Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 509 Reputation
Upon hearing Yang Qiaoxi's words, Sun Hang suddenly thought of a way to deal with the sandstorm.

He could easily inject a large amount of life force into a mycelium puppet, then send the puppet running in another direction to divert the sandstorm...

No, if the mycelium puppet is too far away, it won't last long and will disintegrate on its own, and the life force injected into the puppet will dissipate along with it...

Then the only option is to switch from automatic to manual transmission—Sun Hang uses the acceleration ability of the electromagnetic field to take the life-infused mycelium puppet in another direction, and after creating enough distance, he throws the puppet down and accelerates away in the opposite direction...

Thinking about this, Sun Hang suddenly realized that he might have gone to unnecessary trouble—he could have just used himself as bait to lure the sandstorm away, since the electromagnetic acceleration field would ensure that the sandstorm could never catch up with him.

The only thing to worry about is getting lost in the Gobi Desert... The electromagnetic field of the Kui Niu can accelerate Sun Hang to a speed comparable to a supersonic fighter jet. In the Gobi Desert, where it is difficult to find any reliable reference points, even deviating from the correct direction by one degree is a very dangerous thing... If you are unlucky, you may end up like those hunters who bought the wrong map and plunge into the depths of the no-man's land. If you are even unlucky, you may even fly directly into the occupied area.

The direction is the most crucial issue.

Although the Hexi Corridor was not part of the occupied area, the presence of strange phenomena like sandstorms in the Gobi Desert, coupled with various severe weather conditions, meant that satellite positioning and communication signals were intermittent, often remaining unavailable for hours or even days. The ancient navigation tool, the compass, relied entirely on the Earth's magnetic field—Sun Hang had observed the compass in the vehicle before setting off; its thin magnetic needle barely stopped moving.

This means that in the Hexi Corridor, the geomagnetic field, like the surface topography, is constantly changing.

Sun Hang raised his head and looked out through the gap in the towering stone pillars to the sun in the sky.

The sun and stars are indeed good reference points, but the problem is that when a sandstorm occurs, the entire sky is swept up into the high altitude and obscured by dust, making it impossible to see the sun, let alone use it as a reference point.

"Sigh... It's better to rely on yourself than on others."

After thinking for a long time, Sun Hang decided to use his "wish-fulfilling" ability to determine the direction.

He placed a stone with a slightly sharp end on the ground and silently instructed himself to point the sharp end of the stone due north... A few seconds later, the stone trembled slightly, but almost at the same time, Sun Hang immediately dismissed the idea.

He discovered that his mental energy was being consumed at an alarming rate—just by moving the stone, he had used up almost a quarter of his blue bar.

To put it another way—if Sun Hang used the same amount of mental energy for destructive acts, he could instantly crush the 500-meter-tall, steel-structured Siberian TV Tower into a giant lump of iron.

Sun Hang weighed the rock in his hand, which was about the same size as the wireless earphone charging case, and then imagined in his mind the 500-meter-high Siberian TV Tower being twisted into a pretzel by a huge force. He couldn't help but shake his head.

This is somewhat outrageous.

Could there be some kind of rule-based monster in this Gobi Desert, whose rule is "prohibiting the use of memetic abilities to determine direction"?
That's a bit ridiculous, isn't it?
Sun Hang threw the stone in his hand. The flat, round stone rolled away and finally came to a stop at the base of a stone pillar with a soft thud.

"How long are we going to stay here?" Sun Hang asked Yang Qiaoxi.

"Wait until the sandstorm is far enough away, or completely dissipates," Yang Qiaoxi said, "It could take anywhere from a few hours to several days."

Zhulong returned to the car and turned on the radio, but only harsh static came through.

“Longcheng has large-scale equipment for monitoring the strange sandstorms. It regularly releases information about the sandstorms in the Gobi Desert, just like a weather forecast. Of course, it's not as good as a weather forecast. It can't predict the formation of sandstorms; it can only detect and track sandstorms that have already appeared,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “If we can get in touch with Longcheng, we might be able to find out the follow-up of that sandstorm.”

