Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 287 Action in Advance
"Old Li? Is that you?" Liu Yu asked in a deep voice.

He took another step back, but something in the mud seemed to trip the foot of his power armor, causing him to lose balance and fall on his back.

"Grass!"

Liu Yu cursed inwardly and stretched out his hands to support himself from the ground to get up, but neither his own arms nor the mechanical arms attached to the power armor backpack could find a point of force in the slippery mud. He tried several times but failed to prop up his body.

The man in the power armor with the names of Li Yimin and Peng Wei printed on it slowly walked in front of Liu Yu and looked down at him.

"Old Li? Peng Wei?" Liu Yu still held on to the last glimmer of fantasy in his heart - but he also knew in his heart that if the person in the power armor in front of him was really Li Yimin, the other party would have reached out to pull him up long ago, instead of just watching him struggle in the mud.

Liu Yu's inner fear had reached its peak. Faintly, he seemed to see a pair of pale eyes behind the mask opposite, staring straight at him.

No, there is more than one pair of eyes!
Liu Yu didn't know if he was hallucinating. When the other party approached to within less than half a meter, he finally saw the face hidden behind the shadow of the mask.

This face looked like it had been corroded by strong acid. The surface was covered with dense pits, and at the bottom of these pits, there were things that looked like eyeballs rolling around.

And now, hundreds of eyes big and small on "Li Yimin's" face were focused on Liu Yu's face.

Liu Yu's mind suddenly went blank.

"Brother Liu? Brother Liu, are you okay?" Xiao Wang's voice came from the headset, "Can you get up by yourself? Do you need me to come over and give you a hand?"

Liu Yu watched as the monster wearing Li Yimin's armor pushed away its mask, opened its mouth, and a large cluster of tentacles like anemones stretched out from its throat.

"Run! Run!" Liu Yu shouted with all his strength.

……

……

Tianfu City, construction site of comprehensive talent training base.

Although the entire Tianfu City was under martial law, the construction site did not stop. The high-lumen headlights illuminated the entire site as if it were daytime. The hundred-meter-high tower crane rose and fell, and the modular components were pieced together like building blocks. The workers then manually locked the locking devices at the joints and poured concrete into the hollow load-bearing steel columns.

The prototype of a building complex that is far larger than the Tianfu City Strange Treasure Research Institute has appeared. Even the "temporary research institute" built above the underground palace has been replaced with a sturdy fortress-like building.

Sun Hang parked the car at the designated location and just locked the door when the cell phone in his pocket rang again.

"It's Yang Qi." The familiar exclusive ringtone allowed Sun Hang to confirm the identity of the caller without even looking at the screen of his phone. He took out his phone and answered the call directly. "Hello? Is there anything else you haven't explained just now?"

"There's something unusual happening on Chimera 17!" Yang Qi spoke quickly. "All observation posts 0 to 6 have lost contact. The drone has detected that the meme intensity of Chimera 17 is increasing at a rapid rate. We don't have forty-one days left... According to the latest data, Chimera 17's 'breaking day' may be advanced by a month."

"So, there are only eleven days left?"

"Yes."

"Eleven days, you can't even complete the meme reverse engineering, right?" Sun Hang asked, "I remember you said at the meeting that it would take a month to complete 70% of the meme reverse engineering?"

"I just communicated with the reverse engineering team. They told me that as long as the meme samples obtained are complete enough, it is possible to complete 50% of the reverse engineering in ten days... Although the efficacy of 50% of the 'insecticide' will be greatly reduced, it can still greatly weaken the strength of Chimera 17."

"So you mean to say that you want us to set off now?"

"That's right. First, we need to investigate the cause of the sudden change in Chimera 17. Second, the collection of memetic samples must be started immediately... We really don't have time!"

"What if we accidentally stimulate Chimera 17 and its 'breakout day' is brought forward?"

