Monster Hunter Gathering

Once they received the signal from Er Qiao or Nie Chiwu, they would immediately pour the healing potion into their mouths. By then... the healing potion's influence would spread over a wide area, covering the entire Night City...

By then, the influence of the AI ​​outside the Black Wall on the residents of Night City can be avoided, and Er Qiao will be responsible for writing those AI thoughts into the system of the shrine.

The mikoshi is not limited to Night City. As a symbol of Arasaka Saburo's sustenance and hope for immortality, it also has a relatively independent system, connected to various parts of the world via satellite...

In the 2077 game, V and Johnny took over Ultraman's attack on Arasaka's ICE defense system and invaded the portable shrine.

"I remember... in this world, after the roaming AI and the Black Wall incident, the internet became isolated, right?" Naofumi Iwatani said after he and Jotaro rushed into Arasaka Tower. "Major companies also used the internet to cut off their own network services to the public, effectively establishing local area networks..."

Er Qiao walked towards the shrine without hesitation: "So... this is really something only I can do!"

"The Black Wall is an AI that has reached an agreement with humans. It will kill any threat that tries to break through the Black Wall..." Qiao Er's eyes gleamed: "But this is my Stand ability!"

"My Stand ability... is the most useful!!!!!"

------------------

"Come!!!!"

At this moment, on the top of Arasaka Tower, there are only three hunters left, fighting desperately with Qilin.

Qilin's visible fatigue allowed even Nie Chiwu to survive on the top of Arasaka Tower with his not-so-skilled movements, and he could even spare some time to perform one or two Flying Circle Slashes (insect stick techniques) on Qilin.

The most energy that Nie Chiwu spent on Qilin at this moment was relying on the high mobility of the insect stick to constantly harass Qilin, attracting Qilin to drop terrifying lightning from the sky to chase this hateful insect stick cub that kept biting it with hunting insects.

During the tough battle, Tanjiro was able to observe that Kirin's movements were much slower than when they first discovered Kirin.

In the environment of Night City, the lack of nutrition and vitality eventually had a certain impact on Qilin's body.

"Tanjiro, I found something..."

During the brief time when Nie Chiwu attracted Qilin's attention, Laos quickly moved to Tanjiro's side and described to Tanjiro the Qilin's posture and physical condition that he observed during the battle in the shortest possible prophecy.

In Tanjiro's mind, the virtual image of a transparent Kirin is gradually becoming complete with Tanjiro's own combat experience and Laos's supplements.

A transparent world...Since the very beginning of the battle with Kirin, Tanjiro has been trying to see clearly the movement of every muscle of Kirin and the direction of blood.

Chapter 264 Kirin Battle 2

In this transparent world where Tanjiro can see through Muzan's actions at a glance, when facing a strange and powerful creature like Kirin, the result is often that Tanjiro feels that he can perceive it, but the final result is completely different.

and so……

That's why Nie Chiwu asked Tanjiro to get as familiar with the battle with Kirin as possible.

Nie Chiwu is very clear about the characteristics and advantages of each hunter.

Among the many hunters nowadays, some are suitable for flexible and changeable combat, some are suitable for direct and upright combat, and some have their own unique fighting style, which are mostly developed from the hunters' own characteristics.

As for Nie Chiwu himself... he doesn't know these.

He didn’t have skills like Kazuma, nor breathing techniques like Tanjiro, nor anything else… Even Nie Chiwu’s ability to learn combat was not very strong.

When facing Kokushibo, the other swordsmen who besieged Kokushibo were growing rapidly during the siege, but Nie Chiwu did not make much progress during the battle.

Fortunately, Nie Chiwu felt that his adaptability was pretty good. No matter when, when hunting, he had to ensure that he could find a successful path from countless situations.

Just like... now.

After Nie Chiwu dodged Qilin's thunder again with a roll, he suddenly found that Qilin's next lightning did not fall immediately.

When Nie Chiwu looked up, he found that Qilin was standing in the center of Arasaka Tower, breathing heavily, with long saliva flowing from his mouth, which he could not control due to his heavy breathing.

This was also the first time today that the hunters saw Qilin temporarily stop attacking due to fatigue.

The hunters finally consumed Qilin's physical strength to a certain extent.

“It’s really not easy.”

Nie Chiwu also took advantage of this gathering to breathe deeply and restore his spirit. Then he waved the insect stick and got into a fighting stance again, staring at Qilin closely.

