Star Rank Hunter

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

Translator's Notes: Alright, time to get serious for a few minutes.

First, I'd like to announce that Star Rank Hunter will REVERT back to its original 3 chapters/week schedule. Two, the Patreon page will be also be closed (will change to patron-only by latest tomorrow. I'd still remind everyone and send you a message to remove your pledge, just in case it doesn't work) so as to save my wonderful patrons from unnecessary money.

The reason is fairly simple. I've returned to the university, and I've also agreed to help with etvolare a.k.a bossu's SOTR daily. This means I'm working on Spirit Realm/Monarch of Evernight,

Sovereign of the Three Realms and Star Rank Hunter at the same time. I've also recently received a job from my professor which is supposed to demand my attention for the span of October and November, unless there is a change to schedule. I was even working on a secret project for the past 3 months until the job was complete. In short, I'm swamped. I've tried to keep things up as much as I could, but in reality the pressure is killing me since as a freelancer there's no such thing as Saturdays or Sundays, just less-work days.

But I don't want to give up on SRH either. I've already had to put Single Player Only on an indefinite hiatus due to how busy I am currently, and sending another one of my beginning novels to sleep feels wrong. So, I'm reverting back to the former 3 chapters schedule. This will make my time a lot more manageable, and not cause me a 3 day ~ 1 week headache if I'm sick. I can handle fever, but headaches runs cruelly painful within the family.

The last of the Patreon money will go into the sponsor queue as usual. If it hits $40, we will release an extra chapter. Advise: maybe you shouldn't. Please save my health from myself! XD

Thank you for your support, and hopefully your understanding. Now that the depressing stuff is over (and I REALLY need to grab that brunch before my sister yells so), let us return to how Cillin backstabbed Scarlet Wind 'because the bad guys are gonna get to him anyway'...

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Chapter 194: Miracle Co. Ltd

He was surrounded by reinforced steel walls, hidden weapons, and monitoring equipment with no blind angles. It was obvious that these people monitored Cillin - no, their test subjects - very strictly.

Right now, Cillin couldn’t do anything. He was watched too closely, and the gray cat and Cillin needed some time to collect information about this place or they would be forced into passivity too much. Tang Qiuqiu was probably supervised just like him, whereas Snowball and Scarlet Wind were under even stricter supervision. That being said, they probably wouldn’t be harmed just yet, and Cillin needed to ponder about his next move while there was still time left.

The starship arrived at another planet in Sector I. This space station at the outskirts of this planet and the orbiting satellites all shared the same logo.

Cillin was transferred onto a spaceplane and carried onto the planet.

There was a huge research base on the planet, and Cillin was transported to a certain area of the base. There were other common humans just like Cillin who were imprisoned in this place, but unlike him they were already injected with certain drug substances and grew scales, thorns, or wrinkles all over their bodies.

While Cillin was transported into a supervision room, one of the human test subjects went crazy due to the effects of the drug substances, hitting the surrounding walls with all he got. Every supervision room was shaped like a round pillar about 4 meters diameter. One quarter of the walls was made transparent so that the experimenters could see the effects of the drug substances on their test subjects. However, the test subjects couldn’t see each other.

After Cillin was scanned by a scanner, he was injected with an unknown drug substance and tossed into a supervision room. The number displayed outside the supervision room was ‘6915’. This meant that Cillin was the 6,915th test subject who was experimented on for this type of experiment.

The people that dragged Cillin and Scarlet Wind from the trading center’s port to the spaceplane all felt pretty strong to him. He could detect from the genes of the people who came into contact with him that they were all abnormal human beings. Their genes weren’t completely human, and genes of other races had been mixed into their bodies. Moreover, these people had not spoken a word from beginning to the end, doing exactly as they were told to. They felt like puppets. They left after sending Cillin into the base. The people walking inside here were all experimenters who wore white work clothes.

Cillin had analysed and determined at the first moment that the drug substance injected into his body was something that tested his body’s resistance and tolerance. The experimenters wanted to see just how far he could endure.

Cillin knew that this whole supervision room was an ‘operation table’. The experiment had begun from the moment he was tossed into this place. If you guys want a show…

In a room not far away from here, the monitors were displaying the general situation of each ‘operation table’. The relevant machines here were analysing every test subject’s drug reactions.

One of the experimenters was staring at the monitors. Suddenly, he let out an exclamation of surprise.

“Test subject 6915’s body temperature is unusual. It’s dropping rapidly after an initial rise!”

“That’s impossible. Everyone in here is a Rank A genotype. There’s no way he couldn’t hold on for even five minutes?!” another experimenters said.

“The data shows that his body temperature has already hit the lower limit already. If it goes down any further then this test subject is useless… something’s wrong. His body temperature has gone up again! He’s showing severe allergic reaction. His blood circulation has sped up and his heartbeat is rapid!”

Cillin began to writhe on the monitoring display.

The data displayed on the instruments supervising Cillin were all changing acutely. This meant that the target’s various vitals were all incredibly unstable, and that the entire human body system was going haywire. The experimenters could already predict the outcome.

Ten seconds later, the heart displayed on the instrument stopped beating.

Half an hour later, nothing changed.

“Enough. Dispose him directly.” a researcher said expressionlessly. They’d seen plenty of such situations already.

What’s the test results on 6915’s blood?”

“We’ve analysed his DNA fully, but we’re not sure why this happened. Maybe it’s because of the drug’s influence.”

“Rank A genotypes are a troublesome lot. There is always unexpected shit happening when we experiment on them.” an experimenter muttered.

“There’s nothing we can do. Our experiment targets must be rank A genotypes. Still, isn’t this guy a bit too useless? Even that kid last time did better than him and held out for a full hour.”

“In short, this rank A test subject is trash. God knows where Shelt procured him from.”

