Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 360 - 24: Emergence
As Sun Hang’s car approached, two soldiers quickly ran over—Sun Hang noticed with his peripheral vision that besides them, the other soldiers all instinctively placed their fingers near the trigger guards of their rifles.
Sun Hang couldn’t help but curl his lips... Has the situation become this tense already?
"Please show your identification!" The two soldiers who came closer reached out to stop the car.
Just as Sun Hang was about to reach for his Hunter License, a familiar figure quickly ran down the steps from the entrance of the research institute. It was Song Yarong in a dirty white lab coat, wearing a monocle on one eye, with a silvery high ponytail swaying vigorously with her movements.
"Why are you two so late? Everyone is waiting for you!" Song Yarong shouted loudly.
"Just handled a small matter on the way." Sun Hang said. He glanced at the bloodstains on his clothes, his tone calm.
"Hurry up!" Song Yarong said, "Leave the car to them, quickly follow me, time is pressing!"
"What’s the matter, so urgent?" Sun Hang got out of the car, casually tossing the keys to the two soldiers, "Celestial City is going to blow up?"
"Just assume Celestial City is going to blow up." Song Yarong hastily turned and led him towards the entrance.
"Huh? What’s really going on?" Sun Hang asked again. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
"You will understand soon!" Song Yarong replied.
...
Celestial City Mysterious Creature Research Institute, Operation Room No. 1.
The last time Sun Hang saw so many people gathered was during the Dragon Rock Fortress invasion, and now, the atmosphere in the meeting room was far more severe than then.
"I’m not late, am I?" Sun Hang scanned the room. Besides the familiar faces, there were many unfamiliar ones seated in the front rows. Among these unfamiliar faces, there were no fewer than five people bearing insignias of high rank, and those not in uniforms carried an aura of long-standing authority, commanding respect without anger.
Yang Qi and the elderly director in a wheelchair stood before a giant projection screen. The former was just about to say something to Sun Hang but had to swallow his words at the latter’s signal, opting to cough twice and activate the microphone clipped to his collar.
"Since everyone is here, let’s start with the third ’Chimera No. 17 Operations Strategy Meeting,’ officially commencing." Yang Qi announced.
"Chimera No. 17? Third operations meeting?" Upon hearing these terms, Sun Hang felt a bit flustered, "What happened during the time I was away? Chimera No. 17 showed up?"
"Yes, not only did it show up, but it made quite a commotion." Song Yarong, standing beside him, quietly explained to Sun Hang, "Just two days after you disappeared, two hundred kilometers north of Celestial City, an oval object over four hundred meters tall and nearly a hundred and fifty meters wide appeared out of nowhere, emitting a milky-white glow. The object stood outside the wilderness, resembling a termite’s egg... Based on preliminary investigations, some memetic fragments of this egg-like object completely coincide with Chimera No. 17, and it can be tentatively identified as the mysterious entity ’Chimera No. 17’ that previously caused multiple incidents within Celestial City."
So Anna lured me out of Celestial City to help me avoid Chimera No. 17?
Sun Hang turned to the projection screen, where a giant "white insect egg" appeared, standing vertically on the wasteland, its emitted milky-white glow illuminating the surrounding area almost like daytime—around this "white insect egg," the ground showed clear signs of vitrification.
"The ground... Did they hit it with nuclear bombs?" Sun Hang asked.
"That’s right, after confirming the mysterious entity really is ’Chimera No. 17,’ the Disaster Response Committee applied to the Federation Government for a nuclear strike, and four tactical nuclear warheads totaling sixty thousand tons in yield hit it accurately." Song Yarong replied, "However, as you can see in the footage, the mysterious entity remains intact through the nuclear explosion. Not only that, according to post-explosion detection results, it seems to have absorbed the radiation energy generated from the explosion, its memetic strength enhancing at least by 30%."
Four sixty thousand ton tactical nuclear warheads...
Though prefixed with the term "tactical," the power of each individual warhead reached an already dreadful fifteen thousand tons... And considering that the "Little Boy" detonated on a certain island had only twenty thousand tons yield.
"Furthermore, its memetic strength is continually rising... According to Dubhe Tower’s analysis, Chimera No. 17 is not currently in its complete form but instead in a ’complete metamorphosis’ ’pupa form,’ and the giant white egg-shaped object we see now is being used to protect itself as a ’cocoon.’" Song Yarong explained.
"If it’s a ’cocoon,’ when might it ’break the cocoon and emerge’?" Sun Hang asked.
"At its current enhancement rate, it’s estimated to ’break the cocoon’ in forty-one days." Yang Qi, who was presenting at the projection screen, answered for Song Yarong, "According to Dubhe Tower’s calculations, Chimera No. 17, once emerged, might reach a strength infinitely close to the original-level mysterious creature. Therefore, we must eliminate it within these forty-one days!"
"Forty-one days... it feels like a lot of time." Sun Hang commented.
"It’s not much time at all." Song Yarong shook her head, "Our current weapons can’t inflict effective damage on it... Moreover, as Chimera No. 17 continues to grow stronger, our opportunities will become increasingly scarce."
