In the dense forest, Kevin strolled leisurely, the 100-point number plate on his chest shining brightly.
"This is too much, it's practically telling everyone I'm here," Kevin felt quite helpless looking at the shimmering light of the number plate.
The higher the number value, the brighter the light.
Currently, there are a total of 26 examinees on the island, each with a minimum score of 50, and only the top eight ranked examinees will advance.
According to these rules, it is clearly forcing the examinees to fight each other.
Moreover, there are also wild beasts on the island, and they also have score plates hanging on them, which makes the situation even more complicated.
Originally, examinees might have been able to roughly estimate the score needed for the top eight by calculating each other's scores – the average score per examinee was roughly 75 points, so with 26 examinees, there was a total of 1950 points, and on average, ensuring you had 240 points should put you in the top 8.
Unfortunately, the test wouldn't be that simple.
Due to the presence of wild beasts, the score situation became unpredictable, forcing the examinees on the island to remain constantly active and continue fighting until the end of the exam, like wild beasts constantly struggling for survival in the wilderness.
These rules, however, matched the temperament of that wild examiner.
"I have 100 points, such a high score, it's like the power emanating from a wild beast, forcing other examinees to carefully evaluate when choosing their prey.
Just like wild beasts, when they encounter an opponent they can't afford to provoke, they will choose to avoid them.
That is to say, those who want to hunt high-scoring examinees like us, as long as they aren't foolish, will try every means to increase their chances of winning, such as teaming up, setting traps, poisoning, or ambushing.
Moreover, this score plate cannot be taken off by oneself, but others can easily take it away. This place is now practically like a dark forest." Kevin muttered, unable to help but complain.
He finally understood; these examiners were worse-tempered than the last, and each exam carried their own unique style of malice.
"Is this the [Hunter Association] really a legitimate organization?" Kevin couldn't help but scratch his head, sighed, and continued to ponder the problems brought by the number plate.
For Kevin, who possessed a high-score plate, this exam was full of challenges from the start.
Examinees who didn't want to provoke him, upon seeing his number plate, would immediately react by quickly slipping away.
And combat is dynamic; when an enemy is solely focused on escaping, even if Kevin possesses Nen, he may not necessarily be able to catch up.
After all, the examinees who have made it this far all have their own special skills, and many of them may even be proficient in tracking and stealth techniques in the forest. It's possible that Kevin hasn't even discovered them yet, and they've already disappeared without a trace.
"Troublesome," Kevin muttered helplessly, but he didn't pay too much attention to it.
The Nen around his body began to converge, instantly entering the state of [Zetsu], his footsteps lightened, and he moved silently through the woods.
Without any outward display of Nen, even the animals in the forest couldn't detect his presence when they didn't see Kevin.
It must be said that Nen Users do have a significant advantage when competing with these ordinary examinees, even if these ordinary examinees are experts in their respective fields.
Although this island is not vast, it is more than enough to accommodate over thirty examinees.
Kevin walked through the forest for a while, and even with his Nen suppressed, he still didn't find any traces of other examinees.
Of course, it's also possible that everyone is very vigilant right now.
Continuing on like this, Kevin arrived at a small clearing in the dense forest.
He walked forward and sat directly on a stone in the clearing.
Then, he no longer suppressed the Nen on his body,
but instead gathered his Nen and shot it out in a column shaped like a detection rod.
At this time, his irregular [Ren] could extend to a range of nearly four hundred meters when projected, and he used [Ren] to scan the surroundings.
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, Kevin stomped his foot violently, creating a pit, and charged towards the woods not far away at an extremely fast speed.
He saw a figure quickly jump out from the grass where he had stomped, moving left and right on the tree trunks, flexibly evading Kevin's pursuit.
Kevin's surprise punch missed, and the powerful impact directly broke a large tree, its tall trunk crashing down.
Kevin didn't continue attacking but stood in place, watching the person who had been secretly following him.
He had always vaguely felt someone following him; it was an intuition, but he hadn't detected anyone else's Nen before, so he suddenly used his irregular [Ren] to force the other party out.
The fact that the other party could react to his [Ren] indicated that they were also a Nen User.
This person must have also used [Zetsu] just now, quietly following him for quite some time.
As far as Kevin knew, there were only four Nen Users on the island in total: himself, Kate, Rock, and the Radio Boy.
The Radio Boy had only just awakened his Nen Ability and couldn't even stabilize [Ten]; Kate also wouldn't actively fight him before the final exam.
Therefore, the person in front of him was undoubtedly Rock.
Sure enough, the dodging figure stopped on a tree trunk in the distance and turned to look at Kevin.
"It's you, indeed. What, do you want the number plate on my chest?"
Rock, whose skin was a bit dark, nodded briefly.
Kevin asked somewhat puzzled, "With your strength, you should be able to move freely on this island, right? As long as you hunt without worry, wouldn't it be easy for you to get enough points to advance to the top eight?"
In this situation, specifically choosing a difficult target like him, as a Hunter, was truly somewhat irrational.
Rock just looked at Kevin quietly and said in a calm tone, "I'm very curious why your score is 5 points higher than mine."
