Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 420

"Sir, why are you asking this?" the soldier asked in confusion.

"Nothing." Sun Hang waved his hand, "Go back to your post, I don't need any assistance."

"Yes." The soldier saluted Sun Hang, then turned and left.

The Monster Hunters and the Xiazhou Federation Regular Army were originally two completely independent violent organizations, but taking into account the special circumstances of Tianfu City, and the fact that the hunters and the military often have conflicts over some command issues, in order to better coordinate the relationship between the two sides, the Federal Parliament issued a document: to issue temporary military ranks to every hunter who goes to the Shuzhou area to perform a series of tasks related to the Eternal Night, and to give them battlefield command rights corresponding to the rank level.

It is not known whether it was out of consideration for Sun Hang's combat capability, or because he was one of the few "local hunters" in Tianfu City, but he was directly assigned a temporary rank of colonel. It was also for this reason that the soldier called Sun Hang "Sir".

The military system of the Xiazhou Federation used to refer to superiors more often as "chief" and rarely as "chief". However, after the Xiazhou Federation became the last country of human civilization and absorbed refugees from all over the world, this unwritten rule became dispensable.

Soldiers can call him "chief" if they want, or "sir" if they want, and there is no problem with calling him "Sir"...

Judging from the soldier's facial features, he seems to be from the Siberian Federation, so it is understandable that he is used to calling the commander "sir".

As for the soldier who stopped Sun Hang's car earlier, he called him "comrade" at first, but now he is the one calling Sun Hang, most likely he is calling him "chief".

Sun Hang's rank of colonel is roughly equivalent to a regimental-level officer in the federal military system - but this does not mean that Sun Hang can command a combat force of thousands of people like a proper regimental commander...

Although it is said that the hunters will be given command authority equivalent to military rank, it will be somewhat reduced in practice - Song Yarong told Sun Hang that he can command a standard combat unit of up to 300 people at a time. The standard combat unit here refers to the most basic infantry. If it is replaced by armored troops, missile troops or the like, then his rank of colonel will not be able to command them at all.

This temporary military rank is more of a symbol of status.

Sun Hang watched the soldier running in the direction of the sentry post. The soldier's back switched back and forth between human and monster several times... Sun Hang took a deep breath, and finally "locked" the world in his eyes within the normal cognitive scope.

That world of flesh and blood and the monsters were all virtual worlds "imagined" by Sun Hang. He tried to constantly switch his perspective between reality and virtuality, trying to find the flaws in the virtual world.

He failed.

Although the world filled with flesh and blood creatures seems so unreasonable, this unreasonableness is only from the perspective of ordinary people's cognition... Sun Hang wanted to find the "paradox points" that were enough to completely overturn the authenticity of the entire world... but unfortunately, he did not find them.

Sun Hang sat on the burnt curb and looked into the distance.

Spider-web-like cracks appeared on the asphalt road, and an overturned bus lay under the collapsed billboard. The outer shell of the bus was burned to a charred state, and the twisted metal railings poked out of the broken windows like deformed bones.

The windows of the corner bakery were all shattered, but the almond cake in the display case had somehow been preserved, the icing melted into amber crystals in the heat and solidified on the edge of the porcelain plate.

The grocery store awning was flipped over to reveal its rusted iron frame, and strings of clothespins still held postcard-sized promotional posters, their edges crackling in the wind.

The most intact object on the entire street is the fire hydrant on the roadside. The bombing did not have much impact on it. It still stood stubbornly, looking at the burning ruins across the street.

The number of casualties caused by the bombing was not announced, but the data obtained by Yang Qi was zero.

Those killed in the explosion were all completely transformed monsters. They were not human and would not be counted as casualties among ordinary people.

What killed them were the weird memes dropped into the water, not the bombs dropped from the sky.

"Anna." Sun Hang suddenly said.

"I'm here." Anna's voice came from the wind, mixed with the crackling sound of burning wood, sounding a little unreal.

"The strange creature that released its aura earlier to lure me here." Sun Hang asked, "Why is there no movement now? What is its purpose in luring me here?"

"It seems that my appearance scared them away." Anna said.

"...Didn't you say that the other party had no ill will towards me?" Sun Hang frowned. "In that case, I don't mind having some contact with him."

"The meaning of 'no malice' in the minds of monsters is different from the meaning of 'no malice' in the words of humans." Anna said with a smile, "I have no malice towards those who have been assimilated by me. I just need their memories and emotions. But in the eyes of humans, it is obvious that I killed them and my actions are full of malice."

"…Is it because monsters and humans are not the same kind?"

"Almost." Anna's voice was intermittent. "It's like the cattle and sheep raised on a farm. Do humans have any ill will towards them? No. But in order to eat meat, humans will still kill them."

Anna added: "There is not much difference between humans in the eyes of monsters and cattle and sheep in the eyes of humans."

"Then according to what you said, that weird creature lured me out, could it be that it wanted to kill and eat me?" Sun Hang suddenly felt like laughing, "Could it be that the creature also merged with the meme of Taotie? If Taotie eats Taotie, will they be infected with prions?"

"No, one thing I can be sure of is that it won't attack you," Anna said.

"Did you scare it away accidentally or on purpose?"

"I did it on purpose." Anna suddenly chuckled, "I have a strong possessiveness towards my mother. I don't want a third person to interfere with our intimate relationship."

"Possessiveness?" Sun Hang subconsciously thought of Wang Xiyi and Yang Lian... If this Anna was a yandere with explosive possessiveness, she wouldn't attack the two women, right?

Anna once again peeked into Sun Hang's inner thoughts and said with a smile, "Don't worry, Mom. I don't care about the kind of relationship between you and human women. I know very well that the main reason for your reproductive behavior is to obtain physical pleasure... This is just the instinct of living things, and it can't be compared with the relationship between us."

