"How would I know that," Candle Dragon said with a bitter smile, "But judging by the speed of information flow in the outpost, I estimate that more than half of the people at the outpost already know there's a 'new Hunter asking around about a place called Sima Street'."

"That's good," Sun Hang nodded.

"What do you plan to do next? Are you going to approach the Hunters in the outpost to see who can be recruited, or continue to inquire about this non-existent place? If I remember correctly, recruiting Hunters is the main purpose of our trip to Dragon City, right?"

"We have plenty of time, so doing a side mission first doesn't hurt," Sun Hang said. "Besides, don't you think the reward for this side mission might be quite substantial?"

"Forgive me for saying... I don't see it," Candle Dragon shook his head.

"It's my intuition," Sun Hang pointed to his temple. "My intuition has always been spot on."

"What if no one ever shows up? Do we change outposts and ask again?" Candle Dragon asked.

"How many outposts like this are there in Yumen?"

"In my memory, there are four, but that was many years ago," Candle Dragon said. "Whether that number has changed now, I'm not so sure."

Just as Sun Hang was planning to ask another person, the man who claimed to be an accountant in a suit appeared in front of him like a ghost.

"I hear Mr. Sun is looking for a place called Sima Street?" The man in the suit stepped forward and asked Sun Hang in a low voice.

"See, someone did come after all," Sun Hang gave a slightly smug glance at Candle Dragon, then turned to the man in the suit, "So, are you the contact? Or perhaps your boss?"

"My boss has heard of this place, and he's very interested in discussing it with you," the man in the suit said.

Sun Hang: "Isn't your boss busy with some research and refusing visitors?"

"To be honest, my boss is the recipient of that package." The man in the suit made a gesture inviting them to follow. "Please come with me."

...

...

The so-called "secret room" of the Spring Breeze outpost is actually the control room of this air-raid shelter. The walls of this room are filled with screens connected to surveillance cameras all over, strictly monitoring the movements of everyone within the outpost—What surprised Sun Hang a bit was that these cameras were all functioning normally; he had thought at least half of them were defunct decorations.

A figure with a somewhat unusual build was seated behind a large table, which was covered with paper pieces of various shapes and sizes, each bearing abstract lines and patterns, much like the one Sun Hang was holding.

"Hello." The boss of Spring Breeze looked up at the three people brought into the secret room, "I am Nagano Souta, the boss of Spring Breeze."

"Oh, Mr. Chang, pleasure to meet you," Sun Hang said politely.

"He's from Dongying descent; his surname is Nagano, not Chang," Candle Dragon whispered.

"No worries." Nagano Souta waved his hand, "A name is just a label. If not for it being the only thing my late mother left me, I might have chosen a more memorable label for myself."

It wasn't until Sun Hang walked closer that he noticed why Nagano Souta's figure seemed unusual—he didn't have human limbs. His arms and legs had been cut off, replaced with somewhat outdated mechanical prosthetics. He wore a loose coat with an open shirt underneath, revealing scars and signs of decay on his chest and belly.

Three plastic tubes were inserted into his throat, left chest cavity, and side abdomen, with a life support device next to the table emitting a beeping sound.

"Anyone meeting me for the first time would be curious about what happened to me," Nagano Souta said. "I was once a Hunter like you, but unfortunately, after overusing my abilities, my infection process suddenly accelerated and quickly exceeded the irreversible threshold."

"But your current infection process seems stable," Sun Hang said. "That doesn't seem irreversible, does it?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I was quite lucky. At that time, I had two choices: one, to undergo 'harmless treatment' before turning into a ghoul or entity, dying as a human. The other path was to remove the limbs and some organs that had amassed a large amount of entity memes, attempting to physically strip the mutated memes from my body... The surgeon told me the success rate was less than thirty percent, and even if it succeeded, I'd spend the rest of my life as a cripple."

"Can't you undergo organ transplantation or limb reattachment?" Candle Dragon couldn't help asking.

"My memes are quite special. If I undergo limb reattachment, my infection process will swiftly rebound... To barely survive in this world, the only way is to remain in this 'human-porcine' state," Nagano Souta laughed, a string of bubbles emerging from the tube at his throat. "At first I thought of ending it all, but now I've come to terms... For me, living each day is a gift from heaven."

"Good mindset." Sun Hang retrieved a box containing a small card from his backpack. "Back to business. Is this what you wanted? Were you the one who issued that delivery task?"