Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 524 Bounty
“Hey,” a hunter sitting in the back seat suddenly reached out and patted the man on the shoulder, “Old Li just sent a message that he knows that hunter in the long trench coat… his name is something like Zhulong, I think he’s an elite hunter belonging to the Tian Shu Tower.”

"Tian Shu Tower?" Upon hearing this name, the other hunters in the vehicle couldn't help but frown. "Tian Shu Tower is directly involved in this operation? What's the meaning of them posting high-priced bounties online for intelligence? Is it a smokescreen?"

"Who knows... but in any case, this is hardly good news." The hunter in the back seat shook his head solemnly. "I don't believe that the Tian Shu Tower sent a hunter of Zhu Long's caliber just to gather intelligence... Besides, didn't you notice that the Tian Shu Tower's reaction was ridiculously fast?"

"You mean... Tian Shu Tower actually received the treasure map information before us? They were already secretly planning this operation before Chunfeng's boss even organized it? Damn it, could it be that Chunfeng's boss sold the intelligence to Tian Shu Tower ahead of time?" The hunter who started the operation slammed his fist on the steering wheel in frustration. "They said they'd share intelligence for free, but this whole operation is clearly a trap... Chunfeng and Tian Shu Tower have probably teamed up and are using us as cannon fodder to scout ahead..."

"Heh, the name of Tian Shu Tower is indeed not to be trifled with in inland cities, but you should know that we are now in no man's land." Another sinister hunter in the back seat sneered, "Tian Shu Tower? Tian Shu Tower is nothing!"

"What, you intend to attack the elite hunters of the Heavenly Pivot Tower?" The hunter driving the car frowned. "Don't you know your own limitations..."

"If we leak the news secretly, someone will definitely make the first move. You understand the saying 'when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down'?" The hunter sneered, touching the dagger hanging at his waist. "As long as we handle things cleanly, the Tian Shu Tower won't be able to find fault with us. So many hunters mysteriously 'disappear' in the no-man's-land every year. No one can guarantee that the elite hunters of the Tian Shu Tower will definitely be able to walk out of the desert alive, right?"

“But the problem is there’s more than one of them.” The hunter driving the car seemed to be a conservative. “There’s also that young-looking kid and a little girl. Boss Sheep from Dragon City is quite familiar with them.”

“I just tested that young guy with my equipment; his memetic strength is only average,” said the hunter who was restarting his laptop. “His ability seems to be the ability to split off tentacle-like things from his body to aid in combat, and he’s incredibly strong, which isn’t anything to be afraid of… But can he be stronger than an African elephant? One Magnum shot and he’ll be quiet. As for that little girl, her memetic strength is negligible… I reckon it’s a support-type ability.”

"I think so too." The hunter sneered as he pulled out his dagger, gently wiping the blade with his thumb. The razor-sharp blade instantly cut a smooth gash in his fingertip, and a drop of bright red blood seeped from the wound.

However, the hunter seemed completely oblivious to the pain, opening his mouth with a smile and extending a forked tongue like that of a reptile, gently licking away the beads of blood that had seeped out.

Below the blood droplet, the freshly made wound had already disappeared.

“I think this little girl tastes pretty good,” he suddenly said.

"I didn't expect you, Old Snake, to be a philanderer?" the hunter sitting next to him said with a lewd grin.

"No, no, I mean exactly what I said." The hunter known as the Old Serpent licked his dagger again. Through the reflection, one could clearly see the bluish-purple poison marks on the blade. But after licking the dagger, he acted as if nothing had happened and put it back in. "I haven't eaten 'meat' in a long time."

"Tsk, you really have a heavy taste," the hunter sitting next to him said, smacking his lips. "Since you're going to eat her, why don't you let me first..."

With a whooshing sound, the old snake's poisoned dagger was already less than a millimeter away from the man's neck. The hunter immediately held his breath, afraid that the rise and fall of his throat caused by breathing would touch the blade of the dagger.

They had all witnessed the venom of the old snake; it was no exaggeration to say that it could kill instantly upon drawing blood.

"That's my food, you're not allowed to touch her," the old snake said coldly. "I don't want to find your filthy, smelly stuff in the middle of a perfect meal!"

