Chapter Summaries

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon faced a gigantic Type E fungus Anomaly emerging from the Nanhua Town mine pit, and Candle Dragon recommended destroying it with missiles. The Mainframe prepared sixty-four Duststorm missiles, leaving Sun Hang to decide whether to give the launch command.

• Sun Hang concluded that Desire had used a false image of the Sphinx's brain and tried to seize his body by killing his self-awareness.
• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and the third person retreated as the ground collapsed and a massive flesh worm emerged from the sinkhole.
• Candle Dragon identified the creature as a Type E fungus Anomaly, while Sun Hang recognized that its fungal growth controlled its animal body.
• Candle Dragon explained that the creature had no obvious weak point and proposed a missile strike from Dragon City's City Defense Army.
• The Mainframe calculated that at least five missile hits might destroy the Anomaly and unlocked launch authorization for sixty-four Duststorm missiles.

Sun Hang decided to make the desert anomaly a test for selecting hunters and ordered Tianshu Tower to issue a bounty open to hunters and mercenary organizations. The Mainframe and Candle Dragon described a comparable Hexi Corridor hunt whose costly reward came only after many hunters died.

• Sun Hang stopped the Mainframe from launching missiles and proposed using the anomaly to test prospective hunters.
• Candle Dragon explained that modern weapons could destroy most anomalies, but the exceptional ones Sun Hang had faced could not be handled conventionally.
• Sun Hang ordered the Mainframe to issue an open hunting bounty for the anomaly and asked about comparable rewards.
• The Mainframe described the 4710 mission to hunt Rock Throat, including its guaranteed participation benefits and a top reward of two percent of Yaewan Biotechnology Company's shares.
• Candle Dragon recounted that dozens of hunters died before the surviving top-tier hunters killed Rock Throat, then split the cash value of the shares.

Sun Hang posted a five-billion bounty to recruit hunters for the mission against the giant cordyceps aberration, while Nagano Souya confirmed he would lead his convoy toward Nanhua Town. After a dangerous detour forced the convoy to stop near the flesh-eating ants’ territory, the hunters prepared to cross it.

• Sun Hang set the mission bounty at five billion, added casualty compensation, and offered a personal reward to the top contributor.
• The Mainframe reported that 167 people had accepted the mission and that many more hunters were traveling to Dragon City.
• Nagano Souya asked Sun Hang about the giant aberration and learned that his father’s obsession had been an illusion created by it.
• Nagano Souya said he would lead the remaining convoy to Nanhua Town so White Tiger could fight the aberration.
• Nagano Souya’s convoy stopped 75 kilometers from Nanhua Town after detouring around Giant Hill, and the hunters prepared for the flesh-eating ants.
• A mercenary showed the others how to make a homemade flamethrower from a gasoline-filled bottle.

The convoy debated how to survive crossing carnivorous ant territory, and Nagano Souya offered to lead the way in White Tiger using its energy shield. The convoy began preparing for the crossing, though five vehicles turned back before the journey started.

• Hunters and mercenaries discussed the carnivorous ants’ fire resistance and shared grim accounts of how deadly a crossing could be.
• Nagano Souya offered to clear a path with White Tiger’s energy shield, despite the heavy cost in energy blocks.
• The purple-haired Huntress agreed to follow the plan but warned that she would not rescue vehicles that fell behind.
• Nagano Souya moved White Tiger to the front and announced he would travel at 140 kilometers per hour, giving the convoy one minute to decide whether to continue.
• Three vehicles turned back immediately, and two more withdrew half a minute later.

Nagano Souya led the convoy into the flesh-eating ants’ territory, where the insects erupted from underground holes and overwhelmed the vehicles. As the convoy was destroyed, the accountant prepared to shoot himself while Nagano Souya tried to clear the ants from his truck.

• Nagano Souya activated White Tiger and led the remaining vehicles across the cracked ground in the ants’ territory.
• The flesh-eating ants burst from holes in the ground and rained down on the convoy, clinging to vehicles and eating through metal and glass.
• The accountant tried to use the truck’s mechanical arm to hand Nagano Souya spare ammunition and energy blocks, but the ants disabled its hydraulic system.
• Nagano Souya slowed White Tiger and burned the ants from the truck’s cab, while the accountant warned that the truck was covered underneath too.
• The accountant saw the convoy’s wreckage and the surviving vehicles being swarmed, then raised his pistol to his temple.

Nagano Souya sacrificed the accountant and abandoned the heavy trailer, but flesh-eating ants engulfed the convoy. Candle Dragon and Sun Hang discussed the deadly reality of freelance hunting and whether the dead hunters would have been a liability on their planned trip to Egypt.

