Chapter 55

"Where the hell is this Caplin? Did we get the direction wrong?" The scavenger pulled his dagger out from the vital point of the giant python. Kan Tu, holding his gun and alerting the surroundings, found no abnormalities and sat down on the ground, somewhat exhausted.

Officer Pete only said that Caplin was near the Blue Bay River, giving them a general area. After a week of clearing, the scavenger and Kan Tu finally found a winding path. They had walked about fifty miles along the Blue Bay River, but still hadn't seen a single soul, not even a trace of human activity.

"Let's keep looking. If we can't find him, we'll go back and ask again." The scavenger wiped the blood from his dagger on the python's body, collected the drops, and organized his backpack. He picked up the gun he had placed beside him and patted Kan Tu's shoulder. The two continued into the jungle.

The jungle floor was very damp, and the dense trees made it unsuitable for mecha combat. So the scavenger wore combat gear and painted his face with camouflage. He acted as a gunner, as the area was rarely visited by humans. The dense forest was full of dangers, and every step required extra caution.

"Did you hear something?" Kan Tu patted the scavenger, who was walking ahead, and asked. Gunners had a keen sense, and although their combat ability was not as strong as the scavenger's, Kan Tu could often discover things the scavenger couldn't due to his skills.

"At eleven o'clock, it should be a large bird of prey. Find an open area and look for a sniper position in the dense forest." The scavenger listened carefully. The sound of rustling leaves came from a distance, and the frequency was fast, indicating something was approaching quickly.

So the scavenger judged that they might need to use a mecha, which required a relatively open area. With the cover of the dense forest, Kan Tu acting as a sniper would be a good restraining tactic. However, the speed of the approaching entity exceeded the scavenger's expectations. It seemed to be unaffected by the terrain, moving rapidly as if on flat ground.

Just as the scavenger was about to find a favorable position, the figure appeared in his field of vision, not through the scope of the sniper rifle.

"Wait, there's someone on top." Kan Tu raised his gun to attack but was stopped by the scavenger. Kan Tu moved the scope of his sniper rifle, following the rapidly approaching creature's head to its back, and indeed saw someone sitting on it.

The rapidly approaching creature was a giant spider, over three meters tall, with eight fearsome legs, moving swiftly through the dense forest, completely unaffected by the terrain. The uneven ground even seemed to help it move faster.

"Caplin?" The giant spider stopped about ten meters from the scavenger and Kan Tu, its eight legs crouched on the ground, staring at the scavenger. On its back sat an elderly man with gray hair but sharp eyes. He was around seventy years old, with a face full of wrinkles. His skin, though loose, was smooth, not like that of a hunter or a villager living in the forest.

"Who are you?" The old man didn't answer the scavenger's question but asked in return.

"My name is Scavenger. I'm here to assist Officer Pete in investigating a case of a village being invaded by werewolves over thirty years ago. Officer Pete said you were one of the officers who handled the case back then." Although the old man didn't directly confirm his identity, his question was a tacit acknowledgment of the scavenger's address.

"A case of a village being invaded by werewolves over thirty years ago? That was a long time ago, but I think I saw the little girl who was taken by the werewolves back then." Caplin's face showed a look of reminiscence, then he seemed uncertain.

"You saw the little girl from back then?" The scavenger's eyes lit up. He had many theories about why the little girl from thirty years ago still looked like a seven or eight-year-old, but none of them seemed reliable. After investigating the destroyed village, the scavenger had never seen the little girl or the werewolves again, so he was surprised to get this information unexpectedly.

"Three days ago, many werewolves came to the area near the Blue Bay River. This is a habitat for giant pythons and various vines, so werewolves usually don't come here. They were chasing a little girl and another werewolf."

"Where are they now?" The scavenger asked urgently.

"They're gone, heading east. Follow this direction, and you might find something." Caplin patted the spider, which quickly turned and disappeared into the forest.

"East, that's the direction we came from. We didn't notice anything unusual. Is this old man lying to us? And you said he's a mentalist. Can mentalists tame pets?" Kan Tu sighed in relief as the giant spider disappeared. He had never seen such a large spider, and standing in front of it, being stared at by its eyes, was very intimidating.

