The burly man died instantly. The Hunter swiftly moved behind him and used his body as a shield, while drawing the gun from his waist with the other hand and pulling the trigger towards Sun Hang and his group.

A clinking sound rang out as all the bullets hit a shield formed by liquid metal, leaving Sun Hang and the others behind the shield completely unharmed.

"Mr. Ya!" The Hunter, who had broken the rules, apparently recognized Ya Qiaoxi and shouted loudly, "We have no grievances or enmity between us. You don't need to risk your life for the boss of the Spring Breeze. Let me pass, and I swear I won't harm you!"

"Won't harm us? Those shots you fired just now were clearly aimed to kill us, weren't they?" Ya Qiaoxi responded immediately, "If you had killed us, you wouldn't need to say these words."

"I know you've hired Hunters as bodyguards, but if I decide to go down fighting, you might not be able to retreat unscathed either!" The Hunter's voice was full of energy, completely different from his previous weak demeanor.

"Feigning death...is that a meme's ability, or some kind of skill?" Sun Hang looked at Candle Dragon, who shook his head lightly and said softly, "I don't know either."

"I wonder if taking you down would make the Spring Breeze's boss owe me a favor?" Ya Qiaoxi said, "People like him who stick to the rules are rare nowadays, and such favors are really valuable."

"So, it seems Mr. Ya plans to go all out against me?" the opponent's tone suddenly turned cold.

"It seems like you don't have the qualifications to go all out against us." Sun Hang deactivated the liquid metal shield and walked directly forward.

"Bang!"

Once again, the shot hit Sun Hang's forehead.

Or rather, it hit the liquid metal armor covering Sun Hang's forehead.

"Damn!" the Hunter cursed loudly, threw away the gun in his hand, and swiftly retreated towards another junction, dragging his human shield.

It was only then that Ya Qiaoxi reacted, turning to Candle Dragon beside him: "Sun Hang's ability isn't healing?"

Candle Dragon pursed his lips: "...I can't say."

"It's obvious to anyone with eyes, that sudden shield and the ability to withstand bullets with the body... damn, could he really have used his ability to kill Chimera 17?" Ya Qiaoxi spoke quickly.

The Hunter, using a corpse as a meat shield, suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of fear. The next second, he saw an arm punch through the corpse blocking him, directly piercing into his chest.

To his surprise, he didn't feel any pain at all.

It was as if his pain nerves had been completely numbed.

The Hunter, in shock and fear, tried to control the bones in his chest to grow a large number of bone spurs to attack the arm penetrating his chest, just as he had killed the burly man earlier. But as he activated his ability, he found that the meme inside him had completely lost control.

His eyes widened in shock as the corpse being used as a shield slid aside and he stared intently at the young man smiling in front of him.

"Monster... monster..."

Although he couldn't control the meme inside him, he could still sense its changes. He realized his meme was being rapidly extracted and absorbed into the other's body.

An intense feeling of despair gripped his heart. He felt like those drunken crabs or shrimp only found on southern dinner tables—alive but soaked in strong liquor, numbing all senses due to alcohol. He could only watch helplessly as a pair of chopsticks picked him up, chewed, swallowed... and finally digested him completely.

The Hunter's consciousness began to blur, and he felt his body getting lighter—as if the person was not just absorbing the meme inside him, but also drawing in the blood and flesh within his shell.

"Thud."

The lifeless corpse knelt on the ground, then fell forward, its forehead hitting the ground heavily.

Sun Hang shook off a trace of blood residue from his hand and shook his head with a hint of regret.

The strength of this Hunter's meme was just average. His ability allowed him to control the bones inside his body, using them as versatile weapons in close combat. He could also produce a layer of high-density bone armor on his skin or subcutaneous tissue to protect his vulnerable organs.

Moreover, his body had enhanced regenerative abilities. Those wounds left after retracting the bones needed only ten minutes to heal. He seemed to have been badly beaten just now, but in reality, it was all an act. The superficial wounds had already healed quite well, and the broken bones could regrow at any time.

Except for the feigned death ability, which piqued Sun Hang's slight interest, all other abilities had superior substitutes for Sun Hang. So, after absorbing this Hunter's meme, Sun Hang didn't hesitate to use it as nourishment to "feed" his existing meme inside him.

These external memes offered almost no resistance and were assimilated by Sun Hang, slightly increasing his "blue bar limit."

Even Sun Hang himself couldn't feel this increase. To noticeably raise his blue bar limit, Sun Hang would have to devour over five hundred Hunters of this level in one go.

It was only then that the guards and Hunters in the base arrived in a hurry.

"Who fired the shot just now?" Hei, who had returned, asked loudly. The next second, he saw the corpse of another burly man on the ground and cried out in despair.

"That person is Hei's younger brother," Ya Qiaoxi quietly explained to Candle Dragon, "The two grew up depending on each other. Later, Hei became a Hunter after being infected by a strange object, and they both worked for the Spring Breeze's boss..."

"What happened just now?" A scholarly-looking man in a suit with thin-rimmed glasses asked. Upon noticing Ya Qiaoxi, he immediately directed his question toward her. "Can you describe what happened just now, Mr. Ya? We trust your account."

"Are you the boss of Spring Breeze?" Candle Dragon asked.

"No, I'm just an accountant," replied the man in the suit.

"The Hunter who broke the rules was pretending to be dead. His injuries were already healed," Ya Qiaoxi pointed to the other corpse on the ground. "After Hei left, he suddenly attacked and killed another guard. He intended to kill us too. Fortunately, the Hunters with me were skilled and managed to take him down instead."

"I see," the suited man nodded, "I will report these events to the boss. We greatly appreciate your and your friends' help, Mr. Ya. If that person had escaped, it would have been much harder to find him later."

After speaking, the suited man signaled the two guards following him, who immediately began cleaning up the scene. Meanwhile, the gathered Hunters chatted among themselves, and several noticed Ya Qiaoxi's cart. Many gathered around, hoping to buy a batch of "fresh goods" before others in the base.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" After listening to Ya Qiaoxi's account, Hei sat down heavily on the ground, crying and slapping himself. "Why did I want to save money on those few cigarettes? If I had known... if I had known, I wouldn't have gone back... If I hadn't gone back, you wouldn't have been killed! It's all my fault!"