Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 531 Nanhua Town

“I think—” Yang Qiaoxi gripped the roof handle tightly, her body swaying violently with the violent shaking of the SUV, “Let’s think about—how—to escape alive!”

Another giant rose from the yellow sand and stood directly in front of Sun Hang and his group.

A "Dung Beetle" light armored vehicle suddenly appeared from the side. A mercenary wearing a powered exoskeleton used the grappling hooks on the exoskeleton to secure himself to the roof of the vehicle. He held a 12.5 mm heavy machine gun in each hand and roared as he unleashed a barrage of fire at the giant blocking his way.

The gunshots, like those of a loom, seemed to tear through the air and the eardrums of those around them simultaneously. A string of tongues of fire licked at the giant's body, but only managed to create a dense patch of fire.

The sound of metal colliding with each other is extremely crisp and pleasant, but for humans, it brings only endless despair.

The giant bent down and looked at the vehicles rushing towards it. The next second, it actually ripped its head off its neck and smashed it towards the "Dung Beetle" armored vehicle!

With a deafening roar, the mercenary standing on the roof was instantly blasted into a bloody pulp. Meaty bits of flesh spilled out from the gaps in the completely deformed exoskeleton frame. Two destroyed heavy machine guns, still hanging from the auxiliary arms of the exoskeleton, dangled from the sides of the roof, slamming against the doors with each impact as the vehicle vibrated at high speed.

The giant's head smashed into the roof of the "Dung Beetle" vehicle, creating a large crater before flying far away. The eleven-ton light armored vehicle, under the force of the impact, jumped off the ground, soaring more than ten meters into the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

However, it seems that the driver inside the vehicle was not affected at all. After the vehicle landed, it did not lose control. Instead, it accelerated again and rushed towards the gap beside the giant.

“A good opportunity.” Hundreds of mycelia extended from Sun Hang’s body, wrapping around the steering wheel and gear shift instead of his hands. He had already floored the accelerator, and the SUV’s engine roared with a deep rumble, closely following behind the “dung beetle.”

Just as the "Dung Beetle" was about to rush past the giant, its driver suddenly performed a 180-degree drift, turning the car around and heading in another direction.

At the same time, the bronze giant kicked its left foot out of the yellow sand, and the sand and gravel it kicked up landed on the hood, windshield and roof of the off-road vehicle, making a crackling sound like popping beans.

"Such an accurate prediction," Zhulong couldn't help but exclaim.

If the "dung beetle" hadn't drifted and turned around, it would have been kicked away by the bronze giant. In this situation, if the vehicle were overturned, the chances of the occupants surviving would be almost zero, not to mention there were so many bronze giants in a berserk state nearby.

Sun Hang and his group, who were right behind the dung beetle, took advantage of the bronze giant's kicking motion to pass under its leg.

"I feel like this giant is really big... It must be over thirty meters tall, right?" Sun Hang glanced at the "Xingtian" giant in the rearview mirror, which looked a bit clumsy because it had "lost" its head, and muttered casually.

“According to past records, the largest giant that has ever appeared in Giant Hill was 54.5 meters tall,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “In front of it, those giants under 10 meters tall are no different from us humans.”

"Can these giants be killed by physical means?" Sun Hang asked.

“Yes.” Yang Qiaoxi nodded. “Giant Hill has been bombed at least four times. Once it was a ground-to-ground missile carrying a tactical nuclear warhead, and the other three times it used conventional warheads. The bombings successfully eliminated the giants exposed on the sand surface... But less than three hours after the bombings ended, new giants would emerge from the depths of the sand sea again.”

"It means you can kill them, but you can't kill them all, right?"

Yang Qiaoxi sighed: "If Giant Hill were located near Chunming City, Tian Shu Tower would probably have turned the entire desert upside down... As for the strange creatures in the no-man's-land, the fact that they were willing to bombard them with missiles four times already shows that they take them quite seriously."

