Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 555 The Farmer and the Snake
Cheng Ming wanted to nod, but he suddenly realized that his body was still in a state of stasis and he couldn't move at all.

"I want to make a deal with you." The girl looked at Cheng Ming with a half-smile. "Of course, you can choose to refuse."

"What kind of deal? What will happen if I refuse?" Cheng Ming wondered.

The girl seemed to be able to read Cheng Ming's mind. She turned her head and glanced at the group of crazy people in the aisle of the carriage, and said, "If you refuse, I will leave, and everything here will return to normal. Before long, you will become one of them."

She only answered Cheng Ming's second question, and didn't say a word about the first one.

“You just need to tell me,” the girl said again, “accept or refuse?”

……

……

The edge of the collapsed area in the Nanhua Town mine pit.

"According to the drone's calculations, the concentration of spores in the collapsed area has increased by 7%, and the diffusion area has increased by 0.2%," Zhulong said. "In addition, there is another piece of bad news."

"What bad news?" Sun Hang squatted on a large rock, holding a freshly opened pack of compressed biscuits in one hand and a half-empty bottle of mineral water in the other, chewing as he asked.

“When the parasitic spores first begin to spread, only animals are parasitized, but after eleven hours, plants in the collapsed area are also showing signs of parasitism,” Zhulong said. “Look at these photos.”

Zhulong handed over the drone's control terminal, and Yang Qiaoxi, who had just arrived, also came over.

These photos were taken by drones over the sinkhole. The outlines of several shrubs located in the collapsed area were circled by AI with red dotted lines. It can be clearly seen that the surface of these shrubs is covered with a large number of white spider web-like mycelia, but the condition of the shrubs themselves does not seem to have changed significantly.

“I don’t think it’s meaningful for you to just do these kinds of experiments,” Yang Qiaoxi said. “These animals and plants don’t have any protective measures. They will be parasitized as soon as they are touched by spores. You should try to see if the protective clothing that hunters usually use can withstand the corrosion of these spores… If even ordinary protective clothing can’t withstand it, then let alone hunting the large cordyceps below, even entering this pit will be a troublesome matter.”

“Both Zhulong and I have ways to isolate ourselves from the outside environment, so we didn’t bring protective suits. Xue Yue is very important to me, so I can’t let her put herself in danger. It seems that the only person here who can conduct this experiment is…” Sun Hang gave half of the compressed biscuits to Xue Yue, who was standing next to him, while looking Yang Qiaoxi up and down. She had already changed into a full set of protective suits long ago, and only her helmet was not on.

“I’m not going.” Yang Qiaoxi crossed her arms and took a step back. “Anyway, I’m not going to participate in your mission… Compared to the bounty, I think my life is more important.”

"That settles it then." Sun Hang shrugged.

"..." Yang Qiaoxi glared at Sun Hang resentfully. She had only meant well by offering a suggestion, but she had almost gotten herself into trouble.

She returned to the SUV, took out another bottle of water from the trunk, and was about to unscrew the cap when she suddenly saw a lone figure limping toward her in the distant wilderness.

"Someone's coming!" Yang Qiaoxi immediately shouted to Sun Hang and the others.

"Who is it? Someone from the other two teams?"

“No… she came from the direction of Giant Hill!” Yang Qiaoxi quickly found her binoculars. “It looks like the people from Seabuckthorn Rose… she was seriously injured.”

"Is she alone?" Zhulong asked.

“She’s the only one.” Yang Qiaoxi nodded.

This open field is so vast that there is nowhere to hide.

Sun Hang turned around and focused his gaze on the figure, the scene in his field of vision instantly zoomed in.

The survivor is a member of the Seabuckthorn Rose, the female hunter codenamed "Suyue".

The moon-white cheongsam she was wearing was now nothing more than a pile of tattered strips of cloth hanging on her body, and the underwear she wore underneath was also badly damaged, barely covering her vital parts.

