"This manga feels a bit bloody."
"I thought shōnen manga weren't supposed to kill people. Why are there deaths in these chapters? And Teacher Shirogane even draws the death scenes so graphically."
"I finally understand why this manga feels heavy when you read it. It's like the worldbuilding is designed so that outside the protagonist's small circle, which feels almost like a fairy tale full of effort, struggle, and victory, everyone else is scheming and villains are everywhere."
"What do you think Tonpa is after? Did he really participate in the Hunter Exam thirty-five times just to eliminate rookies along the way?"
"I totally get that mindset. You think he's a psychopath? He must have failed the Hunter Exam over and over, realized he didn't have the talent, and became twisted. If I can't pass, then none of you should either."
"Oh, when you put it like that, I get it. Even though I don't study, when my roommate studies, it feels like a knife twisting in my heart and I always want to drag him into playing games. The goal is simple. Everyone's grades should be bad together. No one is allowed to secretly improve."
"This chapter was really interesting. It's just that Gon didn't get much time to shine."
"By the way, if Leorio is thrown into the hallucinogenic area, will he die?"
"Of course he will. Anyone who has basic wilderness survival knowledge knows that once you encounter miasma poisoning and start hallucinating outdoors, you're basically done. Nature doesn't have many safe, non-toxic, side-effect-free hallucinogens."
"Can't Teacher Shirogane just update two more pages? I really want to see that idiot Tonpa get punished."
It was obvious that once the Hunter Exam officially began in the sixth chapter of Hunter x Hunter, a flood of comments poured in.
The readers of Dream Comic were not fools.
Some Hunter readers were loyal fans of Hikaru no Go who supported the work from the start.
But even more were casual readers who followed the journal out of curiosity.
From the first chapter until now, although Hunter had not delivered any explosive moments, there had also not been a single point that drew heavy criticism.
As the plot steadily became more engaging, the work's rating within Hoshimori Group's internal reader scoring system surpassed The Wanderer this week. Its score reached 9.2 points, making it the second highest-rated serialized work in the journal.
It was just that it was still ranked third.
And it lost to The Wanderer by only 452 votes.
The next day, after hearing about Hunter's performance from Misaki, Rei wore a slightly regretful expression.
It was just a little short.
But after giving it some thought, Hikaru no Go had originally taken more than half a year of serialization to surpass The Wanderer in popularity and rise to second place.
Hunter x Hunter had only been serialized for a month and a half. Maintaining third place for six consecutive weeks was clearly not the result of blind support from Hikaru no Go fans.
In fact, a large number of casual readers had quietly begun following this manga.
"It seems Hunter still has to walk the same path Hikaru no Go did back then," Rei said with a faint smile.
He casually picked up the latest issue of Monogatari Comic, Japan's top manga journal, which he had bought the previous Friday.
The three works ranked at the top of its serialization list were the most popular hot-blooded battle manga in Japan over the past two years.
Within the industry, Monogatari Comic held an undisputed position, much like Weekly Shonen Jump in Rei's previous life.
In terms of status, the top three titles in Monogatari Comic were comparable to the "Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece" of that era.
By comparison, even the leading works in large journals like Dream Comic were closer to first-tier popular series such as Conan or Fairy Tail, but there was still a clear gap between them and the absolute top-tier giants.
Rei had never doubted whether Hunter could reach the top of Dream Comic.
But his true goal was to surpass those three dominant battle manga in Japan.
Whether in reputation, popularity, or tankōbon sales during the middle and later stages of serialization, his expectations for Hunter were simple.
It had to surpass the competition.
Another Wednesday arrived.
Juri was awakened early in the morning by her alarm clock.
7:30 a.m. every Wednesday had been her fixed wake-up time for nearly a year.
For someone like her who spent so much time online, missing the latest chapter meant having the plot spoiled almost immediately after opening her favorite websites.
After washing up, she went straight to the nearest bookstore. After entering and turning right, she saw stacks of Dream Comic Journal piled high on a prominent shelf.
After paying, she found an empty seat inside the bookstore, opened the magazine, and flipped directly to Hunter's seventh chapter.
The story continued directly from last week.
Leorio, exhausted and barely conscious, had been deliberately left behind by Tonpa in an area permeated with the scent of hallucinogenic plants.
The plot then began to depict the tragic state of Leorio and another examinee who had been framed by Tonpa alongside him.
