Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 567 Reaction Speed
Cheng Ming was quite confident in his marksmanship. After all, the only weapon he could effectively kill the monsters was a firearm. In addition, the Monster Research Institute received a large number of bullets nearing their expiration date for training every year. Cheng Ming would spend most of his free time practicing at the shooting range. Only at this time could he completely immerse himself in the task, forget his mother's illness, forget his memetic infection, forget the trivial matters in his life, and forget the loan bills that were about to expire.

Aim, hold your breath, and pull the trigger.

Feel the recoil travel from your palm, wrist, and arm all the way to your shoulder...

"Bang! Bang! Bang bang!!"

First, he hit G09 between the eyebrows with a single shot, then, as if by muscle memory, he fired two more shots into G09's chest, and finally moved the gun back to his head to deliver the final shot.

G09 stopped moving.

The metal mask on G09's face did not appear to be bulletproof; two bullets that hit her head pierced through the mask and entered her brain.

The bullet wound to its chest left two obvious holes, and the surrounding tissue quickly turned purplish-black and swelled up rapidly—looking just like a human body with ruptured blood vessels and rapidly congested subcutaneous tissue.

“G09 can’t keep up with him,” the burly man whispered to the technician. “Increase the activity limit of the monster cells by five percent, and double the output power of the mechanical exoskeleton.”

Before Cheng Ming could put down his gun, the electronic eye of G09, which had been turned off, lit up again, and the brightness was even greater than before.

The bruising and swelling subsided rapidly, and the grotesque tissues wriggled and spat out the bullets embedded in the flesh.

The bullet fell to the floor with a crisp clanging sound.

In just three seconds, all of G09's injuries had healed.

Cheng Ming frowned slightly. With his abilities, this was already his limit. If even this kind of attack had no effect on G09, then he would have no choice but to stop the test.

G09 changed its previous swift offensive and slowly walked towards Cheng Ming.

It seems to want to corner Cheng Ming and then launch an attack on him.

Cheng Ming fired and retreated, but the nine-millimeter pistol bullets that had just stopped the G09 from operating now couldn't even penetrate the G09's "skin." Apart from the kinetic energy attached to the bullet causing the G09 to sway slightly, the pistol was no longer a threat to the G09.

"Thud." Cheng Ming's back slammed against the hard glass wall; he had nowhere left to retreat.

Although G09's attack movements still appeared to Cheng Ming in slow motion, due to spatial limitations, Cheng Ming was no longer able to evade them by predicting their trajectory.

This slow-motion perspective only affects Cheng Ming's consciousness; his body, like G09's, becomes incredibly sluggish.

The first time he managed to dodge G09's attack was simply because he was standing in the center of an open room; he only needed to dodge in the opposite direction of G09's attack. But now, G09's fists were coming at Cheng Ming from both sides, and no matter which way Cheng Ming dodged, he would be hit. The only way to dodge was to duck under G09's arms and get behind him, but Cheng Ming's physical abilities didn't allow him to complete this series of movements before being hit.

The burly man acting as the "interviewer" had already realized that Cheng Ming's only advantage was his excellent reflexes, but his physical abilities couldn't keep up with his reaction speed. At this moment, the burly man raised his hand, and the Apostle issued the command to the technician operating G09 to "cease attack."

In that instant, Cheng Ming felt a tingling current travel along his spine throughout his body, and his body involuntarily trembled—but it was this tremor that made Cheng Ming realize that he could actually make the same fast movements as in normal circumstances, even when everything was being "slowed down".

In that instant, his body was suddenly able to keep up with his reaction speed!
Cheng Ming darted behind G09 and pressed the muzzle of his gun against G09's spine, pulling the trigger repeatedly!
"Ok?"

The burly man stopped halfway up his hand. From his perspective, Cheng Ming's movements were like a ghost, even leaving an afterimage on his retina. Just as that afterimage was pierced by G09's fist, the real Cheng Ming had already appeared behind G09 and launched a counterattack at point-blank range.

At that speed, it would probably only be possible to clearly see Cheng Ming's dodge move by slowing down the test video.

"He's been hiding his strength all along?" the burly man asked, frowning.

“Not necessarily,” another “interviewer” said. “It could be a ‘burst-type’ ability with significant limitations or energy consumption, so it can’t be used frequently. Otherwise, with his reaction and speed, he could have completely dominated G09 from the start and wouldn’t have been cornered by G09 at all.”

“Indeed, it seems this speed isn’t his usual pace.” The burly man nodded.

"Should the testing continue?" asked the middle-aged woman sitting on the far left. "Based on the abilities that No. 116 has demonstrated, even if they are considered abnormal, they already fully meet our recruitment criteria."

“I want to test where his limits are,” the burly man said.

"Isn't this a bit too harsh on Number 116?" The middle-aged woman's expression was somewhat unfriendly. "This isn't the Bai Group's devil training camp. You don't need to be so harsh on him, Instructor Meng."

The middle-aged woman seemed to want to say something more, but the young girl sitting in the middle silenced her with a single sentence: "Continue the test."

The burly man pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Adjust the activity limit of the monster cells to thirty percent! Max out the output power of the mechanical exoskeleton!"

Their voices weren't muted, and Cheng Ming could hear them adding difficulty to the test—the reason for this was simple: if Cheng Ming felt he couldn't withstand the intensity, he could choose to give up, thus minimizing the risk of injury or even death.

If Cheng Ming himself did not choose to give up, then even if something unexpected happened, he could blame it on him for "showing off"—after all, they had "informed" the test subject G09 in advance about the increase in strength, and the choice of whether to continue testing was entirely in the test subject's own hands.

Even if Cheng Ming offered to give up, he could still join the hunting party.

(End of this chapter)