"Since Giant Hill lacks development and research value and poses no clear threat to human settlements, the Sky Pivot Tower and the Federal Government have adopted a close observation strategy towards Giant Hill in recent years. As long as the area of ​​Giant Hill does not expand, the number of giants does not change, and there are no other obvious changes, the Sky Pivot Tower and the Federal Government will not interfere with Giant Hill in any way." The mainframe's voice sounded in the earpiece—the blocking program on Sun Hang's phone had been removed when the first giant woke up.

Giant's Hill has been awakened, and there's no longer any need to maintain radio silence. Through extremely poor signal quality and intermittent communication, Sun Hang learned that the following convoy had approached the outer area of ​​Giant's Hill, and he also observed the situation inside Giant's Hill—it was a complete mess, and there was simply no more fitting description.

Given the current situation, the original route has to be abandoned. The other convoys will detour from both sides of Giant Hill, and are expected to arrive in Nanhua Town four days later than Sun Hang and his group—assuming that Sun Hang and his group can still arrive in Nanhua Town on time.

With his bullet-time prediction and superhuman driving skills, Sun Hang evaded the attacks of the two giants in his off-road vehicle, while the "Dung Beetle" kept a close behind Sun Hang and his companions, never managing to shake them off.

“The driver of the car behind is really skilled,” Sun Hang said. “If they manage to escape Giant Hill alive, everyone on the car will owe the driver their life.”

“There’s probably only the driver left alive in that car.” Zhulong glanced at the damage to “Dung Beetle” and shook his head. “The roof is dented too much. Apart from the driver’s seat, the other seats were also affected. If the passengers hadn’t crawled under their seats beforehand, their heads would have been crushed… even if they were wearing helmets.”

"Then...is that car covered in blood now?" Xue Yue, pale-faced, asked, gripping her seatbelt tightly.

“If it were just blood, that would be fine,” Sun Hang said. “What’s most disgusting is that mixture of blood, flesh, and brain matter, plus all that filth from the digestive system… After a drift, all that stuff would probably be shaken together and leave a solid layer of residue in the car…”

"Thank goodness I ate breakfast early." Yang Qiaoxi's face was pale, and she reached out to press her lower abdomen. "Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit."

"How far is it from the exit of Giant Hill?" Sun Hang asked as he rolled down one of the car windows. Two cables formed by thousands of strands of mycelium entwined together shot out from the window and pierced into the leg of a giant. The car then used the momentum to leap up, barely avoiding a bronze hand that swept across the sand.

But the "dung beetle" following behind them wasn't so lucky. Its bronze-colored hand slammed hard on the front of the car, instantly compressing and deforming it. Sun Hang could vaguely see blood spurting out from the gaps in the twisted steel plates.

"Could it be that I accidentally killed it with my own medicine?" Sun Hang couldn't help but mutter to himself, "What a sin..."

"Three kilometers to go! Keep going!" Yang Qiaoxi shouted. "The giants won't chase us! They never leave the Giant Hill area!"

……

...Seven hundred meters from Giant Hill, an unnamed Gobi Desert.

Sun Hang glanced at the bronze giant that was running wildly like a madman in the distant sea of ​​sand, then turned to Yang Qiaoxi, who had her entire upper body under the hood of the engine, and asked, "So, can it be fixed?"

“It’s tough… Three out of the eight cylinders have blown up, the electrical system is severely burned out, and oil is leaking everywhere… If it doesn’t go back to the factory for a major overhaul, it’s basically a total loss.” Yang Qiaoxi’s sigh came from under the hood. “It’s a miracle that this car lasted until we made it out of Giant Hill before it was totaled.”

"How long would it take to walk to Nanhua Town?" Zhulong asked.

"It will take at least a day and a night to get here." Yang Qiaoxi crawled out from under the hood, wiped the engine oil off her hands on her leather jacket, and kicked the front tire. "And that's assuming everything goes smoothly."

“I think your auto repair skills are lacking.” Sun Hang walked over and pretended to peer at the smoking engine.

"Although I'm self-taught in car repair, if you take this car to any gas station, the mechanics will all suggest you just replace the engine... unless you can conjure up a perfectly good engine right now..."

After saying that, Yang Qiaoxi's gaze involuntarily turned towards the direction of Giant Hill, and then she shook her head to herself.

