Hunter X Hunter : The Boundary

Chapter 36: The Stall Hunt

The run had entered its sixth hour. The air was a thick cocktail of sweat, mud, and the faint scent of blood. The boundless grassland stretched on, offering no landmarks, no finish line, only a crushing sense of futility. The examinees were running on sheer willpower, a desperate, fleeing herd.

And in the middle of it all, Tonpa appeared again. "Go around to the right, it's easier to walk!"

Several young examinees, their strength depleted and their judgment clouded, believed him and followed him onto a grassy slope. The surface looked dry, but Tonpa had already used the edge of his shoe to break the grass roots, creating a hidden patch of treacherous, loose earth.

Sure enough, the first person who stepped onto it slipped with a cry, knocking into his companions and sending them tumbling into the mud.

"Why did you push me?!"

"The ground is too slippery!"

Tonpa quickly feigned regret. "No... I thought... Maybe they didn't step firmly..." He was a master of this rhythm: create chaos, then retreat behind a mask of innocence. In every trial, he had survived by "controlling the judgment of others."

Until now. From a parallel path, he saw the young man who was always alone, the one who never joined the crowd. Ryan. He moved with an unhurried, steady precision, never once falling, never once disturbed.

This kind of person is the most dangerous, Tonpa thought. He decided to make this silent boy his next victim. He wanted to shatter that infuriating calm.

He surreptitiously softened the ground on a small slope with his palm, then looked up to see Ryan approaching. "Brother," he began with a confident smile, "this path saves more effort. It's windy, out of the sun, you can—"

He didn't finish his sentence. Ryan, as if hearing nothing, lightly pushed off with his foot, leaping over a patch of tall grass and landing on a seemingly slippery but actually compacted path to the left. He didn't even glance at Tonpa's prepared trap.

"...Huh?"

Tonpa was startled. As he turned to confirm, the patch of grass he had just loosened gave way beneath his own feet. He stumbled forward, tripped, and with a comical splash, tumbled headfirst into the very mud pit he had set for Ryan.

Laughter erupted from the nearby examinees. "Didn't he just say this way was the safest?" "And he fell in himself! Hahaha!"

Tonpa's face was caked in mud. He tried to explain, but no one was listening anymore. They just bypassed him, their trust in the "veteran" shattered. Ryan, in the distance, did not look back, but silently held a laugh back.

Ryan didn't even need to expose him; he had simply let Tonpa jump in the trap he had built for himself and allow the consequences to dismantle the persona he had so carefully built.

Ryan continued to advance along a grassy ridge, his gaze sweeping over the remaining examinees. He was drawing a map of the group's behavior.

Type A: Autonomous (Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio, Hisoka, etc.). Excellent physical ability and stable will.

Type B: Dependent (The majority). Need to be led, easily swayed.

Type C: Opportunistic (Insert filler character names). Aggressive but easily panicked.

Type D: Manipulative (Tonpa).

The dependent group was now leaderless and wavering. "Was that guy misleading us on purpose?" "I heard he just likes to trick people." "I'm not listening to him anymore." This was the chain reaction. No struggle was needed. One push was enough to collapse a house of cards.

The wind blew through the grass. Ryan looked up. In the distance, the terrain was finally beginning to change, subtly rising. It was a sign that they were entering a new area. The finish line might still be far.

Tonpa, holding his muddy shoe, was now just another wet, pathetic figure at the edge of the struggling pack— and Ryan had quietly slipped out of his sight.

— — —

T/N: istg if this does not move on beyond the first part of the hunter exam in the next 2 chaps, imma drop this