Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 264 Prisoner
Tianfu City, Weird Things Research Institute, Operations Meeting Room.

"In other words, according to Sun Hang's final driving trajectory, he most likely drove all the way southwest, crossed the Hengduan Mountains, and entered the Yunnan-Yunnan occupied area..." Yang Qi analyzed with a frown as he looked at the intermittent trajectory map on the screen.

"Help me get an exit permit." Wang Xiyi said without hesitation, "I'll go to the occupied area and bring him back!"

"Ye Sha, don't worry. We are still not sure whether Sun Hang has really entered the occupied area." Yang Lian said, "Has there been any news from the border post on the other side of the Hengduan Mountains?"

"Just heard that border outposts 197 and 198 in the Hengduan Mountains have lost contact. According to drone images, there are traces of fighting near the outposts. It is not certain whether it was Sun Hang who did it..." Song Yarong broke open the door of the combat meeting room and rushed in. "In addition, outposts 195, 196, and 199 were attacked by an EMP of unknown origin. All communication equipment was paralyzed, so the news has not been transmitted back."

"Do you think that it was Sun Hang who attacked those outposts?" Wang Xiyi asked in a bad tone, scanning the faces of the others.

"Whether he did it or not, we have to wait for the results of the on-site investigation to come out. The search and rescue work for survivors will also be carried out simultaneously." Ye Xuan said seriously, "Before there is any evidence, he is the most suspicious person."

"I'm still very curious about what's wrong with that guy Sun Hang... He didn't even leave us a message and just plunged into the occupied area... Is he tired of living?" Yang Lian asked doubtfully. She held a stylus between two fingers and mechanically tapped the edge of the tablet, not noticing that the paint surface had been damaged in several places.

"Yang Qi, since you are a researcher at the Tianfu City Weird Things Research Institute, you should have heard of 'that phenomenon', right?" Ye Xuan suddenly said to Yang Qi.

There was no expression on her face, but a complicated look flashed in her eyes.

"You mean... 'that'?"

"Hmm..." After exchanging glances with Yang Qi, Ye Xuan nodded slowly. "A small number of infected people, after their infection progresses, will experience an extremely strong sense of loneliness and alienation in human society... They will desire the 'meme matrix' or similar creatures that infected them. In the later stages of this situation, most of them will try to escape from the human world and enter the occupied areas... Apart from the above symptoms, they appear to be no different from normal hunters."

Ye Xuan paused and continued, "This phenomenon is called 'migration' in the academic world."

“But until Sun Hang’s bracelet was removed, his infection process did not change!” Wang Xiyi retorted.

"We can't always trust the equipment..."

Before Ye Xuan finished her words, Wang Xiyi interrupted her coldly: "If you don't trust the equipment, do you want me to trust you?"

"I'm not here to argue with you. Arguing is meaningless." Ye Xuan said calmly, "If you think arguing can help solve the problem, please go ahead."

Wang Xiyi hesitated to speak. After taking three deep breaths, she said to Yang Qi, "I need an exit permit, now, immediately, right away!"

"We are also in a hurry...but..."

Before Yang Qi could finish her words, the door of the combat meeting room was pushed open again.

The old director entered the conference room in an electric wheelchair. He glanced at Wang Xiyi, smiled and nodded, "I will get an exit permit, but before that, you need to go to Chunming City to pick someone up."

"Pick someone up? Who?" Wang Xiyi was stunned and asked puzzledly.

"A special prisoner imprisoned in the Tianshu Tower Special Prison, former temporary investigator, Li Junwen." The old director said calmly, "He is also the only person in the human world who has stayed in the occupied area for more than seven days and returned to the civilized world safely."

"This is his file." The old director placed a folder on the table.

Yang Qi opened the folder.

……

Li Junwen, male, 46 years old.

Birthplace: Xiasha District, Qiantang City.

In the year 4698 of the lunar calendar, he was arrested for intentional homicide and sentenced to years in prison.

