Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 289 Parasitic Tentacles
"Is this strength... very high?" Wang Xiyi pinched the steel pipe casually, and it turned into an irregularly shaped iron lump in her hand.

"Sister, how can your strength be compared to a mere mudslide?" Sun Hang was speechless.

"Then it can only be the work of a strange creature." Wang Xiyi spread her hands and said, "Observation Post No. 5 was attacked by a strange creature and the entire army was wiped out. This is consistent with our previous speculation... Also, you are not allowed to call me Big Sister."

"What do you call me?"

"Code name, full name, and 'Lao Wang' as you often called me before... or you can call me sister, it's not like you haven't called me that before anyway." Wang Xiyi glanced at Sun Hang, "Of course, I don't mind if you want to call me mom."

Before Sun Hang could say anything, Zhong Ling's weak voice suddenly came from the headset: "Do you guys...play so extravagantly in private?"

"Want to come together?" Wang Xiyi turned to look at Zhong Ling and said in a teasing tone, "I'll take you with me next time."

"Oh... next time?" Zhong Ling was suddenly speechless, her little face flushed red.

Although she was always thinking about what happened in the dream, the girl was still thin-skinned after all. She could not compare with Wang Xiyi, who was indifferent to life and death and would fight against it if she didn't accept it.

"If you're shy, forget it." Wang Xiyi swung her tail, disturbing the rain.

"I..." Before Zhong Ling could finish his words, his expression suddenly changed and he whispered, "There's something!"

About a hundred meters away from where the three people landed, the No. 001 skeleton suddenly broke out of the ground. On its slender arms, there was a human body wearing a mud-covered protective suit.

No. 001 put his five fingers together, and his sharp fingertips pierced through the heart of the humanoid body and came out from the back - this kind of injury should have been fatal for a human, but this body was still struggling desperately.

"It's the missing field operator." Wang Xiyi immediately put away her smile and said grimly, "Has this guy been lurking in the mud all this time?"

"Either, this guy's heart is on the right side." Sun Hang said lightly, "Or, it is no longer a human being."

Before he could finish his words, the special agent's protective suit had been torn open from the inside. Countless tentacles poured out from the suit and madly wrapped around the No. 001 skeleton!
These swollen and pale tentacles look like spoiled pickled chicken feet... and not only in appearance, but for Sun Hang, from a food perspective, this thing can indeed be compared to those expired chicken feet that spray out a fishy soup as soon as the package is torn open.

To describe it in four words: no appetite.

The No. 001 skeleton reacted quickly. It pulled its right arm out of the opponent's body and danced its ten fingers quickly, forming an airtight barrier in front of itself. The tentacles that touched the barrier would instantly turn into scattered meat and fly everywhere, and would not be able to touch the body of the No. 001 skeleton at all.

"There are more than one." The corner of Sun Hang's eyes twitched, and the next second, several giant spikes made of white mycelium rose from the ground around him. On each of the spikes, there was a strange creature transformed from a lost field operator.

Sun Hang had absolutely no desire to absorb these strange creatures. After analyzing their memes, he directly cut off the connection between these giant spikes and himself. These strange creatures whose memetic structures were completely destroyed turned into pus and blood in an instant and mixed into the mud flowing on the ground.

"Can you confirm what kind of weird thing infected them?" Wang Xiyi asked, "Is it Chimera 17?"

Although Sun Hang did not have direct contact with Chimera No. 17, he had "closer" contact with Wang Xiyi, who had direct contact with Chimera No. 17. From Wang Xiyi, Sun Hang has obtained enough information about Chimera No. 17.

For some reason, this strange creature gave Sun Hang a feeling of both familiarity and strangeness. He vaguely felt that he seemed to have come into contact with a similar thing somewhere, but when he tried to recall it carefully, his brain went blank.

Sun Hang estimated that he should have had contact with Chimera No. 17... However, the memories related to the contact were sealed deep in his mind because of his "amnesia".

