"Please wait!!"
He pretended to be in pain, acting as if he were injured, and said with difficulty, "I think I twisted my ankle. Can you help me?"
"Twisted your ankle?!"
"Yes, yes!!" Matthew nodded frantically, hoping Gon would turn around.
However?
"His foot is perfectly fine."
The angel toy spoke up again, ruining Matthew's plan.
"Is that so? Then it seems Mr. Matthew, you were mistaken," Gon said, agreeing wholeheartedly. "You should rest for a bit; we'll go ahead."
Matthew: "…Please wait!!!"
Seeing that Gon kept listening to the angel toy, he couldn't hold back any longer. He patted his backside and got up from the ground. He decided to drop the act and said directly, "Why do you have to listen to a mere toy?!"
"This isn't a toy; it's a tool!" Gon corrected Matthew seriously. "This is a tool Mr. Morin lent me. It can make all the right choices. It's amazing!"
"A tool that makes the right choices?!"
Matthew looked incredulous, as if Gon was joking with him. "And because of that, you trust this little thing?!"
He pointed at the "Guiding Angel," looking utterly disbelieving.
"I trust Mr. Morin," Gon replied. "He said this tool is useful, so it must be very useful."
Matthew: "…"
Well, he figured it out. Gon is indeed easy to fool, but unfortunately, someone else had already tricked him before he could.
"At least for now, it seems quite useful," Leorio said, glancing at Matthew's foot with a sarcastic smile. As someone aspiring to be a doctor, he could tell at a glance that there was nothing wrong with the foot. But Matthew had deliberately lied, clearly harboring ill intentions.
Kurapika didn't say anything, but his eyes said, "I'm just watching your performance."
"You all… hmph!"
Realizing his intentions had been seen through and that he couldn't stay any longer, Matthew snorted coldly. He bypassed the group and ran down the road ahead. After all, he already knew the destination was under the redwood tree ahead; he could get there on his own!
"Indeed, every choice given by Mr. Guiding Angel is correct," Gon said happily, patting the toy's head.
Leorio and Kurapika also glanced at the angel robot again.
"I wonder if it can help me find my clan's eyes…" Kurapika thought.
"I wonder if it can tell me the winning numbers for the next lottery?" Leorio mused.
After the little episode with Matthew, the group had witnessed the effectiveness of the "Guiding Angel." Along the way, they couldn't help but trust its capabilities even more.
Soon, after some time, the four of them arrived at a desolate, uninhabited small town. The streets were empty, not a soul in sight, and even the houses seemed deserted.
"Tap, tap, tap."
The large, empty space echoed with the crisp sound of footsteps as Morin and his group walked down the silent street. Gon, however, was quite interested and began to look around curiously.
The town's style was completely different from the port where they had disembarked earlier. Overall, it was much older, somewhat like a slum.
"Which is heavier, a ton of iron or a ton of cotton?"
"Iron."
"Wrong, they're the same weight because they're both a ton."
"Which is older, the brother or the sister?"
"The correct answer is unknown because they are twins."
The mixed voices of men and women reached their ears, and the group, all with keen hearing, vaguely heard these strange sounds.
"Mr. Matthew should have passed by now, right?" Gon was still thinking about that guy's situation. But soon, his attention shifted to the present.
"Rustle, rustle."
The sound of clothes rustling was heard, and gradually, many people with colorful hair, wearing large white robes, appeared. They wore masks and were short in stature, clearly not intending to let them pass through the town easily.
"Thump, thump," "Thump, thump."
The repetitive sound continued, and they neither spoke nor moved aside, which was quite irritating.
"What do these people want? They seem unfriendly. Should we take another route to avoid a direct confrontation?" Leorio suggested, instinctively looking at the "Guiding Angel" in Gon's hand.
At that moment, the white robes parted, revealing an elderly woman with graying hair, wearing a necklace and leaning on a cane.
She closed her eyes slightly, "Heartbeat Choice Challenge…"
"Quick question and answer challenge begins!!" she suddenly shouted, displaying an extraordinary flair that startled Leorio and Kurapika.
"If you want to go to the red Gahanna tree on the mountain, you must pass through here."
"Other mountain paths are like a maze, and there are fierce man-eating beasts."
"I will only ask one question, and you have only five seconds to think. If you answer incorrectly, this year's Hunter Exam will be considered a failure." From her words, they understood that this was also part of the Hunter Exam.
"So we all have to answer the same question?" Leorio thought for a moment, glanced at Kurapika, and wanted to say something.
But when he saw the "Guiding Angel" in Gon's hand, he swallowed his words.
"I feel like you're thinking something rude," Kurapika glanced at him sideways.
"Not at all," Leorio laughed it off. He certainly wouldn't admit he was worried Kurapika might drag him down. Hmm, not sure where he got that confidence.
Morin, however, knew the outcome of this question-and-answer session. He was like a student who had seen the standard answers, retaking the test. He already knew the process. What interested him now was seeing how Gon and the other future candidates would be influenced by him and where they would end up. That was what he was most looking forward to.
He was curious about what exciting changes would occur in this Hunter Exam compared to the original version. Morin was quite eager to see.
Meanwhile, the quick question-and-answer granny had finished explaining all the rules.
Then~
"Your mother and lover have been captured by villains, but you can only save one…"
The quick question-and-answer granny squinted her eyes, "Mother; or lover. Who would you choose to save?"
Leorio and Kurapika were slightly taken aback by the question.
What is this?
This question has no correct answer. Are we supposed to guess her preferred answer?!
Gon was also frowning, pondering the question. This time, he didn't immediately ask the "Guiding Angel."
"What kind of question is this?! How can they ask such a stupid question?!" Leorio was a bit agitated and directly looked at the "Guiding Angel."
"Hey! Tell me, what's the answer to this question? What should we choose?!"
Gon was there thinking about the question, and the "Guiding Angel" didn't respond. Leorio wasn't its current user, so it wouldn't answer questions randomly.
"What are you doing?! If you don't answer, Gon and we will be eliminated!!"
If he weren't waiting for the "Guiding Angel's" answer and feeling tricked, Leorio would have already picked up a stick to hit someone.
And the response he got was silence.
Silence?
Kurapika looked at the "Guiding Angel" thoughtfully, then quickly understood.
"Five…"
The quick question-and-answer granny had already started counting down, and Leorio was running out of patience.
Just as he was about to pick up a stick?
"If one person answers incorrectly or fails to answer, it will mean elimination for everyone, including Gon," Morin said. "The 'Guiding Angel' may have some quirks, but it will never harm its user."
Morin's words gradually calmed Leorio's restless heart. It wasn't because of any other reason but simply because he trusted Morin. Well, he had no choice but to trust him, given Morin's strength.