Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 272 Metal Giant Snake
"Uh, Lao Wang, how many hunters have you killed in total?" Ye Jiu swallowed and asked.

"Four... Oh no, to be exact, there should be only three. One of them chose to commit suicide because I chased him too closely." Wang Xiyi recalled while driving, "That guy's ability is to turn everything he touches into a bomb. When he was desperate, he turned himself into a super bomb and wanted to die with me. Unfortunately, he fell just a little short."

"Just a little bit off?" Ye Jiu was stunned.

"Yes, I stayed in the ICU for a month and a half, and finally survived thanks to the powerful recovery ability given by the Black Dragon Meme. As for that guy, I heard from Yang Qi that there seemed to be nothing left of him."

“Hiss… Come to think of it, I also received a mission to hunt down Fallen Hunters once.” Ye Jiu said, “But just as I put on my equipment, I was notified that the mission was cancelled. Since then, I have never received such a mission again.”

"The number of Fallen Hunters... is it very small?" Jiang Yu in the back seat couldn't help but interrupt.

She had just acquired the identity of a hunter not long ago, and everything in this new world seemed dangerous and unfamiliar to her.

"It's not a small number... a lot of them emerge every year." Ye Jiu took off his mask and rubbed his itchy nose. "After all, not all memes are so stable. Many memes can subtly influence people's mentality and even completely distort a person's personality and preferences."

"Why...I don't feel this influence?" Jiang Yu asked again.

"First, it may be that you have been infected for too short a time and you haven't noticed it yet. Second, you are lucky. The meme that Sun Hang passed on to you is of the extremely stable type." Ye Jiu pondered, "Hmm... I think it is most likely the latter. Song Yarong from the Weird Research Institute in Tianfu City was also infected with the same meme, but she didn't seem to be affected much."

"What if... I mean what if, in case I am affected by the meme in the future, how will the federal government deal with me?" Jiang Yu asked weakly.

"Deal with it? Generally, we won't." Ye Jiu shrugged. "Don't even mention hunters. Look at the office workers in the office buildings. If you randomly pick a few of them for examination, they all have some psychological problems. This is normal. As long as they can still work, no one will care about the inner health of cattle and horses, or whether they have any dark thoughts, unless..."

"unless?"

"Unless you put those dark and negative thoughts into action and endanger public safety, the federal government will take measures to 'neutralize' you."

"Harmless disposal...what is that?" Jiang Yu's slender eyebrows trembled, and he asked cautiously.

"It's similar to... dumping garbage into an incinerator." Ye Jiu laughed. "It's actually the same as the death penalty, but it's a bit more complicated to deal with the infected. If we accidentally cause a large-scale infection, it will be a lot of fun."

"If... I become a Fallen Hunter in the future, will you come to deal with me?" Jiang Yu asked again.

"We? Probably not our turn." Ye Jiu said, "Only those tough and thorny ones are qualified for us to take action... The vast majority of Fallen Hunters can be dealt with by a special forces composed of ordinary people."

"I'm a little scared..." Jiang Yu whispered.

"What are you afraid of?" Wang Xiyi asked.

"I'm afraid that if I ..."

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Wang Xiyi suddenly interrupted her, "Relax, it's very likely that you'll be dead before you fall."

"Oh my god...Old Wang, how can you comfort people like this?" Ye Jiu couldn't help but complain.

"I didn't comfort her, I just told her the truth. As an adult, she has to learn to accept reality." Wang Xiyi said calmly, "For example, in this operation, some of us... or maybe all of us, will definitely stay in the occupied area forever."

"Puh, puh, puh!" Ye Jiu spat repeatedly, "Didn't your mother tell you not to say such unlucky words before going on a mission?"

"I don't have a mother." Wang Xiyi said nonchalantly, "As long as I can remember, I lived in a federal research facility, undergoing various experiments and training until they sent me to be a hunter."

"Uh... sorry, I didn't mean to bring this up..." Ye Jiu's face turned awkward and he quickly put the mask back on.

