Hunter Guide

Hunters are people that have proven themselves, through rigorous examination, to be an elite member of humanity. With the passing of the examination, a Hunter is rewarded with a License and personal set of Tags to go almost anywhere in the world or do almost anything.

These licensed professionals are ruled over by a government organization known simply as the Hunter's Association. They're responsible for every licensed hunter across the globe.

The Hunter's Association is a legal hunter unit governed and sanctioned by the government. What makes this group so unique is that the Licenses grants immunity and a paycheck. Immunity as in anyone with a Legal Hunter's license can kill and not be arrested for it if they show their License. They also can gain access from any place be it a police station, government location or the special website designed to keep them up to date on everything called 'Watchdog'.

Everything goes through Watchdog and almost any information can be found if you're willing to pay the price the system Admin asks for. What makes this so unique is the fact that you have to have a working license in order to access the site and all the information it holds. Watchdog has the names, families, ages, birth dates, heights, and weights listed for every registered Hunter.

Watchdog also runs an up-to-date list of criminal organizations, the members names and age, hideouts, the boss, who works form them, and what position they hold. However, the system is not perfect. In fact, some things (like Route Troupe) has absolutely no information listed.

A Hunter License is a type of card given exclusively to Hunters after they pass the Hunter Exam. It proves the status of the owner and has multiple benefits. It also grants the ability to kill without facing any legal consequences. A hunter license also grants access to guarded information as well as being an easy way to get a job just by showing it.

Tags not only have a Hunter's personal information, but it also has their rank.

On the tag that identifies a Hunter should their body be found, their Name, Date of Birth, Blood type and Hunter Association are listed. The tag for body identification also lists if they were either Bounty Hunter or Mark Hunter.

On a second tag, meant only to be a flash ID system between Hunters, is each Hunter's rank in large, bold font which is easy to see and read. This system was put in place because many Hunters complained about never knowing the rank of another of their kind.

To become a Hunter, two requirements have to be fulfilled: passing the Hunter Exam and learning some form of martial arts.

The Hunter Exam is a yearly event that one must pass in order to become a Hunter; an elite member of humanity. These exams consist of several tests and stages.

Benefits
Passing the Hunter Exam grants one a Hunter License which is very beneficial. Aside from the recognition the license holder enjoys, the benefits are:



• 95% of all public facilities can be used at no cost. Furthermore, all such services are provided at first class.
  




• Unrivaled freedom to travel around the world. Access is granted to about 90% of countries which normally restrict the entry of outsiders, and access to 75% of areas that the general public is prohibited from entering.
  




• Almost no legal responsibility for murder.
  




• The ability to sell the Hunter License as a valuable collector's item.
  




• Though only the original owner of a Hunter License can take advantage of the normal benefits, it can be still sold for enough money to support the seller for at least 7 generations in luxury.
  




• The ability to use the license as collateral for a zero-interest loan of 100 million yen at any bank.
  




• Access to the secret Hunters-Only Website, where secret intelligence about various subjects, uploaded by other Hunters, can be purchased.
  

About the Hunter Exam
Location
Reaching the area in which the Hunter Examination is held is an extremely difficult challenge because there are too many applicants each year for the Proctors to see them all. To reduce the number of applicants, the Hunter Association hires judges to pick out the best candidates to proceed to the city where the Hunter Exam is held. If an applicant is deemed unworthy by one of these judges, they will be turned away even if they make it to the Examination site.

Once this city has been reached, candidates have to make their way to the Hunter Examination site. However, no applicant knows when or where the Hunter Examination will be held and it is impossible to find without a Navigator (a person who will lead exam candidates to the exam site). All candidates must find a Navigator to take them to the exam, but to do this they must pass a series of test and traps. In fact, the Navigators themselves will set up a test for the candidates to see if they are good enough to take the Hunter Exam. If such test is passed, the Navigators will take the applicants to the location of the First Phase.


Time
The Hunter Exam occurs once every year in early January. The registration ends on December 31st.


Difficulty
Due to the large numbers of people who want to become hunters, the Exam phases tend to be very hard. Many end up dead or handicapped.

The Hunters Association hires people to "trim the fat", that is, to eliminate all the weak applicants that aren't worthy of taking the main exam, since the Association doesn't have the time or the resources to test everyone. Navigators themselves might test them to see if they are fit.

Moreover, statistics show that:



• 1 out of 10,000 people make it to the main exam.
  




• The rate of rookies passing the exam is once every 3 years.
  




• Sometimes rookies never pass or reach the final phase for about ten years and all of a sudden a group of interesting rookies reaches the final phase at once. This delights the chairman and usually he makes the final stages so that most of the applicants pass if they have what it takes.
  

The Exam
Applicants
The great importance of being a Hunter draws millions of people, despite the fact that fatalities are quite common.

Applicants are each given a badge with an assigned number once they are officially taking the exam. These badges also have transmitters that help the Hunters committee track the examinees and monitor their progress, or find them if they are lost. If one loses his badge then the committee won't bother searching for him in case he failed or was trapped.


Stages
Usually in every exam there are about 5 or 6 stages. Since the location of the exam changes, so does the location of the phases, and its goal.


Examiners
Examiners are elite hunters who are examining the applicants without pay. They change every year and each examiner assigns the examinees a different task. Attacking an examiner will result in immediate disqualification.

There are four types of hunters that are sanctioned by the Hunter's Association and they're as follows:

• Bounty Hunters A.K.A. "Bounties"- Bounty Hunters are hunters who work for anyone to do anything they're hired to do. They're favored by the Mafia and other crime groups.
  

• Target Hunters A.K.A. "Marks"- Mark Hunters are Hunters who are only permitted to become active once given a job directly from the Hunter's Association. These Hunters are strictly for jobs given to them from the government.
  

• Blood Hounds- These immensely rare breed of Hunters are very violent. Desiring nothing but to kill, these beasts are very dangerous because generally, they make their appearances in the upper ranks (B-S). When a Blood Hound does appear, they're given a special tag that is added to their normal ranking tags. This special tag is blood red and comes with one warning only- BLOOD HOUND stamped in all capital, bold font that allows it to be read easily. The red coloring helps point them out when they're at a distance.
  
  These beasts are not only dangerous because they only appear in the higher ranks, but because they take orders from almost no one. There's only one creature that can order these beasts if any at all- their masters.
  

• Retainers A.K.A. "Masters" A.K.A. "Handlers"- This class of Hunter is strictly used as a controlling class for the Blood Hounds. Like the Blood Hounds, Retainers are immensely rare due to the lack of need for them. These Hunters are the only link in the commanding chain that prevents the beast-like Blood Hounds from going berserk and killing anyone or anything in their path.
  
  These are identified by the black tag attached to their normal ranking tags. These are stamped with the word RETAINER in all bold font.