Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 529 - 113: Settlement

Before Sun Hang could get any closer, a man with a steel pipe stepped out of a van—he was wearing a motorcycle helmet without goggles, eyeing Sun Hang with suspicion.

What surprised Sun Hang a little was that the guy just stared at him without doing anything aggressive or approaching him, instead watching as he crossed the road, made his way between the parked cars, and entered the construction site.

Luckily, Sun Hang had changed clothes on the way here, otherwise, showing up covered in blood might have caused some unnecessary conflict.

Sun Hang continued to walk forward. According to the scavenger girl, the scavengers and homeless people living here were mostly concentrated in buildings eleven and thirteen, because these were the only two buildings with running water, albeit heavily rusted and frequently interrupted, but it’s better than nothing.

Sun Hang reached the entrance of building eleven. These buildings didn’t have doors or windows yet, so to ward off the cold wind, the scavengers had used foam boards, plastic sheets, and other simple materials to make barriers, sealing off the drafts—the windows tightly blocked were the ones with people living in them; windows left open were for common use as kitchens for burning and cooking.

As for bathroom matters, those had to be handled in uninhabited buildings or the sand pits behind the construction site.

The scavenger girl told Sun Hang that once, a homeless man didn’t follow the building’s rules and did his business in the stairway, resulting in a gang of scavengers beating him up, and before kicking him out, they made him eat his own mess...

Even though it was chaotic here, within that chaos, there were rules everyone silently followed.

To Sun Hang, this place seemed more like a "small community" that had evolved from a settlement.

As Sun Hang approached the makeshift barrier at the entrance, a sly eyeball appeared at a peep hole cut into the barrier. After scrutinizing Sun Hang for two seconds, a sharp voice came from behind the barrier: "A new face... first time here?"

"Yes," Sun Hang replied.

He was here to gather information, not to fight. Since the other party hadn’t shown any hostility, Sun Hang naturally responded politely.

"Dressed like that, you don’t look like a homeless drifter... could you be undercover?" the other person asked.

But Sun Hang didn’t sense any wariness in the voice.

"Do I look like one?"

"A bit," the other opened a small gap in the barrier.

This was a shifty-eyed old man, seemingly around fifty or sixty years old, thin and hunched like a human shrimp. He struggled to open a gap wide enough for Sun Hang to pass, and said in a low voice, "Besides cops and traders, no one else comes here... and you without anything in hand don’t look like a trader." The old man said.

"Traders? You mean those who buy what scavengers pick up?"

"Yes, they always come with vans or trucks, after all, the scavengers here barter; money is useless these days."

Considering the current state of Tianfu City, money indeed is not much more than waste paper... the most needed supplies are controlled by the government and distributed per capita, even with money... without strong connections, getting those supplies is hard.

"Do they come frequently?" Sun Hang asked again.

"Asking one question after another, and you say you’re not a cop?" The old man glanced at Sun Hang and said.

"I never said I wasn’t, I just asked if I looked like one." Sun Hang looked around—the so-called first floor was actually the raised foundation of the building, typically used for holding parcel lockers or parking non-motor vehicles for residents, but now transformed into a "youthful" open room.

The barrier sealed off the drafts, thin plywood divided the space between the load-bearing walls, and a rechargeable emergency lamp hung in a corner of the ceiling, its brightness turned to the most energy-saving level, emitting a dim glow.

"What, did someone steal something they shouldn’t have? Or... did someone die?" The old man asked casually.

"You don’t seem afraid of the Sheriff?" Sun Hang asked curiously.

"I haven’t done anything wrong, why should I be afraid?" The old man pulled over a shaky chair and sat down unsteadily, "As for the people who should fear you, they packed up and ran before you arrived."

"Technically, aren’t everyone living here thieves?" Sun Hang probed.

"Technically? How so? We’re just a bunch of junk pickers, who knows who threw those things away." The old man said, "Is even that against the law?"

"How about unlawful possession?"

"Well then, just cuff me." The old man very obediently extended his bony wrists, sneering, "You’re not the first Sheriff to investigate here, but you’re the most earnest one I’ve seen."

"Oh, other Sheriffs have been here too?"

"They probably felt guilty, knowing the authorities couldn’t support us, and left us to find our own way... just turning a blind eye. If you want to charge us, fine, we’d be happy to go to jail, at least there’s food, drink, a bed, and no freezing... better than this hellhole, isn’t it?" The old man said.

"I was just kidding... I’m mainly here to inquire about someone." Sun Hang said.

"Who are you asking about?"

Sun Hang pulled out his phone, showing a portrait—drawn from memory of the face of a scavenger he had witnessed transforming—he had even slightly used his wishful thinking ability.

"Oh... this guy," the old man smacked his lips, "This guy really liked to brag, I wasn’t a fan... he left here more than a week ago, heard he made it big somewhere else... what happened to him?"

"He’s dead," Sun Hang said.

"Oh, dead." Upon hearing about the scavenger’s death, the old man didn’t show any surprise, "Dead is dead, just the other day someone froze to death here... so what if someone dies?"

"But he was killed by something supernatural, so I need to gather evidence," Sun Hang said. "I heard that when he left, he didn’t take anything with him, it was all left here."

"Supernatural?" The expression on the old man’s face finally changed, "You’re looking for his belongings? That might be difficult... he was gone for two days, and those things were already divvied up by others."