Star Rank Hunter

e the planetary government wouldn’t let them or the RAS personnel know many things or what was going on right now.

Of course, the citizens of this planet thought that their actions were perfectly normal.
Why on earth would they want to tell these foreigners something so common?

The image that popped up in the screen stunned everyone present.

“The coastal defense line has been covered by thick fog.
The thick fog is also spreading very quickly towards inland.”

“Sea fog?”

Daduo moved closer as she stared at the data analysis York brought up.
She seemed to be trying to confirm how authentic the data was.

“These data are the analysis of local researchers.
They’re professionals, so it’s highly believable,” York said.

Cillin shot a sideway glance at Wheeze crouching in front of the window sill, swaying its head and humming a soft tune while staring into the distance.
Those things must be getting closer considering the cat’s rising level of happiness.

People were already sealing off windows and slightly large openings in the nearby buildings.
The planetary government center already looked like a fortress in the first place, and now it appeared even more solemn and closely guarded than before.

Everyone inside the building were readying their weapons already.
It was something they did regardless of whether or not the weapons were used.

Cillin and the group only found some short battle scenes in the global network.
However, these battle scenes couldn’t represent what was going on in the entire battlefield, and they had very limited vision.
Not only did the sea beasts rarely show up inside the videos, there wasn’t even a video where the creatures were in full view.

“The fog’s here,” Cillin said.

The light rays in the sky started to blur.
They could clearly sense the water vapor in the wind.

“Let’s close our windows too.
There’re hallucinogens inside the fog.”

Two students took out their detectors and went to the windows doubtfully after they heard Cillin’s warning.
After a scan, they confirmed that Cillin’s statement was true.
The hallucinogen level in the fog weren’t high enough to affect them right now, but that was because the fog was still relatively thin.
It would be difficult to remedy their mistake if they waited until the fog had grown thick enough to threaten them.

Some of the students had already left to protect the academicians, and they were only separated by a single wall.
If anything were to happen, they would be able to respond in time.

After closing the windows and activating the HVAC system, everyone returned to the microcomputer to stare at the images.
The fact that the fog had spread all the way to the center of the continent proved that this fight was going to be a big one.

“This is good.
We should be able to witness the infamous battles between man and beast on this planet and know exactly how great their manpower and military force are,” A student said.

There were people who were looking forward to this, and there were people who were anxious about the attack.
Wheeze was very unhappy though as it paced back and forth in front of the window sill.
Meow dammit! There goes my outdoors ‘fishing’ plan!

Today’s sea fog had spread further than usual.
Judging from the satellite images, it would seem that one third of the continent had been covered by fog even though it had started from the edges of the continent.

The fog was thick and widespread.
No one knew how much longer this phenomenon was going to last.
The border soldiers were in full gear as they stood guard in the middle of this low visibility environment.
Anyone who didn’t wear a gas mask in this fog would collapse in less than five seconds.

At this point, the fog at the shoreline had become extremely thick.
Normal cameras would only be able to capture images of blue in this environment.
Yes, blue.
If the color was any deeper, it would look exactly like the color of the sea.

Cillin had noticed that the color of this planet’s sea was different from the other planets the moment he came here.
The blueness of this sea was something that sent chills into one’s heart.

“It’s not just the sea fog.
Some lowlands and archipelagos at the edges of the continent had already been flooded by seawater.” York brought up a 3D see-through topographic map.
“What’s strange is that everything is still peaceful inside the sea…”

A certain image silenced York before he could could finish.
Something had appeared out of nowhere in the sky of a city near the shores.

Blue fog continued to spread in the background.
An extremely blurry, giant black figure of a beast had abruptly appeared on the sky like a floating skyscraper.
They could even vaguely see the thorns behind its back.
If the city beneath it wasn’t perfectly unharmed, they might’ve thought that the city was being trampled.

“Is that a hologram?”

“Is it something like a mirage?”

