Aside from the stunned bald groundskeeper, there was nobody else outside the gate.
"Where the hell did everyone go?"
Liam was so surprised he almost lost his grip. The sixteen-ton doors on each side that he'd been trying to force open nearly slammed shut again.
Liam recovered quickly, shouted, and pushed the fourth Testing Gate open step by step. Thirty-two tons total.
The last two months of training weren't wasted. The torture of "Ken until exhaustion" every single day was way harder and more painful than just pushing a big iron door.
The fourth Testing Gate opened. Liam hurried through. The heavy doors closed automatically behind him moments later, kicking up dust.
"You—this—I—" Zebro was sweating more than Liam now. He stared at Liam, then at the closed Testing Gate, completely at a loss for words. Didn't you push open two doors and go inside? Why did you turn around and come back out? And worse, you pushed open FOUR doors! Thirty-two tons!
"Never mind that." Liam wiped sweat from his forehead and shook out his sore arms. He turned around. "Where did everyone go? Why's nobody here? I haven't even gotten on the bus yet!"
Zebro was speechless. Then he went and retrieved the two fresh skeletons Mike had cleaned off and showed them to Liam.
Liam stared. Someone actually got eaten by the Zoldycks' guard dog?
I didn't even notice.
He thought back carefully. When he'd pushed the gate the first time, he'd used only muscle and bone strength, no Nen enhancement. So when he'd forced open the second door at eight tons total, he'd been in a state of complete physical exertion. Blood pumping. Heart pounding. Adrenaline spiking.
In that state, he might've completely missed two threads of death energy hitting his heart.
"Whatever. They ran away."
Liam didn't dwell on it. He was exhausted. He just sat down on the ground to rest, looking up at the towering closed gate, feeling satisfied.
In the manga, Killua had said that Gon, who could push open the first Testing Gate, could use brute force alone to reach the 200th floor of Heavens Arena.
And Gon had done exactly that.
Just by relying on a simple technique, Gon had made it to the 200th floor.
Liam couldn't say how much of that beautiful record was due to Gon's raw strength versus his outstanding combat instincts and adaptability.
But now, with the ability to push open the second door through brute force alone, Liam could enter Heavens Arena and probably match Gon's performance below the 200th floor without even using Nen. Right?
Plus, with 9,000 total aura, I can barely push open the fourth Testing Gate. Killua, after returning home in the Chimera Ant arc, opened five doors. Sixty-four tons total. At that point, Killua had over 20,000 aura. He probably opened five doors more easily than I just opened four.
While evaluating his own strength, Liam used manga examples as benchmarks to keep himself grounded. No arrogance. No complacency.
All in all, he was satisfied with the trip to the Testing Gate. Worth coming all this way.
Heavens Arena, here I come!
Liam stood, dusted off his clothes, adjusted his baseball cap, grabbed his shoulder bag, and turned to leave.
Zebro looked completely baffled. "Aren't you going in? With your strength... you could at least stay for a bit?"
It's rare to meet someone who's pushed through two—no, FOUR—Testing Gates!
If you're not interested in the Zoldycks, or if you're not an old acquaintance, then why are you here?
Did you really just come to push doors?
When the kid had stepped back out through the gate moments ago, the rich aura radiating from his body had genuinely frightened Zebro.
With this kid's strength, he could probably kill Zebro casually if he wanted to. Mike, the guard dog, was a terrifying monster to Zebro and ordinary people. But in front of a real human monster like this boy, Mike was just a slightly larger wolf.
So young with such strength. Zebro couldn't help but think of the Zoldyck family's butler corps, a collection of absolute monsters.
Some young trainee butlers were monsters like this too. Even in their early teens, they could hunt down hundreds of people without leaving a trace.
"Go in for what? So they can offer me lunch?"
Liam waved without looking back. "Forget it. I don't know anyone in the Zoldyck family."
Damn it. The tour guides cleared out fast. No sightseeing bus on this long mountain road means I'm walking back on foot, right?
Watching the young man walk away, Zebro stood silent for a long moment. Then sighed.
"Who was that kid?"
The voice from behind startled Zebro badly.
He spun around and bowed quickly. "Master Milluki, Master Kalluto! That was a tourist here for sightseeing..."
A pudgy sixteen-year-old wearing a hoodie, holding a delicate six-year-old boy, stood behind him. Zebro hadn't noticed their approach at all.
The two were Milluki, the second eldest of the new generation, and Kalluto, the fifth.
Zebro had no way to answer Milluki's question properly. The young man had never given his name. It was as if he'd come purely to test the gate, then left immediately. At first glance, it seemed casual. But thinking about it more carefully... it really was just that casual.
"Pushed open the fourth door?" Milluki sounded mildly surprised. He'd been called out by his younger brother Kalluto and hadn't seen the follow-up.
Zebro nodded. "Yes. The young man's a Nen user. At first he didn't use aura and pushed open two. Then he used aura and pushed open four. Then he left. Based on his expression, he seemed very satisfied with the result."
Milluki said nothing more. There aren't many people who can push open the fourth Testing Gate, but in the Zoldyck butler corps, you could grab plenty who can. Not worth special attention. For the most marginal cleaning workers like Zebro, the minimum job requirement is being able to open the first Testing Gate independently.
He casually pushed open the first Testing Gate with one hand and led his brother Kalluto back inside.
For someone as fat as me, if I can only push the first door, I'll never push the second. The force was just right. Milluki felt smug internally but kept his face neutral. As they walked, he asked, "Kalluto, why do you care so much about whether Killua's back? Do you miss him that much?"
Kalluto, who their mother had a tendency to raise like a daughter, looked delicate and quiet. He replied, "If Killua comes back, our parents will be very concerned."
Milluki couldn't help but smile, though it came out a bit mean. "What you really care about is whether Killua still remembers Alluka when he comes back, right? Hehe... If big brother's pride gets deflated, I'll laugh at him so hard."
"Brother Milluki, you wouldn't dare laugh at Brother Illumi," Kalluto said calmly.
Milluki felt immediately unhappy but couldn't find a reason to refute it.
The younger brothers get less cute with each one. Paper dolls are more interesting.
On the other side, Liam was running at high speed down the mountain road. His pace matched a professional long-distance runner, but his expression stayed relaxed and comfortable. After running dozens of kilometers and leaving the forest around Kukuroo Mountain behind, he hadn't broken a sweat.
He was talking on the phone while moving, smiling. "Yeah, seriously. Shizuku, you should try it next time. See how many doors you can open... By the way, are you there yet?"