"Then let's all wait to die together!" Yang Qi said unhappily, "According to the arrangement of the Disaster Countermeasures Committee, all hunters participating in the operation will gather at the north gate of Tianfu City, and vehicles will be sent to take you there... By the way, in addition to the main body of Chimera 17, we have also detected some meme fluctuations with independent frequencies, which means that there are other strange creatures near Chimera 17."

"Is he that guy's younger brother?"

"From the perspective of meme similarity alone, there is no connection between these strange creatures and Chimera 17," Yang Qi said, "but I think it is no coincidence that they appear near Chimera 17 at this time."

……

……

An hour and a half later.

40 kilometers away from Chimera .

"Bifang III" large military transport helicopter, 200 meters high. "This weather is too bad." Ye Jiu opened the helicopter's hatch and looked out, "Since the eternal night fell, Shuzhou hasn't seen such heavy rain, right?"

Just as Ye Jiu said, at this moment the rain outside was like a huge basin pouring down from the sky... The helicopter they were riding did not seem to be in the air at an altitude of two hundred meters, but rather like it was under a huge waterfall. If Zhulong had not used his ability to block the rain curtain, the cabin would have been filled with rainwater contaminated with radiation.

"This rain is not a natural phenomenon." Ye Xuan, who was sitting at the innermost part of the cabin with a military laptop on her knees, said. She reached out to adjust the gas mask on her face and continued, "According to the observation results of the drone, there is a huge 'water absorption field' directly above Chimera 17. This force field will gather all the water vapor around it and form a large area of ​​cumulonimbus clouds..."

"I can't figure out one thing." Another hunter in the cabin who Sun Hang didn't know asked, "Didn't the average temperature in Shuzhou drop below zero? Why is it raining instead of snow or hail?"

"The temperature of this rain is not low." Ye Xuan said in a deep voice, "The temperature of the water vapor condensed above Chimera 17 is over 100 degrees Celsius. This place is a little far away, but the temperature of the rain falling to the ground is also over 30 degrees... If you stand in the rain without any protective equipment, you will feel that the rain falling on you is warm."

"Now that you mention it, I suddenly feel that the process of gathering water vapor and then forming rain is very much like a huge heat dissipation system," said Sun Hang.

"Not very similar, but it is." Ye Xuan said in a deep voice, "Since the military launched the first round of nuclear strikes on Chimera 17, the 'incubation mode' of Chimera 17 has undergone a drastic change... From the data collected so far, Chimera 17 is now equivalent to a super-powerful nuclear fission reactor."

"Does this count as... studying?" Sun Hang muttered.

"What study?" Ye Jiu looked back at him, puzzled.

"Because this guy was hit by a nuclear bomb, he learned to obtain energy through nuclear fission... If we use a hydrogen bomb to blow it up, if it doesn't die, it will probably turn into a fusion reactor." Sun Hang smacked his lips. "Tsk, there's a saying, 'Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger'... It's quite appropriate to use it on Chimera 17."

"What if the 'insecticide' doesn't work?" asked the strange hunter who spoke earlier. "What if the weird creatures master the ability to reverse-edit memes? Wouldn't that be a disaster?"

"Don't worry about that. Even if Chimera has learned how to make 'insecticide', it can only use this ability to deal with other monsters." Ye Xuan shook her head. "As for the hunters who are infected... Excuse me, if it wants to kill you, there is no need to go through so much trouble."

"Little girl, I don't like what you said." The hunter said, "Although I don't understand the working principle of anti-meme, I know that this thing can temporarily disable our abilities. In this way, aren't we hunters no different from ordinary people?"

"That is to say, the life-saving trump cards in my hand can only be used based on my own abilities. If I lose my abilities, my current appearance will make me less powerful than a private." Another hunter said - his body was skinny and wrapped in a special bandage, with only a face paler than a dead person exposed.

A tailor-made frame-type exoskeleton is worn on his body, and a heavy battery pack is fixed directly on his back - every joint in his body, even his fingertips, needs the assistance of the exoskeleton to move. Without this powered exoskeleton, he would be no different from a talking mummy.

