Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 549 1%
At the forty-fifth minute, the clump of cotton began to slowly crawl towards the giant cordyceps in the pit, until it fell into the pit and completely disappeared from Sun Hang's sight.

"Is this considered a return to the mother body?" Sun Hang muttered.

"So it seems these spores that split off aren't independent individuals, but rather daughter plants that collect nutrients for the mother," Zhulong pondered. "Don't you think this fungal-like creature is somewhat similar to the flesh-eating ants that Nagano Soya and his group encountered?"

“These kinds of creatures are not uncommon,” the mastermind said. “There are a total of 674 types of creatures that use a honeycomb-like mind network to control the entire group and rely on offspring to provide nutrients to the mother. Apart from the giant fungal creature discovered in this operation, there are 19 types of such creatures in the no-man’s-land of the Hexi Corridor alone.”

"So, is this kind of strange creature a group, or just a single strange creature?" Zhulong asked.

“Theoretically speaking, both interpretations are acceptable,” the mastermind replied. “Some scholars advocate for a more detailed classification based on certain characteristic details of these strange creatures, but this proposal has not been accepted by the mainstream school of thought. Several heated debates have taken place, but each one has ended inconclusively. Therefore, the specific definition of these strange creatures remains quite vague…”

"That's quite in line with my stereotypes about the current state of research on strange creatures," Zhulong chuckled helplessly. "They're tearing each other apart over such trivial matters..."

"Do those research fanatics even care about this kind of thing?"

“Of course I care. The more obsessed someone is with studying strange creatures, the more likely they are to get stuck on a rut.” Zhulong sighed. “Just last year, two researchers from the Tian Shu Tower got into a fight over naming a newly discovered fragment of a strange creature meme. One of them broke three ribs and his nose, and the other suffered extensive burns to his face from acid… Both of them were severely punished in the end, and if I remember correctly, their punishments should still be in effect.”

"Just for the naming of a meme fragment? Is it about authorship rights in a paper?" Sun Hang couldn't understand.

"No...it was their advisor who discovered that meme fragment. Their names only ranked fifth or sixth in the author list of that paper..." Zhulong laughed. "And the fragment they wanted to name was only a part of the entire meme fragment. There are at least a hundred places like this in the meme that need naming..."

"What are they arguing about? Anyone who didn't know better would think they were fighting over a wife..." Sun Hang couldn't help but complain. "By the way, what did they name that meme fragment?"

"One of them named it according to the standard rules. I forgot the exact name, but it was a combination of letters and numbers. I only remember that the last six digits were 070401, which symbolized that this was the first meme fragment deciphered on July 4th. But the other researcher believed that he completed the deciphering work while working overtime late into the night. He entered the data into the archive at 11:57 PM on July 3rd. Although the data review was completed after midnight and the archive was entered at midnight the next day, the last six digits of the meme fragment had to be changed to 070309, otherwise it would be a denial of his hard work working overtime late into the night... Uh, I remember that guy saying something like that."

"Just for... a few numbers?" Sun Hang scratched his head. "And then?"

"Then that guy grabbed a bottle of reagent containing strong acid and threw it at another person..." Zhulong shrugged. "I happened to be reporting for duty in the field department at that time when I heard the alarm in the tower and rushed straight to the laboratory building. When I arrived, the two guys had already been pinned to the ground by security personnel with riot forks."

Sun Hang: "..."

“That’s why I’d rather deal with the normal people in the field operations department than with those guys in white coats,” Zhulong said. “Although the guys in charge of the Tian Shu Tower’s field operations department have all sorts of bad habits, at least their thought processes are normal.”

“The federal government is burying its head in the sand, and the people kept in the Tian Shu Tower are all lunatics…” Sun Hang couldn’t help but sigh, “It’s a fucking miracle that human civilization has been able to continue to this day.”

“Not everyone is crazy… Those researchers haven’t been in contact with society for a long time, and they don’t have normal entertainment or social activities. They just squeeze their brains dry with all kinds of experimental equipment and data reports all day long… It’s almost impossible for them not to have psychological problems after a while,” Zhulong said. “However, people like Elder Pei and the other high-ranking members of the Tian Shu Tower are very farsighted… I suggest you spend more time with them when you have time. After all, the operation of the Tian Shu Tower cannot be completely left to the main brain…” Zhulong hesitated for a moment before adding in a low voice, “The fate of humanity… should still be in the hands of humanity itself.”

After saying this, he glanced at the communication terminal hanging on Sun Hang's waist.

The mastermind did not express any opinion on this, seemingly tacitly agreeing with Zhulong's statement.

……

……

After breaking out of the flesh-eating ants' territory, Nagano Soya glanced back at the plumes of smoke rising in the distance, mourned for a few seconds, and then focused his gaze back on the road ahead.

Before entering the territory of the flesh-eating ants, he used the supercomputer built into the White Tiger to calculate the survival rate of the entire convoy. The computer told him that at least two-thirds of the people would survive. However, after the black "spring water" gushed out from the countless "spring eyes", this number began to drop wildly, and it only stopped when it was down to 1%.

And that 1% refers to himself.

Apart from the White Tiger, no one can survive the relentless, 360-degree attack of the Flesh-Eating Ants. The White Tiger can use its energy shield and the jet's exhaust flames to burn the Flesh-Eating Ants in its path, but when faced with swarms of ants attacking the convoy from all directions, the White Tiger can only protect itself.

With a flick of his wrist, he burned away the remaining flesh-eating ants on the exterior of the two metal boxes, and then opened the two equipment boxes that were riddled with holes.

"My luck was alright," Nagano Soya sighed softly.

Inside the box, there is another layer for shock absorption. The flesh-eating ants that have burrowed into the box have not yet broken through this layer made of gel-like polymer, and the energy blocks and ammunition inside the box have not yet been damaged by them.

After removing the energy blocks and ammunition and attaching them to the equipment rack on the back of the machine, Nagano Soya piloted the White Tiger slowly towards Nanhua Town.

He glanced at the Hunter Forum, which was refreshing rapidly. Almost everyone was discussing the exorbitant bounty that had just been posted, and many others had already embarked on their journey to this place.

"It seems... many more people are going to die."

(End of this chapter)