Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 371 - 29: Mudslide (Part 2)

"But don’t you think this shape looks familiar?" Sun Hang seemed to remember something, and his expression was a bit strange.

"Familiar?"

"Gargantel," said Sun Hang.

"Garga... haha!" Ye Jiu initially thought it was some eerie creature’s name. But after half a second, he suddenly realized, wasn’t Gargantel the name of the giant zombie in Plants vs. Zombies? He immediately clutched his stomach and burst into laughter, "Hahaha... you don’t say... hahaha... it really does look like it!"

"What are you all laughing at?" Several Hunters who were checking their equipment nearby looked over, scrutinizing Ye Jiu as if he were an idiot. "You can still laugh at a time like this? Hope you can laugh this happily when you encounter the abnormal creatures later."

"What’s the matter? Is my love for laughing bothering you?" Ye Jiu forcefully stabbed the Wolf-tooth Spear he was holding into the ground, and the iron shank at the end of the spear instantly made a dent in the concrete platform.

"No problem, keep laughing," one of the group of Hunters said sarcastically, then turned to complain quietly to his companions, "Weren’t they supposed to be the elite hand-picked for this mission... how did a rookie like this squeeze in?"

"Who cares, as long as he doesn’t lead the creatures towards us," another Hunter said.

"Tch." Ye Jiu was too lazy to argue with those Hunters and turned to Sun Hang, "There’s only twenty seconds left, are you nervous?"

"Why would I be nervous?" Sun Hang tilted his head and asked.

"A moderate amount of nervousness helps improve neural response speed." Ye Jiu flexed his limbs, causing a clattering sound as the armor plates rubbed against each other.

But compared to the surrounding rain, this noise was almost negligible.

"Commence action!" Ye Xuan’s voice rang out, and the Hunters standing by on the concrete platform all leaped out.

The giant freak, nicknamed Gargantel by Sun Hang, carried Zhong Ling on its back and moved forward in the mudslide as if walking on flat ground. Wang Xiyi directly transformed into a dragon, using her wings to tear open the rain in the sky—meanwhile, Sun Hang clung tightly to Wang Xiyi’s dragon tail, hanging behind this humanoid black dragon.

There were quite a few Hunters with levitation or flying abilities, but most of them were cautious and chose to skim along the ground. Only Wang Xiyi recklessly soared hundreds of meters into the air, looking down at the earth below.

"Phew... feels great!" Wang Xiyi’s mouth, covered in scales, curved into a smile, "Sun Hang, how are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, just a little dizzy," Sun Hang said expressionlessly, "Could you stop swaying your tail around?"

"The tail’s for keeping balance and adjusting direction, how could it not move?" Wang Xiyi glanced back at him, "If you’re really feeling dizzy, you can climb on my back."

"Wouldn’t that make me a dragon rider?"

"It’s not like you haven’t ridden before?" Wang Xiyi said breezily.

"...Forget it, I’ll hang below, my field of vision is wider," Sun Hang said, "Fly a bit slower, don’t shake Zhong Ling off."

From high above, one could see the groups of Hunters scattering away—in accordance with the pre-arranged battle plan, these Hunters would encircle Chimera 17 along a circular radius of forty kilometers and then move towards Chimera 17 from different directions.

Each group had to space at least five kilometers apart; otherwise, exceeding the "people limit" might trigger Chimera 17’s "stress response."

This data was tested completely at the cost of lives—when Chimera 17 was initially discovered, a thirty-five-person elite scout team ventured as close as twenty kilometers to Chimera 17, but just as they planned to get closer, a laser-like energy stream shot out from Chimera 17’s body, instantly vaporizing the scout team.

Besides, the Disaster Response Committee also found that Chimera 17 would not only have stress responses to humans but also to freaks and infectees carrying memes. However, when the committee tried using a drone to transport fifty mice near Chimera 17, until the drone lost control and crashed due to ionizing radiation, Chimera 17 never fired an energy stream at it.

But when the fifty mice were replaced with ones infected with freak memes, the situation was entirely different.

The drone from twenty-seven kilometers away was hit by an energy stream through the rain, leaving not even scraps of the drone or the box containing the mice.

This energy stream was even more powerful than the one that destroyed the scout team before.

The conditions triggering Chimera 17’s stress response were peculiar; it must be a human (or intelligent life?) or an object carrying a meme approaching—satisfying either condition would suffice, but meeting both would not increase the triggering distance or intensity. The only factor affecting these values was the number.

Theoretically, the fewer the people, the safer it would be.

The route assigned to Sun Hang’s group was a straight line from Observation Post 7 to Chimera 17, the closest among all participating groups, with deactivated Observation Posts 5 and Zero scattered along the path.

The meme collection device that Zhong Ling mentioned earlier requiring four people to operate, only about a third of the Hunter groups could carry. As for the remaining two-thirds, their task was to assist, striving to clear out those "other freaks" wandering around Chimera 17.

Due to the number limit, Zhong Ling only brought three freaks this time, aside from "Gargantel" and "Specimen 1," she brought the "Tyrant" which had previously faced off against Sun Hang—after being transformed into a freak, "Tyrant’s" abilities had greatly enhanced since its time as a Hunter. Now it could not only solidify the air to ward off rain but also create "air bricks" underfoot as steps, making it look like it was walking in the air from Sun Hang’s perspective... compared to "Gargantel," which splashed up mud with every step, "Tyrant" was almost elegant.

However, Sun Hang hadn’t seen the elusive "Specimen 1"... due to its special traits, "Specimen 1" would follow even if Zhong Ling didn’t bring it along. Since Sun Hang couldn’t see it from the sky, it either had a camouflage ability like "Specimen 5" or was swimming stealthily in the mud.

Sun Hang still leaned toward the former possibility.

"Stay on course, don’t deviate," Sun Hang said to Zhong Ling over the comms, "Two more kilometers ahead is the lost Observation Post 5, there might be traces of freak activity, keep an eye out."

Wang Xiyi gradually lowered her flight elevation too. Sun Hang seized the opportunity, letting go of the dragon tail and landing squarely on Gargantel’s shoulder.

"Slow down," Sun Hang patted Zhong Ling’s shoulder through the thick protective suit, "We’re almost there."

"Can you sense any freak aura?" Wang Xiyi asked, "Your sense of smell is usually pretty sharp, right?"

"I can sense it... but it doesn’t help." Sun Hang crouched on the freak’s shoulder, squinting around.

"Why?"

"Because it’s everywhere... like a blender pureed a freak into mush and spread it evenly over every inch of land," Sun Hang replied.

"What a strange metaphor," Wang Xiyi said, folding her wings as she landed.

According to the drone, they were now standing where the missing Observation Post 5 was last located.

"Found it." Wang Xiyi reached into the mud, pulling out a deformed steel pipe, "This should be part of the tent’s framework... did they get caught in a mudslide?"

"Doesn’t seem that way," Sun Hang shook his head, "Do you think a mudslide could twist a frame with this strength and toughness?"