Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

"First come, first served?" Law looked at the old lady with confusion.

"Don't you understand?" The old lady replied calmly.

Law thought for a moment and asked, "You mean... the qualifications to board the ship?"

"It seems you're not too stupid." The old lady said.

Law smiled helplessly and nodded to indicate that he understood.

Just as the phrase implied, there were 300 spots, and they were first-come, first-served.

The port was crowded with people, all craning their necks to await the arrival of the Goddess.

The Goddess was the ship heading to the Pita Continent. It was said that there was a sculpture of a woman hanging on the bow, so it was named the Goddess.

However, no one knew how beautiful the sculpture was. And Law was also quite curious about this.

Time passed little by little, and soon it was around eleven o'clock. A large ship appeared on the horizon, slowly coming into view.

The distance was still far at this time, and only the general outline of the Goddess could be seen, while the white sculpture hanging on the bow was still very blurry.

"It's here."

Law looked quite relaxed, but the moment the ship appeared, a tense atmosphere naturally spread among the crowd.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Goddess anchored on the sea outside the reef area, as there was no extra space in the port.

"Is that the Goddess?"

Although the Goddess was still some distance away from the shore, Law could barely see the sculpture on the bow of the Goddess, which was an old woman with a kind face.

'An old Goddess?!'

Law had thought of many versions, most of which were statues of graceful women with half of their bodies exposed and wearing silk clothes, but this... was far from what he expected.

Law covered his eyes, finding it hard to accept this revelation.

"Cough, cough."

At this time, an old cough was heard from the Goddess, and the sound was amplified through the loudspeaker so that everyone on the shore could hear it clearly.

"The ship will stay here for an hour. That is all."

The voice's words were extremely brief, but they revealed a critical piece of information for the test participants, which was the time limit.

The noisy sounds on the shore mysteriously quieted down. After a moment, the surging crowd dispersed like a group of ants, and many people immediately took action.

Most of these people are proactive, and soon, most of them dispersed, all trying to find ways to board the Goddess.

"Law, are we going to swim over?" Buhara asked.

"Silly, of course we'll go there by boat."

Law glanced at the Goddess's position. The ship was over a kilometer from the shore. While it was not difficult to swim across this distance, the area was riddled with reefs and unpredictable currents, so it could easily sweep someone away.

Even if the sea surface appears calm, there may be dangerous undercurrents.

Anyone who had spent time in Marvando would have noticed that the locals rarely ventured into the sea to swim.

Thinking this through, Law noticed that many participants seemed ready to swim over and were doing warm-up exercises. Some people began to think of ways to find small boats, while more people seemed to be eyeing the two large ships anchored in the port.

Considering the undercurrent, the large ship should be able to cross it easily.

However, whether it was a small boat or a larger one, permission from the locals was necessary, and paying for it should be the fastest shortcut. This is unavoidable and can be regarded as another form of 'ticket fee'.

"Grandma Meilin, please take care of Sanbica while I'm gone." Law said as he prepared to use a small boat to cross the reef area.

"Alright." Meilin nodded.

Law glanced at Sanbica, then was about to take Buhara to the shallows, but at this moment, he heard a commotion.

Looking toward the source of the commotion, he saw a group of participants preparing to swim.

After warming up, the group of people jumped into the sea and swam towards the Goddess, ignoring the dissuasion of local residents.

They were not stupid. They avoided the area around the reef and went into the sea from another place. However, a calm sea surface didn't guarantee safety.

Soon, several people who swam out suddenly disappeared without a trace.

There were about forty people who went into the sea, and they were all very confident in their swimming skills, but after they swam out two or three hundred meters, many of them realized that something was wrong, but at this point, they could only grit their teeth and push forward.

Many people on the shore were watching, and soon, they saw that the number of people swimming out was gradually dwindled, and in a short time, the number was reduced by more than half.

The missing participants were likely doomed, while only about ten individuals got closer to the Goddess.

"They made it aboard."

From afar, they could see the swimmers being brought aboard the Goddess, prompting someone to shout out loud.

Even though some people succeeded, no one was willing to swim again after witnessing dozens of people disappear into the sea.

Once people saw others successfully board the Goddess, their actions became even more urgent.

