Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 536 Golden Chips
"Alright, let's meet at the North Gate of Longcheng at four o'clock tomorrow morning," Lei Ge said.

"By the way, Brother Lei, what's the mission?" Only then did the original owner realize that he had accepted a mission, but he didn't even know what the mission was about.

"A hunting team discovered a mine near Nanhua Town. Two people went down, but they haven't come back up," Brother Lei said. "One of the two who went down was a childhood friend of the eldest son of the Song family. The eldest son of the Song family has put an eight million bounty on his head in the industry, saying he wants to see him alive or dead. Do you understand now?"

"Understood! Understood!" the original owner hurriedly replied. "Um... Brother Lei, which Song family is the eldest young master of the Song family?"

"Don't pry into the affairs of the upper class!" Brother Lei's tone suddenly turned cold. "What, you want to directly establish connections with those young masters and ladies so I won't have to cut off your brokerage fee?"

"How could I dare! I'm just curious... I've never heard of a wealthy family with the surname Song in Longcheng. This young master is really bold, willing to spend a fortune for his friend."

"There are plenty of things you haven't heard of. Make sure you have all your gear ready tomorrow, and don't be late," Brother Lei said. "If you're late, you know the consequences yourself."

"I understand! Um, Brother Lei..."

The original owner seemed to want to ask something more, but the man called Brother Lei hung up the phone directly.

"Damn it!" The original owner cursed immediately after putting down his phone, "They take half the commission... What a fucking bastard..."

But as he continued hurling insults, he quickly calmed down.

The reason those creditors were willing to lend him money was not because of his good credit or because he had someone backing him up, but purely because of the original owner's identity as a monster hunter. In other places, it would be difficult for monster hunters to monetize their abilities, but in Dragon City, as long as you have the skills, the courage, and a bit of luck, apart from those businesses that make money from money, no other profession can compare to the speed at which a monster hunter can make money.

But after accumulating a large gambling debt, the original owner discovered something—the agencies that used to offer him jobs rarely offered him any lucrative ones anymore. When he asked them, they would find various reasons to refuse or simply tell him that they were already full.

Only this Brother Lei would appear like a savior whenever the original owner was being harassed by debt collectors to the point of desperation, giving him a task with both high rewards and a high degree of danger.

Not only that, this Brother Lei's commission was also very high—in Longcheng, most agencies only take one to three percent commission, and even for some popular tasks, the highest commission wouldn't exceed ten percent. But the first time Brother Lei approached the original owner, he demanded a whopping twenty-five percent.

The original owner was already at his wit's end, and despite his reluctance, he had no choice but to agree.

Subsequently, the percentage taken by Lei Ge began to increase, from 25% to 30%, then to 40%... This time, Lei Ge even took half of the reward.

But he had no choice... If he refused, he would be homeless tomorrow, with ever-increasing interest rates and an endless stream of professional debt collectors waiting for him.

He had heard someone say that there was once a hunter who was heavily in debt from gambling and couldn't pay it back. That man originally thought that no one would dare to touch him because of his identity as a monster hunter, but the next day he was drugged and carried out of Dragon City. When that man woke up, he was already in Jade Gate.

The hunter then "naturally" perished during an exploration mission, leaving behind a "will" to donate his body to a private research institution.

The original owner didn't want to be dismembered and stuffed into a freezer in some shady clinic, so he had no choice but to bow his head.

Strangely enough, every time he took on a task from Brother Lei, the debt collection calls and text messages would stop for a while, and the professional debt collectors who were watching him would disappear as if they had vanished into thin air.

He knew there was something fishy going on, but so what... Whether it was Boss Chen or Brother Lei, they were people he couldn't afford to offend.

Hunters... hunters are nothing. Lei Ge was absolutely right. Dragon City has no shortage of hunters.

With enough money, many problems are not problems here.

As long as you have money, even those hunters who were once famous on the leaderboard will risk their lives for you... and these hunters at the very bottom of the leaderboard, the least famous ones, can crush the original owner like an insect. What temper could he possibly have?

What temper could he possibly have?

Strength is useful in this world, but it has to be strong enough.

The original owner was slightly stronger than an ordinary person, but only slightly.

"You have to be rich," the original owner said in a low voice, sitting on the edge of the bed. "As long as you have money, even the King of Heaven would have to kneel down and lick my shoes."

"As long as I get this 100,000, I can win a million, and then use that million to win ten million... I will win, I can win... Last time I was just unlucky... I've been so unlucky for so long, it's time for my luck to turn around... As long as I keep winning, beautiful women, powerful underlings, mansions and luxury cars will all be mine... At that time, even someone like Brother Lei will have to bow down to me... What Young Master Song, from now on I will be Young Master Qi..."

As he spoke, he slowly lay down, his mind already conjuring up images of a future of extravagance and debauchery. In his hazy vision, he seemed to see Brother Lei's fawning smile, so he pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket and slapped it hard across the other man's face.

The other party immediately knelt down like a dog and picked up the banknotes that had fallen to the ground with his mouth... At some point, a fluffy tail grew out of Brother Lei's butt and shook it vigorously at the original owner.

……

Sweet dreams are always fleeting. When the jarring alarm clock woke the original owner up, there were less than thirty minutes left before the gathering time.

"Holy crap!" The original owner glanced at the alarm clock that had already rung for the third time, and hurriedly put on his clothes, shoes and socks with a look of frustration. He then grabbed the backpack next to him and stuffed the things he had thrown on the table into it haphazardly.

After quickly packing his gear, he didn't even bother to brush his teeth or wash his face; he grabbed his backpack and rushed out of the room. A drunkard was lying in the corridor of the cheap hotel. The original owner simply stepped over him, then two seconds later, he turned back, rummaged through the drunkard's pockets, and pulled out a few coins.

