Chapter 1037: Chapter 36: Hunting
"Components of the trap..."
Xing Hechou was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, contemplating the scene he saw on the large screen in the tactical command vehicle.
"In fact, I noticed the issue when the Shapeless Hound burst through the plastic curtain door."
Wang Congshan smiled and said, "It has the ability to become virtual, allowing it to ignore terrain obstacles and pass through barriers at will.
Moreover, this virtual effect has a very high priority level in terms of mysticism,
even the enchanted bullets fired from my assault rifle cannot hit the Shapeless Hound when it’s in a virtualized state.
When it rushed into the room to attack, biting off my right arm,
I attempted to counterattack, but it withdrew and once again used its virtual ability to dodge.
Although I lost an attack opportunity, I also gathered some valuable intelligence."
Wang Congshan raised her palm, lifted one finger, and mildly said, "Firstly, its virtualization ability is very peculiar,
capable of ignoring terrain obstacles,
yet it is constrained by reality—when it attacked me, it appeared stepping on the ground, and there were clear sounds of four feet landing.
If the Shapeless Hound could float and descend freely between floors like a Ghost, passing through walls at will,
its attack strategy should involve jumping out from the floor or ceiling behind the room to attack from the back, biting off the prey’s head.
Such tactics would align better with the hunting principles of canine animals.
There are many possibilities why it didn’t do this,
it might lack the intelligence, becoming impatient upon seeing the prey wounded and rushing to launch its next attack;
or it might be too confident, believing it didn’t need to Flash to the back of the prey to hunt successfully;
or perhaps, it is capable of traversing at will, but memories from when it was an animal constrain it, making it bound like an Earthbounded Spirit by some rules, for example, habitually stepping on the floor during a hunt, keeping its feet on the ground.
No matter which possibility, it is an advantageous condition for me."
Wang Congshan paused for a moment, lifting a second finger, "The second piece of intelligence, the enchanted bullets from my assault rifle can cause effective damage to it,
and it realizes this, showing caution against my counterattack.
It actively returns to its virtual state, disappearing from sight.
This implies that my means of attack can indeed kill it.
The hunt between us has become a dance on the edge of a blade.
And the third point,"
Wang Congshan raised a third finger, slowly stating: "There are many restrictions and rules associated with its virtual ability.
When I fired, it loosened its grip on my right hand before entering virtualization,
however, before it let go, my bullets still hit its body and vanished in the air.
The enchanted bullets, after penetrating its fur and flesh, were covered by its entire body’s virtualization effect,
just like the rotten human head previously spat out from its mouth.
It shows that,
the blood of the Shapeless Hound also possesses an invisible passive effect;
furthermore, the Shapeless Hound cannot have a part of its body independently virtualize,
once it activates the Formless State, its entire body must lose physical form.
Otherwise, it could have solidified its head to keep biting my right hand,
while simultaneously virtualizing its body to dodge my bullets."
Tap tap tap tap.
A squad of fully armed Mobile Detachment soldiers walked briskly out of the unfinished building, carrying a rectangular box made of transparent bulletproof glass,
through the glass, one could see an empty interior,
but judging by the posture of the soldiers carrying a heavy object and the deep footprints they left behind,
the box contained some extremely heavy transparent object,
likely the corpse of the Shapeless Hound.
"The third piece of information is critical, the Shapeless Hound cannot randomly virtualize parts of its body, meaning when it can attack me, I can also attack it back.
Thus stems the fourth point,
which is the boundary, or rather, the activation form of its virtual ability."
Wang Congshan pressed her lips together, speaking slowly: "There are two possibilities.
One, the Shapeless Hound actively controls its virtual ability—it can decide whether to virtualize itself or not.
Two, for it, the virtual ability feels more like a rule, an instinct, not under its own control.
When conditions are met, it will be forcibly ejected from its virtual state, having a transparent yet tangible shape."
"Two activation possibilities..."
Xing Hechou furrowed his brows in thought, while Li Ang raised an eyebrow, glancing at the smiling Wang Congshan.
"In most cases, these two activation forms exhibit no distinction, but they are crucial to my survival."
Wang Congshan smiled, "In the stairway room on the third floor,
the Shapeless Hound, noticing me firing, voluntarily released its bite on my right hand and entered virtualization.
If it could actively control its virtual ability, why would it bother to release its mouth, wasting that critical moment of disarming itself and getting hit by bullets?
Wouldn’t it be better to directly disperse its form?
To further test this, I voluntarily retreated, climbing up to the top floor of the unfinished building via the scaffolding."
Wang Congshan nodded towards the jungle of rusted scaffolding outside the unfinished building, casually saying: "The top floor of the unfinished building was not completely constructed, surrounded by exposed reinforcing bars.
This open and challenging terrain for footing was disadvantageous to me,
but if my theory was correct, and the Shapeless Hound usually stepped on solid ground, this terrain could also restrict its movements.
At that time, my injuries were quite severe, and even after bandaging, I had lost considerable combat effectiveness.
So I placed mini bombs around the vicinity, sitting down to regain my strength, meanwhile applying a small amount of hemostatic gel on my palm, then impaling my right hand with a reinforcing bar."
Wang Congshan lifted her slightly dusty right hand, smiled, and said: "The micro anesthetic in the hemostatic gel prevented me from passing out from the pain,
and the blood flowing from my palm could also emit a scent, serving as bait.
Lastly, and most importantly."
Wang Congshan’s expression became somewhat serious, "Since the Shapeless Hound is likely unable to actively control virtualization,
its ability should stem from rules akin to those of an Earthbounded Spirit.
Recalling previous attacks, the condition for the Shapeless Hound exiting its virtual state and having a tangible form was always after attacking and injuring me.
In almost all mutation scenarios, the rules binding Earthbounded Spirits do not change with their will; as long as trigger conditions are met, the rules will inevitably take effect.
This means, if I cannot counterattack instantly when the Shapeless Hound attacks,
I must try to create an effect under the rules that makes it think it’s attacking me."
Xing Hechou’s mind felt as if lightning struck through, he glanced at the palm of Wang Congshan’s right hand and immediately understood, "You deliberately impaled your palm with a reinforcing bar..."
"Exactly."
Wang Congshan nodded: "In the state of being impaled by the reinforcing bar, even the slightest vibration of the surrounding forest of rebar could directly affect the wound on my palm, causing pain and bleeding.
If the Shapeless Hound followed the blood trail to the top floor, based on its previous attack patterns, it might continue assaulting what seemed to be a defenseless me.
Once it steps within my vicinity, contacting the ground’s reinforcing bars,
it will trigger the rule of [Attack = Materialization], counted as launching an attack on me, thus becoming tangible,
and I could use the directional feedback of vibration frequency to press the mini bomb button, detonating the area,
and along with enchanted bullets, launch a lethal attack."
Wang Congshan lowered her hand, speaking slowly: "Of course, this conjecture about rules was merely speculation given the lack of more intelligence.
I didn’t hold a hundred percent certainty.
I set myself a 10-minute stop-loss limit,
if the Shapeless Hound didn’t show up within those ten minutes,
or if my reinforcing bar through the palm tactic proved ineffective, I would staunch the bleeding with hemostatic gel to prevent bleeding out.
Then I would continue guerrilla warfare within the floors, seeking more survival opportunities.
However...
as long as there’s over a fifty percent chance of winning, it’s worth gambling, isn’t it?"
Her face showed a slightly shy expression, as she waved as the noise of slowly descending drones surrounded, saying "Judging by the result, I survived.
And that’s enough."
