Chapter 483 The Exam Begins

Nicholas took a deep breath to steady himself, glanced at the examinees who were already quite a distance away, and then turned back to Leorio and the others.

"It seems you all know nothing about the 'mechanics' of the Hunter Exam. But unfortunately, the test has already started, and I don't have time to explain."

After saying that, Nicholas hugged his computer tightly and quickly caught up with the main group.

Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio exchanged glances, then shrugged off their questions and followed.

Killua lingered at the back, slowly pulling his gaze away from Hisoka before tossing his skateboard on the ground.

All the examinees followed closely behind Satotz, including Moses, who controlled his pace and stayed in the middle of the group.

'So Shizuku couldn't locate the testing location...'

Looking back at the elevator room that was now fading into the darkness, Moses pondered silently.

Out of professional integrity, he and Menchi couldn't offer Shizuku any direct assistance, but they also believed that Shizuku could find the location of the first phase based on the clues.

However-

Judging by the outcome, Shizuku had failed to arrive before sign-in time ended, and it was impossible for Moses to use his phone to ask Shizuku what was going on under such circumstances.

Meanwhile-

Out on the streets of Zaban City, a short-haired girl with glasses rested a finger on her chin, mumbling something under her breath.

Passersby on the street walked past the short-haired girl, and could vaguely hear words like 'Was it Tsubashi Street he mentioned?', 'Was the address in three digits?', 'I remember it was 2-5…but what was the last digit?'

"No choice, I'll have to go back and ask him again."

With her brow furrowed in mild frustration, Shizuku gave up on recalling the exact address and decided to track down the person who'd given her the information.

'By the way, what time does the registration end...'

As Shizuku retraced her steps, she pondered this question.

After spending more than an hour, Shizuku finally got the last number from the person who provided the location information.

"It was 10, huh?"

Then, under the person's bewildered stare, she dashed off to '2-5-10' position.

This time, she successfully arrived at the restaurant and swiftly pushed the door open.

The owner, who was cooking in the open kitchen, glanced at Shizuku when he heard the voice, thinking that the other party was a customer, and said, "Welcome, what would you like to eat?"

"…"

Shizuku looked at the owner and suddenly fell into deep thought.

'Wait…'

'It should be a secret code.'

'But what is the secret code?'

Shizuku kept trying to recall it.

The owner, while dishing out a freshly cooked plate of beef fried rice, gave Shizuku a puzzled look.

'Could it be that she have difficulty making decisions and don't know what to eat?'

Since the Hunter Exam had already been underway for nearly three hours, he couldn't even imagine that this girl was actually here to sign in for the exam.

Unaware of the owner's assumptions, Shizuku continued straining to remember the secret code.

…

Underground passage.

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed all around.

The test content of the first phase is simple, the examinees just have to follow Satotz to the location of the second phase t.

However, Satotz provided no hints about the destination or how long the journey would take. So all the examinees could do was keep pace with him.

This seemingly endless run had lasted six hours, covering roughly eighty kilometers. So far, no one had dropped out.

Nicholas, who was expected to be the first to fail, had managed to keep up thanks to Killua lending him his skateboard as payment for information on Moses.

Moses blended in with the large group.

Although the essence of this phase was a straightforward test of endurance and willpower, Moses, fulfilling his examiner duties, still evaluated each examinee's performance, giving them a basic score.

During the scoring process, Moses also accidentally overheard part of the conversation between Killua and Gon.

"My dad is a Pro Hunter, so my goal is to become a Pro Hunter like him and find him!"

"Really? Then our reasons for wanting to be Pro Hunters are quite similar."

"That Blacklist Hunter named Moses… is he your dad, Killua?"

"No, but my goal is to become a Blacklist Hunter like him and then track him down."

"Wow, that's really similar."

"Right? Haha… but I have another goal too."

"What's that?"

"Once I become a Blacklist Hunter, I will capture all my family members in one fell swoop. I bet each one of them has a pretty high bounty on their head."

"…"

Listening to the conversation that was gradually fading away, Moses couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.

'So, Killua wanted to become a Blacklist Hunter like me, huh?'

'If Killua really packs up the whole Zoldyck Family and sent them to a bounty exchange site one day...'

'The picture is so beautiful that it is hard to imagine.'

After a long run, the group of examinees arrived at thousands-step staircase leading to the surface.

Upon reaching here, Satotz abruptly picked up his pace.

Most of the examinees stumbled in their rhythm, struggling to catch up with Satotz's rapid pace.

By the time everyone reached the surface, seventy-nine examinees had fallen behind.

However, the first phase wasn't over yet. Next, they would have to traverse the Swindler's Swamp to reach Visca Forest Preserve, where the second phase of the exam awaited.

Satotz pointed toward the misty swamp forest in the distance, gave a brief introduction, and then resumed his marathon run.

Under Satotz's guidance, all 327 remaining examinees, including Moses, entered Swindler's Swamp.

'Strange, shouldn't there be any human-faced monkey coming to cause trouble?'

Upon entering the swamp, Moses glanced back at the exit. He remembered that in the original work, there are two Man-faced Apes trying to confront Satotz, accusing him of being a fake examiner, only to be swiftly killed by Hisoka's cards.

But nothing like that happened this time.

Moses didn't think much about it and continuing to observe the status of all the examinees.

At the swamp's entrance, two Man-faced Apes stood frozen, fearfully watching Moses's back as he departed.

True to its name, the swamp was a muddy, difficult path, adding extra strain on the examinees.

At this moment, the mist in the swamp forest became thicker and thicker, and the visibility around was getting lower and lower.

Moses watched the many figures in front of him gradually disappear in the thick mist, and then he seemed to have sensed something and glanced at the direction where Hisoka was.

He easily felt the killing intent coming from Hisoka.

This killing intent was naturally not directed at him specifically, but at the vast majority of examinees present.

'This guy... doesn't hide anything at all.'

Moses realized that Hisoka was about to start his killing spree.