"If the 'Pesticide Plan' fails, all hunters will be ordered to evacuate the battlefield immediately." Ye Xuan said in a deep voice, "You don't need to worry about this."

Sun Hang glanced at Ye Xuan out of the corner of his eye. In fact, the girl hadn't said the second half of her sentence yet.

"If the 'insecticide plan' fails, all combat personnel will evacuate the battlefield immediately. Ninety minutes later, a saturation nuclear strike will be carried out on Chimera 17."

These are the original words from the battle plan proposed by Yang Qi.

Other combat plans against Chimera 17 were also being accelerated, but after the remaining time was compressed to only a quarter, the only feasible plan was Yang Qi's "Pesticide Plan".

"The helicopter can only take you so far. Below is Observation Post No. 7, which is currently the closest to Chimera No. 17. After you have finished your preparations at Observation Post No. 7, approach Chimera No. 17 from different directions according to your previous groups. Remember to keep communications open. Once you discover other traces of strange creatures, report to the command center immediately." Ye Xuan said quickly.

"Do we have reinforcements?" asked the hunter wrapped like a mummy.

Ye Xuan glanced at the laptop and said, "There is a 200-man quick response force on standby at Observation Post No. 8, but they cannot approach Chimera 17. According to the results of the previous explorations, if a group of more than 20 people approaches within 35 kilometers of Chimera 17, it will trigger an emergency response from Chimera 17."

"Long-range fire support is possible," Ye Xuan continued, "but in such bad weather conditions, I suggest you don't have too high expectations for the accuracy of long-range firepower."

"I understand." The hunter said sullenly, then walked to the hatch with the help of the powered exoskeleton and jumped directly into the rain.

The moment he jumped out, the rain pouring down from the sky twisted instantly, forming a "vacuum belt" that wrapped him up. This visual effect was like a magic weapon called "Water-Repellent Beads" in the legend.

The hunter did not continue falling at the speed of free fall. Instead, he suddenly slowed down when he was still more than ten meters away from the inside. Then, he walked to the ground step by step, step by step, on the steps made of air, as if he was strolling in a garden.

Some hunters who were not afraid of the radioactive rain also jumped out of the cabin, and landed on the ground by using their own abilities or the equipment they carried. Ye Jiu also wanted to jump out like them, but was pulled back by Sun Hang.

"If you want to show off, there will be plenty of opportunities later." Sun Hang said lightly.

The helicopter had dropped to less than ten meters inside, and the remaining hunters also descended to the ground with the help of rappelling ropes. Only Sun Hang, Wang Xiyi, Ye Jiu, Zhong Ling, Zhu Long and Ye Xuan were left in the huge cabin, as well as the coffins containing strange skeletons fixed to the cabin floor with anchor hooks.

"What's wrong?" Ye Jiu glanced at Sun Hang. "We are the only ones here now. If you have anything to say, just say it now. It's raining so hard outside, those who jumped out will definitely not be able to hear it."

"If you see three monkeys during the operation later, whether they are alive or dead, flat images or three-dimensional sculptures, turn around and run. The faster you run, the better. Don't look back." Sun Hang said seriously.

"You mean... Three Monkeys?" Ye Jiu was slightly startled. "I remember you asked me about this before... Is this thing related to Chimera 17?"

[PS I have to say that this autumn is indeed an eventful one. I fell ill after returning from a business trip during the National Day holiday. I finally got better in the past two days, but my father suddenly fell ill and was sent to the hospital last night. Fortunately, the examination today showed that it was not too serious. It was just some basic diseases in the past, plus a lung infection and pleural effusion. The doctor estimated that he would need to be hospitalized for more than a week. During this period, I have to run back and forth between home and the hospital, and I have to help out in the store when I have time. The update time may be very unstable. But I will try my best to ensure the update volume of 4000 words per day. Please bear with me. ]

(End of this chapter)