Artificial Hunter?

When Sun Hang heard this term, the first thing that came to his mind was the face of Wang Xiyi.

Mr. Wang is an "Artificial Hunter," could this sealed-off Nameless Island be her "hometown"?

"What type of Artificial Hunters are being researched on this island?" Sun Hang asked.

"I don't know." The talkative Hunter shook his head, "The people at Dubhe Tower are very tight-lipped, and we've only managed to gather this much intel after a lot of effort."

"Why are you telling me?" Sun Hang glanced at him, "I never believe in anything falling into my lap for free."

"As future teammates, sharing intelligence is normal, right... Besides, didn't you also tell me about matters regarding Shuzhou?" The talkative Hunter's gaze shifted past Sun Hang's shoulder to another group of people at a table in the corner of the restaurant, with a hint of disdain in his tone, "Don't mix me up with those selfish Angsa people."

Sun Hang turned his head, following the direction of the talkative Hunter's gaze, and saw six people sitting around that table, all Caucasian. The guy who had barged into Sun Hang's room not long ago was among them.

They seemed to sense Sun Hang's gaze and turned their heads to look this way.

After meeting the guy's eyes, Sun Hang flashed him an incredibly bright smile.

The guy's face changed slightly, and he quickly turned his head away, no longer meeting Sun Hang's gaze.

"They shouldn't have heard me talking about them, right?" the talkative Hunter said quietly.

"Hard to say, maybe one of them has some kind of eavesdropping ability." Sun Hang shrugged, looking indifferent, "Who cares, anyway, you were just speaking the truth."

"Just worried that these narrow-minded guys might trip us up during the trial..." Before the talkative Hunter could finish, Sun Hang interrupted him.

"If they trip us up, just kill them."

In the urban area of Chunming City, Sun Hang had to abide by the rules set by the Xiazhou Federation and Dubhe Tower, but on an island full of unknown dangers, it would be incredibly easy to make several people "accidentally die."

Sun Hang's principle for dealing with people was simple: don't offend me, and I won't offend you; if you offend me, I will destroy your entire family.

If this group of Angsa people actually dared to cause trouble, Sun Hang wouldn't mind using them as nourishment for himself.

"... Dude, are you joking?" the talkative Hunter couldn't help but shiver, asking cautiously.

"Yes, just joking." Sun Hang smiled, "Casually killing people is wrong."

Just then, Sun Hang's phone rang again.

As his direct supervisor, when Yang Qi handed this phone to Sun Hang, she had set a special ringtone for her number, so Sun Hang didn't even need to take out his phone to know that it was her calling.

"Hello?" Sun Hang answered the call.

"Sun Hang, are you at the hotel where the Hunters are gathered now?" Yang Qi asked directly without any small talk.

"Yeah, I've been here overnight, currently having breakfast." Sun Hang replied, "Honestly, the soup dumplings here are really good. Want me to pack some for you?"

"Focus on the main issue!" Yang Qi said sternly, "Is there anyone around you right now?"

"It's meal time, of course, I'm not the only one in the restaurant."

"Find a quiet place; I have something very important to tell you."

"Alright."

Sun Hang greeted the talkative Hunter and then went alone to the hotel restroom stall, constructing a simple soundproof barrier using his "wish-fulfilling" ability.

"Okay, you can speak now."

"The location for the second stage of the trial is on an uninhabited island three hundred kilometers east of Chunming City."

"..." Sun Hang wanted to complain, for this was the third person who had told him this within less than 24 hours... It was like a piece of news being repeatedly forwarded in a chat group, each person forwarding it thinking they had the first-hand report, not knowing they were the ones who had just returned from Mars to Earth.

However, he ultimately held back the urge to express it and listened quietly.

"There once was a research institute dedicated to the 'Artificial Hunter' project on that island, but later a very serious accident occurred, leading to an emergency halt of the project, the closure of the institute, and the entire island being secretly sealed off," Yang Qi continued.

"Artificial Hunter... Is it Mr. Wang's hometown?"

"No, this institute was established much earlier... According to the information I obtained, it dates back to the Chinese calendar year 4599, built in cooperation between the Xiazhou Federation and the Siberian Federation—back then, the Siberian Federation was not the current Siberia, but one of the world's top three giants along with the Xiazhou Federation and the Hezhong States."

"Oh?" Sun Hang was slightly taken aback; it seemed the intelligence Yang Qi got was more detailed than what the talkative Hunter had shared.

Of course, it could also be possible that the talkative Hunter withheld some information from him.

"This cooperation project was named 'Codenamed: Chasing the Sun,' primarily researching the feasibility of artificial fusion between the human body and anomalous memes... It was the first attempt in this area by modern human civilization, even predating the 'Super Soldier' project in the Hezhong States by eleven years."

"So, the accident that led to the halt of the project... What was it?" Sun Hang asked, "Did the test subjects go out of control?"

"No, it was worse than that..." Yang Qi sighed, "The entire institute was anomalified by an unknown power, becoming a Type G anomaly, and in the ensuing century, the signs of anomalification tended to spread across the entire island... In Dubhe Tower's archives, it is named 'G-19: Nameless Island.'

"Were there any survivors who escaped from the island back then?" Sun Hang continued to ask.

"Eleven people escaped from Nameless Island on a speedboat, but by the time the search and rescue team found them, they had all gone mad. Two were quickly turned into anomalous corpses due to meme infection, and the remaining nine all died within a year—two committed suicide, five died in accidents, and the last two died in a sanatorium within a day of each other, with the coroner determining them to be sudden cardiac deaths."

"Accidents? What kind of accidents?"

"Two died in car accidents, two in falls from a height, and one drowned in a bathtub," Yang Qi said, "I feel like the drowning was more likely a suicide, but the archival records list it as an accidental death."

[P.S. What do you think about the pacing of the storyline lately? Is it too slow, just right, or a bit fast? If you have any suggestions or opinions, feel free to share them in the comments for this chapter; I check them whenever I have time.]

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