Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 18: Chapter 12: Little Woman

Gao Gong’s eyes flashed with a hint of surprise. The stalker in front of him reminded him of an old saying.

She’s so cute, should cry for a long time if punched.

This stalker is like a beast-hide loli with swollen eyes.

Of course, Gao Gong immediately realized that it’s not ”swollen.” It’s a native affected by the radiation environment, born deformed, with her eyes naturally growing a pair of tumors.

Looking as if they’d been punched swollen.

Quite cute.

The beast-hide loli is not really gentle and soft. Facing Gao Gong, she immediately pulled out the steel bar from her waist, its sharp end pointing directly at Gao Gong.

”Little girl, you’ve been following me for quite a few days now.”

On the first day, Gao Gong had discovered that besides himself, there must be others in the concrete jungle, although he wasn’t sure if they were scavengers or mechanical hunters.

Focused on clearing monsters, Gao Gong wasn’t too concerned, but over the following days, he noticed someone seemed to be constantly following him.

And the stalker didn’t intend to steal monsters, just picking up the beast remnants Gao Gong didn’t want.

This confirmed for Gao Gong that the other person was likely not a peer but a scavenger.

Ordinary scavengers wouldn’t usually venture into the city circle.

And Gao Gong was somewhat intrigued by how she tracked him.

The loli opposite grew inexplicably angry hearing the term ”little girl”: ”Who’s a little girl? Are you blind? I’m already thirty this year!”

”Uh—”

Gao Gong blinked and carefully scrutinized her again, a hint of awkwardness flashing across his eyes.

Oops, even someone like me with eccentric tastes occasionally misjudges. Turns out her deformity not only includes ”punched eyes,” but has a dwarfism-like effect.

”Let’s get to the point, how did you track me?”

”Who’s following you? This city is so big, you—”

The swollen-eyed little woman tried to quibble, then her eyes shrank suddenly, and a lock of hair slipped from her forehead.

She hadn’t even seen how he drew his blade.

If that blade slipped to her throat—she wouldn’t even know how she died!

Gao Gong said softly, ”I said let’s get to the point, and the best is being straightforward. This isn’t for my sake, but for your sake.”

Seeing the terrified expression and sweat rolling down her forehead, Gao Gong nodded secretly.

Actually, he originally aimed to chop her steel bar but hesitated, feeling it couldn’t be cut. To avoid showing off and failing, he changed to cutting her hair.

The reason it worked was also thanks to leveling up, adding a point to Perception.

With 11 points in Perception, it’s more than twice a normal adult’s, bluffing a little loli, no, a little woman, wasn’t challenging.

The current results looked good.

Who knew the results would be too good? Huang Yuanli simply tossed the steel bar away, with a heroic readiness for sacrifice: ”If you’re going to kill, just do it. I’m not saying anything anyway.”

Gao Gong felt a bit amused, ”Why would I kill you? You have nothing valuable. My point is, if you are indeed a local scavenger, maybe we can cooperate.”

”You’ve followed me these days, you should know, aside from valuable materials, most things on Radiation Beasts are garbage to me.”

”Seriously?”

Huang Yuanli looked a bit incredulous. No wonder, Gao Gong’s current appearance resembled Marvel’s superhero Blade Warrior—except the face was Yanzu’s version, quite intimidating at first glance.

Seeing her disbelief, Gao Gong thrust the Red Unicorn into the ground, then sat down, pulling out a Nutrition Paste to hold in his mouth, conveniently handing another over.

”Want one?”

Now he was wealthy enough to buy 5 Mechanical Coin flavorful enhanced Nutrition Paste, this one had a roast meat flavor like jelly meat skin.

Huang Yuanli subconsciously swallowed, recalling last eating meat during childhood, provided by the factory as canned meat, an unforgettable sensation!

Maybe it was the effect of food, or maybe her life being controlled made her give up, she sat down too, grabbing the Nutrition Paste and squeezing it into her mouth.

”No rush, no rush, I have plenty.”

Gao Gong grabbed out a dozen of them, scattering them on the ground, from vegetable flavor to fruit flavor, even roast duck flavor, making Huang Yuanli stare.

Feeling full after the meal, Huang Yuanli patted her belly, her vigilance greatly reduced, lazily said, ”Compared to other mechanical hunters, you’re still decent. Those hunters look at us like primitive people, huh, those people may not know more than us.”

Gao Gong, intrigued, said, ”You are indeed different from other scavengers I’ve seen.”

”Certainly, according to the Old Civilization Era, I’m an intellectual.”

According to Huang Yuanli, scavengers were divided into two types: those who lost families in mechanical war and grew up aimlessly, with basic survival experience, like sewer rats barely surviving at the fringe.

Another kind involves escapees who have been brought up with a relatively complete education from the Old Civilization Era and are able to barely survive in the city using the knowledge they’ve acquired.

