Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 658 - 178: Circuit Breaker Threshold_2

The debris began to liquify, bound by an invisible force field that continuously fused and reshaped them... Within seconds, a giant drill over three meters in diameter and more than twenty meters long materialized in front of Sun Hang.

At the same time, the Hunters who had previously advanced close to the Chimera rushed to Sun Hang's landing point.

"Are you planning to drill a hole in Chimera 17 with this drill?" the Crystal Princess asked, unable to resist as she saw the drill spin faster and faster.

"Why not?"

Sun Hang's right hand was previously pointing in midair, and the giant drill suspended above the ground shot out instantly, drilling toward the place Shinkata Misaki had just pointed out.

The cocoon shell full of cracks shattered instantly, and the drill directly contacted the magma layer below, causing a massive sonic blast.

The Hunters quickly covered their ears.

"It's in! It's in!" a Hunter shouted excitedly, "The drill didn't melt! It's promising!"

Of course, the drill wouldn't melt... Sun Hang had already pushed his metal-controlling ability to the limit, and the blue bar was being consumed at an alarming rate. If they were in an online game, the Hunters would see Sun Hang's avatar's blue bar depleting section by section in the team interface. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Compressing such a massive amount of metal to a critical state while maintaining stability was Sun Hang's first attempt — the drill looked like solidified metal, but in fact, the metal comprising the drill was in a state entirely different from conventional physical forms... In all seriousness, if Sun Hang lost control of his ability, the giant drill would instantly turn into a bomb with power comparable to a tactical nuclear warhead, and few present would survive such an explosion.

"That's odd! The temperature is dropping!" a Hunter holding an optical thermometer exclaimed, "The temperature's quickly dropping where the drill is in contact with Chimera 17! This isn't scientific!"

"We're already fighting anomalies, so forget about scientific or not," Wang Xiyi glanced at the startled Hunter, "Since an 'anomaly' occurred, it means Misaki's chosen the right spot... Tsk, this ability is truly useful."

"... Hiss." Dubbed "Misaki-chan" by Wang Xiyi, Shinkata Misaki felt a chill crawling up her spine but didn't protest the nickname, "Just luck... It really has nothing to do with my ability, just a gut feeling that place was a bit off."

"That's because of your ability." Wang Xiyi shook her head, "Otherwise, why wouldn't our intuition pick up on that 'off' feeling?"

"Seems like... you're right." Shinkata Misaki tried to suppress her ability, and sure enough, that sense of "something's off" vanished completely.

...

The giant drill gradually stopped, and Sun Hang took a deep breath, the blue bar nearly half-consumed. If consumption continued, the blue bar's regenerative rate would be affected.

Sun Hang couldn't quite define the essence of the blue bar but assumed it to be a kind of psychic energy since he would pass out if it was overdrawn.

This psychic energy had a notable characteristic; the less consumed, the faster it recovered... once consumption exceeded the halfway point, recovery would slow significantly.

He named this threshold "Meltdown Threshold," a term borrowed from a risk control mechanism in financial markets, often used in sci-fi to describe scenarios where energy consumption exceeds limits or equipment overloads.

After numerous experiments with different consumption rates, Sun Hang found a pattern: keeping psychic energy above half, he could replenish the consumed portion within minutes.

Once consumption reached the halfway mark and crossed the "Meltdown Threshold," even a minor overdraw of 50.1% would require hours to recover past 50%.

Complete depletion... would take days to recover.

Of course, a quick way to replenish was by consuming other anomalies.

Without certainty of anomalous "supply," Sun Hang's primary combat rule was never let psychic energy fall below the "Meltdown Threshold" unless necessary.

The giant drill retreated, revealing that Chimera 17's surface had been drilled with a hole over two meters in diameter.

Around the hole's edge, the previously flowing magma appeared solidified, and the temperature dropped from 4,000 degrees Celsius to just 500 degrees.

According to the optical thermometer's scan, it looked like a bottomless black hole appeared suddenly amid large high-temperature yellow and white areas.

In fact, it was indeed a bottomless black hole.

The inside of Chimera 17 was hollow.

Once Sun Hang's drill penetrated the magma layer, the "cavity" inside was exposed to everyone.

"Should we throw the insecticide and activator in now?" asked an eager Hunter, "Would that complete our mission?"

"Throw it in now? You sure you can hurt Chimera 17?" another Hunter looked at him disdainfully, "Who knows where this hole leads... You might drop it and have it roll out another hole, never touching Chimera 17's body."

"What do you suggest, then?"

"I think we need to go in," Sun Hang suddenly said.

"Go... in?" The Hunter who wanted to throw insecticide was stunned, "You mean... go... inside Chimera 17's body?"

"Not necessarily inside Chimera 17's body," Sun Hang shook his head, "This is just a cocoon, a cocoon for incubation... Chimera 17's body should be hidden somewhere within the cocoon. We must find that hidden body for the insecticide to work effectively."

"How do we find it?" The Hunter was bewildered.

"Let me introduce Shinkata Misaki," Sun Hang pointed to the girl beside him, "You might not be familiar with her name, but her alias you must have heard — 'Death's Eye'."

"Death's Eye? This little girl is Death's Eye?!" The Hunter's eyes widened, scanning Shinkata Misaki up and down several times, "No wonder... No wonder the higher-ups are confident in this mission. If you are Death's Eye, you must be able to see where this anomaly's weak points are, right?"

"I can't see them," Shinkata Misaki shook her head, "At least not from the outside."

"So I said, we need to go in," Sun Hang stated.

The Hunter's Adam's apple bobbed, he gulped slightly, and then said, "Alright... alright, go in if we must... The fact I'm standing here means I'm not afraid of death."

"I'll go first." Wang Xiyi folded her wings, heading straight for the opening.