Not only that, the memories related to "Anna" were gradually fading in Sun Hang's mind - it was as if there was an eraser erasing the images in his head every day, so that Sun Hang had to recall what happened between him and Anna every once in a while.

It's like using a pencil to re-trace the pictures that have been erased by an eraser, leaving only a faint shadow.

But even so, the scene when he "first" saw Anna has become quite vague now.

Those images looked like the perspective of a severely myopic patient who had forgotten to wear glasses.

"No." Sun Hang shook his head. "It's a meme fragment that I'm completely unfamiliar with... Of course, it's not ruled out that Chimera 17 has undergone a mutation, and the meme has become completely different from when you beat it half to death that day."

“Hmm…” Wang Xiyi nodded. “That day, it abandoned most of its body and escaped underground… At that time, its core meme was on the verge of collapse. It’s a pity that I was unable to chase it, otherwise, there wouldn’t be so much trouble afterwards.”

"Did you really intend to exchange your life for itss at that time?" Sun Hang asked.

"What else?" Wang Xiyi turned around and rolled her eyes at Sun Hang. "If I hadn't taken action, few people present that day would have survived."

"Do you care about their life or death?" Sun Hang asked again.

"I am a tool created to deal with monsters. That is my duty." Wang Xiyi said seriously, but she suddenly laughed the next second. "But it's not the same now. I sold my last life to them. Now I want to live well in this life."

"You look really pretty when you smile."

Wang Xiyi curled her lips and muttered, "You have said this to many girls, right?"

"Well, let me think... I seem to have told Yang Qi and you this since I woke up, but I'm telling the truth. You two do look better when you smile than when you have a stern face..."

"I'll trust you for once... Besides, don't you care about the lives of ordinary people? If you don't care, why did you participate in this operation? With your authority, the Disaster Countermeasures Committee should not be able to force you to participate, right?" "I just had a deal with Old Man Pei." Sun Hang sighed, "But you did remind me that it's time to go to Old Man Pei to cash in part of the reward. Just wait until the meme sample collection is completed. Three days should be enough for a round trip."

"Old man Pei... Old man Pei, what did he promise you?" Wang Xiyi asked curiously.

"He said that I can choose any of the strange creatures housed in the Tianshu Tower."

“You can pick whatever you want…” Wang Xiyi was stunned for a moment, “You mean, after picking them out… use the Taotie’s ability to devour those weird creatures?”

"What else?" Sun Hang shrugged. "To put it bluntly, it's just a buffet voucher that never expires."

Wang Xiyi frowned: "Have you never considered the risks involved? The more powerful the creature, the more dangerous it is to absorb. They may even turn the tables and devour and assimilate your self-consciousness. If you really want to absorb it, I suggest you start with weaker creatures, step by step, to be safer."

"Do you think the black dragon is a powerful weird creature?"

"Calculate."

"I can even absorb the black dragon meme in your body. I think, even if there are monsters stronger than the black dragon in the collection of Tianshu Tower, they should be rare." Sun Hang said.

“You were just lucky that time... Besides, I only inherited a part of the Black Dragon’s meme. A complete Black Dragon’s breath can burn a city to ashes. Even if you have no idea about strength, you can’t simply equate me with the Black Dragon, right?” Wang Xiyi said helplessly.

"Then the complete black dragon cannot be contained by the Tianshu Tower. Otherwise, the Xiazhou Federation would not have dropped the nuclear bomb." Sun Hang argued.

As he spoke, Skeleton No. 001 had already torn the creature into pieces.

Sun Hang walked forward to check some of the remains of the monster. He found that only a shriveled skin bag was left of the monster, and the internal organs, flesh and even bones had all turned into tentacles. The surface of these tentacles was covered with tiny holes. If you squeezed them gently, corrosive liquid with a strong fishy smell would seep out. Sun Hang just touched it and a layer of skin on the front of his finger was burned off.

"It doesn't seem to be infected." Sun Hang whispered.

