84: hunter

Watching Bai Yuan ride the flying dragon into the distance, disappearing from sight, completely swallowed by the darkness.

"Hiss!"

Chen Ming rubbed his exposed arms, sucking in a cold breath. "The temperature at night in Jiang City has been dropping a bit too fast lately..."

Returning to the villa, that chilling sensation immediately vanished.

As he walked towards the sofa,

Chen Ming took out his phone and checked the Scarlet Giant's route.

If nothing unexpected happened, it should enter Jiang City around this time tomorrow night, and within another two or three hours, it would enter his field of vision.

"I wonder who is stronger, that Giant Knight and the mecha, or the Calamity Dragon?"

Chen Ming never feared war with monsters; he began to look forward to fighting them.

Each battle would allow Chen Ming to gain a lot of valuable experience.

In Chen Ming's opinion, experience was very important for navigating the apocalypse.

If he had to give it a rank, it would be at least SS-grade.

It was like wilderness survival; without enough survival experience, even with the best tools, one still wouldn't live for many days.

Thinking of this, to be safe,

Chen Ming opened the danger wanderer's management page and decided to use the Weapon Upgrade Modules a few more times to significantly enhance the power of that Shotgun.

He didn't see any description limiting the number of uses.

Since there was no limit, Chen Ming had to let loose and try boldly.

He found the Weapon Upgrade Module, clicked to use it, and confirmed the target was the danger wanderer.

【Upgrading...】

【Upgrade successful! Known enhancements: Increased flame attack range in Flamethrower Mode! Increased power in Grenade Launcher Mode! Increased armor penetration and sustained bleeding effect for bullets in Shotgun Mode!】

Chen Ming was not satisfied with this and continued to upgrade!

【Upgrading...】

【Upgrade successful! Known enhancements: Increased flame scorching range in Flamethrower Mode! Can fire double grenades at once in Grenade Launcher Mode! Bullet bleeding effect * 2 in Shotgun Mode!】

Continue! There were still seven Weapon Upgrade Modules left, not many, but not few either.

【Upgrading...】

【Upgrade successful! Known enhancements: Increased flame temperature in Flamethrower Mode! Can fire up to five grenades at once in Grenade Launcher Mode, increasing lethality and range! Bullet penetration effect x2 in Shotgun Mode!】

However, what Chen Ming truly wanted was to unlock another new attack mode similar to the flamethrower.

But thinking carefully, stuffing too many functions onto one gun would only complicate it and make it cumbersome.

After three consecutive upgrades, the Shotgun's power, combined with the penetration effect,

Chen Ming privately thought that the Scarlet Knight might not necessarily be able to withstand it.

Coupled with the continuous high-burst output provided by the Unlimited Ammo skill, the scales of victory had undoubtedly tipped completely towards Chen Ming.

Just as Chen Ming was about to continue strengthening, the voice of the female anchor on the television caught his attention.

To be precise, it was the news content she was broadcasting.

Female anchor: "According to the latest news from Reuters in the Gentlemens Country, First-Class Special Ops Soldiers, Yog Van Dyke, has awakened the SS-grade skill: Vampire. By consuming the blood of others, he can strengthen himself while transforming those he drains into Night Servants. While their strength increases, they will be cursed and fear sunlight..."

"Vampire, huh?" Chen Ming fell into thought.

Thanks to the restriction of fearing sunlight and only being able to act at night.

It seemed even the number of servants was limited, otherwise, wouldn't everyone in the Gentlemens Country just line up and let him suck their blood obediently?

By then, the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets would completely disappear from the river of history.

After all, how would these fanged fellows act in an empire where the sun never sets?

Just like the descriptions of Vampires in many literary works, the sun would turn them into ash.

"Vampires have even appeared, so I estimate it won't be long before zombies make their debut!"

"If there really are zombies, I wonder if modern Maoshan Taoist techniques will be effective against them?"

Chen Ming muttered to himself.

He felt as if this world was becoming more and more colorful!

At this moment, the female anchor finished talking about the news from the Gentlemens Country.

The male anchor followed closely: "Latest news, retired old general Xu Zhenshan has fished up the SS-grade skill: Berserker Iron Fist. He has currently had his military rank restored and joined the army against the Zombie monsters..."

Xu Zhenshan?

Chen Ming opened his phone and typed in the name Xu Zhenshan; the old man was already seventy-six years old.

However, as someone with multiple SSS-grade Skills, Chen Ming clearly knew that the moment a skill was awakened, physical fitness would greatly increase, and lifespan would also grow accordingly.

Seventy-six years old could very well be his prime!

Chen Ming always felt that the old general obtaining the SS-grade skill should have been a long time ago and had been kept strictly confidential.

Based solely on Xu Zhenshan's past experiences, if he had awakened an SS-grade skill, he would never leisurely wait for the officials to find him.

He would be eager to participate in the war against monsters the very next second.

Even if it meant fighting to the death, he would defend the peaceful and prosperous era that Great Xia had painstakingly built with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Otherwise, he would have no face to meet the fallen brothers, soldiers, and tens of thousands of common people...

The reason the officials announced news about the old general was likely considering the SS-grade Vampire skill.

On one hand, they were worried that some people might leave in large numbers to seek strength and protection.

On the other hand, it was a warning to the Gentlemens Country that they were not the only ones with SS-grade.

If they harbored ill intentions, they'd better not target Great Xia.

"Perhaps, what they are concealing is far more than this."

In Chen Ming's view, this was an old tradition.

There was once a saying popular on the internet: 'If it's too backward, it can be displayed.'

As long as it's displayed, there must be something better!

In the time that followed,

News of various countries fishing up S-Rank and SS-grade skills appeared more and more on the internet, growing explosively.

Of course, the largest number were skills of various levels below S-Rank.

At the Joint Organization, people from nearly two hundred countries were intensely discussing cooperation.

As the most severely affected Eagle Faction, they had to lower their usual proud heads and look everyone in the eye.

These people deeply understood that those who mastered supernatural abilities could not be compared with Special Ops Soldiers.

Forcibly integrating the two would only hinder each other.

One side had strict organizational discipline, while the other mostly consisted of ordinary people who suddenly gained powerful abilities.

They had to be given a completely new, special identity.

Building them up as saviors and heroes, strengthening their sense of honor and the citizens' trust in them.

Since ancient times, when faced with overly powerful individuals, ordinary people would subconsciously view them as anomalies and equate them with monsters.

Without exception, no country wanted to see a state of opposition between ordinary people and awakened ones.

Finally, after collective deliberation, a unanimous vote passed to define them as extraordinary humans who hunt monsters, and taking two characters from that, simplifying it to: Hunter!