“I can’t tell.
Still, does this mean that some giant beast had appeared somewhere?”

York brought up yet another document and showed it to everyone.

“What is this?”

Vino and the students felt dizzy just staring at the words of the document.

“Maybe I should show this to the RAS academicians instead.
Although, do you think those stubborn old fellows will criticize us for hacking into the network?”

Cillin’s lips curled.
“They might, but they’ll definitely agree with you in their heads.
Why would they bring York otherwise?”

York was far better at hacking networks than he was at fighting, so the RAS must have selected him with this particular skillset in mind.
However, those old fellows would never admit it openly because they were very sensitive about losing face.

“Alright, I’ll send it over to them directly.”

Two minutes later, an honorary scholar walked into the room and stared at York’s innocent looking expression, sighing.
“Allow me to explain.”

The rest of the academicians were busy researching the document York sent over to them.
The reason the honorary scholar came over was to explain what it actually meant and to hint ‘subtly’ which direction York should be hacking next.

Cillin listened to the honorary scholar’s explanation intently just like everyone else in the room, but he was also pondering about something else in his mind.
The gray cat had dug out some info after hacking into the global network.

The document York found earlier was a research report, and the test subject of the research was a kind of giant deep sea beast named the “Sea King” by the researcher.
These “Sea Kings” were the ones who led the sea beasts every time they engaged the humans in combat.
They also looked pretty similar to the black figure inside the image.

According to the research report, the human race on this planet only managed to capture one Sea King for the past one hundred years.
However, this Sea King had died very soon after it was captured.
The research report had been created on the same year it was captured.
The voice they heard from the planetary government center earlier didn’t belong to a Sea King.
It was the voice of a lower ranking species in the sea pyramid.

The Sea King was a giant deep sea beast with a skin that was capable of ion exchange.
They could absorb some kind of metallic elements from the seawater and conceal themselves as a result.
Thanks to their unique skin, they were able to swim near the shore and not be detected by the human’s detectors.
As long as they didn’t show themselves, they could avoid scans most of the time.
It was why the humans here suffered had great losses for a certain period of time.

The unique skin wasn’t just the only ability the Sea Kings possessed.
Their voices were very special as well.

The Sea Kings could create a kind of sound wave that affects or interrupts a torpedo or a missile that was fired at them.
Their throat was like a sound converter that could instantly a high energy sound wave powerful enough to destroy a torpedo or a missile outright or detonate it in advance.

The Sea King’s super powerful directional sound wave ability had caused a lot of problems for the humans here.
At the very least, that was how it appeared inside the research report.

According to the document, the smaller fishes in the sea or near the shore would evacuate and open up a path every time the Sea Kings appeared.
It was because the powerful sound waves and sonars created by the Sea Kings were powerful enough to kill them.

“Does this mean that the Sea Kings were capable of creating something like an infrasonic wave?” Vino asked.

The honorary scholar nodded.
“You can say that.”

An infrasonic wave was highly disruptive and penetrative.
It also had a very long range.
The fact that the roar of a Sea King could be heard in multiple cities was proof.

While the honorary scholar was still explaining things, the gray cat jumped onto Cillin’s shoulder and said, “I found it! It is related to the sea blue gold!”

When Cillin noticed how the skin of a Sea King functioned, he already suspected that the sea blue gold’s new compound formula had something to do with it.
Now, he obtained confirmation from the gray cat after he had requested it to hack into the system for verification.

“Still, that minor noble’s research team is only able to obtain part of the Sea King’s skin.
Right now they’re trying to obtain the skin from other body parts of a Sea King because each of them has a different metal ratio.
At least, the skin of a Sea King’s tail and claw didn’t share the same metal ratio.”

What this meant was that Cillin’s group could obtain different upgraded compounds of sea blue gold if they could obtain analysis data from other body parts.
They could also skip negotiations with the minor noble entirely.

“Say, Cillin.” The gray cat worked its paws and chuckled.
“You want me to go get some for y’all?”