• Nagano Souya released the heavy trailer, which overturned and crashed into an armored SUV, killing the accountant and setting the wreckage ablaze.
• The chapter recounted how flesh-eating ant queens were replaced when they died or could no longer function, making attempts to contain or exterminate the colonies ineffective.
• Research reports explained that the ants remained in the Hexi Corridor, while Dr. Carlton continued investigating despite Chang'an cutting funding and the Dragon City Defense Army refusing further support.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that most freelance hunters died or could not qualify to return as registered hunters.
• Sun Hang said hunters unable to handle flesh-eating ants might hold their group back in Egypt, and Candle Dragon replied that the world had always been cruel.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon studied how the Cordyceps Anomaly parasitized animals and took control of their bodies. After an infected gerbil and scorpion fought, their fungal filaments merged, leaving Sun Hang to suspect the Anomaly was fusing them rather than simply selecting the strongest host.

• Sun Hang examined the Cordyceps Anomaly’s spores and tested their effects on a gerbil and a scorpion.
• The spores corroded both animals and replaced the gerbil’s brain and nervous system, while the scorpion became covered in mycelium.
• The infected scorpion attacked the gerbil, and the gerbil fought back as the fungus learned to control its body.
• The gerbil and scorpion became locked together while fungal filaments invaded both bodies.
• The animals were wrapped in a cotton-like mass as their filaments and memetic frequencies fused into one whole.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon discussed the hive-minded Cordyceps Anomaly and the dangers of leaving humanity’s fate to the Mainframe. Nagano Souya survived the flesh-eating ants’ attack, but he saw that hunters drawn by a huge bounty were heading toward Nanhua Town.

• Sun Hang watched a clump of fluff return to the giant Cordyceps, and Candle Dragon and the Mainframe discussed how hive-minded Anomalies were classified.
• Candle Dragon described two Tianshu Tower researchers who fought over the naming and date code of a Meme fragment, then urged Sun Hang to spend time with Elder Pei and other leaders because humanity’s fate should remain in human hands.
• Nagano Souya looked back at the smoke rising from the flesh-eating ants’ territory and recalled that White Tiger had estimated his convoy’s survival rate had fallen to one percent, with only him expected to survive.
• Nagano Souya burned ants off two equipment cases and found their inner layers had protected the energy blocks and ammunition.
• Nagano Souya loaded the supplies onto White Tiger and headed toward Nanhua Town, where he saw hunters rushing in response to a huge bounty and feared more would die.

Cheng Ming rode to Chang'an with other Anomaly Hunters and mercenaries who had accepted Tianshu Tower’s enormous bounty. He needed his share to pay for cloned lungs for his mother, whose late-stage cancer was becoming resistant to treatment, and the train carried him toward the mission that might save her.

• Cheng Ming boarded the train and met three hunters who discussed the bounty, their plans for the money, and the risks of the mission.
• The other hunters questioned Cheng Ming about his silence and what he would do with his share, and he said he would save it.
• Cheng Ming read a message from his mother saying her condition seemed to be improving.
• Cheng Ming recalled that his mother had late-stage lung cancer, had only months without a transplant, and needed expensive cultivated lungs.
• Cheng Ming remembered that he had joined the Anomaly Hunters despite his weak abilities because his income and allowance could not cover his mother’s treatment.

Cheng Ming recalled how he became an infected Anomaly Hunter and the limited combat experience he had gained from four missions. While traveling toward the Hexi Corridor, he joined Yu Duo, He Dawei, and Shen Rui in a temporary team, and He Dawei proposed making himself their captain.

• Cheng Ming remembered that his first mission was a false alarm, his second ended with casualties and his own serious injuries, and his last two were easy containment jobs.
• Cheng Ming recalled how an anomalous cactus infected him, killed his colleague, and left him with photosynthesis and above-average Physiological Tolerance.
• Cheng Ming learned that his fellow hunters were Yu Duo, He Dawei, and Shen Rui as they discussed teaming up and following a larger group into the uninhabited zone.
• Cheng Ming agreed to join their team and told them he had spent one year and eight months as a hunter and completed four easy missions.
• After Yu Duo described her three jobs, He Dawei claimed he was the most experienced and asked the others to accept him as team captain.

On a sealed train carriage, a Huntress began coughing up black blood, and the passengers feared she would undergo a dangerous stress mutation. After a hunter smashed her head with an emergency hammer, the man who killed her began choking as something moved in his throat.

• He Dawei became captain after Cheng Ming and Shen Rui supported him, and Yu Duo reluctantly agreed.
• A Huntress collapsed while coughing blood and rotten flesh, and a meme monitor showed her frequency was garbled as authorities sealed the carriage until the next station.
• Cheng Ming recalled that infected people near death could undergo stress mutation, while the hunters in the carriage hesitated to act.
• A tall, thin man approached the Huntress and struck her temple repeatedly with an emergency hammer.
• The monitor operator reported that the Huntress's meme frequency had become more chaotic, and the hammer-wielding man dropped the weapon and clutched his throat as something seemed to move inside it.

