Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 285 Zhong Jun
"You should ask Yang Qi about this question," Sun Hang replied.

"Actually, I'm not interested in the answer to this question." The woman suddenly laughed. "No matter how that little girl plans to inject the 'insecticide' into the target's body, I don't care... I just want to tell you that the success rate of this combat plan is very low. Very low."

"Given your identity and position, it's not appropriate for you to say such things, right?" Sun Hang glanced at the identity card hanging on the other person's chest.

Zhong Jun is a senior researcher at Tianshu Tower and the project leader of Project 5509.

"If I could ignore my own identity and position, I would never let Xiao Ling'er participate in this operation." Zhong Jun smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I don't care whether the operation will fail or not, I just want to ask you for one favor."

"Take good care of Zhong Ling's safety?" Sun Hang tilted his head. "The direction of this plot is a little too easy to guess."

"There are some things that her father cannot say, but I, as her aunt, can say." Zhong Jun looked at Sun Hang seriously, "Although this is just my personal request, but if you can do it, the Zhong family will..."

"Just tell me, what benefits will the Zhong family give me?"

"We can meet all your requirements within our capabilities and not in violation of federal law," said Zhong Jun.

"Oh? What if I want to be the head of your Zhong family? Will you give it to me?" Sun Hang asked half-jokingly.

"Yes, but the prerequisite is that you have to marry into the Zhong family." Zhong Jun said.

Zhong Ling lowered his head instantly.

But what Zhong Ling didn't expect was that Sun Hang suddenly said, "I see that you are still charming, aunt. Are you married?"

Zhong Jun was stunned for a moment, and then a trace of anger flashed in his eyes: "Are you teasing me?"

"If you think it is, then it is." Sun Hang said.

"I have no interest in anything other than research." Zhong Jun's tone was a little stiff. She wanted to ask Sun Hang, "Don't you even look down on Zhong Ling?" But seeing her niece's expression that seemed like she was about to burrow into the ground, she finally didn't say it.

"Don't mind, it's just a joke." Seeing that the atmosphere was a little subtle, Sun Hang waved his hand, "To be honest, I didn't plan to take anyone with me on this operation."

"What do you mean?" Zhong Jun asked puzzledly.

"It's just collecting samples. I can do it alone." Sun Hang said, "The more people there are, the more likely it is to cause a stress response in Chimera 17. The best strategy is for everyone to choose to act alone. Of course, people like Zhong Ling who are not capable of acting alone should not participate in this operation at all."

"No." As soon as Sun Hang finished speaking, Wang Xiyi was the first to jump out and express her opposition, "You must act with me!"

"Then we'll team up in two. Zhong Ling, you..."

"I'm going." Zhong Ling raised his head. "Collecting memetic samples requires a lot of equipment. The two of you can't carry it all."

"I can drive there." said Sun Hang.

"Those devices require at least four people to operate simultaneously." Zhong Ling added.

"Is this true?" Sun Hang was stunned for a moment and looked at Zhong Jun.

"That's true... It's for this reason that each team has at least five people," said Zhong Jun.

"If that doesn't work, I'll just take four agents from the field department with me." Sun Hang said after thinking for a while.

"Am I such a burden in your eyes?" Zhong Ling asked in a low voice with a tense face.

"It's not that I think you're a burden, it's your aunt who is worried that something might happen to you." Sun Hang shrugged.

"Yes, Xiao Ling'er, this mission is too dangerous..." Zhong Jun also advised, "If you want to carry out the mission, you can..."

"If that's the case, then why did you let my mother take part in such a dangerous mission?" Zhong Ling suddenly raised his head and asked while staring at Zhong Jun.

"How... did you know..." Zhong Jun's face showed obvious panic, and he spoke incoherently, "Your mother... your mother did that because..."

"I know, I know everything." Zhong Ling murmured.

"Xiao Ling'er, listen to my explanation. The reason why the adults didn't want to listen to your explanation at that time was because you were still young... We felt that some things should be told to you after you grow up..." Zhong Jun said.

"Am I grown up now?" Zhong Ling asked back.

"You are now..." Zhong Jun was speechless for a moment.