Cillin, lying quietly and lifelessly on the ground was stuffed into a long back and carried away from this area. They arrived at a waste disposal plant.

The waste processing plant was separated into two processing boxes. One was for lab equipment and relevant drug substances, whereas the other was for failed test subjects.

An experimenter dragged Cillin from the transport trolley and put him on the desk in front of the processing box. He was just about to press the processing button when a hand holding a thin syringe stretched out of the bag suddenly. Before the experimenter could react, the thin syringe was plunged into the back of his head.

The syringe was hidden inside the leaf ring earlier. That was why the scanners hadn’t detected it just now.

Then drug substances inside the syringe swiftly entered deep into the experimenter’s brain through his blood. His brain nerves were starting to be affected by the drug.

Cillin opened the bag and stood in front of the experimenter. His voice became deep and slow, and his tone contained a kind of rhythm and bewitching effect, “Remember, you have already processed the dead test subject.”

The experimenter’s eyes had no focus whatsoever. He repeated Cillin’s words dumbly, “I have already processed the dead test subject…”

“Therefore, you will now head out, find a place to sleep, and begin working anew.”

“Sleep… begin working anew…”

As he watched the experimenter walk out of the processing plant, Cillin pressed the button next to the processing box where the long bag was put on the desk. The desk entered the processing box, and a white flash later the entire bag instantly turned to dust. When the processing was complete, the desk returned its the original position once more.

Cillin looked up and cast a glance at the monitoring device above the processing plant. Instead of looking away, he asked, “Are the monitoring images all dealt with?”

“They are. I guarantee that no one will know about it.” the gray cat walked in from outside with Czedow following behind it.

Czedow projected a light beam from his eyes and turned it into a hologram. He replayed the strip of monitoring images related to Tang Qiuqiu, Snowball and Scarlet Wind they intercepted one at a time.

“Miracle Co. Ltd?!”

Cillin looked a little surprised to see that logo.

There were plenty of base companies that conducted biochemistry or genetic experiments, but only a few operated the way ‘Miracle’ did. ‘Miracle’ had an incredibly solid background, and they were supported not only by business organizations, but also political organizations and even the GAL military. No Hunter regiments would want to come in touch with a company like this because its background alone was a testament to the sheer number of taboo experiments and business deals it must have conducted.

After experiencing certain things and playing a role as a member of the four great Hunter regiments, it was easy to analyse and see why no one wanted to come in touch with this company. There was a dividing line between Hunters, political organizations and the military. It was a balance of non-involvement where both parties stayed on opposite sides of the line and snorted disdainfully at each other. Everyone knew about everyone’s backgrounds and dirty dealings. They just chose not to say anything about them.

With such a deep background, the sheer amount of profits this company earned everyday was unimaginable. Even if their experiments were unlawful and taboo, ‘Miracle’ could build a bright front for itself without problems.

‘Miracle’ was famed for its high end biological weapons and genetic drugs in GAL. There were many people who knew this company for these two products. They heard that ‘Miracle’s’ gene transformation drug had the highest success rate in the entire GAL. At the same time, it was also the most expensive out of all others.

However, how many innocents had paid with their lives to create the drug’s bright image of ‘highest transformation success rate’?

“Snowball and Scarlet Wind were sent to another side of the base, but Tang Qiuqiu is imprisoned not far away from where you were imprisoned.” the gray cat said while looking at the footages, “However, that there’s another force in this place, Cillin. We discovered them while we were copying some of the base’s security footages. Although they had concealed themselves well, they cannot escape my cat eyes.”

“Do you know who they belong to?”

The gray cat shook its head, “No. But you said before that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Maybe we can cooperate with each other.”

“Let’s not make contact until we find Qiuqiu and the others first. They must have their own reason to lie low all this time.”

Saving Tang Qiuqiu was relatively easy, and the gray cat and Czedow could take care of the security system no problem. However, saving Tang Qiuqiu would most definitely alert the enemy too, and that would mean the task to save Scarlet Wind and Snowball on the other side of the base wouldn’t be as easy. Judging from the footages Czedow provided him, Scarlet Wind and Snowball were supervised even more strictly than they were. There were also a lot more guards too.

While Cillin was pondering, Czedow suddenly said, “There is a non-base personnel at the entrance of a passage five hundred meters away. He’s copying the footages of our area.”

“I’ll head over and take a look; you guys keep watch over Tang Qiuqiu. If you notice anything amiss, then cut off the electrical system in this whole area. Is there a problem?”

“None.” Czedow and the gray cat said at the same time.

If they were someone else, then they would probably be ridiculed for overestimating their capabilities. But for Czedow and the gray cat, the task wasn’t impossible.

Cillin sneaked his way towards the place Czedow had pointed him too. Thanks to Czedow’s help, the few guarded entrances he encountered along the way didn’t cause him any problems. He was able to pass through without needing to verify his ID.

Cillin saw the person at the passage when he reached there. He looked almost the same as the experimenters, dressed in white work clothes and wearing a pair of gloves. His back was facing Cillin, and he was arranging a drug shelf. He looked like he was attempting to deliver these drugs over to the processing box, but a few drug boxes had fallen off during the process. This person was picking up the drug boxes from the floor.

He didn’t sense any anxiety or urgency from him. This person acted very calmly just like the normal experimenters in this research base. When Cillin approached him, he didn’t reveal any anxiety or murderous intent just like before.

Cillin didn’t stop after he approached the person. Instead, he continued to walk forwards as if he didn’t notice anything. The person also continued to crouch on the floor and tidy the drug boxes that had fallen to the floor.

When Cillin passed by the person’s back and took a few more steps forward, he suddenly came to a stop, turned around and said, “Hey, do you know that these two dangerous drug substances are usually carried around by robots?”