Buhara had long since run out of patience. All he could see was food.
"Hey, let me cook that corpse for you, and I'll count it as a pass. How about that?" His eyes were full of desire.
"What?"
"That's not fair!"
"Didn't you say we still had to cook it? He hasn't even made roast whole pig yet!" The examinees finally voiced their dissatisfaction.
"Enough noise! If you can also catch a Great Stamp of that size, I'll pass you too," Buhara said impatiently.
The examinees immediately fell silent. With that condition laid out, it basically meant that as long as they caught a Great Stamp like that, they were almost guaranteed to pass.
That was far easier to accept than some vague, subjective standard of deliciousness.
But with their strength, could they really capture a Great Stamp like that?
Roy grinned mischievously and moved to put the corpse back into a Capsule. "Sorry, I only brought this out so my friends could get a look at what the prey looks like. This one, I'll keep and deal with myself—"
Before Roy could finish, he suddenly felt someone tugging on the back of his collar.
"Now then, dear Mr. Buhara, do you perhaps really, really want this Great Stamp chieftain that we went through immense hardship to catch, risking our very lives for it~?"
Android 18 stepped forward with a bright smile.
She especially stressed words like "immense hardship," "risking our very lives," and "chieftain."
The moment Roy saw Android 18 step in, he immediately understood what was going on.
His wife had activated her "Queen of Profiteers" mode.
No, wrong phrase. Business queen, not profiteer.
Android 18 was smiling, and inwardly she was in a great mood too.
"I didn't expect that right after catching prey, we'd be able to sell it off so quickly. These rare beasts really do have a market. Lucky~!"
Watching Android 18 haggle enthusiastically with Buhara over the price, Roy shrugged.
"Let's go, Gon. Now that the test question has been announced, let's go find some prey first."
"Yeah!"
Satotz, who had been secretly watching from behind, was also enjoying the show.
"I never expected that examinee full of surprises to actually capture the Great Stamp chieftain. His strength is truly unfathomable. This exam is going to be very interesting~"
Aside from Roy's group, the other examinees also realized that the test had officially begun, and one after another they left to search for the Great Stamps.
"The world's fiercest Great Stamp, huh? Incredibly destructive, and carnivorous too. I wonder what it looks like. Still, with the strength of our group, we should be able to catch one, right?"
As they walked, everyone discussed the Great Stamp.
"Anything called 'the world's fiercest' shouldn't be underestimated, even if it's just a pig. But since the examiner set this as the task, that means the examinees' strength should still be enough to handle it."
Kurapika analyzed calmly.
"Yeah. Great Stamps may be fierce, but they have one fatal inborn weakness: their forehead."
"The forehead?"
While they were talking, they had already reached the area where the Great Stamps gathered.
"They're huge! But still not as big as the one you brought out earlier at the venue, Roy. And that nose is ridiculously prominent."
"I see. Since they use their noses to attack, the forehead became a protected weak point, right?"
"Then let me try!"
With that, Gon rushed straight at one of the Great Stamps with his fishing rod.
A minute later, the rod struck the Great Stamp on the forehead, and it dropped on the spot.
"Amazing! Roy was right. The Great Stamp's weak point really is its head!"
Everyone's spirits immediately rose. A few nearby examinees who had come closer also discovered the trick, then hurried off to start hunting.
"We'd better move fast. Mr. Buhara may be able to eat a lot, but there's still a limit to how much he can eat. And going by how delayed taste perception works, when he's at his hungriest, even food that tastes pretty ordinary will seem especially delicious to him. So if we finish first and hand it in first, we'll have a huge advantage."
"Got it!"
…
Time passed quickly. Everyone had caught their own Great Stamp and started cooking.
Roy, however, returned to the venue ahead of the others.
He did not make roast whole pig.
He knew that with the understanding between him and Android 18, passing Buhara's test was absolutely not going to be a problem.
For a Gourmet Hunter, there was no way he would let top-tier cuisine slip through his fingers.
When Roy returned to the venue, the first thing he saw was Android 18's radiant expression. Then he saw Buhara's face, full of lifeless despair, yet mixed with excitement and delight.
It was an unbelievably conflicted expression.
As for Menchi, who was standing to the side, she was also staring at Android 18 with a strange look on her face.
It seemed Android 18's bargaining skills had left a very deep impression on both Buhara and Menchi.
He probably got fleeced pretty badly, right?
The corpse of the Great Stamp chieftain was no longer there, so it looked like the deal had gone through and Buhara had put it away.
(End of Chapter)
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