Trickster Hunter

Chapter 323 "Reaper" Lucas

"Oh? Tell me in detail?" Sun Hang suddenly became interested.

"Lucas, hunter number 0109, nicknamed 'Reaper', Tianshu Tower is directly under the hunters." Yuri said, "He is a first-level hunter, and his highest ranking on the hunter rankings was ninth."

"Ninth place..." There are only two ranked monster hunters that Sun Hang knows. One is the special bodyguard of the top of Tianshu Tower and the ninth-ranked "Iron Wall"; the other is even Longyan Barrier. "Bao Si", the owner of regular meme that can charm, ranks 37th.

And this Lucas's ranking is even higher than the iron wall.

"So, what is the ability of this 'Reaper' Lucas?" Sun Hang asked.

"Just like his nickname, Harvest Life." Yuri said, "His ability is very strange, that is, when he uses any weapon that is very similar in shape to a sickle, as long as it hits the target, regardless of whether it causes effective damage to the target, This attack will absorb part of the target's vitality and feed it back to Lucas... He is the trump card used by Tianshu Tower to deal with biological monsters. No matter how powerful the monster is, as long as it is a living thing, it will Restrained by Lucas.”

"Let me think about it... If nothing happens to this guy, wouldn't it be easier and more enjoyable to send him to deal with Chimera No. 17?" Sun Hang said, "He doesn't have to do anything, he just needs to run under the giant cocoon. Using a sickle to scrape the giant cocoon one by one, can it kill Chimera No. 17 by inflicting 'real damage' to the creature?"

"Theoretically, that's the case...but in fact..." Yuri hesitated, "Oh, you'd better come with me and take a look and you'll understand."

After saying that, Yuri walked to the door lock. After entering six passwords of more than ten digits, he turned around and said to Sun Hang: "Everyone who enters this room needs to undergo iris and DNA information authentication. , blood samples need to be collected during the process, so please don’t resist.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a laser scanned Sun Hang and Yuri from beginning to end, and then the laser stayed on their faces for several seconds.

"How to collect blood samples?" Sun Hang asked, "Isn't it said that taking off the protective clothing will contaminate the container?"

"No need to take off the protective clothing." Yuri shook his head.

A hidden groove on the ground opened, and two mechanical arms poked out. The two robotic arms moved to the sides of Sun Hang and Yuri respectively, and connected the collection head at the end of the robotic arm with a valve on the arm of the two protective suits.

There was only a soft "click" sound, the collection head and the valve were connected, and a cold needle entered the inside of the protective suit and pierced Sun Hang's arm.

"Identity information verification completed." AI synthesized voice came from inside the smart door lock, "Head of Containment Area No. 1, Yuri Alexey Ivanov, authority level: S level; registered hunter in Tianfu City, Sun Hang, authority level: 'Confidential'; the two applied to enter the B423 containment area...The application has been approved by the highest authority of Tianshu Tower. The valve is about to be opened, please step back."

"Please step back a little distance." Yuri also reminded, "The containment area of ​​B423 is usually in a full vacuum state. The instantaneous negative pressure generated after the valve is opened may suck people who are too close. Go in."

"Oh." Although Sun Hang was not afraid of any vacuum or negative pressure, he still took a step back obediently.

A strong suction force came from the gap of the opened valve. When the internal and external air pressures were balanced and the suction force disappeared, a biting chill suddenly floated from inside... Even the temperature inside the protective suit with a thermostatic device It dropped several degrees in an instant.

Sun Hang glanced at the place where the valve was opened and saw that the water vapor in the air had condensed into a layer of white frost on the ground and near the door frame, and the white frost was still spreading into the distance.

"The temperature in the containment area is minus 205 degrees Celsius. Please check whether the extreme environment adaptation function of the protective clothing has been automatically turned on." Yuri said.

Sun Hang glanced at the readings projected on the helmet visor. After dropping a few degrees, the temperature inside the protective suit quickly returned to its original constant temperature, and the temperature adjustment device located inside the backpack began to emit a higher temperature than before. Noticeably a lot of noise.

"Please be more careful and try not to touch anything in the containment area, including the walls." After Yuri said this, he took the lead in passing through the valve.

The structure of this containment room is somewhat similar to that of the laboratory used by Tianfu City's Institute of Monster Research to observe Chen Hongjuan. It is also a relatively narrow corridor when you first enter - but the mechanism in the corridor does not hide protective clothing and equipment. Instead of hidden cabinets for weapons, there were a lot of shower heads emerging from the top of the head, the sides, and the bottom of the feet.

Through the helmet, Sun Hang heard some kind of liquid spraying out from these shower heads - these liquids quickly solidified after contacting the surface of the protective clothing, forming a layer similar to a coating on the surface of the protective clothing. thing.

"Please raise your arms, and then alternately lift your feet for a period of time, so that the isolation fluid can be sprayed into dead corners such as the armpits and soles of the feet as much as possible." Yuri, who was walking in front, said, "After the isolation fluid solidifies, it will form a layer The solid protective layer, when we leave the containment chamber, this channel will clean the solid protective layer and then peel it off."

"Isn't protective clothing enough?" Sun Hang asked.

"There were some accidents in the early years that I don't want to mention, so we would rather be more troublesome and ensure safety as much as possible." Yuri sighed, "especially when facing these extremely dangerous monsters."

The two of them "showered" in the isolation liquid for about five minutes before Yuri pushed open the last door leading to B423.

This is a pure white room shrouded in high-brightness lights - the ceiling, walls and floor are all white. After Yuri closed the door, the pure white walls and the door instantly merged into one, and the gap between the two could not be found with the naked eye.

There is no light in the room. These pure white walls are the light source in the room. The light they emit turns the entire room into an area where there is almost no shadow, just like the shadowless lamp on the operating table.

