Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 489 Veterans' Sanatorium

"Where?"

“If you’re asking about the original Baikal city, the veterans’ sanatorium is at 195 Victory Avenue, and the cemetery for the heroes of the Patriotic War is in the eastern suburbs of Baikal city. Just keep going east along the South Ring Road, and you’ll get there after passing through the rime ice forest,” Yan Yu’an said. “However, in this Baikal Remains…”

"Are there veterans' sanatoriums and cemeteries for heroes of the Baikal Relics?" Wang Xiyi couldn't help but interject.

“I’m not sure about the cemetery for the heroes of the Patriotic War, but there is a veterans’ sanatorium… or rather, a strange building that ‘imitates’ a veterans’ sanatorium,” Yan Yu’an said. “Baikal City inherited the traditions of the former Siberian Federation, where retired veterans have a high social status and excellent benefits. The veterans’ sanatorium in the city center can be considered one of Baikal City’s landmark buildings. Many tourists from other places go to the square in front of the sanatorium to take photos. Its most iconic structure is the Byzantine-style golden dome of the main building and the red five-pointed star at the highest point of the dome.”

Yan Yu'an continued, "More than one reconnaissance team has witnessed buildings with similar structures in the remains of Baikal. There are no other buildings of the same style in the original Baikal city, so I can be sure that it must be the veterans' sanatorium simulated by the remains of Baikal."

"Where did those reconnaissance teams spot this building?" Wang Xiyi pressed.

"Specific coordinates are not very useful for reference... because the buildings inside the Baikal Remains are changing randomly every day. Following those coordinate records to find the veterans' sanatorium is almost like trying to find a sword by marking the boat."

“No, it’s worth noting.” Sun Hang shook his head. “Assuming that the remains of Baikal were truly born from obsession, then there would be no pattern to the changes in any of the buildings in this strange city, except for the veterans’ sanatorium… such a building with strong symbolic meaning would only appear where it should appear.”

"I'll check the eyewitness records of those reconnaissance teams right away!" Yan Yu'an said.

Thanks to the high computing power of the Lancet main control computer, Yan Yu'an found all the data in less than two seconds. After organizing it, he shared it with Sun Hang and others' information terminals. Looking at the latitude and longitude coordinates and the data sets containing a large amount of information, Sun Hang suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed.

He could use his ability to make his mind work to integrate and calculate this data, but among the people he knew, there was someone else who was better suited for the job.

"Lieutenant Colonel Yan, are we still able to contact the front-line camp?" Sun Hang asked.

“It’s possible, but we need to launch the drone to set up a signal relay station—radio signals have a hard time penetrating the strange structures inside the Baikal Remains; they can only be received in the air without obstructions,” Yan Yu’an hesitated. “But we only have one drone left. If it gets shot down…we’ll lose all means of communication with the rear.”

“It’s alright, it’ll be fine after a little processing. I’m good at this.” Sun Hang asked Yan Yu’an to take out the drone, and then directly “plated” a layer of liquid metal onto the surface of the drone.

"Alright, now even if an anti-materiel sniper rifle were pointed at this thing and fired, it wouldn't be shot down." Sun Hang released his grip, and the drone's propellers began to spin, slowly rising into the air.

This time, however, they did not attract any more sniper fire from the monster soldiers.

“Hello...Hello...VIP calling the front-line camp, VIP calling the front-line camp.” Yan Yu’an shouted in the dedicated communication channel, “This is Yan Yu’an, identification code 1984165. The VIP requests to speak directly with the person in charge of the front-line camp.”

"I am Ganna, is this Mr. Sun Hang?" Ganna's voice, mixed with a bit of static, rang out from the other end of the communication channel.

Yan Yu'an nodded to Sun Hang, signaling him to transfer the call.

“Yes, it’s me,” Sun Hang said.

"I'm so glad you're all alright!" Ganna said excitedly. "If you hadn't contacted us, we were planning to launch a full-scale attack on the remains of Baikal!"

"What? All-out attack?" Sun Hang was completely bewildered. "You...did you take the wrong medicine?"

