Star Rank Hunter Chapter 40

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.
Translator’s Note: As a reminder, VolareTL will be celebrating its one year anniversary this week on the 15th of December. Hint: You won’t need to spend and sponsor next week! Dakara yorokobe, shounen!

Translator: Craxuan
Editor: darklord5555

Chapter 40: Hidden Danger

There weren’t many messy marks around the blood, indicating that no struggle had taken place here. However, it also meant that the men who were attacked did not put up much resistance at all.

Shute made a hand signal – alert, cover – before moving over to perform a rescue.

Cillin crouched down at a place beside the wall and took out a small box, scraping a layer of soil from the wall. His squad members simply watched the surroundings vigilantly and did not disturb Cillin’s actions. They assumed that he was acquiring samples since he had done the same thing earlier.

In truth, they didn’t know that Cillin’s true objective wasn’t to acquire a sample, but to use his actions as cover to pull his fingers from his gloves and touch the walls and ground, analysing miniscule traces within. Not even the most high tech instrument could compare to the chips inside him in terms of convenience. The instant contact was initiated, the feedback from his fingers had told him exactly which kind of black mice had attacked the operatives at this place.

This is different! This is different from the hole-digging, big black mouse that we ran into earlier! This mouse is even stronger!

Exactly how much stronger it was, Cillin could not be sure. However, he had a feeling that these people had probably run into the leader of the black mice; the very first mutated black mouse that had escaped from the station at the beginning.

When Shute found the squad member who was crying for help, he was already on his last gasps and entered into deep coma. Under the flashlight, everyone could see clearly that one of his legs were bitten off and that there was blood everywhere. The medic in the squad came over to staunch the bleeding, but before the bandaging could be completed, he had already passed away.

“I’m going to kill those animals!” A squad member with bloodshot eyes punched the wall beside him hard in terrible grief.

Everyone else’s expression was more or less the same.

Shute sucked in a deep breath and said, “It’s demonstrating its strength. It could’ve killed everyone here without a sound, but it had purposely left behind one who’s severely injured.’

“He lost too much blood, and the rat toxin has invaded its internal organs.” The medic lifted two empty needles to the air, “Both antiserums were injected, but they have no effect at all. This rat’s toxin is unbelievably potent.”

“Captain, there’s no signal on our communicators!” A squad member suddenly cried out. He had wanted to contact the reserve group and notify them of the current situation at the same time, but he didn’t expect to find no signal at all.

Cillin pondered in his mind. Their, no, he should say its intelligence was far beyond anything they had expected. If every squad had done their jobs – installed and disguised the signal receivers properly – and there was still no signal, then either the receivers had broken down themselves, or the black mice’s leader had taken apart all of them. The former was unlikely, and the latter was all too possible.

It sounded ridiculous alright, and Cillin dared to say that not many people would believe him at all if he told them. A mouse that not only knows how to find and destroy a disguised signal receiver, but also destroyed every last one of them thoroughly? Is this even a mouse or a man?

Cillin did not underestimate the black mice’s leader from the very beginning. The more information he acquired, the more he felt that this particular black mouse was very powerful, be it its intelligence or combat strength. Moreover, Cillin was gradually figuring out the frequency of ‘that’ sound.

Shute thought for a moment before taking out his sonar scanner and pressed a button. The reason he hadn’t used it earlier was because there was an extremely high likelihood that the black mice might discover their location through it, but he couldn’t be bothered by such details right now. He had a constant nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

When he saw the display, Shute’s expression abruptly twisted, “Get out of here now!!”

They didn’t even manage a few steps before the black mice drilled through the ceilings and the walls, and poured out into the open. The locations from which the black mice appeared coincidentally separated Cillin and another squad member away from the other eight people of the group. As more and more black mice appeared, the distance between the two groups grew further and further apart. There was nothing Shute could do even if he wanted to save them. Their guns never stopped firing, but these big black mice were not nearly as easy to deal with as the little mice from before. The air was filled with heavy tension.

Cillin and the other squad member swiftly retreated towards the other end of the tunnel while firing their guns continuously. Luckily, the group of black mice wasn’t so big that it was unmanageable, and after shooting and retreating for more than ten minutes, there were no longer any black mice that came after them. The duo hung back at the other side of the tunnel. They had already lost contact with the other eight people in the squad, and they did not run into the members of other squads either. Their breaths were the only thing that resounded inside the silent tunnel.

