Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 497 Barbecue
……

……

Two kilometers from the front-line camp, in an unnamed Gobi desert, behind a leeward boulder.

A campfire, made of dozens of stones of varying sizes, was burning brightly. On a simple rack, half a pork cutlet taken from the camp kitchen was laid out. The fisherman was reciting the essentials of Siberian roasting meat while evenly sprinkling the seasonings he was holding onto the constantly turning pork.

Rich oil seeped from the meat chunks, dripping onto the fire along with the freshly sprinkled spices. With crackling sounds, one fragrant bomb after another exploded – bay leaves, basil, thyme, rosemary, white pepper… Sun Hang had no idea where the fisherman had gotten so many spices, but that didn’t matter…

Sun Hang paid no attention to the fisherman's grumbling; his attention was completely focused on the fragrant roasted meat.

Sun Hang felt his oral glands secreting saliva frantically, and the deadly aroma of roasted meat kept wafting into his nostrils, constantly tempting the deepest desires in his heart.

No one can resist barbecue, not even monsters. Sun Hang thought to himself, turning to look at Xue Yue, who was also squatting by the campfire. From the subtle movements of her throat, he could tell she was constantly swallowing, her eyes wide open, full of anticipation. In contrast, Wang Xiyi on the other side was much more direct, asking every ten seconds or so, "Is it ready yet? How much longer does it need to roast? How much longer until I can eat meat?"

"Don't rush, don't rush, don't rush! Almost there, almost there!" The fisherman's reply was somewhat perfunctory, prompting Wang Xiyi to say, "Why don't I add some fuel to the fire so the meat will cook faster?"

"No! Please don't!" The fisherman was so frightened that he quickly stepped in front of her. "If you add that dragon flame, the whole piece of meat will turn to charcoal immediately, and then no one will have anything to eat!"

"I was just joking..." Wang Xiyi said sullenly, "I should have taken more pre-made dishes from the kitchen, at least I could have some snacks to fill my stomach before the main meal."

"With your appetite, that's more like filling your teeth than filling your stomach, right?" Sun Hang rummaged in his pocket for a while and pulled out a concentrated nutritional supplement. "Here, want one? Beef and onion flavor."

“No.” Wang Xiyi refused decisively. “I usually eat these compressed nutrient solutions. Now that I can finally eat some human food, I don’t want to let industrially synthesized seasonings numb my sense of taste before eating barbecue… that would be a complete waste.”

Although the compressed nutrient solution specially supplied to her now comes in a total of 62 flavors thanks to the improvements made by the Tian Shu Tower research team, and is no longer the original soap or toothpaste flavor, this compressed food uses extremely strong industrial synthetic flavorings to mask the terrible taste of its paste-like state. In Wang Xiyi's own words, eating this stuff feels like forcibly alkalis her taste buds.

“He’s deliberately controlling the temperature of the campfire,” Zhong Ling, who was sitting on the other side of the campfire, suddenly said. “A higher flame temperature will make the meat cook faster, but it will also accelerate the loss of moisture from the meat, making it dry and tough. Meat cooked at a lower temperature for a longer time will retain more juice and have a richer flavor.”

"Wow, she's an expert!" Upon hearing Zhong Ling's remark, the fisherman looked at her in surprise. "This one definitely knows how to eat..."

“She’s not only a good eater, but also a good cook,” Sun Hang said. “Next time you have the chance, you can try Zhong Ling’s cooking. But you have to be prepared. After eating her food, the difference between eating other chefs’ food and that is not something everyone can accept.”

"Is that so?" The fisherman's eyes lit up. "If he really has such a skill, can I become his apprentice?"

"Become an apprentice?" Wang Xiyi was taken aback and asked curiously, "Why would you become an apprentice? Do you want to open a restaurant?"

"To tell you the truth, my biggest dream in life is to open the biggest seafood restaurant on the Siberian Plain after I retire!" the fisherman said, his eyes shining. "And what's more, my restaurant won't just serve ordinary seafood; I also want to bring those edible monsters to the human table—if monsters can eat humans, then humans should be able to eat monsters too!"