"If you wanted to protect me, then why did my father immediately put me into that sealed glass container after I showed the special connection between my mother and me?" Zhong Ling continued to ask.

"That...that's to protect you..." Zhong Jun murmured.

"The person you want to protect is not Zhong Ling, but the 'Puppet Master'." Zhong Ling said in a calm tone what should have been full of anger, "In my father's eyes, I am not his daughter, I am just his most perfect work. The reason why you don't want me to participate in dangerous missions is not because you are worried that I will get hurt, but because you are afraid that this perfect work will be damaged. Am I right?"

"Xiao Ling'er, how can you say that? He is your father after all..." Zhong Jun's face gradually became ugly.

"If you ask me to withdraw from the operation in the name of Tianshu Tower, I will accept it." Zhong Ling said with a cold face, "If it is in the name of a private person, then..."

"I... I didn't say I wanted you to withdraw from the operation." Zhong Jun smiled bitterly, "I just wanted to ask Sun Hang to protect you..."

Zhong Jun said, looking at Sun Hang: "With your ability, it shouldn't be difficult to do it, right?"

"Do you know me well?" Sun Hang narrowed his eyes and looked at Zhong Ling's aunt again.

"We will conduct a detailed investigation on anyone who has had contact with Zhong Ling, not to mention that the relationship between you and her is so special..." Zhong Jun said.

"Oh? Special?"

"She has never been so dependent on someone, not even her father, but you are an exception," Zhong Jun said.

"Tsk, so you have already figured out my details? Didn't old man Pei warn you?" Sun Hang deliberately mentioned Pei Zongjun - when they were in Tianshu Tower, Pei Zongjun had promised Sun Hang that he would divide his file into two parts, light and dark. In the light file, Sun Hang was just an ordinary hunter of the same level, who had only participated in a few operations, and the entire file had less than a thousand words. As for the more detailed "dark file", only those with the highest level of decryption authority in Tianshu Tower were qualified to view it. Sun Hang asked this question to test how much power the "Zhong Family" behind Zhong Ling had in the Xiazhou Federation.

Although the federal government adopts a parliamentary system, the surnames of each member of the parliament represent the family power behind them. Different factions will be formed between families, and these factions will restrain each other, which can also prevent the Xiazhou Federation from being dominated by one party.

Although this approach can easily lead to organizational bloat and inefficiency, from another perspective, it can also prevent the emergence of dictators to a certain extent.

Zhong Jun lowered his voice: "We were indeed warned... But this makes me more convinced that you have that ability... Otherwise, Mr. Pei would not think so highly of you."

"Okay, I will do my best to protect Zhong Ling... As for the position of your family head, remember to keep it for me." Sun Hang said.

"Do you really want to be the head of the Zhong family?"

"What else? Do you really think I'm joking with you?"

……

……

After finishing this not-so-pleasant conversation with Zhong Jun, Sun Hang walked out of the institute's gate with the two girls. He had originally planned to go shopping in the commercial district, but suddenly remembered that Tianfu City had entered a state of city-wide martial law again. All kinds of business activities that had just begun to recover were urgently stopped. Now, if he went to the commercial district, he could only see those shops with closed doors and darkness.

If you are lucky, you might even run into criminals who sneak out to engage in "zero-dollar shopping" activities - according to the report of the Public Security Bureau, more than 200 such guys were arrested in Tianfu City last week alone, and several major commercial areas in the city were not spared.

"Where are you going?" Wang Xiyi asked.

"Just strolling around the streets." As Sun Hang spoke, he exhaled a breath of white air - even with large heating equipment, the outdoor temperature in Tianfu City was still dropping day by day. In addition, a large number of high-energy lighting equipment were turned off, and the urban heat island effect was greatly weakened. Now the average temperature in Tianfu City has reached minus nine degrees, and it is just around the corner to break through the double-digit minus.

"Come to think of it, are you really planning to become the head of the Zhong family?" Wang Xiyi asked again.

"It's not bad to be the head of a family for fun, but I guess the position of head of a family they gave me is probably just an empty title, and I'm afraid I won't have any real power." Sun Hang said.

