I didn't expect to have an issue at the Gourmet Hunter exams before they even started. They asked me for an ID which I didn't have. I was worried that this would sink my chances of becoming a Gourmet Hunter.
"Um… actually you see I grew up in a small village in the mountains. I don't have anything like an ID." I said as I nervously anticipated the response that I was about to receive.
"Oh well… that's completely fine. We get many applicants from remote villages after all. You'll just have to register your ID before we start. Of course there's an extra charge for getting an ID but other than that it's no problem at all." The attendant said.
"Oh… ok then." I said slightly embarrassed that I had gotten so worried over something that ended up being such a nonissue.
Just like the guy said, it was a simple process to register for my ID then register for the exam itself. The first portion of the exam was a physical examination. They had doctors check us out and give us physicals, I guess to make sure that we were healthy enough to take a Gourmet Hunter jobs. After that we did several tests that measured our physical and athletic abilities.
Long jump, sprinting, weight lifting, grip strength, they measured that and just about any other athletic metric you could think of. I started to get worried that I wasn't going to pass this portion of the exam. For starters I wasn't able to see the scores that the other applicants were getting, so I had nothing to base my results on. And for that matter, the results that I got back from my tests didn't seem so good. Every single test I didn't they said they "couldn't measure" my results. I had no idea what that meant, but I did notice that a lot of their equipment did seem to break when I tried to use it. So I didn't know what that was all about, but suffice it to say that I was worried that I wouldn't make it to the next phase.
Luckily enough I did in fact make it to the next stage. Though I wasn't sure if that meant I hadn't failed yet or that everyone went on to the next phase regardless. Either way, they moved us all into several lecture rooms that each held hundreds of people. So it seemed that there was still at least around a thousand people still in the exam.
When I had made it into my assigned seat in the lecture room we received our test paper and were told to await instructions before starting. Soon our proctor for this portion of the exam came in and it was a familiar face.
It was Coco one of the Four Heavenly Kings, which is a group of the greatest Gourmet Hunters in the world. A group that included the titular Toriko as well of course. His ability allowed him to manipulate the poison within his body and he also had fortune telling capabilities that stemmed from his exceptional vision.
If I had to venture a guess as to why he was overseeing this portion of the exam, it would be because he could easily see if anyone was cheating.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you, I've been asked to oversee the written exam this year. I've taken a step away from hunting for now so I didn't have anything better to do and so I agreed." Coco said bluntly.
If he's still on a break from being a Gourmet Hunter then that must mean that I had come into the world at least a bit before the start of the series.
The Four Heavenly Kings were all world famous so everyone in the exam room was visibly excited by his arrival. Even among the Four Kings he was especially popular if I remember correctly. Anyway I was also excited to finally see someone that I knew from the show.
"Without further ado, let's get the written exam started. You may now flip over your exam sheet and begin. When you are finished remain seated and flip your sheet back face down. You are to remain seated for the entirety of the exam. Anyone who leaves their seat at any time before the exam ends will be failed immediately." Coco explained. An applicant then raised his hand to ask a question. "There will be no answers to any questions. You may begin now, the exam will end in two hours."
My excitement quickly dissipated when the exam actually started and I saw the questions. There were ten questions in total and each question was harder than the last. Of course that didn't matter to me because I couldn't even figure out the first question! He didn't say how many questions we had to get right to pass but again it didn't matter because I couldn't even get one right!
I thought about just guessing something random to at least make an attempt at answering the questions, but honestly I didn't even know enough to make any sort of guess at all. The difficulty of these questions reminded me of the written exam during the Chunin exams from Naruto.
Wait! That's just it! Maybe the point is that you have to cheat to pass the exam! Wait no, that doesn't make any sense, this exam is for Gourmet Hunters not ninja. Plus even if that was the point, it would be completely impossible to do with Coco in the room. As the exam went on, he would periodically expel people for cheating.
"You there, put your pencil down. You're cheating, your exam is over. Please leave." Coco said as he casually read from a book and pointed to an examinee at the top of the room.
"But I wasn't even cheating! You can't even see-" The examinee tried to protest before Coco cut him off.
"You were reading the answers of the person in the row in front of you to your left by looking at the reflection in his sunglasses." Coco quickly retorted. The guy finally left when he realized he couldn't get one past Coco.
The final seconds of the two hour time limit ticked away and I didn't have anything written down but my name. I was worried about my chances before, but now I was sure that I was done. How could I not after I didn't answer a single question.
After the two hour time limit, several people had been disqualified either from getting caught cheating or from leaving their seats before the exam was over. After all the remaining applicants' answer sheets were reviewed, Coco addressed us to tell us what was going to happen next.
"Alright, we are now going to separate you all based on the results of your exam." He said as I anticipated my inevitable failure. "If you hear your name called please go through these doors to the next room. You will receive instructions on what to do next when we are finished with the sorting."
Nearly every single participant was sent to the next room while only me and three other people stayed in the room that we were in. It made me feel like a loser considering that over a thousand people passed and I was one of the few people that failed.
"Now as for the people still in this room it should be clear that you have all, passed." Coco said.
"Huh?" I thought.