"It's okay, I'm used to it." Wang Xiyi said, "I have never had the concept of family since I was a child, so even if someone scolds me and says your mother is dead, I don't feel anything."

"What about now?" Ye Jiu asked again.

"Now?"

"Uh...I mean, Sun Hang."

"He...he gives me a very special feeling."

"Boy friend?"

“No…” Wang Xiyi shook her head. “There’s something about him that makes me subconsciously want to get close to him. Yang Qi told me that it was because he absorbed my blood and the Black Dragon’s meme in order to save me, which created a strange connection between him and me… But I always feel that it’s not that simple.”

"Is it possible that this feeling is called 'love'?" Ye Jiu teased, "Did you feel this way before he took away your mutant meme?"

"...I can't remember clearly." Wang Xiyi said, her cheeks slightly red, but returned to normal in an instant.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this topic anymore." Ye Jiu waved his hand, "Don't let this guy blurt out that you'll marry Sun Hang if you find him this time... That's much more powerful than those unlucky words just now."

"Ha, you still believe this?" Wang Xiyi asked with some amusement.

"This kind of stuff is very metaphysical. Don't complain that I'm superstitious. It doesn't cost money anyway, so just believe in it a little, right?" Ye Jiu said.

"I just think you've watched too many anime and read too many novels... eh?" Before Wang Xiyi could finish her words, she had already stepped on the brake with her right foot.

"All vehicles, stop moving!" Wang Xiyi turned on the walkie-talkie and said loudly.

About a hundred meters ahead of the vehicle, the road was blocked.

The vines that emerged from the ground were entwined with each other, like giant pythons, lying across the road.

The convoy stopped and everyone jumped out of the car one after another. "We should have entered the occupied area now, right?" Zhulong came up, "We are more than a kilometer away from the orange-red boundary marker."

"Yes." Wang Xiyi nodded, "Be careful."

"Captain!" A field operator ran over, "The vines blocking the road ahead have a memetic reaction! It should be a plant-based monster!"

"Plant-type... Type D monster." Zhu Long muttered, "My ability is not very effective against this type of monster. Moreover, I can feel that the cold aura emanating from the vine is very similar to my attributes... I'm afraid my attack will hardly hurt it."

"Now I have a professional match!" Ye Jiu suddenly jumped to the front and held the wolf fang spear horizontally. A red flame instantly ignited on the surface of the wolf fang spear, enveloping the entire wolf fang spear. "It's a plant-based weirdo with cold attributes. It's simply an opponent tailor-made for me! Don't compete with me for it!"

"No one is competing with you for it." Wang Xiyi crossed her arms, "If you want to take action, then do it quickly and don't waste time on your journey."

"We will help you hold the line and win quickly." Zhulong also said.

"Okay! Leave it to me!" Ye Jiu growled, and rushed towards the vines blocking the way with a wolf-tooth spear in his hand.

At this time, Zhong Ling walked silently to Wang Xiyi's side and gently touched the latter's arm with his fingers.

"What's wrong?" Wang Xiyi turned around and asked.

"Maybe we took the wrong road." Zhong Ling whispered, "Sun Hang was also driving. Since this road is blocked, he shouldn't have gone through here."

"But, there is only this one road near Post 198... Sun Hang couldn't have driven over the mountain, right?" Wang Xiyi pondered, "But what you said makes sense. We didn't see any tire tracks along the way. Could it be that he didn't take this road?"

"He may have abandoned the car and walked away." Zhulong said, "There are too many places along the way where the car could have been abandoned. If we search them all, it will take at least several months."

"Is there a satellite positioning system on the car driven by Sun Hang?" Jiang Yu suddenly asked.

"Yes, but satellite positioning is useless within the range of Eternal Night. Even the navigation system has to rely on multiple ground base stations for accurate positioning." Wang Xiyi shook her head. "The only reliable one at present is the military's high-power long-distance radio communication. Our bracelet relies on this network... However, as early as the day of the accident, the signal of Sun Hang's bracelet had disappeared."

