Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 566 Combat Power Test
After entering the stadium, Cheng Ming was guided to the basketball court by staff. After filling out a simple form, the staff member asked him to wait in the basketball court's lounge and told him that he could take the food and drinks in the lounge at will. If he needed anything else, he could ask any staff member wearing a Bai Group uniform within his sight.

The lounge wasn't large, and there were only about a dozen hunters who had been assigned there. In the corner were two freezers filled with various drinks and ice cream. Next to the freezers was a food cart with three levels. The top two levels were filled with delicate pastries and cold dishes, while the bottom level had high-end-looking metal cutlery and bone china plates with gold trim.

Several hunters had already gathered around. They were too lazy to use cutlery and simply grabbed the desserts with their hands and put them in their mouths. While eating, they commented on the texture and taste of the desserts. Some even picked up the plates containing a whole category of food and took them aside to enjoy them alone, which drew criticism and complaints from the other hunters.

"Tch, a bunch of bumpkins from some backwater, never seen the world." A young male hunter sat down not far from Cheng Ming, frowning as he looked at the group of hunters surrounding the food cart.

“Exactly, exactly. They treat a bunch of pre-made desserts and frozen dishes that are just heated up in the microwave like they’re treasures,” a female hunter with light blonde hair chimed in. “It’s shameful… It’s so unlucky to be in the same room as these people.”

Cheng Ming glanced at the bracelets of the two hunters—although the core chips of the hunter bracelets were all produced by the Tian Shu Tower, the outer shells used by different city-states were slightly different. Cheng Ming could tell at a glance that the two hunters came from Shencheng, a metropolis in the eastern part of the Federation.

Liangzhu and Kuaiji are not far from Shanghai. During some exchange activities, Cheng Ming met many hunters from Shanghai. He was quite impressed with the hunter bracelets produced by the Shanghai Mystery Research Institute.

However, judging from some details on the wristbands of the two people, they should be free hunters, rather than registered hunters belonging to the Shanghai Mystery Research Institute.

Cheng Ming suddenly remembered He Dawei—He Dawei participated in this operation with the aim of buying a house in Shencheng so that he could transfer his household registration from Liangzhu to Shencheng. His reason for doing so was simple: Shencheng offered hunters much higher subsidies than Liangzhu, making it the city with the best hunter benefits in the entire Federation, except for Chunming City and those border city-states where wars frequently broke out.

Cheng Ming didn't take the free food or chat with the other hunters in the rest room. He took his number tag, went to a quiet corner, sat down, and began to rest with his eyes closed.

His serial number is 116, so it's estimated that we won't be able to call him for a while.

"Are you a little nervous?" A soft voice came from beside his ear. Cheng Ming's body trembled slightly, and he opened his eyes and turned his head to look.

The sound came from a cold, hard wall, where the wallpaper was slightly faded.

"It's you?" Cheng Ming murmured to himself.

"Besides me... who else could it be? Hehe." The voice chuckled. "With me here, you don't need to be nervous."

"Will you help me?" Cheng Ming asked.

However, the other party's voice never rang out again, as if it had completely vanished.

In a daze, the loudspeaker in the lounge called out Cheng Ming's number: "Registrant number 116, please report to venue number five. Registrant number 116, please report to venue number five..."

"So fast?" Cheng Ming was slightly taken aback. In his perception, it had only been less than five minutes since he sat down in this corner. Could he really finish testing the 115 people in front of him in just five minutes?
Cheng Ming turned to look at the food cart. There was hardly any food left on it, and a pile of messy tableware and food scraps were piled up there, making it look like a mess. The freezer next to it was also mostly emptied, and an empty beverage bottle rolled to Cheng Ming's feet.

Has it been a long time? Cheng Ming wondered to himself... Could it be that the flow of time was unknowingly sped up while he was talking to that voice?

The announcement had been made for the third time: "Please register at venue number 116 and report to venue number 5." Cheng Ming stood up and walked out of the lounge.

