"At least I'm stronger than those who rely on taking hostages to pass the first stage of the trial," the shadow said. "Forcing the heavily armed regular army to clear a path for you may seem impressive, but you don't even have any records of officially facing other Hunters. With someone like you who takes shortcuts, I worry you might drag the whole team down."

Sun Hang thought to himself, it seems that the Dubhe Tower has already blocked the news of the Overlord losing control, otherwise, this guy wouldn't say something like "no record of officially facing other Hunters."

But then again, this guy's attitude towards me is probably the same as Overlord's—among Mysterious Creature Hunters, strength is respected, and Sun Hang's previous actions, though seeming to let him pass the first stage of the trial like skipping class, actually made him the target of public criticism.

Especially those like Overlord who crave false fame, would rather violate the agreement with the Dubhe Tower than come here to teach me a lesson—saying it's to make those Sun Hang coerced feel better is just an excuse. His real purpose is probably to step over Sun Hang to gain more popularity and attention.

Just a bunch of fame-seekers... Sun Hang sighed inwardly.

"So you came to me to test my strength?" Sun Hang asked. "Now I'm a bit curious, in your eyes, what level do you think my strength is?"

"Let's not talk about other things; just in terms of personal qualities, you don't even have the alertness a Hunter should have," the shadow said with disdain in his voice. "I advise you to withdraw from the trial. Someone like you staying in the team will only harm yourself and others."

"Oh? You came barging into my room early in the morning to nag at me just to persuade me to quit so you'd have one less competitor?" Sun Hang feigned surprise.

"The second stage of the trial is extremely perilous and not as simple as you think. If you think you can pass again with some shortcut, you're gravely mistaken," the shadow said. "Each trial often results in deaths. If you have a clear understanding of your abilities, you should know what choice to make."

"I just remembered something." Sun Hang raised a finger.

"Hmm?"

"You just said this shadow is a 'projection' you created using your abilities, but no matter how I look, this feels like your actual self," Sun Hang said with a smile, looking at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I checked the adjacent rooms just now. The guest in room 603 is a female and is sound asleep, so she can be ruled out. As for room 605, there's no one there, just a set of pajamas scattered on the empty bed... Wow, I didn't expect you to run naked into someone else's room, that's quite perverted!"

"...Is that your ability?"

"Guess," Sun Hang grinned mischievously, "There's a reward for guessing right, and for guessing wrong... there's one too."

The shadow remained silent, then stood up and began to slowly retreat until his body slipped back into the wall.

The shadow passed through the wall effortlessly and appeared in the empty room 605. In the next second, it dispersed like mist, then regrouped into a naked white male.

He quickly dressed and cast a wary glance at Sun Hang's room, but he failed to notice the "eyeball" connected to the end of a mycelial strand in the air vent on the ceiling, watching him unblinkingly.

"So it's an Angsa person, no wonder..." Sun Hang mumbled inside.

Anyone with a bit of historical knowledge seldom has any fondness for the Angsa people.

Back in the days before Mysterious Creatures appeared massively, they interfered in other nations' internal affairs in the name of maintaining world peace, building their military bases everywhere, for their own interests, causing perpetual unrest in the nations with rich natural resources in the Two Rivers Valley.

And after Mysterious Creatures began to invade the human world on a large scale, several major powers in the human world were forced to form a wartime alliance—But when the Xiazhou Federation proactively shared their costly gained Mysterious Creature information, the Angsa-led Hezhong States across the ocean hoarded their own data, only sharing some insignificant or outdated information with the Xiazhou Federation.

In major battles on the Xiazhou Continent, the Hezhong States only sent a few thousand third-line troops and a pitiful amount of supplies as support... In contrast, during the "Battle of Alaska," while facing horrific Mysterious Creatures crawling from the sea to invade Cook Bay, the Xiazhou Federation dispatched a formidable force of 150,000 elite soldiers to assist the Hezhong States' army in resistance.

In that five-month-long battle, over 50,000 soldiers from the Xiazhou Federation sacrificed their lives on foreign soil. Yet the precious supply line they protected with their lives was abandoned by the Hezhong States just two months after the battle ended, citing a lack of forces.

Until the Hezhong States completely perished, and a fleeing former Hezhong States official brought and exposed a secret document to the Xiazhou Federation, did the citizens of the Xiazhou Federation learn the Hezhong States' true motives—they tried to weaken the military power of the Xiazhou Federation and the Siberian Federation by leveraging the Mysterious Creatures, preserving their own power to the maximum, intending to politically, economically, and militarily oppress and strike at the two federations when they were barely holding on, to finally achieve their ambition of global domination.

However, what the Hezhong States hadn't anticipated was that they themselves were the first to be wiped out by the Mysterious Creatures.

The surviving Angsa, even as refugees, did not become more restrained, but instead brought their bad habits entirely to their new nation.

While not all Angsa people are detestable, if Sun Hang were to score all ethnic groups currently residing in the Xiazhou Federation, the Angsa would definitely be in the bottom three.

Since Sun Hang awoke, only two pureblood Angsa have spoken more than three sentences to him: one is Mente, a researcher at the Tianfu City Research Institute, and the other is this guy who can transform into a gray shadow.

Unfortunately, both left negative first impressions on Sun Hang.

...

Sun Hang initially intended to observe this Hunter a bit longer to see what he would do next, but noticed this guy, after hurriedly dressing, left the room without even bothering to wash up.

At this moment, a scene that Sun Hang found most amusing occurred—this guy, when passing by Sun Hang's doorway, took a step away from the door, as if something terrifying was inside the room.

"Oh? Backed down already?"

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