The negotiations for the larger ships hadn't concluded yet, but many smaller boats had already been rented out for a significant price.

Law noticed several examinees handing over money from a distance but wasn't worried, as he had asked Uncle Beck to reserve one for him.

"Grandma Meilin, this is the real ticket fees, right?" Law suddenly looked at Meilin and asked.

"You could say that. After all, it only happens once a year. Not taking the chance to rake it in would be a shame." Meilin said calmly.

Law's face darkened slightly when he heard this. He looked at the crowd gathering on the ship and said helplessly, "There are only 300 places available to board the ship. If they're charging a ticket fee, they can only collect for 300. But now, collecting fees from a thousand people isn't out of the question."

The rental fees for the small boats and access fees for the two large ships in the harbor were undoubtedly hefty. Compared with the profit from issuing 300 tickets, this method could multiply the profits several times over.

As Meilin said, since it was a once-a-year event, they have to make the most of it.

"What does this have to do with you? Hurry up and go. Don't you understand the principle of first come, first served?" Meilin waved her hand.

Law chuckled wryly and said to Sanbica, "I'm off. Wait for me to come back."

"Alright." Sanbica replied.

"Buhara, let's go."

With his hands in his pockets, Law headed toward the shallows where the small boats were docked.

Buhara chuckled and quickly followed.

He's confident that as long as he follows Law, he won't have to think so much.

Meilin and Sanbica watched the two men leave. After a moment, Meilin said in a firm tone, "Let's head home. Those two boys will make it aboard."

After saying that, she turned to leave.

Sanbica said nothing. She took one last look at Law's retreating figure, and followed Meilin.

In her opinion, let alone getting on the ship, even the entire Hunter Exam was a piece of cake for Law.

When Law and Buhara arrived at the shallows, they found that most of the small boats were rented out by candidates, leaving only one, which was reserved by Law.

"I'll pay you three times the price! I want this boat!"

When Law and Buhala arrived at the place where the boat was docked, they saw two men holding wads of cash and shouting arrogantly at the dark-skinned Uncle Beck.

"No matter how much money you offer, it's the same. This boat's already reserved for someone else. I won't rent it to you." Uncle Beck replied calmly.

"You're asking for a higher price, right? Ten times the price, that's enough for your funeral costs." The man who took the money pulled out even more money, his expression and tone thoroughly nasty.

Uncle Beck remained unfazed, not even reacting to their mention of his funeral costs.

Watching this, Law felt touched. Despite the rampant price-gouging among Marvando's residents, Uncle Beck stuck to his word. As Merlin said, 'not taking money when it's there' was not something a normal human would do.

But Uncle Beck didn't take the tenfold profits just because he had made a deal with Law.

"Excuse me, please make way."

Law walked over, placing his hands on the two men's shoulders and effortlessly pushing them aside to stand in front of Uncle Beck.

The two men stumbled and were almost pushed to the ground.

"You're here." Seeing Law, Uncle Beck's tense face relaxed a little and revealed a faint smile.

"Yeah." Law nodded and grinned, "We'll leave right away."

"Go ahead." Uncle Beck said succinctly.

"Bastard, how dare you shove me!" At this time, a furious voice erupted behind Law. At this time, the two men glared at him. Their postures looked aggressive, and they are clearly intending on fighting since they couldn't rent the boat.

Buhara silently clenched his hands, making a crackling sound of bones.

Law smiled slightly, and turned his head to look at the two people. Then, he released a burst of his Aura to cover the two people.

Being singled out by Law's Aura, the two people, who were lacking strong willpower, trembled and collapsed unconscious without warning.

Using aura to form a field of pressure was highly effective against ordinary people with weak willpower.

Law was too lazy to waste time with the two men, so he directly used his Aura to knock them out. He found this way of using Aura surprisingly useful.

Both Buhara and Uncle Beck looked at the two people, who fainted inexplicably, with shock in their eyes. But since they didn't ask, Law naturally wouldn't say anything.

Afterwards, Uncle Beck watched as Law and Buhara boarded the small boat and began rowing into the undercurrent area.

Law's seemingly unskilled but rowing technique were immediately noticed by the two people.

One was Uncle Beck, and the other was the captain on the Goddess, who was observing the reef area through a telescope.

"That young man... interesting." The old captain muttered to himself.