The elevator doors didn't just open; they slid back with a mechanical hiss that felt like the final breath of the world above. As Gabriel stepped out into the Zaban City tunnel, the atmosphere hit him like a physical weight. It was damp, oxygen-poor, and thick with the scent of four hundred desperate men.
He didn't move immediately. Standing near the back of the massive underground chamber, Gabriel's eyes—disguised but still functioning with the precision of the Six Eyes—began to map the room.
He wasn't looking at faces; he was looking at auras. He saw the sharp, jagged spikes of energy belonging to the veterans and the fluttering, weak glows of the terrified rookies.
Satotz, the examiner, stood at the front, his silence more unnerving than a shout.
[Ding! Milestone Sign-In: The Assembly of the Damned.]
[Reward: 'Kage Bunshin' (Source: Naruto) — The ability to create solid clones of yourself. Each clone possesses a fraction of your energy and can relay information back to the original.]
Gabriel acknowledged the reward with a flicker of thought. In a marathon this long, clones could serve as perfect sensory beacons or decoys if he decided to slip away for a more lucrative Sign-In elsewhere in the cavern system.
"The first phase has already begun," Satotz announced, his voice echoing off the curved stone walls. "Follow me."
The walk began. It was a slow, rhythmic clack of Satotz's shoes against the stone.
Gabriel adjusted his stride. He moved with a predatory grace that felt entirely out of place among the shuffling crowd. To his left, he noticed a man with a large nose and a deceptive smile—Tonpa.
The "Rookie Crusher" was already weaving through the ranks, his eyes scanning for prey.
Gabriel's Observation Haki picked up the chemical scent before Tonpa even reached his vicinity. Laxatives. A primitive tactic.
When Tonpa eventually sidled up to Gabriel, holding out a silver can with a friendly grin, Gabriel didn't even turn his head.
"The aluminum is slightly oxidized," Gabriel said, his voice flat. "And the liquid inside contains a concentration of chemicals that would dehydrate a normal human in thirty minutes. If you want to survive the next ten kilometers, I suggest you drink it yourself. It might be the only moisture you get."
Tonpa's smile froze. He looked at the boy—brown-haired, unremarkable, yet possessing a gaze that felt like it was peeling back his skin to look at his organs.
The veteran examinee felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. He didn't say a word; he simply backed away, his heart hammering against his ribs in a way he couldn't explain.
"Whoa, you're pretty sharp," a voice called out.
Gabriel glanced to his right. Killua Zoldyck was gliding along on his skateboard, his hands in his pockets. A few paces behind him, Gon Freecss was keeping pace with a steady, bouncy jog.
"It wasn't a matter of sharpness," Gabriel replied. "It was a matter of basic chemical analysis. The man reeks of deceit and cheap pharmaceuticals."
Killua let out a short, sharp laugh. "I like that. I'm Killua. You're...?"
"Gabriel."
The first five kilometers were a test of patience. The tunnel was a masterpiece of monotonous engineering—gray stone, flickering lights, and the endless sound of footsteps. Gabriel watched the candidates around him.
They were wasting energy. They were tensing their shoulders, breathing through their mouths, and checking their watches.
'Inefficient,' Gabriel thought.
He shifted his focus inward, examining his own Nen flow. With the Infinite Reservoir, he could feel the aura circulating through his "Nodes" like a high-speed river. He began to experiment, using his intelligence to manually compress the aura around his joints to reduce friction.
It was a technique that would take a normal Nen user years to master, but Gabriel was doing it mid-stride, treating the marathon like a laboratory.
As the pace began to pick up, the atmosphere in the tunnel shifted from curiosity to grim determination. The sound of heavy breathing started to drown out the footsteps.
Beside them, a man in a blue suit was already starting to huff. Leorio's face was flushed, and his briefcase was clearly becoming a burden. Kurapika, running beside him, kept a steady, disciplined pace, his eyes fixed on Satotz's back.
"Are you guys sure you want to keep that pace?" Killua asked, looking at Leorio. "We've still got a long way to go. Satotz hasn't even started to run yet."
Gabriel looked ahead. He could see the micro-tensions in Satotz's calves. "He will increase the velocity by twenty percent in the next three minutes. The incline is about to shift."
