Ringo's gaze shifted to Menchi. The second phase was only halfway through, and this petite Gourmet Hunter's next test would cause everyone to fail.
His hands didn't stop moving as Ringo pinched a piece of sushi, but it was for himself.
He put a vinegared rice ball and a piece of sashimi into his mouth, chewing slowly.
The continuous operation of Ten consumed far more mental energy than anticipated, like carrying an increasingly heavy millstone. A surging hunger simultaneously assailed him, his stomach burning.
"How do I construct a Nen Ability for the Specialist type?" He frowned slightly, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the table.
"Qi... food... transformation and absorption... Gokukusenzoku!" A thought emerged, and Ringo's heart stirred. While activating the light orb in his mind, he guided his qi to his stomach.
Closing his eyes, that faint, sweet sensation sprouted in his abdomen, slowly accumulating, then transported to his limbs, merging with his flesh and blood. At the same time, another vague light orb seemed to loosen.
"This is it!? Although very faint, it actually succeeded!"
Ringo quickly calmed down. The principle might seem simple and direct: eat a substance and make it your own. But the true Gokukusenzoku wasn't like that; something must still be missing!
Furthermore, the cultivation of the Eight Wonders and the construction of a Nen Ability would undoubtedly require prolonged practice. The precise control over the body and qi needed to reach an extremely demanding level. More crucially—
Cultivating both body and mind.
Ringo silently recited these four words. Cultivating an ability was by no means merely a transformation of bodily functions. The strengthening of the body (life) must proceed synchronously with the tempering of the spirit (mind, character), in an orderly cause-and-effect.
The path of cultivation has never been a smooth shortcut. The so-called 'suffering in mind and toiling in body' means the more convenient it seems, the more vigilant one needs to be.
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Ringo took a deep breath, suppressing all distracting thoughts. He picked up the knife again, his movements mechanical yet steady: cutting fish, molding rice, putting it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing, little by little, digesting and absorbing.
Since he had entered the work-delivery-sleep cycle, he had never cooked again. Now, the warmth of the rice on his fingertips and the scent of vinegar in his nose brought him a sense of peace.
Just then, an astonishing killing intent emanated from Hisoka's direction, aimed at Menchi, very subtly.
"Bang—!!!"
A deafening roar, glass shards exploded like a rainstorm, and a figure was flung out of the building.
Menchi indeed announced that no one had passed.
"That being said, no one passing seems a bit too strict," a voice, old but full of vigor, said as an old man in a loose martial arts uniform jumped down from the airship.
Hunter Association Chairman—Isaac Netero!
The plot returned to its track. Menchi set a new test location: a misty mountain nearby. The test objective was the Spider Eagle's eggs!
Everyone arrived by airship to find a very wide canyon, with the sound of rushing water coming from below.
Menchi, disregarding the danger, jumped down first like a diver, and soon returned with a spider egg in hand.
"I've been waiting for something like this."
"This kind of competition is more exhilarating than cooking."
Gon waved excitedly, rushing to the cliff edge without hesitation, and leaped into the sea of clouds. Kurapika and Killua followed closely, and the rest of the crowd also emulated them.
Ringo walked to the cliff edge, looked down into the valley, and then shifted his gaze to the spider eggs hanging on the suspended silk.
A voice echoed in his mind: 'Your strength is simply not enough. The Nen of unknown origin around your neck is silent, and you've only just begun cultivating yourself. The road ahead is long. Jumping down is suicide.'
The pressure brought by desire made Ringo hesitate for a moment.
"...But these are all my own decisions."
"No boss, no relatives, alone in this world. Deep contemplation is to confirm whether this heart is resilient enough to face any consequences after taking the leap!"
"Isn't this precisely the cultivation of the spirit?"
Jump down!
Ringo no longer hesitated, stepping into the void, letting gravity pull him down... Zhang Linqin was pushed and jostled by the crowd as he exited the subway car.
He came to his senses sitting in front of the computer, the blue screen light harsh, the sound of typing the only background until it was interrupted by his supervisor's gentle words.
"Xiao Zhang, we're not questioning your ability, primarily it's an attitude problem. If you have a desire to learn, we won't mind if problems arise... Do it again. Efficiency still needs to be higher."
Zhang Linqin nodded, got off work, and once again merged into the weary flow of people. The thought of resigning occasionally surfaced faintly.
"But what can I do?" He returned to his rented room and jumped into bed.
