Chapter 18

"Hey, my name's Gon, what's yours?"

I inquired, my gaze fixed on the child in front of me.

This child was Killua, who was naturally 12 years old like me. I didn't have to ask to find out more than his age.

I already knew far too much about him.

His blue eyes, silvery spiky hair, and fair skin drew attention. He was quite lean, owing to his rigorous early training and ongoing physical conditioning. He was as fast as a speed demon and had the physique to match.

Furthermore, he wore baggy clothing over his long-sleeved turtleneck shirt and layered a lighter and darker shirt underneath it. He was also dressed in a pair of purple boots and baggy knee-length shorts.

To me, he appeared to be a mini-rock star. He had the general appearance and swagger of a skater. He'd arrived with a skateboard under his arm, by the way.

"Gon?" Killua raised an eyebrow. At first, he looked at me as if I were sick or a needy child with special needs. Until he noticed Severus behind me, who drew all of his attention. His gaze had previously wandered around the tunnel, as if scanning the levels of the candidates…" Is that your snake?"

He asked me right away. Severus was particularly close to me, with the majority of his body directly beneath my feet. He was also staring at Killua with interest as his head rose from the ground and came into view right next to my face.

"Yes, interested in him?" With a friendly smile, I inquired.

"Yeah. I kinda like snakes." Killua smiled and then said to me, as if he wanted to put me to the test. "The name is Killua, by the way. You look freaking strong… So does this guy…"

He appeared to want a friendly duel with both of us. I knew it had to be that because he still had the needle in his head. The current Killua would never want to have a serious and life-or-death fight with anyone who was stronger than him to the point of threatening him and making him desperate.

I had no intention of removing the needle right now or anytime soon because I lacked the strength to deal with the consequences.

In fact, I wasn't sure I wanted to remove it because it kept Killua safe. I didn't mind if he abandoned me in the middle of a fight one day. I was powerful enough to defend myself and my close friends.

I'd let him remove the needle on his own… When I replied to him, I decided on the spot. "We sort of are. There's no point in hiding it, hahaha. Severus is the name of the guy next to me. But you also seem strong when it comes to this subject… Why don't we become friends? I have no friends my age who take the hunter exam… Don't you think it'd be great if we became hunter colleagues or something similar after we finished the exam?"

I wanted to avoid making Killua uncomfortable by talking too much, so I paused and asked my question.

He didn't appear to be cringing, which was a relief. He only smirked and responded. "Friends? Okay."

Inside, I smiled to myself. He was the same…

He had to be dealing with the same issues… But it was fantastic. At least for me.

I immediately informed him. "Allow me to introduce you to two other friends I have back there. Don't be concerned; they're not bothersome."

"Eh? Alright." Killua followed me with his skateboard.

We soon arrived at Kurapika and Leorio, to whom I introduced my new white-haired pal.

I said, furrowing my brows, after the long and winding introductions and some small talk. "There's a strong one coming." The main antagonist had arrived. My favorite character occasionally...

..Actually, let me correct myself... This was no longer the case because I was in front of him and not just staring at a screen.

He was coming down the elevator, probably not coincidentally with Gittarackur…

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Name: Hisoka

Threat levels: scouting (tier 9), regular fighting (tier 7), assassination (tier 8)

Singularities, gifts and buried talents: thriving sociopath, flourishing psycho, nen, nen skills

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[Thriving sociopath: A rare and uncommon ability awakened by a few sociopaths around the world. Increases the sociopath's sociopathic luck and success. It also enhances talent and genius in sociopathic-related fields such as fighting and nen, among others. Because it requires a higher IQ than most, this skill is generally unavailable to animals with more hampered brain power.]

[Flourishing psycho: Hand-picked, thriving psychopaths. This power is comparable to, but far more powerful than the thriving sociopath singularity, and it should not be underestimated. Even the most ridiculous beasts endowed with such abilities have the potential to become geniuses if bored enough. To activate this skill for the first time, no intelligence is required.]

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Even in my previous life, most, if not all, people were aware of the properties of gum. Even if they hadn't seen Hunter X Hunter, they knew what gum was bundled and encased in when it was sold. So I just skipped the nen skills containing bungee gum and texture surprise. I didn't open the clown's nen skills to read them.

I only opened Gittarackur's status window after I was finished…

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Name: Illumi

Threat levels: scouting (tier 8), regular fighting (tier 6), assassination (tier 8)

Singularities, gifts and buried talents: zoldyck, nen, nen skills

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I wasn't sure about their stats or how much stronger their auras and nen made them. But on the first day I got the system, I asked an important question. The system informed me that the threat levels displayed were thorough. That meant that whatever I saw represented the complete powers of the targets in my line of sight.

I was witnessing Hisoka and Illumi's full power levels, which could reach tier 9 for one of them.

The zoldyck assassin in the pair had the poorer scouting skills, which was ironic or not given Hisoka's strange and deeply shrouded talents...

It wasn't unusual for a sociopath who also happened to be a psycho to be a better scout than most. They did a lot of preying on things.