A man on the train became infected after contact with the Huntress's blood, leaving the Hunters fearing the disease could spread through the carriage. As they waited for the next station, Cheng Ming used Yu Duo's selfie stick to photograph the Huntress before her face dissolved further and uploaded the image.

• The infected man coughed up a writhing piece of organ, and the Hunters backed away while He Dawei told his companions to put on protective gear.
• Cheng Ming concluded the infection seemed to require direct blood contact, so the Hunters decided to wait for the next station rather than jump from the train.
• The man collapsed into a pool of foul blood, and the Huntress's body began dissolving as the passengers learned the Institute would not stop the train.
• A woman with glasses explained that officials might be treating everyone aboard as potentially infected and would likely quarantine them at the station.
• When the Hunters realized the Huntress's face might soon become unrecognizable, Cheng Ming borrowed Yu Duo's selfie stick, photographed her, and uploaded the image.

The Hunters on the train were trapped with an infected woman’s changing corpse, whose sweet-smelling tumors compelled people to eat them and spread the transformation. As Cheng Ming succumbed, a beautiful girl appeared and addressed him, leaving her identity unknown.

• Yu Duo suspected the woman was an Illegal Infected, and the Hunters discovered that the carriage doors were sealed and the neighboring carriages had been evacuated.
• Tumors grew across the two corpses’ exposed bones, and a cracked tumor released a sweet scent that drew the Hunters toward them.
• He Dawei wounded himself to resist the compulsion, warned the others not to focus on the tumors, and struck Yu Duo and Shen Rui to wake them.
• The Hunters ate the tumors, began transforming, and overwhelmed Cheng Ming as he lost his ability to think and move.
• A beautiful girl appeared on Yu Duo’s seatback, stopped Cheng Ming’s suffering, and asked whether he wanted to know who she was.

Cheng Ming was offered an unexplained deal by a girl while trapped in a train carriage, and Sun Hang’s group learned that an Illegal Infected had caused a deadly incident among hunters bound for their operation. At the Nanhua Town mine, they treated the injured Suyue, uncovered how she had survived Giant Hill, and left her disarmed with mycelium secretly attached to her.

• The girl told Cheng Ming that refusing her deal would return the train carriage to normal and leave him to become one of the crazed people.
• Candle Dragon reported that spores were spreading farther in the Nanhua Town mine and had begun parasitizing plants, while Yang Qiaoxi warned that protective suits needed testing.
• Yang Qiaoxi spotted Suyue approaching alone from Giant Hill, and Sun Hang sent Yang Qiaoxi to help her after she collapsed.
• Suyue admitted that two hunters had saved her and that she shot them while they repaired their vehicle after she had promised them anything they wanted.
• Yang Qiaoxi took Suyue’s weapons, and a piece of mycelium secretly attached itself to Suyue’s waist.
• Candle Dragon reported that an Illegal Infected had caused a train-car massacre in Liangzhu, killing nearly all the hunters and others who had been headed to the operation.

Sun Hang and the others learned how the dangerous Blood Feast anomaly infected passengers aboard a high-speed train and discussed the unexplained Illegal Infected’s appearance. Sun Hang then arranged to cover Cheng Ming’s mother’s transplant costs and secretly test whether Cheng Ming would still join the hunting operation.

• The Mainframe explained that Blood Feast spread through contact and tumor-like fruits, was vulnerable to intense heat, and had infected passengers on a high-speed train.
• Candle Dragon and the Mainframe revealed that Cheng Ming alone had remained unaffected and saved three other survivors, possibly because of a connection between Blood Feast and the Blood-Dissolving Cactus he had devoured.
• Yang Qiaoxi emphasized the danger of the Illegal Infected, and the Mainframe reported that surveillance showed no sign of how she had entered the train carriage.
• Sun Hang learned that Cheng Ming planned to join the hunting operation to pay for his terminally ill mother’s lung transplant.
• Sun Hang ordered Tianshu Tower to provide the transplant and surgery for free, while secretly letting Cheng Ming discover the offer to test whether he would still pursue the operation.

Sun Hang and the others waited for hunters to gather near the collapse zone while monitoring the unusually calm wilderness and the disorganized group planning to hunt the Cordyceps anomaly. The chapter ended as a mercenary learned that Suyue was the lone survivor of Sea Buckthorn Rose’s expedition into Giant Hill.

