Hunter of Mysterious Creature

In front of them stood a nearly ten-meter-high ruin, forming an irregular cone shape—created by the disaster relief department using bulldozers to flatten and pile up the remnants of an entire building, to prevent secondary collapses. From afar, it resembled a mini pyramid.

In Ling Xiao's memory, the woman emitting a bright white moonlight sat elegantly on top of the ruins—although the sky covered by Eternal Night had no moon, at the moment Ling Xiao saw her, she was like the moon of this world.

"Making heaven and earth pale in comparison." This phrase seemed more than fitting to describe her.

"It does have that feeling," Sun Hang nodded silently.

Fortunately, Ling Xiao himself had no favorable impression of deities; otherwise, if it were any other teenage boy, he'd be utterly bewitched by her...

On the internet, men often refer to women they admire as "goddesses," but if they saw this scene, they'd surely think that the word "goddess" refers to only one — Anna, who sits atop the ruins overlooking all beings.

Sun Hang walked up the slope of the ruins, standing at the spot where Anna once sat, and looked around.

He found no trace of Anna, nor any other mysterious creature's presence.

The place was very clean.

"Could it be... that what appeared before Ling Xiao was just a projection?" Sun Hang wondered, "But if it were just a projection, how did she devour Ling Xiao's emotions? If such feats could be achieved with just a projection, it would truly defy the heavens..."

Sun Hang turned around, looking down at Ling Xiao, who stood at the bottom of the ruins, and asked, "So, do you think I look like a god?"

Ling Xiao shook his head.

The next second, a circle of ghostly blue flames ignited on Sun Hang's body, the flickering flames licking the debris beneath his feet. The intertwined steel bars quickly melted into molten iron, seeping into the crevices of the ruins, while the broken concrete blocks shattered into gray-white powder.

"How about now?"

"Still not like..." Ling Xiao contemplated for a few seconds and then said, "Not like a supreme god, but more like a demon that crawled out of hell."

"Huh?" Sun Hang extinguished the flames and jumped down from the top of the ruins. "Why do you think that?"

"I don't know, just a feeling."

"Demons aren't bad either; demons are inherently opposed to deities," Sun Hang said. "Since you think gods aren't great, we should be on the same side, right?"

"Can I gain such abilities?" Ling Xiao asked Sun Hang calmly.

"You'll have to become an infected for that, you heard that flat-chested big sister say it's against the rules," Sun Hang said. "But I have a way to let you obtain abilities like those of mysterious creatures as a normal person."

"What's the way?"

"Deceitful Equipment and suitable individuals, have you heard of them?" Sun Hang asked.

Ling Xiao shook his head.

"That guy called Ye Jiu just now, the armor he wore and the wolf-tooth spear and long blade on his back, they're his deceitful equipment," Sun Hang said. "The essence of deceitful equipment is enigmatic objects, but ones that can be manipulated by humans. And those who can manipulate them are called suitable individuals."

"Can everyone become a suitable individual?" Ling Xiao asked.

"If everyone could... the Federation Government would have launched a major counterattack already," Sun Hang said. "However, I have a plan. If successful, it might be possible... But this plan requires your cooperation and your unconditional and unwavering trust in me."

"I will cooperate," Ling Xiao nodded. "Even if it turns me into an infected, it doesn't matter."

"I've said it's against the rules," Sun Hang patted his shoulder. "You'll be my first experimental subject... but you don't need to be nervous; this experiment doesn't require dissection or medication, not even blood drawing. You'll know exactly what you need to do when the time comes."

"Blood drawing? Doesn't a medical checkup require blood drawing?"

"A physical examination is one thing; an experiment is another," Sun Hang said, feeling slightly frustrated as he looked at Ling Xiao, who was stubbornly obstinate in some ways. "Let's go back, it's almost noon, time to find food."

"Find food... do we have to catch people to eat?"

Ling Xiao's question left Sun Hang speechless. While Sun Hang had devoured other infected individuals, how did this kid associate "finding food" with "eating people"?

"Uh... do you have some misunderstanding about me?" Sun Hang scratched his head. "You can't seriously think that just because I look like a demon, I am a demon?"

"That's what the classmates at school told me, they say infected need to eat a living person every once in a while to maintain their life; otherwise, their bodies would quickly be worn down by the Deceit Virus," Ling Xiao answered seriously. "My dad and mom also occasionally talk about infected eating people and advise us to stay away from infected— even if that infected is a legally licensed registered hunter."

"Oh dear, it's really a case of misleading information spreading..." Sun Hang rubbed his temples wearily. "The image of mysterious creature hunters among the public is utterly negative... We have to find a way to turn the situation around..."

"It's not just rumors; it really happened in the City of Tianfu." Wang Xiyi suddenly appeared from the side, having shed her heavy power exoskeleton and changed into a lightweight sports outfit.

A bowl-sized hole was open in the waistband of her pants, from which a scaly tail protruded, swaying behind her.

"It really happened?" Sun Hang was surprised. "Wasn't it said that I was the first confirmed human infected by Taotie?"

"That guy wasn't infected by Taotie, but by a meme of a mysterious creature similar to vampires. His code name was 'Dracula,' and his physical traits, abilities, and weaknesses were similar to vampires as described in various legends, such as pale skin, fear of natural light, incredible strength and recovery abilities, and needing to regularly consume human blood to prevent rapidly aging..."

"There really is such a meme?" Sun Hang was a bit taken aback.

"He was also a registered hunter in Tianfu City, and to meet his needs, the blood bank in Tianfu City would regularly provide him with blood plasma... Over the three years he was in service, his 'appetite' gradually increased, and his tastes grew more refined, eventually reaching the point where Tianfu City's blood bank could no longer satisfy him..."

"And then he started hunting humans?"

"Yes, human blood held an unparalleled attraction for him, especially the blood of young, beautiful virgins... The situation back then was somewhat similar to the previous Bloody Mary case, where young girls went missing... However, this guy's ability to stay hidden wasn't as good as those cultists, and it didn't take half a month before the Investigation Bureau found a lead on him."

"What happened then? How was he dealt with?"

"I was tasked with capturing him, with orders to neutralize him if he resisted," Wang Xiyi shrugged. "Naturally, he didn't go quietly, so I had no choice but to save the Federation Government the cost of a cremation."

"As expected of you," Sun Hang gave Wang Xiyi a thumbs-up.

"This matter was supposed to be kept strictly confidential since it would have a tremendously negative impact, whether on the Federation Government or on mysterious creature hunters... But, it turned out that among the investigators and sheriffs involved in the case, there were reformists present. Though they all signed confidentiality agreements, the matter still spread among the public, leading to the rumor about infected eating people spreading out. Research institutes and the Investigation Bureau have attempted to publicly refute the rumors several times, but it was of no avail."