"Just because of that?"
Rock nodded. He was a Nen User, and he knew that the number of other Nen Users was very small. Most Nen Users he had encountered were not his match.
This made him believe that obtaining a hunter license would be easy, and even if he saw other Nen Users, just from outward appearances, he felt that his own strength should be the strongest.
This is why he had been acting alone and silently in these few exams; because he disdained others.
As a result, he reached this stage.
The examiner clearly told everyone that Kevin was the strongest, which made him somewhat unable to accept it, and he wanted to test Kevin's strength.
Seeing the other party's response, a smile appeared on Kevin's face: "Since you want to know so badly, then leave your score plate as payment for my answer."
With another loud bang, Kevin stomped a pit into the ground and shot out like a cannonball.
"So fast!"
Rock's eyes widened, and he instantly raised his right hand and grabbed into the air. A black machine the size of a head appeared in his hand. There was a handle below, and after gripping it tightly, he actually flew upwards.
"Drone?" Kevin instantly recognized the object; it turned out to be a drone.
But it was just such a drone that dragged Rock flying through the woods. After flying half a circle, it reached the clearing and then flew straight up into the sky.
This drone was clearly a high-tech product materialized through Nen. To be able to materialize something like this, Rock must have put in a lot of effort.
But now the problem arose: the other person could fly, which made the situation tricky.
Kevin's long-range attack capabilities were limited at this stage, unless he used firearms.
But he didn't carry any on him because of the exam, even though firearms were allowed in the exam.
Rock didn't stop after flying into the sky. He held the handle below the drone with his left hand and threw something forward with his right hand, and another drone flew out.
This drone was much smaller, roughly the size of two palms put together, and it flew silently.
Without any sound, this drone rushed towards Kevin like lightning.
Without understanding the mechanism of the other party's Nen Ability, Kevin didn't want to recklessly clash head-on, so he quickly dodged to the side.
A Nen bullet was shot out, but it missed as the opponent's drone weaved flexibly.
He had used [In (Hide)] on his Nen bullet, but the other party had flexibly dodged it, indicating that the other party had maintained [Spirit] throughout the fight from the beginning.
No wonder he was unconvinced; this guy's proficiency in Nen Ability techniques was definitely not a problem.
This drone was extremely fast and exceptionally agile, weaving back and forth around Kevin silently, its target clear,
which was to touch Kevin's body.
Before figuring out the situation, Kevin could only try to create distance from this weaving drone, but he was thus held back.
After a brief thought, Kevin immediately retreated into the forest, attempting to create a greater distance from Rock.
He felt that there should definitely be a distance limit for this thing, after all, Rock could materialize such a high-tech item, so it was very likely to follow some characteristics of the item in reality, such as signal transmission, power consumption, etc., which could all become weaknesses of the opponent's Nen Ability.
Kevin continuously increased the distance until the straight-line distance from Rock exceeded two hundred meters.
At this time, although the shuttle did not stop, Kevin keenly noticed that Rock, who was floating in the air, had moved.
Two hundred meters was not necessarily the limit distance, it could also be a trap set by the opponent.
Thinking of this, Kevin suddenly kicked, his speed instantly exploded, and he retreated rapidly backward.
At this speed, the shuttle could barely keep up, but the drone Rock was riding on definitely wasn't that fast.
When the distance instantly increased to two hundred and fifty meters from the opponent under Kevin's burst, the shuttle paused and stopped.
"Okay, confirmed. If nothing unexpected happens, two hundred and fifty meters is the limit distance. To be safe, it's best to keep a distance of three hundred meters," Kevin thought to himself.
The opponent could materialize two drones with different functions, one with offensive capabilities and one that allowed him to fly. This configuration was very reasonable.
Seeing this, Rock stopped and didn't continue pursuing.
Kevin had already tested the farthest distance the shuttle could move away from Rock.
Rock had to admit that Kevin was very sharp.
Although he had materialized the drone, if the distance was too far, it would cause situations similar to signal interruption, leading to inflexible control.
For the "shuttle" which required precise control, losing flexibility meant losing its function.
Rock had already exposed his ability, and some restrictions had even been measured by Kevin.
But until now, he still hadn't seen Kevin use Nen Ability, which made him dare not act rashly.
"Whoosh!"
A sound of something breaking through the air was heard, and a stone flew out from the forest.
Rock quickly controlled the drone to dodge, barely avoiding the attack.
"Compared to his shuttle, the drone carrying him is significantly less agile," Kevin thought, and then shot out several more stones.
The stones he threw casually were extremely fast, easily flying over a distance of three hundred meters.
At this moment, Kevin was at a safe distance, while Rock was within his attack range.
Although the attack power of these stones was not strong, they were enough to cause trouble for Rock.
The situation instantly reversed, with offense and defense switching places.
Kevin was calm and unhurried, circling Rock at a distance of three hundred meters, occasionally throwing a stone from various directions, some of which were attached with Nen, and their power would suddenly increase.
"No, this won't work," Rock fell into a passive state.
