"It might be time for the remaining 43 remaining contestants to know who I am. My name is Netero and I'm responsible for the trials as well as a member of the organization committee. I wasn't supposed to show myself until the final phase but it just happened." He scanned the crowd, where most of the examinees were exhausted and not really listening. Gon and Killua, however, seemed to still be as lively as ever because of youth. Meanwhile, Kurapika was slightly out of breath, Leorio looked like he was going to kneel over, and Valeria were muttering chants/curses underneath her breath. Probably directed at Netero.

"I understand your anxiety but I believe it's a good thing. So if you'll allow me among you for the time being we should arrive tomorrow around 8 at the next trial ground. We are waiting for them to contact us. You are free to do whatever until we arrive." The bean like character pointed at the clock.

"Let's explore!" Gon and Killua exchanged glances before glancing to see whether or not the others would join them on an exploration trip. Three older companions shook their head and almost immediately, the two boys darted off. Leorio and Kurapika were struggling to keep their eyes open while Valeria grumbled something that sounded like: "I want to shower and change."

Then the group sees the Chairman waddling towards them, causing Valeria to click her tongue in annoyance, trying to hide behind Kurapika. Not taking the hit, the Chairman greeted them with a bright smile, but before he was about to say something, Valeria grumped. "What do you want, old fart?"

"Valeria? I get maybe you're in a bad mood but you have to treat him with respect." Kurapika sighed as he grabbed her shoulders and moved her next to him, so she was properly standing in the Chairman's view. Valeria grumped and crossed her arms, cheekily turning away with her eyes closed. Fortunately, Netero didn't seem to mind her behaviour much.

"Hohoho! It's been awhile Li Feng ! Or should I say Valeria? You've grown so much. Back then you, Hongshi, and Tianyu were this small." He raised his arms to his hips, reminding Valeria of the nostalgic past. The girl's face paled in disgust as she waved her hands at him, begging him to stop.

"Ugh, playing catch with you was so annoying."

"I remember that you were so frustrated that you lifting trees and started chucking them at me-"

"STOP, this is so embarrassing I don't want my friends to see me like that-" She shouted, her face red with embarrassment and turned her head slightly to see Leorio's and Kurapika's reactions. Much to her shock, they didn't seem shocked at all.

"Like what?" Kurapika cocked his head. Leorio shrugged while shaking his head. "What? Did you think that was a shocking revelation? Do you see yourself as a dainty princess or something? Besides what's with those names - Leafy? Horse? Teal?"

"Lifeng - that's my name in the Che'ang language or more accurately my birth name. Valeria is an international name that I selected and prefer." She arched an eyebrow at the old man who laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "My bad my bad hohoho. Well I just wanted to say hi. You should all get some rest and there's a bath and diner somewhere on the ship too. Do what you like." He walked away as Valeria sighed. She was a little bit more irritated now that he brought up names he didn't want to hear. Not to mention he purposely called out her name in her wretched mother tongue. She shook her head and glanced at the clock before yawning. "Can we not stand in the middle of the hallway?"

Kurapika followed her gaze and sighed. It has been an extremely long day for them and their highly productive day made him curious: "How many more trials will we have?"

"It changes from year to year but usually there are five to six tests in total." As if on cue, Tonpa appeared from around the corner. He did pause, because Valeria immediately focused her eyes menacingly at him. She couldn't forgive him for trying to feed her laxatives and she felt a smirk crawl onto her face.

"I didn't finish the job last time because you were fortunate that I got distracted. Did you come back for me to send you to your graveyard? Sure, I'll make sure that you get a sky burial by pulverizing you then tossing you vultures."

"N-no, I just wanted to help you guys as a veteran! Right, guys?" He turned his head, hoping that Kurapika and Leorio would help out. Maybe it was on purpose, both were disinterested in saving Tonpa and contemplated on his words instead.

"So there are still 3 - 4 more tests left. Man, thinking about it makes me tired already." Leorio grunted, scratching the back of his head. Kurapika nodded in agreement and suggested that they take this opportunity to rest. Tonpa noticed that Valeria yawned to Kurapika's suggestion, agreeing with the blond boy, and took his chance to scramble away from the female gorilla. "I-I advise you to stay vigilant. There might be a possibility that something will happen before 8 tomorrow."

Valeria watched him run away like a roach before blanking out, trying to remember what she wanted to do before resting. She then remembered. "I'm going to shower and change. Meet up at the dining hall later?"