"What a great idea!" Wang Xiyi gave him a thumbs up, but the next second her expression suddenly turned somewhat melancholy. "But, monster hunters... do they really have a chance to retire?"

The fisherman fell silent for a moment, but after a few seconds he grinned and said, "Why not? After we win this war, we can retire, can't we?"

“Yes… victory, retirement…” Wang Xiyi lay back, using her arms to support the back of her head. “I don’t know why, but these are words that feel so far away from me.”

"You are the number one hunter in Tianfu City, 'Night Fury.' Shouldn't victory be a daily occurrence for you? How could it be so far away?" the fisherman asked, puzzled.

“I used to be number one, but I’m not number one now.” Wang Xiyi turned to look at Sun Hang. “The kind of victory you’re talking about doesn’t really mean much. It’s like in a massive war involving the whole world, you kill one enemy soldier. What does that kind of victory mean to the overall war effort?”

“Why is it meaningless?” the fisherman retorted. “If each of us could kill an enemy, if everyone on our side could achieve this victory, wouldn’t we have won the war? At the very least, if you kill the enemy, it means that the enemy has no chance to kill you, your comrades, your friends, or your family… Isn’t that a victory in itself?”

“I’ve discovered something,” Wang Xiyi said.

"what?"

“You’re not suited to be a hunter; you’re better suited to be a politician,” Wang Xiyi said. “You seem to have a knack for public speaking.”

"Oh? Really?" The fisherman scratched the back of his head. "But... being a politician requires learning a lot, right? Just being able to give speeches doesn't seem to be enough, does it?"

"Alright, go ahead and grill your meat. I'm practically drooling from the smell," Sun Hang urged, then glanced at Yan Yu'an standing a little distance away. "Lieutenant Colonel Yan, won't you come sit with us?"

“We are not in a safe camp now, and someone needs to keep watch,” Yan Yu’an replied in a completely emotionless voice.

"Keeping vigilant is enough with Zhong Ling's ghost remains, right?" Sun Hang pointed to the No. 1 ghost remaining on the boulder and said.

“This is my task,” Yan Yu’an said again.

"Sigh, I can't do anything with you, do whatever you want." A flash of silver light appeared at Sun Hang's fingertips, and a cut appeared on the surface of the pork. A rich aroma of meat gushed out from the cut. He took a deep breath, smacked his lips, and said, "Tsk tsk tsk, so fragrant...it's so fragrant. It's a pity that Gan Na has a lot of things to deal with and won't be able to enjoy this late-night snack."

"Ganna's level, when can't he get roast meat?" the fisherman muttered. "On the contrary, poor people like me can only see what's on the cafeteria's menu that day. Sigh, it's all tears."

"Don't hunters have a special supply quota? You still eat in the canteen?" Sun Hang couldn't help but ask.

"That was when supplies were plentiful. You wouldn't get that kind of treatment in a frontline camp," the fisherman sighed. "But thanks to you, these hard times are finally coming to an end."

"Where will you go next?" Sun Hang asked. "Baikal City has become the remains of Baikal, so the size of the frontline camps will definitely be reduced significantly. Your original unit will probably be merged into another city-state, right?" "Probably... If I could choose, I would like to go back to my hometown, Magadan. Unfortunately, that city has been abandoned. If I go back now, I'll only see ruins." The fisherman said while turning the roasted meat. "If we don't consider Magadan, the best choice would be Chunming City, but Chunming City might not accept me... After all, it's the capital of the Federation, and so many people are desperate to get in... With my level, being assigned to an inland city would be a stroke of good luck."

"Don't worry, you'll be assigned to Chunming City." Sun Hang patted the fisherman on the shoulder and said, "I've heard that Chunming City's roast duck is very famous. If you have the chance in the future, you can try to combine the techniques of Siberian roast meat with Chunming City's roast duck and see if you can create any new dishes."