"The company needs to adjust its work structure... If you don't meet the requirements, the company will lay people off... We need talents who can contribute to the company, shine in their positions, and grow with the company... The number of people has increased, I need an organized and disciplined team..."
The desk rattled, the voice seemed to pour directly into his ears, straight into his brain.
"What is your value?"
A strong, physiological disgust broke through his reason. Finally, the taut string snapped silently one day. The next day, he slapped a brief resignation letter on his supervisor's desk.
"It's fine, everything's going well." Answering his mother's call, Zhang Linqin skillfully lied.
For the first few days, he lay in bed, staring blankly at the tiny cracks on the ceiling, breathing smoothly. He occasionally went out for aimless strolls, and the day just melted away.
Anxiety soon came knocking. His savings urged him day by day, and his phone screen lit up:
"We will notify you as soon as there is news."
"Hello, are you interested in coming for an interview at our company? Monthly salary ten thousand, basic salary? Our salary is three thousand plus commission. The more you work, the more you earn."
"Hello, you meet our requirements very well. When are you available for an interview?... Sorry, after further understanding, you don't quite meet our requirements and have been added to the company's talent pool."
Zhang Linqin directly complained about this.
However, the resumes he sent out were like stones sinking into the sea. He opened the recruitment app and lowered his target salary.
"Our basic salary is two thousand five hundred, and only with performance and subsidies can it reach six thousand."
Zhang Linqin left again.
Seeing a desirable position, his heart would occasionally skip a beat. He quickly stayed up late to revise his resume specifically for it. The next day, his palms were sweaty. The tall office building loomed, like an anthill, countless windows like dense holes, people toiling inside.
Entering the clean, bright lobby, he turned into the restroom and retched, looking at the dried yellow phlegm stain on the top of the urinal. Zhang Linqin took out his phone.
"Hello, something came up, apologies." Pressing send, his shoulders suddenly slumped. He leaned against the stall door, letting out a long sigh.
When another mediocre company sent an offer, Zhang Linqin was standing in front of a street food stall, the oil smoke from the pancakes wafting up. He took a bite, the corners of his mouth turning up.
Until the manager invited him into the meeting room, where he was laid off during his probation period.
On the road, car lights flashed, emitting an annoying hum; in the dim room, his breathing was heavy. Zhang Linqin deleted and revised all his resumes, searched for videos to practice his skills, only to find he had already learned them.
"Why did I quit my first job?" He looked at the retirement age far exceeding his own, muttering to himself: "It was so good, at least stable..."
The weather was clear, the traffic flowed as usual. Zhang Linqin was in a trance, the sounds of the world muffled and indistinct as if heard through frosted glass.
He didn't notice a car speeding towards him.
"Bang—!" His body was thrown by a huge force, the scene before his eyes flipping, blurring, then going blank.
The world seemed muted. In the instant the excruciating pain hit, Zhang Linqin felt a trace of relief.
The wind howled in his ears, and weightlessness gripped his entire body. Opening his eyes, he was already hanging on a spider silk.
Returning to the venue, everyone set up pots to boil water, cooking the hard-won spider eggs. Ringo's eyes were unfocused; everything had come back to him.
Past and present, all those burdens, self-doubt, fear, numbness, false encouragement, and blind faith, like countless cold chains, were tightly intertwined with his beating heart at this moment. A tremendous sense of absurdity, like a cold tide, submerged him to his head.
But a spark ignited in his heart.
The roaring sound of water, the familiar yet strange characters around him, the lingering cold touch of the cliff rock on his fingertips.
This was the Hunter Exam venue, the world of Hunter x Hunter.
He looked down at the Nen cloaked around his fingertips. He no longer had to grovel for survival, no longer had to exhaust himself for a single bite of food!
An unprecedented surge of ecstasy and enlightenment, like a violent electric current, instantly coursed through his limbs.
Ringo took a sharp breath; cold air rushed into his lungs, yet it carried a sweet newness—the effect of Gokukusenzoku.
He clenched his fist, feeling a dull ache in his neck, but this pain now felt like a thunderclap, completely splitting apart all the gloom that had shrouded his heart!
"I am no longer Zhang Linqin!" A clear, unequivocal thought, like a brand, was etched deep into his soul.
"I survived! In this world of infinite possibilities!"
He chewed the spider egg bite by bite, the taste of protein lingering in his mouth.
"In this life, I will live freely for myself!" A silent vow echoed fiercely in his chest.
Second phase, forty-two people passed.