Chapter 244: Cheaters—Harsh Judgement—Dreams of an Army

Auren, knowing that this is part of the exam, remains calm as Palm begins to eliminate the first candidates. However, even a few minutes after Auren has stopped speeding up, Palm is still pressing forward, the space between them becoming thinner and thinner.Now, tens of candidates have been eliminated in just a few minutes.

“DEMON!”

“Go away, you ugly witch!”

The angry and scared words of the candidates, however, only enrage Palm more, causing her to speed up even more.

Seeing Palm eliminate more candidates in a flash, and noticing her crazed expression as she runs behind him, Auren grabs his radio, used by him and the Hunters supporting him, and yells through it.

“Hunter P., fall back! I stress—fall back. Don’t get taunted by mere examinees. Fall back now!”

“...” No reaction.

“I’ll tell Knov about this and mention what you just did...” Auren immediately switches gears, choosing to threaten his unruly assistant. Seeing as his voice is now calmer but carrying a sinister edge, Palm immediately slows down, almost coming to a halt.

“S...sorry...!” she yells, sounding genuinely regretful. “It was a mistake!”

“Just stay focused... until just now you did fine. Keep that up, and your Master will learn nothing except that you did a good job.”

Problem solved....

Despite the return to a normal pace, many examinees continue to drop out following the sudden sprint; the exhaustion is still too much for them, even after the pace stabilizes again.

Auren, carefully surveying the field with En, notices that a lot of candidates have already dropped out, so he slows down slightly, giving the remaining ones a moment to breathe.

However, suddenly, he notices a short, stumpy man, aided by a group of three taller, younger men, surrounding a single candidate.

I mentioned physical violence... aside from that, they can mentally do whatever they want to each other. In fact... time to slow down even more.

This is not supposed to be only about physical capability. There is no need to rush... slowly and carefully weed out the physically and mentally weak people, or more realistically, eliminate everyone except those who are truly formidable in both aspects.

However, much to his surprise, he notices the short man actually pressing his elbow into the man’s side, bouncing him toward the other three, who bounce him back, visibly hurting the targeted candidate in the process.

As they are surrounded by hundreds of candidates, none of the Hunters notice; only Auren, using his En, senses what is happening.

“This is examiner Auren speaking. I’m giving descriptions of four candidates currently exactly at the middle of the field... bouncers, immediately approach and disqualify them.”

A short while later, he hears a man yell: “Number 119, Tonpa, number 355 Amori, number 356 Imori, and number 357 Umori—you are disqualified!”

The field continues to move forward, leaving behind a pair of Hunters and the four disqualified men, who look genuinely confused and regretful.

I don’t even disapprove of them; this is the Hunter Exam after all. But since I announced no violence, I have no choice but to disqualify them—for my own reputation and credibility.

Auren’s exam continues deep into the night. Finally, when the sun slowly begins to rise, only half of the candidates remain, all of them looking miserable and exhausted, with only a few clear exceptions.

Still with no time to pause, the exam continues mercilessly, Auren initiating sprints from time to time, especially when he feels that the candidates have fallen into a stale rhythm, which causes many of them to struggle with the sudden change in pace. Others, because of the repeated sprints, suffer from cramps and are forced to drop out.

Auren sighs quietly as he hears Shalnark talking to Neffi directly behind him, the two of them now suddenly near the very front.

“Isn’t this a little unfair, little lady?” Shalnark jests. “You are an important and treasured friend of the examiner. Should I lodge a complaint?”

“Should I cut off your head and join your so-called Troupe? I heard that’s the way to get into it,” Neffi asks, sharpening and controlling her mantle, aiming it at Shalnark while using Ren, glaring at him coldly.

“How scary... that might actually be possible with your abilities,” he says, looking genuinely fascinated. “But violence is against the rules. Wouldn’t want to fail the exam, huh? Isn’t that right, examiner Auren?”

“No problem,” Neffi says, smirking. “He does what I tell him... He’s family.”

Her sharpened clothing moves closer and closer to the now seriously troubled-looking Shalnark, causing the man to quickly yell out:

“Hey, examiner, why did you give me that warning earlier... it seems completely unnecessary. How about you warn your little scary girlfriend instead? Aren’t we friends?!”

Auren ignores their foolish bickering and continues forward, unconsciously running a little faster, leading to groans at the end of the field.

From time to time, he uses the examiner radio to ask about the current status.

“How many are left?” Auren asks after around 10 hours have passed.

“441, according to the official count,” one of the Hunters replies. “We’re on top of the hill, and since you’re running a large circle around it, we can guarantee an accurate count. The chairman asks you to thin the field to at least 250 examinees, by the way. However, it is up to you when you finally end the exam. Once the exam has started, only you can finish it.”

“Understood, don’t expect me to follow that number,” Auren replies, speeding up just a little bit more. “I am the first examiner, and if I feel that less... or more deserve to pass, I’ll end it whenever I please and deem fit. Though I’ll do my best to roughly accommodate his wishes so as not to sabotage the others’ exams.”

Finally, after 16 hours, all of the examinees, excluding just a handful, look extremely exhausted, and only 260 are left.

Last round.

Finishing strong, Auren, after one more 1-hour lap, runs back toward the hill located in the center of the course, the exam still not ending, but the people perking up slightly as they notice the changed route.

Despite that, Auren and Palm, under his strict control, raise the pace one last time, turning the final stretch into a high-speed sprint.