"Sure." The boys went their separate ways and Valeria wandered into the women's bathroom. She whistled at how large the bath was. There were hot tubs and even a sauna. There was no one there and Valeria sighed in relief as she began to take off her clothes and tossed everything onto the ledge of a bath. She sank into the water and untied her hair, letting it float on the surface of the water.

She looked down and was glad that no one was here to stare at her tattoos. The side of her left upper thigh had a Che'ang tattoo of a dragon, which represented the current power within the Lavine clan. On her back was a long tiger that traced the spine, representing her family's side of the clan. Staring at the tattoo that she could see because even if she did have superhuman strength, it wasn't like she could twist her head and look at her back, she snapped back to reality. She didn't have time to dawdle around, thinking about the meaning of life. There were freshly cleaned towels folded neatly on wooden shelves and Valeria decided to dry herself with those. She then walked over to her bag, pulling out all of her clothes and changed.

While Leorio and Kurapika found the location of the dining room and were waiting outside. Leorio's stomach growled loudly and he groaned. "Ugh, when is the gorilla going to come?!"

"Maybe she got lost or something. I wouldn't be surprised." Kurapika chuckled.

"Why are you laughing? You know, sometimes I think you turn a blind eye towards the things she does."

"Then, are you saying I should be like you and force my way to be her obstacle and get myself sent to the gates of the Netherworld? I'm not that desperate to die. Besides, even though she's slightly stronger than the rest of us I think she's pretty fun to be around with. She's a good and respectable person too. I think someone who's more emotional and honest with her thoughts is cuter than deceptive people or psychopathic murderers with no problem killing a whole clan and scraping out their eyes." Kurapika clenched his hands and Leorio stared at him with utter disbelief. How could anyone possibly compliment that girl that much? He ignored Kurapika's very specific comparison and worried about his eyes. Cute? That gorilla? Are we even talking about the same person? Well I admit she's not a bad person and to be honest I'd rather be her friend than her enemy but everything else doesn't match. Alright! One of my first goals when I become a doctor is to fix Kurapika's eyesight.

"Whatcha guys thinking about? Attempted murder against Tonpa?" Valeria waved her hands in front of their serious faces. Were they concerned about Tonpa putting laxatives in their food? "Don't worry, if that burnt unwanted bread puts laxatives in our food, we'll just feed him to those lanky apes back at the first exam site. None of us are that weak against laxatives right? Oh, maybe Leorio."

What's so cute about this gorilla- Leorio felt his fury bubble over only to be greeted by the same person in a completely different style of clothes from before. She wore a silky white cheongsam, which faded to a lighter shade of teal than her bright teal eyes. On the bottom of it were patterns of pale pink lotus flowers. There was a large slit on either side of the article of clothing, enabling room for her to fight. Who the fuck is this? No one changes their style of clothes 180 and no one in an anime would change their clothes because it's so hard to animate.

"What have you done to Valeria?!" Leorio pointed accusingly.

"Did you eat something weird or did Tonpa already get to you?" She looked unamused with his weird prank or whatever he was doing and slapped his arm away.

"No, you just look different. In a good way." Kurapika smiled.

"What? So you were just shy?" Valeria teased and Leorio looked like he was going to vomit and the other two just laughed as they entered the dining had already filled their plates with the freshly cooked food as Leorio recovered from the extreme disgust of seeing how full Valeria was of herself. The three eventually sat down and began eating.

"You guys don't believe in Tonpa, right?" Valeria asked as she forked her steak a little bit too aggressively. She was used to chopsticks at home and the fact she was holding a stabbing weapon made her more instinctively aggressive.

"Of course not, I'm just going to sleep, no matter what!" Leorio snorted as he stuffed his face with the high quality meat. All three of them had pretty different eating habits, which of course, Kurapika was the most elegant one. He carefully used his knife to cut a small piece of steak while his other hand used the fork to hold down the meat. "Besides didn't you tell us he set up laxatives in drinks? Why would we trust someone who tried to bring everyone down at one point only to give us advice. He should have had some consistency."

"I guess." Valeria burped as she placed her fork down on the empty plate. Leorio stared at her new outfit momentarily before asking: "I've never seen an authentic cheongsam before how much do you suppose it will sell here?"

"Ugh...money really is the only thing on your mind." Valeria looked at him with an empty smile. She then paused before leaning forward with a low voice. "With authentic silkworks from Che'ang, you think we can sell it for two times the price? Here, feel the fabric." She raised her elbows and Leorio pinched the short sleeves before gasping. "Make it four."

