Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 332: Object No. 549
……

Tianshu Tower, Containment Area No. 1.

Sun Hang and Yuri were about to go to the containment room of B423 when a panicked researcher suddenly ran over and whispered something in Yuri's ear.

Yuri frowned immediately, his expression became very ugly, he asked in a deep voice: "Is there really no trace?"

The researcher nodded. "The container shows no signs of having been opened. All seals, locks, and sealing fluids are intact."

"What's going on?" Sun Hang interrupted. "What happened? Why do you look so nervous?"

"Object No. 549 in containment area No. disappeared out of thin air." Yuri did not intend to hide it from Sun Hang, so he said directly.

"Break containment?" Sun Hang asked.

He had often heard this term, but he had never encountered a true containment breach.

Oh, no...it should have happened once, that time at the Nameless Island Research Institute...but at that time Sun Hang thought that "Anna" was dead, but he didn't expect that she had actually broken through the shackles of the collection container and regained her freedom.

In other words, that withered body was the shell that imprisoned her.

"We can't be sure whether it's a containment breach at this point." Yuri shook his head, "Because neither the containment equipment nor the containment room show any signs of being opened, and the surveillance video doesn't show any footage of the containment escaping..."

Yuri paused for a moment. Perhaps after experiencing the "TV incident", even he felt that the surveillance video was not convincing. But half a second later, he continued: "The surveillance videos of various channels in the containment area show that everything is normal. Except for the accident in containment room No. 549, the alarm devices in other places have not been triggered... The most important thing is that containment No. 549 does not have special abilities such as hiding or passing through solid objects... From all the information we have, it seems that it has self-degraded inside the container..."

"Did the camera capture the process of this strange creature disappearing?" Sun Hang asked.

The researcher who reported the news shook his head: "The signal from the camera used to monitor the target in the collection device was interrupted for 0.5 seconds. After the signal was restored, the target disappeared... At the same time, the readings of all instruments used to monitor the target also returned to zero..."

"Then it's obvious that they ran away..." Sun Hang said, "Could it be that they knew I was coming to pick ingredients and were afraid of being chosen by me, so they decided to flee this place? We can't rule out the possibility that some monsters are tired of the fighting outside and want to retire in the Tianshu Tower's shelter area. But now you tell them that this is not a nursing home, but a food storage warehouse of a guy named Sun Hang... It would be strange if they didn't run away!"

"But... except for the surveillance camera inside the container, all other surveillance cameras are working fine..."

As if he felt that explaining it with words alone was a bit pale and powerless, the researcher directly took out a platform from the pocket of his white coat and called up the surveillance video inside the containment room at the moment when Object 549 "mysteriously disappeared".

It was a five-meter square room, with a one-meter square black metal box in it... There was silence one second, and the next second a red warning light on the corner of the box suddenly began to flash, and a shrill alarm sound began to echo in the room.

"When the alarm sounded, item No. 549 in the box had already disappeared," said the researcher.

"Why do we need a black box? If you use a transparent box, wouldn't you be able to see the whole process of it disappearing?" Sun Hang asked.

"Subject 549 is extremely sensitive to light. Once it sees a light source, it will become extremely violent. Therefore, the containment environment must be kept absolutely dark." Yuri explained. "Also, judging from the malfunction of the camera inside the containment container, even if we use a transparent containment container, I'm afraid the surveillance camera in the containment room will also 'malfunction'."

"Tsk, your brain works pretty fast this time..." Sun Hang praised, "Come to think of it, what is this containment No. 549? Is it a monster?"

"It's a completely weird female infected person." Yuri said.

"Creepy Hunter?"

"No... not a hunter." Yuri shook his head. "Although this infected person was in a stable stage of infection and was very clear-headed in the early stages of the infection, after communication, she refused to become a hunter and chose to live the life of an 'ordinary person' within the living range set for her by the local Weird Research Institute and under strict surveillance."

