Trickster Hunter

Chapter 302 Ants

…

Several researchers dressed like Michelin tire men carefully took the container containing the meme sample from Sun Hang, and then quickly got into an armored all-terrain vehicle that had been waiting for a long time. Escorted by several armed vehicles and a large group of drones, they quickly drove towards Tianfu City.

Sun Hang turned his head and looked in the direction of Chimera No. 17. From time to time, he could see one or two streams of energy cutting through the night sky, tearing apart the rain curtain, and landing somewhere beyond his sight.

"How many of the 'suicide squads' were sent in later and evacuated?" Sun Hang raised his head and glanced at Ye Xuan, who was standing on the edge of the cement platform, holding an electronic telescope, and asked.

"There are three thousand people in total. About 600 people have been evacuated so far. About 200 people are confirmed dead. In addition, nearly 400 people are missing." Ye Xuan said without looking back.

"Did you come up with the human sea tactic?" Sun Hang asked again.

"Yes." Ye Xuan did not deny it.

She put down the telescope, looked down at Sun Hang who was riding a hoverbike, and added: "In order to win, do whatever it takes to win. This is my consistent code of conduct. If you don't like my approach, or feel that my decision-making It’s too inhumane. You can protest to the Federal Parliament. No matter what the Federal Parliament plans to do with me, I will not resist.”

"I didn't say what you did was wrong." Sun Hang shrugged, "I just think that many people died in vain. In fact, if you don't organize this 'death squad', I can also bring out the meme samples. of."

"In wars between races, when a certain race is at a disadvantage, as long as it can win the war, personal life, death and dignity are irrelevant." Ye Xuan continued, "Have you watched "Animal World" ”

"I haven't seen it." Sun Hang said.

“When I was a kid, there was an episode from this documentary that made a lasting impression on me.”

"Is it the episode 'It's the Breeding Season Again'?" Sun Hang asked.

"Didn't you say you haven't seen it?" Ye Xuan frowned slightly.

"I haven't seen it, but that doesn't mean I don't know the origin of a certain internet meme, right?" Sun Hang joked.

"The episode I'm talking about is about red fire ants, which are native to South America. The place where this creature originally lived has a tropical rainforest climate, and heavy rains for days or even months are very common. When heavy rains trigger When floods wash away the nests of fire ants, they will spontaneously gather together to form a ' The fragile eggs, pupae and larvae are placed on the top of the ant raft, and the most important queen ant is wrapped up and placed in the safest position inside the ant raft, which is composed of countless fire ants. The rafts can drift on the water for a long time until they find land and then build a nest again," Ye Xuan said.

"This story always feels a bit familiar." Wang Xiyi suddenly interjected, "But I have heard the version where a forest fire breaks out and the ants roll into a ball and roll out of the sea of ​​​​fire."

"Whether it's a flood or a fire, the survival rate of the ants in the outermost circle is almost zero. They will be drowned or burned to death... But it is precisely because of the sacrifices of these ants that the entire ant colony can escape the crisis of annihilation and continue to Continue to multiply." Ye Xuan said, "The current situation of us humans is actually not much different from that of these ants who encounter natural disasters."

"So, when you give the pension funds to the families of the fallen soldiers, will you tell this story to their families?" Sun Hang scratched his head.

"Otherwise, I will tell the family members that their children died gloriously on the battlefield against monsters. They saved an entire city of people. Their sacrifices have lofty significance and incomparable value..."

"Wait a minute," Sun Hang interrupted Ye Xuan before she finished speaking, "What will you say if Tianfu City fails to be defended in the end?"

"Then it won't be my turn to speak." Ye Xuan said lightly, "I told my father that if Shuzhou falls, I will stay on this land forever."

"Uh...your father doesn't have any objection?"