“It looks like we’re safe for now.” The person smiled and said.

“Yeah…” Cillin also smiled.

Splurt!

Blood shot out from the side of the person’s neck.

The man’s eyes were filled with disbelief. He really did not expect Cillin to act so quickly!! How could any normal person be on their guard against a squad mate in this kind of situation?!

A normal person would have relaxed temporarily and loosened their tension when someone said that it’s ‘safe for now’, not to mention when they were right next to a squad mate. But he had just taken out his knife before Cillin had cut right through his carotid artery, and due to the strenuous mice extermination exercise earlier, his blood flowed quickly, causing him to gasp his last breath in no time at all.

Cillin toyed with the mouse claw in his hands, and after glancing at the man on the ground let out a number of near inaudible noises from his mouth. This was the first time Cillin had used it after deciphering the black mice’s leader sound frequency. Cillin had been searching for this sound and deciphering it ever since he entered into the network of underground tunnels.

He did not stay there longer than necessary and left the place. In less than a minute, a few black mice would appear and consume that dead squad member. It was only in this situation where he was alone could Cillin better eliminate those threats hiding inside the operation force.

Cillin had never forgotten about those hidden threats ever since he entered Seven Lights until now. Be it a student, a researcher or a soldier, Cillin had never let down his guard once. He found it pretty interesting that Aiflon’s enemies had actually extended their fingers into the army. They were definitely Aiflon’s enemies alright.

Cillin’s performance was most eye-catching when they just descended from the weaponized aircraft and fired at the black mice, but no one could have realized that Cillin was also paying attention to every little change in every squad member. It was through these miniscule details that Cillin had deduced that the hidden dangers existed, and after a series of events happened, Cillin became sure of it. In fact, Cillin had purposely walked a bit slower before the black mice had appeared and separated them from the other eight people. That man was obviously planning to seek an opportunity to kill Cillin as well. They were both at the back of the squad. The black mice’s location, his own traveling speed and distance between him and the eight people in front of him were all within Cillin’s calculations. It might have seemed like a coincidence that the black mice separated them both away from the eight other people, but in truth it was all within Cillin’s predictions.

Cillin did not need a sonar detector to be able to sense the sound waves transmitted through the walls. A normal person couldn’t even feel it. Cillin was like a precise multifunctional machine analysing every information around him at every moment. He knew that the black mice’s appearance was not a coincidence. It was the result of the black mice leader’s order.

Like a human-shaped detector, Cillin was well aware of every movement in his surroundings. Be it how many people of squad X had just passed through tunnel Y, or the number of black mice operating at a nearby tunnel, Cillin knew all of them. This also allowed Cillin to avoid a lot of trouble.

Glancing at the belt of his backpack, Cillin’s lifted the corner of his lips a little. The next one should be appearing pretty soon.

There was a corner at the end of the tunnel before him. Cillin slowly walked in that direction, and just as he was about to reach the corner, he threw out the mouse claw in his hands like lightning.

Splurt!

At the corner, the throat of a man wearing a combat suit was pierced through as he was nailed right on the wall. His eyes was also filled with disbelief as the gun in his hand fell on the ground. He was originally planning to kill Cillin with this.

the mouse claw had curved during its flight! Not to mention that his aim was so true, even within a tunnel environment! This was something his enemy had not expected at all.

Cillin pulled out the mouse claw, before releasing a series of indistinguishable noises just like before.

Cillin took out another three people during the next period of time.

There was a micro tracker hidden at the belt of his backpack. It was installed even before the equipment was distributed specifically to Cillin. It was evident that they have been preparing to look for an opportunity to kill Cillin at this place for a long time. However, what they didn’t know was that Cillin had detected this trick from the moment he received his backpack.

And this is how you beat someone in their own game.

After walking inside the tunnel network for such a long time, Cillin could sense an obvious decrease in the number of black mice. It was thanks to Cillin providing the blood samples and relevant data just in time that the operatives were able to make full preparation beforehand. Casualties were minimized, and efficiency was increased.

While walking, Cillin suddenly came to a pause and turned around.

Within the darkness, a big black mouse about three meters long stood at the other end of the tunnel. Its red eyes glowed with a bloody light amidst the darkness.

“You finally appeared. I thought you would hide from me forever.” There was a smile in his tone, “I’m taking that thing inside your body.”

Chapter end