Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 460 Vertical Dock
"My mother didn't want to kill it, so I had to do it myself."

"I would never hurt Mom, and those things can't hurt her at all."

"Mom, why did you save it? Just because it looked pitiful?"

……

……

"Alright, you can shut up now. If you try anything with Xue Yue again, don't blame me for turning my back on you."

Sun Hang ignored Anna, and Anna did not use the remaining tower cranes to continue attacking Xue Yue.

With the infusion of abundant life force, Xue Yue, who had just escaped death, finally woke up. She touched her chest in a daze, looking incredulous.

"I...I'm not dead?!"

“You’re not dead.” Sun Hang pulled Xue Yue up from the ground. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

"What...what was that just now?" Xue Yue looked around in a panic, seemingly afraid of being attacked again.

“Another strange creature,” Sun Hang replied.

"No memetic odors of other infected individuals or entities besides you and Xue Yue were found at the scene, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the attacker was a remotely controlled entity. The control center of the construction site crane has been checked; all operating systems have been formatted, leaving no data records. Should we impose a curfew on the surrounding area?"

“No need, I know that girl.” Sun Hang shook his head. “You won’t be able to catch her.”

"Does the attack need to be documented and filed? If you do not want this matter to be leaked, you can set the access level of the file to be accessible only to you."

"No need to record it. Also, can we stage the scene as an accident? We can claim that a minor incident occurred during weapons testing at a research institute under the Tian Shu Tower. As for who would be the scapegoat?"

"The extent of the damage at the scene is difficult to explain as a regular accident. The only explanation that fits the criteria is the testing project of the artifact equipment at Research Institute No. 1. I will contact Research Institute No. 1 and the construction unit of the cooling pump channel. However, considering the extremely high threat level of this artifact, I need to confirm with you again whether it is necessary to impose a curfew in the surrounding area to search for this artifact?"

“No need,” Sun Hang refused decisively.

He certainly didn't want the actions of the mastermind and the Celestial Tower to provoke Anna.

This guy seems to care about nothing, but in reality, he's a super weirdo with an extremely abnormal mind, countless times crazier than the group of lunatics locked in the Tian Shu Tower, and he also has all sorts of cheat-level heaven-defying abilities... If the Panlong Airport incident were to happen again in Chunming City, things would get really interesting.

"Should we send elite hunters as security personnel to accompany you?"

"No need."

Are you kidding me? Sending elite hunters here to get themselves killed?

Anna might not hurt herself, but she would have no qualms about killing these people.

Sun Hang's only means of dealing with Anna right now is probably the Three Apes, but the Three Apes are clearly more dangerous than Anna, so Sun Hang will not resort to this method unless absolutely necessary.

Not to mention that compared to the Three Apes, who wouldn't tell Sun Hang anything, Anna would often intentionally or unintentionally reveal some key information to Sun Hang... If the Three Apes really killed Anna, then Sun Hang would lose a very important source of intelligence.

"Damn it, this is a real dilemma regarding progress," Sun Hang complained inwardly.

“I understand, Mom can’t bear to part with me.” Anna’s voice rang in Sun Hang’s ears at just the right moment.

"Didn't you hear me tell you to shut up?" Sun Hang said irritably. "Mastermind, find me another car."

……

This time, the mastermind found Sun Hang a bulletproof hovercar, and the door of the hovercar even had the emblem of the Federal Parliament printed on it.

"Isn't this car too conspicuous?" Sun Hang muttered. "If this car is driven into the slums, people might think that some councilor has decided to visit the grassroots to understand people's lives... I don't want to be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper."

"Please rest assured, you won't be on the front page of the newspapers," the mastermind said. "All media outlets within the Federation must have their news published under my review, and I will help you filter out this information."

"Your AI is really a bit rigid... I was just using the example of making the front page of the newspaper. What I meant was that I don't want to attract unnecessary attention... Never mind, I'll just do it myself."

After saying that, Sun Hang placed his hand on the floating vehicle.

In the blink of an eye, the hovercar went from a top-of-the-line luxury car with a market price of over 14 million to a more affordable model costing around 200,000. The emblem symbolizing the Federal Parliament was also erased, replaced by some messy car rental and chauffeur advertisements.

The entire car underwent a heavy-duty aging treatment, with Sun Hang deliberately creating impact dents on the front and rear of the vehicle... giving the impression that it was a scrapped car that had been towed out of a car graveyard, refurbished, and put back on the road.

"That's more like it!" Sun Hang clapped his hands in satisfaction.

……

……

Under the control of the mastermind, the airship traveled through three city blocks before slowly entering a "vertical dock" built inside a building.

Despite having the word "dock" in its name, the "vertical dock" has nothing to do with ships. In fact, it is a giant elevator that connects the above-ground and underground parts of Chunming City.

To travel from Tian Shi Yuan to Zi Wei Yuan and Tai Wei Yuan, the airship can simply fly upwards. However, to reach the ecliptic layer and Hou Tu layer located underground, the only option besides the several ring roads that spiral into the ground is to use the vertical dock.

Of course, this applies to ordinary people. Many institutions or companies have their own dedicated elevators, the most famous of which is the "Jade Pillar" of the Tian Shu Tower. However, these elevators are not open to the public, or they require extremely high toll fees.

The vertical dock into which the airship entered was like a multi-level parking garage. Sun Hang took a number at the smart gate at the entrance and then, guided by holographic signal lights, parked in the corresponding parking space. Accompanied by the sound of heavy machinery operating, the parking space slowly sank down, leading into the "waiting hall" of the vertical dock.

In this waiting hall, hundreds of cars or hovercrafts are parked all around, and each parking space is equipped with a small projector that projects the image directly onto the car's windshield.