“But that’s on the condition that we can make contact.” Zhulong turned the tuning knob back and forth, but all that came out of the radio was static. “The sandstorm’s meme has caused strong interference to the surrounding electromagnetic field. I estimate that it won’t be able to return to normal for a while.”

"Since things have come to this, let's eat first." Sun Hang took a box out of the trunk of the car and set it up on the flat ground as a table, then placed a portable gas stove on the box.

Although there are ready-to-eat dry foods such as compressed biscuits on board, Sun Hang prefers to eat something hot whenever possible.

A few minutes later, the unique aroma of heated oil wafted through the stone forest.

"Consider it compensation." Sun Hang picked up a piece of perfectly fried luncheon meat with his chopsticks, blew on it gently, and then put it directly into his mouth.

"What compensation?" Yang Qiaoxi pried open a new can with a dagger and dumped the contents onto the frying pan. "Didn't you eat enough before you left?"

"No, I meant a few days ago in Baikal City. After we finished our mission, we were having a barbecue in the middle of nowhere. But just when the meat was almost cooked, Director Yang called and forcibly dragged me back to Tianfu City... Sigh, I really miss that sizzling, oily barbecue." Sun Hang sighed with great regret.

"Baikal City? Wasn't it already lost? Are you on a mission there?" Yang Qiaoxi asked, looking very interested.

"Ahem." Zhulong coughed twice very deliberately, then nudged Sun Hang lightly with his elbow in front of Yang Qiaoxi.

"Alright, alright, it's all confidential, I know." Yang Qiaoxi frowned and waved her hand. "How boring."

"Our profession is rather special, I hope you can understand." Zhulong nodded apologetically to Yang Qiaoxi.

"I understand, I understand... Could you please bring me that bottle of cumin?"

……

After the four finished lunch and cleaned up, they played cards for a while at Yang Qiaoxi's suggestion to pass the time. It wasn't until 4:55 p.m. that the radio in the SUV finally broadcast a somewhat indistinct message.

"This is...Zi...Longcheng...Zi...Dust Storm Observation Center...Zi..."

"Wow, finally a signal!" Yang Qiaoxi, who had been dealt a terrible hand, threw down her cards, darted to the car door, pulled out a pen and paper from her jacket pocket, and quickly began jotting down notes. "Buzz... This morning...buzz... at 10:42 AM, the 'No. 5196' deadly sandstorm has already crossed...buzz... the Dragon Bone River, and is moving due north at a speed of...buzz... 600 kilometers per hour...buzz...buzz... According to the observation results from Observation Station No. 17 twenty seconds ago, the current coordinates of this sandstorm are..."

"Nice!" Yang Qiaoxi scribbled down a bunch of data on the paper, calculated it carefully several times, and then stuffed the paper and pen back into her pocket with satisfaction. "We can continue on our way. This sandstorm is heading directly north, and it's more than 200 kilometers away from us now. Even if it turns around and chases us after we leave the Stone Forest, we'll have already reached Yumen before it catches up with us."

“Two hundred kilometers…that should be beyond the range of a sandstorm’s ability to sense life, right?” Zhulong said.

“If, I mean if.” Yang Qiaoxi put her helmet back on and got on the motorcycle. “If it catches up, we just need to lead it to Yumen, and someone will naturally take it away… If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Yumen may lack many things, but it doesn’t lack ‘tall ones’.”

Sun Hang and Zhu Long exchanged a glance after getting back into the SUV. Sun Hang saw a wry smile in the latter's eyes—with their combined strength, if they didn't make any attempt to conceal it, they would probably be what Yang Qiaoxi called "tall guys".

Leaving aside the Candle Dragon for the moment, if the materialized life force within Sun Hang were released, it would probably be equivalent to half of Dragon City.

"You should have a way to hide that ability, right?" Zhulong started the car and asked in a low voice.

