Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 888 - 116: Puppet Army

Very quickly, one shadowy humanoid figure after another crawled up from the edge of the pit. The mechanical soldiers didn’t even have time to raise their guns before they were knocked down by these humanoid creatures, instantly dismantled into a pile of parts.

"Humanoid creatures?" Chen Jing’s heart tightened, and he didn’t even have time to ask questions. He directly snatched the laptop from the hands of the young woman beside him, switching the screen to the surveillance camera feed of the dismantled mechanical soldiers.

The feed Chen Jing switched to showed the camera of a mechanical soldier whose head had been torn off and thrown to the ground, resulting in an upward angle. Countless humanoid figures passed through the frame; they possessed human limbs and torsos, had pale skin, and their bare heads lacked any facial features, resembling mannequins in a shopping mall at first glance.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield.

Candle Dragon put down the tactical binoculars, turned to give Sun Hang a look, and said, "It seems these humanoid creatures are puppets constructed from mycelium. If I remember correctly, you should have a similar ability, right?"

"Yes." Sun Hang nodded, "Next time I should patent my ability to prevent it from being plagiarized."

Sun Hang had already guessed how these Fungus Puppets appeared. Although the duplicated version of him by "Desire" only existed in his cognition and couldn’t use his abilities in the real world... "Desire," being a fungal-type creature in the real world, could theoretically mimic all operations Sun Hang would perform using Taixu Fungus.

Even though "Desire" had vanished, a part of its information was permanently stored within the mimetic segments of the giant cordyceps, which is why Sun Hang wasn’t surprised that the giant cordyceps could produce a batch of Fungus Puppets.

The only question was how effective these Fungus Puppets were in combat—after all, the physical properties of Taixu Fungus and cordyceps mycelium were vastly different.

"Concentrate fire! Prioritize the nearest humanoid creatures!" Chen Jing shouted. The Hunters and mercenaries under him used the line of vehicles surrounding the camp as cover, setting up their weapons. The dense sound of gunfire and explosions immediately ensued.

Tens of thousands of bullets tore through the thick spore clouds, penetrating the humanoid creatures climbing up. These figures fell like harvested wheat, with those on the edge of the pit tumbling backward, falling back into the pit.

Cheers erupted among the crowd—the Hunters and mercenaries felt that any creature that could be killed with bullets was a good one. Against the firepower of modern weapons, countless humanoid creatures were mere fodder, and this kind of one-sided, mowing-down combat was thrilling like an exhilarating grass-cutting game.

"Cease fire!" Seeing that the first wave of humanoid creatures climbing out of the pit had largely been eliminated, Chen Jing immediately ordered a stop to the firing. "Let the remaining few humanoid creatures approach! Find a way to collect their mimetic samples or conduct a live containment."

"...Understood." The Hunters and mercenaries took down another dozen humanoid creatures before reluctantly ceasing their firing.

By then, only a handful of humanoid figures remained standing among those climbing out of the pit.

These remaining humanoid creatures did not retreat but rushed directly toward the defensive position of the Hunter group like zombies oblivious to fear.

Two hundred meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters... When they were just fifteen meters away, and the mycelium patterns on their skin could be seen with the naked eye, Chen Jing waved his hand to his subordinates.

"Bang! Bang!" Two crisp gunshots rang out, and two humanoid creatures were split in half by large-caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles. Following that, more than ten Hunters wielding melee weapons jumped over the barriers, charging toward the few remaining humanoid creatures.

The physical strength and combat abilities of these humanoid creatures were actually quite formidable; otherwise, the mechanical soldiers wouldn’t have been defeated so quickly. However, the Hunters who dared rush forward first were mostly specialized in close combat, and coupled with their greater numbers, they swiftly took down the last humanoid creatures with ease.

"Collect the mimetic samples quickly before the next batch of creatures climbs up!" Chen Jing ordered. "An extra fifty thousand reward for those who complete the sample collection!"

This declaration of an additional fifty thousand instantly made those who hadn’t rushed out regretful—the power of these humanoid creatures seemed mediocre. Had they been a bit bolder, those fifty thousand might have ended up in their pockets.

The Hunters who did rush out hurriedly took out their mimetic sample collection tools, which were large syringes filled with a special solvent. They needed to inject the solvent into the creatures’ bodies and, after the solvent reacted with the creatures’ tissue, draw the liquid back into the syringe to seal it, marking the successful collection of mimetic samples.

This was the most basic mimetic sampling tool, able to collect samples from biological creatures, and it was cost-effective, priced at only a few hundred each when bought in bulk. Considering the primary target of this hunting operation was a fungal creature, each member of the Hunter group was equipped with three of these tools by the three major families.