"Just recently, the hunters and fishermen informed us that the little girl who was with you... the one with the ability to sense and devour negative emotions, sensed that the entire Baikal Remains is in a state of extreme rage. Therefore, we suspect that you may have encountered danger within the Baikal Remains... Currently, more than 60% of the troops in the frontline camp have been mobilized. Two reinforced armored battalions and three hunter teams have already set off as advance forces and are expected to arrive at the Baikal Remains in four minutes..."

"Stop! Stop!" Sun Hang said hurriedly. "Have all the assembled troops disband on the spot. As for those who have already set off, have them stay outside the remains of Baikal, especially those three hunter teams. Tell them not to enter the remains of Baikal! Not even to get close! Understand?"

As Sun Hang spoke, he couldn't help but mutter to himself—if only he had brought Xue Yue in directly and left her outside, he could have staged a "playing with fire" scene for himself.

If I had made that call any later, that guy Ganna would probably have led a large force to invade the remains of Baikal.

“I…I understand!” Ganna hesitated. “Are you sure we don’t need any support in our current situation? If necessary, we can send a sufficiently elite squad…”

“No need. The current problem cannot be solved by force.” Sun Hang refused without even thinking.

What a joke... Sending ordinary people in as reinforcements would only increase casualties and become a burden, while sending hunters in as reinforcements would only further increase the monster army's hatred towards them... It might even trigger a city-wide siege, at which point it would be difficult to find a veterans' sanatorium, let alone safely evacuate with these people.

"The current problem? What problem?" Ganna's tone became tense again.

"The key issue with the remains of Baikal... We did encounter strange creatures, but they weren't a threat to us." After thinking for a moment, Sun Hang told Ganna about their discovery and their next course of action.

"You mean, if we can purify the 'impurities' within the obsession of the remains of Baikal, then the existence of the remains of Baikal can actually be used to our advantage?"

“Theoretically, that’s true, but everything is still in the speculative stage. Before we find the ‘core’ of Baikal’s remains, I can’t be sure that this speculation will be accurate. So, the most urgent task is to determine the precise coordinates of the ‘veterans’s sanatorium’.”

Sun Hang reached into his pocket and felt around; thankfully, the medal was still there.

Ever since Anna's identity badge "mysteriously" disappeared, Sun Hang has developed a problem—he always consciously or unconsciously recalls certain things and examines certain things, fearing that the Three Apes might have silently erased something from the world to cover up certain facts.

“Even if the Veterans' Sanatorium isn’t at the core of the Baikal Remains, it must be a very important place for this strange city,” Sun Hang continued. “The medal could only have appeared in the War Museum, the Veterans' Sanatorium, and the Cemetery of Heroes of the Patriotic War. The Veterans' Sanatorium has been sighted multiple times, so it’s our priority.” “I understand!” Ganna said. “I’ll immediately arrange for people to compile the data. I’ll now utilize the supercomputer in the camp and simultaneously send data to the Tian Shu Tower…”

"No need, just contact someone for me."

"Who?"

"Liu Li."

"Is that the monster hunter 'Liu Li'? The one people call a genius boy?" Ganna quickly realized.

“Yes, but don’t call him a genius in front of him. That guy is already twenty-nine years old; he’s a seasoned veteran,” Sun Hang said.

"Okay... but what if Liu Li has other assignments right now..."

"Use Pei Zongjun's name to make him suspend all his work and immediately calculate the exact coordinates of the veterans' sanatorium for me."

“In Elder Pei’s name?! But, this authority…” Before Ganna could finish speaking, his phone suddenly vibrated. He took out his phone and saw that it was a message sent to him by Pei Zongjun using his personal account.

The message was brief, consisting of only six words: "Do as Sun Hang says."

“I’ve already contacted Liu Li, and he’s willing to assist… but he said the data sample we provided is too small. Given the computing power of his equipment, he needs at least…”

“Tell him that he can directly access the computing power of the Tian Shu Tower’s main brain,” Sun Hang said.