"But you have to marry into the family." Wang Xiyi's eyes moved to Zhong Ling who was staring at the road next to her. "Are you planning to marry Zhong Ling?"

"Jealous?"

"I'm not jealous...I just think that there's no such a good thing in the world." Wang Xiyi rolled her eyes at Sun Hang and complained.

"You are obviously jealous." Sun Hang said firmly.

"I'm just wondering... You know, we are infected, but Zhong Ling is not... I have never seen a normal family willing to marry their daughter to an infected person, let alone a powerful family like theirs." Wang Xiyi said.

"If you want to marry me, my father will agree." Zhong Ling said suddenly.

"Why?" Before Sun Hang asked, Wang Xiyi asked first.

"This is also part of the experiment." Zhong Ling said, "The source of my special ability is still a mystery. Tianshu Tower has examined me countless times, but they have never found any weird memes in my body. After my first period, my father extracted mature eggs from my body for six consecutive months. Although he never told me what he did with these eggs, I think it was some experiments related to genetics."

"He wanted to test whether your ability could be inherited through heredity?" Sun Hang stroked the short stubble that had grown on his chin. "Those eggs were probably used for in vitro fertilization... Ha, you couldn't have become a mother without knowing it, could you?"

Zhong Ling: “…”

"But then again, your father tacitly allowed you to follow me. Perhaps he also wanted to see what kind of abilities the offspring born from your union with me would have... I have to say, your father is really a scientific research madman. For him, he would probably give up anything for the sake of his own research, right?"

Zhong Ling nodded.

"I suddenly feel that the three of us are quite similar." Wang Xiyi hooked one hand around Sun Hang's neck and the other hand around Zhong Ling's shoulders. "I have no parents, and Sun Hang can't even remember his parents' names. As for you, it's the same whether you have a father or not... Ha, how interesting!"

"You are wrong. At least she has a mother who cares about her." Sun Hang glanced at an inconspicuous corner - all of Zhong Ling's corpses were usually sealed in coffins and would not wake up unless summoned by Zhong Ling. Only the corpse transformed from her mother had a certain degree of self-awareness and would always follow her daughter, protecting Zhong Ling with her remaining "memories" and "instincts".

"Yeah, damn, I'm so envious." Wang Xiyi slapped Sun Hang's butt with her tail. "You have nowhere to go anyway, why not go home and drink? Oh, no... It's less than 24 hours before the operation starts. According to regulations, you can't drink alcohol during this period..."

Wang Xiyi suddenly felt a little dejected.

"Let's go to the underground palace." Sun Hang said, "I plan to make two defensive ghost equipment for Zhong Ling. This way, even if her ghost body is restrained, she will not be completely unable to protect herself."

……

……

At the same time, 180 kilometers north of Tianfu City, 20 kilometers away from "Chimera Cocoon No. 17".

"Observation Post Zero".

Ever since the military launched a nuclear strike on Chimera 17, it has been raining in this area, and it has been raining non-stop.

No one knows where these cumulonimbus clouds come from, nor does anyone know how they relate to the nuclear explosion and Chimera 17.

The rainfall is still increasing.

Two orange-yellow power armors trudged through the mud, and relying on the milky white fluorescent lighting emitted by the giant cocoon not far away, they crawled into the tent one step deep and one step shallow.

"Sixteenth close-range detection." A somewhat dull voice came from a power armor. "We have arrived at seven kilometers from the target. The ambient radiation intensity is still increasing. The specific value has exceeded the limit of the detection equipment."

"Speaking of which, will we die here?" said a man in another power armor. "Even though I'm wearing several layers of protective clothing, I can still feel a noticeable stinging sensation on my skin when I get close to that thing..."

"As long as we inject anti-radiation drugs regularly, there shouldn't be much of a problem." The first person said, "What we should worry about is the cumulonimbus clouds above our heads... It would be fine if they don't move, but if these clouds drift over the city, after a dirty rain, how many people will suffer from radiation sickness? I dare not even think about it."

"That shouldn't be the case. Why hasn't Lao Li and his group come back yet? I thought we were already over the time limit, but they were slower than us."

(End of this chapter)