"Alright, alright, Old Snake, don't be nervous... I... I was just joking!" The hunter immediately said, his face showing fear. "Brother Snake, don't worry, as long as I'm here, no one can touch your girl!"

"If you can't control your lower body, then go find Yang Qiaoxi," said the hunter holding the laptop.

"Yang Qiaoxi? Are you sure you want to do something to her? If she disappears, what will happen to Chunfeng's goods...?" the hunter driving the car asked in astonishment.

“This Yang Qiaoxi has clearly mixed up with this group of hunters from the Tian Shu Tower,” the old snake said in a low voice. “If you want to spare her life, you’re really asking for trouble… As for her identity as a delivery person, hehe, if she obediently returns to Dragon City after this delivery, it’s naturally none of her business. But since she came along… she’s now back to her old ways and can no longer be considered a delivery person. The ‘risk at your own risk’ disclaimer in Chunfeng’s statement is not just a nice phrase.”

“If we’re going to take action, we should do it cleanly. Old Snake is right,” the hunter, holding his laptop, agreed. “Also, I’ve thought of a way.”

"What method?" the other hunters asked in unison.

“Aren’t the Seabuckthorn Rose people in the convoy? Just hire them to take down the Candle Dragon… Once the first person makes a move, there will naturally be a second, a third… Then we can just wait to be the ones who get the kill.” The hunter, holding a laptop, pushed up his glasses, his slender eyes behind the lenses flickering.

“The people from Seabuckthorn Rose aren’t stupid… If they knew the person who placed the order was a hunter from Tian Shu Tower, do you think they would make a move?” The hunter driving the car shook his head. “I’m afraid they’ll take the money and then sell us out… Anyway, I don’t trust those women.”

"Whether they lay a hand on me or not doesn't matter. As long as they dare to take the money, I have ways to make the hunters of Tian Shu Tower fight them." The hunter, holding a laptop, typed rapidly on the keyboard. "Remember those anonymous accounts I bought for a lot of money before?"

To facilitate management by the Dragon City Hunter Administration, all accounts on the Hunter Forum are required to be registered with real names. However, after a website maintenance, people unexpectedly discovered that anonymous guest accounts could be registered. Although this loophole was closed in less than twenty seconds, some people still managed to register a large number of anonymous guest accounts during this period.

These anonymous guest accounts are involved in the Hunter Forum's underlying code. After operating for so many years, the Hunter Forum's underlying code has long become a mountain of shit that no programmer wants to touch. Therefore, these "illegal" anonymous guest accounts were not deleted, but circulated in the gray market beneath the forum.

These anonymous tourist accounts are practically disposable. If they're not used, they're fine, but once used, they're quickly and permanently banned by forum administrators. Even so, these accounts still sell for a high price, sometimes reaching over 20,000 yuan each. "Using anonymous accounts to place orders with Seabuckthorn Rose, and then 'kindly' reminding those hunters of the Heavenly Pivot Tower that Seabuckthorn Rose is going to attack them?" The hunter who had just had a knife to Old Snake's neck clapped his hands repeatedly, exclaiming, "Brilliant! You're truly amazing, Glasses! When it comes to physical poison, Old Snake is undoubtedly number one in Hexi, but when it comes to cunning poison, it has to be you!"

"I'll place an order for sea buckthorn roses right now. As long as these women aren't stupid enough to betray us before even reaching Nanhua Town, I have plenty of ways to make them fight each other," the bespectacled hunter said in a deep voice.

"Ordering so early? Isn't that a bit inappropriate?" the hunter driving asked with some concern.

"The longer the Seabuckthorn Rose gang has the money, the harder it is for them to clear their names." Glasses typed rapidly on the keyboard. "I've dealt with the Tian Shu Tower gang quite a few times. Don't be fooled by their official structure; they're even more ruthless than us free hunters when it comes to their crimes... Do you know what they say?"

"How to say?"

"Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free."

"Is this true? So exaggerated?"

“Just last year, there was a mercenary group in Dragon City. It was said that some members colluded with cult organizations, selling specimens of strange creatures unearthed in the no-man's-land to those who worshipped these creatures as gods. Then, that mercenary group was wiped out by a hunter team sent by the Heavenly Pivot Tower… The entire group of over fifty people, including four creature hunters, were wiped out.” Glasses said in a deep voice, “If these people knew that someone had put a bounty on them, they would definitely find the Seabuckthorn Rose members in the convoy… Unfortunately, I used an anonymous account to make the payment. No matter how they tortured Seabuckthorn Rose, they couldn't say who their employer was… And given Seabuckthorn Rose's personality, they probably wouldn't even need us to leak the news; they would choose to strike first… That's called a calculated move.”

