Star Rank Hunter

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.

Chapter 167: The Out Of Place Convict [Part 2]

Perhaps it was because the gray cat had kicked it a few times to wakefulness, but when the little fellow saw someone coming in it immediately opened its eyes and looked pitifully at Cillin. It was just about to wag its tail when it recalled that it was being grabbed by the gray cat. Therefore, it gave up on wagging.

“Eh, this little fellow’s eyes are green in color!” Lung went closer and gave it a glance before exclaiming, “I remember that the hellhounds had red eyes when they were first researched by the base. The first time I see them, I even exclaimed that those researchers had purposely selected red eyed protector hellhounds.”

“It’s a genetic variation, I suppose. Perhaps its parents had a relevant recessive gene, and it was ultimately expressed on its body.”

Cillin gave the little fellow a little inspection, and found that it had recovered quite well. Not much time had passed at all, but scabs were already forming on its wounds. Its broken leg was also healing pretty nicely.

“You’re recovering quite well, but you still need to rest well for a bit.” Cillin rubbed the little fellow’s head and grabbed the gray cat by the neck, saving the little fellow’s tail from its claws. He moved the little fellow to the center of the operation table, “Rest well. When you wake, we’ll eat a big a meal.”

Cillin configured the medbay’s environmental setting into sleep mode before lifting the gray cat in his arms and leaving the medbay with Lung.

“So, what do you think?” Cillin asked Lung.

“It feels different from the other hellhounds. Maybe it’ll really work.” Lung rubbed his chin and said.

“I’m going to lie down for a moment. Call me if there’s anything.”

“Okay.”

After Cillin had returned to the lounge, he flicked the gray cat’s ears and said, “Alright, you can stop pretending to be asleep now. Even your whiskers are raised up.”

The gray cat had already woken up when Cillin and Lung entered the medbay just now. It just didn’t want to move until now. When it heard Cillin’s words, the gray cat opened its eyes and looked spiritless, “I can’t sleep well.”

“I can see that. Normally your sleeping posture isn’t like that. Did you have a nightmare?” Cillin scratched the gray cat’s chin.

The gray cat moved slowly according to the scratch and narrowed its eyes, “I don’t want to be captured by those researchers.” the data the gray cat had learned from that base’s system made it feel as if it had watched a realistic horror movie.

“That’s why I said we have to grow stronger.”

“You guys can never be stronger than me anyway!” the gray cat’s arrogant nature showed its face in less than three lines.

“Not necessarily. The elites haven’t even shown their faces yet.”

“How powerful are they?”

“I don’t know…”

…

Sector S, on a grade three prison planet.

Even the air inside this rampart-like prison was cold, dark, and devoid of any human warmth at all.

This planet was one of the many grade three prison planets in Sector S. There was nothing special about it. Grade three prison planets were in the middle of the status quo. The convicts imprisoned on these planets were not small fries, but they could only be relegated to being part of the background when compared to those people in grade four and five prisons. At least, that was how things were in the eyes of the prison guards and the defenders.

Unlike the prisons in other Sectors, be it grade one prisons or grade five prisons, no one was allowed to take even half a step away from the prisons in Sector S until they had reached their date of release.

It felt just like isolation;being imprisoned here several dozens of years or an even a longer period of time. Some people said that grade three prisons were the prisons with the lousiest treatment. In grade one and two prisons there were at least public brawls to be fought. The prison guards would not feel too anxious facing convicts of grade one or two prisons, since they were low level prisons in Sector S after all.

Convicts in grade four and five prisons were either relatively reputable or famous throughout the entire GAL. Their importance was incomparable to the previous three grades of prisons, plus the total amount of people in grade four and five prisons were less than the total amount of people in grade three prisons. Therefore, the prison space for each convict in grade four and five prisons was larger, and there were even some recreational facilities as well. Of course, these so-called recreational facilities were just some old and decrepit players and projectors which at least a number of them could not project a straight image.

Compared to the other four grades of prisons, convicts in grade three prisons neither had brawls to fight nor any recreational equipment at all. At best, they got to read newspaper or magazines from a few or a dozen years ago. They could also use them to wipe their ass after they were done reading.

Therefore, some people began to display mental problems after they were imprisoned in grade three prisons for a prolonged time. Impatient at their behavior, the prison guards would punish these strange convicts. The death row convicts who could not hold on after being put through both physical and mental torture would be discarded like trash or converted into food for the convicts of this prison.

Ka!

The elavator door opened. Two prison guards walked into the prison rooms of this floor. The prison rooms were all single-sided, and there was an extremely thick isolating board that separated each room so that the convicts could not communicate with each other.

After the two prison guards walked out of the elevator while holdings whips in their hands, they arrived at the entrance of the path. After verifying their identities at the inspection area, the door of the entrance of the path opened to admit the two prison guards. One of the prison guards pressed a button, causing one side of the walls of the prison rooms near the path to become transparent. This way, they could observe every convict’s status clearly.

