Survival in the Ruins: I Can Make Everything Evolve Infinitely-Chapter 17 - Exploiting Loopholes × The Benevolent Examiner
Chapter 17: Exploiting Loopholes × The Benevolent Examiner
“Path of Decision—”
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Lorraine frowned at the rules displayed before him.
“What a troublesome challenge!” he cursed inwardly.
It wasn’t the difficulty that bothered him—he was confident that even the hardest level couldn’t stop him. But...
This challenge clearly required three participants to proceed, just like in the story where the main group needed five people to start.
Scanning the room, Lorraine quickly noticed a speaker embedded in the wall.
“Can you hear me, Examiner?” he called out.
“Candidate 406, do you have a question?” a sharp voice responded from the speaker.
“Do three people have to work together for this? What if no one else shows up? Would I have to wait indefinitely?” Lorraine asked with a frown.
“Correct. This door will only open once three candidates agree on a decision. If you can’t find two others, well... that’s just bad luck!” The examiner’s voice carried a smug, gloating tone.
“Only open...?”
Lorraine caught onto something.
“Mr. Examiner, according to the message from Beans earlier, the third Hunter Exam task is to reach the tower’s base within seventy-two hours, right?” Lorraine asked suddenly.
“Indeed. The test is to reach the bottom within seventy-two hours without violating any of the tower’s rules,” the examiner confirmed.
Lorraine’s lips curled into a smile. “So, the door opens when three people are present, but it doesn’t require three people to start the challenge. In that case, breaking through should be fine, right?”
Meanwhile, in the Trap Tower’s central control room...
Libo, the examiner for the third test, paused mid-snack, grinning as he watched the monitor showing Candidate 406. He pressed a button and replied, “Breaking the door is against the rules. The door only opens after candidates choose. Breaking it violates the process.”
At the top of the tower, Lorraine heard this and smirked, walking over to the wall beside the Easy door.
“In that case, if I don’t open the door but go another way, it’s fine, right?” Lorraine said, thrusting his hand into the wall and pulling out a brick.
“After all, the condition is not to break the rules, not to follow them exactly!” He turned to the camera with a grin.
His earlier questions were a ruse to confirm the loophole and prevent the examiner from suddenly changing the rules.
Knowing how the protagonists broke through in the story, Lorraine had eyed the walls from the start.
Though he didn’t understand why Gon’s group struggled so much to break the walls with weapons, in reality, the tower’s walls weren’t that sturdy.
Even a criminal Killua dispatched effortlessly could damage the walls with finger strength. Lorraine, with strength exceeding two tons, found this a trivial task.
In the control room, Libo froze, watching Candidate 406 dismantling the wall. He dearly wanted to disqualify the candidate for exploiting the loophole he had painstakingly devised.
But as an examiner, he couldn’t.
After all...
Lorraine’s strength and cleverness were undeniably prime Hunter material.
Annoyed, Libo shoved the monitor aside. What was the point of watching a candidate who had already secured passage?
He knew exactly how simple the Easy path was—no traps, just a slightly longer route to provoke disputes among candidates.
Back in the tower, Lorraine noted the silence from the speaker and knew he was in the clear.
In no time, he had torn a massive hole beside the door and stepped onto the Easy route.
Not long after he left, with a dull thud, another candidate fell into the room.
And...
Seeing the gaping hole beside the Easy door and hearing Libo’s almost spiteful rule explanation, the newcomer was utterly bewildered.
According to the rules, three candidates were needed to open the door. Now, with one already gone, how would they gather three?
Without three, how could they open the door? Would they have to break through the wall too?
Staring at the half-meter-thick stone wall, the candidate was filled with despair.
“No—”
“Brother! Come back! I support taking the Easy route!”
On the Easy route, Lorraine had already covered five kilometers along its winding path, arriving at the next level’s door.
Pausing before the door, he turned back, puzzled.
“Strange... was that a noise?”
Dismissing it, he assumed it was just other candidates making progress. He remembered how Gon’s group got chased by rolling boulders—sounds through the walls were normal.
Shrugging, Lorraine entered the next level, eager to continue down the Easy path.
Yes, this path was perfect for him: no traps and deliberately extended with twists and turns.
It was practically a tailor-made experience farm!
“What a generous examiner!”
