Two Realms: Hunters and Pirates

"Hello!" Zain greeted the two with a smile and a nod.

"Hello!"

"Uh, hello to you too!"

Seeing Gon respond cheerfully to Zane's greeting, Kurapika, feeling a little embarrassed, quickly followed.

"Now that you've finished greeting each other, you can introduce yourselves!" the red-nosed captain interrupted.

Xiao Jie immediately responded, raising his right hand and laughing, "My name is Xiao Jie."

Kurapika then nodded to the captain with the bulbous nose and said, "My name is Kurapika."

"My name is Leorio!" Leorio said his name somewhat reluctantly.

After the three men gave their names, the captain with the red nose asked again, "Why did the four of you become hunters?"

"Hey, you're not the examiner, what are you asking me?" Leorio pointed at the captain and questioned him, dissatisfied.

The captain said in a more emphatical tone, "Just answer!"

"I'm telling you, when you ask about someone's privacy, you should at least state your identity first, otherwise it's easy to cause misunderstandings," Zane said helplessly from the side.

"That's right, just as Leorio and Zane said. If you are a member of the Hunter Association, then we will answer your questions about participating in the Hunter Exam truthfully. But if you are not, then I will refuse to answer questions that involve personal privacy," Kurapika said in a deep voice.

"Hey, you're younger than me, aren't you? Why don't you use a respectful term when you address me..." Leorio looked at Kurapika with some displeasure when he heard him call him by his name directly.

That's just how he is. If you're familiar with someone, he doesn't care what you call them, but if you're a stranger, he pays a lot of attention to how others treat him.

Unfortunately, Kurapika completely ignored Leorio and instead continued to express his refusal to answer to the bulbous-nosed captain.

"You bastard..." Leorio was even angrier when he saw Kurapika ignoring him like this.

Before he could react, the red-nosed captain opposite him took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled, saying, "It seems you haven't figured out the situation yet. The Hunter Exams started as soon as you boarded the ship."

"What?!"

Besides Zane, Leorio, Kurapika, and Gon were all surprised.

The captain with the red nose continued leisurely, "There are as many people in this world who want to get a hunter's license as there are stars in the sky."

There aren't enough examiners and not enough time to review so many people.

That's why we're hired to filter the candidates first. Currently, apart from the four of you, everyone else on the ship has been reported for elimination by the review committee.

In short, whether you can continue to participate in the Hunter Exam depends entirely on my mood, so think carefully and answer my questions.

After hearing this, Leorio and Kurapika, who had just refused to answer, found themselves in an awkward situation.

"See, if you had said so earlier, none of this would have happened," Zane said with a smile.

But then he changed the subject, saying, "But I need to remind you, Captain, that although you have the authority to appoint candidates, you shouldn't be too capricious when eliminating candidates."

You know, not all test takers have my good temper. If you encounter someone with a bad temper, based on what you just said, Captain, you and everyone on board probably won't have a good time.

Whether I can continue to participate in the Hunter Exam depends entirely on my mood.

Although Zane knew the current plot, he was still somewhat annoyed by the captain's rather arrogant attitude.

As he said, it's just that he has a good temper; if it were someone else with a bad temper, it wouldn't be surprising if they slaughtered the entire ship afterwards.

Zain's words, seemingly meant to persuade, actually contained a certain threat.

The old man with the red nose, a shrewd fellow, could obviously tell that.

Sure enough, after listening to Zane's poem, the captain with the red nose choked on the smoke in his mouth.

"Ahem... Without further ado, let's answer your questions about why you participated in the Hunter Exam."

The captain with the red nose, who had stopped coughing, gave Zane a deep look. When he met the indifferent look in Zane's smiling face, he immediately changed the subject awkwardly.

Kurapika on the other side couldn't help but glance at Zane.

He also sensed the threat in Zain's words.

"Because my father was a hunter, I was curious to know what the job of a hunter, which fascinated my father so much, was like, so I left Whale Island."

Without thinking too much, after learning about the identity of the captain with the red nose, Gon immediately raised his hand again and enthusiastically explained why he participated in the Hunter Exam.

"Whale Island...this kid really is Jin's son!"

The captain with the red nose was also drawn in by Xiao Jie's words.

He had actually guessed something when he saw Gon's appearance, after all, he was the one who examined Ging when he participated in the Hunter Exam.

"So your dad's a Hunter, no wonder you took the Hunter Exam at such a young age." The oblivious Leorio couldn't help but sigh when he heard Gon's words.

"And what about you, Mr. Leorio? Why did you participate in the Hunter Exam?" Gon turned around and asked curiously.

Leorio exclaimed dramatically, "Of course it's for money! With money, you can buy anything—mansions, luxury cars, fine wines..."

"Money can't buy good character, Leorio!" A light voice suddenly rang out, and looking over, it was Kurapika who spoke.

He was still observing Zane, but after hearing Leorio's extremely vulgar words, he couldn't help but retort.

"Damn it, I told you to use honorifics when you call me." Leorio was already annoyed by being contradicted, but when he found that Kurapika still hadn't used honorifics, he became even angrier.

Zane glanced at Leorio, said nothing more, and then said to the captain with the red nose, "My reason is simple: I want to see the true power of a hunter."

"I see."

Although things had just been a bit unpleasant, the captain with the red nose nodded in agreement with what Zane said, and then looked at Kurapika at the very end.

Noticing the gaze of the captain with the bulbous nose, Kurapika once again ignored Leorio and said in a deep voice, "Actually, I am a survivor of the Kurta tribe. I came to participate in the Hunter Exam in order to hunt down the Phantom Troupe, the group of thieves who killed my compatriots four years ago."

"The Phantom Troupe is an A-class criminal organization. Even skilled hunters wouldn't dare to make a move against them easily. You'll just be throwing your life away," the captain with the red nose exclaimed in surprise.

Kurapika closed his eyes and said calmly, "I'm not afraid of death at all. What I fear most is that sooner or later, the anger in my heart will fade away with time!"

As he finished speaking, he suddenly opened his eyes, which glowed faintly red, as if venting his anger.