The staff waiting in the corridor immediately came up to him. After confirming Cheng Ming's number and personal information, they took him directly into a venue that had undergone extensive renovations.

The venue was set up like an interview room. Five “interviewers” ​​sat in a small room made of protective glass, while Cheng Ming was led into another, larger, transparent room.

“These are necessary safety measures, please understand,” said the female “interviewer” sitting on the far left.

Her voice came from the speakers in the room.

Cheng Ming nodded.

The five "interviewers" consisted of two women and three men. Apart from the middle-aged woman on the far left, a young girl who looked to be no more than twenty years old sat in the main seat in the middle. This girl stared at Cheng Ming expressionlessly—although she was expressionless, Cheng Ming felt that her expression seemed very unnatural, or rather… stiff.

If it weren't for the human skin mask covering her face, she would most likely be expressionless.

Behind the girl stood a slender woman in a suit and trousers. The woman wore a mask with a breathing valve and a pair of brown frameless glasses. Her long, thick, and smooth hair was tied into a simple ponytail at the back of her head. The most memorable feature of her was probably the several strands of white hair mixed in with her long black hair. It was unclear whether this was due to a congenital lack of pigmentation or dyed white hair.

"Number 116, Cheng Ming, belongs to the Kuaiji Mystery Research Institute, and is a registered hunter." The burly man sitting to the right of the expressionless girl, wearing a desert-colored camouflage combat uniform without any markings, spoke up. "Is this information correct?"

"Yes."

"In principle, as a civilian organization, we have no right to inquire about your infected memes and memetic abilities. However, this is, after all, a recruitment drive for hunters, and we need to have at least a general understanding of the applicants' abilities," the burly man continued. "First, we need to determine whether your abilities are combat-oriented or support-oriented... This is very important, as it determines your role within the hunter group, and I hope you will tell us the truth. Combat-oriented hunters are more dangerous than support-oriented ones, but the extra rewards are also higher. However, if you are a support-oriented hunter, please do not lie about your ability type. From the hunter group's perspective, this could lead to misallocation of tasks; and from your personal perspective, incorrect work could more easily put you in mortal danger."

Cheng Ming opened his mouth, and just as he was about to subconsciously say "support type", time seemed to stand still, and the expressions of the five "interviewers" all froze there.

The next second, the expressionless girl sitting in the middle seemed to have changed her face and smiled at Cheng Ming.

Cheng Ming recognized that smile—not long ago, the pure white-clad girl who changed the course of Cheng Ming's life had shown him the same smile.

Almost... no, exactly the same!
The girl spoke, but no sound came out. Instead, she mouthed to Cheng Ming, "Combat type."

Cheng Ming frowned slightly.

The girl mouthed again, "Do as I say."

In the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. The expressionless girl remained expressionless, while the other four "interviewers" scrutinized Cheng Ming with varying expressions. "Support...combat type," Cheng Ming said.

"You seem to have hesitated for a moment." A hint of suspicion flashed in the burly man's eyes. "You seemed to have initially intended to say a support type?"

“Combat type,” Cheng Ming repeated calmly.

“I hope you heard what I just said clearly. If you lie about your abilities, you might be assigned to a job that isn’t right for you… In the worst case, you’ll die.” The burly man’s tone became much harsher.

“Combat type,” Cheng Ming added. “There’s no false reporting.”

"Alright, since it's a combat type, how about a simple combat capability test?" the burly man said coldly.

“Okay.” Cheng Ming nodded.

Two cracks appeared in the floor in front of him, and two rectangular cabinets, one large and one small, rose up from beneath the floor.

The smaller cabinet was about a meter tall and half a meter square, within Cheng Ming's reach. The larger cabinet, however, looked like a coffin and stood ten meters away from Cheng Ming.

"There are some simple weapons in the cabinet in front of you. You can take any one you like, depending on your fighting style," the burly man said. "Just let me know when you're ready, and we'll begin the test."

