite disaster.
In situations like this, Lu Ou was extremely careful. He had no intention of letting carelessness cost him his life. Only by staying alive could he achieve his ambitions—otherwise, everything would be meaningless.