"Of course I have opinions! And they are very big!" Ye Jiu came over angrily, "If it weren't for the pressure from the council, dad would now want to find someone to kidnap Xuan'er back to Chunming City... I say you this time Why are you so stubborn and insisting on issuing a military order... Now it's okay, we are in a dilemma. "

"I have no regrets." Ye Xuan said, "If you are afraid, you are fully capable of leaving Shuzhou before the situation gets out of control."

"I'm leaving. Dad gave me a death order and told me to ensure the personal safety of his precious daughter." Ye Jiu said angrily.

However, he did not tell the second half of what his biological father told him - "If nothing can be done, then knock Xuan'er unconscious and bring her back. I will find a way to deal with the military order!"

"If I am afraid of death, what will they think?" Ye Xuan pointed to a messy artificial floating island not far away - the "suicide squads" who had just withdrawn were gathering on several temporary artificial floating islands. On the island, those who have the strength can climb up on their own, but more soldiers are pushed or pulled by their companions to get to the floating island.

Marching at full speed for forty kilometers in the swampy terrain, you have to worry from time to time whether energy enough to evaporate everything will fall on your head. On the way to retreat, there are various independent monsters controlled by Chimera No. 17. Objects and parasitized colleagues... Whether it is physical or mental, these death squads have reached their limits.

They lie or sit, completely ignoring that they are covered in mud, and do not care that they will be affected by radiation when they open the mask, and sip the specially prepared nutritional supplements; some also injected themselves with excessive stimulants during the retreat, and now the drugs As soon as the effect passed, he fell over and passed out... Medical soldiers wearing red cross armbands walked among them, loading the more seriously injured people onto stretchers, and then transported them back to the rear on all-terrain vehicles or helicopters. temporary hospital.

"Do you feel that the radiation here seems to have weakened a lot compared to when we first arrived?" Sun Hang suddenly changed the topic.

"This was reported to me by the technical staff half an hour ago." Ye Xuan said, "Chimera 17 is absorbing radiation from the surrounding environment... The observers also discovered that even the energy emitted by it The flow will be recycled before it completely escapes. It seems to have a sense of crisis about our operation and is unwilling to waste too much of its own energy."

"Then will the time for it to break out of the cocoon be advanced again?"

"According to calculations, this amount of radiation in the environment can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket for the total energy required for it to complete hatching..." Ye Xuan nodded, then shook her head, "The time for breaking out of the cocoon will indeed be advanced. , but it’s only a few minutes in advance at most, which is within the acceptable range.”

"It can absorb human memories. I guess it already knows about the 'Insecticide Plan.'" Sun Hang walked into the bunker as he spoke, glanced at Yang Qi's profile picture on the big screen, and asked, "Director Yang, Do you have any countermeasures?"

"No." Yang Qi said with a tight face, "The plan has already begun and cannot be stopped or modified."

"The good news is that most of the hunters who participated in the operation don't actually know the entire contents of the 'Insecticide Project.'" Another researcher-looking person on the screen said. Sun Hang had only met this person a few times. It is said that he is one of the right-hand men of the old director who is in a wheelchair.

"The vast majority of hunters only know that their mission is to collect the meme samples of Chimera No. 17. As for how these meme samples will be used, they don't know." Yang Qi also said, "They know the entire plan. You are the only ones who have the details. Fortunately, you are all back safely."

"But hunters are not fools. After knowing the content of the mission, they can more or less guess part of the plan... not to mention that a group of hunters came on the same flight as the memetic reverse engineering team." Sun Hang Still insisting on his opinion, "And Chimera No. 17's IQ is not Low, it can not only simulate the way humans think, but also has information processing capabilities similar to supercomputers... After collecting enough 'intelligence fragments', it can completely piece together the general content of the 'Pesticide Plan' . I think you should treat it as a plan."

"Then there is no time left for us to revise the plan again." Yang Qi sighed, "According to the original plan, we have to race against time...Sun Hang, we really don't have time."

"There is no need to drastically modify the plan... I mean, if Chimera No. 17 comes up with some countermeasures based on your plan, can you prepare some countermeasures that can counteract these countermeasures? "

Sun Hang felt like he was telling a tongue twister.

