Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 377 Level Hunter
"After I touch the 'Holy Ark', the organization will tell me what to do next?" The man who stood up from the bathtub suddenly laughed, "Hahahaha, do you want to listen to what you are saying?"

The long-haired man's body tensed slightly, and a hint of vigilance flashed in his eyes.

"Do you think that after obtaining the Holy Ark, I still need to listen to their instructions?" The man in the bath laughed arrogantly.

The water in the pool suddenly began to boil, and a large amount of steam filled the entire bathroom.

"You may have misunderstood a concept." The long-haired man pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Your contact with the 'Holy Ark' does not directly equate to your possession of the 'Holy Ark'. Without the help of the organization, you will be killed by the 'Holy Ark' without hesitation, just like other hunters."

"Hehe..." A cold laugh came from the mist. The next second, the sturdy man tore through the mist, grabbed the long-haired man by the neck, lifted him up high, and smashed him against the wall. "Yao Yu, you are wrong about one thing. You shouldn't equate me with those trash... What do you mean by the same as other hunters?"

"I suggest you put me down." Despite the risk of his throat being crushed at any time, Yao Yu's tone was still very calm. "If you kill me here, you will miss your only chance to get close to the 'Holy Ark'."

"I know, of course I know, you don't need to remind me." The burly man stared at him fiercely, slowly put him down and loosened his hand.

The long-haired man named Yao Yu touched his slightly red neck and adjusted his glasses.

"There's one thing that puzzles me, Yao Yu." The burly man turned around and looked at the night sky outside the French window. "You are not an infected person. You have received higher education and enjoy a good living condition... Then why do you still work for the organization? And why are you so devoted to it? I don't understand."

"For the ideal." Yao Yu said.

"Ideal?" the burly man repeated, then sneered.

"Yes, ideals." Yao Yu said, "You are pursuing the ultimate power, and I am pursuing the future of mankind."

"Fuck the future. By that time, you will have been dead for who knows how many years. What meaning does the future have to you?"

"I don't think now is the time to discuss this." Yao Yu took out his phone and took a look. "The research institute is already urging you to go. If you don't go, the test quota will most likely be transferred to someone else, and the organization's plan will be put in a passive position."

"It's a plan again... I warn you, I don't want to hear this word again today." The burly man said this, but still walked to the door, picked up a piece of clothing and put it on.

……

……

Thirty minutes later, PFDA testing site.

Yao Yu glanced at the group of staff members who were busy surrounding the PFDA and couldn't help but frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" The burly man standing next to him noticed his abnormality and asked in a low voice.

"The invitation to the test was sent by Song Yarong from the Tianfu City Weird Things Research Institute. However, as the leader of the PFDA project, she was not present, which is a bit strange." Yao Yu replied.

Yao Yu thought for a moment, then walked forward and greeted an engineer who was directing technicians to move spare parts: "Hello, I am the direct person in charge of Hunter 'Warm Pressure'. We have been invited to participate in the PFDA's testing activities..."

"Oh, is that the famous 'Warm Pressure'? You are finally here! We have been waiting for you for a long time!" The engineer nodded and said, "The test will start soon, please follow me!"

"Please wait a moment." Yao Yu calmly blocked the other party's invitation. "I'm a little confused. Why is Team Leader Song, who is in charge of this project, not here? I still have some detailed questions about the combat operation that I want to ask her."

"Oh, you mean Team Leader Song... She has been assisting Director Yang in coordinating the entire pesticide program recently. She is very busy and has no time to come to the workshop and the test site. After all, there are only a few days left before the deadline..." the engineer said, "As for those detailed questions, you can ask me directly if they are related to PFDA; as for those related to the combat operation, there will be a detailed combat meeting the day before the operation begins, and you can directly raise them at the meeting then."

"Okay." Yao Yu nodded with a smile, but he couldn't help feeling a little alert in his heart.

Is the confidentiality work in Tianfu City going a bit too far?
It is understandable that the specific combat framework is not disclosed to irrelevant personnel, but you have to know that he and "Wen Ya" are the people directly involved in the operation, and even they don't know the specific arrangements until the day before the operation... Does this mean that he can't trust them?
Could it be that the Tianshu Tower has noticed some clues?
No, it's impossible. The organization has always been a single-line communication. Even if one of the contact points is discovered or betrayed, at most only the two levels above and below the contact point will be affected... There is no way they can trace it back to me...

