Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Chapter 165: The Final Protectors [Part 1]

When they neared planet ‘Hell’, they could see the planet clearly from the large display. The outside of the planet was gray and blurry. Lung fired many probes to test various parameters of the planet. Although the level of air pollution exceeded acceptable limits, Lung, Cillin and the gray cat could still handle it without putting on a protective suit.

Looking at the footages transmitted back by the probes, the planet had undergone a big change. However, it wasn’t entirely the bloody red color Lung had mentioned earlier. It was simply a brown yellow background mottled with some bloody red color.

“The pictures from several dozens of years weren’t like this. Back then there was more blood red color than there is now. The planet’s current appearance is probably caused by the movements of its crust.” Lung said.

“Eh, what’s that?!” the gray cat couldn’t hold itself from jumping off Cillin’s shoulders and onto the control panel. The machine was closer to the display.

Looking at the footages transmitted back by one of the probes, an unknown animal with thick black fur over ten meters tall suddenly scuttled out beside a mountain rock. Its sole was shaped like a hoof, and it bared a mouthful of sharp teeth when it bellowed. There were traces of blood on its body, but it was blue in color instead of the usual bright red.

This ferocious beast ran with all its might as if there was something it from behind. Suddenly, a shadow flashed by and knocked down the ferocious beast with great impact.

“A dog?” the gray cat cocked its head and said uncertainly as it stared at the new creature.

The thing that had knocked down the ferocious beast looked like a dog, but it wasn’t an entirely accurate description. A careful look revealed that it had a lot of traits that differentiated it from a dog such as its claws, its face etc… At any rate, it just gave off the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

The ‘dog’ bit at the ferocious beast’s neck the moment it was knocked down and did not let go no matter how hard the beast struggled. When the beast finally shook it off, the dog’s mouth was holding a large chunk of meat. As the ferocious beast bled more and more, it lost its initial speed and vigor and was bit again by that ‘dog’ not long after it attempted to escape. More and more wounds appeared on its body as the dog tore mouthful after mouth of flesh off the body of the ferocious beast that was three times its size, seemingly wanting to shred its prey into pieces.

The bluish blood scattered all over the place. Gradually, some smaller sized carnivores began to show their heads. None of them hastened forwards because the ‘dog’ was still there, however.

By now the ferocious beast had stopped struggling and died completely. After confirming that the ferocious beast was completely dead, the ‘dog’ finally panted as blue blood dripped off the sides of its mouth, and its body covered in sticky blood. No longer paying attention to the big fellow that was mangled beyond recognition, it lifted its feet and left, leaving behind a trail of bluish footmarks.

When the ‘dog’ had left, the small carnivores that were stretching their heads and looking about finally rushed forwards to enjoy their completely effortless and delicious meal.

“That is a hellhound.” Lung said.

Cillin summoned the footage of the dog-like creature from before, “This is them?”

“They are created by humans, and are not pure canis.” Lung lay back on his chair and said slowly, “These creatures have both human genes and the dog genes in them. They may be dogs that were injected with human genes, or humans who were injected with dog genes. Sometimes a wolf’s gene would be used as well, but in the end those people discovered that dog genes are more effective than wolf genes because wolves are too wild and hard to control, whereas dogs are easier to control.

Before the planet has experienced its calamity, these fellows were used to watch over other lab creatures such as the convicts that are to be used as test subjects, or other animals. They could memorise the scent of each test subject, and it’s not just the surface scent but the scent of their very gene. No matter where these test subjects escape to, they will always be able to track them down. They will track their targets for an eternity until they meet their own death.

Later on the planet met its calamity, and a large scale earthquake and violent crustal movements caused nearly all of the original defense web to become paralysed. Volcanos erupted and caused the whole world to become gray and blurry. The viruses inside the research base leaked out, and the test subjects escaped. The rampant viruses and test bodies completely changed this entire world. Later on, the rulers of the planet would find that this planet was no longer habitable.

Given enough time, the viruses and test subjects could have been resolved. But the same cannot be said to the increasingly frequent crustal movements of the planet. In the end, they abandoned this planet and left behind an entire planet of viruses and ‘monsters’ that had escaped from the research labs. There were also these ‘dogs’ that took upon hunting down these escaped ‘monsters’ as their eternal objective. Later on, the planet earned its name ‘Hell’, and these ‘dogs’ were known as ‘hellhounds’. They are also the final protectors of this planet.”

“So you’re saying that some of these creatures are actually humans who were genetically modified into this horrific appearance that is neither a man nor a dog?” Cillin said.

“Yeah.” Lung switched scenes and selected a slightly unclear footage from a number of footages transmitted by the probes. There was too much flying dust in that particular area, and it caused some parts of the scene to become blocked. However, the critical part of the footage was still relatively clear, “That is a hellhound whose original form was human.”

Cillin and the gray cat looked at the creature together. Unlike the ‘dog’ from before, this one had a shape and a face that was closer to a human being’s. However, its entire body was covered in long fur just the same and dragged a tail behind its back as well. Its ears were slightly sharp, and it ran like a wild animal using both its arms and its legs. It no longer walked with its legs only like a human being. Some of its bellows could be heard from the footage as well. Other than the fact that it looked a little like human, Its lifestyle and its habits were no different from a wild animal’s.

These test subjects had been raised this way from the moment they were genetically modified and created. This meant that the people of the research base did not treat them as human beings from the very beginning.

Some of the hair on the gray cat’s tail stood up on its end. Suddenly, it wondered what might happen if it was caught by those crazy scientists? Oh my meow how scary!

“We going in?” Lung arranged the parameters collected from the planet’s environment on the panel so that Cillin and the gray cat could have a more comprehensive read.

“We’re already here, so of course we’re going.”

Cillin wasn’t afraid of these things. Moreover, he was curious if the research bases left behind any valuable information after the calamity. Plus, the amount of viruses on this planet was bountiful, and if these ferocious beasts could survive these viruses then he should be fine with his constitution as well. Plus, it was easier to find some things that were buried deep underground at a place with frequent crustal movements.

Since the planet’s outer atmosphere were gray and blurry, Cillin and Lung decided against site specific teleportation and initiated entry by piloting a spaceplane that was modified by Cillin instead. The starship was set to invisibility mode just in case someone came and attacked it while they were still on the planet.

After passing through the gray, blurry strip, Cillin then saw the planet’s landscape. It looked about the same as the footages transmitted back by the probes. They quickly found a place with high sea level and parked their spaceplane there after scanning around and finding no large ferocious beasts in the area.

The moment he walked out of the spaceplane, Cillin immediately sensed the restlessness of this planet. He took out a small syringe about the width of a finger and pressed a button beside it. The syringe began to absorb the air. There were a couple layers of filters inside the interior of the syringe. The filters would perform different absorption processes according to the physical and chemical characteristics of the viruses.

After he was finished collecting the sample of microorganisms in the air of this place, he put the syringe away and looked towards the near distance. The gray cat had long since ran out to tease the small animals hiding inside their underground holes.

Lung took out a round metallic ball, and after activation several tentacle-like objects stretched out of the deep recesses of the ball. The ball hovered in midair as the tentacles pointed towards a particular direction.

Lung beckoned, “Hey Cillin, there’s water around here!”

Places with water would have a much greater variety of species. Perhaps they would be able to see even stranger lifeforms.

“Time to go, stupid cat.”

“Alright, right away!” the gray cat chased after Cillin and Lung after stretching a paw inside the hole and grabbing around once.