Star Rank Hunter Chapter 196

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator’s Notes: Some fans claim that joy struck their arses when they least expected it. “It was a little invasive.” Knight fan 1 complained, and his claims could almost be trusted if not for the orgasmic look on his face…

Chapter 196: Brain Eating Parasites

When Knight brought Cillin’s group over, the lab happened to be in a busy period. Therefore, there were basically no one in the staff hostel. They only needed to avoid the security cameras, and with the gray cat and Czedow around, they weren’t a problem.

It was also because the lab was in a busy period that Yue Lou and Feng Haicao were the only ones left in the hostel among Knight’s ten-man operation team. Everyone else was gathering information everywhere else.

At first, Yue Lou and Feng Haicao thought that Knight had brought a couple of rescued people into their hideout. However, they quickly dispelled such thoughts. They were not so blind that they couldn’t distinguish between test subjects and outsiders.

However, their wariness turned into bewilderment when they heard Cillin’s words. They believed that Knight wouldn’t do something as stupid as revealing his own identity for no reason, but who on earth was this person who saw through them at first glance?

Yue Lou stopped playing with his gun and sat up from his bed. The isolated parts in the air became a whole gun once more the moment they fell back into his hands. Tang Qiuqiu’s red eyes lit up when she saw Yue Lou’s trick.

At first, Knight was pondering how best to introduce Cillin to his comrades. After all, Cillin was pronounced ‘dead’ back then. He hadn’t expected Cillin to expose himself on his own accord. This wasn’t a bad choice, however. It was better for both parties to be privy of each other if they were to act in coordination. Although this operation to ‘search for evidence’ had been classified as a covert operation, that would not be the case once this case was closed in success. The public would be able to deduce certain things from the media.

Yue Lou and Feng Haicao simply let out a sigh of realization after hearing Knight’s explanation. They weren’t too surprised by Cillin’s ‘resurrection’.

“Yue Lou did say that there’s no way someone like Cillin would die that easily.” Feng Haicao smiled.

Knight was conflicted. How come he was the only idiot who thought Cillin had died back then? Wait a minute, there was also Lung. They were both idiots.

It wasn’t their fault, though. Back then, they had witnessed Cillin’s assassination with their own eyes as a bullet had pierced right through him before so many witnesses. He had bled profusely, and the instruments didn’t pick up any life signals from him at all. It was no wonder they believed that he was killed.

When Tang Qiuqiu heard their conversation, she bit her finger and asked, “Are you talking about big brother Cillin being shot at Seven Lights back then?”

The trio turned to look at Tang Qiuqiu in unison. Their eyes were inquiring.

Tang Qiuqiu continued to bite her finger, but didn’t speak.

Cillin rubbed her head and said, “She was the one who fired the shot back then.”

The trio’s mouth turned into an O shape.

Knight came to realization when he looked at the gun Tang Qiuqiu was holding once more. If she really had such skills, then it was no wonder that Cillin would pass her the gun.

“I guess we have two expert marksmen in our group then.” Feng Haicao said.

Tang Qiuqiu looked at Yue Lou. She knew from the moment she saw Yue Lou playing with his gun that his shooting skills were very good. It wasn’t the trick, but the way he looked at his gun that revealed this to her.

It was obvious that Yue Lou was very interested in this young little expert markswoman too, “Let’s compare skills when we have the chance.”

“Okay.”

During this period, Cillin discussed their future plans and actions with Knight’s group. With Czedow and the gray cat’s help as well as the cooperation of Knight’s ops team, this mission should become much easier.

“Our support squad should be arriving soon, and we’re more or less done with collecting evidence. When they arrive, we would be able to send a message to them once we collected evidence from the critical area.”

“Everyone should be able to leave this place safely as long as we follow the plan.” Feng Haicao nodded.

While talking, another person walked into the room. It was someone Cillin didn’t recognize.

“You returned, Luther.”

Knight introduced Cillin and his group to Luther. He emphasized that Cillin’s group was trying to save his companions, and that Cillin was Knight’s old pal.

Luther simply nodded expressionlessly.

Cillin wasn’t angered by Luther’s reaction because he was practically brimming with negative energy. Anyone could see that he was feeling pretty down right now, or he would’ve at least questioned Cillin’s background closely with his cautious temperament.

“What is it?” Feng Haicao asked.

Luther exhaled heavily and said, “Don’t count on the support squad to show up. They can’t. They’re obstructed, and they could only show up 40 to 50 hours later.”

“40 to 50 hours?! A new batch of alien beast puppets would’ve been produced by then!! How the f*ck are we even going to fight then!” Knight swore immediately the moment he heard Luther’s words.

It was not an uncounted possibility. The support squad was made up of a lot of people. Even if they managed to hide their intentions from ‘Miracle’, the old foxes among ‘Miracle’s’ managers would’ve caused them some problems just in case anyway. Plus, not everyone in the army sang the same tune. They could be annihilated and the support squad still might not arrive.

The gray cat lay on top on Cillin’s shoulder and swung its tail from side to side occasionally. Rather than worry, it seemed to be scheming a little something on the inside. When it heard that the support squad wouldn’t arrive, the gray cat cast a glance at Cillin and lowered its eyelids.

How could the gray cat’s reactions possibly escape Cillin’s eyes? After associating with the gray cat for such a long time, he knew what kind of shit it was about to dump from the angle of its tail alone.

