Chapter 9: The Relics of the Hunters
Just as Su Xiao was about to push the wooden wheelchair out of the fortune-telling hut, the female hunter, Tiffany, spoke up.
"That bottle."
"Hm?"
"Use that big bottle to hold me."
Hearing this, Su Xiao thought it was a good idea. He took a cylindrical glass bottle nearly thirty centimeters thick from the wooden cabinet. As soon as he opened the seal, the female hunter, Tiffany, liquefied, leaving only her clothes on the wooden wheelchair.
The liquefied Tiffany entered the glass bottle. Su Xiao sealed the lid tightly, holding the bottled female hunter, Tiffany, in one hand and a wooden box in the other, and walked out of the fortune-telling hut.
The street was empty. The extermination company had arrived urgently and carried out a forced evacuation. They were experienced in this. They sprayed a gas that was extremely repulsive but harmless. Any civilian who could endure it for more than three seconds without fleeing had extraordinary willpower and could even pass the preliminary hunter exam.
"Boss, what's in this bottle?"
"A female hunter."
"Female hunters come in bottles now? How advanced."
Baha, with two small knives stuck in him, spoke up, still having the energy to crack jokes, indicating his injuries weren't severe.
"That fat clown, I'll kill him next time. He used his fart to burn me."
Recalling the previous battle, Baha was furious. When he fought the fat clown, the guy had bent over, used paper fire to ignite his own fart, and blasted him, like a living flamethrower. It was a dual attack on body and spirit.
Getting into the steam car, Bubu Wang drove back toward the shelter.
At nine in the evening, Su Xiao returned to the shelter in the slums. As soon as he entered, he saw a man in a black trench coat with a crow mask sitting in the corner. This was an old hunter who had come to the shelter for supplies.
"Manager."
The old hunter in black spoke, his body under his clothes trembling imperceptibly.
"Please, contact... the guild. Have Hunter Alexia come to 'Sodo City.' I'm about to... lose control. I hope to... die by her hand in the end."
The old hunter in black barely managed to finish this sentence. This hunter, who had hunted for thirty-four years, was about to lose control. Being granted 'claws' and 'fangs' destined him for this outcome.
"Where is the location?"
"The ancient castle... outside the city. It's more convenient there to... cremate my body. I am... a hunter. I can't affect... the civilians. As long as the heart's fire hasn't gone out, dawn will surely come."
The old hunter in black stumbled through the first half of his sentence, but the last line, 'As long as the heart's fire hasn't gone out, dawn will surely come,' was spoken fluently. This was a phrase engraved in the deepest part of his soul, his belief.
Jingle~
The doorbell chimed softly, and the old hunter in black pushed the door and left.
Su Xiao walked behind the semicircular wooden table, dialed a series of numbers on an old-fashioned phone, and contacted the Watch Guild.
After doing this, Su Xiao tapped the cylindrical glass bottle on the table with his finger.
"Let's begin. I need all the information from the Gluttony Dark Demon's memory."
"You sure know how to order people around. I'm not your subordinate."
Tiffany's voice came from inside the glass bottle.
"..."
"Just kidding. My heart's fire hasn't gone out either."
Tiffany released a unique wave that enveloped the head of the Gluttony Dark Demon in the wooden box.
"It'll take at least half an hour. This dark demon's memory is very chaotic."
Tiffany began to strip the memories from the Gluttony Dark Demon's head, a process like sifting through film reels.
In less than half an hour, Tiffany finished the memory extraction. The liquefied her spread out from the open bottle mouth, her upper body materialized, and she stretched lazily, seemingly forgetting that her entire upper body was only adorned with a silver chain on her left hand.
"There's not much useful information. I'll keep it brief."
According to Tiffany's description, Su Xiao learned why the Gluttony Dark Demon had attacked the Major's family. It was as he had guessed: the demon wanted to obtain a certain item. That item was a relic of the Major's grandfather, a 'Silver Medal' awarded by the Rhine Kingdom, a commendation of honor.
On the surface, that was the case, but in reality, inside the Silver Medal was wrapped a hunter's identity badge. The badge was black-gold. The Major's grandfather had once been a very powerful hunter, one of the four strongest of his generation. This also explained why the Major had risen smoothly through the ranks, continuously getting promoted.
As for who had contacted the Gluttony Dark Demon, it was the Fierce Ghost. The negotiation process between them went smoothly. The Gluttony Dark Demon admired the Fierce Ghost and readily agreed to his request.
The information was scarce. Su Xiao took off the hunter badge hanging around his neck. The material of this thing was special, but not absurdly so; it was just hard to damage.