"How do you know that?" Kurapika asked, glancing at Gabriel.
"The air pressure," Gabriel said. "The tunnel is narrowing slightly, and the sound of the footsteps ahead is echoing at a different frequency. The air is coming from a higher elevation."
True to his word, two minutes later, Satotz's pace lengthened. The brisk walk became a jog, then a run.
A wave of groans went through the pack. The "filter" had begun in earnest.
Gabriel noticed a girl a few meters ahead of them—Number 86. She was a martial artist, her movements disciplined, but she was staring at him. Every time Gabriel adjusted his pace, her eyes lingered on his profile.
Even in his disguised form, his movements possessed a magnetic quality that drew the eye.
Gabriel didn't care. He was calculating the distance. They were at the ten-kilometer mark. The tunnel was roughly eighty kilometers long based on his estimation of the Zaban geography.
[Ding! Daily Sign-In available. Would you like to Sign-In for Day 3?]
'Sign-In.'
[Daily Sign-In Complete.]
[Reward: 'Mana Circuits' (Source: Fate/Stay Night) — Your body now possesses secondary energy pathways that allow for more complex 'Synthesis' of abilities from other worlds.]
Gabriel felt a hot, searing sensation trace its way through his nervous system. It wasn't painful—his Limit Break body handled the transition with ease—but it was profound.
He could now feel his Nen and his multiversal rewards beginning to merge into a single, cohesive power system.
He decided to test it.
He focused on his feet. Instead of just using physical force to push off the ground, he channeled a sliver of Nen through his new Mana Circuits.
The result was a "Weightless Stride." His feet barely touched the stone.
He wasn't running so much as he was skimming the surface of the earth.
Killua's eyes widened.
He was a trained assassin, a master of footwork, and he had never seen anything like it. Gabriel wasn't even breathing hard.
"Hey," Killua said, his voice dropping an octave. "Where did you learn to move like that?"
"I didn't learn it," Gabriel said. "I simply stopped fighting the ground."
The tunnel began to grow darker. The lights were spaced further apart now, creating long stretches of shadow.
It was in these shadows that the first candidates began to drop.
One man tripped, his face slamming into the stone with a sickening thud. No one stopped to help him.
Another simply sat down, leaning his head against the wall, his eyes glazed over with exhaustion.
Gabriel didn't feel pity. He felt the logic of the exam. This was a culling.
He looked toward the front. Far ahead, he could see the shimmering aura of Number 44—Hisoka.
The magician was moving with a terrifying ease, his body language suggesting he was enjoying the spectacle of the failing examinees.
Gabriel's Observation Haki picked up a surge of bloodlust from the front. Hisoka was getting bored.
'The First Phase is not just a test of stamina,' Gabriel thought, his mind processing the variables.
'It is a test of psychological endurance. The tunnel is designed to strip away your ego until only the raw instinct remains.'
He glanced back at Gon and Killua.
They were still fine. But Leorio was reaching a breaking point. The man's aura was flickering, turning a sickly yellow.
"He won't make it at this rate," Gabriel said, his voice cold.
"Leorio's tough!" Gon argued, though his brow was furrowed with worry. "He'll make it!"
Gabriel didn't respond. Logic dictated that Leorio should have dropped out five kilometers ago. The fact that he was still moving was a statistical anomaly—something Gabriel decided to observe.
As they hit the twenty-kilometer mark, the tunnel opened up into a massive, vaulted cavern. The ceiling was lost in darkness.
[Ding! Narrative Weight Sign-In: The Hall of the First Breath.]
[Reward: 'Soru' (Source: One Piece) — A high-speed movement technique that allows you to kick off the ground ten times in an instant to move faster than the human eye can follow.]
Gabriel felt the muscle memory of Soru click into place. He didn't use it. Instead, he maintained his steady, weightless glide.
He was starting to feel the eyes of the veterans on him.
Not just Killua, but the others—the ninja Hanzo, the masked Gittarackur. They were beginning to realize that the plain-looking kid in the back wasn't just "keeping up." He was playing.
Gabriel looked ahead into the dark. The real marathon was just beginning.