Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 889 - 116: Puppet Army_2

"Remember, wait until the solvent changes color before withdrawing. Only then is the collection considered successful!" Chen Jing said to the Hunters collecting mimetic samples.

"I know, Mr. Chen, don’t worry. We’re not those rookie first-timers on a mission—uh!" The Hunter couldn’t finish his sentence before letting out a short scream. He looked down with difficulty to find an arm belonging to a human-shaped abomination piercing through his chest.

"They’re not completely dead yet!" a scream erupted from the crowd.

It wasn’t just that Hunter; other Hunters collecting mimetic samples were also attacked—by the "corpse parts" of those human-shaped abominations.

Even the two human-shaped abominations that were shot in half by anti-materiel sniper rifles crawled back together, reassembling into a complete body.

Those who were previously remorseful suddenly felt secretly fortunate again... Thankfully, I was cautious—or more precisely, prudent—or else I might have been the one to die.

Without needing Chen Jing’s orders, the Hunters and mercenaries opened fire. At such close range, the corpse parts were instantly turned into a mess by the dense rain of bullets... Yet, even so, the fragmented mycelium continued crawling toward them.

What was worse, as the bodies of these human-shaped abominations were torn apart, a large number of spores were released from them... The dozen or so Hunters who rushed out were instantly parasitized by the spores, joining the ranks of these human-shaped abominations.

"Damn it! Are these things unkillable?" a Hunter wielding a light machine gun shouted while firing, "They’re shot to bits, how can they still move?!"

"Fire! Use fire!" a seasoned and older Hunter immediately suggested, "Most fungal abominations are afraid of fire. Burn these mycelium to ash, and they should be truly dead!"

"Where are the flamethrowers? Bring the flamethrowers over!"

...

"They’ve made a fatal mistake," said Candle Dragon as he observed from afar.

"Yes... Fungus puppets are essentially just masses of intertwined mycelium, essentially fungal abominations. Whether human-shaped or something else... Bullets and melee weapons have a hard time completely eradicating this thing," Sun Hang said.

However, there was one aspect he found slightly puzzling—Sun Hang’s own fungus puppets must have at least one strand of mycelium connected to the main body. Once the connection is severed, the fungus puppet quickly loses control and disintegrates, but this army of puppets created by the giant cordyceps isn’t connected to the cordyceps main body at all. The distance between them and the cordyceps main body also far exceeds Sun Hang’s limit for controlling fungus puppets.

Did the giant cordyceps optimize the fungus puppets? From wired control to wireless control?

Or did it simply change them into autonomous intelligent puppets?

Sun Hang suddenly thought of the scorpion and sand rat he experimented on earlier that were parasitized by spores. In a sense, animals parasitized and controlled by spores are essentially the same as these fungus puppets. From the behavior of parasitized animals, these spores possess an obvious "independent action" capability.

They will parasitize any creature they come into contact with, then use the host’s body to gather more nutrients to deliver back to the cordyceps main body.

Each spore, each strand of mycelium, is like an individual of a carnivorous ant colony, part of the whole "colony."

...

Just as everyone was calling for flamethrowers, a heavy power armor suddenly leaped over the vehicular barricade and landed at the center of the battlefield.

This power armor had a Double-Barreled Thermite Gun mounted under each arm. The scorching flames instantly engulfed the entire battlefield, turning the fungus puppets to ash in a blink, and the bodies of the parasitized hunters quickly carbonized and fell to the ground.

At this moment, an intriguing scene unfolded before Sun Hang’s eyes—other "surviving" parasitized Hunters, upon seeing their "kind" incinerated, immediately turned and ran towards the pit without looking back.

"It aligns precisely with my hypothesis," Sun Hang nodded, "Whether spores or fungus puppets, their sole purpose is to harvest nutrients for the main body. After parasitizing human Hunters, they initially intend to gather more nutrients before returning to the main body—just like the scorpion and bamboo rat we previously threw in. But upon realizing their existing nutrients could be incinerated by ’prey,’ they choose to return to the main body with the existing nutrients immediately... Not greedy at all."

"It’s a survival instinct," Candle Dragon added, "Subconsciously choosing a conservative action strategy when perceiving risk... Seeking benefits while avoiding harm, many biological abominations exhibit similar traits."

As Sun Hang and Candle Dragon continued discussing the properties of fungus puppets, the power armor had already cleared the nearby battlefield. The intense burnt smell could be detected even hundreds of meters away, mixed with an indescribable stench.

"Everyone, put on protective gear!" Chen Jing was also donned in power armor by this time, his voice emanating from beneath the helmet, "These human-shaped abominations release spores when attacked. Make sure not to let them touch your skin directly!"

The young woman who had been following Chen Jing closely retreated into the vehicle with a notebook in her arms. She locked the doors and windows and then pulled out an independent control panel from beneath the car’s dashboard. With her fingers tapping on this control panel, hundreds of palm-sized drones emerged from the car’s trunk, undercarriage, and rooftop.

"Third-generation ’swarm’ tactical drones," Nagano Souta murmured in a small channel between Sun Hang and the others, "This is also military equipment produced by the Bai Family, initially configured for tactical mechas and tanks. The Four Sacred Beasts were equipped with the second-generation swarm drones, but it’s the first time I’m seeing the third-generation in physical form."

"Haven’t these been adopted by the military yet?" Sun Hang asked.

"No," Nagano Souta replied, "The second-generation swarm drones were products from eleven years ago, and the third-generation’s development began two years ago, as far as I remember. The Bai Family has been keen on having the Dragon City Defense Army fully switch to third-generation drones. However, the upper echelons of the Defense Army unanimously believe that the second-generation drones are entirely adequate for the military’s needs, making the switch to more expensive third-generation drones pointless."

"Looks like the three families are using this operation not only to win over the Dubhe Tower but also to advertise their products," Candle Dragon remarked, "If these new equipment perform well, not only might the Dragon City Defense Army buy them, but they could also sell them to inland cities."

Although inland cities don’t have as high a demand for military equipment as border regions, they’re rich! Especially metropolises like Chunming City and Shen City—from the Xiazhou Federation, their City Defense Armies might be the least battle-experienced but certainly the best-equipped forces within the Federation military."

"Besides the swarm drones, the power armor equipped with the Double-Barreled Thermite Gun should also be a new product from Bai’s Military Industry," Nagano Souta said, "Let’s see what they can do."

No sooner had he finished, the swarm drones began to move.

Using bullet time, Sun Hang counted that the vehicle carried no fewer than four hundred and twenty swarm drones. They split into two groups, one hovering above Chen Jing’s head, and the other headed towards the edge of the pit to meet those recently "resurrected" fungus puppets.