"Alright," Zheng Yichen flicked away the fishing rod in his hand, saw the skeptical looks from others, and poked the extended part of the fishing rod on the ground, leaving a few small pits in the floor.
"No problem now," Jamie said, saying no more upon witnessing this. The strength demonstrated by the fishing rod was sufficient; he even thought that maybe he should prepare such a deceptively powerful weapon for himself afterward.
Walking around with a fishing rod wouldn't attract too much attention, would it? Even appearing in the vegetable market with it seemed perfectly reasonable.
Jamie took the lead, swiftly charging towards the humongous bear. Zheng Yichen let out a sigh and followed, while Lewis raised his gun, providing cover fire along with another Hunter. Their rate of fire wasn't high—they were only aiming to restrain the humongous bear.
As they got closer to the bear, the creature grew even more enraged, swiping a massive paw at Jamie. Having prepared earlier, Jamie swiftly retreated, catching a glimpse of Zheng Yichen out of the corner of his eye, then focused on engaging the humongous bear, whose mobility was greatly impaired.
He thought quite highly of Zheng Yichen, the newcomer, who lived up to his build and followed without a second of hesitation, "Find a chance to poke its eyes, retreat immediately after you hit!"
Jamie shouted loudly, this wasn't a fight against humans; the bear had no culture and couldn't understand their conversation. His loud voice served not only to pass information to Zheng Yichen but also as an explicit provocation toward the humongous bear.
Zheng Yichen didn't reply, his focus entirely on the humongous bear. The creature's head was fitted with an iron casing that provided excellent shock absorption and its eyes were not an easy target, given how small they were and its agitated movements making it hard to land a precise hit.
As Jamie got up close and tangled with the humongous bear, a subtle change occurred inside the fishing rod held by Zheng Yichen.
The fishing rod was strong, partly because he had spent money to have it custom-made, but the true strength came from the 'mouthpart,' a derivative of his extraordinary condition.
Hiding it within the fishing rod, with the concealment provided by the rod itself, even if there was surveillance, it would be hard to spot anything unusual.
In the moment the humongous bear turned its head, the black fishing rod, like a venomous snake, jabbed into the eye socket identical to that of a Terminator. The red glint shattered instantly, blood spraying out, and while the fishing rod penetrated the bear's eye socket, it didn't pierce through the back of its skull, but rather struck a hard object without penetrating it.
The humongous bear's furious roars began to sound, and Zheng Yichen's expression immediately tensed as he retreated as fast as he could. The creature's Life Force was too strong; such a wound didn't immediately kill it.
Originally, it was Jamie covering for Zheng Yichen but, as Zheng Yichen landed his attack, the bear's enmity shifted directly onto him. Jamie seized the opportunity to leap onto the humongous bear's back, one hand clutching the now-blinded eye socket while the barrel of the gun in his other hand aimed at the junction of the metal casing on the bear's head and fired repeatedly.
Upon breaking the connection point, he roared as he ripped off the metal casing from the humongous bear's head.
The humongous bear's massive body stumbled forward a few steps before crashing heavily to the ground.
Jamie jumped down from the bear's carcass, flinging the metal casing onto the ground and taking a long breath. In the short skirmish, his protective suit was already in tatters. The humongous bear's claws were sharp and its strength immense; a mere graze, and the protective suit would tear with ease.
If hit directly, one would be crippled if not killed, and another hit would surely not leave them able to cry out a third time.
"This batch of Hunters is surprisingly excellent," a researcher in the monitoring room said, watching the ended fight with a hint of regret. They had released the test subject ahead of time, even lifting the barrier between the test area and the outside environment, but the humongous bear still hadn't shown a secondary abnormal transformation in the foggy conditions as anticipated.
It might have been better to follow the original plan, waiting for the humongous bear's tests and improvements to progress further before releasing it. They had gathered enough data now, anyway.
The protection the metal casing on the bear's head provided was beyond expectations, and the body's resistance to bullets was also excellent. The fact that the brain could still function and fight for a while even after direct damage was impressive. If it wasn't for Jamie's tenacity in removing the cybernetic enhancements, the other Hunters that were arriving would have had to join the fight to put an end to the test subject quickly.
