"Rustle, rustle."
After the Quizzing Lady was dragged out by Leorio, waves of clothes brushing against each other began to sound from all around them. One after another, many small figures appeared, all draped in loose white robes and wearing long hair. Several holes had been cut into the robes, exposing only their eyes and noses. Short in stature, they directly surrounded the group of five, clearly with no intention of letting them pass through the town so easily.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump.
The sound kept repeating over and over. They neither spoke nor moved aside, and it was enough to make anyone irritated.
"Hey, obaa-san, if we answer your question correctly, will you let us pass?"
Leorio had a short temper and could not stand the noisy atmosphere any longer, so he finally spoke up.
Hearing that, the Quizzing Lady had just opened her mouth to explain the rules, only to swallow the words back down at once. She looked genuinely surprised.
"How did you know the rules?"
"That's none of your business. Just ask the question already."
"...Very well. Then it will be a heartbeat two-choice quiz! You may only answer with one of the designated answers. Any other answer will be considered wrong."
"Wait a second. Are the five of us answering a single question together?" Leorio asked.
"Wouldn't that be faster?" the Quizzing Lady replied.
"But if he gets it wrong, wouldn't that drag me down with him and make me fail too?" Leorio said suspiciously, pointing at Kurapika.
It was hard to say where Leorio got the confidence to compare himself to Kurapika in terms of intelligence.
Actually, back when Roy watched the anime in his previous life, he had liked Leorio quite a bit. His instincts and talent could not compare to Gon's, his intelligence and composure could not compare to Kurapika's, and his mysterious background could not compare to Killua Zoldyck's, so Leorio did not stand out much in the early stages. But courage, integrity, intelligence, calmness—he actually possessed all of those qualities.
Kurapika, meanwhile, had never been known for having an especially patient temper. He immediately shot back, "As if that would happen. On the contrary, the possibility of you dragging me down is so high it makes me want to cry."
"But if just one out of the five of us gets it right, that's enough, isn't it? I'm not very good at answering questions, but with Roy here, I'm sure we'll get it right," Gon cut in confidently.
At those words, Kurapika and Leorio stopped bickering. Both of them turned at the same time to look at Roy, who was standing calmly beside Gon, then exchanged glances and nodded in complete agreement.
"Hm?" The Quizzing Lady looked at Roy in surprise.
In a team, if everyone trusted and acknowledged one person to that extent, then either they had gone through years of working together—or that person possessed some utterly convincing, extraordinary ability.
"Your son and daughter have both been kidnapped by bad people. You can only save one. Which do you choose to save? 1. Daughter 2. Son."
The Quizzing Lady asked the question through her buck teeth.
The moment Leorio heard it, he immediately flared up and almost opened his mouth to protest. But after glancing at Roy, he forcibly swallowed his words.
Android 18, standing at the very back of the group, seemed thoughtful.
Roy, meanwhile, merely smiled faintly. He stepped forward and said evenly,
"Obaa-san, you should be a Hunter Association staff member responsible for screening whether people are qualified to take the official exam, right?"
The Quizzing Lady fell silent. Her silence and lack of denial were as good as an admission.
"Since you're only screening qualifications, then there's no need to answer the question. How about this—tell me whether I'm qualified."
Roy directly released a trace of his own aura, aimed only at the Quizzing Lady, and then instantly withdrew it.
The Quizzing Lady's eyes widened at once. A bead of cold sweat slid down her forehead.
"That's right, there's no need. You all pass."
The moment her words fell, two masked figures with colorful hair stepped out from the crowd. They walked to the left and together pushed open a pair of large doors, revealing a dim and lengthy tunnel beyond.
"Let's go."
Roy led Leorio and the others, who were still completely dumbfounded, into the tunnel.
The Quizzing Lady watched their group disappear inside, her heart still pounding violently.
"That terrifying aura just now… I think I saw… a god~"
Inside the tunnel—
Gon could no longer suppress his curiosity and asked Roy, "Hey, Roy, what did you do just now? Why did that obaa-san let us through so easily?"
Leorio also wanted to ask the same question, but Kurapika, standing beside him, gave the answer first.
"I think it was Nen."
"Nen?"
"Yes. According to what Roy told us, the official way to acquire Nen abilities is to have it taught by people from the Hunter Association after passing the Hunter Exam. But that obaa-san was only screening whether people were qualified to participate in the Hunter Exam. What Roy did just now was probably show her the presence of Nen, so she concluded that we had already learned Nen in advance and were more than qualified to take the exam. That's why she let us pass."
"Oh, so that's how it is!"
The two of them suddenly understood.
Roy neither confirmed nor denied it. What he had released just now was not merely Nen—it had also contained the presence of Ki from Dragon Ball.
"In that case, the person under the cedar tree who leads people to the Hunter Exam venue should also be an examiner responsible for screening qualifications, right? Then when we get there, if we release our Nen abilities, we should be able to pass directly too."
Gon quickly drew the inference.
(End of Chapter)
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