Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 573 Lower Class

……

Nanhua Town, on the edge of the collapsed area.

During this time, the giant cordyceps monster at the bottom of the pit remained unusually quiet. Apart from a few broken mycelium puppets occasionally crawling out of the pit in the dead of night and being quickly killed by the hunters on night watch, it made no other moves.

Sun Hang even suspected that the giant cordyceps-like creature might have already spun its cocoon and pupated... But then he thought about it again, and the cordyceps-like creature was essentially a fungal creature that occupied the body of an insect, and fungal creatures did not have a complete metamorphosis process at all...

"These days are so boring." Charles complained as he tossed the dagger in his hand. In the past few days, he had become quite familiar with Sun Hang and his group. His biggest hobby was to come over to Sun Hang and his group to chat for a while, and then make sarcastic remarks about Su Yue, who had been "captured" by Sun Hang and his group.

Strangely enough, during this period, quite a few free hunters and mercenaries arrived at the Nanhua Town mine, but Seabuckthorn Rose seemed to have vanished into thin air and did not appear at all—to the point that Charles suspected that the other members of Seabuckthorn Rose might have thought that Su Yue and her team had been wiped out, which was why they had not sent anyone to pick her up.

Or perhaps they were unwilling to offend the people of Tian Shu Tower for the sake of Su Yue, and simply treated Su Yue as a pawn to be discarded.

“A life of utter boredom is better than a life-or-death struggle.” Zhulong lay on a folding chair he had “borrowed” from Chen Jing, leisurely rocking back and forth. “Actually, the scenery in the no-man’s-land is quite nice. After getting used to the concrete jungle of the metropolis, seeing the vast horizon and the sky without any obstruction is a unique kind of enjoyment.”

“It’s a treat for you hunters from the metropolis, but for me, I see this kind of scenery every day. I’m already tired of it.” Charles pulled out his dagger, scooped out a large piece of luncheon meat from the can, and stuffed it into his mouth. “Not to mention the death sandstorms that appear from time to time… Sigh, don’t you think I’m just a spineless idiot? When I’m being chased by death sandstorms and monsters, I’m cursing non-stop. Now that I finally have a few days of peace, I’m bored. Hahaha.”

"That's pretty cheeky." Sun Hang nodded. "Since you're bored, how about another round?"

"Forget it, forget it," Charles waved his hands repeatedly. "I can't beat you at chess, it's pointless. I still think I'm more talented at mahjong, it's a pity there's no mahjong table here. When we get back to Yumen, I'll definitely find you for a couple of rounds and win back the face I lost these past few days! I'll draw twenty turtles on your face then!"

Due to the shortage of supplies, Sun Hang and Charles did not use real objects as stakes when playing chess. Instead, they agreed that whoever won could draw whatever they wanted on the loser's face. Moreover, the loser could not actively wipe off the drawing; they could only wait for the sweat to slowly wash the ink off their face.

Also due to the shortage of supplies, sweating a lot meant that more water was needed, so Charles could only wear that full-face gas mask all day to cover his face, which was covered with graffiti by Sun Hang.

“Mahjong? I don’t know how to play, I won’t.” Sun Hang refused decisively.

"Hmph, I think you're just afraid of losing, aren't you?" Charles provocatively retorted.

"Speaking of which, the second hunting teams of the three major families should have set off today, right?" Sun Hang decisively chose to change the subject.

“Yes, Chen Jing said they set off this morning.” Yang Qiaoxi nodded. “There’s one more thing. Cheng Ming, whom you were concerned about before, is also in the hunting group.”

"Oh?"

"Not only that, he seems to be highly regarded by Bai Lingqiu and has been appointed as the deputy leader of the hunting party."

"Bai Lingqiu? Who's that?" Sun Hang asked. "Could she be the eldest daughter of the Bai family, one of the three major families?"

He had seen this name among a bunch of messages sent by the mainframe, but Sun Hang did not look at these people's files in detail—for him, the files of non-infected people could be skipped at a glance, regardless of whether the person was the eldest son of the Chen family or the eldest daughter of the Bai family.

