Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 517 Jigsaw Puzzle
……

"Spring Breeze" base, central monitoring room.

“It’s a curse…” Nagano Soya tapped the table repeatedly with his metal fingers. “I’ve seen it once before…”

"When?" Zhulong asked.

“Seven years... no, it should be eight years ago.” Nagano Soya recalled, “I have a deep impression of that team. They had a total of four monster hunters and thirteen experienced mercenaries. One of the hunters had just escaped the control of the Sky Tower and become a free hunter less than three months ago. Before that, this hunter was ranked in the top three hundred on the hunter ranking list.”

Nagano Soya moved his wheelchair to a cabinet and took out a small pot of sake.

“Boss… you can’t drink alcohol given your current health condition…” the man in the suit who identified himself as the accountant immediately advised.

"I won't drink it, I'll just taste it." Nagano Soya glared at his subordinate, then poured himself a small cup.

He picked up his glass, moistened his lips slightly with the wine, and then continued, "They received a call from a wealthy man living in Shanghai. The man wanted them to venture deep into the uninhabited area, find his family's old ancestral hall, and bring back the ancestral tablets left behind when the entire clan migrated."

"Looks like they failed the mission," Sun Hang muttered. "Do you mind if I ask how much the reward was?"

"Six million," Nagano Soya said. "That's already higher than the reward for many missions that collect samples of strange creatures."

"Did they also encounter this situation?" Zhulong asked.

"That's right... They lost their way in the no-man's land and failed to reach their destination. Instead, they ran into a thick fog that stretched for nearly a hundred kilometers."

"A thick fog stretching for nearly a hundred kilometers?"

“They encountered attacks from all sorts of strange creatures in the thick fog, and only after losing nearly half of their men did they manage to reach the edge of the fog,” Nagano Soya continued. “But just as they were excitedly trying to rush out of the fog, they heard a voice in their minds warning them—their souls and bodies already belonged to this place, and if they forced their way out, they would suffer the cruelest curse in the world.”

“These hunters and mercenaries didn’t take this strange sound seriously at all.” Nagano Soya raised his glass again and took a small sip under the accountant’s worried gaze. “The fog is full of deadly creatures. Staying here would only lead to certain death sooner or later. The survivors rushed out of the fog without hesitation and, after regaining their bearings, began to move towards Yumen.”

"But a few tens of minutes later, they realized what the 'curse' the voice had mentioned was—their bodies were slowly melting like wax figures. The first to notice this was a mercenary. He felt itchy and hot all over, and the headband on his forehead seemed to be soaked with sweat. He subconsciously took off his helmet and touched it, only to find that his hand came off with a paste of pus and blood. He screamed in fright and kept touching his head with his hand... Soon, his stark white skull was revealed to everyone."

"The team panicked. Everyone found their bodies melting, at different rates... But no matter what they did, they couldn't stop it. Some raised their pistols and pulled the triggers at their temples, while others ran back to the fog they had supposedly escaped in a frenzy... Oh, I need to correct that here. Perhaps they never actually escaped that fog."

“From your description, it seems that this team lost their vehicle in the fog. How did they get back to Yumen? And who recorded these things?” Sun Hang asked.

“These records come from a mercenary’s log. He wrote these words in his last moments of lucidity before he died,” Nagano Soya said. “Later, another team found their remains in the no-man’s-land and picked up this log, which is how we learned of their fate.”

"These people are really unlucky," Sun Hang remarked.

"Not only that, the team that found the log also discovered something else: the remains of these victims were at least 20 kilometers away from the location described in the log as the place where their entire army was wiped out. There were no signs of terrain changes along this distance, and the remains did not look like they had been through a sandstorm. Therefore, we judged that they were likely to have lost all self-awareness and then moved 20 kilometers toward Yumen in the form of walking corpses. Finally, because the muscles and ligaments in their bodies were dissolved by the curse, they completely lost their ability to move and collapsed in the Gobi Desert."

“Just like those hunters in the convoy… they were able to return to Yumen because they had vehicles,” Zhulong said. “Without vehicles, they would probably have become one of the many missing people in the no-man’s-land.”

Nagano Soya nodded: "That team also went to look for that foggy area later, but they didn't find it. Therefore, we speculate that this foggy area that curses intruders may be a phenomenon-type monster, but we can't rule out that it is an environmental monster with the ability to move and wander around in no man's land."

"Have you reported the news about the foggy area to the Heavenly Pivot Tower?" Zhulong asked.

“We reported it to the Mystery Research Institute in Longcheng immediately, but because there were no surviving eyewitnesses and no clear observation records or evidence, it was not officially included in the mystery archives…”

"Can't that logbook be considered evidence? And what about those corpses?" Sun Hang asked doubtfully.

“When the remains were found, only bones remained. All the remaining memes had dissipated, and no one knows what their real cause of death was.” Nagano Soya sighed. “As for that log, there are countless examples of hunters who have been mentally corrupted by strange things and have hallucinations while operating in the no-man’s-land. Some unverifiable written records cannot prove that the Fog Zone really exists.”

"So the Mystery Research Institute in Dragon City is just going to abandon them? That's such a terrible work attitude!" Sun Hang complained.

"The Dragon City Cursed Fog Research Institute did not ignore the report." The main AI's voice rang in Sun Hang's earpiece. "After receiving the report, Dragon City sent eleven investigation teams to the no-man's-land to search for traces of the fog zone, but all of them came up empty-handed. Therefore, for the sake of prudence, the 'Hexi Corridor Cursed Fog Zone' was included in the list of 'suspected ghosts', but was not officially recorded as a ghost in the archives."

“So that’s how it is…” Sun Hang nodded silently.