At this moment, there were many scars on the Qilin's horns left by hunters. The Qilin, which should have been strolling gracefully in a place with lush water and grass, now looked particularly irritable and embarrassed standing on the top of this tall building.

This is the final consequence of ecological imbalance... If it continues like this, Qilin will inevitably do more things that affect the world in order to completely replenish its energy.

"There are still... about five minutes left?" Nie Chiwu glanced at the time and began to count down silently in his heart.

"As expected... for hunters of our level, battling Qilin is still a bit difficult," Nie Chiwu said. "After this mission is over, we must quickly become true dragon hunters... or at least upgrade our gear to a higher-end one."

"As for Qilin..." Nie Chiwu calmed down and looked at Qilin: "I have to admit that the power of the ancient dragon is still a bit far away for us now."

"Being a hunter...it's not that easy after all." Nie Chiwu showed a somewhat helpless expression: "There's not enough time."

Although in previous games, the protagonists of each generation seem to be constantly completing dragon hunting missions and can easily take on various commissions of conquering and repelling.

But... monsters are actually not that weak.

In fact, most hunters need to use all their strength to deal with those regular monsters. They usually stay away from higher-level monsters. There are even many hunters who can only fight a few small monsters.

As for the ancient dragons... most of the missions related to them are to investigate and repel them, and even that doesn't guarantee a success rate. Such hunters are already extremely rare.

Nie Chiwu shook the insect stick in his hand, and the hunting insect that had been prepared long ago injected the ancient dragon essence it had absorbed into Nie Chiwu's body as Nie Chiwu moved. The power of the essence instantly lit up the three lights on the insect stick, bringing Nie Chiwu even more powerful power.

After taking a deep breath, Nie Chiwu lowered his body slightly and sprinted towards Qilin.

While Qilin was panting heavily, he continued to use the horns on his head to launch violent lightning strikes.

Perhaps because the Cang Jiao had suffered a lot of damage, the electric currents that appeared around Nie Chiwu also spread irregularly.

But at this moment, Nie Chiwu dragged the tip of his insect stick on the ground. He used the insect stick as a lightning rod, slowing down the effect of a small part of the electric current falling on his body, allowing Nie Chiwu to still rush towards Qilin in a straight line.

Nie Chiwu's eyes were fixed on the horn on Qilin's head. That was the ultimate goal of Nie Chiwu's battle.

He knew that his current strength as a hunter was not enough to repel and hunt the ancient dragon, but as the leader of the gathering... and as a hunter who became a monster hunter, Nie Chiwu was unwilling to just leave Qilin alone without doing anything.

"At least! Cut off a corner!!!"

Nie Chiwu's eyes flashed with a challenging fire: "At least! We have to prove that our struggles and efforts have paid off!!!"

"So! Leave your horn to me! Qilin!!!" Nie Chiwu's running accelerated again.

The Qilin seemed to have noticed the provocation in the eyes of the two-legged beast in front of it, which made the ancient dragon angry.

The lightning gathered at the top of the blue horn suddenly exploded, turning into several horizontal lightning bolts. Then a dazzling arc of electricity formed between the blue horn and the thundercloud, as if it wanted to directly strike down from the horn and electrocute the presumptuous hunter in front of it into a charred piece.

But at this critical moment, Nie Chiwu held the insect stick and opened the pneumatic device. Under the high pressure, he jumped directly into the sky and barely avoided the lightning sparks released by the Qilin horizontally. However, the lightning that was about to fall from the sky made it difficult for Nie Chiwu to avoid it.

"I... am a hunter!" Nie Chiwu twisted his waist forcefully in the air and threw the insect stick in his hand like a spear. The fully extended stick shot straight at Qilin, and with all his strength, Nie Chiwu stabbed directly into Qilin's eyes.

The Qilin was attacked in the vitals and was forced to turn its head to the side. However, in the short time it took to open its head, a hook had already grabbed the side of the Qilin's face, and the hunter in the air was suddenly pulled towards the Qilin's body.

"This move is called... **Piercing the Ears!!!!" Nie Chiwu grinned fiercely as he clamped his legs tightly around Qilin's body, which was covered in electricity. At the same time, he held a sonic boom bomb in each hand and slammed it hard into Qilin's ears. Finally...

Nie Chiwu grabbed the Qilin's horn with both hands and rode on its back, using all his strength on the horn.