"Valeria, you're being hypocritical." Kurapika sighed and Valeria opened her mouth to object, but sat down instead.

"I don't get why it's such a big deal with this outfit. I used to wear this everyday, only when I went to the Hunter exam did I wear those clothes to blend in more. If you want, I'll get some for you guys."

"I guess there was just a lot of unknown information presented to us today like your name and how the 'you' we met is actually a little bit different from who you were." Kurapika glanced at Leorio who nodded. He then widened his eyes, remembering that she was sensitive about her background being brought up. Surprisingly, Valeria didn't seem bothered at all, rather she seemed serious to answer their questions. "I would say the opposite, meeting you guys I have been the most honest about things I've ever been. Besides it's a good thing I changed my name to Valeria because otherwise a middle aged looking teenager would keep forgetting and think I'm named after leaves."

"Why you-" He was cut off once again when the other two cleaned up their plates and wandered off. The group found the resting quarters and wandered in. Several contestants were already in deep slumber, not waking up to the sound of the door opening. Valeria looked around and picked up a brown blanket that was folded neatly in one of the cupboards. Turning to her companions she motioned them to come over.

"Let's sleep." Valeria sat down and patted the ground beside her. The boys looked slightly flustered before Kurapika crouched down and smiled. "I don't think it's-"

"I'm a gorilla and I'm a hunter. We're friends right?" Valeria pulled Kurapika down, making him sit right next to her. She tossed the blanket over him and motioned Leorio to sit down too. Leorio scoffed but obediently wandered over to the other side of Valeria when she gave him the death glare. The three, soon enough, fell asleep and shared a blanket. If they weren't hunters, one would think they are a cute group of friends who have been tired out from a day's trip. It wasn't exactly an inaccurate description though.

As the group fell into a deep slumber, morning came really fast and they were woken up by a large announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen! We have reached your next exam site!" Kurapika and Leorio jumped up, in response, whereas Valeria was still sleeping. She almost fell over when the two jumped but Kurapika quickly supported her head and weight so she wouldn't fall to the ground headfirst. He then gently shook her, trying to wake her up without startling her. Valeria's eyes sleepily opened and she grumbled something half-asleep, before shutting her eyes closed. Leorio sighed and nudged her legs, shouting: "Wake up Gorilla!"

Valeria's bloodshot eyes flung open and she instinctively slapped the air on her right but she ended up leaving the silhouette of her hand on the wall. "I'M UP YOU MOTHERFUCKING CLOCK!"

Blinking in confusion because there was no clock on the right, she looked around to see a pale and frightened Leorio and a surprised Kurapika. "You're not at home, Valeria." Kurapika offered his hand to help pull the girl up.

"Morning Kurapika...Leorio…are we there already?" She yawned and rubbed her eyes. The three walked through the hallways and left the blimp. By then, Valeria was fully awake as she stepped onto a circular platform with nothing. She then noticed the platform ended off at a certain distance and ran over. She whistled in amazement. "Hey guys, we're on a ridiculously tall tower."

She walked back to report to them but Leorio seemed to be chanting some kind of mantra underneath his breath. She jabbed her thumbed in his direction and asked Kurapia: "What's up with him? He looked like he saw a ghost."

Kurapika watched Leorio mumble repetitively: "That could have been me, that could have been me..."

"Oh that. Haha when you woke up, you immediately slapped something on your right, which I assume would normally be your alarm clock. Leorio was sleeping there last night so he's been saying that he could have died, had he not leapt up."

"Ah." Valeria looked away, immediately disinterested in the topic. Leorio reverted to his normal self and stormed up to her, shouting: "What do you mean 'ah'? I've been traumatized."

Valeria looked away from his angry glare as she picked her ear, not really listening to him rant. She yawned and replied: "Yes yes, Luigi…I'm sorry but everyone has a time where they press that 'snooze button on their clock."

"Snooze button? You were going to send it to sleep permanently! Not snooze!"

"Calm down, Leorio, you weren't so you're alright!" Valeria attempted a very light pat on his back. She miraculously didn't send him flying, which still didn't reassure him as he still looked at her warily.

"Valeria, Kurapika, Leorio! Good morning!" Gon waved to them with Killua yawning right behind him.

"Did you guys get some sleep yesterday, we noticed you went off in really high spirits." Kurapika smiled in greeting.