"They're not infected?" Wang Xiyi was a little confused, "But these field operators... they've clearly turned into monsters?"

"What I mean is that these weird creatures are parasitic in their bodies and turn their bodies into nutrients... There is a medicinal herb called 'Cordyceps sinensis', have you heard of it?" Sun Hang stood up and shook off the corrosive liquid on his hands. The next second, his bloody fingers returned to their original state.

"Moreover," Sun Hang continued, "I just found a piece of torn human skin. Although this piece of skin is stained with a lot of tentacle monster memes, it actually has no signs of infection."

"You mean, those tentacle monsters drilled into their bodies, ate up their bones and flesh, and used these substances as nutrients... and retained the outermost skin as camouflage... But this camouflage is too poor, a soft and boneless humanoid creature... Any normal person would know that this is a monster at first glance, right?" Wang Xiyi said.

"But it's hard to tell after she puts on the heavy protective suit and powered exoskeleton." Sun Hang looked up at Zhong Ling on Gargantuar's back. "Tell me, if Zhong Ling's skin is full of these tentacles, can you tell if she is human just by her appearance?"

"Why do you use me as an example?" Zhong Ling protested in a low voice.

"If we get closer, we can sense the aura of the strange creatures, right?" Wang Xiyi asked puzzledly. "My perception ability may not be as good as yours, but at such a close distance, I can still 'smell' the unpleasant 'stench' emanating from them."

Sun Hang pointed to the fragments of protective clothing that had been washed away by the mud in the distance, "But these field operators can't tell the difference. The memetic fluctuations of the monsters can be detected everywhere in this area. The instruments can't tell whether the person in front of you is a human or a monster. In addition, the weather is bad and visibility is extremely low. The mud flowing everywhere on the ground will greatly hinder people's movements, which makes the seemingly weird movements of the occupied skin become 'reasonable'...

Sun Hang continued, "I guess that there must have been an unlucky guy who was attacked by this tentacle monster at the beginning. After being parasitized, the monster controlled his skin and ran back to the observation post, and then parasitized more people. The number of people in the first few observation posts was not large, and they were suddenly attacked by their 'companions'. They had no chance to send the message out."

"Then should we send this message back?" Zhong Ling asked.

"Post it, but I suggest you add a disclaimer at the end. This is just my guess based on the current information and may not be accurate. If the command center misjudges something because of this, it has nothing to do with me." Sun Hang instantly activated the magic card called "Non-stick Pan" and cleared himself of all responsibility.

"I think your guess is pretty close to the truth." Wang Xiyi said, "In that case, we have already completed most of the first goal of 'investigating the reasons why several observation posts lost contact'. Next, we just need to figure out the source of these tentacle monsters."

"No need." Sun Hang said suddenly.

"Ah? What do you mean unnecessary?" Wang Xiyi was unable to react for a moment.

"I mean, there's no need to explore the origins of these tentacle monsters." Sun Hang explained, "Except for being somewhat deceptive in certain situations, their combat effectiveness is not strong. Even if they are not hunters, ordinary people equipped with modern weapons can easily deal with these monsters... We have only one goal for this trip, and that is to get the meme sample of Chimera No. 17."

"But, there should be a connection between these strange creatures and Chimera No. 17, right?" Zhong Ling hesitated.

"Is it important?" Sun Hang asked, "As long as we can get the meme sample, what's the significance of the connection between these tentacle monsters and Chimera 17 for the next combat operation... Yang Qi asked us to investigate the reason why the observation post lost contact because she was worried that Chimera 17 had undergone some unknown changes. Now that we know that it is these weak monsters that are causing trouble, it means that our previous worries are completely unnecessary."

After saying this, Sun Hang suddenly narrowed his eyes.

He took a deep breath and made a "shut up" gesture to Wang Xiyi and Zhong Ling.

"Sorry, I take back what I said just now." Sun Hang suddenly said in a very low voice, "In addition to the tentacle monster, there seems to be something else here."

(End of this chapter)