Her fair skin was covered with scrapes and bloodstains. Her right arm hung limply at her side, and the four fingers, except for the thumb, were bent at an angle that was completely impossible under normal circumstances, with bruising at the base of the fingers making the upper half of her palm swollen like a purplish-black steamed bun.

Her left hand gripped a blood-stained backpack tightly, and her long black hair was disheveled and draped behind her head.

The high heels that were the same color as her cheongsam have now been replaced with a pair of high-top black tactical boots. The boot shafts are several sizes larger than her calves, and it's clear at a glance that the original owner of these shoes must have been a robust adult man.

Although the shoes didn't fit her perfectly, they were still better than her previous pair. Her old high heels were only suitable for attending banquets or tea parties, or for short walks on paved roads in the city. In harsh terrain like the desert and Gobi, walking in such shoes was worse than going barefoot.

Sun Hang didn't believe that Su Yue would participate in this operation without any equipment. Perhaps the only explanation was that she didn't have time to retrieve her own equipment and had to temporarily pick up someone else's shoes to wear... Maybe those tactical boots were even taken from the feet of some dead person.

"It's unbelievable that someone could actually come out of Giant Hill alive." Yang Qiaoxi murmured.

"Perhaps she has some trump card to save her life?" Zhulong said. "Shouldn't you know more about the Seabuckthorn Rose than we do?"

"What do I know... I have no desire to deal with these lunatics," Yang Qiaoxi said dismissively.

“Since she’s here instead of in Nanhua Town, it means she’s also received news of the huge bounty,” Zhulong said. “But in her current state, it’s questionable whether she can even get here… Is she planning to drag this body along to participate in the hunt for the monster?”

“The members of Seabuckthorn Rose are not limited to this group.” Yang Qiaoxi glanced at Zhulong. “She doesn’t need to participate in the operation. As long as she stays by our side, she can help Seabuckthorn Rose obtain first-hand and accurate intelligence. Besides, she has nowhere else to go but to come to us.”

"Sun Hang, should we help her?" Zhulong asked. "Judging from her condition, it seems she won't last much longer."

Before Sun Hang could speak, Su Yue, who was some distance away, collapsed to the ground and fell silent.

Sun Hang thought for a moment, took out a first-aid kit from his backpack, and handed the half-empty bottle of water he had left to Yang Qiaoxi: "It's yours now."

Su Yue had already seen them. Sun Hang could clearly see the changes in her expression. Although she was severely exhausted, she was not completely overdrawn. Her fall was actually an act for Sun Hang and the others.

She was trying to evoke compassion in Sun Hang and the others... If Sun Hang and the others were unwilling to provide assistance, even if she could barely reach the edge of the collapsed area, it would be difficult for her to hold out until the companions of Seabuckthorn Rose arrived.

Yang Qiaoxi rolled her eyes at Sun Hang, somewhat helplessly, took the first-aid kit and half a bottle of water, and walked towards Su Yue. ...

Twenty minutes later.

Su Yue, who had been "in a coma," finally awoke slowly. She glanced at Yang Qiaoxi, then at Sun Hang and Zhulong, and said in a very sincere tone, "Thank you... thank you for this kindness, Sea Buckthorn Rose... no, I will definitely..."

"Don't make empty promises. I don't expect you or your organization to repay me in any way." Sun Hang jumped down from the large rock he was squatting on, walked up to her, looked down at the scantily clad woman lying on the ground, and asked, "Why don't you tell me how you escaped from Giant Hill alive?"

“Our car was wrecked, and everyone in it except me died… I was also seriously injured; my arm and fingers were broken at that moment,” Su Yue said. “Perhaps because humans are less conspicuous than vehicles, the giants’ attention was entirely focused on the vehicles, so I sneaked out…”

“You’re lying,” Sun Hang said calmly. “No matter how fast you run, you can’t outrun a car. Those giants could easily finish off the remaining vehicles and then turn around and trample you to death. Besides, it’s desert terrain, which would severely limit your running speed…”

As he spoke, Sun Hang suddenly picked up the tactical boots that Su Yue had taken off, and shook them a few times while holding them upside down.

