From the end of the world

Chapter 22 Zhu Shi 3
"Zhu Shi, what are you thinking about?"

Agent Kong seemed to have noticed that I had been thinking with my head down for a long time, so he asked curiously.

"Nothing." I came back to my senses and shook my head. "Didn't you just mention the topic of frequent strange events? So I remembered the doomsday prophecy circulating in Luoshan."

"Are you talking about that prophecy... that the world will be destroyed within ten years, and all life and matter will be wiped out in the catastrophe?" Agent Kong paused for two or three seconds before recalling, "That's simply alarmist. It's true that the situation in the world is a bit strange now, but to say that it's the end of the world is a bit exaggerated."

Agent Kong's attitude is also the attitude of the vast majority of people in Luoshan, including me.

Doomsday predictions are not new. From ancient times to the present, there have been alarmist predictions that "the world will end at a certain time." Some people predicted that the King of Terror would come in 1999 and the world would be destroyed; others predicted that the world would be destroyed in 2012. But now it is 2023, and all the doomsday moments have been proven to be just "another ordinary day."

It is not the first or second time in history that strange phenomena have entered an active period. From a long-term perspective, the threat posed by such events to human civilization may not even be more serious than global environmental issues such as global warming and the melting of the Arctic ice cap.

People who make predictions always like to exaggerate bad things, whether they are mystics or scientists. Of course, this cannot be blamed on them. When a person notices a bad sign, his responsibility is to make the people around him pay attention to it as much as possible.

The problem is that the origin of the "doomsday prophecy" is unknown. No one knows who started it, and there is no direct evidence to add to its credibility.

I don't underestimate the trend of this strange phenomenon. The sand of the times, when it falls on a person's head, becomes a mountain. Even if this trend is not enough to shake everyone's world, it can easily shake the world of me and the people around me.

"I don't know whether the world will end within ten years, but if I fail to complete the task assigned to me by my superiors, my end will come within ten days." Agent Kong sighed.

"You mean the mission to find someone?"

Agent Kong often shared with me his experience in investigating strange events, which helped me a lot when I first became a demon hunter, so I wanted to give back to him: "If there is anything I can do to help, I can provide my strength."

"Then there's no need. After all, this job doesn't sound good to others." He shook his head first, then complained, "I really don't know which genius came up with this idea. They actually wanted me to pretend to be a police officer, accuse a little girl who looks less than fourteen years old as a serial killer, and visit every household to investigate her whereabouts.

"You know what? One of the houses I visited today was still the house of Zhuang Cheng. When I handed him the photo of the little girl, his expression seemed to ask me if I was talking in my sleep."

"If I remember correctly, that girl seems to be the only amnesiac known to have woken up in the world?" I searched my brains for the information I had heard, "I remember her name was, called..."

"It's called 'Ma Zao'. It means troublesome. It means early." Agent Kong took over my words. "It happened yesterday morning. After she woke up in the hospital, she disappeared without a trace."

"I know she is very important. If possible, I would like to find her. But is it necessary to go to this extent? The higher-ups directly accused her of being a serial killer. They don't care about her human rights at all." I thought about it and felt something was wrong. "And if you want to find someone, why don't you ask the public security department? They are much better than us in Luoshan in this regard."

"For some reason, the higher-ups are in a hurry and accused the girl of being a serial killer without consulting the higher-ups. We are still negotiating with the public security department to confirm this suspicion, but the public security department has not relented." Agent Kong sighed, "As for asking the public security department to look for her... As you know, the relationship between Luo Shan and the official forces is becoming increasingly tense. Perhaps in the near future, a full-scale conflict will break out."

Many demon hunters in Luoshan are arrogant because of their talent, and believe that strength is the primary factor in determining class, and then believe that they should be the ruling class. They are out of tune in today's society.

In name, Luo Shan is a "demon hunter department" under the jurisdiction and command of official forces, but in reality it is not the case at all. In the eyes of ordinary people (if they know us Luo Shan), we are probably an evil and violent organization that is isolated from society.

This conflict is bound to break out sooner or later.

Rather, I would like to ask, “Is this reasonable?” How could this society have allowed this landmine to remain buried deep down until now and continue to develop to this day?

"Okay, let's not talk about that for now..." Agent Kong took out his tablet computer, "I found you a video of the battle of the Fallen Demon Hunter. The official forces have been thinking about how to use hot weapons to deal with the Demon Hunter. They found the Fallen Demon Hunter before us not long ago and sent a team to clash with him. And this is the result."

I took the tablet and looked down at it.