"Then how did she become completely transformed? If she didn't use her abilities, the infection would progress very slowly, right?"

"Not necessarily. The progression of infection has no rules at all and varies from person to person... Using abilities, secondary infection, physical trauma, using drugs, women's menstrual period, work and rest, diet... even mood changes can all be triggers for changes in the infection process." Yuri said, "Subject No. 549 was infected sixteen months after she was confirmed to be infected. While reading a classic novel in her residence, her infection progress suddenly accelerated. By the time the field operators and investigators arrived, she had already lost her self-awareness... The accompanying researchers immediately determined that she was no longer worth rescuing, and after a simple treatment, she was sent here."

"Classical novels? What kind of book is so awesome? Can it make people look like monsters?" Sun Hang asked curiously.

"The Count of Monte Cristo," Yuri replied, "But we have conducted a detailed inspection of all the books and even daily necessities in the No. 549 containment residence, including that book, and found nothing abnormal... We can't be sure whether her memetic mutation is related to reading."

Yuri continued, "Before she was diagnosed, she was an assistant teacher and intern lecturer in the Language and Literature Department of a local university. She had to deal with such classical literature works all year round. This was not the first time she had read The Count of Monte Cristo... Even after she was infected, she had read a series of books including The Count of Monte Cristo many times, but this had never happened before."

"Where is this book now?" Sun Hang asked casually.

"The local weird research institute... They studied this book for several years, and finally came to the conclusion that it was just an ordinary paper print." Yuri replied.

"Okay... I feel like we've strayed off topic." Sun Hang scratched his head, "Then let's get back to the point... Do you think this guy might have been released by someone else?"

"You mean…" Yuri narrowed his eyes.

"Since that weird TV can distort reality and tamper with the surveillance video of Tianshu Tower...it would be easy to cause a temporary malfunction of the surveillance camera...maybe it was it that helped Containment No. 549 escape." Sun Hang said, "Of course, I have a bolder guess."

"What guess?"

"Have you opened the black box?" Sun Hang turned and asked the researcher.

"No." The researcher shook his head.

"Since the TV spooky thing can interfere with reality... then maybe Containment 549 is now in a 'Schrödinger's cat' state... After you open the box, it may be inside, or it may not be... Who knows, after one night, you will find that Containment 549 appears in the surveillance camera's picture again... After all, you can't even be sure whether the faulty camera is really 'restored to normal' now, right?"

Sun Hang spoke a lot in one breath, and then exhaled a breath of air very refreshingly.

Although this logic cannot form a closed loop when carefully considered, he is definitely good at complicating things...Why not just stop being a monster hunter and become a screenwriter for a suspense TV series? Maybe he can make a name for himself... "But..." Yuri's "but" directly brought Sun Hang back to reality, "Why would Containment No. 999 do this?"

Object No. 999 naturally refers to the strange TV that was swallowed by Sun Hang.

To be precise, the TV in Containment Area 1 is numbered "999-2", while the number of the mysteriously disappeared object is "549-"... The latter is located in Containment Area , which is less dangerous and less important. The two should have nothing to do with each other...

"Perhaps, it wants to find a helper?"

"But, Item 549 isn't suitable as a helper, right?" Yuri said. "Its combat capability isn't that strong... Although an unarmed ordinary person might not be its match, any guard from the Sky Tower... or anyone who's skilled in using a gun can easily take care of it."

"So weak? The Sky Hub Tower still wants to contain this strange creature?" All previous speculations were invalidated. Even the thick-skinned Sun Hang felt a little embarrassed at this time. "I thought that the weakest thing that was qualified to enter the No. 2 containment area had to be someone like Wang Xiyi, right?"

"Containment No. 549 is just not very powerful in combat, but her memetic mutation is very special. She is kept here as a precious research sample..." Yuri explained patiently, "The biggest difference between Containment Area No. and Containment Area No. is that the degree of danger of the objects contained is different, but in terms of the research value of the objects, the difference is actually not that big."