"Mmm a little bit! We were playing 'steal the ball' from the Chairman."

"That damn geezer played us like we were dogs." Killua scowled. The five of them then immediately stopped talking when a bean like character spoke up.

"You are here at the 'Shrewdness Tower'. This is where the third trial round shall take place! Concerning the trial itself, here are the jury's orders: "Within a 72 hour time period...you'll need to get to the bottom of this tower alive." The bean then boarded the blimp and the blimp began to fly away, offering a "Good luck" before he left.

"Haha you losers can wait here all you want. A mountain climber with an iron grip like me, will find descending this tower as an easy game." He smirked, leaping down the side of the tower as he began climbing down. The five of them watched as a flock of birds swooped down to the side of the tower and started eating him alive.

"He definitely won at beating us to the Netherworld. " Valeria commented.

"I don't think going down the wall is a good idea." Leorio gulped. Kurapika looked back at the surface with narrowed eyes. "There must be a trapdoor that would lead us inside. Let's split up."

Valeria walked to the center of the platform while the others stared at her curiously. She cracked her knuckles and rolled her head, cracks were heard from her neck. She then began stretching and the boys were starting to have a bad feeling.

"What are you doing?"

"Well I think it's faster if I just punch every tile here then find a way through." Valeria raised her fist and immediately, Kurapika and Leorio ran towards her, telling her to stop.

"We can't have everyone know the trapdoors or locations!" Leorio hissed.

Valeria sighed in disappointment and reluctantly put away her built up strength. After wandering for a while, the three heard their names being called out. "Leorio! Valeria! Kurapika!" Gon waved at them.

"There are five trapdoors here. Gon and I have already decided to pass through one of these 5 doors. There's five of us so if there's a trap, not regrets." Killua stuffed his hand in his pockets

"What about you guys? What are you gonna do?" Gon asked.

"Passing through." Valeria spoke up first. The other two grinned and nodded.

"On the count of three, we all go at the same time. 3...2.." They all smiled at each other. Valeria was about to go on her tile but TONPA was kneeling beside it, knocking on it. He nodded and smiled, pretending he just discovered his trapdoor.

"...1."He smirked at Valeria when all of them had disappeared, then he jumped down himself. Valeria tapped the trapdoor with an irritated look crossing her dead face.

The four boys and Tonpa gathered in the same room although they were a little surprised at how they all were in the same room. However, now they were concerned how a petite, dead fish eyed brunette girl turned to a larger, big nosed rookie destroyer.

"Hey, why is Tonpa here instead of Valeria?" Killua's eyes widened.

"Yo!" Tonpa waved and grinned.

"He snuck up on us at the last second and stole Valeria's tile." Gon slightly sweatdropped.

Tonpa smiled good naturedly, pretending not to hear. "Haha just my luck! I was tapping along when I heard a trapdoor. I'm sorry your friend seemed to notice it too but the faster one is the-?!" A hand blasted from the door above him as it grabbed Tonpa's head. It forced Tonpa to look up into the bloodshot eyes of Valeria as he was now being lifted into the air.

"You think you got the better of me?" Valeria smiled her psychopathic smile.

"L-let go!" Tonpa squeaked. Valeria lets go and leapt down, landing on top of his back. She stepped off and shook her head a little, attempting to get the dust off of her hair when she had broken through the trapdoor.

All four boys stared at her before they began laughing. By now...they really should have gotten used to the girl's odd and scary antics. So now, they just decided to laugh. Confused, Valeria was about to say something when a wall behind them, flipped around and robotic arms stretched out, grabbing Valeria and tying her to the wall. Then the wall flipped once more and Valeria was gone, just as fast as she came.

"VALERIA?!" They shouted.

"I'm okay." Was the calm response they received. The boys sighed in relief and resumed laughing.

"I bet right now she's picking her nose and beating the crap out of whatever's on the other side." Killua mused and the others nodded in agreement, deciding that she will probably be alright. The Zoldyck boy was pretty accurate. Valeri easily pulled herself out of the literal "iron grip" of the iron robotic hands and was picking her nose. She broke off the arms and waved it in the air, slightly interested about it. But when they limped the moment she pulled it off, she tossed it onto the black screen in front of her and it flickered to life.

"Well well, I hadn't expected to bring a contestant to one of the 5 Special Passages this early." A man with thin eyes and large circular glasses appeared.