Searching through the wreckage of those vehicles in Giant's Hill might yield a usable engine, but if it meant returning to Giant's Hill, she'd rather walk to Nanhua Town.

“I figured this car could still run.” Sun Hang turned off the engine and then slammed it down on the hood.

The next second, the off-road vehicle's engine roared up again.

"Holy crap?" Yang Qiaoxi turned around upon hearing the sound, staring incredulously at the engine. "You... how did you do that?"

"Restoring the engine's original structure using liquid metal isn't exactly a complicated operation," Sun Hang shrugged.

"Not complicated...?" Yang Qiaoxi took a deep breath and then exhaled forcefully. "Forget it, let's not worry about that. As long as we can get going... Will you drive or should I drive?"

"You drive, I don't know the way." Sun Hang consciously climbed into the back seat of the car.

Zhulong then sat in the passenger seat.

“Okay, I’ll drive.” Yang Qiaoxi gripped the steering wheel. “But let me make this clear… I’ve actually never been to Nanhua Town before.”

"Do you know the way?"

“I know him.” Yang Qiaoxi nodded. “Actually, we don’t really know each other. After leaving Giant Hill, just drive due west. There are no forks in the road or any obstacles. Anyone would drive the wrong way. This little girl could drive it too.”

“I can’t,” Xue Yue shook her head. “I don’t have a driver’s license.”

"Speaking of which, doesn't the terrain in the uninhabited areas of the Hexi Corridor change frequently?" Zhulong rested his arm on the car window, looking at the desolate Gobi Desert outside, and asked, "Why are you so sure we won't get lost?"

“You’ll soon find out why,” Yang Qiaoxi said.

Less than two kilometers ahead, the land was divided in two along an invisible line. One half remained level, while the other half rose gently, forming a steep slope that seemed to stretch endlessly.

Between the steep slope and the flat ground, an extremely smooth cliff appeared, with layer upon layer of rock clearly visible. These geological structures, like mille-feuille, each layer representing hundreds of millions of years—Zhulong sighed, took out his phone from his pocket, and pressed the shutter button on the cliff.

“Follow this cliff until you reach the ruins of a town, and that’s Nanhua Town,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “So, once you’re here, there’s absolutely no way you’ll get lost.”

"It's hard to imagine how terrifying the force that could lift the Earth's crust must be," Zhulong murmured. "This isn't a continental plate junction, so there's no force of plate compression, and such a smooth cut doesn't resemble the kind of mountain range formed by compression..."

"Who knows about the strange creatures?" Yang Qiaoxi said nonchalantly. "Anyway, your Tian Shu Tower has been researching for so many years and hasn't figured anything out, so we ordinary folks don't need to worry about it... We just need to know which places are safe and which places can be deadly."

"Which category does Nanhua Town fall into?" Zhulong asked.

"It's somewhere in between," Yang Qiaoxi said. "I haven't heard of any powerful monsters here, but it's not exactly a safe zone either."

“Few people come here to carry out missions,” Yang Qiaoxi continued. “The lucrative places in the no-man’s-land have long been searched by hunters and mercenaries, but Nanhua Town, once visited, will never be returned to a second time… Before the federal government abandoned this place, it was already close to being abandoned. Commerce, tourism, and manufacturing are all underdeveloped, and there are no natural resources nearby. It’s no exaggeration to call it a remote and impoverished area.”

Zhulong and Sun Hang exchanged a glance but did not interrupt Yang Qiaoxi.

"To be honest, I was quite surprised when I first heard that the treasure was located in Nanhua Town... but after thinking about it, it made a lot of sense." Yang Qiaoxi said, "The treasure should be located in an inconspicuous place. What's that saying again? 'The greatest hermit lives in the city'... tsk, it doesn't seem quite right here."

"Hey, if you ask me, this place should really develop tourism now. Look at these cliffs, the biggest drop is said to be over 900 meters, half the city is in the sky and half the city is on the ground... With a little packaging and hype, it'll definitely become a popular spot for internet celebrities!"

(End of this chapter)