Hunting

The vehicles drove all the way to the North Gate, where soldiers from the military came over to inspect them.

Shi Lei showed his credentials, and they were quickly allowed through.

Zhao Liang sat in the passenger seat, his mouth never stopping.

"Damn! Every time I see these city walls, I'm amazed. People hundreds of years ago were incredible. They managed to build such a huge city while fighting monsters. Without these walls, my grandfather probably wouldn't even have been born into this world, let alone me."

Lin Zhen smiled. "These walls really are important."

"Of course they're important. Look at the Mutated Beast bones beneath the walls. That white dust is all ash left behind from burning monsters during monster sieges. Too bad that ever since I became a Martial Artist, I haven't experienced a single monster siege. Just thinking about that sky-covering swarm of monsters makes me want to throw back my head and howl!"

Lin Zhen swept his gaze over the scene. Though the walls were gradually receding into the distance, the ground within a hundred meters of them was white. It was not actually soil, but ash left behind after monster corpses had been burned. Larger bones could still occasionally be seen scattered among it.

Monster sieges were terrifying, but in recent years, the Base Cities' defenses had become increasingly complete. In order to survive, humanity had exhausted every possible means to reinforce their defenses. Although monster sieges had occurred countless times over the centuries, these major Base Cities had never fallen even once.

After leaving the Base City, they did not immediately enter the Wilderness Area. With Martial Artists constantly going out to hunt, it was difficult to find any traces of monsters near the Base City. Two hundred kilometers north lay the northern satellite city, Peony City.

Peony City had originally been called Mudan River, but it was no longer located at its original Anno Domini Era site. After the disaster broke out, the people of Mudan River migrated on a massive scale. They only gained a foothold after arriving here, gradually developing the place into a northern satellite city.

North of Peony City, Huaxia no longer had any large human cities.

As the vehicles drew closer to northern Peony City, the scenery around them gradually began to change.

There was grayish-white dust here as well, no less in quantity than in Ice City. Satellite cities were often the first to come under attack, and every monster siege brought fierce battles here.

And when they looked toward the horizon, they could occasionally see Mutated Birds flying past.

Seeing Lin Zhen looking at the sky, Zhao Liang smiled. "Don't worry about those tiny Mutated Birds. There aren't any large Mutated Bird Groups around here anymore. They're usually scattered F-Class Mutated Birds like sparrows and swallows. Gao Yan can deal with them easily."

Lin Zhen smiled. "I'm not worried. We're in the last vehicle. If there are any Mutated Beasts, the captain and the others will block them first."

"Haha, that's right. The two of us are just here to make up the numbers."

The vehicles drove another twenty li or so when a gunshot rang out ahead.

A giant swallow with a wingspan of nearly two chi plummeted headfirst from the sky.

"Gao Yan fired that shot. See? One shot, right through the head. It may only be an F-Class Mutated Beast, but it was high in the air. This kid's Sniper Rifle skills are practically divine. In a direct fight, I'd definitely beat him, but if we were separated by a few hundred meters, he could take down three people like me."

Zhao Liang noticed that Lin Zhen had not responded much, then seemed to remember something. "Lin Zhen, this is your first time coming out to hunt, right?"

"Yeah, it's my first time."

"That's what I thought. You probably don't understand the Mutated Beast rankings very well, huh? Let your big brother explain. Things like swallows, sparrows, frogs, lizards, rats, rabbits, small fish, chickens, ducks, and geese become F-Class Mutated Beasts after mutating. Individually, they're very weak, and we can usually deal with them easily. But if they gather in large numbers, they can still be terrifying. Take rats, for example. If there are enough of them to form a Rat Tide, that's a disaster. We'd better run as far away as we can."

"Things like sheep, pigs, cats, small snakes, and small pet dogs become E-Class after mutating. They aren't too hard to deal with either."

"But large dogs, cattle, horses, relatively large birds, roe deer, deer, and the like become quite difficult to handle after mutating. Those are all D-Class."

"Wolves, owls, leopards, wild boars, and the like are C-Class. They're even harder to handle. If we run into one, we usually have to join forces to take it down."

"The Giant Palm Human Bear we're going after this time is a B-Class Mutated Beast. Besides Human Bears, tigers, lions, rhinoceroses, crocodiles, elephants, and the like are all B-Class. But we hardly ever see rhinos or elephants around here. If we normally run into a B-Class, we have to get out of there. We can only try our luck if it's injured and weakened."

"A-Rank ones are even rarer. They're creatures that have undergone a second mutation within their species. Take One Against Ten Thousand in the XiaoXingAn Mountains, for example. It's a huge tiger that evolved twice after devouring too much flesh and blood. To take that thing down, you'd need a squad made up of War Gods."

Lin Zhen asked, "What about above A-Rank?"

"That would be S-Rank, SS-Rank, and the highest, SSS-Rank. But those things are basically not land creatures. They're giant beasts from the ocean. It's said that Japan in the Anno Domini Era was wiped out by a group of Ocean Giant Beasts. Whether it was War God Martial Artists or nuclear bombs, they were all somewhat helpless against those monsters."

"Yeah, I know that. They say there are giant octopuses as big as small mountains and humpback whales comparable to warships. They can even come ashore, though they can't stay there for too long. Otherwise, humanity would have been completely wiped out long ago."

"You know about that too. Ah! Look at my memory. You graduated from high school, so of course you learned this stuff. I was just talking too much."

"You explained it well. It was a nice review of what I learned in school, haha."

As the two chatted, the vehicles finally reached Peony City.

Peony City had a population of around three million. Its walls were not as tall as Ice City's, but they were still imposing. The Demon Hunter Squad's vehicles drove straight through the city.

Zhao Liang said, "There are very few monsters near cities now, but once the number of nearby monsters starts increasing, it could be a sign of an impending monster siege. Then martial law will be imposed, and getting into the city will become difficult."

They entered through the south gate, passed through Peony City's bustling streets, then left through the North Gate.

"Once we're out of Peony City, we can speed up. Yilan County is another two hundred li or so away. That place has never been fully conquered by humanity, and there are plenty of high-level monsters inside. Damn! Mountains of cash! Here I come!"

Zhao Liang laughed and joked around. Lin Zhen smiled as well, but after leaving the city, he noticed that there were still quite a few vehicles on the road. A sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

Gradually, Zhao Liang noticed something was off as well. "Why are there so many vehicles heading toward Yilan? I've seen several vehicles from Martial Artist squads I know. Are they all going to Yilan too?"

With their doubts unresolved, the convoy continued onward. By the time they finally approached the outskirts of Yilan, the nearby vehicles had nearly formed a line, and the vehicles ahead had stopped.

"Why have we stopped? We're still some distance from Yilan."

Lin Zhen and Zhao Liang got out of the vehicle. In the distance, a number of military personnel had set up a checkpoint. Many vehicles had already stopped there, and farther away, many people had even formed a long queue, as if they were waiting to enter in order.

"Why are there military personnel here? And why are there so many vehicles? What's going on?" Zhao Liang's expression darkened. So many people were heading toward Yilan. Perhaps the news about the Human Bear had leaked.

Shi Lei got out, followed by Gao Yan and Ye Tiancheng. The group gathered together.

"Captain, what happened up ahead?"

"I don't know. Let's go take a look, but I have a bad feeling about this." Shi Lei's expression was grim as well.

Lin Zhen said nothing and followed behind them. But he already knew exactly what had happened. The news about the Giant Palm Human Bear had definitely leaked. If even someone like Shi Lei, who was not considered strong among War Generals, could obtain the information, it was perfectly normal for others to know as well.

The group continued forward until they reached the military checkpoint.