Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 880 - 112: Blood-Eroding Feast

"What’s the deal with that illegal infectee?" Sun Hang asked.

"The infectee carries a highly dangerous and extremely unstable meme inside their body. This meme can cause secondary infection to almost all types of infectees and rapidly push the infection process beyond the danger threshold," the main brain responded immediately. "After the infection process surpasses the danger threshold, symptoms include coughing up blood, extreme fatigue, and dissolution of skin and muscles. When the meme mutates into the second stage, tumor-like fruits will grow on the infectee’s bones. All intelligent creatures within a certain range of these fruits will feel an irresistible urge to consume them."

"What’s the method of infection?"

"Direct contact infection," the main brain continued, "Apart from the illegal infectee carrying the original meme, one person was infected by coming into contact with their blood. Others were infected after consuming the tumor-like fruits—contact infection progresses more slowly. From infection to the meme mutation producing the tumor-like fruit, there is a delay of about seven to eight minutes. For those who directly consume the tumor-like fruits, the process is shortened to twenty to thirty seconds."

"What abilities does this meme possess?"

"Assimilation and proliferation," the main brain said. "Currently, the Dubhe Tower has named it ’Blood Erosion Feast,’ temporary anomaly number 2407. The meme sample has been contained and stored in the underground containment area of the Dubhe Tower."

"Does this thing have a weakness?" Sun Hang ignored the rather edgy-sounding name and continued to ask.

"Fear of fire," the main brain answered. "Regardless of whether it’s the dissolved flesh and blood of ’Blood Erosion Feast’ or the tumor-like fruits, both are very afraid of high temperatures. At temperatures above 300 degrees Celsius, the meme reaction will disappear within ten seconds. When the temperature rises to 450 degrees, the tumor-like fruits will self-decompose."

"That seems like a rather obvious weakness, shouldn’t those Hunters be able to handle it? There shouldn’t be so many casualties, right?"

"Quite the opposite," Candle Dragon interjected. "Based solely on the information provided by the main brain, ’Blood Erosion Feast’ is almost unsolvable for the ordinary Hunters in a confined environment. The high-speed train prevents the Hunters in the carriage from escaping, and the prohibition of carrying weapons on the train deprives them of most measures against it. Considering that the time for the first batch of tumor-like fruits to generate is only seven to eight minutes, in such a short time, they may not have found a way to respond.

Once the tumor-like fruits are generated, everyone in the carriage will be under the control of ’Blood Erosion Feast’... I’m curious though, how could there be four survivors? Is it because their abilities allow them to be immune to the effects of ’Blood Erosion Feast’?"

"Of the four survivors, three are from Liangzhu, two belong to the Liangzhu Mysterious Creature Research Institute, one is a Free Hunter active in the Liangzhu area, and another one is from a city near Liangzhu, Kuaiji, and is a registered Hunter of the Kuaiji Mysterious Creature Research Institute," the main brain said.

"Well, that’s obvious... The Hunters boarding a high-speed train from Liangzhu to Chang’an would certainly be from Liangzhu or nearby, wouldn’t they?" Sun Hang couldn’t help but retort.

"Apologies, your opinion has been noted, streamlining the information now." The main brain responded immediately. "The four survivors: three men and one woman, named He Dawei, Shen Rui, Cheng Ming, and Yu Duo respectively. He Dawei’s infection source is ’C-1053·Mire Deceit Fish,’ abilities include gill-like mutation organs, underwater breathing, and toxin resistance. Shen Rui’s infection source is ’Ji’er 856·Live Lacquer,’ abilities include skin color change, dehydration resistance, and toxin resistance. Cheng Ming’s infection source is ’Ding Balingsi·Blood Melting Cactus,’ ability is photosynthesis. Yu Duo’s infection source is ’Ding Jiu’er Jiu·Jiang Shui Xian,’ abilities include internal toxin synthesis, toxin secretion, and toxin resistance."

"Three out of four have toxin resistance... no wonder they survived..."

"Research has shown that toxin resistance has no effect on ’Blood Erosion Feast,’" the main brain said. "In fact, He Dawei, Shen Rui, and Yu Duo were all affected by ’Blood Erosion Feast’... When rescue personnel arrived, Cheng Ming was the only one who remained conscious."

"Huh?"

"Remarkably, Cheng Ming was not affected by ’Blood Erosion Feast,’ and he used physical means to knock the other three unconscious, preventing them from being infected by ’Blood Erosion Feast.’ According to his report, he intended to save more people, but the infection speed of ’Blood Erosion Feast’ was too fast, he only had time to save the three closest to him," the main brain said.

"Why was Cheng Ming unaffected by ’Blood Erosion Feast’?" Candle Dragon frowned, "Can you send me his detailed file to review?"

"File transfer in progress... File transfer completed."

"Hiss... this Hunter’s ability... is pretty average," Candle Dragon muttered while looking through Cheng Ming’s file, "The only noteworthy point is that he devoured the anomaly that was the infection source... Wait, is there any record of his infection source, ’Blood Melting Cactus’?"

"No record. This anomaly has been devoured by Cheng Ming. The Dubhe Tower has confirmed the presence of the anomaly through on-site surveillance footage. It only has a symbolic number and code, with an empty file. For more information about this anomaly, please check the file of the infectee ’Cheng Ming,’" the main brain replied.

"Back to square one... But come to think of it, this Blood Melting Cactus is quite similar to ’Blood Erosion Feast,’" Candle Dragon mumbled. "Cheng Ming also showed symptoms of Cactus infection, with a lot of blood oozing from his surface. This is quite similar to the early infection symptoms of ’Blood Erosion Feast.’ Furthermore, Cheng Ming, while unconscious, frantically devoured the Blood Melting Cactus, which is also similar to how individuals affected by ’Blood Erosion Feast’ are drawn to the tumor-like fruits... Could it be that there’s a connection between the ’Blood Melting Cactus’ and ’Blood Erosion Feast,’ which caused Cheng Ming to remain unaffected by ’Blood Erosion Feast’?"