Only a few grains of sand were poured out of the boot.

"Besides, you didn't run out of the desert wearing these boots... You're not telling me you escaped giants in the desert while wearing high heels, are you?"

“We crashed very close to the exit of Giant Hill… so… that’s why…” Su Yue’s eyes became somewhat evasive.

“I suggest you tell the truth,” Sun Hang said. “Anyway, you know how bad the reputation of the sea buckthorn rose is. Besides, I’m not interested in what you did at all. I’m just curious why you’re the only survivor.”

Sun Hang had considered directly reading Su Yue's mind, but Su Yue was an infected person, and she would sense when Sun Hang read her mind. If Sun Hang wanted to prevent his mind-reading ability from being exposed, his only option was to silence her.

Since it's not anything important, and we can just ask directly, there's no need to use mind reading.

“Well… actually, I was rescued by another group of hunters.” Su Yue sighed and said, “They drove me, injured, out of Giant Hill.”

"and then?"

"After I was safe, the two male hunters tried to assault me, so I had no choice but to..."

"You killed them?" Sun Hang asked.

Su Yue nodded.

"What was used to kill him?"

"The pistol I kept in my bag."

"So it seems that it wasn't that they wanted to force themselves on you, but rather that you had already agreed to their demands... If they were to force themselves on you, you would inevitably resist, and they couldn't possibly be completely unprepared. Two against one, two adult men against an injured woman, you might have had a chance to kill the first one, but you absolutely couldn't kill the second. You must have fired at them when they were completely off guard," Sun Hang analyzed.

Sun Hang suddenly felt that if this were accompanied by the background music often used in Detective Conan when exposing the motives of criminals, it would be perfect.

“I…I…” Su Yue was speechless.

“It’s likely that when you begged them to save you, you made some promises that you could never keep,” Sun Hang said. “Then, after you were safe again, you didn’t want to keep those promises, so you found an opportunity to kill them both. Moreover, I don’t think these two men would have developed that kind of desire after just escaping death. Given that you chose to walk instead of driving, I’d venture to guess that the vehicle broke down, and you shot them in the back while they were fixing it?”

“…Yes.” Su Yue nodded.

"These boots, were they also taken from the feet of those two unlucky guys?"

"Yes."

"Tsk...a real-life version of the farmer and the snake." Sun Hang clicked his tongue. "What did you agree to in the first place?"

"Any request," Su Yue whispered.

"They were greedy, too," Yang Qiaoxi said coldly. "If they had just stood by and watched someone die, they wouldn't have had to risk their lives to escape from Giant Hill only to be betrayed by the woman they saved... But they deserved it."

"They deserve it... at least they were saving someone." Zhulong couldn't stand it anymore. "Perhaps they weren't after her reward, but rather it was out of a genuine sense of kindness?"

“No, when I said they deserved it, I meant they believed the woman who carried the sea buckthorn rose.” Yang Qiaoxi picked up Su Yue’s bag, took out the pistol and two folded short knives, and threw them all into the trunk of the car.

"Should we handcuff her?" Yang Qiaoxi asked Sun Hang and the others.

“There’s no need for that. You took away her weapon, and she’s seriously injured,” Sun Hang said.

"Aren't you worried about becoming the second farmer to be bitten to death by a snake?" Yang Qiaoxi said irritably.

“If she has that ability.” Sun Hang glanced at Su Yue, whose face was pale.

Unnoticed by everyone, a small piece of mycelium, like a worm, crawled up to Su Yue's body and stuck to her waist.

"Speaking of which, I just received some news," Zhulong suddenly said. "A train has had an accident in Liangzhu."

"what?"

“An undocumented infected person went out of control in a train car full of hunters, affecting 27 hunters, 16 mercenaries, and 19 related personnel. Only four people survived.”

"Does this... concern us?"

“There’s one thing… these people were originally supposed to come and participate in this operation.”

(End of this chapter)