He didn't expect the stones Kevin threw to be as fast as bullets, and from this, he could almost certainly determine that Kevin was a Strengthening System Nen User.
In his understanding, if not for the Strengthening System, it would be very difficult to achieve such force unless using Nen Ability.
"His Ren range is too wide, damn it, how can there be such a large Ren," Rock dodged the stone attacks while secretly thinking.
He had never seen a Ren that could extend to nearly 400 meters, it was simply too exaggerated.
Moreover, he also clearly felt that Kevin's Ren seemed to be different from conventional Ren.
"Could that be his Nen Ability then?" Rock couldn't help but guess in this direction.
An irregular Ren, he had never heard of it, let alone seen it with his own eyes.
But when he was scanned by Kevin's Ren just now, that peculiar feeling was not like being completely enveloped, but more like being quickly swept by something.
"But this ability doesn't seem like something the Strengthening System should have, could he be Emission系?"
Rock dodged while thinking.
After all, these stones attached with Nen were quite consistent with the characteristics of the Emission系.
But the opponent's physical combat movements and the power he unleashed were not consistent.
However, at this moment, there wasn't much time left for him to think.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Like a machine gun spraying, a large number of stones flew towards Rock overwhelmingly, almost blocking all his dodging space.
Relying on the drone to dodge, his dodging space was limited, so he had no choice but to gather Nen on his body and block with his fists and legs.
Fortunately, a large number of stones were shot out in an instant, which limited the power of these stones, and he only needed to accurately block the stones attached with Nen.
"So it wasn't that powerful---No!"
He immediately realized that he had been tricked.
Just as Rock was fully dealing with the dense stone "bullets," Kevin seized the opportunity and suddenly rushed towards the shuttle that had been lurking at the edge of the three-hundred-meter range.
He quickly approached, then threw a punch, this punch was wrapped with a large amount of Nen, and it heavily smashed onto the shuttle.
The moment he hit the shuttle, Kevin crossed his hands and formed a shield with Nen in front of him, his entire body quickly retreating backward.
To his surprise, the expected explosion did not happen.
Under his punch, that shuttle was directly beaten into scrap metal and dissipated in the air.
"Damn it, he seized the opportunity," Rock cursed.
He didn't expect Kevin to be so decisive and directly attack the shuttle.
The moment the shuttle was destroyed, another wave of a large number of stones flew over.
Rock could only concentrate on dodging the attacks, while slowly ascending into the sky.
"Without the restriction of the shuttle, his control over the drone in his hand is indeed more flexible," Kevin threw stones while slowly approaching.
And he was constantly alert to his surroundings, afraid that the opponent had hidden one.
Throwing stones, Kevin had already rushed into the clearing.
When he appeared in the clearing, Rock's eyes widened, because Kevin was rushing out holding a wooden stake at this time.
Kevin instantly wrapped a large amount of Nen around the wooden stake and threw it forcefully towards Rock in the air.
"You brute force monster!" Rock cursed loudly, controlling the drone with all his might to dodge.
Just when he finally managed to fly out of the wooden stake's attack range, a branch had already attacked him.
Fatal, this was a fatal attack, Rock made a decisive decision.
He let go of his hands, and the drone carrying him instantly disappeared.
His body rolled in the air, and after relieving some of the force, he landed on the ground, standing up panting heavily.
At this moment, Kevin had already walked quickly to his front.
The drone dissipated, there must be a cooldown time, otherwise the opponent wouldn't be so reluctant to let his drone return.
"I lost, take it," Rock raised his hands, making a gesture of surrender.
Kevin smiled slightly, walked forward, and easily took the number plate worth 95 points from his chest.
Looking at Kevin's actions, Rock asked, "When you were scanning me, was that Nen similar to Ren your Nen Ability?"
"No."
Hearing this answer, Rock's expression instantly became very ugly, as if he had eaten bitter herbs.
He didn't expect that Kevin had easily defeated him without even using his Nen Ability, this was entirely a difference in basic strength.
Of course, it was possible that Kevin was lying to him, but he chose to believe it, because the opponent was indeed powerful.
That Nen Ability was too ordinary.
"Don't be discouraged, your Nen Ability is quite interesting. And, you should still have one drone, right?" Kevin said.
Hearing this, Rock's pupils slightly constricted.
"Heh, I've already used all my strength."
It didn't matter if Rock didn't admit it, Kevin didn't care.
In fact, when he instinctively felt someone following him before, Kevin had noticed the prying coming from different directions.
Since Rock was using drones for tracking, based on the common uses of drones, it was impossible not to have reconnaissance drones, which was one of the most basic functions of drones.
It was just that in the battle just now, the reconnaissance drone might not be able to function, it was possible that the opponent could only materialize two at the same time.
So Kevin speculated that Rock had hidden a drone.
After all, he was tracked shortly after landing on the island, and this island was not small, the opponent must have used some kind of tracking ability.
If his guess was correct, then Rock's Nen Ability was of limited help in combat, and more reflected in its functionality.
The offensive aspect might be more inclined towards assassination and sneak attacks.
This was why the opponent had been secretly tracking him.
However, these were all just speculations.