In the second year of his sentence, he signed an agreement with the Qiantang City Management Committee and the Qiantang City Abnormal Investigation Bureau to serve as a temporary investigator for three years to offset the remaining sentence.

This deal seems to be a good deal, exchanging three years for forty-four years, but in reality, for a temporary investigator, there are very few people who can work for a full year, let alone three years...

As for places like Baikal, where strange creatures rarely appear, they will not recruit temporary investigators from prisons... and any city-state that recruits people from prisons will definitely have a lot of things to do for the temporary investigators there.

But Li Junwen was a special case. Not only did he complete all the tasks assigned to him in three years while alive, but on the day when the three-year term expired, he gave up the opportunity to become a regular employee and chose to retire.

With the retirement pension given to him by the Abnormal Investigation Bureau, which was not generous but definitely not small, he opened a small supermarket in Qiantang City.

But maybe fate was playing a joke on him, but not long after retiring, he often felt dull pain in his abdomen - when he went to the hospital for a check-up, he was immediately diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, and his estimated survival time was less than two months.

During his three years of service, Li Junwen had brushes with death countless times, but this time, death stood right in front of him and there was no way for him to avoid it.

After leaving the hospital, he closed his small supermarket and gave all the remaining goods in the supermarket to the elderly in the community. After doing all this, he began to wander around Qiantang City, trying to find the meaning of his life in the last moments...

But during this period, he heard that there was a corrupt member of the Qiantang City Management Committee who colluded with local gangs, bullied men and women, and exploited the people in the village. Many people dared not speak out and could only curse this person in private...

After learning about this, Li Junwen instantly had a goal.

He knew he was dying, but before he died, perhaps he could do one big thing.

A major event that will make your name in history.

Relying on the skills he learned in the Abnormal Investigation Bureau, he planned a meticulous assassination plan in just one week...

He succeeded.

When the commissioner was driving to the management committee building, the time bomb attached to the bottom of the car blew the entire car into the sky.

There were at least more than a thousand witnesses at the explosion site. Li Junwen did not flee, but walked out of the crowd, walked to the blazing car wreckage, and announced to everyone that he was the murderer.

At this point, Li Junwen was arrested again.

But Li Junwen never expected that fate would play a bigger joke on him this time.

The commissioner he killed was not the unforgivable bastard he had heard about. On the contrary, this man was extremely honest in his style of doing things. After taking office, he vigorously launched various operations to crack down on gangs and eliminate evil... In the process, he offended many people - but those people he offended were the real bad guys.

Only then did Li Junwen realize that he had been used and deceived. They took advantage of Li Junwen's busy schedule and lack of time to carefully verify the authenticity of the rumors, and used him to get rid of the committee member.

As for those who "complained" to Li Junwen during the investigation, they either received bribes from the gang or were peripheral members of the gang themselves.

But the most devastating thing for Li Junwen was yet to come.

After being imprisoned, the prison conducted another comprehensive physical examination on him - his pancreatic cancer was a misdiagnosis, and the disease he actually suffered from was just bile duct inflammation.

Li Junwen went crazy. He kept hitting the walls and iron door of the detention room with his head, forcing the prison authorities to transfer him to a special cell with walls, floor and even ceiling made of soft-packed materials.

The trial result came out quickly and there was no doubt about it - death penalty, to be executed two days later.

Li Junwen calmed down. He stopped banging his head against the wall and squatted in the corner of the cell without saying a word.

He escaped from prison the day before his execution.

No one knew how he pried open the cell door. The surveillance camera in the corridor only saw him push open the cell door and walk out. He knocked out the guard standing outside with one blow, and then quickly ran out of the surveillance range.

I have to say, this is a ruthless person.

In the midst of a city-wide manhunt, he went to the gang that had used him and killed the gang leader. He then found those who had deceived him one by one and pulled out their tongues.

It took him four hours to do all this, and then he fled Qiantang City overnight, speeding westward along an abandoned road.

