Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 474 Frontline Camp
Fifty minutes is neither a short nor a long time. Before Sun Hang could ask Yan Yu'an a few questions, the plane began to gradually descend, which meant they had reached the end of their journey.

As the plane descended through the clouds, a massive city ruin suddenly came into view.

“This is… the remains of Baikal,” Yan Yu’an said. “The layout of this strange city changes every day, so we haven’t been able to draw an accurate map yet.”

"Like a moving maze?" Sun Hang asked.

Yan Yu'an nodded, clearly indicating that she had also seen that classic movie.

"Could we hover a large number of drones over the remains of Baikal and transmit the footage captured by the drones as a real-time dynamic map to the soldiers entering the remains of Baikal? This would reduce the casualty rate significantly, and it would also allow us to anticipate some dangers hidden in blind spots—for example, that humanoid monster that ambushes you."

However, Yan Yu'an just sighed and said, "Once the plane flies over the remains of Baikal, you'll understand why we didn't do it."

As if to verify Yan Yu'an's words, the plane did not land directly at the front-line camp, but flew towards the remains of Baikal, circling once over this eerie city with its pure black tones.

It was only then that Sun Hang noticed a problem—when he tried to see some details of the city below, the things in his eyes would become extremely blurry, as if they were out of focus.

Moreover, when Sun Hang stares at the remains of Baikal for more than five seconds, the scene in his field of vision begins to distort, and the whole world begins to spin.

"Holy crap... I'm so dizzy!" Wang Xiyi clutched her forehead with one hand and gripped the back of the seat in front of her tightly with the other. The long dragon tail was even wrapped around the armrest of the seat. "This thing is disgusting..."

"Is it some kind of special mechanism to prevent peeping?" Sun Hang looked away, and the strange sight in his field of vision instantly returned, but the dizziness caused by the spinning of the world still lingered in his mind, as if he had just crawled out of a high-speed spinning washing machine.

“The sky above the remains of Baikal is covered by a ‘membrane’ that no equipment can detect. This ‘membrane’ has no substance or mass, and its only function is to interfere with all observation equipment, including the human eye,” Yan Yu’an explained. “Researchers suspect that this ‘membrane’ is related to the occupied areas that cannot be observed by satellites, but no one has been able to provide conclusive evidence yet.”

“Furthermore, because the meme monitoring equipment cannot detect the existence of this ‘membrane,’ it is impossible to determine whether it is part of Baikal’s remains or a completely new ‘phenomenal strange object,’” Yan Yu’an continued.

“What is the height of the ‘membrane’?” Sun Hang quickly realized the key to the problem.

The occupied zone can only prevent satellites in low Earth orbit from spying on it, but if drones or reconnaissance balloons are launched, they can detect the real situation inside the occupied zone before they are shot down by the monsters in the occupied zone. Assuming that the occupied zone is also covered by such a "spy-proof membrane", then the height of this spy-proof membrane should be at least above the stratosphere.

“We have tested it many times, and the actual height of the ‘membrane’ ranges from eighty to one hundred and fifty meters. Therefore, the drones used by the reconnaissance troops can only fly at this altitude, which makes them easy to shoot down and greatly limits their field of vision,” Yan Yu’an said.

"Are there any 'buildings' over 150 meters tall inside the Baikal Remains?" Sun Hang asked again.

The Baikal Remains is an environmental artifact created in imitation of Baikal City. Although Baikal City is a border city, it is home to more than 70% of the Siberian Federation refugees in the entire Federation. In terms of construction, it can definitely rank among the top 30 cities in the Federation. Although it cannot compare with the metropolis of Shanghai with its towering buildings and Chunming City with its 'five-story structure', there are definitely high-rise buildings of two to three hundred meters in this city. Sun Hang had seen the footage of the death aurora descending. The Siberian TV tower that was first ignited was at least 500 meters high, and there were quite a few buildings around it that were half the height of it.

If the Baikal Remains were to "imitate" such high-rise buildings, wouldn't this "membrane" be "poked" by these buildings like a soap bubble?
“No.” Yan Yu’an shook his head. “The tallest building inside the Baikal Remains does not exceed 150 meters… I know what you’re thinking, but unfortunately, the entire Baikal Remains is covered by a ‘membrane’.”

“What about the Siberian TV Tower?” Sun Hang asked. “That’s a landmark of Baikal City. If the monster is going to imitate Baikal City, it wouldn’t have forgotten such an important landmark, would it?”

"Have……"

"Where is it? I didn't see any towers that were much taller than the surrounding buildings until my view was obstructed."

"It's on the original site of the Siberian TV Tower, except that the Siberian TV Tower that the monster imitated has 'grown in reverse'—it has become a deep well, extending more than 500 meters underground," Yan Yu'an said. "The front-line camp sent out sixteen reconnaissance units to this place, totaling more than 300 people... None of those who entered the well returned."

Yan Yu'an paused for a few seconds, then continued, "This includes four monster hunters and one monster equipment qualifier."

……

The plane landed on a helipad at the forward camp. As soon as Sun Hang stepped out of the cabin, an officer with blond curly hair and a mechanical prosthetic body covering his right shoulder and entire right arm jogged up to greet him: "Are you Mr. Sun Hang, the top hunter sent from Chunming City?"

"When did they give me this title?" Sun Hang touched his nose somewhat embarrassedly. "It sounds pretty high-class."

"If you can't be considered a top hunter, then who is?" Wang Xiyi's voice drifted from behind. "Could it be those so-called 'celebrity hunters' who spend all their time shooting commercials and doing endorsements, their faces covered in makeup thicker than plaster on a wall?"

