Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 563 Berserker

After this clash, the hunting parties of the three major families realized the reality and stopped launching strong attacks on the pit... Strangely enough, as soon as the hunting parties of the three major families gave up the attack, the mycelium golems withdrew back to the bottom of the pit with their few prey and never came out again.

Including the hunters who were initially "ambushed," the three families' hunting parties lost a total of twenty-three people. However, for Chen Jing, none of these twenty-three people were as important as Jin Hongyi.

After taking stock of the losses and settling everyone back in, Chen Jing rushed over immediately.

This time, he changed the order of greetings, putting Sun Hang at the top of the list—the words of those retired veterans at the camp made Chen Jing realize that the young hunter who saved his life was likely a master whose strength was no less than that of Zhulong.

Chen Jing's ability to read people was not bad either. He recalled the previous scene and suddenly realized that in this small team in Tian Shu Tower, Sun Hang seemed to be the leader, while Zhu Long seemed to be playing the role of a deputy.

As for the little girl who almost never speaks, she might be a recent intern—but Chen Jing's intuition tells him that even if she is an intern, he should not underestimate her.

Having dealt with infected people and strange creatures for many years, Chen Jing had developed an extremely keen sense of smell. He was certain that this little girl was quite strong. Although she couldn't compare to the other two hunters from the Heavenly Pivot Tower, she was definitely much stronger than the rabble in his hunting party.

"Excuse me, how is Lao Jin doing now?" After exchanging pleasantries, Chen Jing immediately asked about Lao Jin's current situation.

“He hasn’t woken up yet, and even if he does, he’ll probably spend most of the rest of his life in a permafrost coffin.” Sun Hang said, walking to the back of the SUV and pulling open the cargo door.

A chilling coldness immediately spread out as Jin Hongyi's body was placed inside a restraint device made of liquid metal. Outside the restraint device, there was a layer of cold liquid bubbles from the Candle Dragon, which kept the temperature inside the restraint device at a relatively low level.

“Until the Longcheng Research Institute brings the cryogenic coffin here, this is the only way to delay the worsening of the infection process,” Sun Hang said. “General inhibitors only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. To save him, we need to develop an inhibitor specifically based on his meme frequency… Not to mention here, even the local research institutes in Longcheng probably don’t have this capability.”

"Are those two planning to take Lao Jin back to the Heavenly Pivot Tower?" Chen Jing hesitated for a moment before asking, "Will he... will he become a research subject?"

“It’s certain that he will be studied, but I promise I won’t slice him up,” Sun Hang said.

"..." Chen Jing was silent for a few seconds before asking, "May I ask how Lao Jin got infected with the monster meme? That way I can give my father an explanation when I get back."

"You want to know?" Sun Hang glanced at him.

“I think… after all, we all underwent comprehensive testing before setting off, and there were no latent monster memes in Lao Jin’s body… and the source of infection in his monsterized state was obviously not the target of this operation, so I really want to know what infected him.” Chen Jing paused, and then added, “If this matter involves the confidential information of the Tian Shu Tower, then I will consider it an slip of the tongue.”

"Have you ever heard of emotional bizarre behavior?" Sun Hang asked in a low voice.

"I've heard of it." Chen Jing nodded.

Chen Jing's answer surprised Sun Hang a little.

“After the Eternal Night incident, the Tian Shu Tower sent secret letters to the management agencies and armies of various city-states to prevent emotional and bizarre behavior. It’s normal for the three major families, who have close cooperative relationships with the Dragon City Defense Army, to know about this,” Zhu Long explained.

“Now you know the answer,” Sun Hang said to Chen Jing.

"You mean... Old Jin is emotionally deranged? Then what are his emotions...?" Chen Jing recalled what Sun Hang had said when he was rescued. At that time, his mind was blank. Now, thinking back, it seemed that the young hunter in front of him had already given him the answer.

"Is it anger?" Chen Jing asked Sun Hang again to confirm.

