Chapter 6 Hunter

Just as Zheng Tian and the others passed by earlier, the sensor on their hover truck indicated that there was an extremely weakened First Level Ruined Beast here.

Following the principle of taking advantage of a free opportunity, they detoured a few hundred meters to come over and check the situation.

And then they saw this scene in front of them.

A strange man, unarmed, exuding a weak aura from head to toe, was sitting there with his legs crossed as if he had anticipated their arrival all along, waiting for them.

What was even more bizarre was that he immediately called out Zheng Tian's name.

Zheng Tian was merely a small scavenger team leader in Starfire Town, far from being famous enough to be well-known.

This stranger obviously wasn't from the town; there was no reason for him to have heard of Zheng Tian.

All these strange occurrences added an extra layer of mysteriousness to him.

"How I know you is not important."

Seeing that his act of mystique had successfully intimidated them, Ren Zhong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "My name is Ren Zhong. I need to go to Starfire Town, but an unexpected incident happened on the way, and I no longer have the ability to protect myself. I would like to offer the corpse of this Crystal Winged Dragonfly as a reward to ask if you can take me to Starfire Town. Is that okay?"

Zheng Tian's eyes rolled, "A chance meeting is still fate. We can take you to the town, but the reward is unnecessary. Time is of the essence, Hanyu, help Brother Ren Zhong dismantle the crystal chip."

Ren Zhong: "Thank you."

Zheng Tian: "You're welcome."

Two and a half minutes later, the tall woman dismantled the crystal chip, and then, with a consultative look, glanced at Ren Zhong.

Ren Zhong shook his head and said, "I didn't bring a box with me, please help me pack it."

With Zheng Tian's enthusiastic support, Ren Zhong climbed up the ravine.

A nearly ten-meter-long box truck was parked on the ground ahead.

The truck had no wheels and looked like a shipping container.

The blue sun in the distance was about to set.

A burly man lifted the corpse of the Crystal Winged Dragonfly with one hand, opened the cargo door at the back of the truck, and casually tossed it inside.

Glancing in, Ren Zhong observed quite a few animal corpses that he didn't recognize piled inside the cargo area.

Although they were called animals, at least half of their bodies gleamed with a metallic sheen.

By now, Ren Zhong already knew what these things were, collectively known as Ruined Beasts.

There were two rows of seats in the front of the truck, with Zheng Tian sitting in the driver's seat.

The burly man sat in the more spacious passenger seat.

The back row was originally meant to accommodate three people, consisting of the long-armed man, the baseball cap guy, and the tall woman, but with Ren Zhong added, it became somewhat crowded.

The tall woman sat by the leftmost window, with Ren Zhong to her right.

The two were squeezed quite closely, unavoidably bumping into each other.

There was nothing to be done about it.

Fortunately, the silent and reserved tall woman was magnanimous, not taking issue with Ren Zhong.

Or perhaps she was simply insensitive to physical contact, whereas Ren Zhong felt somewhat awkward but suppressed the feeling inside without showing it.

Having witnessed the cold-blooded nature of this group, Ren Zhong couldn't feel truly safe now.

He believed that all the friendliness they displayed was just a superficial facade, with each person hiding a devilish mask that would devour others without a trace.

So at this moment, his every move was a performance to maintain his high-level persona.

As long as they couldn't see through him, they wouldn't act against him.

On Ren Zhong's right side was the sharp-faced, narrow-eyed baseball cap guy who had once sentenced him to death.

The long-armed man sat by the rightmost window.

The interior of the vehicle was filled with a pungent odor, unsure if it was engine oil or a burnt circuit.

The dashboard at the front was chaotically arranged.

Amid the gaps in the dashboard, two or three metal wire ends would mischievously peek out now and then.

Zheng Tian first placed her palm on a plastic panel the size of a mouse pad, below which a faint light glimmered.

An electronic voice filled the vehicle, "Authentication successful."

Driver Zheng Tian whistled, "Heading home!"

The vehicle shakily levitated, eventually settling at a height of two meters above the ground, and began accelerating forward.

Throughout this process, the car bottom clanked and rattled, giving the impression that it might fall apart at any moment.

Zheng Tian looked back at Ren Zhong, who appeared a bit dazed by the shaking, and offered an awkward smile, "Sorry, our turtle-style hover truck is a patchwork picked by Wen Lei from the junkyard. Everything makes noise except the horn."

Ren Zhong waved his hand considerately, "It's nothing, it's nothing."

Wen Lei muttered, "Having a vehicle to drive is good enough. It didn't cost us anything, so stop being picky. Besides, next time it breaks down, I won't fix it."

Zheng Tian: "My bad, my bad!"

After a few minutes, as they drove on, Zheng Tian started chatting with Ren Zhong while driving.

She seemed to want to find out where Ren Zhong came from, how he knew her name, and what he was going to do in Starfire Town.

