Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 582 "He Will Succeed"

Zhulong did not answer Charles's question.

"If you were the commander..." Charles rephrased the question, "would you approve this battle plan?"

Zhulong nodded, then shook his head: "'Those who are not in a position should not concern themselves with its affairs.' I am not in the position of the hunting party commander, so I cannot give you an answer."

“It’s just a matter of saying a few words,” Charles muttered. “You don’t even need to speak. Just nod, say YES, shake your head, say NO, and move your neck.”

“As a monster hunter, I am only responsible for carrying out the tasks assigned to me by my superiors,” Zhulong said. “I rarely make decisions about the life or death of an individual or group of people based on my own subjective judgment.”

Hearing what Zhulong said, Sun Hang suddenly remembered his job entrance test.

When Zhulong became a hunter, he must have undergone similar tests.

However, after completing the test, Sun Hang put those questions, which were almost worthless to debate like the "trolley problem," to the back of his mind... But judging from Zhulong's behavior, he seems to still be adhering to the words he once said.

"Really?" Charles looked at Zhulong with some suspicion. "Didn't they say that you top hunters are all incredibly individualistic...? I feel like you're all puppets. Uh, 'puppet' sounds a bit harsh, so let me put it another way... war machines? No, war machines are for the military... Oh, right, hunting machines! Ruthless hunting machines!"

“You’re right.” Zhulong nodded.

“Accept a mission, execute it, mission succeeds or fails, death or return… write a mission report, recover from injuries or take leave, and then accept the next mission.” Charles murmured, “I know quite a few free hunters who decided to leave official agencies because they didn’t like this repetitive life… I’m a little curious, when you accept a mission, do you think about things outside of the mission itself?”

“You’re a mercenary, right?” Zhulong turned his head and glanced at him.

"Yeah...what's wrong?"

Have you ever pulled the trigger on a human being?

Charles paused for a moment, opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

“Let’s keep watching. Although I think their chances of success are slim… there are still many variables.” Zhulong’s gaze shifted to Sun Hang. “Especially that hunter named Cheng Ming. I think he’s the biggest variable. What do you think, Sun Hang?”

“He…will succeed,” Sun Hang said slowly, his expression strange, as if he had seen something incomprehensible.

Just two minutes ago, Sun Hang used his authority to have the mainframe "predict" the commando team's actions. This "impromptu prediction" without any prior preparation came at a huge cost—the mainframe mobilized almost all of its computing power and nearly a third of the energy supply of the Tian Shu Tower, and it took a full half minute to get the result.

The mainframe had to process a massive amount of work every second, and even a half-minute pause could have a huge impact on the entire Federation—network connections and power supply systems in many cities experienced varying degrees of failure, control systems at various monster research institutes were malfunctioning wildly, and one institute even directly deactivated all security measures in its monster containment area, frightening the staff into thinking that the institute had been invaded by monsters…

The chaos affected hundreds of cities and tens of millions of people... and the resulting prophecy was brief, consisting of only four words.

"He will succeed."

Pei Zongjun once told Sun Hang that the prophecies given by the main brain are often vague and abstract. These prophecies can lead to very different conclusions due to differences in people's understanding and thinking. Even Pei Zongjun repeatedly warned Sun Hang that the prophecies of the main brain (half of the Sphinx's brain) can only be used as a reference and should never be believed 100%.

The reason he trusted his own judgment and entrusted everything to Sun Hang was simply because he couldn't find a second answer besides Sun Hang.

The AI ​​told him that every path leading to the future of human civilization was a dead end, except for the path bearing Sun Hang's name, which led to an indistinct fog. No one knew whether what lay beyond the fog would be a wall, a pit, or a horde of predatory monsters.

But this time, the mastermind gave an unusually clear answer.

"He will succeed."

For a moment, Sun Hang wondered if something was wrong with the mainframe.

"You have that much confidence in Cheng Ming?" Yang Qiaoxi stared at Sun Hang with a puzzled look.

But on Sun Hang's face, she saw the same expression as herself.

……

……

Chen Jing and Bai Lingqiu's men had already concentrated all the ammunition together, and the firing modes of the cannons on the armored vehicles had all been switched to "overload mode." In this mode, the firing rate would increase three to four times. This was a short period of powerful firepower at the cost of the cannon barrels being scrapped. Moreover, the angle of the cannon muzzle had also been adjusted, changing the bombardment area from the entire crater to a circular area with a diameter of about twenty meters in the southeast corner of the crater.

After donning the powered exoskeleton provided by Bai's Military Industry, the 28 commandos, including Cheng Ming, secured themselves to the underside of the "Giant Harrier" heavy military drone using the built-in attachment points. The standard payload of this "Giant Harrier" heavy military drone can reach more than one ton, which is more than enough to support four or five people.

The drone's rotors sliced ​​through the spore cloud, slowly guiding the assault team directly above the drop point.

"'Giant Harrier' drones one through six are in place and the assault team can deploy them at any time," the technician in charge of controlling the drones told Chen Jing.

"Deploy the assault team ten seconds after the final round of shelling." Chen Jing placed his hands on the edge of the table, his eyes fixed on the footage transmitted from the drone's camera on the screen, and said in a deep voice.

"clear."

……

Meanwhile, directly above the crater, is the No. 1 "Giant Harrier" heavy drone.

Five people were hanging below the drone, and Cheng Ming was one of them.

"This thing feels like riding a roller coaster," a hunter said, patting the safety railing in front of him. "Except that a roller coaster doesn't throw you out at the highest point... Damn, I'm starting to regret it now."

"Regret? Too late..." Another hunter glanced at him. "I've heard about drone drop training before. It's said that under normal circumstances, this type of airdrop has a mortality rate of five per thousand... And for people like us who have never received this kind of training... guess how many of us will die from the crash?"

At this moment, another hunter suddenly vomited, attracting the attention of several other people on the same drone.

"You're already not up to it?" the hunter who had just spoken said with a laugh. "Ever since you were hooked up to the drone, you haven't looked any better."

“My family owns a meat processing plant… This way of hanging reminds me of the pork slabs hanging on the assembly line after slaughter… Ugh…”

(End of this chapter)