“Break it for me!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Chapter 265 Riding the Qilin

As Nie Chiwu used all his strength to pry the Qilin's horn, the horn changed shape under the hunter's brute force.

But... even though the horn was slightly deformed due to Nie Chiwu's brute force, it did not break so easily.

Nie Chiwu also knew that the Qilin's horn was not so easy to break off, so after Nie Chiwu tightly clamped the Qilin's body with his legs, he grabbed the Qilin's horn with one hand and took out his skinning knife with the other hand and began to attack the base of the horn as much as possible.

{A little trivia: Qilin can be ridden, though few people actually do... but there is a riding module.}

Qilin could also clearly feel that there was a guy on his back, and he was attacking him with the knife. This made Qilin extremely annoyed, and he began to struggle with all his might, trying to throw Nie Chiwu off his body.

Qilin's ears were still affected by the sonic boom bombs. The two sonic boom bombs were almost directly stuffed into Qilin's ears by Nie Chiwu and detonated. The horrible noise took away Qilin's vision in a short time. The abnormal noise was transformed from the sense of hearing into a violent abnormal nerve impulse, rushing into Qilin's brain.

The dizziness made Qilin unable to see the surrounding scenery clearly. All he could smell was the foul air of Night City. His hearing was temporarily deprived by the two sonic boom bombs... Now, the thing that Qilin sensed most clearly was the two-legged ape-dragon riding on him! ! ! !

Qilin almost instinctively struggled with all his strength and released all the electricity he had accumulated.

The terrifying lightning instantly pierced through the body of Nie Chiwu who was riding on the back of the Qilin, but Nie Chiwu still relied on his perseverance to cling to the back of the Qilin, using a sharp knife to destroy the roots of the Qilin's horns.

At the critical moment of the struggle, Nie Chiwu endured the severe pain of being pierced by lightning in his body, swallowed a secret medicine to recover from his injuries, and continued the riding wrestling with Qilin.

The pale electric current almost singed all of Nie Chiwu's hair. Nie Chiwu was stuck tightly on the Qilin's back, and the armor he was wearing rubbed against the Qilin's scales, producing a series of sparks.

Now Nie Chiwu was hanging on Qilin's body, as if Qilin was giving Nie Chiwu crazy electric shocks. The electric current continuously penetrated Nie Chiwu's body, destroying the inside of his body.

Nie Chiwu even had an illusion that his heart had stopped beating because of Qilin's terrifying electricity, and then started beating again because of the electric shock.

The burning sensation caused by the electric shock made Nie Chiwu feel like he was about to be roasted by the electric current on Qilin's back.

"Fuck you! Ahhhh!" Nie Chiwu was also furious at the Qilin's lightning: "If you have the guts, turn me into a ball of carbon! I won't let you go even if I die here!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Just before being thrown down by Qilin, Nie Chiwu released his hands from Qilin's horns and his skinning knife, and instead desperately grabbed the mane on Qilin's body.

Qilin began to swing his body wildly on the top of Arasaka Tower, trying to throw Nie Chiwu down, but he used all his strength to resist the struggling Nie Chiwu, who was fixed on his back like a dog-skin plaster, making it impossible for Qilin to throw him down.

The struggle and riding fight between Qilin and Nie Chiwu left Tanjiro and Laos next to them unable to help for a while. They could only sprinkle a handful of life dust on Nie Chiwu before he was about to be burned into a ball of charcoal, to buy Nie Chiwu some more time to hold on.

While Nie Chiwu and Qilin were fighting a one-on-one cowboy duel, Er Qiao also broke into the bottom of Arasaka Tower alone. Behind Er Qiao were the guards and mechas inside Arasaka Tower that Er Qiao had eliminated along the way.

This also caused Er Qiao's body to be splashed with oil and blood. Now standing here, Er Qiao could clearly hear the sound of Naofumi Iwatani destroying the internal structure of Arasaka Tower from above her head.

If it weren't for Qiao Qi's Purple Hermit, a stand that has a crushing advantage over machines and prosthetics, it would be impossible for her to reach the shrine so quickly.

After really standing in front of the shrine, Er Qiao took a deep breath, chewed a piece of meat to restore her strength, and then released all the power of the stand that she could now control.

A large number of invisible thorns emerged from Er Qiao's body, began to enter madly from the port in front of her, and then continued to spread in the sedan chair.

"My stand... isn't completely useless!" Veins popped out on Er Qiao's forehead, a symptom of her exertion as she tried her best to control the Hermit Purple. "Even if my stand only has one vine! I will push this vine beyond its original growth limit!"

