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[Start of the chapter]
"Just look at this examiner. She came back completely unscathed from deep inside the Milsy Wetlands, a place that already eliminated more than half the examinees. And the scale she brought back has an especially deep coloration. That makes it very clear that this Big Horn Bear was absolutely no weakling. At the very least…"
Roy swept his gaze across the examinees around him. "The number of people here who could obtain a scale from a creature like that is fewer than five."
"And this scale is still so intact, with almost no damage at all. That means…"
Roy did not continue, but every examinee understood what it implied if what he said was true.
For a moment, nearly everyone looked at Menchi with open wariness.
Gourmet Hunters really were strong!
She really was strong, but…
Roy thought about the Big Horn Bear leader's corpse lying quietly inside one of his Capsules, the one he had taken down in a single blow.
At that moment, Roy remembered something and looked toward Android 18.
Android 18 simply shook her head.
The two of them began speaking in voices too low for the others to hear:
"Should we sell that leader's corpse to Menchi?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't like that woman."
Roy: "..."
All right. A woman's thoughts really were impossible to guess. As for Buhara, Android 18 had just finished negotiating the deal for the Great Stamp leader with him, and he had probably already been squeezed pretty hard. It would be a little too shameless to keep bullying an honest man.
Besides, you could not keep milking the same source forever.
Menchi was very satisfied with Roy's explanation and with the way the examinees were looking at her.
"So then, I'll let you witness a dream dish so exquisite that gourmets all over the world would drool at the sight of it—Horn-Scale Sprinkled Rice! Once you've seen it, you can all go back where you came from."
...
Even after Roy's explanation, the examinees still showed no reaction as they looked at the bowl of Horn-Scale Sprinkled Rice in front of them.
In their hearts, there was no way a single bowl of rice would make them give up their pursuit of a Hunter License.
Although Roy's earlier explanation had already established how powerful a Gourmet Hunter could be, there were still hard-headed idiots who believed in their own strength and refused to accept it.
That included Braided Man.
What followed was naturally a "friendly exchange" between an examiner and the examinees.
Then those stubborn fools were knocked down one by one by Menchi, ending up sprawled all over the ground.
"Menchi, that's enough." Satotz had originally just been watching from the sidelines, but once he saw signs that Menchi might actually go too far, he could not ignore it anymore. He had no choice but to go from spectator to performer.
"By now, no one should still doubt whether Menchi is strong enough to serve as an examiner, right? No matter what decision she makes, I, as the examiner for the first phase, have no authority to interfere," Satotz said.
"Then don't object. No matter who says what now, I absolutely will not change the results of this phase. Listen carefully. What I'm testing in the second phase is not just the level of your martial strength. I'm also testing whether you have the courage in your hearts to challenge the unknown.
"So even if the Chairman of the Hunter Association himself came here, dropped from the sky, and stood right in front of me, I still would not change the results!"
That declaration had barely left her mouth before it was on the verge of being overturned.
Menchi knew that if Satotz stepped in, then he definitely had some objections to the result. But with her stubborn, willful personality, she refused to accept that.
"But, Menchi, judging things this way and passing only one examinee is perhaps a little too strict."
An old yet powerful voice descended from the sky. Despite coming from so far away, it had not dispersed in the slightest.
"He's here!"
A sharp gleam flashed through Roy's eyes. This was the moment he had been waiting for. The blood in his body was already beginning to boil.
"Who's that?"
"What is that?!"
"An airship?"
A massive airship slowly drifted above everyone's heads.
"That symbol... it's a Hunter Association airship!"
Unlike Menchi, who looked both surprised and somewhat embarrassed, the examinees were all extremely curious about who this person from the Hunter Association was, making such a grand entrance.
The moment Satotz heard the voice, he knew who had arrived at the test site. He quietly stood to one side and waited to pay his respects.
Whoosh!
Boom!
The two sounds rang out almost at the same time, and a blast of air spread out from the place where the second sound had struck.
"I think I just saw someone jump down from that airship."
"No way. From that height? That's impossible."
"Look at the middle of the field—there really is someone there!"
Clearly, Netero had made one hell of an entrance.
As expected of the strongest man in the world, his first appearance carried overwhelming presence.
Staring at the figure standing in the center of the field, Roy felt his fingers itch slightly. The world's number one, the greatest martial artist, the man associated with the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva...
He really wanted to exchange blows and personally experience the martial arts of the strongest man in this world.
As the gusts finally dispersed, the examinees were able to make out what that figure looked like.
He wore towering wooden geta, his hair tied back into a single bundle, and a wide martial arts robe, giving him the bearing of an immortal-like old master.
(End of Chapter)
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