Ren Zhong naturally couldn't answer any of it, so he dodged with chuckles, vaguely implying that he had a background he couldn't disclose, thus covering his tracks.

Zheng Tian, however, started speculating to herself.

Ren Zhong had no combat ability, that much was obvious.

In this world, an outsider with no combat ability would hardly have the chance to interact with town folks in his lifetime.

So this ruled out the possibility of Ren Zhong being an outsider.

But if Ren Zhong was a resident from another town, that didn't make sense either.

Ordinary town folks had no reason to care about the people from other towns.

If she were a significant figure in Starfire Town, it might be understandable, but she wasn't.

Her name was irrelevant information. In this world, no one would bother with irrelevant information; keeping it in their minds would just be wasting space.

Then there's only one explanation: the unarmed Ren Zhong might come from a major organization, secretly studying and observing the situation in Starfire Town, to the extent that even names of insignificant people like hers were noticed.

He must be plotting something.

This plot could be good for the town, or it could be bad.

But what does it matter?

As Zheng Tian pondered the issue, the baseball cap guy with the sharp face and narrow eyes, whom Ren Zhong had previously mentally noted, elbowed Ren Zhong in the waist, enthusiastically saying, "Oh right, Brother Ren Zhong, I should remind you."

"What?"

"Right now you don't have a wrist watch. In case we run into patrolling Hunters, you'll need to swap a temporary wrist watch using the crystal chip we just got from the Crystal Winged Dragonfly, okay?"

Ren Zhong's thoughts whirled, pretending to be knowledgeable, "Of course, no problem. What's your name, brother?"

"I'm Ou Youning."

Ren Zhong: "Oh, okay, nice to meet you! Uh-huh!"

As they drove for a few more minutes, Ren Zhong learned the names of the others.

The tall woman was named Chen Hanyu, the long-armed man was Bai Feng, and the armored burly man was Wen Lei.

Now the two parties could be considered to have made an initial acquaintance.

After driving for another ten minutes, Zheng Tian glanced at the simple electronic map on the dashboard and cheerfully remarked, "We're about to pass through the Hunter's main patrol area, so maybe Brother Ren Zhong can save a First Level crystal chip today. Darn...here they come."

Some things really shouldn't be mentioned.

Before Zheng Tian finished speaking, she nervously slammed on the brakes.

As the vehicle decelerated, the body tilted, and the vehicle's height declined. The front half of the truck nose-dived into the dirt.

Boom! The vehicle hammered into the ground.

Ren Zhong was jolted forward, head hitting the faux leather headrest of the driver's seat, before being bounced back and landing in Chen Hanyu's lap.

However, Ren Zhong didn't rush to stand up and get away, nor did he pay attention to the strong elasticity beneath his back. Instead, he was fixated on the front windshield.

At this moment, his legs trembled, fur standing on end, and his brain almost ceased to function.

A bullet-shaped flying device floated quietly ahead, with a palm-sized black tube on top aimed directly at Ren Zhong in the car, like a reaper's ghost.

Ren Zhong had a strong psychological endurance, but having been repeatedly penetrated in the chest and head before, the trauma ran deep.

He had no doubts about this thing's lethality, and even behind the truck's windshield, his sense of security was zero, as if he'd die the next second.

Gulp.

Ren Zhong swallowed softly, wanting to say something, but found his throat dry and his voice unresponsive.

"Get up, I need to get out."

At this moment, Chen Hanyu's cool voice came from behind Ren Zhong.

Half functional, Ren Zhong instinctively supported himself a little.

Chen Hanyu opened the door and slipped out from under Ren Zhong, jumped out of the truck, and briskly walked toward the flying device known as the Hunter.

Ren Zhong looked ahead, then at the wide-open truck door.

It was nearing night, the sky darkening, and even the wind blowing from outside seemed much colder.

He could hardly resist the urge to close the door.

But he didn't do it.

Not out of concern for Chen Hanyu outside, but because he couldn't afford any substantial movement now.

Up ahead, Chen Hanyu took off her backpack, donned blue gloves, pulled out the box divided into sections, and then retrieved Ren Zhong's crystal chip, extending it in front of the Hunter.

Two snake-like mechanical arms extended from below the Hunter.

Ren Zhong's pupils contracted again, momentarily feeling as if Chen Hanyu's head might be lopped off.

But that did not happen.

One mechanical arm took the crystal chip from Chen Hanyu's hand, while the other handed out something.

Afterward, this fearsome killer rapidly changed direction and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Chen Hanyu returned to the truck, "Move in so I can get back up."

"Oh, oh."

Ren Zhong took the shoddily made, fitness bracelet-like "temporary wrist watch" from Chen Hanyu and carefully put it on.

Only then did he notice his back was cold.

Unconsciously, cold sweat had soaked him through.

He gently rubbed the wrist watch on his hand as if caressing a rare treasure.

He had narrowly escaped with his life.