In the middle of the room, a two-meter square fully transparent box is suspended. The box is filled with clear liquid. A thin, naked man curled up in it with his eyes closed.

On the man's back, eight glass cups are turned upside down. At first glance, it looks like cupping.

But if you look closely, you will find that the edges of the eight glass cups have actually all cut into the man's skin... Rather than saying that they are upside down on the man's back, it is better to say that they are "growing" on the man's back.

A long copper needle is fixed to the bottom of each glass cup, and the other end of the long needle is directly inserted into the man's body. Every few seconds, a group of purple-black mist will gush from the edge of the needle hole into the cup, and after circling around in the cup for a few times, it will be sucked back into the man's body.

"Is this cupping?" Sun Hang wondered, "What is that purple-black thing?"

"'Life force' concentrated to substance." Yuri said, "Or, life force after being 'materialized' by Lucas's ability."

"So that's what the invisible and intangible life force looks like?" Sun Hang nodded slightly, "But then again, this color always gives people a sense of the sight of an evil villain..."

"In fact, it should be bright red like blood, but it will appear purple-black like lack of oxygen in the 'inhibitor fluid'." Yuri said.

"Inhibitor?" Sun Hang asked, "Is it similar to Lao Wang... uh, similar to the 'beast inhibitor' that the 'Night Fury' had injected?"

"The principle is similar, both are products of memetic reverse engineering." Yuri nodded.

"Okay, can we continue to tell this guy's story?" Sun Hang said, "I'm quite puzzled. How did he become a phenomenal monster... What kind of phenomenon is this? The phenomenon of materialized vitality? Or the phenomenon of this purple-black thing going in and out of his body?"

"That was a difficult hunting mission. The mission target was a plant-like monster located in the swamp area of ​​​​South Xinjiang." Yuri sighed and told the story slowly, "The reason why I didn't answer your mission directly just now was because the target monster in that mission was very similar to Chimera No. 17..."

"Is that plant-like monster also incubating?"

"That's not the case. The closest point between the two is that they both have extremely powerful vitality." Yuri said, "It was a vine hidden under the swamp. It almost hunted all the creatures in that area, including the monsters, and its own strength continued to increase with repeated hunting and eating. Strong. Tianshu Tower was worried that the strength of the monster would get out of control and pose a threat to the towns around the swamp, so they decided to send Lucas to hunt the monster. "

"What happened next?"

"Lucas completed the task, but..." Yuri said, "As I just said, Lucas's ability is not to simply weaken the target's vitality, but to absorb... In other words, he will absorb the target's lost vitality into his own body. At that time, someone in Tianshu Tower questioned that if the absorbed vitality exceeded Lucas's limit, it might lead to uncontrollable consequences... But because Lucas had completed many tasks and hunted many extremely powerful monsters... So more people believed that this risk did not exist - after all, Lucas only absorbed vitality, not the monster's meme, and his own infection process would not increase because of absorbing too much vitality..."

"So this time on the mission...did he absorb himself?" Sun Hang asked.

"...The volume of the vine monster exceeded our budget." Yuri nodded, "We thought its mass would not exceed 200 tons at most, but no one expected that the part detected by the instrument was just the tip of the iceberg of the monster exposed on the surface of the swamp... In fact, the body of the vine monster has occupied more than 90% of the space in the swamp... In addition to a layer of 7 to 8 meters deep mud on the surface of the swamp, the space below has been filled by the vine monster."

"How deep is that swamp?"

"According to subsequent measurements, the deepest part of the swamp is 170 meters... In fact, this is no longer a swamp, but a giant underground cave corroded by the corrosive liquid secreted by the vine monster." Yuri said.

"After finding something wrong, can't you just ask Lucas to stop?" Sun Hang asked again.

"We thought so at the time... But we don't know why, no matter what the command said, Lucas turned a deaf ear, let alone stopped absorbing the life force of the vine monsters... We are not sure, at that time, he... Is it because the ability is out of control and it is difficult to get off the tiger? Or is it because the subjective consciousness is unwilling to give up the task. "

"I think 80% of the time it's the former."

"I think so too... I know Lucas very well. He is a very calm person. He has never been impulsive and has never disobeyed orders from his superiors. What's more, at that time, he had refused to communicate with the rear. This is definitely not the case. Normal phenomenon." Yuri continued, " In that case, we had no way to interrupt the absorption process without hurting Lucas... After forty-one hours of absorption, the vine monster's vital signs completely disappeared, and the meme began to disintegrate on its own. , but Lucas fell into a very strange state."

"How weird is it?" Sun Hang asked.

"His body seems unable to withstand the huge amount of life force he has absorbed. The life force that has been compressed to 'substantial' is constantly spurting out from his pores, and then being sucked back by him... As you can see' It's the same process as in the Pressure Relief Cup. We tried to send people close to him, but if the people we sent were still a few meters away from him, their whole bodies would rapidly expand like a balloon, and finally explode into a bloody mist. ”

"Exhausted by the life force?" Sun Hang asked.

Yuri nodded: "A large amount of life force that has not yet been 'materialized' is still escaping around Lucas... Although compared with the materialized life force that goes in and out of his body, these scattered life forces are not even close to each other." It's not even a drop in the bucket, but it's more than enough to hold ordinary humans to death... The most terrifying thing is that at that time, we couldn't find a way to isolate this life force from entering the human body, whether it was protective clothing or mecha vehicles, as long as If you get close enough, you will be exploded alive.”

Yuri paused for a few seconds and continued, "Then we discovered that Lucas's own infection process increased sharply, and soon exceeded the danger threshold... On the ninth hour after the vine monster was confirmed to be eliminated, Lucas himself was judged to be 'completely deceitful'."