The content of the third exam was simple: survive and reach the ground within 72 hours by any means necessary.
"The tower doesn't even have windows, it's just a sheer cliff."
No hints at all? How were they supposed to get down?
Jump?
A certain examinee stood at the edge of the tower, peering downward. "Jumping straight down would be no different from suicide."
From the top to the bottom, the tower was at least several kilometers tall. The outer walls had only tiny crevices, making even climbing down extremely difficult.
"Heh, for an ordinary person, going straight down is as good as suicide. But for an elite rock climber like me, this is a piece of cake."
A dark-skinned man smirked as he grabbed onto the rocky surface and began to climb down in reverse.
At his speed, he could probably reach the bottom in a few hours.
And then...
He was snatched up and devoured by a flock of strange birds that appeared out of nowhere.
"Man, those things are disgusting." Yamcha wrinkled his nose in disdain.
The birds all had the faces and limbs of human babies, filled with razor-sharp teeth. Their wings were bald and scraggly, and the tufts of hair on their heads and bodies were an unkempt mess. Calling them ugly would be an understatement.
Creatures in the Hunter world were always bizarre and grotesque. Compared to them, the dinosaurs and beastmen of the Dragon Ball world looked far more normal.
With these monstrous birds present, climbing down was no longer an option.
Everyone started racking their brains for another way down.
The Trap Tower was filled with traps—hence its name.
The best way down was obviously to find a hidden mechanism.
Anyone who had made it to the third exam wasn't an idiot. In just the time it took to drink a cup of tea, half the examinees had already disappeared.
As the numbers dwindled, the remaining candidates became increasingly desperate, searching more frantically for an entrance.
Only Yamcha sat lazily in place, dozing off.
An hour later, he was the only one left on the rooftop.
'Now that everyone's gone, I can finally get moving.'
He had no interest in playing the tower's little puzzle game or engaging in mind games with a bunch of criminals. He had his own way of doing things.
Stretching a little, Yamcha walked to the edge of the tower and looked down.
For someone who had climbed Korin Tower, this height was nothing.
"What's that guy trying to do?"
Inside the tower, the head examiner, Lippo, munched on a snack while watching the monitors. Yamcha, the lone remaining candidate on the rooftop, had caught his attention.
"Is he seriously thinking of climbing down? Is he trying to get himself killed? Didn't those birds serve as enough of a warning?"
"Even if he can fly, he wouldn't be able to deal with those things."
"Or is he just giving up?"
Letting the examiners control his actions?
No way.
It was best to stick to his own methods.
Yamcha took a step forward.
Due to gravity, he plummeted at high speed with a sharp whoosh.
"He's insane." Lippo scoffed at Yamcha's reckless move and turned his attention back to the other candidates.
Every year, there were always some weak-willed examinees who couldn't handle the pressure.
Jumping from such a height was no different from suicide. Even if the fall didn't kill him, those birds would.
Just as Lippo predicted, the monstrous flock immediately noticed Yamcha's descent and swarmed toward him like mad.
In reality, Yamcha was secretly using telekinesis to slow his fall. To avoid detection, he occasionally kicked off the rock wall, making it seem like he was sliding down in a controlled manner.
As the birds rushed at him, he stomped on one of their backs.
Then, he punched through the air.
"Get lost."
With a piercing screech, the powerful shockwave from his punch sent the bird hurtling toward the ground. Yamcha, still maintaining his controlled descent, remained just a centimeter above it.
To outside observers, it looked like he was falling alongside the bird.
Boom!
The massive bird crashed into the ground, reduced to a pile of mangled flesh.
Yamcha, unharmed, casually stepped off its corpse.
From the top of the tower to the bottom, the entire process flowed smoothly, as if rehearsed a thousand times.
Time taken: less than a minute.
Third Hunter Exam—Clear!
First place: Yamcha.
Total time: 1 hour and 1 minute (1 hour waiting for others, 1 minute to descend).
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Standing at the tower's ground floor entrance, Yamcha knocked on the door.
A chime rang inside. Lippo absentmindedly picked up the phone.
The next second, his eyes widened. "What did you say?!"
"The first examinee has arrived?"
"How did he get down?"
Lippo quickly switched the monitor feed, only to find Yamcha sitting in the lounge, waiting for the others. His face filled with utter confusion, and he even forgot to eat his snack.
'I only looked away for a minute—how the hell did he get to the bottom already? How did he pass the exam so fast?'
'Can he really fly?!'
It was the same feeling as:
Math class starts.
Math teacher: "1 + 1 = ?"
Too easy.
Drops pen. Bends down to pick it up.
Looks back at the board.
Math teacher: (c+1)[1+√(1+c)]=3c√(1+c)...
Brain: ????
'So what the hell did I miss?'
Lippo stared at the screen, mouth agape, before finally pulling up the footage from earlier.
After reviewing the entire sequence, he fell silent.
This candidate was definitely someone to keep an eye on.
Yamcha, of course, had no idea what Lippo was thinking.
Leaning against a pillar, he once again closed his eyes to rest.
'Still 71 hours left... Might as well use the time to refine those assassination techniques I picked up on the airship.'
Using Limb Control in combination with Afterimage Fist could be extremely effective.
Against enemies who relied on their eyes to track movement, this would be a nightmare. Pairing it with Silent Steps to erase his presence and footsteps would make it even deadlier.
The only downside was that Serpent Strike wasn't as powerful as he had hoped.
As for Killua's other assassination move—Heart Removal—Yamcha had no intention of learning it. Too gruesome. Even if he could master it without a single drop of blood, he still wasn't interested.
And so, Yamcha waited.
For nearly three days.
(End of chapter.)