These images are mostly advertisements, occasionally interspersed with weather forecasts and today's news. In the upper right corner of the screen, there is a countdown that is constantly ticking.

The vertical dock starts every twelve minutes, meaning that a batch of vehicles will be sent to the ecliptic layer every twelve minutes. Sun Hang was lucky; when he parked his car, there were only three minutes and seven seconds left in the countdown for this batch of transport.

To ensure safety, all entrances to the vertical dock's elevator platform are sealed off three minutes before it is set up, and safety barriers are erected around the parking spaces... If Sun Hang had been seven seconds later, he would have had to wait a full fifteen minutes.

Nothing unexpected happened along the way, and Xue Yue, who was initially on edge, gradually relaxed her guard. She knelt on the back seat, her cheek pressed against the car window, curiously looking at everything around her—she had never ridden in a floating car before, and naturally had never been to a vertical dock.

"The space here is so much bigger than the public elevators used by people..." Xue Yue exclaimed softly.

Judging from the signs on the wall, this vertical dock can transport up to 150 large trucks and 600 small cars at a time. The building on the ground is actually just a crane that moves vehicles onto the lifting platform, while the lifting platform located underground occupies more than ten times the area of ​​the part above ground.

With a slight tremor, the huge lifting platform began to descend, and a bright red warning message appeared on the screen projected onto the car window: "The lifting platform is in operation. To ensure your personal and property safety, please turn off the engine, engage the handbrake, do not open the doors or windows, and do not leave the vehicle or extend any part of your body outside the vehicle."

Faintly, Sun Hang seemed to hear a heavy breathing sound. He turned his head to look in the direction from which the sound came and saw that the hovercar was swaying slightly in the nearby parking space. However, the swaying of the vehicle was completely masked by the noise from the lifting platform. Even if someone looked over unintentionally, they would only think it was a side effect caused by the shaking of the lifting platform.

The windows of the hovercar were tinted, making it difficult to see inside in the dim light. However, the condensation on the inside of the windows allowed Sun Hang to guess what the people inside were doing. He couldn't help but complain, "Playing this thrilling game?"

With less than two meters between the parking spaces, Sun Hang could clearly see two overlapping bright color blocks inside the car after activating thermal vision.

"The world is going to the dogs, the world is going to the dogs..."

"What are they doing?" Xue Yue noticed the unusual activity on the car next to Sun Hang after he had been staring at it for a while, and asked him in a low voice.

"Don't ask, little kid." Sun Hang made a "shh" gesture.

But the next second, a hand with long fingernails suddenly slapped the inside of the car window with a loud thud, and then slowly slid down.

Five long finger marks were drawn out from the water vapor on the inside of the car window... If the water vapor were replaced with blood, it would look exactly like a close-up shot in many zombie movies.

Xue Yue's face paled instantly, clearly frightened by the hand. She murmured, "She...she seems to need help..."

"The best help you can give them is to leave them alone," Sun Hang said.

“No…” Xue Yue shook her head, “I can see… inside that car… the black fog… is so thick!”

"Black fog? It's so thick!"

Sun Hang was slightly taken aback, and casually wiped his eyes.

Just as Xue Yue said, the dense black mist, almost solidified, enveloped the entire floating vehicle. From this perspective, the vehicle itself was barely visible; all that could be seen was a constantly writhing mass of black mist lurking in the parking space beside it, like a terrifying monster about to break free of its restraints…

"No way?" Sun Hang scratched his head in confusion. "Why would I be overwhelmed with negative emotions doing something like this? Even if it's forced, I shouldn't be experiencing such strong negative emotions..."

If negative emotions could be quantified and statistically analyzed, this wave of negative emotions would be equivalent to the combined negative emotions of hundreds of people on Yong'an Street... Normally, this level of negative emotions would have already triggered bizarre events.

But Sun Hang couldn't sense any strange meme aura coming from the side.

"Don't act rashly," Sun Hang instructed Xue Yue. "I'll go see what's going on."

Sun Hang did not get out of the car, but instead quietly extended his consciousness tentacles and entered the black mist.

In an instant, a massive amount of information flooded into Sun Hang's mind like a tidal wave. Its impact was no less than the tide of memories Sun Hang experienced after devouring Tai Sui—it should be noted that the memory fragments carried in the Tai Sui meme were pieced together by hundreds of people.

Based on this information, there shouldn't be only two people on this vehicle; there should be hundreds of people.

What kind of four-dimensional car interior space?!
However, this also explains why the black fog is so dense—the negative emotions of two people, no matter how strong, could not reach this level, but the negative emotions of hundreds of people combined are "reasonable".

"Something's not right... Are there hundreds of people on this bus?"

Sun Hang disregarded the rule of "don't look at what is improper" and directly inserted a mycelium into the chassis of the other vehicle. Then, at the end of the mycelium, he induced the growth of an eyeball-shaped organ.

There were indeed only two people in the car, a man and a woman, and they were indeed doing the kind of thing Sun Hang had just guessed.

However, the expressions on their faces at this moment looked unusually strange.

Or to put it another way, the two of them had absolutely no expression on their faces, their eyes were extremely empty, and only their bodies were constantly performing repetitive movements.

"Are these two people human?" Sun Hang was filled with doubt.

But one thing is certain: regardless of whether the two are human or not, they are definitely not monsters.

If no strange aura was detected at such close range, the possibility that the two of them are strange creatures is infinitely close to zero.

"Mom, do you know what a thing is called a modified container?" Anna's voice rang in Sun Hang's ears once again.

"Modify the container? What's that?"

"These are the two 'things' you see right now."

(End of this chapter)