A loud howl came from behind the scavenger, filled with anger, warning, and a strong sense of hostility and enmity.

"Let's go check it out." The scavenger quickly turned and ran towards the source of the sound.

"Wait for me." Kan Tu hurried to follow, but despite the advantages of being a gunner, he couldn't keep up with the scavenger's speed in the dense forest. The scavenger could jump and use trees for support, moving like an ape, while Kan Tu clearly lacked such agility.

"Up that hill, do you see the big tree marked on the map? Climb up and set up a sniper position. I'll give you my sniper rifle. Save the werewolf being attacked." After ten minutes of moving through the forest, the scavenger reached an open area. About a hundred meters away, on a hill, several werewolves were attacking one werewolf.

The scavenger immediately recognized the werewolf being attacked as the one that had been with the little girl. Although all werewolves looked similar to him, the werewolf being attacked had an ear piercing, which the scavenger had left with his sniper rifle a few days ago. The little girl, however, was nowhere to be seen.

The scavenger threw his sniper rifle to Kan Tu, shed his backpack, and rushed out of the forest. As soon as he was free from the trees, he deployed his mecha and jumped in. The bulky mecha, under the scavenger's control, charged towards the hill like a rampaging rhinoceros.

Bang! As the scavenger charged forward, Kan Tu picked up the scavenger's discarded sniper rifle, climbed a tree, and fired at a distant werewolf. However, instead of blood spurting from the werewolf, the bullet seemed to hit metal, making a metallic sound.

Kan Tu was taken aback, but after a week of training, he had gained some combat experience. He steadied himself on the tree, leaned against the trunk, and loaded a shotgun shell with his left hand, then fired.

"Not a werewolf, but a werewolf mecha." The shotgun shell hit the distant werewolf, and the bullet exploded, tearing the outer layer of the werewolf's skin and revealing the dull metal underneath. The metal had many dents from the shotgun pellets, but it was still not penetrated.

"Aim for the eyes. The werewolf mecha is different from the mecha we use. The pilot is somewhere inside the werewolf's body, but the eyes are definitely their window to the outside." As the shotgun shell tore the outer layer of the werewolf mecha, the scavenger knew he had found the right target.

The werewolf mecha, covered in werewolf skin, looked exactly like a werewolf. Unlike the scavenger's mecha, which had a transparent bulletproof glass on the chest for observation, the werewolf mecha had no such feature. So the scavenger deduced that the werewolf mecha must observe the outside through its eyes, and the pilot's head might be in the werewolf's head.

Bang! Although Kan Tu had trained for a week and could hit targets without using his skills, the targets were generally large. Standing on a tree, he didn't have a good shooting position. So he didn't expect to hit the moving werewolf mecha's eyes with his sniper rifle and fired another shotgun shell.

The goal was to blind the werewolf mecha. Without the skill to directly shatter the eyes, he used the explosive power of the shotgun. The target was small, but with the help of the scope and the gunner's precision, a werewolf's head was not small.

The shotgun shell hit the werewolf mecha's face, tearing the skin and revealing the metallic shine underneath. One of the werewolf mecha's eyes was damaged by the explosion, the eyeball cracking like glass but not shattering.

"Aaaaah!" There were four werewolf mechas surrounding the werewolf. By the time Kan Tu fired three shots, the scavenger had reached the hill and leaped towards the werewolf mecha that had lost an eye. Since this mecha had lost an eye, it was easier to deal with. But as the scavenger pounced, one of the other three werewolf mechas suddenly howled. The four mechas took a step back and then turned and fled, avoiding a direct confrontation with the scavenger.

"Leave this werewolf, he's a real werewolf, not a mecha." The howl was not mechanically synthesized. The scavenger immediately marked the howling werewolf and informed Kan Tu.

Kan Tu originally wanted to use the shotgun, but the retreating werewolves were too fast, quickly exceeding 200 meters. He had to aim at the running werewolf's back and fire.

Thud! As the scavenger had guessed, this was a real werewolf, not a mecha. The bullet pierced the werewolf's shoulder, and blood spurted out.

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