Cillin rubbed the gray cat’s ears and told it to use that method if there really wasn’t any other choice.

The gray cat couldn’t hold back its excitement and rubbed itself on Cillin’s face immediately after a meow.

Knight’s facial muscles twitched again and again. What the mother father f*ck! Is this really the time to show off your master and pet relationship?!

When the ops team members returned, Tang Qiuqiu saw the person who gave her the injection. It was a man called Rolin.

“Thank you, big brother. I’ll treat you to sweets once we get out of here.”

Rolin squeezed Tang Qiuqiu’s face once with a smile and said, “Sure.”

Now that they knew they had no reinforcements, the operation had became much harder.

“Shelt’s test subjects are incredibly strong. It’s useless even if you shoot them in the heart, so the only way to kill them is to shoot them in the head. These puppets had long since lost their minds and would obey only their ‘master’s’ words.” Knight explained the situation in the base to Cillin.

They could at least tamper with the defense system somewhat, but those puppets were just too difficult to deal with. Before those test subjects were turned into puppets, they were already rank A genotypes in the first place. They became even stronger after they were transformed.

These transformed human beings basically made up the main body of the guards in this base, and part of them were even sold off at various places to fetch a high price. Whether it was the role of an assassin, a bodyguard or a combat personnel, these transformed human beings could fulfill them all very well. The situation was completely different for Knight’s team, however. They were only ten-man strong, and even with the addition of Cillin’s group, there was still no guarantee that they could escape this place. Without reinforcements, they were all doomed to die in this place unless they cancelled their mission in advance and hid until the support squad arrived. However, doing that also meant letting important evidences slip by and giving ‘Miracle’ time to conceal their dirty work. It would be difficult to find an opportunity to collect evidences if that happened.

Time waits for no one, and when he saw that they couldn’t come up with a good idea, Cillin said, “I have a plan, but it will cause a lot of commotion.”

“What plan? Tell us first.” Knight asked Cillin.

Cillin took out a round-shaped object the size of a chicken egg.

“This is a kind of ‘brain eating’ parasite. There are thousands of parasite eggs inside this thing, and they feed on their host’s brain in order to sustain themselves.”

The faces of every man and woman in Knight’s ten-man team twisted in response.

“Vanguard Sixth B Squadron? That was you?!” Rolin exclaimed.

Knight had only said that Cillin was a Hunter of a B Squadron in Vanguard. He didn’t say exactly which B Squadron he belonged to. But the moment parasites were brought up, Rolin immediately recalled a news he heard earlier.

Rolin continued, “Someone once told me how Poison Fang and Skull King were killed back then.”

Knight and the rest of the team immediately looked at Cillin.

“So it was you who did it!”

Vanguard’s A Squadrons had purposely covered up certain key points in the Poison Fang incident such as the identity of the person who drove them to destruction back then, so not many people knew that it was someone from the Sixth B Squadron who did it. But not everyone was completely oblivious to the truth.

Skull King’s death had been horrible to say the least. When some of them had employed certain methods to acquire a video of ‘Skull King’s’ corpse, everyone’s blood ran cold at the sight of it. They also know that parasites was the main reason behind the destruction of ‘Skull King’, and even ‘Poison Fang’ itself.

They never knew that parasites could rival the might of both biological weapons and high energy weapons.

All ten men took a step back in unison the moment they saw the ‘egg’ in Cillin’s hand.

“How… how can you guarantee that these parasites won’t attack us?” Knight gulped and asked.

Cillin took out a box of pills and tossed it directly to Knight, “These pills will make the parasites stay away from you.”

Although Knight fully trusted Cillin, the rest of the team were still withholding their judgment. However, Rolin was more excited than scared. Back then, he was already dissatisfied that he could only hear but not experience the tale himself, but now he had the chance to do exactly that.

A person well versed in pharmaceutics inspected the pill Cillin gave them briefly and confirmed that it would not bring harm to the human body. Moreover, the pill was effective only within a limited amount of time. When the effective period was over, the medicine would be broken down inside the body and removed by the discharge of bodily fluids or metabolism.

“The effective time is 50 hours. There aren’t many people here, and I have 30 pills in total. Just in case, everyone should take 2 pills with them. If anything unexpected happens we’ll decide what to do then.” Cillin took back the pill and said.

“That’s acceptable. But you must first prove that this medicine is actually effective.” someone said.

“Then let’s grab two people and give it a try.”

And so Luther went out to knock out two researchers before he returned. He covered up their mouths and locked them inside a small bedroom. Knight was also inside the bedroom.

Knight had volunteered to test the pill’s effectiveness. He folded his arms and leaned quietly against the bedroom walls after swallowing a pill.

There were three parasite eggs inside the bedroom. After the eggs had hatched, three ant-like organisms crawled out of the shells, paused, and crawled straight towards the researcher. Meanwhile, the parasite that hatched from the egg put next to Knight crawled away swiftly like a mouse who encountered a cat. It crawled towards the researcher at the other end of the bedroom.

Knight inside the bedroom and the ops team members outside the bedroom all let out a sigh. Then, they watched on the unconscious researcher closely.

Ten minutes later, the researcher began to writhe with blue veins popping up from his forehead. His breathing was starting to grow rapid too. Half an hour later, the researcher’s face turned a shade of green and was completely bloodless. His breathing started to slow as he continued to writhe all over.

Knight touched his forehead, and it was completely covered in cold sweat.

Chapter end