Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 437 - 63: Kui Niu (Part 2)

"Actually, I don't know what exactly I want to devour," Sun Hang said "honestly," "How about this, bring me the best dishes you have here, and I'll choose slowly."

Honestly, Sun Hang's current demeanor was like that of a nouveau riche who had never seen the world, walking into a high-end French restaurant. Faced with a menu of dishes he had never heard of, rather than blindly pointing with his eyes closed, he might as well ask the kitchen to bring out all the top-ranked dishes, from the most expensive to the least.

After all... he didn't have to pay.

"Um..." Yuri was momentarily at a loss for words, "Then... then how about I give you the electronic catalog of the containment objects later, and you decide for yourself..."

"Do you have any recommendations?" Sun Hang asked.

"I..." Yuri couldn't help but curse inwardly again—Sukabuli, I'm not the owner of the Taotie Meme, how can I recommend it to you? Your words make it sound like I nibble on two mysterious creatures every morning when I have nothing better to do...

Finally, the lift platform stopped, and Yuri, feeling relieved, unfastened his seatbelt and quickly walked off the platform.

"Ahead is Containment Area One, where the most high-ranked mysterious creatures contained in Dubhe Tower are located," Yuri said to Sun Hang, "The entire containment area is divided into more than four thousand regions of varying sizes. If you wanted to tour all four thousand regions, it would probably take..."

"What is that?" Sun Hang asked, pointing to a large skeletal frame hanging high in the containment area.

He had seen the people of Dubhe Tower transporting a similar skeleton to an underground containment area on his last ride on the Jade Pillar lift platform—but the skeleton in front of him now was clearly different from the one Sun Hang saw back then. This skeleton was enormously large, so much so that the Jade Pillar's inner diameter couldn't possibly accommodate it. To transport this thing here, they either had to open up another transportation channel or disassemble the skeleton into parts and reassemble it after transport.

"That's the skeleton of 'Kui' B7," Yuri said.

"B7? Ranked so high?" Sun Hang was slightly surprised, "How did you get rid of it?"

His Taotie Meme was only ranked ninth among Type-B mysterious creatures, and back then, it took humans deploying high-yield nuclear weapons to eliminate the black dragon, which was only ranked fifteenth.

Though the ranks of mysterious creatures do not necessarily represent absolute strength, this rule generally only applies to those ranked in three digits—Mysterious creatures with one or two-digit ranks still typically become more dangerous the smaller the number.

These mysterious creatures are hard to quantify in terms of strength, but without exception, those ranked in the top ten have the power to destroy a large city.

"Yes, but when we found it, it was already a skeleton," Yuri said. "We excavated this skeleton from the seabed along the southeastern coast of the Xiazhou Continent... Residents in the area reported to the Anomaly Investigation Bureau about unusual thunderstorms in the coastal regions for several consecutive months. After thorough scanning, investigators finally found a small part of the skeleton exposed from the seabed. They quickly reported the situation through various levels, and we finally dispatched a professional team to excavate the entire skeleton and transported it back to Dubhe Tower."

"Why is it called 'Kui'?" Sun Hang asked again.

"Please take a closer look at the bones. Doesn't it look like a huge wild ox, only with one leg?"

"At first, I thought the other three legs were missing... After all, it's quite normal for dinosaur skeletons in museums to have missing pieces here and there," Sun Hang said.

"No, the skeleton is complete," Yuri shook his head. "Indeed, this mysterious creature only has one leg. Besides this, we found that it also commands lightning, and can even manipulate and change the weather. These abilities precisely match the legendary monster 'Kui Niu' recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which is why we named it that."

"Don't memetic entities disappear after death?" Sun Hang asked with confusion, "Could this guy still be alive?"

"We had intense discussions about this conclusion," Yuri said. "But the final conclusion was that B7 'Kui' is indeed deceased. The memetic intensity was just too high, and despite the long stretch of time, it hasn't completely dwindled. Under certain external stimuli, it still produces stress reactions—such as the unusual thunderstorms off the southeastern coast, which are manifestations of its ability."

"Controlling lightning, changing weather... that's quite a fine power," Sun Hang nodded in approval, "Then if I want to devour it, do I have to eat this whole massive skeleton?"

"No need. We will scan the entire skeleton and identify the part with the strongest residual memetic response," Yuri said. "Although a remnant, the total memetic volume within the entire skeleton is overwhelmingly vast for any human... You only need to absorb a small portion to acquire the abilities of 'Kui.'"

"Oh..."

"Then I'll have someone..."

"Wait, note this down, and let me check out others," Sun Hang said.

"Okay," Yuri nodded, "As per Mr. Pei's instructions, you are free to choose any mysterious creatures from the entire containment area... But there are some with relatively high danger levels that I do not recommend. After all, during the devouring process, there is always a possibility you might suffer from backlash."

"Uh... Are you warning me?"

"Just a friendly reminder," Yuri said. "But if you are determined to devour high-risk mysterious creatures, we will still support your decision."

"Alright... then can you tell me which is the most dangerous mysterious creature here?" Sun Hang suddenly smiled at Yuri, "Or to put it differently, which one do you least want me to absorb?"

Sun Hang applied this rebellious mindset not only to mysterious creatures but also to people.

The muscles in Yuri's temple twitched twice, and after drawing a deep breath, he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Didn't you say you will go along with me no matter what?" Sun Hang countered.

"Okay, that entity was delivered here only six months ago. It should be in Section 1855; please follow me."

The area of Containment Area One was vast, so much that if you tried measuring it solely on foot, it would probably take a month to cover every corner. A staff member drove a cart out from a nearby storehouse, and Sun Hang and Yuri immediately hopped on.

"Director... Are you sure you want to see that thing?" the staff member driving the cart turned around and asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Yuri nodded. "I trust the reliability of our containment procedures."

"Okay... alright," that staff member seemed somewhat reluctant but turned back around and pressed the pedal.

A dozen minutes later, the cart stopped in front of a room plastered with various warning symbols.

"Here we are," Yuri got off the cart. "Before entering, let me introduce some basic information about this mysterious creature. This entity holds the serial number B423 'Lucas'... Please do not let its lower-ranking serial number cause any lax. Trust me, the danger it poses is no less than any of the top ten ranked mysterious creatures."

"B423 'Lucas'?" Sun Hang muttered, "A Type-B mysterious creature... That should make it a Phenomenon-class entity, right? Why does the name sound like a person's name?"

"Because this mysterious creature was once a hunter belonging to Dubhe Tower," Yuri said. "During a mission, his contamination process exceeded the danger threshold, and he fused bizarrely with the target mysterious creature... Finally turning into the 'B423' number creature we see now."