Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 457 Xue Yue
"I...I am..."

The girl lowered her head and spoke indistinctly. Just as Sun Hang was getting impatient, it suddenly turned around and tried to escape again.

When the girl was dragged back by the mycelium for the second time, she became noticeably more obedient.

"You're a monster, not a human, right?" Sun Hang asked, pressing the girl's back against the cold metal pipe wall with one foot.

The girl's head moved slightly, barely managing a nod. The friction between her delicate skin and the rough metal pipe walls added a few more streaks of blood.

"Why don't you turn back into what you were doing and run away?" Sun Hang asked again. "Can you switch freely between a human body and a spirit body?"

"There are...restrictions...only once a day..." It seemed that Sun Hang was pressing on her lungs, causing the girl to have difficulty breathing and even speak unclearly.

Seeing this, Sun Hang put down the foot that was stepping on the girl, and instead used the finger-thick Tai Sui mycelium to bind her in a tortoise shell bind. Then he attached the other end of the mycelium to the top of the pipe, suspending her in mid-air.

"Since you are a strange creature, where did you get this human body?" Sun Hang continued to ask. "Could it be that strange creatures nowadays, like the fairies in those supernatural tales, can transform into humans after cultivating to a certain stage? By the way, do you need to request a title to transform into a human?"

The girl, suspended in mid-air, stared at Sun Hang with a look of terror on her face, unable to utter a word.

“To be fair, you have a nice appearance, but unfortunately you’re missing something,” Sun Hang said to himself. “If you were to ask me for a title, I could definitely add a whole bunch of tags that would exude sexual tension, instead of the barren place you are now, as barren as the Gobi Desert in the Tarim Basin.”

"I...I...this body..." the girl stammered, "I...stole...stole it."

"Stolen?" Sun Hang was slightly taken aback. "Could it be possession? Where did you steal it from? Confess!"

"The morgue of the Sixth Hospital of Chunming City..."

“…The morgue?” Sun Hang looked the girl up and down again. He had only thought her skin was very white before, but now it seemed that her paleness was a bit abnormal—it was not the kind of fair white that Anna had, as radiant as moonlight, but a kind of deathly paleness.

But another problem arose—Sun Hang could clearly feel that the girl's body was flowing with a more surging life force than ordinary people, which was not at all like the state that a corpse should be in.

Not to mention that fresh blood was flowing from all the wounds on her body.

"Did you steal the corpse?"

"I...I wanted to...survive...in human society..." the girl whispered, "so I had no choice...at that time, this body had only recently died...and hadn't even started to decompose yet..."

"Mastermind, what's the typical sentence for stealing a corpse?"

"According to Article 302 of the Xia State Federal Criminal Code, anyone who steals, insults, or intentionally damages a corpse, remains, or ashes shall be sentenced to imprisonment for up to three years, detention, or public surveillance. Furthermore, according to Article 1095 of the Supplementary and Revised Legal Regulations of Chunming City Area, those who violate Article 302 of the Criminal Code shall be subject to an additional fine ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 yuan, and all their civil rights shall be frozen until all fines are paid. If the violator is a public official, their unit's internal meeting shall decide on corresponding additional disciplinary action," the mastermind immediately replied.

"What if the one breaking the law isn't human, but a strange creature?"

"Monsters are not subject to federal law," the mastermind said matter-of-factly. "If a monster is found to be violating federal law, it must be destroyed or contained and handed over to the official monster research agency for processing, depending on the circumstances."

"No...no..." the girl pleaded immediately after hearing the AI's reply, "Don't hand me over to the research institute..."

"So you mean I should 'dispose of' you harmlessly?" Sun Hang looked at the girl with a half-smile.

"I don't want to die!" The girl shook her head desperately. "I haven't hurt anyone! I haven't done anything bad! Really! I'm not lying to you!"

Seemingly driven by a survival instinct, the girl even stopped stuttering when she spoke.

But... do monsters also possess a survival instinct? Or, after possessing a human body, does the monster's self-awareness gradually become influenced, or even assimilated, by the human's way of thinking?