"Shouldn't containment No. 999 be in Area instead of Area ?" Sun Hang complained in his mind, "Before I came, it didn't show any danger, did it?"

"If containment No. 999 was intended to disrupt the containment area, there are many tricky monsters in area No. 549. If we release just one of them, it would be enough to cause us big trouble... But it didn't do that. It just released containment No. , which is not very noticeable among the many containments... This doesn't make sense." Yuri seemed to be talking to Sun Hang, but also seemed to be talking to himself. "Are there any other clues at the scene?"

"That's all for now. For fear of damaging the scene, none of us have entered containment chamber 549. Further action will have to wait for your decision," said the researcher.

"Why don't we go over and take a look?" Sun Hang suggested, "It's impossible that Yi423 has disappeared in such an unclear manner in such a short period of time, right?"

Yuri's eyes twitched suddenly: "Your joke... is really not funny."

"Simple. Send a few people to keep an eye on Yi 549, and we'll go to the No. holding room... As the saying goes, if it rains, it's time to get married. If Yi really wants to run away, there's nothing you can do about it, right?"

Yuri: “…”

……

Containment Area No. 549 and Containment Area No. are not adjacent to each other. Sun Hang and others rode a rail car in the vast underground space, running along the rock wall for nearly twenty minutes before arriving at the "incident area" - Containment Room No. .

Compared with Containment Area No. 1, Containment Area No. 2 has a higher space utilization rate. Standard-sized containment rooms are neatly arranged in the space like cubicles, giving people the feeling that it is a "resettlement housing community" specially equipped for monsters.

However, just as he approached containment room No. 549, Sun Hang stopped.

His relaxed expression suddenly disappeared.

In this place, he felt an extremely familiar breath.

"Anna Dimoshchina...did you follow me all the way from Tianfu City to here?" Sun Hang muttered to himself.

……

……

On the outskirts of Chunming City, the special power management department, temporary dormitory.

The soft fluorescence on the girl's body gradually dimmed, and her fascinating body lines gradually became blurred... Soon, there was only a barely recognizable human shadow left in the corner.

Ling Xiao suddenly discovered that at some point, the cold flame on the radial sword had been extinguished and started burning again, replacing the girl and becoming the only light source in the room.

Just when Ling Xiao once again moved his sight from the ulna to the shadow in the corner, the shadow had already left the corner and pounced towards him! !

With the help of the cold flame's light, Ling Xiao could barely see that the black shadow was a woman - but definitely not the flawless girl just now.

This woman was extremely thin, and it would not be an exaggeration to describe her as skin and bones.

She was wrapped in a dirty white robe, and her long black hair, which seemed to have not been washed for a long time, was greasy and matted, hanging on both sides of her cheeks...

And the most horrifying thing is that this woman has no chin.

Not only was her chin missing, the part of her face below her upper lip was completely missing. When looking from the front, one could directly see her bright red mouth and dark throat...

But in sharp contrast to the missing lower jaw is her upper jaw - in addition to the upper part of the gums, her upper jaw is also full of sharp teeth, just like the mouthparts of some monster.

Fortunately, Ling Xiao does not feel afraid when facing such an abstract "woman".

He quickly jumped back a step, avoiding the woman's attack, and let her fall on the edge of the bed. Then Ling Xiao reached to his side and turned on the light switch at the head of the bed.

The whole room was suddenly brightly lit.

But the next second after the light was turned on, the woman let out a piercing scream that was enough to rupture the eardrums. At the same time, her/his skin exposed to the light began to become congested and red, and then blisters of various sizes appeared.

"Afraid of light?" Ling Xiao was stunned for a moment and glanced at the suitcase next to the clothes hanger.

There is a tactical flashlight in the suitcase with a maximum brightness of 4000 lumens.

Or... can this thing be used to restrain the enemy in front of you?
(End of this chapter)