"If I don't do this! How can I change the fate of the Joestar family!!!" Joestar roared, the Hermit Purple on his body suddenly expanding, which also meant that Joestar's mental strength was high at the moment: "I am... Joseph Joestar!! The grandson of Jonathan Joestar and Alina Joestar!!! I will never succumb to a fate as rotten as a sewer!!!"

“Read and write!!!”

As Erqiao's mental power surged, she now treated the entire shrine as a prop for her own substitute and forcibly activated the Hermit's Purple Teleportation.

In the online world, a black wall isolates information between the new network and the old network. A large number of roaming AIs act recklessly within the old network, even building an AI city within the old network...

Otto, the most outstanding cyber hacker in Night City, the most powerful cyber entity inside and outside the Black Wall, the only one who can make Johnny Silverhand obey, the one who created the Soul Killer, who was forced into cyberspace because of Arasaka, and finally built a city belonging to AI outside the Black Gun, is Johnny Silverhand's ex-girlfriend - Otto Cunningham.

Originally, Otto was carefully observing all the farces happening in Night City, trying to see if she could find any opportunities. But as she was observing, she was somewhat horrified to find that there seemed to be a powerful force beyond reality, which penetrated the inside and outside of the black wall almost in an instant, and grabbed her information body as if forcibly snatching it away, and brought her information body into the black wall, where she saw a tall man standing in front of the shrine.

"Ott Cunningham."

Er Qiao spoke directly: "Come with me to destroy the shrine."

Chapter 266 Xin Meier Arrives

"...!?"

Ultra watched Jotaro through the camera with some fear.

But Otto couldn't imagine why he was suddenly brought here...

"Not showing up?" Er Qiao said, "You should know who I am. An AI like you who can cross the Black Wall on your own should be paying attention to the news in Night City."

"We invite you to cooperate with us," Er Qiao said directly, "You should be able to destroy the information on the palanquins at each node, right?"

"...Why should I cooperate with you?" After a brief hesitation, Ultraman's voice emerged from the broadcast: "Helping you destroy the mikoshi is of no benefit to me."

"It's beneficial." Er Qiao said directly to the camera, "You're not our problem yet, little Cyber ​​beauty... If you don't cooperate with us, then we'll have to seriously deal with the problem of you wandering AIs next."

"Are you threatening me?" Otto said, "I am only a part of the consciousness here. My consciousness now exists in the entire network. I am not threatened by you."

"I originally wanted to take advantage of the chaos you created to control some people to connect to the networks of various companies, but I didn't expect that your target was also the shrine... Where did you get the information from?" Ultra looked at Jotaro in cyberspace.

Er Qiao looked in the direction of the camera with a very calm expression, which made Ultra feel a little tentative.

Under Ultra's control, a mecha that had fallen to the ground about dozens of meters behind Er Qiao started to operate quietly, and silently pointed the muzzle of the gun in the direction of Er Qiao.

Just as the mecha was about to fire, it forcibly twisted the muzzle and aimed it at its own center.

At the same time, in cyberspace, in the information world, a large patch of thorns suddenly appeared in front of Otto's eyes... She didn't expect to see such a thing in cyberspace. Even those thorns were not made up of digital signals. It was as if those thorns had forcibly grown from reality into this digital world.

Ultra wanted to leave this node in the network, but the thorns had already grabbed Ultra's information body, and then gradually entangled together in cyberspace, eventually forming the image of a tall and strong man.

"Let me introduce you. This is my stand - Hermit Purple... You are the first person to see it take on a human form." Er Qiao clenched her fists in reality. At the same moment in cyberspace, the burly man made of thorns also struck the same posture as Er Qiao.

"Hey! You bitch! If you don't agree to our hunters' request... I will keep telegraphing your information and destroy it!" Qiao Er showed a determined expression: "If you, the AI ​​camp, don't want to be hostile to us now..."

Er Qiao directly used the Purple of Hermit to turn the part of Ultra's consciousness that was read into a bunch of useless data, and then rewrote it, once again reading a part of Ultra's consciousness into the space of the shrine, and strangled Ultra's neck again.

"You and the other AIs should also give up the idea of ​​controlling the people of Night City. Now..." Er Qiao said, "There are no more prosthetics in Night City."

At this moment, all kinds of terrifying incidents occurred on the streets of Night City.