“She’s the eldest daughter of the Bai family, the only daughter of the current head of the Bai family, the future heir of the Bai Group, and also the leader of the second phase of the three major families’ hunting team,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “Tsk, if you could get her, becoming a live-in son-in-law wouldn’t be a bad deal… It’s just a pity that Bai Lingqiu always has a poker face no matter what the occasion, it’s almost as if the words ‘sexually frigid’ are written all over her face.”

“A person who always has a blank face isn’t necessarily frigid; they could also be expressionless,” Charles suddenly interjected.

"Tch, with the Bai family's wealth, if they really had facial paralysis, they would have been cured long ago!" Yang Qiaoxi glanced at Charles with some disdain. "Do you think we're low-class people who are stingy even when it comes to paying for medical insurance?"

“That’s true… So, do you think there’s any chance that Miss Bai might take a liking to me? I’d be quite willing to marry into the Bai family.” Charles chuckled.

"You?" Yang Qiaoxi chuckled. "Do you dare take off the mask on your face now?"

"I'm so damn angry..." Hearing Yang Qiaoxi say this, Charles looked at Sun Hang with great resentment, "Why did you have to draw those things on my face? Otherwise, with my handsome face, it would have been a piece of cake to win over Miss Bai, marry into the Bai family, and reach the pinnacle of life?"

“It’s not a bad thing for young people to daydream a bit,” Sun Hang patted Charles on the shoulder, “but there’s no need for me to hear their sleep talking.”

“Speaking of which, we’ve all seen Cheng Ming’s file. Apart from meme stability, he doesn’t have any outstanding abilities… Why would Bai Lingqiu value him and appoint him as the vice leader of the hunting party?” Zhulong suddenly said.

“Very good, blind student, you’ve found a key point.” Yang Qiaoxi nodded. “Maybe he’s the man Bai Lingqiu has her eye on. Judging from the photo, Cheng Ming’s features are quite regular. Although he looks honest and doesn’t seem like the type to please women, maybe that’s Bai Lingqiu’s type… Charles, it looks like you have no chance.”

“I wouldn’t mind being a second wife either~” Charles said cheekily. “Ugh…” Yang Qiaoxi gave Charles the middle finger. “Okay, enough joking. I heard that Cheng Ming destroyed a runaway bio-robot from Bai’s Military Industry during a combat capability test.”

"Bio-robots?" Charles was taken aback. "White's Arms Industry has such products? How come I've never heard of them before?"

“This thing isn’t sold to free hunters or civilian mercenaries, so of course you haven’t heard of it,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “Moreover, this bio-robot is most likely still in the testing phase and hasn’t officially started mass production yet.”

"Is this bio-robot very powerful?" Charles asked.

"You'll have to ask Sun Hang about that," Yang Qiaoxi said, shrugging. "This level of intelligence isn't something someone like me can get my hands on."

“The G09 special-purpose bio-robot uses the G09 humanoid powered exoskeleton as its framework, along with artificially cultivated monster cells codenamed ‘Slime Type II’… Strictly speaking, this bio-robot can be considered a man-made monster device, but unlike conventional monster devices, it is not operated by a qualified person, but by a ‘terminal controller’ that anyone can use,” said Zhulong.

For the past few days, Sun Hang had been observing that rabble, trying to find a few "promising talents" like Jin Hongyi. As for the information sent by the mainframe, he would just glance at it and then dump it all on Zhulong, who would be responsible for filtering and refining the information before reporting it to Sun Hang.

"The combat effectiveness of the G09 bio-robot is determined by the activity threshold of the monster cells and the output power of the powered exoskeleton. However, during that test, the G09 bio-robot went out of control. Although the power supply to the powered exoskeleton was cut off, the activity limit of the monster cells was breached. According to Bai's Military Industry report, in this state, the G09 can at least be considered a target for a Class B hunting mission."

The "lower B" level here does not refer to the classification of monsters, but rather to the grading system used by the Dragon City Hunter Management Association to describe the difficulty of hunting missions. There are a total of five levels: A, B, C, D, and E, which are determined based on the difficulty of the mission and the challenging nature of the target. Each major level is further divided into three minor levels: upper, middle, and lower.

This hunting mission for the giant cordyceps is undoubtedly the highest-ranking, top-tier mission.