“I’m a member of the Disaster Countermeasures Committee. You can just call me by my name, Ganna,” the blond curly-haired man said. “We worked together during the Eternal Night, and I didn’t expect we’d be cooperating again so soon.”

"You've been to Tianfu City?" Upon hearing this, Sun Hang did indeed find a scene of this Ganna in his past memories—it was in a video conference, but at that time the guy's presence was relatively weak. Standing behind a military bigwig, he looked like an ordinary secretary, and the sleeves of his military uniform completely covered his conspicuous prosthetic arm.

Sun Hang himself rarely deals directly with the Disaster Countermeasures Committee... On the contrary, Yang Qi, who frequently communicates and coordinates with the Disaster Countermeasures Committee, is more familiar with this group of people. The man in front of him, Ganner, looks to be around thirty-five years old. Given that Caucasians tend to look older, this guy's actual age might even be less than thirty.

To reach this position before the age of thirty means either that he has a very strong background or that he is very capable, but most likely he has both.

The Disaster Countermeasures Committee, established to deal with the Eternal Night, did not disband after the Eternal Night disappeared. Instead, it was reduced in size and divided into two parts: one part remained in Tianfu City to prevent the Eternal Night from making a comeback; the other part immediately went north to deal with the "disaster" that the Eternal Night had transformed into the Remains of Baikal, which rose from the original site of Baikal City.

This guy is clearly one of the unlucky ones who were transferred here.

Having just finished several months of intense "work," he was transferred from one project to another without any transition. In Sun Hang's view, this guy was simply destined to be a workaholic. To use a term that everyone on the internet can understand now, it would be "a chosen ox or horse."

“No, I have never been to Tianfu City… At that time, I was still General Xu’s assistant.” Ganna said with a wry smile, “General Xu was getting old and took leave to return to Chunming City for recuperation after Yongye disappeared… I had no choice but to take over General Xu’s position, which can be considered as being forced to take charge on my own.”

"Uh... what's your relationship with this General Xu?" Asking the mainframe directly would get a quicker and more accurate answer, but Sun Hang preferred to get the answer directly from the person involved—and take this opportunity to see what kind of person this guy really is.

“I am General Xu’s chief of staff,” Ganna said.

"You should know that I'm asking about that kind of private relationship."

"Personally, I'm General Xu's grandson-in-law, but I didn't climb to this position through nepotism," Ganna said. "I graduated from the First Army School of Chunming City, ranking first in my class in the graduation exam. I also took extensive courses related to the study of ghosts at institutions such as Tian Shu Tower, Shencheng Ghost Research Institute, and Huadu Ghost Research Institute..."

“You may have misunderstood me. I don’t care whether you got to this position through nepotism or what your abilities are,” Sun Hang said. “I was just asking out of curiosity.”

“Uh…” Ganna was speechless. He looked at Sun Hang, then at the women who were with him, and for a moment he didn’t know how to start the conversation.

"Have you been inside?" Sun Hang asked again.

"Huh? Wh-what?" Ganna didn't react for a moment, looking completely bewildered.

“I say, have you ever been inside the Remains of Baikal?” Sun Hang turned his head and looked into the distance. His gaze went over the camp’s walls and landed on the strange city on the distant plain. Strangely enough, the “membrane” that blocked the view seemed to only exist above the Remains of Baikal, and when Sun Hang looked from the side, his vision was not affected at all.

He could even clearly see the structures inside Baikal's remains slowly moving, like a finely tuned machine in operation.

“We went in once.” Ganna looked somewhat embarrassed. “To my shame, we only went in less than a hundred meters before we encountered a collapse. A huge crack appeared in the ground, swallowing the two soldiers at the front… We had to retreat to the camp.”

“Is it mainly because of your status?” Wang Xiyi said. “You are now one of the people with the highest command authority in this camp. Since ancient times, no commander has ever been sent up to fill in the gaps in a war as a child… But I’m still quite curious, why did you go in? Was it to put on a show? Or to resolve the resistance of the lower-ranking soldiers to reconnaissance missions? If it’s the latter, then this adventure has probably had a side effect.”

“No… I simply wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the enemy we were facing,” Ganna said sincerely. “There’s always a difference between seeing something with your own eyes and reading about it in reports… Unfortunately, after this incident, both the command headquarters and the disaster response committee unanimously requested that I no longer risk my life, and even General Xu personally called me…”

"Oh, what did that old general say to you on the phone?"

“He said he only has one granddaughter and doesn’t want his precious granddaughter to become a widow,” Ganna said helplessly. “He also said that a true general should be one who strategizes within the command tent and wins battles a thousand miles away, not…”

“He’s right. The Federation spends far more money training you than training an elite soldier.” Sun Hang nodded. “If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t the first time you’ve almost made your wife a widow.”

Sun Hang's gaze fell on the other person's mechanical prosthetic limb.

“That’s all in the past…” Ganna smiled somewhat reluctantly. “Let’s get down to business. The Celestial Tower only said you were coming, but it didn’t tell us what your mission was. I know it’s because my clearance level isn’t high enough. If there’s anything you need our cooperation with, just let us know. You don’t need to explain why. We will carry out your orders unconditionally.”

"Unconditional? I'll let your entire army attack and raze the remains of Baikal to the ground, you're welcome?"

Ganna paused for a moment, then nodded: "If you're not joking, I'll go and convene the commanders of all the units right now for a pre-battle meeting."

"...What level of access did the Heavenly Pivot Tower grant me?" Sun Hang suddenly realized that something seemed amiss.

He originally just wanted to wander around the remains of Baikal and see if there were any high-quality monsters he could devour, but now it seems that the mainframe has dumped a huge mess on him.

“Supreme,” Ganna said. “You now have the highest command authority in this frontline camp.”

(End of this chapter)