“You’re sitting right next to me now, and even you can’t feel the life force hidden within me, so the sandstorm certainly won’t be able to feel it,” Sun Hang said. “But you mustn’t get hurt. If I were to use my abilities to heal you, then it wouldn’t be able to be hidden.”

"Healing? Is healing your ability?" Yang Qiaoxi's voice rang out in the communication channel. "This kind of ability is quite popular in Dragon City, especially among hunters who operate in groups... If you become a free hunter in the future, I can't even imagine how sought-after you will be."

"Is it?"

"Speaking of which, we've drunk together and eaten together, and I still don't know your name," Yang Qiaoxi suddenly asked. "Could it be that even that's a secret?"

“My name is Sun Hang, and that little girl is my younger sister, Xue Yue,” Sun Hang said.

“Sun Hang…wait, you said your name is Sun Hang?!” Yang Qiaoxi’s voice suddenly rose several octaves. The motorcycle in front suddenly drifted and swerved, becoming parallel to the SUV. Yang Qiaoxi turned her head and looked at Sun Hang with surprise through the car window.

"You're the one... who killed Chimera Seventeen, Sun Hang?" Yang Qiaoxi asked Sun Hang for confirmation.

“It’s me.” Sun Hang nodded.

The news of Baikal's purification has not yet been announced to the public; otherwise, Sun Hang's fame would probably have risen even higher... no, several levels higher.

"If you really are Sun Hang..."

"I really am."

“What I mean is, if you really are Sun Hang, the one who killed Chimera Seventeen, you’d better not easily reveal your true identity to others… especially in Yumen,” Yang Qiaoxi said.

"Why?" Sun Hang asked. "I was thinking that I might be able to recruit a group of skilled hunters using this title."

“If you really want to reveal your identity, I suggest you do so when you’re about to leave Dragon City,” Yang Qiaoxi said in a deep voice. “You need to know… the place you’re going to now, Jade Gate, is a true lawless place. In that place, the only relationship between people is based on interests… as long as you have the strongest fist, your words are law. Murder and robbery are rampant… In my opinion, some people are even more dangerous than the monsters.”

“My fists seem to be quite big, so can what I say be taken as reason?” Sun Hang asked.

“If you were a veteran top hunter whose reputation and strength were recognized by everyone, your words would still carry a lot of weight in Yumen. Most people wouldn’t bother you unless there was a direct conflict of interest,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “But you’re a ‘newcomer’ who has just become famous and is even showing signs of replacing the top hunters on the leaderboard. That would be a completely different story.”

"What's the difference?"

"Not only in Yumen, but even in Longcheng, many people do not believe your achievements."

"Huh?" Sun Hang was stunned for a moment. He had been thinking about how to keep a low profile, but here he didn't even need to pretend anymore.

People simply don't believe his track record.

“Many people think that you are just a ‘hero’ promoted by the federal government,” Yang Qiaoxi said, “a ‘hero’ artificially created to stabilize the situation.”

"..." Sun Hang couldn't help but recall what Zhulong had said to him when they were in Lizhou City.

Yang Qi once said, "The people need a hero, and the Federation needs a hero too."

He suddenly understood what these people were thinking.

“In many people’s eyes, you, a nobody who suddenly appeared, are no different from those ‘star hunters’ in Chunming City who are constantly getting endorsements and appearing in various commercial advertisements,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “Do you know how many people want to step on you? With your current reputation, stepping on your head would be a real leap to the top.”

"They're really bold..."

“For freelance hunters, this is the best way to quickly become famous,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “Moreover, there is very little information about you on the internet, especially on the websites of official agencies. This makes people more and more convinced that your achievements are all fake, and that the federal government is just taking credit for things that don’t belong to you.”

"If that's really the case... what do you want to say now?" Sun Hang asked.

“If that’s really the case, then your identity should be kept even more secret,” Yang Qiaoxi emphasized again. “Once your identity is exposed, countless people will come looking for trouble! If your ability is truly healing, Zhulong alone won’t be able to handle those guys!”

(End of this chapter)