Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 156 Research Institute Ruins
"Ah?" Yano was stunned. "Could it be that the reason we got lost is because this forest misleads us visually? Then why weren't the first two groups of hunters affected?"

"Perhaps someone among them has the ability to dispel this misleading idea." Sun Hang continued along his line of thought - he couldn't tell the two that the culprit that caused them to circle around in the woods was not the woods itself, but the three damn monkeys, right?

Yano and the female hunter didn't ask any more questions. They closed their eyes and grabbed the knot on the rope. Sun Hang wrapped the front end of the rope around his palm and walked towards the direction he had just chosen.

He not only closed his eyes, but also blocked his ears and walked in silence... As for detecting obstacles, he relied on a few hyphae that stretched forward like tentacles.

In order to ensure that he always walked in a straight line, even if there were trees blocking the way ahead, Sun Hang would never go around them. Instead, he would simply cut off the trunks at the roots and step over the broken roots that were level with the ground.

……

More than ten minutes later, Sun Hang felt a sense of sudden enlightenment. He opened his eyes and found himself out of the woods and in a valley full of rocks.

Sun Hang looked back and saw that the strange forest was less than ten meters behind them.

"We have come out and can open our eyes." said Sun Hang.

"Huh..." Yano let out a long breath and said, "Just now I could actually feel that the fear that had been surging deep in my heart suddenly disappeared, so I guessed that we were probably out of the woods... But you didn't say anything, so I didn't dare to speak either."

"I couldn't hear what you just said because I blocked my ears too - to avoid any interference from the outside world." Sun Hang put down the fisherman he was carrying and waved to the female hunter, "Please wake this guy up. I don't want to carry a person weighing nearly 200 kilograms and a pile of equipment weighing more than 200 kilograms for the rest of the journey."

"This should be the quarry on the island." Yano took two steps forward and looked at the valley. "The stones needed to build the institute were all mined here. As long as we cross this valley, we can see the ruins of the institute."

"The fourth group of hunters who landed on the island that year didn't come here, right?" Sun Hang asked.

"Well...it wasn't mentioned in the mission report." Yano nodded, walked forward and picked up a plastic bottle scattered among the rocks.

The plastic bottle was new, with a little bit of unfinished purified water still inside, and the outside of the bottle was labeled with the emblem of the Federal Navy.

"They were left behind by the first two groups." Yano looked towards the exit of the valley. "They did walk out of the woods and passed through this valley."

Sun Hang also bent down and picked up a flare shell and said, "This should be the first green flare we saw on the beach. At that time, they had just walked out of the woods."

"Right after that, we were attacked by the Yamata-no-Orochi." Yano whispered, "I even suspected that the Yamata-no-Orochi was attracted by the flare..."

"Will the Yamata no Orochi be attracted by the flare?" Sun Hang asked. He didn't know much about this unexpected monster.

"I don't know. There is no record of this." Yano shook his head. "But this is too coincidental. This flare is like an attack signal to the Yamata no Orochi... If the Yamata no Orochi has always been near the nameless island, then why didn't it attack when the warship approached, and when we landed on the island and started to build a camp? It didn't attack, but it suddenly attacked after this flare was fired?"

"Hiss... Now that you put it that way, those Anglais are indeed suspicious!" The fisherman who woke up continued, "Damn, this forest is really weird. Thinking back to my state just now, I am a little scared myself."

"Does your neck still hurt? I thought you were pretty resistant to beatings, so I was afraid that if I went easy on you, I wouldn't be able to knock you out in one blow." Sun Hang asked.

"It's okay." The fisherman stretched his head and neck. "Don't forget that my recovery ability is very strong... In fact, I was thinking at that time, it would be great if you could knock me out, but unfortunately, I seemed to have lost the ability to organize my words at that time. I was completely controlled by anger."

"That's good. Let's check our equipment and continue on our way." Sun Hang said, "We wasted so much time in the woods. The second group of hunters should have entered the ruins of the research institute."

……

The valley was not very large, and the four of them reached the exit in less than twenty minutes. Right in front of them was a sunken basin with a diameter of about three kilometers. Groups of building ruins occupied at least two-thirds of the basin's area.

"Wow, this research institute is really big!" the fisherman exclaimed, "The research institute in our Siberian Autonomous Region doesn't even cover an area as big as this one."

Although Sun Hang had seen old photos of the Nameless Island Research Institute, those photos did not include this kind of panoramic view from a high vantage point.

The structural diagram of the institute does show the area occupied by the entire institute, but there is still a big difference in perception between just looking at the line drawings marked with numbers and seeing the real objects with your own eyes.

It is no exaggeration to say that this research institute is a small town.

"When the Nameless Island Research Institute was designed, the original intention was to build a city," Yano said. "The Xiazhou Federation and the Siberian Federation agreed that the study of strange things is a long project that will take more than ten years or even decades. Those who work in the institute may live on the island for their entire lives or even for generations. Therefore, all the supporting facilities here are designed and built according to the standards of a city, and it is expected to accommodate a population of between 50,000 and 80,000 people."

Yano took a breath and continued, "The first phase of the institute's construction began in 4599 of the lunar calendar, was completed in 4602 of the lunar calendar, and was put into use in the same year. In February of the following year, the second and third phases of expansion projects were launched simultaneously... Unfortunately, the accident occurred in December of that year, resulting in the abandonment of the entire institute and the archives of the Nameless Island being sealed."

"December of the following year, which is the 4603rd year in the lunar calendar?" Sun Hang suddenly remembered the "Original Primary Monster Direct Contact Experiment Report" that he had seen in his dream. The year marked at the beginning of the document was the 4603rd year in the lunar calendar.

(End of this chapter)