"I guess I'm the last one."
Walking down the dark passage inside the bar, Luke casually pinned the badge number onto his chest.
Because of the Fox Father's work in rebuilding his house, they had arrived just in time, barely making the cutoff.
And so…
After walking a long way, Luke reached the end of the corridor.
Before him stood a thick, electronically sealed automatic door, the kind used in hospital CT rooms, isolating the inside from the outside.
As Luke stood before the door…
Rumble…
A deep sound came from both sides as the massive door slowly opened.
Whoosh!
Before he even entered the room or saw its surroundings, Luke could already feel the countless gazes upon him, some wary, some guarded, some curious and assessing.
"All right, looks like this is the place."
Unbothered by the stares, Luke stepped forward, casually scanning the area.
What unfolded before his eyes was a vast factory-like workshop.
It must have been a large abandoned plant, with rusted conveyor lines, scattered pieces of metal, smelting equipment, and half-finished products covered under thick layers of dust.
The applicants who came to take the hunter exam didn't care about any of this.
They all sat on the abandoned, unused items around, looking casual but actually staying alert and watchful of their surroundings.
"You must be a first-time participant in the hunter exam, right?"
Just as Luke was observing the area, a warm, hearty voice suddenly sounded beside him.
Luke turned toward the voice and saw a very familiar face.
A face that had become a regular in every hunter exam, a person who had appeared almost every year when the hunter exams began.
"Don't be nervous. Newcomers always tend to get stiff when they first arrive here."
A short, stout man wearing a blue vest and sporting a backward-combed hairstyle walked toward Luke. His square-shaped nose twitched slightly as he smiled.
"But before the real exam begins, there's nothing dangerous here."
He patted his chest confidently.
"Based on my twenty-two years of hunter exam experience and the official process, I can tell you that much."
"I'm Tonpa, applicant number 100 in this year's hunter exam. Pleased to meet you."
He grinned broadly and reached out his hand to Luke.
Ah, yes, Tonpa the great has arrived!
"Twenty-two years, huh?"
Luke didn't shake his hand; instead, he watched him with interest.
"Yeah, you could say I'm something of a regular."
Tonpa didn't seem offended by the lack of a handshake.
"It's normal for newcomers to be wary of others when they first arrive here."
He chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Especially someone like me, who's taken this hunter exam so many times."
"Yeah... A seasoned veteran and an old fox."
Luke said with a faint smile.
Tonpa, known as the Rookie Crusher, was a chubby, sleazy-looking man.
He perfectly embodied the petty, conniving type, a veteran applicant infamous for sabotaging newcomers, hence the nickname Rookie Crusher.
He used his extensive experience to put other applicants at a disadvantage, taking pleasure in seeing his opponents eliminated.
He was adept at deceiving inexperienced rookies, pretending to be weak with convincing acting, only to betray them when they least expected it.
Because he had taken the hunter exam thirty-five times and was mysteriously elusive, his fans gave him a reverent nickname, Tonpa the Great.
They said he didn't take the exam for the license, but for the thrill!
Amid the dangers surrounding the skilled applicants, he observed their actions, honing his instinct to sense danger and ensure his own survival, watching the death game unfold while clinging to life.
He found pleasure in seeing those bright, hopeful youths fall from ambition into despair, the very moment when dreams and hope were severed forever.
That became Tonpa's ultimate source of entertainment.
And from then on, he devoted himself fully to crushing rookies' dreams.
Of course, this wasn't just fan exaggeration; there were no actual records to prove it.
Tonpa had taken the hunter exam thirty-five times since the age of ten. But despite this, he ranked only second in the examinees' record.
However, he already held the first place in the number of successive exams, which amounted to 30.
No one even knew who had ranked above him overall…
Looking at Tonpa's history, he had once schemed against the four main characters, Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika, and still managed to survive.
Later, he even took the exam twice alongside the dangerous madman, Hisoka, emerging completely unharmed.
Especially during Hisoka's first exam, when Hisoka attacked the examiner he didn't like, making him disqualified.
In that chaos, Hisoka also wounded or killed over twenty other applicants, leaving them unable to recover.
And yet Tonpa took the exam twice alongside that same man and came out fine, even sharing a room with Hisoka on the ship to the island and living to tell the tale.
A true witness to miracles.
He had also taken exams alongside Illumi, the Phantom Troupe's strategist, Shalnark, and Ging Freecss's disciple, Kite.
Even Ging Freecss himself, whom Gon searched for throughout the story, had once taken the exam alongside Tonpa.
Ging's Hunter Exam took place ten years ago, right when Tonpa was taking his twelfth exam!
With such a wealth of experience and the ability to keep surviving, it was no wonder Tonpa truly lived up to the title of the great.
However, after hearing Luke's comment…
"Um..."
Tonpa scratched his head, puzzled.
"What is a seasoned veteran and an old fox supposed to mean?"
He had never heard those terms before.
"It means you're very experienced."
Luke replied casually, withdrawing his gaze from the rest of the applicants around.
Aside from Tonpa, he didn't see any other familiar faces.
Well, of course, this was twelve years before the future hunter exam.
At this time, someone like Pokkle probably hadn't even grown all his hair yet.
And unlike Tonpa, those future participants wouldn't keep showing up year after year for over a decade.
Tonpa really was a constant presence throughout many generations.
"Ah, a compliment?! I don't deserve it..."
Although instinctively, he felt those terms weren't exactly pure praise, Tonpa still put on a modest smile.
"If this is your first hunter exam and there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me."
He patted his chest confidently.
"I may not have much else, but I've got plenty of experience to share."
"I can definitely give you a hand."