Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 596 - 148: Face
"Wang, how's it going, any changes with the target today?"
A voice came from behind Wang Zheng. The speaker was "Mr. Xu," the head of Bunker No. 1. Mr. Xu is a seasoned investigator with twenty-five years of experience and has personally taken down mysterious creatures, making him an elite among investigators.
Mr. Xu was also among the first batch of reinforcements to arrive in Tianfu City. According to him, he drew a bad lot and was sent to Tianfu City to "bear the hardship"... However, fellow investigators from the same batch say that upon hearing about the incident in Shuzhou, Mr. Xu was the first to volunteer for reinforcement there.
There wasn't any lottery at all; almost everyone in the first batch came voluntarily, and some even argued with colleagues over the quota.
Wang Zheng has always respected Mr. Xu. He introspected and realized that if it were him, chances would be slim that he would stand out when asked who would volunteer to reinforce Shuzhou.
Wang Zheng only has two years of service experience, belonging to the most ordinary kind of compulsory soldiers, with almost zero combat experience—if aiding the Mysterious Creature Hunters on the outskirts of a battleground counts as combat experience, then he barely has two instances. As for firing a gun, it was only done at the shooting range in the military camp.
Mr. Xu knew Wang Zheng's capabilities, which is why he assigned him lightweight tasks—using binoculars to constantly observe Chimera 17's changes and periodically record data.
"Same as always, the volume of this creature has increased a bit." Wang replied, "The change is barely noticeable to the naked eye; the data was calculated through the scope's program... In comparison to twenty-four hours ago, Chimera 17's height has increased by 0.62 meters, and the waist circumference has increased by 3.75 meters... The rate of increase is similar to the past few days."
"Don't take it lightly; although daily changes are minimal, the accumulation over several days..." Mr. Xu said while overlapping two transparent photos. Both photos had an elliptical outline but instead of overlapping due to the photos' transparency, they formed a structure akin to concentric circles.
"What's this?" Wang turned his head, somewhat curious, asking.
"This one was taken by you yesterday of Chimera 17, and the outline was flattened by a computer," Mr. Xu explained. "And the other was taken when I first arrived here."
"Whoa, it's gotten significantly bigger!" Wang exclaimed in a low voice.
"Based on the radioactive imagery, Chimera 17's interior is solid... no idea where all this material is coming from," Mr. Xu sighed.
"Solid? Doesn't that violate the conservation of mass? If it was extracting nutrients from the ground, the area would have collapsed long ago due to its size," claimed Wang.
"Wang, here's a piece of advice for you."
"What advice?"
"When facing these mysterious creatures, it's best to forget what you learned from textbooks... Our current scientific standards can't explain the formation principle of these creatures... Sometimes, I'm not sure if these creatures are the paradox, or if the knowledge we've grown up learning is," Mr. Xu said with a reflective tone.
"So if one day I have to face these creatures..." Wang swallowed, "If science can't be trusted, what should I believe in?"
Surely it can't be something like God or Buddha, Wang internally mused, even if God and Buddha truly exist, wouldn't they also be categorized under some kind of mysterious creatures...
Wang had seen those medieval European paintings of "Angels," different from those Renaissance anthropomorphic ones with wings and halos, these Angels appeared eerie—a giant wheel covered in eyes, a large winged eyeball, or an indescribable creature stitched from various animal limbs...
Such things, if they appeared in the real world, undoubtedly would be considered terrifying mysterious creatures.
"Intuition, you can only trust your intuition," Mr. Xu stated.
"Intuition? Is that reliable?" Upon hearing Mr. Xu's response, Wang was somewhat speechless.
Does saying it make any difference?
"I don't know about reliability, but several times when I thought I was dead for sure, it was intuition that saved me," Mr. Xu explained, "Looking back at those missions, I still feel a pang of fear."
"Mr. Xu... that's not intuition; that's luck," Wang remarked, "For an investigator to reach your level, I think luck is more important than skill... No matter how strong we are, we can't possibly be stronger than those heavenly and earth-moving mysterious creatures; if you ask me, luck is the key to survival."
"You're right, luck... luck is indeed very important." Mr. Xu nodded in agreement.
"Let's eat first; you can talk while eating." A neutral voice came from the observation room's door. The two immediately turned to look and saw a tall, striking young woman carrying three paper cups walking in. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
This young woman was about 175 centimeters tall, wearing a loose military jacket over her tight-fitting combat suit, yet even so, it couldn't hide her eye-catching figure.
