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[Start of the chapter]
"No. The Examiner said what we made tasted awful, so we failed."
"We actually got off pretty easy," Killua cut in.
"Leorio ossan's was so ugly the Examiner just threw it away on the spot."
Leorio got hit by a completely undeserved stray shot and took critical damage to the heart.
"Shut up! That Examiner is way too weird. Why the hell is the test about cooking? Who says a Hunter has to know how to cook? And we obviously made the correct nigiri sushi exactly the way it was supposed to be done, but she still rejected us just based on the taste and appearance. That's completely unreasonable!"
Leorio was far from the only one thinking that. Among the examinees Roy had seen sprinting around outside earlier, some had clearly already built up quite a bit of anger.
"Where is your heart? Where exactly is your heart?" Over there, Menchi was still clutching Hanzo and unleashing a full-blown sermon, nearly talking him into a daze.
While Menchi kept rambling on and on, the examinees returned one after another, each carrying a large fish in hand.
At first, Gon's group of four, Killua included, had managed to make sushi that at least barely met the standard in appearance, but the taste did not pass, so they were defeated in the first round.
Later, Hanzo also let slip the method for making nigiri sushi. By then, almost all the examinees had returned to the venue, and after observing for a while, every single one of them presented their own sushi.
Hanzo also took the opportunity to finally free himself from Menchi's endless lecturing.
"Terrible."
"Is this nigiri sushi or a rice ball? There's barely any meat!"
"No good. The rice is packed too tightly!"
"It looks awful. Make it again!"
"Doesn't taste good. Failed!"
Although every examinee had presented sushi that looked fairly decent, the taste was clearly mediocre at best.
And Menchi had fallen back into her old picky habits, so more and more people were judged unqualified.
Buhara saw Menchi becoming harsher and harsher and wanted to say something to remind her, but he was afraid of getting beaten up by her, so all he could do was stand there hesitating.
Because they had Roy as their anchor, and because Nen itself gave them a baseline of confidence, Gon and the others were not as anxious about the exam as they had been in the original version.
Instead, they all stood to one side calmly and watched the situation unfold.
"Judging whether someone passes an exam based solely on taste is completely unreasonable," Kurapika said, shaking his head.
At the rate Menchi was going, there was no way she could select Hunters who were truly suitable.
"That's why the Hunter Association definitely won't just ignore this."
Roy looked toward Satotz, who was standing by the entrance shaking his head, and pulled out his phone.
Gon and the others followed Roy's gaze.
"That person is… Satotz-san?"
"Yeah, it's him. That distinctive little mustache makes it obvious."
"He seems to be calling someone on his phone."
"He's probably calling the Hunter Association. Right, the Hunter Exam can't be allowed to go on like this."
The moment they saw what Satotz was doing, Gon and the others immediately felt relieved.
Inside the venue, after Menchi had tasted sushi from practically every examinee, she poured herself a cup of tea and began sipping it slowly.
Clack.
"My apologies, but I'm full already," Menchi said with a light smile after blowing on her tea.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Many examinees already knew the answer in their hearts, but they still could not stop themselves from asking.
"It means…" Menchi said with narrowed smiling eyes, "just as I expected, only two people passed, while all the rest of you failed. Understand? You're welcome to come again next time."
She waved her hand casually.
Seeing Menchi announce the result so lightly, the expressions on the examinees' faces all changed, and the atmosphere began to tense up.
"As expected…" Buhara sighed inwardly. He had known it would end like this.
There was no way the examinees would accept it.
And the facts proved Buhara right.
The examinees began to stir. No one was willing to be eliminated for something this absurd. If they could not make it, that was one thing. But they had made it, and now they were still being eliminated for all kinds of taste-related reasons. This was not a chef selection. On what grounds were they being failed?!
Menchi had already begun calling the Association to report the results, but then they saw her hang up with an unhappy look on her face.
"This exam is way too much of a joke," Killua said, both hands behind his head. "If the Hunter Exam really ends up being decided like this, then it's totally pointless."
"That's why Satotz-san made that call. Someone should be here soon to deal with it," Kurapika said.
"But in the time it takes for someone to get here, are you sure this group of examinees won't cause trouble?" Leorio was already starting to feel the situation slipping out of control.
And they had to remember that this year's examinees included monsters like Hisoka and Illumi Zoldyck.
The moment Menchi started judging by taste, her identity as a Gourmet Hunter had overshadowed her role as an Examiner, causing the meaning of the test itself to collapse.
This was exactly the kind of thing meant by being too close to the matter to see it clearly.
Over there, some of the examinees had already begun taking action.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, a cooking station was smashed cleanly into two pieces with a single punch.
The one who destroyed it was a strong, braid-wearing man dressed in purple.
And really, there was no helping it. Anyone who had come to the exam full of confidence, only to be eliminated right at the start for such a ridiculous reason, would not be in a good mood.
(End of Chapter)
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