The difficulty of the lower-level B rank, without considering environmental factors and focusing solely on eliminating the monsters, would require approximately two to three hunter teams to complete.

Moreover, the team must consist entirely of experienced hunters with superb combat skills.

If someone wants to take down a low-level B target single-handedly, that person would have to be an elite hunter with a name on the hunter ranking list.

Cheng Ming is clearly not included in this list.

“Cheng Ming’s original file has been invalidated. During the combat power test, he used an ability he had never used before,” Zhulong continued. “The people of Tian Shu Tower have watched the video and confirmed that the ability should have come from Cheng Ming’s source of infection—a strange cactus. The people of Tian Shu Tower also commissioned the Bai Group to check Cheng Ming’s infection process. The conclusion was that Cheng Ming’s infection process had not changed significantly and was still at a very safe level.”

"So, this guy was just pretending to be weak all along?" Yang Qiaoxi muttered.

Although she was not infected, she had some understanding of the source of the infected's abilities.

The memetic abilities of the infected are somewhat like "making a deal with the devil in exchange for power." The stronger the power they gain, the closer the infected person is to becoming a monstrous creature or a monster...

An infected person's abilities can be improved to some extent through training, but this improvement is very effective. To achieve a qualitative change in the strength of their abilities, there is no other way but to develop their own infection process.

Therefore, it is almost impossible for Cheng Ming to transform from an ordinary low-level hunter into someone with combat power comparable to a top-level hunter without any change in the infection process.

The only explanation is that he has been hiding his strength ever since he became a registered hunter.

“That doesn’t make sense!” Charles said. “Since the infection is progressing steadily, why not use the capability? Besides, even if we’re going to play dumb to outmaneuver someone, we should use that trump card at a crucial moment. What kind of strategy is it to use it in a test of combat strength?”

“This combat capability test may already be a critical moment of life and death for Cheng Ming,” Zhulong pondered. “After all, Bai’s military industry’s G09 has gone out of control. If Cheng Ming continues to hide his strength, he may really be killed by G09.”

“I suspect that Cheng Ming’s rise to power might be related to the Blood Feast,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “Like in those martial arts novels, he survives a great calamity and then suddenly has an epiphany, opening up his meridians and such… For example, he actually possessed these abilities from the beginning, but he didn’t know how to use them. As a result of the Blood Feast, or when faced with the death pressure of G09, he suddenly used these abilities… This kind of thing is not uncommon in history; it has happened several times in the Hexi Corridor alone.”

“Tsk, now that Boss Yang mentions it, it reminds me of someone too,” Charles chimed in. “That guy was a mediocre freelance hunter, the kind whose abilities seemed to offer no advantage in combat. When he first arrived in Dragon City, he was constantly bullied and couldn't get any good missions. Then, during one mission, he was betrayed and thrown off the vehicle as bait to intercept the pursuing monsters… But in that life-or-death moment, he suddenly unleashed his inner power and killed all those monsters. The most crucial thing is that after his outburst, he didn't turn into a monster; instead, he returned to Dragon City like a normal person and reported everyone who had abandoned him. If I remember correctly, this guy should still be in Dragon City, and he's considered one of the strongest hunters there… I wonder if he'll join this hunt.”

“I’m actually more interested in why G09 went out of control,” Sun Hang said, resting his chin on his hand. “Since G09 is so dangerous, how could Bai’s Military Industry dare to use it to test the hunters’ combat capabilities? Aren’t they afraid of something going wrong?”

“According to Bai’s Military Industry, G09 began stability testing a year ago and has never had any problems,” Zhulong said. “Before Cheng Ming, many hunters had fought with G09 and everything was normal. G09 did not show any signs of losing control. But it was during the battle with Cheng Ming that it lost control.”

"Have you found out the cause of the loss of control?" Yang Qiaoxi couldn't help but ask.

“The investigation did uncover the truth, but Bai’s military industry report was obviously fake. They probably knew the problem couldn’t be solved, so they simply cut the entire G09 R&D project, with estimated losses of at least 5 billion,” Zhulong said. “As for the project manager, he committed suicide after submitting the report.”

(End of this chapter)