Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 660 - 179: In the Tunnel_2

The next second, the glow sticks in the hands of the Hunters dimmed one by one, even the dragon flame on Wang Xiyi's tail went out.

The afterimages of the glow sticks and flames remained on the retinas, but the surroundings were plunged into complete darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of you.

The cries of the Hunters did not sound; apart from the darkness, what enveloped Sun Hang completely was also absolute silence.

He suddenly realized that his hands were empty—Shinkata Misaki, whom he had been holding, was nowhere to be found, just like those Hunters who disappeared when the light source extinguished.

"Teleportation? Or an illusion?" Sun Hang squinted slightly, "Can't it be something fresh for a change?"

The wind in the tunnel began to gradually turn sharp, and among the wind, low whispers with unclear meanings could be faintly heard, yet Sun Hang felt no movement in the air, even the hair rising at his temple remained unmoved.

Sun Hang reached out to touch both sides, as he expected, the tunnel's walls had vanished too, and he seemed to be standing on a vast, endless plain, surrounded by boundless darkness, with the eerie whispers in the wind constantly coming from afar.

In a daze, Sun Hang noticed that all of a sudden, his surroundings brightened up.

He was standing in a room filled with precise instruments, and mirrors embedded on the walls all around.

This room was not unfamiliar to him.

A beam of intense light descended from the ceiling, enveloping Sun Hang within it.

"A network is being spun by blood-black void," an emotionless synthetic voice echoed in the room.

Sun Hang remained silent.

"Are you scared? Have you ever imagined yourself in an environment with complete absence of light?"

Sun Hang still maintained his silence.

"Cells connected again and again,"

"When was the last time you made a choice?"

"What is the thing you least want to face?"

"A network is being spun by blood-black void, connecting cells again and again, then connecting to the main trunk."

"What is the most terrifying thing you've dreamed of?"

"Do you consider humans to be your kind?"

"When was the last time your emotions experienced a strong fluctuation?"

"What does survival mean to you?"

"Then, against that backdrop of darkness, a fountain spurts upwards, forming a white column of water."

"Do you feel that you are no longer human?"

"Do you often feel hunger?"

"Have you pondered about the meaning of your existence?"

"What is the perfect partner in your fantasies like?"

"Have you ever experienced unbearable hunger?"

"I caught a glimpse through the smoke of a tall white fountain, then woke up in shock." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

As if to give Sun Hang time to answer or reflect, the synthetic voice paused for a full thirty seconds after reading the last line of the poem before saying, "Test complete."

The lights in the room returned to their original state, but Yang Qi did not push open the door to enter.

Sun Hang looked around, examining with great interest the testing instruments that he didn't recognize but knew were extraordinarily expensive—suddenly, one of the machines, the screen displaying a bunch of data and wave lines, scrambled when he stared at it, black and white noise swept the screen like waves, and a question emerged between the black and white noise.

"Do you feel lonely?"

Lonely? Why would I feel lonely?

Is it because everyone around me has disappeared?

"Don't you detest this world where you don't fit in?" the question on the screen changed again.

Not fit in?

Sun Hang suddenly found it kind of funny.

He didn't know if he was out of place with this world, but if you asked him if he liked it, the answer was undoubtedly yes.

He quite liked this world, a world where an elder would hand him a plastic bag filled with sticky rice balls, where a voluptuous beauty would lend him a full set of bootleg Ultraman DVDs, where a tsundere OL in black stockings would tightly hug his neck and softly pant in his ear while usually showing a mean face, and where a woman, like a nagging mother, would always help clean up his messes—if the illusion before him perfectly replicated Sun Hang's memories, then she should now be pushing through that door, discussing the salary and benefits of a Mysterious Creature Hunter with him.

Sun Hang had no reason to dislike this world.

Sun Hang didn't want this world to become like the Surrendered Area.

By comparison, places like Maoyun Town were simply uninhabitable.

Anyone with a sane mind who had to choose between Tianfu City and Maoyun Town would choose the former without hesitation, right?

This is one of the reasons why, despite being perpetually disgruntled with the Federation Government, Sun Hang continued to maintain a cooperative relationship with them.

He didn't want the world he liked, to end up like Maoyun Town.

Another moment of daze, and Sun Hang found himself standing amidst a bustling street; this was the most prosperous commercial street in Tianfu City, a place where even an inch of land is worth its weight in gold—unfortunately, scenes like this Sun Hang had only seen twice after waking up, and then they never returned.

The arrival of Eternal Night changed everything.

Sun Hang later passed by this commercial street once, and due to martial law, it had long been deserted, the kilometers of glass windows were covered in thick dust, and the various signs looked like tombstones hanging in mid-air. Flyers for sales events scattered on the empty sidewalks, but the deadlines for those promotions had passed months ago.

Now, this commercial street revived before Sun Hang's eyes.

Or rather, Sun Hang saw what it looked like when it was alive.

But what caught Sun Hang's attention more wasn't the flourishing commercial street itself but the enormous shadow looming over it.

The source of these shadows was the swirling crowds on the street.

Countless negative emotions intertwined, coalescing into a gigantic monster. This creature lurked among the neon lights of skyscrapers, rising and falling with the flow of people... If not for its overwhelmingly oppressive colors, this entity might resemble the kind of holographic giant beasts common in cyberpunk-themed works.

Sun Hang glanced at this beast, and the continuous surge of negative emotions began to erode his mind insanely—sadness, sorrow, anger, fear, anxiety... Everyone's heart walking this street harbored some degree of such emotions, and when these emotions combined, the overpowering impact left Sun Hang's brain feeling as though it had been roasted by them.

For a moment, Sun Hang nearly lost himself in the assault of these negative emotions, but thankfully, he quickly severed the connection to these emotions, pulling his consciousness away and coldly observing the ghostly, entangled, striking negative emotions from a third-person perspective.

"Anna," Sun Hang called, "Dinner's ready."

No response.

The projected advertisements on the glass curtain wall across the street suddenly seemed invaded by a virus, the movement of glamorous celebrity endorsers froze, and a vast mosaic and chaotic color blocks tore the original image apart, a line of text appeared among the chaotic color blocks.

"Humans are the source of these negative emotions, the more these emotions accumulate, the faster this world you love will deteriorate."

"You can't save them, nor do you need to."

"They only have themselves to blame."