I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature
Chapter 36 - 34 Really Haunted_1

Chapter 36: Chapter 34 Really Haunted_1

The interior of the forest was not suitable for riding a motorcycle, otherwise, riding it in would have at least saved Zheng Yichen a lot of walking. Now, he had stored the bike at the campsite. If he had bought a motorcycle for 1.8 million instead of 180,000, then he could have parked it in a more concealed location.

Such a bike would come with optical camouflage, which provided excellent concealment when the bike was stationary, as long as it wasn’t moving.

"It’s all useless," Zheng Yichen muttered as he looked at the photos he had taken. It was true that one should not have high hopes for this kind of mission.

Hazy City had a history of over two hundred years, and the profession of a Hunter had been stabilized for no less than sixty years. Over the years, too many notable Hunters had emerged, and the areas that could be easily explored had already been thoroughly scoured. How could it be the turn of a newcomer like Zheng Yichen?

Novelty was reserved for those lucky newcomers, like encountering an anomaly which could lead to the discovery of a new extraordinary creature.

Zheng Yichen harbored the hope of finding such an anomaly here.

"..." Zheng Yichen picked up a deformed bullet from the ground. Beyond the forest’s outskirts, in the inner area where there were no forest rangers, other Hunters were active, so it was not unusual to find such things. However, the bullet Zheng Yichen picked up was still bloodstained.

He hadn’t learned tracking skills, and his reconnaissance skills were virtually nonexistent. He relied solely on the enhancements to his hearing, vision, and sense of smell that came with his improved physical condition.

He was still in a phase of improvement, which would last at least another week. Now, if he encountered the one-horned mule again and grabbed its horn, his palms definitely wouldn’t be rubbed raw, nor would the mule be able to ram him into trees at will.

He had crashed into seven or eight trees before, but now he would hit two fewer.

The blood was fresh, easily wiped away by hand, and signs of a recent fight were visible all around. The bleeding had been severe. He arrived at a tree and looked up to find an arm, stripped of flesh and hanging from the branches.

There were many small extraordinary creatures here, and any flesh left behind would quickly be devoured, although bones might remain. Zheng Yichen knocked down the arm bone only to see it break into several pieces upon hitting the ground, and centipede-like insects emerged from inside the bone, viciously crawling towards him. He stepped on them one by one, crushing them to death.

The remnants of the fight were clear. Following these clues, Zheng Yichen began his search. When he came across a corpse being pecked at by some extraordinary birds, he became even more cautious. Surely Hunters wouldn’t meet their end here? Was it possible for someone to be killed here by a surprise attack from these aberrant birds?

After all, those who ventured in usually had decent equipment. Not to mention having full body armor, but at least some standard combat gear was expected. With that gear, the birds could inflict injuries but certainly not kill instantly.

Zheng Yichen chased away the extraordinary birds that were scavenging the corpses. Far from retreating, they attacked fiercely, emitting piercing shrieks as they lunged at him.

Facing these birds, the largest of which was nearly the size of a vulture, he took them out one by one with his stick. Adhering to his principle of not wasting, he turned them all into dried birds.

The gnawed corpse was severely damaged, unrecognizable, and the fatal wound was a large hole in the chest. The previously found severed arm likely didn’t belong to this body, which, although torn, was relatively intact.

After checking, Zheng Yichen quickly left the area, aware that it would not be long before new extraordinary creatures were drawn to the corpse by its scent—the smell of blood was too strong here.

He became even more cautious as he continued on his way, and took a moment to adjust the camera on his body. He would decide whether to rescue someone depending on the situation; he was very aware of his own limitations. He was not a martial arts expert, and his experience in combat was limited to a few street brawls with not much else to speak of.

It was hard to become like those characters who, even though they were ordinary people, suddenly became strong fighters when faced with special circumstances. His advantages were his physical fitness, his gun, and his precise Salted Fish Thrust Attack.

"What on earth is it, should I retreat first?" Having quickly discovered a second corpse, Zheng Yichen felt like he was the kind of person in movies who courts death.

This corpse was torn open by something; the cause of death was much more gruesome than the previous one, and it had been scavenged far more severely... Wait.

Zheng Yichen suddenly realized a problem, or rather, something his lack of experience had caused him to overlook: these people were supposed to be fleeing for their lives, right? Killed while being chased by something, he felt the surroundings becoming more dangerous.

After thinking for a moment, he took out something he had prepared in advance—a small bag of bait. Once thrown, the grainy bait scattered over the ground, and the extraordinary birds that had been scavenging the bodies immediately abandoned the mutilated corpse and rushed towards it en masse.

High up in a tree tens of meters away, Zheng Yichen watched the situation on his phone, also tens of meters away. The fog made it difficult to see clearly, but the thermal imaging function of the camera connected to the phone was still useful.

The first batch of bait was pecked away by the birds too quickly, so Zheng Yichen threw out a second batch in a different direction.

"What the heck..." Annoyed by the incessant birds, he grew restless as these extraordinary birds made it impossible for his bait to last long or be effective.

The bait would be completely cleared away within less than half a minute, failing to lure out the target he wanted to observe.

This forced him to abandon his initial plan. As he descended from the tree, the extraordinary birds that had converged began to target Zheng Yichen. Before they got close, he aimed his pepper-box gun at the birds flying in from one direction.

The bait did not attract the target he was seeking, but instead successfully brought the extraordinary birds together.

He fired the shotgun loaded with birdshot at the swarming extraordinary birds, producing a ton of damage. Retreating while shooting, he emptied all the ammunition, leaving only a few birds still capable of flight.

The ones that could still fly were also injured, and he quickly finished them off with his knife before climbing back up the tree after tossing out a new pack of prepared bait.

This time, the additional factors that had been affecting the effectiveness of his bait were gone. The few extraordinary birds flying in from afar were scattered and unable to swarm quickly. Zheng Yichen patiently waited a few minutes, but still saw no large or abnormal extraordinary creatures appear.

Instead, the temperature around him was getting colder and colder.

"...Damn it!" Literally, he had seen a ghost—an evil spirit with a vaguely humanoid upper body, a distorted, fierce face, and a lower part like tattered skirts emitting a sinister gray-yellow aura, was gloomily staring at him!