After Elina finished her expnation, silence spread across the grassnds.
There were no dramatic reactions.
The ones who had survived until now were no longer impulsive amateurs.
One hundred and fifty applicants remained, and every single one of them possessed some level of physical ability, awareness, or calcution that had carried them through the falling floors and the Wall of Fire.
Elina scanned their faces carefully.
No one questioned the rules.
"Great, no lousy mouths," she thought.
She seemed satisfied with the fact that nobody was asking anything about the rules.
She liked people who listened to what she said and then did what she told them to do.
Some sort of feminine domination was her quirk.
To be in power, to be respected as a woman and a hunter.
Not that many people in Hunter World, especially among NEN users, cared about genders, height, or how one looked.
It was always about power and capability, as well as talent.
As long as power and capability are great for the said individual, nobody cares if you are a man or woman, dwarf or tall; you can be kid-like, Gon and Killua.
People will still respect you.
Elina then added.
"Get ready."
With those words, the atmosphere shifted.
Some applicants immediately dropped to the grass, lying on their backs and staring at the sky.
Others sat cross-legged, slowing their breathing.
Conrad moved without haste.
He chose a spot that was neither too isoted nor too crowded, far enough from Hisoka to avoid attention, yet not so far that it would appear intentional.
He sat down and rested.
From the corner of his vision, he tracked Hisoka's position without directly staring.
The magician stood alone, as usual.
No one dared to sit close to him.
A faint smile pyed on his lips, as if this entire exam were merely a mild form of entertainment.
Conrad suppressed a sigh.
While sitting, he overheard a conversation behind him.
"I heard they have some sort of poison after they bite into you," said a young woman.
Conrad knew from the examiner, Elina, that these Bck Centipedes were poisonous, but he still listened.
While the young woman spoke, the man next to her nodded.
"Yeah. They are over one meter in length. Bck armored shell. I heard small-caliber bullets barely pierce it."
Another voice joined.
"And they move in groups. You fight one, and five more come out."
Conrad listened quietly.
And poison.
That word echoed in his mind.
"Poison..."
His thoughts immediately drifted toward Killua and the Zoldyck Family.
The assassins' legendary poison resistance training.
If a family like the Zoldycks prioritized poison tolerance to that degree, it meant one thing.
Poison was a common weapon and one that changed everything.
Conrad leaned slightly forward, thinking.
"If the world contained creatures like chimera ants, venomous beasts, hidden weapon users, and Nen abilities designed around toxins, then poison resistance was not optional."
He briefly thought of Chrollo and the various weapons and techniques he had access to.
He thought of hidden bdes coated in toxins.
Ben's knife that he used to ssh Silva when in close combat.
If Silver did not belong to the family of Zoldyck, he would be put to sleep in an instant due to heavy poison on the knife.
In the Succession Battle, First Prince Benjamin, right-hand man, thought of using a chemical weapon.
"Even Meruem died of poisoning in the end."
All the things that he thought of showed how important it is to have poison resistance or the capability to use it.
"I may not die from most poisons when it first affects me due to my ability." Conrad thought calmly, "But paralysis… sedation… those are different."
Being put to sleep.
Being captured.
Being restrained while alive.
That was far worse than dying.
He did not have the direct capability to protect himself from the sedatives and simir types of poisons.
His ability might protect him from lethal damage and poisons, but it did not guarantee immunity from being incapacitated.
Elina suddenly cpped her hands once.
The sharp sound cut through the quiet.
"One minute until the exam starts. Prepare."
The applicants rose almost immediately.
The brief rest was over.
Conrad stood slowly, brushing grass from his clothes.
His eyes instinctively searched for Hisoka again.
North and East.
Two directions.
Two entrances into the Bck Mist Forest.
If Hisoka chose north, Conrad would go east.
If Hisoka chose east, Conrad would go north.
Simple as that.
If someone were to observe Conrad's behavior objectively, they might say he was afraid.
And they would be correct.
Only fools treated monsters casually, and it would not end well for them.
In the end, watching Hisoka while eating food in the anime or reading about him liking this interesting character is not the same as living and breathing in the same world as him.
Conrad wanted to make no mistake.
Hisoka, interesting and funny to watch as he is, is still a cold-blooded murderer and dangerous to be around.
For someone like Conrad, he did not want to do anything with him.
He did like watching him in the anime when he was back on Earth, but it did not mean that he would like to have anything to do with this maniac.
Hisoka was an unpredictable biohazard in his eyes.
Worse than that, he was curious.
If Hisoka became interested in Conrad, the third exam would become irrelevant.
He made sure his aura was fully suppressed, giving off the impression of a capable but unremarkable participant.
Some applicants gnced at him briefly.
They noticed something different about him, not power exactly.
He appeared too steady after everything they had endured.
But none of them spoke.
Hisoka, notably, did not look at him.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Some applicants shifted toward the north path.
Others angled toward the east.
Ten seconds.
Conrad's muscles loosened slightly, ready to move instantly in the opposite direction of Hisoka.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Hisoka casually turned and began walking toward the north.
Conrad did not react immediately.
One second.
Then he pivoted smoothly, as if it had been his original pn all along, and started heading east.
Just another examinee choosing a direction and that was the behavior he wanted to show to the others.
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Note
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If you would like to help me out and buy me a cup of a coffe to keep on writing and as well as have extra 30 chapters, is active from now on then.
https:///cw/Adenlia
Current Chapter - "Chapter 135"
