Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 745 - 38: Specialty Latte (Part 2)

"I know this, the Night Owl fighter jet also has this coating," Sun Hang nodded, "But I remember this thing has no effect on enigmatic creatures, doesn't it? After all, as long as it's an enigmatic creature, it possesses mimetic perception to some extent. Applying this stuff not only fails to hide one's tracks but actually makes oneself more conspicuous to enigmatic creatures, right?"

"Most enigmatic creatures have a very short range of mimetic perception; at long distances, visible light remains the main source of information for many Type C enigmatic creatures," Yan Yu'an said. "Also, the weight of the parasitic coating is negligible, so when the equipment department develops armor like this, they usually add it by default."

"How do you control this thing?" Sun Hang asked curiously.

"The optical camouflage ability of the parasitic coating is generally triggered by electrical stimulation, while the energy required for usage is provided by the coating itself. These organisms on the armor are alive; as long as there is sunlight and oxygen, they can absorb energy from the outside world."

"So that means those stocked equipment items need to be regularly exposed to sunlight, right?" Sun Hang quipped, "Otherwise, if you let the organisms die, wouldn't this optical camouflage coating become useless?"

"Theoretically, yes."

"What a hassle." Sun Hang shook his head, "I originally wanted to get an invisibility cloak like in Harry Potter. Thinking it over now... never mind."

Sun Hang could simulate the ability of optical camouflage using "Willing Things to Happen," but it consumes quite a lot of mental energy, and isn't particularly useful in combat against enigmatic creatures... He just wanted an invisibility cloak purely for fun.

"Let's go." Sun Hang grabbed his backpack, swung it over his shoulder, and headed towards Baikal Remains first.

Wang Xiyi spread her wings and soared into the air again, while Zhong Ling was carried on the back of a burly enigmatic corpse.

Yan Yu'an looked back at the few people guarding the entrance without speaking, and quietly followed them.

The entrance to Baikal Remains is a dead-end road; the road extends from within the city and suddenly breaks off at the edge of the city—a road that should have connected to an intercity highway, but with the high-frequency changes in Baikal Remains' structure, it's nowhere near its original position.

As the sunset gradually dims, this dead-end road is visibly shifting to the right, along with the buildings on both sides.

"Since this road keeps moving to the right, let's turn left whenever we reach an intersection; that way we won't get moved too far from the entrance," Sun Hang said.

"Your thinking is too naive," Yan Yu'an said solemnly. "It's moving right now, but it might not be soon."

"Either way, we have to choose a direction at intersections; I'm choosing left," Sun Hang stated. "When executing missions inside Baikal Remains, how do you usually decide which path to take at forks? Do you roll dice?"

"It depends on the specific situation," Yan Yu'an replied.

Wang Xiyi landed atop a nearby building, walking a few steps forward on the rooftop.

"These buildings look quite sturdy," Wang Xiyi said. "I tried adding a little more force to my steps, and the roof just cracked a bit."

Her "adding a little more force" would have pierced through rooftops of typical houses in Lake Baikal City... but the internal structures within Baikal Remains are obviously stronger than regular reinforced concrete or brickwork.

This means that making a path through the buildings will be slightly harder than expected.

But only slightly.

Wang Xiyi increased her strength a bit more and heard a "crack" as her right foot penetrated the roof.

"These houses really do have some semblance," Sun Hang remarked, examining the buildings on either side while walking forward.

These buildings were evidently copied from Lake Baikal City, exhibiting a distinctly Russian style. At first glance, it looked like a city that had experienced a great fire, charring all buildings without reducing them to ashes...

Yet, any detailed inspection of the view, from roads to buildings, benches, even hydrants, revealed glaring inconsistencies.

These things had too many logical flaws, resembling AI-generated images that hadn't undergone fine-tuning.

At first glance, they seemed plausible, but upon closer inspection, were filled with absurdity and chaos.

"This should be a café, right?" Sun Hang stopped in front of a building with four and a half doors on its wall.

Why four and a half doors? Because the second door and third door are "stuck" together, overlapping about a quarter of their area, while the fifth door at the far edge is only three-quarters wide—just beyond that is the neighboring shop's wall.

Despite its weirdness, it must be said: the designer had ethics, placing all doors on its own walls with no encroachment on public or neighboring spaces.

That's better than people.

Sun Hang pushed on the first door, only to find it didn't open sideways—the connection to the wall was on the ground—making it less a matter of pushing and more of flipping the door flat to the ground.

"Like some avant-garde design conjured by a brain-hammered architect," Sun Hang quipped, walking in, stepping over the fallen door.

Inside was dark, even with Yan Yu'an's armor-mounted spotlight, it was hard to illuminate every corner of the café.

Sun Hang snapped his fingers, instantly lighting the ceiling lamps, even the storefront's billboard glowed.

Sun Hang didn't know if there were actual circuits behind these light bulbs, but it didn't matter; they were lit by his "Willing Things to Work" power, not electricity.

He recalled his first use of this ability after waking was changing hospital fluorescent lights to warm; but back then he hadn't mastered it well, suffering backlash and causing a localized blackout.

"It really is a café," Wang Xiyi commented as she walked in, folding her wings, and touched the rough wall with interest.

Sun Hang concluded this was a café, not a restaurant, mostly due to the bizarre characters on the sign resembling "Coffee"—similar to AI image-generated peculiarities: AI renders text to gibberish, small text into barcodes or QR-like designs, only large texts retain semblances of their original format.

The coffee cups displayed on the tables affirmed Sun Hang's assumptions.

He tried picking up a coffee cup, seeing they were "welded" onto the tables; exerting a bit of force detached the handle.

Circumnavigating the counter, he saw machines resembling coffee makers on both the counter and shelves.

With a flash, Sun Hang used the Liquid Metal Blade to slice a cup off the table, placed it under a coffee maker, and pressed its sole button.

Moments later, a "glug-glug" sounded within, as a viscous black liquid oozed from the machine.

"This might be the 'local latte' the fisherman mentioned?"