"Damn it, you poor dog!" the original owner muttered under his breath, then rushed downstairs, hopped on a shared bicycle by the roadside, and sped towards the north gate.

Fortunately, the traffic in Longcheng hadn't started to get congested at 4 a.m., and the original owner managed to arrive at the meeting point just two minutes before the deadline.

Four hunters and a fully armed mercenary group were already waiting there. Looking at the disheveled original owner, the group unconsciously revealed a complex mix of disdain, doubt, and disgust in their eyes. One of the female hunters, who was wearing heavy makeup, even said directly, "Is this guy one of our teammates? What a damn bad luck."

"What's wrong? I'm not late! You'd better watch your mouth!" The original owner glared at the woman, completely unaware that his pants were undone, his shirt buttons were fastened in the wrong place, his greasy and dirty hair was covered with unidentified white debris, and his dirty coat looked like it hadn't been washed in a long time. He looked as slovenly as a homeless person who had crawled out of a garbage dump.

"Alright, stop wasting time, get in the car." A male hunter who was nearly two meters tall said. This man was Lei Ge's subordinate and the leader of this operation. In fact, Lei Ge had never shown his face in front of the original owner. On the contrary, this hunter had already cooperated with the original owner to complete several missions.

The group hired to carry out the mission climbed into the back of a truck, while the hunter leading the team got into another SUV... The scene shifts to the mine in Nanhua Town, which is where Sun Hang and his group are now.

In his memory, dozens of hours had passed, but in reality, only two seconds had passed. Sun Hang's brain was already in a state where it could receive information to the maximum extent, but even so, the hunter's memory information was still fading, and some images were gradually becoming distorted and unreal.

“Strange, the person isn’t dead yet…” Sun Hang glanced at the hunter bound by mycelium. This guy still had vital signs. Logically speaking, before a person dies, the meme won’t disappear, and the memory information within the meme won’t be lost… And after these memes were devoured by Sun Hang, the memory information within them would be “permanently” preserved. You see, deep in Sun Hang’s mind, there are many memory information that don’t belong to him. Whenever he has free time, Sun Hang would always pick and choose from this mountain of memory garbage, deleting the useless things and then classifying and storing the useful information.

"Could it be because of that strange creature?" Sun Hang muttered to himself. "My other memories are very clear, but they start to blur after I get close to the mine... So it seems most likely that the strange creature is behind it. The monk outside also said that his memory is also fading..."

Sun Hang took a deep breath, gave Zhulong an OK sign, and continued browsing the hunter's memories.

After arriving at the pit, they split into two groups: one group stayed on top, while the other group took the elevator that Sun Hang and the others had just used to enter the pit.

The original owner of the memories was naturally assigned to the group that went into the pit by the hunter leader—the original owner didn't resist much, just muttered a complaint, and then obediently crawled into the elevator car.

Besides the original owner of this body, the heavily made-up female hunter and three mercenaries were also assigned to enter the pit. All of them showed reluctant expressions, but since they had been paid, no one said anything and they all obeyed the leader hunter's assignment.

“I’ve shown you the photos and details of the missing person on the way here. Remember, the most important task of this operation is to find the target. Avoid combat as much as possible. Even if there’s something at the bottom of the pit, ignore it as long as it doesn’t interfere with our mission,” the hunter leader said. “You have one hour to explore. After one hour, whether you find anything or not, you must return to the elevator. Do you all understand?”

"Understood--"

The scene shifts, and the original owner of the memory and his unfortunate teammates have entered a deep tunnel. The original owner and the female hunter walk in front, while the three fully armed soldiers follow behind them with guns at their sides, using the searchlights on their helmets and the tactical flashlights attached to their rifles for illumination.

It's clear that this tunnel isn't the one Sun Hang is currently in. Judging from the rock strata, it should be located deeper in the mine.

"Finally, we can see some valuable information." Sun Hang breathed a sigh of relief and then injected a small amount of diluted life force into the body of the original owner of the memory—he couldn't die before Sun Hang finished reading this memory.

"Could we have taken the wrong path?" the original owner said, looking around. "There aren't even any footprints on the ground. Maybe those missing people didn't take this route."

"If it's not this road, then what other road is there?" the hunter scoffed. "There hasn't been a single fork in the road along the way. Do you think they could squeeze into those narrow cavities in the rock strata?"

"Who knows?" the original owner of the memories muttered softly. "I think it's normal for anything to happen when it comes to things related to ghosts."

Just then, the three mercenaries suddenly stopped, and one of them whispered, "Look at the wall!"

On the wall to the right of the tunnel, there is a blue paintbrush mark that is clearly recent – ​​a circle about the size of a palm with an X that intersects with it.

“These must be the traces they left behind!” another mercenary said.

"But what does this symbol mean?" the original owner muttered. "Is this a dead end? Did they turn back here?"

"Do you know what this symbol means?" The mercenaries looked at each other, puzzled.

“This symbol is actually quite common…it usually means things like ‘prohibited,’ ‘not allowed,’ or ‘termination.’” The female hunter frowned as well. “But I really can’t figure out what it means when it’s drawn here.”

Just as the group was racking their brains over the symbols on the wall, the original owner caught a glimpse of something lying on the ground in the shadows of the lamplight.

He moved over discreetly, then stepped on the thing, and then squatted down as if tying his shoelaces, quickly scooping the thing into his hand.

"Coins? Gold coins?" Sun Hang was taken aback. Through the original owner's memories, he instantly understood what these were.

This is a type of chip used at the casino that the original owner frequented—which is also the largest casino in Dragon City.

This chip is the highest denomination gold chip, worth 10,000 yuan in cash.

The original owner's breathing became slightly rapid.

(End of this chapter)