Just when Wang Xiyi and others were discussing whether they had taken the wrong path, Ye Jiu had already rushed to the front of the vines, and the flaming wolf-tooth spear fell heavily, hitting directly the area where the vines were most dense.

"boom!!!"

The flames exploded instantly, and large tracts of vines turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.

"Cool!"

Ye Jiu let out a low cry and wielded the wolf-fang spear with great force. After a few sweeps, he quickly cleared a gap in the road that was big enough for a vehicle to pass through.

"This thing... doesn't even have the ability to fight back?" Ye Jiu thought to himself, "Apart from being dozens of times thicker than ordinary vines, don't these vines have any special features?"

Although he was skeptical, Ye Jiu did not slow down at all. In a blink of an eye, the vines on the road had been cleared away.

"It's done!" The flame on the wolf-fang spear gradually went out. Ye Jiu let out a long breath, turned around and waved to the convoy, "Come over!"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, the ground suddenly began to shake slightly!
"Earthquake?" Ye Jiu was stunned. "No, it's not an earthquake... The vibration came from under my feet. Could it be from the roots of the vines? It won't realize that it is being attacked now, right? This reaction arc is too long, isn't it?"

Just as Ye Jiu was looking around, Wang Xiyi in the distance directly entered a highly dragon-like state, flapped his huge dragon wings, and rushed directly into the air.

Not only Wang Xiyi, Zhulong also summoned those cold and gloomy water currents to create an arc-shaped barrier in front of everyone.

The ghosts controlled by Zhong Ling all crawled out of the "coffins" fixed on the roof of the car and formed a formation to fight back.

"Is it that serious? It's just a weird vine creature. Why is there such a big fuss?" As soon as this thought popped up in Ye Jiu's head, he felt a huge force coming from his body. The next second, his perspective had shifted to mid-air.

He flew up - even with the weight of hundreds of kilograms of armor, he was still lifted up into the air, and flew to a height of nearly a hundred meters.

Only at this time did Ye Jiu see clearly what was attacking him.

It was a vine... no, it should be a giant snake, a giant metal snake made entirely of "industrial waste"!

It is not a living creature, but a thing made up of various metal objects, including rotten iron pieces of various sizes, metal blocks compacted by garbage disposal plants, twisted car shells and bicycle frames, plus a large number of rusty construction steel bars and rails that look like they have just been torn off the railway - these things make up the body of the giant snake. They squeeze and rub against each other, emitting a teeth-grinding sound. Every time the giant snake moves, a large number of metal objects will fall from its body, but these fallen objects often have not yet fallen to the ground, they will be attached to the giant snake's body and become part of other parts.

The diameter of the giant snake is more than five meters, and as for its length - the part exposed above the ground alone is more than a hundred meters, and no one knows how long the part underground is.

The giant metal snake has no head, only a huge mouth that is nearly the size of its body's cross-section. Metal objects on the edge of the mouth are falling into the mouth every minute, while metal objects in the torso are constantly surging up - the entire body of the giant snake is dynamic, and a wonderful balance is formed in this dynamic.

"Bang!!"

Ye Jiu finally fell heavily to the ground. Thanks to the defensive ability of Shafa, except for feeling a little dizzy, he did not suffer any substantial injuries.

"Damn, what kind of monster is this?" He shook his head vigorously and sat up from the ground.

"You're lucky. That creature just blew you away instead of swallowing you." Zhulong pulled Ye Jiu up. "Otherwise, your armor would have become a part of its body."

"...No way?" Ye Jiu stuck the wolf-fang spear on the ground and looked up at the giant metal snake not far away. "What kind of weird thing is this? An animal? Or an artifact?"

"I'm more inclined to believe it's a spirit (energy type). There seems to be a force similar to a magnetic field that brings these metal objects together." Zhu Long said, "If I remember correctly, Sun Hang has the ability to control metal."

"But he can't control so many metal objects at once, right?"

(End of this chapter)