"..."

"Just like human men don't regard their partner's toys as rivals, nor do they get jealous of the stuffed dolls they hold when they sleep." Anna said, "I don't mind Mom having reproductive behavior with humans at all. If Mom wants, I can even help Mom find more perfect human women..."

"…So, my trip here was in vain?"

"Mom, do you think that spending time alone with me is meaningless?" Anna's tone was filled with resentment, "We used to be so close..." "Stop." Sun Hang turned and walked towards the exit of the blockade area.

This trip was not without gain. At least from Anna, Sun Hang learned the fatal weakness of the ability to "make wishes come true".

This ability is easily deceived.

For example, the enemy made Sun Hang fall into an illusion. In the illusion, there was a terrifying monster and a towering mountain. Sun Hang directly used the ability of "wishes come true" to make the mountain collapse and crush the monster to death...

But in the real world, there were neither monsters nor mountains, and nothing happened. Sun Hang just stood there in a daze, wasting a lot of "blue bars" for no reason.

Just like what those soldiers saw in the drone surveillance footage.

There is another kind of illusion, which is to completely separate the things perceived by Sun Hang from the reality, forming a "virtual zone" in the middle. Sun Hang's ability to make his wishes come true will be sandwiched between virtuality and reality, that is, within this "virtual zone".

Anything he perceives in the virtual world will have a corresponding thing in the "virtual zone" - and the abilities he exerts will be directly applied to the corresponding things in the "virtual zone".

This results in Sun Hang being unable to use his abilities to interfere with the virtual world, nor having any impact on the real world.

His abilities were directly swallowed up by the "virtual area" that was like a black hole.

Just like in Maoyun Town.

Sun Hang was driving while thinking about how to deal with the situation.

He drove all the way to the entrance of the research institute campus, but he still couldn't come up with a reliable enough solution.

But no matter what, there are two key points - first, he must be able to determine whether everything in front of him is real or false. If he can't even tell this, let alone break the deadlock.

The second point is that if you are sure that you are trapped in an illusory world, then you have to find a way to find the unreasonable part of this illusory world, which is the "paradox point" that Sun Hang had been looking for. Starting from this "paradox point", pull your cognition and consciousness out of that illusory world.

Strictly speaking, the illusion in Maoyun Town was not created by Sun Hang himself.

The old woman was the "back door" Anna left for him, or in other words, a "guiding NPC" connecting virtuality and reality. Sun Hang was sent out by this NPC instead of walking out on his own.

In a sense, Anna doesn't seem to be that yandere.

At least she would give herself a chance to leave... She wasn't like the yanderes in those heavy-taste books, where they cut off the male protagonist's hands and feet, dug out his eyes, and then locked him up in the basement and fed him nutrient solution every day...

She seemed to be really good to herself...at least she thought so.

Sun Hang parked the car and took the elevator to the safe house prepared for Yang Qi and the others.

As soon as he opened the door, Fukada Miki glared at him fiercely: "You're finally here! You promised to take me to take a close look at Chimera No. 17, when will you fulfill your promise?"

"I'll definitely do it next time." Sun Hang said casually, then looked at Yang Qi and Song Yarong who were busy, "How is the situation at Chimera No. 17?"

"It's not optimistic." Yang Qi said.

"I was just wondering if you gained anything from this trip." Song Yarong took a sip of the coffee beside her, "Looking at your current state, it seems like you didn't."

"Yeah, it was a failure." Sun Hang nodded. "The monster that attacked me only leaked a little bit of its aura, and then it completely disappeared."

"I think it's putting the cart before the horse to track down that strange creature," said Fukada Miki. "Since that strange creature attacked you, it must have received orders from Chimera 17... You don't have to look for it. You just need to attack its master and it will jump out on its own."

"That's right." Sun Hang pursed his lips. He did not tell them about the strange videotape. In the eyes of Yang Qi and the others, the strange creature lurking in the shopping mall was in the same group as the strange creature Sun Hang was tracking down this time... But Sun Hang knew very well that the strange creature that took the videotape probably had nothing to do with Chimera No. 17.

It is like a ghost wandering in Tianfu City. It will neither help Chimera No. 17 nor help humans... It will only do things that interest it...

As for the things it is interested in... one is the strange videotape, and the other is probably the person Sun Hang.

When you don't know whether the other party is an enemy or a friend, it seems that the right choice is not to provoke it.

At least Anna was right in saying that not all monsters are malicious towards humans.

"The cause of Chimera 17's second mutation is still under analysis. The only thing we can confirm is that the faces that emerged on the surface of Chimera 17's cocoon are all from people killed by it."

"Liu Li had already analyzed this point." Sun Hang said, "So the headquarters was busy for a long time just to repeat Liu Li's analysis?"

"There is too little data." Yang Qi sighed, "We are now somewhat unsure of the hatching time of Chimera 17."

"In other words, this thing will hatch at any time?" Sun Hang muttered, "and then rush over and destroy Tianfu City?"

"It doesn't need to rush over." Yang Qi shook her head. "The expert team has estimated that the moment the Chimera is hatched, the giant cocoon will explode directly, releasing a large amount of energy to the outside world. Its power is equivalent to 450 million tons of TNT equivalent, which is about 300 times that of 'Little Boy'."

"Tianfu City will be razed to the ground in the nuclear explosion," Song Yarong added.

Sun Hang: "...What about the progress of the meme reverse engineering team?"

"The completion rate has reached 70%, which is faster than expected." Yang Qi said, "I have decided to start the final combat operation in three days."

(End of this chapter)