I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature

Hazy City hunters aren't trained from a young age; quite a few have joined halfway through life after encountering certain events that endowed them with special powers, including some experimental subjects that have escaped from labs and, out of gratitude to some kind-hearted people, have resolved to become hunters to eradicate threats posed by extraordinary creatures to society—a rather dramatic turn of events.

Setting aside those naturally high in martial strength or physical prowess, the average hunter who starts midway would find that nothing boosts their capabilities faster than preparing a couple of firearms.

Want an even larger and quicker improvement? Spend more money on more powerful weapons.

This is the advancement guide for most mid- and low-tier hunters—simple, easy to understand, and with their income, it's feasible. Things might be tight at the start, but once they've handled a few low-level extraordinary incidents, bravery is fostered along with habit, and everything starts to feel easier.

"...Thank you very much." Zheng Yichen felt that the veteran hunters' tips for getting stronger were very down-to-earth and made a lot of sense, not to mention being highly practical.

"Let's continue with the game." Lewis steered the conversation back, on the brink of victory, wondering why all the rubbish talk.

The following day, they were assigned patrol areas.

Zheng Yichen also met other hunters, some as casual and accustomed as Lewis, and then there were the curious newbies, looking all around, probably novices like himself.

He was still teamed up with Lewis, as the institute's security personnel hadn't made any special assignments in this regard; it was all up to their own choice.

"We're being watched by surveillance all the way," Lewis, carrying his weapon, said to Zheng Yichen as they walked: "This area is called a patrol zone, but it's pretty much like a testing site. Generally, the first two days are safe, but some institutes can pull off a stunt where 'accidents' happen right on the first day."

"Here we can test not only the extraordinary experimental subjects but also conveniently check the security mechanisms in place," said Lewis, the veteran, sharing his experiences without much concern.

This kind of stuff was something you could figure out on your own after a few rounds; by sharing with Zheng Yichen now, he could also earn some goodwill.

But lending guns was out of the question—none of the three roommates dared entrust a firearm to someone inexperienced with guns; missing the enemy might mean accidentally taking out a friend instead.

Furthermore, Zheng Yichen had a decent level of combat ability. While playing cards and introducing themselves the day before, they all showed a little of what they could do, and Zheng Yichen demonstrated his best method: precise stabbing.

Within his range of attack, he could hit almost anything he aimed at, and he was also fast. Using a polearm, he had a distinctive advantage in their patrol area, which wasn't particularly spacious, so his contribution was actually quite valuable.

Most extraordinary creatures have conventional fatal weaknesses; as long as you can penetrate their defenses and hit their vital spots, there's no difference between killing them with a firearm and a melee weapon.

Of course, the safest and most reliable method is to maintain distance and shoot those extraordinary beings.

"Hey, besides these, some institutes will issue some of their unique weapons too," Lewis said, followed by a laugh from Jamie who shared his experience: "When you run into that, you've got to be extra careful—the weapons supplied by a research facility usually mean that the escaped experimental subjects are more dangerous, needing specialized weaponry to eliminate."

"I've had the fortune to be part of these missions twice. Though riskier, I must say that the weapons developed in those research facilities are truly impressive!"

During their chat, they passed by a testing site and faintly heard the screeching roars; unfortunately, the testing grounds were sealed, and the windows were the non-transparent type, so there was no way to gather any useful information.

Nevertheless, Lewis, seemingly thoughtful, nodded: "It looks like we'll be dealing with larger extraordinary experimental subjects this time."

"Is this information the institute has purposefully leaked to us?" Zheng Yichen learned something new—so they could do that?

"Of course! We're hired as security personnel, but in reality, we're testers. If it were a completely unforeseen test, they'd mention that in the contract," Jamie said with a smile, noting their daily salary of two thousand—it was rather standard for this type of task.

He had experienced double that sum, but with greater danger.

"Our role for the institute is as off-book military power for testing; they're not out to kill us, so it's unlikely they'd pull off anything too foul."

"Most of the time, the 'emergencies' we need to tackle won't exceed three. But even so, we have to wait until the end of the agreed-upon time period, and we can't be idle during that time—we still need to patrol certain areas," Jamie added, concluding their casual conversation with a light tsk.

In the surveillance room, a researcher watching the video feed seemed unconcerned with the chit-chat of the patrolling hunters; this was just the warm-up phase.

As long as the hunters performed when needed, they wouldn't lose out; the experimental subjects developed by the institute had to undergo real combat tests.

Before the real combat tests, there would be other tests, which the institute would conduct as part of other commissions they had accepted.

These typically involved testing tools provided by others, such as devices to repel or control extraordinary creatures, and equipment to resist their attacks, among other things.

Each research facility has its own main projects, and such collaborations were frequent. Nephita Research Institute mainly studied extraordinary creatures, including technological research targeting these beings with genetics and pharmaceuticals—

but not weaponry or other technological devices.

These devices were first used to test the experimental subjects due for real combat tests, gathering sufficient data before releasing them to face off against the hunters in real combat, collecting the data they desired. The response of extraordinary creatures differs significantly when facing machines versus humans.

"His body temperature is a bit off; pay more attention to that during the real combat test," the researcher noted while observing Zheng Yichen on the monitor. The surveillance equipment they had brought in included normal monitoring functions as well as some additional detection capabilities.

This was naturally done to better collect data and other information.

"If he gets injured during the combat, remember to collect his blood immediately," the researcher said before leaving the surveillance room. He was there only to check on the monitored scan results of the group of hunters.

From the captured data, it was clear they were well-prepared for the experimental subjects they would confront later. However, the discovery of the extra surprise, whether Zheng Yichen had an extraordinary ability, remained to be verified.