Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 867 - 105: 1%

At the forty-fifth minute, the mass of cotton-like matter began to slowly crawl towards the giant cordyceps in the pit until it fell into the pit and completely disappeared from Sun Hang’s view.

"Is this considered a return to the mother?" Sun Hang muttered.

"From this perspective, these spores that split off are not independent entities, but rather subunits collecting nutrients for the mother," Candle Dragon pondered, "Don’t you think this fungal creature resembles the carnivorous ants encountered by Nagano Souta and his team?"

"Such structures of strange creatures are not uncommon," the main brain said. "Using a hive-mind network to control the entire group, relying on subunits to supply nutrients to the mother. To date, six hundred seventy-four types of such strange creatures have been discovered. Apart from the giant fungal creature found in this operation, there are already nineteen types of similar creatures in the uninhabited areas of the Hexi Corridor."

"So is this creature considered a group or a single entity?" Candle Dragon asked.

"Theoretically speaking, both explanations are viable," the main brain replied. "Some scholars advocate for a more nuanced classification based on certain characteristics of such creatures, but this proposal has not been accepted by mainstream academia. There have been several intense debates between the sides, but each time it ended without results. Therefore, the boundaries for the specific definition of these creatures are very vague..."

"This explanation fits quite well with my stereotype of the current field of strange creature research," Candle Dragon remarked helplessly with a smile. "Tearing each other apart over trivial matters..."

"Do those research maniacs even care about such things?"

"Of course they care; the more obsessed people are with the study of strange creatures, the more they get stuck in minutiae," Candle Dragon sighed. "Just last year, two researchers at Dubhe Tower got into a fistfight over naming a newly discovered segment of strange creature meme. One broke three ribs and a nasal bridge, while the other’s facial skin was extensively burned by acid... In the end, both were heavily penalized. If I remember correctly, their disciplinary actions have still not been revoked."

"For naming a meme segment? Was it about paper authorship rights?" Sun Hang was somewhat perplexed.

"No... It was their mentor who discovered the meme segment; their names can only be listed fifth and sixth in the paper’s authorship," Candle Dragon chuckled. "And the segment they were naming is only part of a larger meme segment, with at least a hundred places within the meme needing a name..."

"So what were they fighting over? Someone unaware might think they were fighting over a wife," Sun Hang couldn’t help but retort, "By the way, what name did they give to that meme segment?"

"One of them followed standard rules for naming, the exact name I forgot, but the first part was a combination of letters and numbers. I only remember the last six digits were 070401, symbolizing it was the first meme segment decoded on July 4th. But the other researcher believed the decoding work was completed by him during late-night overtime. He input the data into the archive at 23:57 on July 3rd, and even though the data review was completed after midnight and the archive entry time was the next day at zero, the last six digits of the meme segment had to be changed to 070309. Otherwise, it would negate the labor he endured staying up late... Er, I remember that’s what the guy claimed."

"Just for... a few numbers?" Sun Hang scratched his head, "And then what happened?"

"The guy then grabbed a reagent bottle filled with strong acid and hurled it at the other person," Candle Dragon shrugged. "Just then, I was on duty at the Field Operations Department, heard the alarm in the tower, and rushed to the laboratory building directly. By the time I arrived, these two were already pinned to the ground by security personnel using riot forks."

Sun Hang: "..."

"That’s why I’m more willing to deal with the normal people in the Field Operations Department than interact with that group of white coats," Candle Dragon said. "Although the managers in the Field Operations Department at Dubhe Tower have all kinds of nasty habits, at least their thought processes are normal."

"The Federation Government is burying its head in the sand, and the people in Dubhe Tower are all a bunch of lunatics..." Sun Hang couldn’t help but sigh. "It’s a real miracle that human civilization has sustained till now."

"Not everyone is a lunatic... Those researchers are long-term disconnected from society and don’t have normal entertainment activities or social interactions; they just squeeze their minds against various experimental equipment and data reports day after day. After a long time, it’s almost impossible not to have psychological problems," Candle Dragon said. "But people like Mr. Pei and other higher-ups at Dubhe Tower still have vision. I suggest, when you have the chance, to interact with them more, since the operations at Dubhe Tower can’t be completely handed over to the main brain..."

Candle Dragon hesitated for a moment before adding in a low voice: "The fate of humanity... should still be in human hands."

After saying this, he took a glance at the communication terminal hanging on Sun Hang’s waist.

The main brain did not express any opinions, seemingly tacitly agreeing with Candle Dragon’s viewpoint.

...

...

After charging out of the territory of the carnivorous ants, Nagano Souta glanced back at the several columns of smoke rising in the distance, mourned for a few seconds, then refocused his sight on the road ahead.

Before entering the territory of the carnivorous ants, he calculated the survival rate of the entire convoy using the supercomputer built inside White Tiger. The computer informed him that at least two-thirds of them could survive—however, after the black "spring water" gushed from countless "springs," that value began to plunge wildly until it stopped at just 1%.

And that 1% referred only to himself.

Aside from White Tiger, no one could survive the carnivorous ants’ 360-degree siege without dead ends—White Tiger could burn the ants on its path with energy shields and the tail-flame of its jet, but for the swarms attacking the convoy from all directions, White Tiger could only ensure its own survival.

Raising his hand to burn off the carnivorous ants remaining on the exterior of two metal boxes, Nagano Souta opened the two equipment boxes that were gnawed full of holes.

"Luck is alright," Nagano Souta sighed softly.

The boxes had an internal layer for shock absorption, the ants that crawled into the box hadn’t breached the layer made from gel-like polymer, so the energy blocks and ammunition stored inside had not been damaged yet.

Taking out the energy blocks and ammunition, attaching them to the equipment rack mounted on the back of the machine, Nagano Souta maneuvered White Tiger slowly toward the direction of Nanhua Town.

He glanced at the Hunter forum that was refreshing madly; almost everyone was discussing the newly released exorbitant bounty. Many had already set off on the journey to this place.

"Looks like... a lot of people are going to die again."