So, is this a case of the monster infecting humans, or humans infecting the monster?
Sun Hang shook his head slightly, clearing these strange thoughts from his mind, and then asked seriously, "You can live if you want, as long as you answer all my questions without reservation, I can guarantee you a way out."

“I will! I’ll tell you everything!” the girl replied hastily.

"what are you?"

"Me?" However, the first question stunned the girl. After thinking for several seconds, she answered in an uncertain tone, "I... I don't know what I am. According to humans, I should be considered a kind of monster... but I don't know what kind of monster I am."

"You don't know where you came from?" Sun Hang gave a strange look. For some reason, he felt that the strange creature possessing the girl's corpse gave him a confused feeling.

The girl shook her head: "From the time I became conscious, I've been wandering around Chunming City... Back then, I had no physical form and couldn't hide my presence... After nearly being caught by investigators and hunters several times, I realized I needed to find a human body, so..."

"So that's why you went to the hospital morgue and stole a corpse?"

The girl nodded.

"What is your ability? And what is the purpose of absorbing the negative emotions of the crowd?" Sun Hang asked. For a moment, he felt as if he were in a dimly lit interrogation room, with the prisoner being interrogated suspended by ropes and spinning in mid-air... But then again, what serious interrogation would involve binding a prisoner with a tortoise shell?

"I can make my body intangible for a period of time... but only for a few minutes, and after using this ability, I can't use it again for a while. The cooldown time is about twenty-four hours," the girl answered honestly. "As for absorbing that black mist... because I always feel hungry, and human food is never enough to satisfy my hunger... later I discovered that absorbing that black mist can fill me up, so every now and then I would secretly go to crowded places to absorb these things—but I promise, I really haven't harmed anyone!"

"Master, what kind of strange creature do you think this is?" Sun Hang asked, glancing at the bracelet. "There's no record of it in the database. Our initial guess is that it's a new kind of strange creature that hasn't been discovered yet. Based on our conversation, we'll temporarily classify it as a 'Type Xin - Spiritual Strange Creature.' Should we create a temporary strange creature file and add it to the Tian Shu Tower database?"

"Don't create a file yet." Sun Hang waved his hand, directly releasing the mycelium binding the girl. The girl cried out "Ah!" and fell heavily to the ground. The sound of her knee hitting the metal pipe wall echoed continuously inside the pipe.

The girl's knees were clearly badly injured; her skin was completely scraped and looked bloody, but fortunately, the bones didn't seem to be broken—she struggled and got up from the ground.

This time, however, she learned her lesson and didn't try to escape again. Instead, she stood obediently in place, waiting for Sun Hang to continue "interrogating" her.

"Besides becoming ethereal, don't you have any other abilities? Isn't possessing a corpse an ability?" Sun Hang asked. "Since you can possess this girl's corpse, you can also possess other people... or even other things, right?"

“I…I can’t leave this body.” The girl shook her head. “I don’t know why…but a voice in my subconscious keeps telling me that if this body dies, I will perish with it…”

"But wasn't this body already dead?"

“This body’s bodily functions are intact… After I possessed it, it came back to life…” the girl said. “I don’t know the reason why. At that time, my self-awareness was still very vague. I could only act according to the voice in my head… But I can assure you that I have never harmed any human being!”

"The voice in my head? Is it the creator, controller, or mastermind behind this monster? Or... something like a biological instinct?" Sun Hang pondered. He then turned to the mainframe and said, "Scan this guy's appearance and compare it with the identity information of federal citizens."

"A perfectly matching file has been found," the mastermind replied immediately. "Xue Yue, a citizen of Chunming City, born in the year 4701 of the lunar calendar, female, father Xue Yang, mother Cao Tiantian, both employees of the Chunming City Jinyang Trading Group. Xue Yue suffered from congenital heart disease and suffered sudden cardiac death in the year 4715 of the lunar calendar. Her parents immediately took her to the Sixth Hospital of Chunming City after discovering her condition. After several unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate her, the hospital declared Xue Yue dead, and her body was temporarily kept in the hospital morgue. However, the body was later mysteriously stolen, and the case remains unsolved. The case number from the Public Security Bureau is 19841594, and the responsible department is the Chunming City Tianshi Yuanshi Su Branch Bureau."