That other person, driven by wounded pride and the hallucinogenic scent, suffered a complete mental collapse.
He went mad.
Juri blinked.
She continued reading.
At the same time, Leorio also began to hallucinate.
'Leorio!'
A man's voice reached his ears.
It was his deceased best friend, [Pietro].
Hearing the voice of his dead friend, Leorio frantically searched for him inside the illusory room.
But when he opened the door, he only saw the other examinee lying motionless on the bed. His body was covered with a white sheet. There was a penetrating wound in his chest. His face was hidden beneath cloth.
Yet the corpse spoke.
'It's a pity you came too late.'
'My heart won't beat anymore. My body is already a cold corpse.'
'Leorio, wasn't your dream to become a doctor?'
In the real world, Gon and Kurapika sensed something was wrong and immediately turned back to save Leorio.
Inside the illusion, time flowed rapidly.
Leorio found himself sitting alone by the sea beneath a setting sun, sadness flickering across his face.
When he woke again, Pietro's corpse beside him continued speaking.
'Pietro, I'm sorry. I really wanted to cure your illness. But we didn't have the money for your surgery.'
Juri grasped the key point.
So this was why Leorio had introduced his dream as becoming a doctor the moment he appeared.
To cure his friend.
'To treat people, I need to become a licensed doctor. And for that, I need a lot of money.'
'Damn it. If only I had money.'
'I must become a Hunter, earn money, become a doctor, and then provide free treatment to people like you, Pietro, who can't afford medical care.'
Seeing this, Juri stared at Leorio's resolute yet sorrowful expression on the page.
Leorio turned his head.
Beside him sat his friend.
Only now, it was no longer a body, but a decayed skull gazing at him with hollow eye sockets.
"Ah!"
Juri's hand trembled, almost causing her to drop the magazine.
In the manga, Leorio screamed as well.
Horror manga?
Juri's heart pounded violently.
Outside the illusion, Kurapika panicked upon seeing a spider inside the cave, his emotions spiraling out of control. Killua ultimately saved him.
'I have a way to save that old man and still catch up to the examiner.' Killua smiled.
Back in the illusion, Leorio's mental state continued to crumble.
'You might as well die. Once you die, you can come to my world. Everyone who lives will die eventually. It's only a matter of time.' Pietro said.
'You're not cut out to be a doctor anyway. Why struggle? Stay with me. Just like before. Don't leave me alone.'
Juri tensed up.
No way.
Before this, it was only minor characters who had died. They hadn't even left the starting area yet. Was a member of the main cast really going to die now?
'Come here, Leorio.'
Pietro extended his skeletal hand.
Leorio took a step forward.
Then another.
He stopped at the final step.
Juri's heart tightened as well.
How would this end?
'I'm sorry, Pietro!'
The manga gave Leorio a close-up.
The reluctance, pain, and sorrow in his eyes were unmistakable.
His back was hunched. His posture weak.
Yet he continued speaking to the phantom before him.
'I think I still can't go with you.'
'Maybe this is just a dream. I don't have much confidence in passing the Hunter Exam or becoming a doctor.'
'But I don't want my life to end like this.'
Juri continued reading, her expression growing solemn.
'I want to cure children who suffer from the same illness you had.'
Tears welled up in Leorio's eyes.
Juri's own eyes slowly reddened.
'And then I want to tell their parents, "It's okay. I won't charge anything."'
She recalled Leorio's first appearance, when he loudly declared that he loved money more than anything.
'I must survive and become a doctor.'
Leorio knelt before the hallucination of his deceased friend, tears streaming down his face.
The friend he had lacked the money and ability to save.
'I'm sorry. Please forgive me, Pietro.'
In the manga, Pietro's illusion was bathed in sunlight.
He turned and looked at the kneeling Leorio.
Then he said only this.
'Leorio.'
'You must succeed.'
'Become a great doctor.'
The sunlight grew brighter. Heat surged.
When Leorio regained his senses, Gon , Kurapika, and Killua had already used a small amount of gunpowder to blast open the cave wall. The noise and heat tore him out of the hallucination.
Juri turned the page.
But the chapter ended there.
Her nose stung.
So the most seemingly crude and money-loving member of the group carried such a pure dream in his heart.
This simple sequence, Leorio's hallucinated confession of his dream, made Juri feel like crying for the second time while reading this manga.
The first time was when Gon parted from Aunt Mito.
The second time was now.
...
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