Yao Yu was more inclined to believe that the person who formulated the battle plan this time was a very cautious person, too cautious.

The burly man code-named "Warm Pressure" took a few steps forward. In a trance, he seemed to sense a dangerous breath, which made his muscles tense instantly. The specially made combat suit on his body made a teeth-grinding sound, and white high-temperature steam spurted out from several pressure relief valves on the combat suit.

But this dangerous aura disappeared in an instant, as if it was just his illusion.

Wen Ya suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the source of the dangerous aura.

There were more than a dozen shelves, and seven or eight technicians in overalls were busy working. A researcher was leaning on a hand-truck loaded with goods, staring intently at the tablet in his hand, and next to the researcher...

"Ok?"

Wen Ya noticed a young man in casual clothes lying on a folding chair with his legs spread out. He tilted his head back with a video game magazine covering his face. He was wearing a pair of large noise-cancelling headphones on his head, and his legs were shaking rhythmically to the music playing in the headphones - he looked like a man with nothing to do.

Wen Ya certainly wouldn't regard him as a real idler.

The PFDA testing site is outdoors, where the temperature is only minus 25 degrees Celsius, and the young man is only wearing thin clothes... Wen Ya has every reason to believe that this guy is a monster hunter like himself.

Could it be that the dangerous aura that he just felt was emanating from this hunter?

Wen Ya couldn't help but narrow his eyes and looked at the other person carefully.

"What's wrong with you?" Yao Yu walked over and asked quietly, "The data shows that the internal pressure of the combat suit has just risen to the fifth level... This shouldn't be a false alarm, right?"

Yao Yu glanced at the pressure relief valve on Wen Ya's combat suit. The high-temperature steam that had just been ejected had now dissipated, leaving only a few inconspicuous drops of water near the pressure relief valve.

"Who is that guy? Is he also a hunter?" Wen Ya asked, staring at the young man lying on the folding chair.

"He is Sun Hang." Yao Yu said, "I met him at the combat meeting when I was collecting the Chimera 17 meme sample."

"Is that the 'newcomer' from Tianfu City that people often talk about recently?" Wen Ya's expression was a little strange. "What level of hunter is he?"

"According to the public information from the Tianshu Tower, he should be a fifth-level hunter."

"Only level five?" Wen Ya was obviously a little surprised.

Although for a hunter who has just been employed for less than a year, being able to become a first-class hunter is already a remarkable thing, and can even be called a genius...but you have to know that there is never a shortage of geniuses in this world.

The fifth-level hunter is the lowest level of hunter, also known as the "entry level". Although there is only one level difference between the fifth-level and the fourth-level, this one-level difference is almost the same as the difference between the second-level hunter and the first-level hunter.

Like a chasm.

If the gold content of different levels is "quantified", then the gold content of the fifth-level hunter is 10, the fourth-level is 100, the third-level is 120, the second-level is 150... As for the first-level, which represents the strongest hunter, the value can almost reach 500-800.

This value was proposed by some private hunter research forums. It is not rigorous, but it does have certain scientific basis.

The most difficult level upgrade for hunters is from level 2 to level 1, followed by level 5 to level 4. Because among level 5 hunters, there are a lot of hunters with non-combat abilities, which lowers the average level of this level.

These hunters have useful abilities, but when used in combat or acting alone, they are like blank slates... Hunters like these naturally cannot pass the normal difficulty upgrade trials.

For these hunters, Tianshu Tower will directly "release them into the sea"... Even if these hunters hand in a blank paper in the upgrade trial, they can still get the certificate of fifth-level hunter in the end.

The reason is simple. The treatment gap between level hunters and ordinary registered hunters is too big... In many cases, a level 5 hunter is more like a welfare benefit rather than a hard certification of strength.

As for those combat hunters who passed the upgrade test by their own strength, they would launch an attack towards the fourth level in a short period of time - for them, the fourth level hunter was just the beginning of the middle level hunter.

Some hunters who performed well in the upgrade trial could obtain the fourth level or higher level after completing the first trial. For example, Wang Xiyi had only participated in the upgrade trial once, but after completing the trial, she was already a fourth-level hunter.

