Chapter 38: Tracking

Dressed in military attire, wearing leather armor and carrying weapons, the short-haired girl was none other than Cai Yutong. She appeared very heroic and spirited, completely different from the cute and adorable demeanor when they first met.

"Yutong, sorry to keep you waiting. Blame it on Li Wei being too slow," Judith said.

Li Wei rolled his eyes.

Cai Yutong chuckled, covering her mouth. "No worries, it was only for a while."

Judith nodded and turned to Li Wei. "Miss Cai Yutong is renowned as the rising star of the Clover Branch. Work well together and don't embarrass me and Eileen, understood?"

"Understood, don't worry," Li Wei replied.

Cai Yutong took the initiative to step forward and extended her hand to Li Wei. "Hello, Mr. Li Wei. We'll be working together this time. Please guide me."

Li Wei shook her hand and said, "Hello, nice to meet you. Please guide me as well."

Seeing the two getting along well, Judith smiled satisfactorily. "Alright then, you two go ahead. I'll go back and catch up on some sleep."

...

"It should be here."

A few days later, Li Wei and Cai Yutong appeared in a park.

This was the Merlin Avenue community in the upper district, right next to the Clover Community.

The commission they received from the branch was to capture or eliminate a mushroom person.

Mushroom people were a special type of monster. Typical adult mushroom people resembled walking mushrooms the size of adult humans. Their appearance was like that of a mushroom with a human-shaped head, a peculiar species that was half-plant, half-animal.

A famous painter from the Clover Community once commissioned the Hunter's Guild to capture a mushroom person for him to observe directly, facilitating his creation of a "great" artwork.

This happened two months ago, but recently, the painter sent word again, saying that the mushroom person had escaped and killed three of his servants.

The Clover Community Police Department had deployed forces to capture the mushroom person, but they had been unsuccessful.

So, this matter became a new commission and was thrown back to the Hunter's Guild.

Initially, nobody was interested in this commission. Firstly, it was a local commission, and there were not many qualified people to undertake the task. Secondly, although the reward was slightly higher than the average C-rank commission, the task was indeed troublesome.

Tasks that could be solved simply by direct combat were the simplest tasks, while tasks requiring the tracking down of a creature that had escaped capture and hidden somewhere were very troublesome.

It was possible that a lot of time would be wasted on this, and there might be no gains at all.

But Cai Yutong took on the mission.

According to this girl, hunters shouldn't stop because of the difficulty of the task; they should face it head-on.

When Li Wei first heard her say this, he was slightly headache-inducing. Although she was touted as the rising star of the Clover Community, the girl, barely seventeen or eighteen years old, had clearly not yet matured from a mentally immature stage. She might indeed have good strength, but she had not learned the cunning that a hunter should have.

Perhaps this was the characteristic of an academy-trained hunter who grew up in a relatively comfortable environment? Although she seemed to have completed many commissions, many of her ideas were still somewhat naive.

"Am I too pragmatic?"

Li Wei self-deprecatingly smiled and then agreed to Cai Yutong's idea.

Based on the existing information, mushroom people were not weak in combat ability. Although they were not inherently aggressive, the one that escaped from the painter had already killed three or four people, and letting it roam freely without control was indeed very dangerous.

Of course, besides that, the fundamental reason why Li Wei readily agreed was because he had confidence in himself.

Tracking prey was his specialty.

At the beginning of the mission, Cai Yutong and Li Wei acted separately, searching for clues and tracing the whereabouts of the escaped mushroom person.

The information and clues Cai Yutong found were quite limited, and in this regard, the rising star was indeed not very proficient.

Feeling frustrated, she regretted taking on the task impulsively. She thought she should have listened to Li Wei and considered it more carefully.

However, when she and Li Wei regrouped later, this frustration was quickly dispelled.

Just because of a sentence Li Wei said: "That mushroom person should be in the garden of the adjacent Merlin Avenue community."

"How do you know?"

"Look at the map," Li Wei said matter-of-factly. "That creature is a half-plant organism. How many places can it hide? Parks and gardens are the places we must investigate."

"Why don't we check the gardens in our Clover Community? I remember there are three or four local gardens here, right?"

"We don't need to check those four gardens. I've already asked the police to investigate. If there's any news, they'll inform us. Besides, I think they're unlikely to find that mushroom person. I've been to the painter's house and the place where the police fought the monster, and I found some useful things. There's some fine plant powder extending from the local area towards Merlin Avenue."

"Huh?" Cai Yutong was a little confused. "I also investigated the scene of the battle, but I didn't find anything..."

Li Wei shrugged and said, "Maybe I have more experience in this area."

Indeed, in urban, wilderness, or other complex environments, tracking and collecting clues were projects Li Wei excelled at, and he was proud of it.

Of course, this alone was not enough; Li Wei also had a powerful eye.

With the Sharingan activated, Li Wei could see some extremely subtle clues on the ground, walls, and other places.

That was powder, a white plant powder.

The greening of the upper district was done quite well, but most of it was ordinary green plants, and this white plant powder was not common.

There were quite a few of these things at the scene of the battle, and Li Wei had reason to believe that they were left behind by the mushroom person.

Tracking the traces of this powder, Li Wei basically judged the location of the mushroom person, so he directly called Cai Yutong and headed straight for Merlin Avenue.

Regarding Li Wei's judgment, Cai Yutong was somewhat skeptical. However, with no other clues available, she had no choice but to trust Li Wei and follow him to Merlin Avenue Park.