"What? Five special sausages?' Valeria wasn't really listening and her mouth drooled a little at the distorted words she heard.

"PASSAGE! FIVE SPECIAL PASSAGES!" The man shouted.

"No need to scream buddy." Valeria looked at him with dead eyes as she covered her ears.

"Humph. The special passages are for certain people who found another way to enter the building and may interfere with other contestants' trials. Unfortunately, your friends are in the Majority Trial and cannot have an even number of people. But don't worry, your Trial is similar to everyone else's. It's only special because you've entered a special way. So what do you think of my special iron robotic arms?"

"Huh these?" Valeria picked up the wimpy looking arms that she ripped off. "They're lame. There's nothing special here other than these?" Valeria scoffed as she tossed them away.

The man on the screen shrieked and began to tear up. Those iron robotic arms were supposed to hold down even the buffest man. Perhaps he just hasn't taken in account that a Lavine would be stopping by.

"Anyways...your're trial is the physical endurance and strength test." He sniffed. "You just need to walk forward and pass through all of the obstacles within the next seventy one hours!" A gate opened and Valeria peered inside. She grabbed the two robotic arms and tossed one inside.

"What do you think you're doing…" The man asked. Valeria looked back with a bored look. "Testing for traps.

She walked in, leaving an irritated jury shrieking and ranting. Valeria stepped on a cobblestone and daggers shout of god knows where. She immediately pulled out the iron rod hanging from her hips and extended it. She began swinging it around, deflecting the knives with an unamused look. When she finished, the radius around her was clear but everywhere else were random knives lodged and chipped on the ground. She sighed. This is going to be one cliched trial.

Valeria examined the martial arts weapon, unique to her culture and ruffled her hair. "Looks like I need to use you for this round, buddy."

Valeria began whistling and twirling the iron staff and swung it at an incoming boulder that was rolling towards her. It shattered to pieces only to reveal laser beams behind it. She stopped whistling and shrunk the iron staff and hung it by her hips.

"I'm not training to be a world class thief for god's sake." The brunette muttered as she ducked the first laser beam and twisted over another. She placed her palms first onto the ground and then did a handstand. She spread her legs into a split and under up doing a flip over the next one. Wincing at the aching in her back, she slowly made her way out of the lasers and was now kneeling over on the ground.

"Thank God Mama was strict on flexibility. Otherwise, I'd been diced." Valeria huffed. The Lavine clan had high standards of women being gracefully flexible and Valeria was one of the least flexible females in her clan. Cursing as she went through the path, she reached a room where there was a vest with the label 20kg on it. She looked around and there were gloves, helmets, and chains meant to be wrapped around the ankles. They were all labelled 20kg. Valeria smirked inwardly. The exam was meant to be challenging but not impossible for everyone. The jury probably thought she would have slight difficulties wearing 20kg items but Valeria finds it as light as her own clothes. She easily tossed them on and read the instructions on the screen in front: "Use the monkey bars across the lake of alligators while wearing your weighted clothes."

Valeria entered the passage and noticed how far off the lake was. She hummed to herself and thought: "Well now they're getting serious. It would be difficult to climb back up if one was to fall down. Not to mention that these items will prove a difficult time of even getting out of the water."

Valeria grabbed one of the handles and began to swing across. She ignored the supposingly intimidating alligators that were snapping their large mouths who all hoped to feed on the petite girl. Slightly annoyed by their repetitive snapping of their mouths, when she reached the other side and the instructions said she may take the weights off. She flung the items into the lake and heard a whimpering from one of the alligators. Valeria proceeded through the eerie tunnel until she approached a wide and vast area. There was a platform in the middle and there were five cloaked figures with chains wrapped tightly around their wrists. They were all larger than her except for one that seemed to be thinner and smaller. The screen on her right lit up and the instructions filled the screen: "To pass this obstacle, you must earn three wins by defeating the prisoners. The rules of combat can be decided and the contestant will choose the rules."

The screen went black and Valeria shrugged at the criminals. "Well there you have it."

"I propose a fight to death." The biggest man of the group demanded.

"Oi, oi, calm your balls. If she dies immediately we won't have our fun." Another prisoner snickered. He had a high, nasally voice that sounded like he was having a hard time breathing.

"Why not just fight if one of us surrenders or the other one is knocked out." Valeria pointed out. All of the prisoners huddled up and whispered, before turning around and agreeing.

Valeria sighed in exasperation. This is going to be one long-ass trial.