Star Rank Hunter

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

Translator's Notes: The Letter visual novel is coming out on Steam soon. I'm so anxious to play it I feel like applying for a vacation. How much longer do I have to wait? My hands are shaking... *game addiction worsens*'

Also, meme inspiration is thanks to Priest! Do send more images to creep out our readers, pal! XD

Chapter 167: The Out Of Place Convict [Part 1]

They might not have found the correct passcode, they did get a rough direction from the results of their decryption up to this point.

Blue Butterfly.

This was the first time Cillin had clear contact with something related to the Blue Butterfly.

The blue butterfly on the screen kept flapping its wings, and the symbols that made up the butterfly was the message inside this original code.

“No wonder the system couldn’t decrypt it. It’s a message from the Blue Butterfly.” Lung sighed. The decryption system he brought with him was the latest decryption system developed by the Andrea Family. However, Blue Butterfly’s data was the only exception since they knew too little about Blue Butterfly. They were not familiar with their communications.

Blue Butterfly was already a special case in the first place, and it was very difficult for non-Blue Butterfly personnel to acquire an in-depth understanding about them. Even the core members of the other three Hunter regiments did not have the confidence to identify one tenth of the core members of Blue Butterfly. This was because Blue Butterfly members only had codenames and no names. Once a codenamed member had passed away, the next person would inherit their codename.

For example, Blue Butterfly’s leader was codenamed Blue Butterfly. Every person who had served as leader of the Blue Butterfly was called Blue Butterfly. Practically no one knew about their real names, or if they knew they were already dead.

“Hey Cillin, are you sure you can decrypt it any further” Lung said reluctantly as he stared at the blue butterfly on the screen, “It has been so many years since we heard anything from the Blue Butterfly. I’m feeling real excited suddenly seeing this image, you know.”

“I’ll give it a try. Still, this encrypted message is seriously troublesome. Even if I were to decrypt it further, we may not necessarily arrive at the right conclusion.”

Ten minutes later, the symbols that made the blue butterfly on the screen transformed into one thousand and twenty four kernels. For afar it still looked like a blue butterfly, but with its base altered.

Cillin rubbed the space between his eyebrows and pointed at the butterfly image on the screen, saying, “This is as far as it goes. This is the final result of the decryption. However, we do not know exactly which dot contains the real message. In fact, every one of this kernels contains a full message. However, they were only covering for the real message.”

“You mean that only one out of all one thousand and twenty four of these messages is authentic? That what are we going to do? Go through every message one time?” Lung could feel his eyes turning a little dizzy.

“That is exactly what I meant.”

Cillin moved his fingers, opened and read through all one thousand and twenty four messages. The messages flashed across the display one after another, and when he finally read through all of the messages one time, Cillin pressed a hand to his head.

“They’re probably using code words, so I don’t know which message is the real one. I can’t filter them out.”

Lung’s mouth fell open, “Not only did they use over a thousand messages to conceal the real message, they’re even using codewords?”

In this case, there seriously was no way to figure out the content of this Blue Butterfly message.

Cillin couldn’t do anything about it either. He knew far too little about Blue Butterfly, and he had no idea what diction or grammar their habitual codewords contained. Therefore, even if he was able to decrypt these codes, he could not obtain any definite information from it.

“We may not know exactly what kind of meaning this Blue Butterfly message is trying to transmit, but the fact that they have started communicating with each other meant that they have begun their operation a long time ago. Let’s pay attention to the recent news in the media. There should be something relevant going on.”

“There’s no way Sector S’ media will report the truth.” Lung operated a little on a nearby control panel, “There are a few GAL electronic publications that follow this more closely than the norm, but their efficiency will be poor. We can only rely on leaks.”

What Lung brought up was the Andrea Family’s own information network. In relations to the matters of Sector S, Lung had shared access to this network with the other members of the family. They would also report the latest news to this network.

“There are only some messy and non urgent news in here. They’re all below grade three prison, and there’s nothing at all on grade four and grade five.” Lung said while he went through the info on the information network, “If the forces are already on the move, but there aren’t any abnormalities at the grade four and five prisons yet, then this means that everyone has been keeping their movements under tight wraps. After all, it is the elites who are being sent here. Perhaps those people in grade four and five prison had been switched out without anyone noticing.”

“I recall that their objective is to safeguard those important targets safely out of the prison, right? In that case there’s no need for them to attempt a jailbreak.” Cillin said.

“Some people would switch out the people inside just to be safe. After all, anything can happen inside a jail, especially in dangerous places like the grade four and five prisons. You gotta know that going by a Hunter’s standards, even the lowest ranking guards in there are commander level characters. Plus, these forces aren’t all here just to save people. Some are sent in there to assassinate someone.”

Cillin let out a long sigh. He was right. Those hibernating experts were all true masters.

The storm was about to arrive.

“Never mind, let’s not think about those things. When the riot erupts, let’s just seize the opportunity to burn up a few spots and stimulate those Sector S guards a bit.” Lung himself wasn’t that moved. He wasn’t here to fight those monsters head on after all. Since the old man said that he wasn’t up to par yet, then he might as well wait and see just how powerful these capable people truly were.

“Oh, right. How’s that pup doing?” Lung asked.

“It’s sleeping I guess. Its wounds are healing pretty quickly.”

“You really are ready to take that little fellow with you? Speaking of which, that little fellow is rather special. Logically speaking, a hellhound wouldn’t leave that planet. After all, they haven’t finished the order they have to obey for their entire lives.”

“If it was the same as the other hellhounds, I wouldn’t have brought it with me.” a one-track minded hellhound would just be a burden to him, and as a Hunter additional burden meant additional danger. No one would endanger their own lives for no good reason.

Lung nodded agreeably, “That little fellow had the ferocity of a hellhound, and its abilities are pretty strong as well. However, it also has a self-awareness and isn’t as inflexible as the rest of its kind. If you can absorb it into your team, then the Sixth B Squadron would gain yet another powerful helping hand.”

“That depends on its choice.”

“What choice?”

“The choice of becoming a dog, or a man.”

Lung fell silent for a moment before actually getting onto his feet and heading out, “Let’s go see which kind that little fellow belongs to.”

When Cillin and Lung arrived in the medbay, they stared at the two fellows on the operation table in dumbfounded silence.

The gray cat had pushed the little fellow to the corner of the operation table. While scooping up the little fellow’s tail for its own use, it lay spread legged and even stepped on the little fellow’s face with a hind limb. There was no image to speak of.

“Since when did this cat’s sleeping posture turn this ugly?” Lung hurriedly capture a photo of the scene. It was rare to find someone with a worse sleeping posture than him.

“Proximity to pitch makes you black.*”

*meaning that environment determines character. He’s insulting Lung by saying that he is the one who taught the gray cat bad sleeping posture.