• Nagano Souya arrived in White Tiger, offered to serve as reserve combat power, and asked Sun Hang to return the mecha to Dragon City after his death.
• Sun Hang learned that Cheng Ming knew his mother could receive a free transplant but still intended to join the operation, so he ordered the Mainframe to monitor him.
• The hunters assembled near the collapse zone and built a makeshift camp, while Sun Hang and Candle Dragon clarified that they would only observe and record the hunt.
• Nagano Souya reported that Death Sandstorms had stayed away from the camp and that the pursuing storm 5198 had dissipated near Nanhua Town.
• Yang Qiaoxi explained that the gathered hunter groups could not agree on a leader, while Sun Hang considered whether any of them were suitable candidates for a more dangerous mission.
• A mercenary approached Suyue, and Yang Qiaoxi warned him that she was from Sea Buckthorn Rose and had survived Giant Hill alone.

Sun Hang refused to hand Suyue over to a mercenary who hated Sea Buckthorn Rose and learned more about the organization’s predatory methods and Dragon City’s corrupt Hunter Management Bureau. He ordered the bureau abolished and Tianshu Tower’s Mainframe to take over, while Pei Zongjun’s personality AI questioned whether an Anomaly should govern humanity; the chapter ended with the mercenary introducing himself as Charles, surname Zha.

• A mercenary described his hatred of Sea Buckthorn Rose and threatened to torture Suyue, but Sun Hang refused to hand her over because he still had a use for her.
• Sun Hang questioned Suyue about her missing companions and suggested Sea Buckthorn Rose might have implanted a tracker in her, while the mercenary returned with food and predicted the organization would come for the bounty.
• The mercenary explained how Sea Buckthorn Rose exploited Hunters and legal loopholes, prompting Sun Hang to order the Dragon City Hunter Management Bureau abolished and its work transferred to the Tianshu Tower Mainframe.
• Pei Zongjun’s personality AI activated to question letting an Anomaly manage humanity, but Sun Hang challenged its reasoning and Pei Zongjun admitted he had gambled on Sun Hang as a last hope.
• Sun Hang asked the mercenary’s name, and Charles explained that his surname was Zha and that his father had named him Ersi, making Charles his registered given name.

Chen Jing's hunting group began probing the spore-filled sinkhole with military robots while Sun Hang and Candle Dragon learned why the Three Great Families were funding the operation. The robots lost contact, and hundreds of entities began climbing toward the surface, leaving the group preparing for battle.

• Candle Dragon explained to Sun Hang that the Three Great Families were funding hunters to gain influence and future business advantages through the operation.
• Chen Jing introduced himself as the head of the hunting group and invited Candle Dragon and Sun Hang to visit the Chen Family after the operation.
• Nagano Souya told Chen Jing to pass a message to Chen Dazhuang about repaying a case of liquor with Spring Breeze, and Chen Jing agreed.
• Chen Jing said his group would start quickly to secure the operation's contributions before more hunters arrived.
• Chen Jing's team sent military robots into the sinkhole, but all six lost their signals as they descended toward the Anomaly.
• The monitoring equipment detected more than eight hundred independent entities climbing up the sinkhole walls, and Chen Jing ordered everyone to prepare for combat.

Chen Jing’s hunting group fought humanoid hyphal puppets that revived after being shot and spread parasitic spores, while Sun Hang and Candle Dragon watched and analyzed their behavior. After powered armor burned the attackers, the Three Great Families deployed their advanced equipment, and the chapter ended as hundreds of Swarm drones split into two groups.

• Humanoid Anomalies climbed from the pit and destroyed the mechanical soldiers before Chen Jing ordered his forces to shoot them.
• Chen Jing’s hunters killed the first wave, but the puppets’ fragments reassembled and their spores parasitized hunters who tried to collect samples.
• A powered-armored fighter incinerated the hyphal puppets and parasitized hunters, while Sun Hang concluded the spores and puppets sought nutrients for the giant cordyceps.
• Chen Jing warned his forces to protect themselves from spores as a young woman deployed hundreds of third-generation Swarm drones.
• Sun Hang counted 420 drones as they split into two groups, one circling above Chen Jing and the other approaching the puppets at the pit.

The hunting corps attacked the mycelial puppets emerging from the sinkhole, while Sun Hang suspected the aberration was preparing a powerful attack. Old Jin’s powered armor was overwhelmed by the puppets, leaving him trapped as mycelium broke through his helmet.

• The swarm drones bombed the puppets, and Chen Jing’s forces advanced using coordinated gunfire and incendiary grenades.
• Old Jin charged into the puppet horde with powered armor and thermal lances, ignoring Chen Jing’s orders to retreat.
• Sun Hang reasoned that the aberration was sending puppets to buy time while it charged up a major attack.
• After his thermal lances ran out of fuel, Old Jin fought with chainswords, but the puppets fused around his armor and disabled its weapons and thrusters.
• Jin Hongyi became trapped inside his failing armor as mycelium broke through his visor and flooded his helmet.