Every time, there would be some convicts who, at the border of despair, would vent their dissatisfaction and maddened feelings at the prison guards by baring their teeth at them. The prison guards also enjoyed this situation the most, since it meant that they would have something to entertain them.

A prison guard swung the whip in his hands on the transparent wall. The second the whip came into contact with the wall’s surface, the wall instantly converted this high pressure into a high pressure gas wave on the other side of the wall. The impact of this converted high pressure gas wave would be enhanced several or even several dozens times stronger based on the prison guard’s swinging strength. Finally, it would land on the convict’s body.

The convict who had pressed himself against the wall and bared his teeth at the prison guards was slammed fiercely to the opposite wall by the high pressure gas wave. A bloody wound also appeared on his body. His hands and feets were bleeding out of the cuffs, and the wounds that weren’t healed in the first place worsened as blood dripped on the floor.

The convict roared on top of his lungs. No one knew if it was because of the pain or his despairing emotions.

The other convicts could also hear the convict’s shouts, but they were willing to hear them since this was the only occasion they could hear a human voice, even if it was the sound of a bloodcurdling scream. After the prison guards had left, after the walls had turned back to normal, they would not be able to hear any sounds from outside any longer. They could only hear their own mutterings and heartbeats.

The two prison guards stared at the convict who no longer looked like a human, rolling on the ground and screaming at the top of his throat. They laughed as if they had seen something fun.

When the prison guards were bored, they would whip every prison room once. It seemed that listening to the convicts’ bloodcurdling screams was the only thing that could make them feel as if they were the bosses running this place. Even if the convicts inside the prison room were very obedient, even if they did not break any rules, as long as the prison guards were willing, as long as they were willing, they would swing the whip in their hands and beat these convicts fiercely like a circus would train its animals.

However, there was a prison room that they would not whip. Perhaps they did not know themselves why they wouldn’t whip it. They just felt that they shouldn’t whip that room, and even if they did they would only do it once. They would not attempt to whip the convict in this room a second time just because he did not react to the initial beating. Once the prison guards had left, they would not remember that there was such a special convict either.

Just like before, the prison guards went around to whip a few prison rooms based on their mood. When they walked past the prison room of this special convict, they passed right by him as if they hadn’t seen him at all. They did not look once at the convict inside.

The convict imprisoned in this room did not look like a malevolent or fearsome hoodlum. Instead, there was the gentle and cultivated aura of an academic around him. Every movement he made contained some of the elegance of a gentleman and appeared to be very polite. Even his newspaper flipping movements were incompatible with this prison. There was just this nagging feeling that this person should be standing and speaking inside a wide lecture theater of an institute of higher education, and not keeping silent in this sinful, dark and dirty prison.

Right now, this unusual convict was sitting on the only chair of his room, spreading out a newspaper and reading. His other hand was holding a cup, and although the liquid inside the cup was obviously the bitter tasting water supplied in this prison room, the way he held his cup and drank gave off the wrong impression that he was enjoying a cup of tea of the best quality in a high class restaurant.

The convict did not change his newspaper reading movements despite the changes in the wall, the prison guard’s laughter and the bloodcurdling screams of the convicts. He had not even lifted his eyes.

However, when the prison guard walked past his prison room, this convict finally moved his gaze away from the newspaper and looked outside the transparent wall.

Perhaps the others could only see two prison guards standing outside, but in his eyes, he could see another figure beside the them.

The convict wore a genial smile and nodded as if he was exchanging a greeting. Then, he looked down on his newspaper once more.

The undetected figure froze for an instant when he saw the convict. He immediately gave him a salute before finally leaving the prison room.

In another prison room not far away from the previous prison room, a big man with an unkempt beard snored on top of his bed. Because his snores were too loud, the prison guard whipped him twice to wakefulness.

After the big man cried out twice because of the two whips, he sat up in a daze and scratched his messy hair before lying down once more. He did not snore this time, however.

After the prison guards had left in a litany of curses, the big man opened his eyes, got up and looked outside of the prison room. He said softly, “Zero! I didn’t think that you would come personally this time!”

There was a black butterfly tattooed on this big man’s arm. The patterns on the butterfly’s wings looked very bizarre. It looked like the face of a devil, and some people called this butterfly the ‘Devil Butterfly’.

Devil Butterfly was one of the three main tattoos in the Blue Butterfly Hunter regiment.

When the prison guards turned back around, the big man had already laid back onto his bed. The prison guards paid him no heed, and after they selected and whipped a few prison rooms while swearing incessantly, they left the area.

Half an hour later, a young man waited cross armed at a corner of a building not far away from this prison.

The young man’s bowed head suddenly lifted, “Pretty quick.”

A figure slowly appeared into existence before the young man.

“I’ve passed the item to him. The operation will begin when it’s time.”

“Have you seen something else, Zero?” the young man asked. This was because Zero’s face looked a little serious.

“I met someone who should not be at this place.”

“Who?”

“Hunting Blade Jiada.”