He Dawei inadvertently glanced at Cheng Ming again, noticing that Cheng Ming’s expression remained unchanged... He couldn’t help but beco more cautious.
In such circumstances, even for seasoned Hunters, there would be so emotional changes. As for soone as calm as Cheng Ming, either he has enough confidence in his own abilities, or he is just emotionally devoid.
Though He Dawei believed it was probably the latter.
The female Hunter lying on the ground had already beco motionless, but the instrunts showed no signs of weakening in her internal mitic frequency, indicating she was still alive.
Yet this wasn’t considered good news for the others.
Once an infected person dies, the mitic frequency within quickly dissipates. Even if the infection process has entered the critical mutation stage, killing the infected at this ti would end everything.
The half-dead infected are the ones that cause the most tension.
Cheng Ming rembered when he was receiving training, the supervisor told him that so infected at the brink of death would burst out with powerful energy, and could even counter-kill their enemies with this reversal effect. But the cost of doing so would either be a complete depletion of life force or a dramatic acceleration of their own infection process—apart from being completely burned out, the only remaining outco for these infected is complete eerie transformation.
Moreover, the eerie creatures or eerie remnants ford in such complete transformations are stronger than those transford under normal circumstances.
Although the reasons for this have not yet been thoroughly researched, there is a generally accepted academic explanation that when the mitic frequency within perceives the "host" is about to die, out of a "survival instinct," it forcibly pushes the host into the critical mutation stage to greatly enhance their abilities.
The mitic frequency of eerie creatures parasitizes within the infected body, gradually maturing as the infection process slowly progresses—this is a process akin to the natural growth of plants. For current human technology, the process can be observed and controlled; infected individuals can use inhibitors to suppress the progress of infection or employ "innocuous treatnts" to nip any hazard in the bud when approaching the dangerous threshold.
But in ergencies, the mitic frequency of eerie creatures can only rely on thods akin to "forcing growth" to ensure the survival of both itself and the host. In this kind of near "stress response" mutation, everything becos uncontrollable.
The supervisor told Cheng Ming that often, investigators and soldiers working with Hunters have another mission apart from assisting Hunters in completing their task.
That is when a Hunter falls into what’s called a "stress mutation," to kill them to prevent them from transforming into eerie creatures or remnants.
"Should we... kill her?" Yu Duo murmured, audible only to the four of them.
Although she was a Free Hunter, she was aware of the concept of "stress mutation"—whether Free Hunter or Registered Hunter, mysterious creature research institutes everywhere trained them, teaching basic knowledge related to mitic frequencies and infected individuals.
Training wasn’t the only aspect, regular exams ensured proficiency. Those who couldn’t pass would have their Hunter licenses frozen or even revoked.
The others in the carriage also knew that killing the female Hunter might be the best option, but no one wanted to take action.
Not even to get close to her.
"Could she suddenly stand up and rush at us?" Shen Rui muttered.
"Don’t say such nonsense," He Dawei reprimanded in a low voice, "Even if she rushed, she wouldn’t co for us. We’re far away from her, with so many people in between!"
"To be honest, it reminds of a zombie film shot by Goryeo before," Yu Duo said, "Most of the scenes in the film took place on a train. The atmosphere feels a bit similar to now."
"Will that person turn into a zombie?" Shen Rui asked again.
"That’s a movie, fictional." He Dawei glared at him, "Rember, we don’t need to do anything, say anything... This isn’t our concern, nor do we need to worry about it... We just need to observe quietly."
Yu Duo felt like making a few snide remarks but had to admit internally that He Dawei’s approach was correct.
Finally, after nearly ten minutes of stalemate, a tall and thin man took down the safety hamr hanging by the train window and walked toward the female Hunter lying in the aisle.
Both Shen Rui and He Dawei instinctively held their breath, their eyes fixed on the man holding the safety hamr.
This safety hamr was ant for breaking windows in ergencies, unlike the larger fire hamr for breaking doors or walls, its head was only thumb-sized and was clearly not an ideal weapon for killing.
"Oh... using it?" Yu Duo muttered, "How many strikes would it take to smash her head... This scene is probably going to be disgusting."
"Why not just strangle her directly?" He Dawei also muttered.
"In her current state... she might not be suffocatable," Cheng Ming suddenly said, "She isn’t breathing anymore, yet her mitic frequency hasn’t dissipated."
"Not breathing..." He Dawei’s pupils shrunk slightly, "Then isn’t she already considered an eerie remnant?"
Before the words finished, the man’s safety hamr had already struck downward on the female Hunter’s temple!
The sound was sowhat dull, blood splashed outward.
The female Hunter’s body twitched but showed no signs of resistance.
Her left temple was already a bloody ss from the hit; the farthest droplet of blood even splattered less than a ter away from He Dawei’s seat.
"Really had the heart to do it." Seeing soone willing to act, He Dawei imdiately breathed a sigh of relief, "Gotta say, that woman was pretty attractive, had a good figure too, what a pity."
As the fear and tension faded, so vile thoughts suddenly erged in He Dawei’s mind.
"Very attractive?" Yu Duo said, sowhat displeased, "Better than ?"
"Not the sa type, not really comparable." He Dawei remarked, "Ugh, such a bloody scene really tingles the liver."
Though he ntioned the bloody scene tingling the liver, his eyes never moved away from the Hunter’s head. With the second and third hamr strikes landing, one side of the female Hunter’s head was a complete ss, blood starting to slowly ooze out from her eye sockets, ear canal, and nostrils.
"Any changes?" the hamr-wielding man turned to look at the Hunter who had taken out the mitic detection equipnt initially, pointing at the woman on the ground, "Her mitic frequency."
"I... I can’t tell... seems more chaotic," the Hunter replied.
While the research institute had equipped these Hunters with portable mitic detection devices, the Hunters, only having undergone basic training, could just ascertain if sothing was infected or if the infection had surpassed the danger threshold. As for more complex insights, that was out of the realm... firstly due to the portable device’s limited accuracy, and secondly, extracting valuable information from the complex data required expertise that only specialized researchers possessed.
"More chaotic?" The hamr-wielding man, covered in blood, froze for a mont before, the next second, the safety hamr fell from his hand, landing with a dull thud.
His face flushed as he clutched his throat.
Through the gaps between his fingers, it was visible that his Adam’s apple was continuously shifting up and down, as if sothing was trying to crawl out from his throat.
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