"I will find a way..." A look of exhaustion flashed in Yang Qi's eyes. She gently rubbed her temples with her index fingers, "You have worked hard too... The goal of the first phase has been achieved, and they have also Let’s all return to Tianfu City. Before the ‘insecticide’ is successfully developed, we should not stimulate Chimera No. 17 to prevent it from mutating again.”

…

…

At four o'clock in the morning the next day, Sun Hang was woken up by the preset alarm clock. He sat up, looked at Wang Xiyi, who was sleeping very badly next to him, gently removed the dragon's tail wrapped around his waist, and then relaxed Stretched comfortably.

The current period of time, for researchers, is a time of working overtime to catch up on progress... but for hunters like them, it is the last "holiday" before the war.

Sun Hang got out of bed, picked up the clothes and pants thrown on the ground, put them on, and walked to the bedroom window.

Outside the window is the same darkness, no matter it is four o'clock in the morning or four o'clock in the afternoon.

"Only two hours of sleep?" Wang Xiyi's voice came from behind, "When did you start learning from Yang Qi?"

"Yang Qi is just an ordinary person. She will die suddenly, but I won't." Sun Hang took a long breath, "If you ask me to stay up for ten nights, I might not get sleepy."

"Then why are you sleeping? Why not just cultivate immortality directly." Wang Xiyi said with a chuckle.

"Actually, apart from sleeping, I find that I can also do it without eating or shitting." Sun Hang opened the window, and the cold wind of more than ten degrees below zero suddenly rushed in, and his mouth and nose were filled with cold wind. The breath he exhaled suddenly turned into a touch of white frost.

"Then why do you still eat, sleep and poop? I still find these things troublesome." Wang Xiyi complained, "Even if they improve the taste of nutrition bars, you will still get tired of eating this kind of thing all day long."

"Eating, sleeping and shitting make me feel like I'm still a human being." Sun Hang said.

Wang Xiyi fell silent for a moment. After about half a minute, she asked, "If I eat normal food, I may have to eat several tons a day to be full. Do you think I'm still a human being?"

"It's useless for others to think so. You have to think so yourself." Sun Hang closed the window and picked up the water cup beside him - but just when he was about to drink water, he found that a thin layer of ice had formed on the water surface.

"That's it. Whenever you doubt whether you are still a human being, just say in your heart a hundred times, 'I am a human being, not a monster'... What's that word called? Oh, yes, it's called 'ideological stamp'... Can't you just stamp yourself with an ideological stamp?"

"Have you ever done this before?" Sun Hang looked at Wang Xiyi with a playful look.

"That's not the case." Wang Xiyi shook the tail that was longer than her height, "I always thought I was a human, just an outlier among humans."

"That's good." Sun Hang curled his lips.

The biggest difference between him and Wang Xiyi is that Wang Xiyi has a clear human identity... and Sun Hang, he doesn't even know where he came from.

If... the occupied area is his "homeland"...

Then would he be... a weirdo that looks like a human?

"Do you know how the difference between infected people and weirdos was defined in the beginning?" Wang Xiyi suddenly asked.

"The rate of change of the infection process? Or clear self-awareness?" Sun Hang asked.

"Neither, but emotions." Wang Xiyi shook her head. "Infected people with normal and reasonable human emotions are considered to be infected people who have not been completely weirded. In other words, they are still considered "humans." Infected people who have lost all emotions or have gone to extreme and lost their reason in some emotions are considered to have been completely weirded and turned into a weird thing."

"..."

"Of course, this definition is not rigorous and was later abandoned." Wang Xiyi shrugged, but this action caused the blanket hanging on her to slide down, revealing a large area of ​​beautiful scenery.

"Do you think you have those emotions that belong to humans?" Wang Xiyi did not pull the slipping blanket, but showed herself to Sun Hang generously, "happy, sad, depressed, disgusted... or love?"