"So, you suspect that these hunters encountered the same foggy area that appeared eight years ago?" Zhulong asked.

Nagano Soya drank the remaining wine in his cup in one gulp. When he reached for the wine jug again, he found that the accountant had already embraced it.

"Boss, you can't drink anymore!" the accountant said in a serious tone.

“I didn’t say I wanted to drink.” Nagano Soya sighed and placed his glass on the table. “I’ve already reported the reappearance of the fog zone to the Dragon City Mystery Research Institute, and they will send people to investigate again… We don’t need to worry about that anymore. What we need to worry about now is these fragments of the treasure map…”

"Let her try?" Sun Hang suddenly remembered Xue Yue's reaction when she first saw the treasure map fragments, and thought it was better to push this little girl in front of him.

"And who is this?" Nagano Soya's gaze lingered on Xue Yue for a few seconds before he looked at Sun Hang and asked.

"My sister."

"Sister?" Nagano Soya was taken aback. Although much of Sun Hang's information was classified, he still managed to find out a few things using his resources—at least one thing was certain: apart from a few women in Tianfu City with whom he had close relationships, Sun Hang had no other relatives. Even his identity file was only created after he became a hunter; before this, he was a completely "unregistered" individual.

“A sister who isn’t related to me by blood,” Sun Hang added. “She’s currently my assistant.”

“She is also a hunter,” Zhulong said.

“I can sense the memes within her…” Nagano Soya said, “May I ask what this young girl’s ability is?”

"It's not convenient to say, but she should be able to help you," Sun Hang said.

"Understood." Nagano Soya nodded, moved his wheelchair away from the table, and gestured for Xue Yue to proceed.

Sun Hang gently patted Xue Yue on the back, and Xue Yue hesitated for a moment before standing in front of the table and looking at the scattered fragments.

"Can you put these pieces back together in the correct order just by feeling them?" Sun Hang asked.

"I...I'll try."

Xue Yue picked up a shard, and after a few seconds, put it down with a conflicted expression.

She was like a complete beginner trying out a jigsaw puzzle for the first time, clumsily experimenting with different combinations of the pieces...

Half an hour passed, and although Nagano Soya remained patient and did not make a sound, Sun Hang could still see a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

As for the accountant standing to the side, his impatience was even more obvious.

"I...I can't spell it." Xue Yue wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and looked at Sun Hang with pleading eyes. "There's too much and it's too messy...I can't concentrate..."

Sun Hang thought for a moment, then walked behind Xue Yue and covered her eyes with his hand.

"Calm down, don't have any distracting thoughts, and fully experience the emotions these fragments bring you... Don't have any psychological burden, and don't think about what will happen if you put them together wrong. Just put them together based on your intuition," Sun Hang murmured in Xue Yue's ear.

Xue Yue took a deep breath and reached for the broken pieces on the table again.

This time, her movements were noticeably faster, and the number of times she made mistakes was decreasing.

As the remaining fragments dwindled, Xue Yue's speed increased, and Sun Hang could feel her breathing becoming slightly rapid. The area around her eyes that touched Sun Hang's palm gradually changed from cold to warm.

"Phew..." Xue Yue suddenly let out a long breath and filled the last fragment into the remaining gap.

"It's... all put together," Xue Yue said.

Nagano Soya, Zhulong, and the accountant immediately gathered around and looked at the "complete" treasure map on the table.

The left side of the treasure map is perfect, with all the lines and shapes matching perfectly; the right side of the treasure map is also perfect, with all the lines and shapes matching perfectly as well. However, in the very middle of the treasure map, there is a strange chasm—all the lines and shapes are misaligned here, giving people an extremely disharmonious feeling.

Even someone who knows nothing about jigsaw puzzles can tell that the middle part is definitely wrong.

"This...this seems even more..." The accountant hesitated, then decided against saying it, "I remember the closest you ever came to perfection was when only four lines couldn't match..."

The accountant wanted to say something more, but Nagano Soya, with a solemn expression, suddenly raised his hand, signaling his subordinate to be quiet.

His upper body was completely upright, leaning slightly forward, with bubbles constantly rising from the tube inserted into his throat.

Excitement gleamed in Nagano Soya's eyes as he said in a trembling voice, "That's right... that's exactly it... you really succeeded! This is exactly what the treasure map looks like! This is the correct sequence!"

"Boss...boss..." The accountant looked at her extremely excited boss with a blank expression, "But the middle part of this picture...it clearly doesn't match!"

“It’s right that they don’t match up!” Nagano Soya said. “Because in reality, these positions are misaligned!”

"Avoid them?" Zhulong paused for a moment, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.

“This place is called Nanhua Town,” Nagano Soya explained. “It is the only ruined town in the no-man’s-land of the Hexi Corridor that has been divided in two.”

"I remember now!" the accountant exclaimed immediately. "Due to the topographical changes caused by the strange phenomena in Nanhua Town, half of the town rose by several hundred meters, while the other half sank by several hundred meters, forming a fault line with a drop of nearly a thousand meters... So that's the place! No wonder, no wonder there's such a clear dividing line between the east and west sides of the city..."

“Nanhua Town…” Zhulong immediately walked to an old map hanging on the wall. “Nanhua Town is located quite deep in the mountains. It’s a full 300 kilometers away from Yumen as the crow flies. If you go a little further west, you’ll be in the true occupied zone.”

"Is this the only town that's been divided in two? There can't be any mistake, right?"

“I’m not sure if there are any new towns like this now, but in the era when my father and his people ‘brought back’ the treasure map, there was only one town that was cut up like this!” Nagano Soya said with great certainty.

(End of this chapter)