The last large-scale arrest operation for Li Junwen was launched in Shuzhou. After being chased by the sheriffs for three whole days, Li Junwen, who was desperate, went into the Hengduan Mountains and stepped into the "occupied area" which was regarded as a forbidden zone for humans.

The capture operation was declared over. No one thought that he could survive in the occupied area... Even if he could survive, he would not be as a "human being".

On the morning of January 4703, 1 in the lunar calendar, when the entire Xiazhou Federation was welcoming the arrival of the new year, an uninvited guest came to the No. 1 outpost in the Hengduan Mountains.

The soldier at the outpost was still eating dumplings with his bowl when he saw this wild-looking guy appear on the surveillance screen at the door.

He knocked hard on the big iron door of the sentry post and said in a hoarse voice: "I am Li Junwen, I am here to turn myself in."

Li Junwen, who had disappeared for four months, returned to the civilized world again. This incident instantly caused a sensation in all circles... Before the people from the Qiantang City Security Bureau even had time to arrive in Shuzhou, the special envoy from Tianshu Tower had already brought him back to Chunming City.

Since then, Li Junwen has been "imprisoned" in a special cell tailored for him in Tianshu Tower until today.

……

"Did he really stay in the occupied area for four months?" Yang Lian asked in disbelief.

"According to him, that's right." The old director nodded. "In fact, when he fled into the Hengduan Mountains, the border troops organized a large-scale search of the mountains. It was not until they found that his footprints extended all the way into the occupied area that the search operation was terminated."

"When he came back... was he still a human being? After staying in the occupied area for four months, didn't he get infected?" Yang Lian asked again.

"What I'm more curious about is how far he walked in the occupied area and what he encountered in those four months," Yang Qi murmured.

"These things are the top secrets of Tianshu Tower. If you are interested, you'd better go and ask him in person." said the old director.

"You asked me to pick up this person. Do you want him to be my guide and take me into the occupied area?" Wang Xiyi reacted quickly.

"Although the Tianshu Tower has approved it, whether you can convince this person depends on your ability. We can't force him to take you into the occupied area - but within our ability, the Tianshu Tower will try its best to meet his conditions, which is also your bargaining chip with him."

"Is this guy so awesome?" Ye Jiu, who had been left aside and unable to get a word in, asked, "Even the Tianshu Tower can only 'negotiate' with him?"

"After he came back from the occupied area, his mental state has not been normal." The old director sighed, "He is a very precious specimen. In order to protect him, the Tianshu Tower did not take any tough measures against him... The so-called detention only restricted his personal freedom to a certain extent."

"Humph, I think he is probably just pretending to be crazy." Ye Jiu snorted coldly, "Maybe he just wandered around the edge of the occupied area for a while, and when he saw the people who were searching for him left, he sneaked back and hid in the mountains. At that time, drones were not popular yet. Who knows if he really stayed in the occupied area for four months. In my opinion, this kind of person will be obedient after a beating!"

"Brother, if you don't want to be scolded by dad, I suggest you shut up." Ye Xuan glanced at Ye Jiu coldly and said.

"Just because Tianshu Tower doesn't take strong measures against him doesn't mean I can't, right?" Wang Xiyi sorted out the files, put them back into the folder, and asked the old director with a sharp gaze.

"I don't know, don't ask me. If you get into any trouble, don't say it was my fault." The old director turned around while controlling the electric wheelchair, took out a cigarette from somewhere and put it in his mouth.

"The helicopter heading to Chunming City is parked on the helipad on the roof and will take off in fifteen minutes." After saying this, the old director pushed his wheelchair out of the combat meeting room.

"Okay, I understand." Wang Xiyi let out a long sigh and stuffed the folder into her backpack.

"I'll go with you." Yang Qi said.

"And me, and me." Ye Jiule came up, "I'm also curious about what kind of person this is... It just so happens that I'm going home on the way."

(End of this chapter)