"All right, retrieve the test subject and proceed to the next phase of research."
The humongous bear's carcass was not to be wasted—it could still be used. They could now use the data collected and give the group of Hunters a week before facing an upgraded version of the test subject.
The testing site, where gathered Hunters looked at the body of the humongous bear, were muttering back and forth. Some arrived here on time, and the reason they didn't act immediately was that someone chose to fight the experimental body in close combat, and using firepower suppression would risk killing an ally.
People have to take responsibility for their actions, and the best way is to wait for the outcome on the side of the Hunters in close combat, either they get taken out by the bear or they take out the bear.
The Hunters taking out the bear didn't affect them, as their earnings from this place were fixed, and it made no difference to them whether a group solved the experiment body problem or just one person did; the type of Hunters who accepted commissions was too diverse, and occasionally some big shots wanted to experience life from the past, it was normal for them to accept regular commissions.
In those situations, lying low was fine, and although they hadn't stumbled upon a big shot this time, it was quite satisfactory to have a colleague exert so much effort to take care of the target; of course, slacking off was out of the question since the research institute kept relevant records.
If someone really slacked off deliberately, they would be put straight onto the blacklist, and it's the same old story, the money from the research institutes wasn't easy to get.
Soon, folks from the research institute arrived at the scene to retrieve the experimental body, and the area was cleaned up spotlessly. Apart from some signs of destruction, it was as if no fight had taken place at all.
In the temporary dormitory, Jamie was wrapped in bandages, eating meat, drinking beer, and beside him were some medicine bottles: "Hahaha, we fought damn well this time."
Zheng Yichen looked at Jamie like this and smiled; he was in a great mood as well, albeit piercing that experiment body meant he couldn't suck its blood, but he took the chance to extract some of its blood for himself.
At first, he worried whether such experimental bodies would affect the performance of his abilities, but after trying it out, he was completely reassured.
The experiment body was also an Extraordinary creature, and ordinary creatures couldn't serve as experiment bodies; even after modifications, it wouldn't affect the nature of that existence.
The part of the blood drawn away from the experiment body was transferred to himself through a mouthpart produced by his own anomaly, and to others, it seemed there were no changes, but Zheng Yichen was very clear about his condition.
Completely eliminating the Withering Disease caused by his own anomaly wasn't possible, but this time, it did improve his physical condition.
So much so that Zheng Yichen was now filled with fiery enthusiasm, just wanting to find a place to lift weights.
Lewis skewered a piece of meat and started eating it; although the cafeteria served regular meals, the four people present had a preference for meat: "We're not even halfway through the time yet, don't be too careless, those research institutes won't suffer a loss."
Jamie nodded in agreement. Indeed, the bear had been recovered, and who knows what new Extraordinary creature experimental body the research institute will concoct next? It would likely be even more difficult to deal with.
There's an old saying, "Bad luck strikes thrice." Generally speaking, one more incident would be enough, and if the research institutes went too far, Hunters would resist.
The following week was quite idle, daily patrols, then returning to the dorm to sweat it out with some exercise, exchanging tips about muscle strength with the roommates.
On the third to last day of the commission, while the Hunters were on patrol, the testing site once again experienced an 'incident'. Procedure was as it always was, but this time, he saw a humongous bear that had undergone even more thorough modifications, furiously battling against the riot control equipment.
After destroying those things, it managed to pass through the layers of 'protection' and escaped. That protection included reinforced glass and a type of special synthetic material.
The humongous bear's destructive attack was equivalent to putting those protective measures through a violent test.
It was a case of feeding the bear to the point of extremes.
"I think we should meet up with the others," seeing the state of the humongous bear, the experienced Lewis proposed seriously.
Last time, the bear was still primarily biological, and taking a risk, their temporary team could handle it. This time, half of the creature's body had been replaced with machinery, and only heaven knew how the research institute had 'revived' this bear.