"Okay." Sun Hang closed the carriage door and returned to the front of the car.

A laptop was sitting on the hood. Although Chen Jing knew he shouldn't look at the screen, his eyes still involuntarily drifted over.

The interface on the screen appeared to be a dialog box for some kind of artificial intelligence software, except that the background of the dialog box had a faded Tian Shu Tower emblem.

“If there’s anything else you want to know, you can ask the mainframe.” Sun Hang pointed to the laptop. “If you have the authority to know something, the mainframe will naturally tell you; but if you shouldn’t know something, the mainframe won’t tell you even if you ask.”

"The mainframe?" Chen Jing's breathing quickened. "You mean... the supercomputer in the Tian Shu Tower that processes all kinds of data and information?"

"It seems the three major families do know quite a lot," Sun Hang muttered.

Chen Jing suddenly felt like he was dreaming. He did know about the existence of the "main brain," but he never thought he would have the opportunity to communicate directly with it. Just this qualification alone would be something that everyone in Dragon City, no, in the entire Federation's powerful families would fight tooth and nail for.

Chen Jing looked at Sun Hang with great surprise—could this young hunter's authority be higher than that of a senior researcher at the Tian Shu Tower?
Chen Jing remembered clearly that his father had told him that even senior researchers at the Tian Shu Tower had to go through layers of approval to directly use the supercomputer, and the entire process had to be kept confidential; no data could be leaked. And this person had actually "lent" him, an outsider, the mainframe's communication access…

If this is a violation of the rules, not only will the young hunter bear enormous responsibility, but he himself... and even the Chen family will be implicated.

For a moment, Chen Jing wondered if this was a trap—but he quickly dismissed the thought.

Would someone capable of direct communication with the mastermind need to use a trap to frame the Chen family? Or rather, would they need to resort to such a tactic?
He could easily wipe out the hard work of the Chen family, one of the three major families in Longcheng, after nearly a hundred years of effort over four generations, overnight with just a casual remark… Chen Jing had no doubt about this. “I…can I really ask?” Chen Jing’s fingers trembled slightly.

"Hmm," Sun Hang replied with a slightly perfunctory nasal sound.

Perhaps... perhaps this is just a data retrieval program written using the mainframe's computing power, and then nested within a civilian or military AI program framework...

With that thought in mind, Chen Jing forced himself to calm down and placed his hands on the keyboard.

Before he could even press the first key, a gentle female voice came from the computer speakers: "Hello, I am the main control supercomputer of Tian Shu Tower. How can I help you?"

"I...I want to..." Chen Jing's lips moved slightly. If this voice really came from the main brain, he had many things he wanted to ask...but if he really did that, he would probably get himself into big trouble.

After a fierce internal struggle, he forced himself to abandon these thoughts and asked directly, "Can you tell me the reason for Kim Hong-yi's infection?"

“Okay,” the mainframe replied. “Based on the data obtained from on-site observations, Jin Hongyi’s infection can most likely be classified as ‘emotional metamorphosis,’ which is the metamorphosis of a meme that occurs spontaneously within the body after a sentient being’s negative emotions accumulate to a certain critical threshold. This type of infection has no prior warning signs, no external source of infection, and can occur under any circumstances, making it the most dangerous and difficult-to-prevent type of infection.”

"Is there any chance he can be saved?" Chen Jing asked again. "Is he considered an infected person or a monster now?"

"After emergency treatment, Jin Hongyi's infection process has been temporarily brought under control," the mastermind replied. "As for whether he has been completely corrupted, further testing is needed to determine that."

"Are there similar cases of infection? Have any people who have undergone such emotional and bizarre transformations been saved?"

"Yes, in the year 4592 of the Chinese calendar, in the Europa Alliance, a soldier named Tom Collins was seriously wounded and on the verge of death on the battlefield. After his unit abandoned him and retreated, Tom, who should have been a corpse, roared and stood up. He overturned a heavy tank weighing 67 tons with his bare hands and tore apart 42 enemy soldiers under the fierce fire of the enemy before being killed."