"Really?" The fisherman looked at Sun Hang with some suspicion. "Are you planning to pull strings for me? Well, with your current abilities, it's just a matter of a word... but I still have a feeling that I can't quite put my finger on it."

"What? You don't like using connections?" Sun Hang laughed. "You said it yourself, this is a place that so many people would kill to get into."

Sun Hang suddenly thought of the refugees in the Willow Constellation area of ​​the zodiacal plane.

They did manage to "squeeze" into the city, but what good would it do them? They still didn't belong to the city, and the city didn't belong to them.

“It’s not that I don’t like it…sigh.” The fisherman sighed heavily. “Going to Chunming City would be the best thing, of course…but I owe you such a big favor, I’m afraid I won’t be able to repay it in the future.”

"Here, consider this your repayment of the favor." Sun Hang pointed to the roasting meat on the campfire. "Just remember to give me the best piece."

"Of course!" The fisherman pulled out a small knife and poked the meat in several different places. "Mmm...it's almost done..."

Just then, the roar of a car engine and the sound of tires screeching on the ground rapidly approached from afar. A military vehicle coming from the direction of the front-line camp suddenly stopped beside the boulder. A young officer jumped out of the vehicle, holding a communication terminal, and quickly ran to Sun Hang.

“Mr. Sun Hang! There is a communication request for you,” the young officer said.

"Looking for me? Where did you call from?"

“Shuzhou, Tianfu City,” the young officer replied.

“Tianfu City?” Sun Hang took the communication terminal and saw the name “Yang Qi”.

"Yang Qi? Why didn't she call me if she needed something?" Sun Hang took out his phone from his pocket, only to find that it had no signal at all.

After the destruction of Baikal, the only usable communication channel in the Lake Baikal region was the military's communication channel. Sun Hang's trip was so sudden that the military didn't even have time to connect his mobile phone to the military communication network in the Lake Baikal region.

Previously, Sun Hang relied on Yan Yu'an as a "communication relay station" to communicate with the rear. However, just half an hour later, in order to avoid disturbing his late-night snack, Sun Hang forcibly ordered Yan Yu'an to turn off the communication equipment.

"What could Yang Qi possibly want from me at this time? It can't be that Yongye has returned, can it?"

Sun Hang thought for a moment, then answered the phone.

"Hello? Director Yang? Is there something you need?"

"Sun Hang, Yang Lian is pregnant," Yang Qi said bluntly.

Upon hearing the news, Sun Hang instinctively wanted to ask, "Is it mine?", but he immediately realized that asking that would make him seem like a complete jerk, so he quickly changed his question to, "When?"

“Just today, she was found to have a strange meme reaction when she went through security,” Yang Qi said. “After a detailed examination, we found an embryo with a strange meme reaction inside her. I talked to her once, and she told me that you are the only person who has had that kind of relationship with her.”

"……Then what?"

"One good news and one bad news, which do you want to hear first?" Yang Qi asked calmly.

“Good news,” Sun Hang said.

"Yang Lian herself was not infected by memes; the meme reaction was limited to the embryo inside her body."

"What about the bad news?"

"The meme of this embryo is 99.827% similar to that of Chimera 17."

"Chimera 17..." The amount of information contained in just a few words almost caused Sun Hang's brain to crash.

He remembered the "deal" between himself and Chimera 17 very clearly. As the price for "liberation", Chimera 17 helped him dispel the eternal night... Logically speaking, Chimera 17 should no longer exist in this world... But if that's the case, then what is in Yang Lian's stomach?

A descendant of Chimera 17? Or is it that Chimera 17 wasn't truly dead, but rather... "resurrected" in this way?

Sun Hang really wanted to find Anna and get some answers, but unfortunately, Anna still ignored his calls.

“There’s one more thing,” Yang Qi continued. “At Yang Lian’s residence, we found the metal nameplate that you picked up in the occupied area—the nameplate with Elena Dimoshina’s name on it.”

"Elena Dimoshina?" Sun Hang's breath hitched... Could this be Chimera Seventeen's real name?

(End of this chapter)