Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 354 - 21: The Pretender

Now, while talking to that "old woman," Sun Hang considered two possibilities—first, he was a descendant of refugees from the Yundian Region; second, he was born in the Surrendered Area.

First, let’s analyze the first possibility. If he were a descendant of refugees, theoretically, he shouldn’t be undocumented... In the past sixty years, over ninety-nine percent of the refugees who flowed into the Shuzhou Region managed to obtain legal citizenship. Only a very few living in impoverished rural areas remained undocumented.

Having citizenship means access to a lot of benefits, the most important being free education and social security subsidies. Moreover, in later stages, as the Federation Government sought to expand the population in Shuzhou Region, they adopted a policy of accepting all refugees. If one applied for citizenship, rejection was unlikely. Logically, no one should be stubborn enough to refuse free benefits.

Besides, although Sun Hang had lost his past memories, the knowledge stored in his mind suggested he had received the nine-year compulsory education provided by the Federation—children without citizenship couldn’t possibly attend school.

However, this couldn’t be taken as evidence... After all, Sun Hang wasn’t sure if those memories truly belonged to him. What if he were really illiterate, and that knowledge came from the infected individuals he had "absorbed"?

So, this question loops back to the initial "Taotie Doppelgänger Attack Incident."

Sun Hang looked into the files on this incident, and the content was pitifully scarce. Other than statistical data on casualties and property damage, the beginning, process, and outcome of the attack were glossed over. Even the conclusion that it involved a "Taotie Doppelgänger" was drawn from the few memes that remained.

No one had witnessed the true form of the anomalous entity.

Even the surveillance equipment at the attack site bizarrely went offline at the same time.

If viewed in isolation, it’s hard not to think of some conspiracy, but the fact is, too many such enigmatic attacks have occurred across the Federation... In many cases, it’s even unclear whether the perpetrator was some anomalous entity or a human; simply lacking a reasonable explanation, they were categorized as anomalous attacks.

At least in Sun Hang’s case, there was still some meme residue found at the scene, which was better than the vast majority of "headless cases."

But why was he at the attack scene?

And why did he have memories of the Nameless Island Research Institute?

Among the anomalous entities and infected individuals Sun Hang had consumed earlier, none would have ever set foot on Nameless Island. This indicated those memories were already in his head before he was sent to the hospital.

The most significant and inexplicable doubt was... the Three Monkeys.

Sun Hang deliberated on these clues several times in the dead of night, but each time, as he reasoned his way to the Three Monkeys, the originally cohesive logic collapsed—it simply didn’t make sense; it was totally beyond Sun Hang’s current understanding. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation.

Sun Hang even had a bold conjecture—that the attacker carrying the "Taotie Meme" during that incident was himself.

And what hit his head wasn’t some random bullet at all.

"Could it be that I am the anomalous entity?"

Sun Hang looked at the white mycelium extending from his fingertips and the liquid metal floating beside his hand, and couldn’t help but think.

With his current abilities, there’s essentially no difference from an anomalous entity... He’s considered an infected individual rather than an anomalous entity simply because he still retains human consciousness.

However, as Sun Hang came into contact with more and more anomalous entities, he gradually discovered that many anomalous entities also had self-awareness; some could even think like humans.

The Dubhe Tower distinguishes anomalous entities from humans based on whether the meme infection process crosses a certain "danger threshold," but the problem is that this "danger threshold" varies from person to person... For Sun Hang, the boundary between anomalous entities and infected individuals has become extremely blurry.

"If I were an anomalous entity... perhaps I was sent into human society to perform certain tasks..." Sun Hang murmured to himself, "’The Pretender’? Hmm, that name sounds pretty cool."

But he just happened to have amnesia.

It’s undeniable that the Three Monkeys are an anomalous entity, but they not only refuse to help him recover his memories but also do everything possible to prevent him from retrieving them... Could there possibly be different factions within the world of anomalous entities?

Are the Three Monkeys traitors? 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

That would be absurdly far-fetched, wouldn’t it?

But Sun Hang didn’t dare completely dismiss this possibility, after all, "eliminating the correct answer first" is something frequently seen in real life.

No matter how slim the possibility, as long as it’s not zero, it could happen.

If the Three Monkeys and himself were from opposing factions, why wouldn’t they just eliminate him?

With the Three Monkeys’ abilities, this wouldn’t be any more difficult than squashing an ant, would it?

Sun Hang scratched his head in frustration and then plopped down into the driver’s seat.

In any case, the urgent matter for now is to find a way back—even if he is an anomalous entity, Sun Hang doesn’t want to remain in the Surrendered Area any longer.

The human world has delicious food and beautiful women; isn’t that better than this desolate Surrendered Area?