The conflict took place in a bamboo forest in the suburbs, and a drone captured the entire process from a bird's-eye view.

The bamboo forest in the picture was illuminated by several flares, as if it were daytime, and a strange-looking monster appeared in a corner of the picture.

The monster looked like a demon in an oil painting, with a ferocious sheep-shaped head, a huge body more than two meters tall, dark red skin, no clothes or decorations, and black hair covering its wrists, ankles, private parts and other parts.

This devil-like guy is the Fallen Demon Hunter.

Of course, he is not a demon, but a human with the ability to transform. There is also a well-trained modern team in the bamboo forest. They are not only fully armed with guns and live ammunition, but also bring combat vehicles equipped with heavy firepower weapons.

When the Fallen Demon Hunter appeared blatantly, they immediately raised their weapons and launched an intensive attack on the enemy from different angles. The natural scenery suddenly turned into a battlefield, and the rain of bullets was like a storm of destruction, crushing large tracts of bamboo forests and completely covering the Fallen Demon Hunter.

But all this was useless. The Fallen Demon Hunter didn't even make a move to dodge. He crouched and started running as if no one was around. Then, like an arrow, his body turned into a blurry shadow and shot out.

The firepower net was easily torn apart by this terrifying shadow, and not only guns and cannons were ineffective, but also flamethrowers, sonic weapons, and other special weapons were completely ineffective. The fallen demon hunter was like a man in an empty space, killing people wantonly in the bamboo forest. The whole scene was like mowing the grass.

This is no longer a battle, it is just a one-sided mechanical operation by the Fallen Demon Hunter.

Soon after, the battle video ended.

"...What do you think?" Agent Kong asked calmly.

"It's similar to the information I got from the last battle with him." I said my conclusion, "He is at least at the level of 'Zhu', and his body is fully enhanced. He is also a first-class expert among all the demon hunters in Luoshan. It is not impossible to defeat him with hot weapons, but it is impossible with this level of firepower."

In novels and comics, physical enhancement abilities feel very ordinary, and seem to be a standard skill for small fry.

However, from the perspective of a warrior, "physical enhancement" can be said to be a first-tier ability. A strong body means strong attack, defense, and mobility. Some physical enhancement abilities can also increase the user's sensory ability, recovery ability, and immunity, giving them strong reconnaissance ability and a higher survival rate, as well as resistance to toxins and curses.

What about other abilities? Take the ability to manipulate fire, for example.

Being able to summon fire out of thin air does have a gorgeous visual effect, and also has considerable lethality. However, it cannot provide the user with defense, which means that the tolerance rate in combat is extremely low, and it is very likely that an ordinary person will be killed on the spot if shot from behind; it cannot provide the user with mobility, which means that they can only move at the speed of an ordinary person, and will be passive when encountering a fast and flexible enemy. The saying that only speed can defeat everything is not a casual remark.

Not to mention their defects in detection and other aspects, many users of fire abilities would even be accidentally burned by their own flames, or cause explosions nearby and suck themselves in, or make their environment full of smoke and suffocate to death. There were so many cases of death and injury like these that they were included in the collection of black jokes in the magazine published internally by Luoshan.

In fact, it is not just the fire ability. Many special abilities, due to their "high attack and low defense" nature, make the operator more like a mortal holding a special weapon than a real demon hunter. And since they are mortals, there are naturally countless ways to be defeated.

The shortest board always determines how much water a bucket can hold.

Even if a mortal could stop time, he would become as vulnerable as other mortals when faced with sneak attacks, poisoning, etc.

Even though the modern combat team in the video is powerless against the fallen demon hunter, if they were facing those with special abilities, there is no telling how many ways there would be to kill them.

"What about you?" Agent Kong put away his tablet. "If you were to face this corrupt demon hunter, what would your chances of winning be?"

"I can't accurately calculate the exact success rate." I said conservatively, "I can only say that if I were to fight him with my own cultivation, the outcome would be unknown. Whether it's him or me who dies, it won't be surprising."

"What if we replace it with the top-level 'Advanced' demon hunter? Or..."

Before Agent Kong could finish his words, I suddenly felt a strong fluctuation of magical power and stood up involuntarily.

I turned my head and looked into the distance.

There were two fluctuations of mana appearing in the distance, and conflicts were erupting between them.

One of them I recognized; it was the mana fluctuation of the fallen demon hunter.

The other one was unfamiliar, and to me, it felt like a burning flame.

The momentum of the flames completely overwhelmed the former in an instant.

(End of this chapter)