“The case hasn’t been solved in three years. You’re quite good at hiding your tracks.” Sun Hang walked around the girl, and when he got behind her, he suddenly reached out and placed his palm on her back.

The girl's body jolted suddenly. She instinctively tried to break free, but in the end, she forced herself to stay in place.

"Hmm... those congenital defects in the heart seem to have been repaired, and the repaired heart is even stronger than a normal person's, no wonder it can run so fast... there are no signs of aging or decline in bodily functions, nor any signs of development... the original owner of this body died at the age of fifteen, so according to the timeline, she should be twenty years old this year, but this body still maintains the state it was in at fifteen." Sun Hang murmured, "So, your possession skill is a one-time use? That's why you cherish this body so much?"

The girl nodded.

"You said there was a voice in your head guiding you. Does that voice still appear now?"

The girl shook her head: "That voice... only appears when my consciousness is still very hazy, and then it appears less and less... After I found a way to survive in Chunming City, it never appeared again... It should have been about two years."

"This sounds like a beginner's tutorial," Sun Hang muttered. "Do you have a name?"

“I’ve used many names… I’ve forged many false identities to survive…” The girl lowered her head. “I don’t even know what my name is. I’m willing to do any job to survive in this city… as long as I can have a bite to eat.”

For some reason, Sun Hang suddenly felt a pang of pity.

Could it be because this girl's experience is somewhat similar to my own in the past?
They too have no identity, and they too carry bizarre memes... They struggle to survive in a civilized society composed entirely of humans, while trying their best to conceal their identities...

What have you done?

“I’ve worked as a supermarket cashier, handing out flyers on the street, working as an internet cafe manager, an electronics factory worker… I’ve even worked on construction sites. I’m very strong, and I can do all the jobs that adult men can do, but for some reason, the foreman only let me work for two days before kicking me out,” the girl replied.

"You were probably reported for allegedly employing child labor," Sun Hang sighed. "So, your only goal was to survive?"

The girl nodded very firmly.

"After you absorbed those negative emotions, did you notice any signs of becoming stronger?" Sun Hang asked again. "I mean any kind of strengthening, whether it's physical abilities or any other ability, even memory and emotional stability. Did anything change because of absorbing those things?"

The girl thought for a moment, then shook her head: "I...I've never paid attention to these things."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're living in a daze? It's strange that you haven't been noticed by the Tian Shu Tower and the Anomaly Investigation Bureau yet."

"It's probably because I've always followed the rules of human society... I'm always very careful when I inhale that black mist... so I've never been discovered," the girl replied softly.

“Unregistered residents are very common in Chunming City,” the mainframe suddenly said. “According to statistics, about six per thousand people in Chunming City do not have legal status… They come to this city for various purposes, but have never been fully accepted by this city.”

Six per thousand may not seem like a high percentage, but Chunming City has a permanent population of over 20 million. Two per thousand would be 120,000 people, and this number changes daily. The workload involved in investigating every single unregistered resident in the city is unimaginable.

“I don’t care what your name was before, from now on, you’ll be called Xue Yue,” Sun Hang said.

“I…I can’t use this name, it will be…” “Xue Yue” shook her head repeatedly.

“Just use me, why all the nonsense?” Sun Hang said. “I’m very interested in your memes, abilities, and origins, but I promise I won’t hand you over to the Tian Shu Tower or dissect you for research… As long as you cooperate with me, you can continue to live in this city, and you can live even better than before, without having to worry about being discovered by hunters and investigators—if you want, I can even give you an ‘official position’ to completely legitimize your identity.”

"...Really?" Xue Yue's eyes widened.

"Why not just wipe it out?" Anna's voice suddenly came from afar, drifting into Sun Hang's ears.

(End of this chapter)