This is a recognition of combat effectiveness.

"This guy, could he have gone in through the back door?"

"I'm not sure, but as far as I know, the advancement trial he participated in was held on the Nameless Island." Yao Yu said in a deep voice.

"Nameless island? Which nameless island?"

"I don't know the specific details. I only know that many people who participated in that trial did not come back."

"How much is a lot?" Wen Ya looked at Yao Yu with some dissatisfaction.

It is normal for people to die in the advancement trial - there are casualties in almost every session, ranging from one or two to more than a dozen. There are only a handful of advancement trials in the history of the Federation where all participants survive.

Not to mention anything else, just in the upgrade trials that Wen Ya himself had participated in, more than two dozen hunters had died in front of him.

"That information is the top secret of the Tianshu Tower. I don't have the permission to view it." Yao Yu said in a voice that only the two of them could hear. "Maybe someone knows the inside story, but I can't contact that kind of person."

What he originally wanted to say was "maybe someone in the organization knows the inside story", but not talking about anything related to the "organization" in the presence of outsiders is a rule that every member must abide by. Even someone like Wen Ya, who disdains the "organization", has never let anything slip.

"But no matter what, he is only a fifth-level hunter." Wen Ya curled his lips. "If he is really that powerful, why doesn't Tianshu Tower raise his level? For those big shots, it's just a matter of words."

"I'm not sure, but I suggest you not to underestimate this person." Yao Yu advised.

"I don't look down on him." Wen Ya crossed his arms, "I'm just a little... curious about him. By the way, is there any battle record of this guy?"

"I checked, and I don't have enough authority."

"Permission, permission, permission, it's fucking permission again!" The veins on Wen Ya's forehead jumped twice. "You are my direct supervisor. As the supervisor of a quasi-first-level hunter, you can't even find the battle record of a fifth-level hunter?"

"I am your direct supervisor, not his." Yao Yu replied calmly.

"Humph... I've always heard people bragging about how powerful this guy is, but there's not even a combat record. How do they know he's so powerful?"

"He was the one who got the meme sample of Chimera No. 105. He was also the one who solved the previous incident at Factory No. ," said Yao Yu.

"As a high-level hunter, shouldn't these achievements be taken for granted?" Wen Ya said.

But for some reason, although he kept belittling Sun Hang, he always had a vague fear of Sun Hang in his heart.

Perhaps, it was because of the dangerous aura I just felt?

"By the way, didn't you say that he would not participate in the PFDA test? Then why is he here?" Wen Ya suddenly changed the subject and asked.

"I just asked the technicians there, and they said that the final assembly of PFDA requires Sun Hang's assistance."

"Assemble? Assist?" Wen Ya's doubts deepened, "His ability... is of the auxiliary type?"

"maybe."

……

The latest single by KingGnu was playing in the headphones. The aggressive drum beats and guitar chords were like big raindrops falling into the courtyard, hitting Sun Hang's temples rhythmically. The repetitive mumbling voice had a strange magic, as if there was an unfathomable abyss under the courtyard flooded by rain, attracting people to step in step by step and fall into the depths.

This song was recommended to Sun Hang by Lao Wang, but now Sun Hang's mind is filled with the contents of the scavenger's diary.

He kept thinking about all the details in the diary, even pondering over and over again whether a punctuation mark had any special meaning... until someone gently patted Sun Hang on the shoulder.

Sun Hang opened his eyes and took off the magazine that was covering his face.

The person who patted him on the shoulder was an engineer from the PFDA project team.

Sun Hang took off his headphones and asked, "Is it my turn?"

"Yes, the assembly progress of PFDA real-person test machine No. 95 has reached %, and other preparations are also ready. Now we just need to install the components made of Tai Sui mycelium, and the test can begin." The engineer replied.

……

Wen Ya's temple throbbed twice.

When the hunter named Sun Hang opened his eyes, he once again felt the dangerous aura.

Just like prey smelling the scent of a predator.

Wen Ya doesn't like this feeling.

But this time he managed to control his body's instinctive reaction.

"Yao Yu."

"how?"

"Keep an eye on this guy named Sun Hang."

(End of this chapter)