Over the year or so since joining, he had completed a total of four missions.
The first mission had been a false alarm. The culprit was a python that had not been infected by a meme. After it killed three villagers in succession, the village Peacekeeper assumed an anomaly was responsible and reported it to the Anomaly Investigation Bureau. Due to a shortage of personnel, the bureau then submitted a support request to the Anomaly Research Institute Cheng Ming belonged to.
Back then, Cheng Ming had still been a rookie hunter. He was sent out with a group of investigators and soldiers assisting with the operation, searching the mountains for four days and four nights. In the end, they found the fat python in a mountain hollow and discovered the remains of the murdered villagers in its belly.
Cheng Ming had done nothing during that mission. The fully armed investigators and soldiers easily killed the python—but even so, it became the first completed mission in his hunter record.
It seemed his first mission had used up all of Cheng Ming's luck, because his second mission brought him up against a troublesome target. It was a group hunting operation. Including Cheng Ming, six Anomaly Hunters were deployed, led by a veteran hunter who had completed nine missions. The other five were either complete novices with no experience at all, or rookie hunters like Cheng Ming who had only completed one or two missions.
Three died and two were seriously injured. In the end, they only dealt with the target because that veteran hunter suddenly unleashed his full potential. Cheng Ming had lain in the institute's medical department for a full two weeks before he could barely get out of bed.
Fortunately, the logistics department had specifically assigned an intern to look