"After Tom died, the enemy army attempted to recover his remains, but they were completely pulverized and could not be recovered with the technology available at the time. Therefore, no samples or research reports have survived. Based on the limited information available, it can be roughly determined that Tom Collins underwent an emotional transformation while in a near-death state, and the emotion that caused this transformation was likely 'anger' or 'despair'."

"Tom Collins was called 'Berserker' by enemy soldiers, and this emotional meme has been tentatively named after him. However, due to insufficient evidence to support the authenticity of this event, the eerie meme has not been officially archived."

“Berserker…that’s a good name,” Sun Hang suddenly said. “If Jin Hongyi becomes a hunter, his codename will be ‘Berserker.’ If he becomes a monster, then that monster will also be called ‘Berserker’…it’s very fitting!”

"Are you planning to take him to Egypt?" Zhulong's expression suddenly became somewhat strange.

"What's wrong? Is it not allowed?" Sun Hang asked back.

"Even if his infection is brought under control, given his original personality and the influence of this emotional meme, the risk of him getting out of control is still very high..."

“Then freeze him for the whole time, and release him when it’s time to fight,” Sun Hang said. “Besides the berserker meme, I also discovered another characteristic in him.”

"What characteristics?"

“After being infected with the Berserker meme, he developed an extremely strong aversion to all other memes,” Sun Hang said. “He’s like an insulator; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he’s immune to everything. Any other meme that comes into contact with him or enters his body will produce an extremely strong rejection reaction… If Taotie can devour and absorb all types of memes, then his situation is exactly the opposite of Taotie.”

“In other words, just based on this characteristic alone, he is an extremely strategically significant humanoid weapon,” Sun Hang said. “Remember Chimera 17? If we had made a hole in Chimera 17 back then and thrown him in, I reckon Chimera 17 would have been in serious trouble.”

The two spoke very softly, and Chen Jing's attention was completely focused on the files related to Tom Collins that the mainframe had found. Therefore, he did not hear their conversation at all, nor did he know that Sun Hang had already selected Jin Hongyi as one of the candidates to go to Egypt.

……

"So, what are your plans next?" Seeing that Chen Jing had finished reading the files, Sun Hang walked over, closed his laptop, patted him on the shoulder, and asked.

"We have to admit that we underestimated the strength of the target monsters." Chen Jing sighed. "We're already struggling to deal with these offspring monsters. Once we enter the pit area, we'll probably only encounter stronger individuals. Therefore, we will not launch any more attacks on the pit for the time being until reinforcements arrive."

"Reinforcements? What kind of reinforcements do you mean? Those people coming from all over the Federation?" Sun Hang asked.

“I suppose so.” Chen Jing nodded. “I just sent the situation back to Dragon City. The three major families are forming a second hunting party. This party will be led by the eldest daughter of the Bai family. As for the members, in addition to local hunters and mercenaries from Dragon City, we will also consider recruiting people who come from other places. They will depart from Dragon City after a brief period of training and are expected to arrive within ten days.”

"Ten days... I'm afraid the supplies won't be enough," Sun Hang said.

“We have brought enough supplies to last for three months. Please feel free to take what you need,” Chen Jing said immediately.

“I’m referring to those people.” Sun Hang pointed to Charles’s group. These hunters and mercenaries were originally there to search for treasure, not to participate in such a large-scale hunting operation. Therefore, they did not carry much ammunition or food. Now, it has been almost a week since they left Yumen, and many of them are running out of supplies.

Fresh water is especially scarce—although the Gobi Desert in the Hexi Corridor is not a desert, fresh water is still a very rare resource. It hardly rains here, and the few water sources that exist have been contaminated by strange creatures, making them unsuitable even for washing, let alone drinking.

(End of this chapter)