At the end, a lot of people fail during the final minutes, the goal just before their eyes, leaving him with just 237 examinees.

Seeing Auren finally stop, the examinees collapse onto the ground, looking utterly exhausted, as if they’ve been tortured.

“It’s over...”

“Finally....”

“That was insane.”

Seeing Palm arrive with the last group of examinees, two actually fall behind her as she mercilessly runs ahead, leaving those two mentally broken as they collapse onto the ground just before the goal, finalizing the number to exactly 235 candidates who passed.

“D...damn... you...” one of the whispers before fully collapsing onto the ground.

Auren, showing no sign of any exhaustion, yawns before announcing:

“The first part of the first exam is over,” Auren announces.

“What?!”

“First part?!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“This exam is insane!”

“How is this anything but torture?!”

Auren smiles and addresses the complaining examinees. “The exam just started. If you feel like you can’t go on anymore, perhaps you should drop out,” Auren clarifies. “Though luckily for you, the second part of my exam is quite simple and I expect all of you to pass. In fact, it’s just a formality. Just like you were weighed at the beginning of the exam... you now need to submit your weighted vests to us, which we asked you to treat carefully. Line up in five lines!”

Doing as Auren demanded, the Hunters receive the vests of each candidate one by one, weigh them, and then cut them open, revealing blue sand inside.

A couple of Hunters actually discover some sneaky examinees with lighter vests. Auren himself, standing next to the Hunters conducting the weighing, notices how one vest was cut open at one point, losing about 20 kilos of weight.

“Hehe,” he snickers. “Nice try. Candidate 561 is disqualified.”

A few sneaky examinees, whose weights were just slightly off, are revealed to have replaced the original blue sand inside with gray desert sand, leading to their disqualification as well.

Took out the sand, had an easy time, and then sneakily grabbed some sand. Too bad, we thought of that already. My precaution actually paid off.

Looking too exhausted and embarrassed to argue, the examinees just collapse onto the ground, their earlier celebration and relief gone without a trace as they accept their disqualification.

After disqualifying 7 candidates for various attempts to cheat, the number of successful examinees drops to 228.

“The first phase of the 285th Hunter Exam... 228 examinees pass!” Auren declares loudly, also speaking through the radio, causing a loud cheer among the successful candidates.

Auren briefly looks at Shalnark and Neffi, who are standing close together, waving at him.

Under Auren’s urging, the Hunters, including himself, Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm, distribute water and energy bars to the examinees. Auren rejects the urge to briefly congratulate his two “acquaintances,” not wanting to damage his credibility in the process.

Thankfully, none of those who passed or failed are in any dangerous condition, leading to Auren and the other Hunters nodding at each other afterward, celebrating a harsh but fair exam without any casualties, many Hunters in the suits seemingly quite relieved by that fact.

Standing off to the side, the Hunters gather together.

“Good job, Examiner Auren!” one of them yells, while the others clap.

“Not bad at all!” another adds.

“No bloodbath... no sending letters to relatives mentioned in their applications as contacts... I love it!” a female Hunter says, looking relieved.

They have to do that after the exam? I guess... it is required... harsh.

“Stop it...” Auren says, feeling slightly embarrassed. “This exam has just started, act like it.”

However... it could have gone worse. This was more fun than I thought. I wonder how many candidates will end up passing.

After around an hour, Auren sees the Association airship approach and land on the hill, causing a wave of cheers to spread through the examinees.

“I want to sleep...”

“A chair... a couch... a bed... give me something.”

Inside the large airship, the top floor is reserved for the examiners.

In the medium-sized lounge, Auren joins the other examiners, who all nod at him as he enters.

“Not bad, kid,” Morel says, holding his thumbs up. “Despite Knov’s crazy student going out of control, you handled it calmly without even making a scene.”

“More mature than other Hunters I know,” Knov comments, glancing at Morel.

“Hoho, 228 candidates? I hope you didn’t let anyone unworthy pass.”

“Everyone left is physically and mentally strong enough to become a Nen user... in fact, I’d say it’s a waste to conduct more exams. Every single one of them would at least be able to become a fairly average Nen user if given a year or two of time... honestly, you should maybe consider a lower class of Hunter. One who still gets taught Nen and can still work as a Hunter, just not as a fully recognized one.”

“You keep repeating Pariston’s ideas... that’s not how Hunters are made! While unexpectedly effective, you haven’t seen everything there is about these candidates,” Netero says, pointing at him. “You yourself couldn’t be more different from those fake average Hunters you describe. Just take a close look, I am sure you’ll change your opinion soon enough. I sense that you are quite different from Pariston after all, who, I am sure, wouldn’t change his opinion even after what will follow. A large part of those candidates left are the exact ones he is hoping for will pass.”

“Pariston?” Auren wonders. “Whatever.”

Are my opinions really similar to his in some regard? What is Netero insinuating? Why does Pariston want them to pass? Are they... easy to control? Weak? Disposable?

Sure, I don’t view them as rivals... but they are, without a doubt, talented people. Why settle for 5 perfectly round play marbles when you can get 200 that are all at least 95% round and perfectly suitable to be played with? Only true enthusiasts would be bothered by the slight differences you can only see by close inspection.

I have... the urge to recruit the failed examinees... into Hollow Blade. I’ve seen some of them. I have prepared enough cards... maybe I can recruit those I deem trustworthy enough. It would be a shame to just leave them hanging. Maybe I can build an elite private army of Nen users? No... not build it, but expand it. That would strengthen our position even more.