The girl gently parted a thick cluster of tall ragweed, her gaze falling on the curved tree trunk and the trap. The snare was cleverly hidden in the grass, difficult to spot without careful observation. The bait was a piece of venison laced with rat poison. Ban Xia shook her head, carefully backed away, and her figure once again vanished into the dense grass.

This was the third trap, still with no results.

She had set four traps around the residential complex to catch the uninvited guest.

But the target was craftier than she had anticipated.

This was a cunning hunter, not easily fooled.

Ban Xia turned and headed for the fourth trap, moving through the grass as her clothes made rustling sounds against the plant branches and leaves. Looking up, she was surrounded by the mottled residential buildings.

The final trap was set at the edge of the complex, near the southern wall. Ban Xia judged this to be a potential animal path. Animals had their patterns, and hunters needed to learn to observe these patterns. Ban Xia wasn’t as experienced as her teacher, but her expertise was growing gradually. She believed there was a high probability the beast would pass through here.

Ban Xia passed through the building cluster, gazing toward that tree from afar.

Sure enough.

She had guessed right!

The trap had caught something. From a distance, Ban Xia could see the tree trunk had straightened, the nylon rope taut and holding something. She excitedly rushed over, leaping across the shrubbery.

“Finally caught you!”

“Just caught a wild cat, that’s all, a stiff dead cat. Nothing else,” Ban Xia stretched her legs, propping them on the table, scratching her head while wearing headphones. “But you know how hunting is, nine times out of ten you come up empty. You can’t get impatient, you need patience, have to wait slowly.”

“Take the initiative, go catch it, OVER.”

“That’s dangerous. Humans struggle to fight wild beasts in the wilderness, even with weapons,” Ban Xia said lazily, leaning back in her chair, making it creak as she rocked the legs. “If you get injured, it becomes very troublesome, requiring treatment, the wound might get infected, plus all sorts of strange diseases… In short, a qualified hunter must learn to use external forces.”

“BG4MSR, what if you can’t catch it? OVER.”

“You must stay calm, young man,” Ban Xia twirled the coin pendant from her neck around her finger, dangling it in the air. “You absolutely must stay calm.”

“Do you need weapons? OVER.”

“I have weapons,” Ban Xia said.

“Should I send you more powerful weapons? We can try, though it might not work, but we can try, OVER.”

“Weapons aren’t better the more powerful they are, they’re better the more suitable they are, old man,” the girl rolled her eyes, drawing. “Weapons can harm others but also yourself. Even if you sent me machine guns and grenade launchers, I couldn’t use them.”

“One second you call me young man, the next I’m an old man. Do I age that quickly? OVER.”

“Alright, grandfather.”

“BG4MSR, can you tell what kind of animal is lurking in the complex? OVER.”

“Could be some kind of feline, or maybe canine,” Ban Xia answered.

“Canine? Wolves?” The voice in the headphones noticeably tensed.

“There might be wolves in Nanjing, but I’ve never seen any,” the girl said. “I think it might be jackals. I’ve seen traces that seem to be from jackals nearby.”

Her gaze fell on the table, where there was a small tuft of brownish-yellow fur.

Ban Xia picked it up, examining it against the light.

Today while searching the complex for clues, she had indeed found traces that appeared to be from jackal activity. That tuft of brownish-yellow animal fur was discovered near the fourth trap. Ban Xia judged that barring any surprises, the animal that had been tracking her was a jackal.

Jackals typically lived in packs and were fierce and aggressive. Though not large, they were dangerous predators.

Having a pack of jackals invade the area was not good news.

“BG4MSR, how do we eliminate them? OVER.”

Ban Xia couldn’t coexist peacefully with a pack of fierce and bold canines. They didn’t fear prey much larger than themselves, instead would pounce and disembowel them. Her teacher once said jackals were hunters who liked to pull out their prey’s intestines. These creatures liked to eat intestines, and fresh ones at that—they wouldn’t eat the pickled kind. Not only did they have peculiar tastes, but they were also cruel and cunning, sticking to you like glue once they latched on.

One couldn’t allow others to sleep soundly beside one’s bed. Meihua Complex absolutely wouldn’t allow the existence of predators. If there were any, Ban Xia would have to eliminate them.

If there was one, kill one.

If there were two, kill a pair.

If there was a pack, kill the pack.

If there were ten packs, run quickly.

“However they need to be eliminated, that’s how we’ll do it. Just a pack of wild dogs,” Ban Xia stared at the golden coin in her hand, her gaze suddenly turning sharp.

She was the world’s top hunter.

“BG4MSR, won’t it be dangerous? Is there anything I can help with? OVER.”

“You…” Ban Xia pondered for a few seconds, then smiled mischievously, holding the microphone close like whispering: “You just wait nicely for me to come back tonight~”

The next morning.

The girl woke up early, ate a simple meal of dry rations, tied up her hair, and stood in front of the wardrobe in her underwear.

She wrapped herself in thick pants and a hooded sweatshirt, then took down the worn individual carrying equipment from the wall, put it on, tightened the straps, and fastened the nylon buckles.

Taking the dagger from the cabinet, she lightly pushed the scabbard, cold light flashing. This was a multi-functional military knife with a hooked tip and serrated back. Her thumb lightly slid across the blade’s side. Ban Xia examined it carefully for a moment, then pushed it back into its sheath and strapped it to her leg.

Next was the handgun. Ban Xia skillfully ejected the magazine, pushed out the brass bullets one by one, letting them fall onto the cabinet with clinks and clanks, then reloaded them one by one, engaged the safety, and inserted it into the holster at her waist.

Finally, the bow and arrow. Ban Xia faced the living room wall, took down the bow limb, tested it a few times, and then put it back.

She shook her head; this wasn’t what she needed today.

Crouching down to open the TV cabinet, a more lethal weapon was hidden here.

It was wrapped in plastic, lying flat on the wooden board. Ban Xia lifted it out, nearly four kilograms in weight, quite heavy. She placed it on the coffee table with a dull thud, peeled off the plastic wrapping, and at that moment the edge belonging to humanity’s peak period of military might leak out—1060 millimeters in total length, hard engineering plastic stock, black matte paint, using 18.4mm caliber 12-gauge shotgun shells, this was a legendary Remington 870 pump-action shotgun.

If this world were an RPG game, the girl undoubtedly held legendary equipment. It was called legendary not just because it was born in the 1950s and had nearly a hundred years of history, but because it was absolutely one of the world’s most lethal weapons.

Ban Xia wasn’t clear about this gun’s origins, as Remington’s 870s were produced in huge numbers worldwide. She only knew it was extremely powerful, capable of blowing a water buffalo’s head off with one shot.

A shotgun loaded with eight rounds.

At this moment, fully armed, she was the most formidable person in the world.

Ban Xia shouldered her backpack and turned to say goodbye to her parents, looking every bit like a young female soldier heading to the front lines.

“Mom, Dad, I’ll be back soon.”