She is of the second kind.

”Weren’t you curious about how I managed to track you down?” Huang Yuanli waved her hand with a hint of pride, and a tiny black dot flew over from the staircase and landed on her finger.

It was an Electronic Bee.

”This is my Special Agent Bee.”

Name: Electronic Bee

Type: Mechanical Bio-Beast - Metal-wing Subclass - Electronic Species

Radiation Level: F-

Life Value: 5/5

Physical Strength Value: 8/8

Biological Energy: 11

Biological Attributes: Power 1, agility 2, Endurance 2, Intelligence 2, Perception 2

Skills: Flight lv5, Signal Perception lv6

Note: This is a moving electronic signal.

”You guys can actually train Mechanical Bio-Beasts!”

Seeing Gao Gong’s look of astonishment, Huang Yuanli seemed even more pleased and, with a thought, the Electronic Bee landed in Gao Gong’s palm.

Gao Gong had seen Mechanical Bio-Beasts before, but this was the first time he had seen one so small. It was clear that the bee’s wings were made of metal material, and its tail stinger was one size thicker, resembling a 2.5mm headphone jack, while the other parts were no different from a normal bee.

”It can emit radio waves and confirm if the surroundings are dangerous by the strength of the electronic signals it recycles. It can adjust frequencies for positioning and tracking...”

Gao Gong found it more and more familiar; isn’t this just a pocket-sized radar?

”How did you train it?”

Huang Yuanli rolled her eyes, ”How could I possibly tell you? It’s our livelihood!”

This lady with puffy eyes got up, dusted off her backside, and said, ”If you don’t kill me, I’ll leave. As for whether to cooperate with you, I need to go back and consult with the Elder. Don’t think of trying to deceive me!”

A gleam of something flashed in Gao Gong’s eyes as he smiled and said, ”Of course, I never force others to do things against their will.”

It was relatively early when he returned today.

Generally, Gao Gong would get off work promptly around four or five o’clock, not because he didn’t have the urge to work late, but because, at night, the city circle’s beasts were not as calm as during the day; instead, they would enter a chaotic fighting state, and some high-level monsters would even leave their domains.

Moreover, by nightfall, the city’s radiation level would reach a very high degree, and even if a dose of Radiation Needle was administered beforehand, prolonged exposure to such an environment would cause irreversible harm to the human body.

As for why this phenomenon occurred, the principle was straightforward: nighttime electricity usage was undoubtedly more intense than daytime. The same applied to radiation creatures.

However, today, Gao Gong left unusually early, not even three o’clock.

”Seems like I caught a big fish,” Gao Gong opened the car window, letting the hot wind blow on his face to keep his consciousness clear.

”The ability to train a mobile radar couldn’t belong to an ordinary tribe, much less a simple beast taming method,” Gao Gong paused, ”The scientific knowledge the other side possesses was likely top-tier even in the Old Civilization Era.”

”If they’ve trained not only Electronic Bees but also other Mechanical Bio-Beasts, then it’s not just about Professional Knowledge.”

Gao Gong’s eyes lit up, ”It might even be a Professional Knowledge Chain!”

In the game ”Cyber Realm,” there are two ways to acquire Professional Knowledge. The first is by unlocking a Sub-Profession, where natural progression lights up new Professional Knowledge as the Sub-Profession levels up.

The second way is through completing special faction scientific research missions. The Professional Knowledge gained from these missions is mostly related to crafting Exclusive Equipment.

However, beyond Professional Knowledge, there exists another entity—the Professional Knowledge Chain, also coined by players as the career pitfall!

It’s called a pitfall because the experience required to fill it is vast, almost impossible for a single person to accomplish.

Generally speaking, a Sub-Profession at full level twenty lights up about 10 types of Professional Knowledge.

To gain a complete Professional Knowledge Chain, one must bring the Sub-Profession to full level, upgrade all 10 Professional Knowledge types to lv9, and complete the Profession Fusion mission. Only after completing the Fusion mission can a Professional Knowledge Chain be born.

And the tribe Huang Yuanli belongs to likely possesses such a Professional Knowledge Chain.

The Professional Knowledge Chain serves two purposes: crafting rare (Strategic Weapons) and above Advanced Equipment, and constructing a Civilization-level Giant Structure.

And another even more crucial function—Civilization Ascension.

Only by gathering numerous Professional Knowledge Chains, unlocking the Civilization Knowledge system, and completing the Ascension mission, can civilization ascension occur.

Generally, a Planet-level Civilization holds at most Level 1 Professional Knowledge Chains, while Civilization ascension requires mastery of at least Level 3 Civilization.

But this is the Cyber Experiment Field, and Gao Gong suspects the other side has a Level 2 Professional Knowledge Chain related to neuroscience.