Cheng Ming opened the cabinet, which contained several standard military daggers, a 9mm pistol, and several magazines loaded with bullets.

Cheng Ming handed over all the weapons and equipment he was carrying to the Bai Group staff for safekeeping. According to the staff, it was forbidden to bring any weapons when participating in the selection process, and the Bai Group would provide everything needed during the selection process, including weapons.

“If you have any special weapons, you can apply to us,” the burly man said. “However, judging from the weapons you’ve temporarily stored, you originally only carried two military daggers and a pistol, and you’re using conventional bullets. These should be the weapons you usually use, right?”

Cheng Ming nodded, picked up the pistol and put it in its holster, then picked up two daggers, inserting one into the empty scabbard at his lower back and holding the other in his hand.

“I’m ready,” Cheng Ming said.

“Alright.” The burly man nodded, and the weapon cabinet immediately lowered, leaving only the coffin-like cabinet standing there. “The test subject is the G09 special-purpose bio-robot developed by Bai’s Military Industry. The robot’s internal frame is an artificial mechanical skeleton, but it is wrapped in a kind of artificially cultivated monster that resembles muscle. The physical strength of this monster will adjust itself according to the intensity of the attack. If you find that you cannot defeat it, please stop attacking immediately and inform me, and I will stop the test immediately.”

Cheng Ming gripped the dagger tightly.

The cabinet opened, and a humanoid figure, standing at least 1.9 meters tall, stepped out.

Although it is called a robot, G09 looks no different from a naked adult human man. Its body is covered with muscles that have a texture very similar to rubber, and the proportions of its torso and limbs are exactly the same as those of a human. The only difference in appearance is that it lacks an organ for reproduction.

On its head, there was even a short layer of transplanted hair. Its entire face was covered by a metal mask, so its facial features could not be seen. Only the pair of electronic eyes that gleamed coldly on the mask could be seen.

"Adjust the G09's monster cell activity limiter to 10%, and the mechanical exoskeleton power to 25% of its maximum value," the burly man said to the technicians in the backstage area, picking up the walkie-talkie.

The next second, G09's limbs instantly made a series of bizarre and flexible "warm-up movements", and the "muscles" and "joints" all over its body burst out with a series of crackling sounds.

"The test begins!"

As soon as the burly man finished speaking, G09 shot towards Cheng Ming at an extremely fast speed, just like a cannonball!

Cheng Ming instinctively tried to dodge, but he suddenly realized that the flow of time seemed to have slowed down a lot. The word "begin" in the burly man's "test begins" was drawn out with a long trailing sound, and the movement of G09 rushing towards him was slowed down countless times. Cheng Ming could even see the distorted air around G09's body and the floor under its feet being slowly deformed by its weight.

What does it feel like? !

Cheng Ming was horrified, but he casually dodged G09's first attack and plunged the dagger in his hand deep into G09's back muscles.

The tip of the dagger felt extremely stiff, as if it were cutting into a piece of very dense rubber.

Cheng Ming and G09 passed each other, the dagger flew out of his hand and smashed against the wall of the glass room with a crisp sound.

G09 slowly turned around, staring intently at Cheng Ming with its piercing electronic eyes.

The cut on its back healed quickly, leaving only a barely noticeable mark.

Cheng Ming rubbed his wrist—the impact of the brief exchange had not only caused the dagger to fly out of his hand, but had also twisted his wrist.

"Quick reflexes, but lacking in strength," the burly man commented in a low voice. "The research institute should equip this type of hunter with weapons that complement his abilities..."

G09 didn't give Cheng Ming much time to catch his breath. It charged at Cheng Ming again, this time at a much faster speed than before.

However, in Cheng Ming's eyes, G09's movements were still very slow... The air around it was like thick glue, making every movement of itss extremely difficult.

Cheng Ming drew his pistol and aimed it at G09's head.

(End of this chapter)