Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 626 Encounter

The squad leader and his three soldiers quickly disappeared behind the hillside, but at that moment, Liu Meng heard a rumbling sound coming from inside the mountain again.

"Did you hear that? It rang again!" Liu Meng immediately turned to look at his deputy platoon leader, who nodded solemnly.

"Squad leader! We just heard another noise coming from inside the mountain! Have you found anything?" Liu Meng shouted, grabbing the walkie-talkie.

"Report, we've discovered an abandoned construction site that's been there for some time. It should be the abandoned subway station that Xiao Li mentioned," the squad leader replied. Xiao Li was the soldier from Kuqiao Village. "The entrance to the underground area has some 'fresh' signs of a landslide. For safety reasons, we plan to send a drone in to take a look."

"Okay, be careful. We're ready to support you at any time," Liu Meng replied.

"Old Liu, what do you think?" The deputy platoon leader took out his personal information terminal and glanced at the screen.

The terminal only displayed some routine operational information. Neither the 151st Battalion headquarters nor the nearby Survey Bureau observation station seemed to have detected any unusual noises deep in the mountains.

“The Chunming City subway project… even if it’s canceled, there will definitely be a dedicated department to handle the aftermath, so it won’t become a dilapidated, unfinished project like a dangerous building,” Liu Meng said in a deep voice. “Logically speaking, a landslide shouldn’t happen for no reason… after all, Kuqiao Village is right at the foot of the mountain, and if the mountain collapses, no one can bear the responsibility.”

"If it wasn't man-made, could it have been a natural disaster?" the deputy platoon leader asked again.

“The geological activity near Chunming City is very stable; there haven’t been any earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher for decades,” Liu Meng shook his head. “Even if there were, we would definitely have received a notification, but there’s been absolutely no word from the Geological Bureau and the Meteorological Bureau these past few days…”

Liu Meng seemed to suddenly remember something and picked up the walkie-talkie again: "Squad Leader! Report the situation on your side immediately!"

There was complete silence on the walkie-talkie. The squad leader, who had just reported the situation a minute ago, seemed to have vanished into thin air, offering no response to Liu Meng's calls.

Liu Meng felt a tightness in his chest and instinctively called out again, "Squad Leader? What's the situation over there?!"

"Something's definitely wrong!" The deputy platoon leader's expression changed. "Old Liu, contact the battalion headquarters immediately, I'll take some men to provide support!"

“I’ve already passed the message on to the battalion commander. I’ll go with you.” Liu Meng took off the large-caliber assault rifle slung behind his back and cocked it.

The two men exchanged a glance, and Liu Meng waved his hand, immediately leading more than a dozen soldiers to climb up the steep hillside.

Although this area is also part of the patrol zone, because there is a road in the valley and few people go into the mountains on both sides, the patrol team usually just drives around the road and considers it a mission completed.

Liu Meng served in the 151st Battalion for four years, and only went into this mountainous area less than ten times.

Apart from the subway project that was halted more than 20 years ago, this mountainous area has been almost completely undeveloped—for a simple reason: it is extremely poor in natural resources, there are no mineral deposits underground, and the rock texture of the mountain is not suitable for a quarry.

As for resources like trees, birds, and animals, forget about it. Looking around, most of the mountain area consisted of exposed, bluish-gray rocks. The most common vegetation was only withered yellow shrubs in the crevices and moss on the shady sides or under the boulders. In his haste, Liu Meng climbed to the top of the hill in less than five minutes. But just as he breathlessly looked up, what met his eyes was a distorted, humanoid face!

"Monster!!" Liu Meng instinctively raised his rifle, but then a tremendous force lashed out at him, causing him to lose his balance and tumble down the hillside!

The excruciating pain came from every part of his body, and Liu Meng couldn't even count how many bones he had broken. He tried to get up from the ground, but his entire lower body was numb.

This sent a chill down his spine. It meant that the fall had likely injured his spine, and even if he received timely treatment, he would probably spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Liu Meng glanced to the side and saw another fallen soldier lying quietly beside him, completely lifeless. His luck was much worse than Liu Meng's. When he rolled down the hillside, the back of his neck, which was not protected by a helmet or armor, hit a protruding rock. At this moment, his entire head was tilted to one side at a very strange angle, and purplish-black blood was flowing out of his collar.

Shouts and gunshots echoed from above. The deputy platoon leader and the remaining soldiers who hadn't been shot down were already exchanging fire with the monster. However, Liu Meng couldn't even straighten his upper body. From his current angle, he couldn't see what was happening on the hilltop at all.

"Signal flares! Fire signal flares now!" Liu Meng roared with all his might, "Fire purple signal flares!"

Among the many signal flares they carried, the purple one indicated the most critical situation, suggesting that the patrol had made direct contact with a highly threatening monster. All combat units that saw the purple signal flare were required to provide immediate support.

It was only at this moment that the soldiers who had stayed near the vehicle arrived at Liu Meng's side. They quickly lifted Liu Meng onto a folding stretcher and ran towards the truck that was stopped in the middle of the road.

"Stop! You all stop right now!" Liu Meng shouted.

"Platoon leader! You're badly injured! We must get you back to the battalion headquarters immediately!" a soldier carrying a stretcher said urgently.

"Did I tell you to stop? Are you deaf?!" Liu Meng cursed. "Turn the stretcher around and let me see the situation at the top of the hill!"

Upon hearing Liu Meng's words, the soldiers carrying the stretcher had no choice but to turn around, allowing Liu Meng to get a full view of the battle situation on the hilltop.

Four or five tall, humanoid monsters were advancing towards the deputy platoon leader and his men under heavy fire. Large-caliber, full-power rifle bullets, powerful enough to cut an ordinary person in two, could only blast a hole the size of a bowl into these monsters. Moreover, these holes were healing themselves at an alarming rate. In just a few seconds, the rapidly growing flesh would completely fill the wound.

Behind these monsters followed a dozen or so "humans" dressed like primitive people, holding javelins made of bone, which they hurled at the soldiers of the 151st Battalion. By this time, two soldiers on the battlefield had already been hit by the javelins because they could not dodge in time.

Although these javelins were made of bone, their tips were exceptionally sharp, easily piercing through the composite armor worn by the warriors. Any warrior hit by a bone javelin, even if not killed on the spot, would immediately lose his fighting ability.

After discovering that bullets had no effect on the monster, the deputy platoon leader immediately ordered most of the firepower to be turned on the primitive men who were throwing spears. The effect of the switch was remarkable. These primitive men, who were only wearing leather aprons and had almost no armor, fell down like wheat being cut down under the fire of modern weapons. Less than a third of them escaped by using the monster's body as cover.

But for some reason, Liu Meng always felt that those primitive people who were swept away... didn't seem to be completely dead yet.

(End of this chapter)