Compared to the material, Su Xiao was more interested in the significance of the Major's grandfather's hunter badge. The Major's grandfather was a person who had influenced an entire era. His relic would surely be endowed with extraordinary meaning by this world.
The core of this world was gradually merging with it. Not only that, but the Dark Prison was also merging with this world. If Su Xiao said this was a coincidence, he absolutely wouldn't believe it.
Originally, the merging of the World Core with this world was a reversible process. But if a supernatural place like the Dark Prison got involved, and the three merged together, the process became irreversible. First, the fusion of the Dark Prison with this world had to be blocked before the core could be extracted from this world.
Assuming the 'World Core' and the 'Dark Prison' were two independent entities, their fusion speeds with this world were likely different. The World Core's fusion speed was probably faster than the Dark Prison's.
If the World Core fused first, this world would collapse. But if the Dark Prison fused first, then this world could become a massive Dark Prison.
Su Xiao felt this was likely the goal of that unknown force. They wanted to turn this world into a Dark Prison, thereby making the Dark Prison more perfect and suitable for Dark Demons and Wraiths to inhabit.
As for the 'hunter badge,' that was interesting. The life story of each hunter was enough to write a book. The 'hunter badges' they left behind after death, to some extent, represented key events in this world. They would be endowed with different meanings by this world, meaning they contained trace amounts of 'World Force.' Many pieces of equipment were formed this way.
In this world, very few people could master the supernatural. They were either hunters, Dark Demons, or Wraiths. Only hunters left behind 'hunter badges.' Dark Demons and Wraiths had no such thing as relics.
The stronger the hunter, the greater their impact on the world, and the more World Force their 'hunter badge' would contain. This was an inevitable outcome.
If the World Force within these 'hunter badges' was extracted and used to accelerate the fusion of the Dark Prison with this world, would the Dark Prison's fusion speed surpass that of the World Core? Ultimately turning this world into a massive Dark Prison.
Once this world became a massive Dark Prison, the Dark Demons and Wraiths would become its new masters. The current Dark Prison was probably barren, but after merging with this world, the new, massive Dark Prison would undergo earth-shattering changes.
To put it simply, that unknown force was searching for the relics of hunters. Through the World Force in these relics, they accelerated the fusion of the Dark Prison with this world.
Su Xiao felt he had grasped a very important link. That unknown organization had grand ambitions. Overthrowing the Rhine Kingdom? That was too trivial. That force wanted everything—everything in this world.
Su Xiao picked up the phone on the table and dialed the Watch Guild's number again. When it connected, he said, "I am the manager of the Sodo City shelter."
"Hello, Mr. Kukulin."
"I've recently developed a hobby."
Su Xiao wanted to confirm one thing: whether there were problems within the Watch Guild itself.
"Please, go ahead. We will do our best to accommodate you."
"I want the identity badges of the deceased hunters."
Hearing this, the woman on the phone was silent for over ten seconds before speaking.
"This... Mr. Kukulin, those relics are very important to the hunters' families. Even though they don't know they are identity badges, they are still relics. We cannot fulfill this request. I will relay it to my superiors, but please be prepared to get nothing. Good night, and have pleasant dreams."
"Hm."
Su Xiao hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, and waited. About ten minutes later, the phone rang. He picked it up, and it was the same female voice.
"Mr. Kukulin, there is very unfortunate news. The storage vault for the identity badges of deceased hunters... has been burglarized. All the identity badges left by hunters without relatives have been lost.
We will do our best to collect the identity badges scattered among the people. At the latest, by tomorrow morning, the first batch will be delivered to your shelter. Please keep them safe. These identity badges are the same as yours, the most unique..."
After listening to her narration for a few minutes, Su Xiao hung up the phone. His hypothesis was confirmed. The Dark Demons and Wraiths were indeed collecting hunter badges, the 'relics.'
Many of the relics that hadn't been stolen yet were left behind by the strongest echelon of hunters. The theft of the Major's grandfather's relic indicated that the Dark Demons and Wraiths had reached the final stage.
The countermeasure Su Xiao came up with was simple: get all the remaining relics, then wait at the shelter for the Dark Demons and Wraiths to come to him. Kill as many as came.
But before that, Su Xiao had to summon Tide Hunter. His team had a tank (Amu), an assassin (Baha), and an amateur healer (Bubu Wang). They were just missing a powerful ranged attacker. Given Tide Hunter's strength, where a few arrows had shut down Amu, she would be a great temporary addition to fill that gap.