"Glasses Guy, you're truly amazing!" The hunter in the back row gave the glasses hunter a thumbs up. "By the way, how much did you pay those women?"

"Fifteen million."

"Damn it?!" The hunter in the back row gaped in astonishment, and even the old snake's eyes showed a hint of surprise.

"Fifteen million." The bespectacled hunter pushed up his sliding glasses again. "This money can't be spared. I think fifteen million is a bit too little for the heads of the elite hunters of Tian Shu Tower... If you only send one million or a few hundred thousand, anyone with eyes can see that it's a frame-up, and it won't be convincing at all. Only if the price is right will the hunters of Tian Shu Tower believe that someone really wants to buy their lives."

“But this is almost all of our savings,” the hunter driving the car frowned. “What if something unexpected happens…”

“Hunters who make a living in the no-man's-land have all died in the Gobi Desert long ago if they encounter an accident.” The bespectacled hunter’s face gradually became even more gloomy than the old snake’s. “This time, we will either lose everything or make a fortune… I haven’t pressed the confirmation button for payment yet. If you want to back out, it’s not too late.”

“I have no objection,” the old snake said first.

"Damn it, let's gamble!" Another hunter in the back row slapped his thigh. "Let's take a gamble, and maybe we'll turn a bicycle into a motorcycle!"

“Since none of you have any objections, then I have none either.” The hunter driving the car sighed. “By the way, what about that White Tiger mech? Since the Dragon City Defense Force is involved in this operation, they shouldn’t just stand by and watch the hunters of the Sky Pivot Tower die, right?”

“It’s because of White Tiger that I dared to take this bet… I’ve studied the Four Divine Beasts mechs. Their endurance is pitifully short. Once a melee breaks out, they’ll run out of energy and become scrap metal before all these hunters are killed… And from another perspective, we also need White Tiger to help me eliminate those ‘competitors’,” the Spectacled Hunter said.

"You even foresaw this?"

"Hmph... In fact, the treasure is no longer important. If this deal goes through, we can earn far more money than that treasure we don't even know what it is. Once the storm has passed, we can go back to the inland cities and live a carefree life..."

……

……

Meanwhile, thirty meters away in an all-terrain vehicle, a woman with a reddish-brown punk hairstyle and dressed like a young, trendy girl was yelling into her phone: "Damn it, if I find out who placed this order, I'll gouge their eyes out and stuff them into their mother's pigeon! Isn't this just plain rigging me?!"

"What's wrong, Third Sister? Has someone placed a vendetta order?" asked a woman in a moon-white cheongsam with elegant makeup and hairstyle. Judging from their appearances alone, it was hard to imagine how these two women ended up in the same car.

"Fifteen million! They want us to kill those hunters from the Heavenly Pivot Tower in the convoy, including an elite hunter named Zhulong! I'm so screwed!" The woman dressed like a young punk threw her phone at the woman in the cheongsam. "Look for yourself, the order was placed by an anonymous account, and we can't even get a refund. They're clearly trying to kill us!"

“Since it’s an anonymous account, we can just swallow the money and pretend nothing happened.” The female mercenary in the passenger seat turned around—of the four people in the car, she was the only one dressed like a mercenary: a sand camouflage combat uniform, a helmet made of Kevlar and nylon composite material, a full-coverage protective mask, and a tactical chest rig with thick bulletproof plates. An assault rifle equipped with various tactical gear was leaning against her seat, swaying slightly with the bumps of the vehicle.

"Swallowed it? You make it sound so easy... So what do you think those people at Tian Shu Tower would do if they knew we took the fifteen million for their heads?"

[P.S. I'm numb. Yesterday I thought it was just low blood sugar and exhaustion, but I didn't expect to catch a cold while walking downhill. Today I have a fever of 38.9 degrees Celsius, and I feel dizzy and have fluctuating temperatures. I've been writing since noon with a bunch of debuffs and only managed to squeeze out 4,000 words...]

(End of this chapter)