HxH x Gender Neutral Reader

Chap 18: Wow x Another x Phase

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The little green bean man stood in front of them once again, in a large contrast to the immense tower they stood upon.
He introduced them to the phase, just as his companions did before him, labelling it 'trick tower' and abruptly sending them off, hopping back on the blimp.

"Good luck to you all!"
Was the final message he yelled into a large megaphone that magically appeared into his hands before he faded away into obscurity.

Y/N peeked over the side of the tower, curious of the ability it would take to scale the building.
Maybe they could do it with some good music playing?
They gripped the headphones draped around their neck then looked down again.
Maybe not...

So instead, they broke off and began to wander across the tiles. It only made sense, after all, for the solution to be elsewhere. To make all of them climb down the gargantuan building... it would cause a massacre.

So they took heavy calculated steps across each tile. It felt and looked ridiculous, and a little bit similar to how that purple guy Satotz walked, though it seemed to be a correct solution when Y/N noticed the sudden lack of platform beneath their feet.

They were falling, they could tell by the air rushing past them and by the rapidly moving walls surrounding them. It was just like when they leaped to grab the egg—the adrenaline flashing through their body and their heart racing.

All of it quickly died, however, when they harshly landed butt-first onto grey tiles so filled with dirt that it exploded into an air-born cloud of debris upon contact.
They quickly sprung up, begrudgingly having to place their hands on the disgusting tiles to support themself. But when they were finally standing, they began to look around.

They were in a small square room, purplish tiles surrounding them to form unreasonably tall walls. Opposite them, when they flipped around, was a small white cylinder and a screen. On the cylinder laid a bracelet, neatly placed in the very middle of the circular platform.
A sign above it read
"You've been tasked with an independent assignment. Your watch will be your lifeline, keep it safe."
They assumed, from the wording of the sign, that they may be one of few, if not the only, to do this activity on their lonesome.
Though they were sure they'd much prefer it this way anyway.

So they grabbed the watch and tightened it around their wrist. Quickly after two options popped up, a red X and a green O.
A prompt popped up on a screen in front of them that was not lit before: a choice between going left or going right.
They looked to each side, both doors barred as though they were the entrance to some prison-dwellers cell, though the scenery behind the bars was nothing but a continuation of the brick used to create the walls of the room they were in.

"Hm."
They barely pondered it before they pressed the 'O' to go left—after all, green meant good. The gate lifted and they stepped through the arch following along the brick hall until it began to transition into a lush forest.
They followed a well-defined path until they came across a sign hammered into the dirt, a hitch in the flattened ground.

"Your task is to capture and transport items of a village not far from here. If you are captured by any authority, you lose, if you fail to capture or if you misplace the items, you lose."
Y/N nodded at the rules, glancing upwards to find another sign, of paper this time, nailed into a tree not far from the original.

It read
"On your watch is a map of the location of the village and the items in question. Your end destination is clearly marked and you are allowed any means to get there so long as the items are with you."
Once again, they lightly nodded, the unspoken question of what exactly the context was when they said "any means" on their mind.

A soft wind blew as they began their travel along the un-pathed woods, rustling the trees and blowing Y/N's hair. They slipped their headphones on yet again, lightly bobbing their head to their music and humming along.

Every now and then they'd check the watch, watching as the small red dot that represented them trudged forward as fast as they did and followed the path laid out for them.
The trip was.. slightly boring and they felt themself grow tired quickly as they sluggishly dragged their feet along the path on the semi-warm climate.

To fill in the empty space Y/N began to wonder, why exactly was a village placed inside this tower anyway? How did it work? Did they know that their whole village was stuffed inside a building for god knows what purpose? Right now their existence kind of revolved around Y/N visiting and taking an 'item' of ambiguous importance. It was just slightly bizarre to them.

But then again.. it didn't impact them, so it didn't really matter. When they pass, this place will be quickly lost from their mind, completely unknown, as it likely is for everyone else.
It would make Y/N consider philosophical type things.. but they really didn't feel like it. They'd leave it to the experts who knew what they were doing. For now, they were just some kid wandering into a village so they could pass a test and get a license.

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