"The computing power of the Tian Shu Tower's main brain?" Ganna couldn't help but gasp. This level of access was already as high as Elder Pei's. But when he thought of the message Elder Pei had just sent him, Ganna felt relieved. Elder Pei was obviously paying attention to the situation here. Since Elder Pei had said to do everything Sun Hang said, then Sun Hang's access was now equal to Elder Pei's.
Without even needing Ganna to do anything, Liu Li had already gained the authority to access a portion of the computing power of the Tian Shu Tower's main brain when Sun Hang said those words.

The matter was of great importance, and Liu Li, who was on vacation, did not hold back at all. He directly asked the housekeeper to fill the bathtub with ice water, then took off all his clothes and immersed himself in the ice water.

The brain's "overload mode" can cause his body temperature to rise to an extremely high level, and ice water helps him stay absolutely calm.

Theoretically, the "overload mode" must be used in the medical pod each time. However, due to the emergency, it would take more than ten minutes to transport the nearest medical pod to Liu Li's residence. In this situation, ice water was the only option for emergency use.

"Hiss... It's so cold." Liu Li submerged his head in the icy water. He had a small breathing mask over his face and dozens of electrode pads attached to his brain. These electrode pads were connected to his home computer, which was now directly connected to the main brain of the Tian Shu Tower.

"I should keep a medical pod at home from now on." This thought flashed through Liu Li's mind. The next second, a massive stream of data surged in, instantly overwhelming his self-awareness.

……

……

“According to Liu Li’s calculations, this veterans’ sanatorium is also in motion,” Sun Hang said. “However, its movement path is predictable—it has always been located in the center of the Baikal Remains, moving along a rectangular closed trajectory.”

“This rectangular track is the original Victory Avenue of Baikal City,” Sun Hang said. “It matches perfectly in both location and shape. It seems that the plot of land in the central area of ​​the Baikal Remains has never been moved to the outskirts of the city.”

"So if we find Victory Avenue, does that mean we've found the veterans' sanatorium?" Wang Xiyi asked. "If we just stand still, it will drive right over?"

"Old Wang, have you forgotten something? If you stand on the plot of land on Victory Avenue, the land beneath your feet will also move. You will maintain a relatively stationary state with the Veterans' Sanatorium. If you don't move, you will never be able to meet the Veterans' Sanatorium."

"Uh... I almost forgot about that." Wang Xiyi stuck out her tongue awkwardly.

In her highly dragon-transformed state, her action was less like sticking out her tongue and more like flicking her tongue out—the forked tongue, resembling a snake, looked incredibly agile, a point Sun Hang had already experienced in "real combat."

“Besides that, based on the photos and videos taken by those reconnaissance teams, Liu Li discovered something else,” Sun Hang continued. “The veterans’ sanatorium they saw could be the same building, or it could be different buildings.”

"What does this mean?" Yan Yu'an asked.

“The veterans’ sanatorium is constantly undergoing ‘self-iteration’… The earliest veterans’ sanatorium we saw was just a rough prototype. Apart from the dome and the five-pointed star on the dome, other features were still very vague. But as time goes by, it is becoming ‘more and more like’ the original… So, apart from the exterior, its internal structure will certainly become closer and closer to the original building.”

Sun Hang glanced at the message sent back by the mainframe—Liu Li had been in an "overload state" for eleven minutes, and according to his physiological limits, he could last for a maximum of four more minutes.

Finding the exact coordinates of the veterans' sanatorium wasn't too difficult, but finding a path directly to "Victory Avenue" for Sun Hang and his team in the chaotic, shifting city of monsters was quite a challenge.

If it weren't for this reason, Sun Hang wouldn't have granted him the permission to access the mainframe's computing power.

The portable medical pod had been delivered to Liu Li's residence. A group of experts, field agents, medical personnel, and Liu Li's direct supervisor were all present. However, seeing Liu Li soaking in the icy water and looking pained, none of them dared to pull him out.

Liu Li's "overload mode" has a cooldown period. If he doesn't calculate it this time, he won't be able to use this ability again for several days.

(End of this chapter)