Global Golden Eye Syndrome!

After the Crimson Moon appeared, Yu Hongyi's body underwent earth-shaking changes.

First were his eyes.

His pupils, once amber and nearly black from a distance, had turned a beautiful brilliant gold, carrying a faint metallic texture.

Then came his physique.

Once short and skinny, he now stood an estimated 1.95 meters tall, with muscles coiled all over his body.

The changes in his appearance also affected Yu Hongyi's temperament. He now looked rather like a 2D world character who had stepped into reality.

Several female classmates grinned mischievously and crowded over to take advantage of the opportunity.

"Isn't this way too fantastical?"

Yu Hongyi, at the center of the discussion, was still a little dazed, his head spinning from this sudden stroke of fortune.

He realized a question everyone else had overlooked.

If his physical changes were related to the Blood Moon, and he had absorbed some kind of cosmic energy radiation that caused a genetic mutation, then it could barely be explained through science.

Then...

What about his clothes?

Could it be that the discounted Taobao T-shirt and jeans on him had also become magical artifacts, automatically adapting to his changed body size?

Who had eaten the law of conservation of mass and energy?

Countless questions sprang up in Yu Hongyi's mind.

Before he could escape the crowd, a group of tough young men in military uniforms appeared before him.

The uniformed young man in the lead had a fierce bearing and icy eyes.

He looked at Yu Hongyi and forced a stiff smile onto his face. It only made him look all the more savage, enough to send chills down one's spine. "Student Yu, you are now one of the rarest talents in the world. The country... needs you!"

Anyone else who heard those words would inevitably have their doubts, feeling that the other party was trying to bind them with morality and the greater good.

Those with darker thoughts might even suspect that they were about to be sliced up like lab rats and sent onto an operating table.

But Yu Hongyi's blood immediately boiled. Without hesitation, he gave the man a military salute. "I'm a Youth League member. Wherever I'm needed, I'll definitely cooperate to the best of my ability!"

Duty bound.

Some considered Yu Hongyi an adolescent delinquent, while others thought he was overly naive.

But that was the essence of his soul, unrelated to the changes in his body.

"Good!"

The tough young man in uniform looked at Yu Hongyi approvingly and punched him in the chest. "You're built like a brick wall! You must work out a lot, huh? Once you're done cooperating with the Academy of Sciences on your medical examination, come join our Ju Mang after this attention dies down! I guarantee you'll start as a noncommissioned officer!"

Yu Hongyi did not understand the covert military designations of Dragon Soul, Wolf Fang, Qing Feng, and Ju Mang, but he roughly understood that the man wanted him to enlist.

The tough young man's words made Yu Hongyi feel somewhat awkward.

He had suddenly gone from a scrawny runt under 1.6 meters tall to a brawny giant nearly two meters tall.

For the moment, it was indeed difficult for him to change his old ingrained perceptions.

Northern Hubei Province, Xiangyang City.

Inside Yingchuan Longmen Residential Area, Nanzhang County.

Yan Anqing shut down the image-editing game and looked up at the sky. Watching the silver-white moon that had returned to normal, he wore a calm expression.

"The first Blood Moon transformation has finished outlining the blueprint. Next, I just need to fill in the details bit by bit."

The Blood Moon was merely an outward appearance. Humanity's changes were the real main event.

Earlier, he had randomly searched for people's photos around the world and altered their eye colors.

Without exception, they all had brilliantly golden eyes. Standing in a crowd, they could be recognized at a glance.

China's thirty-four provincial-level administrative regions corresponded to thirty-four lucky people who had been magically altered!

Other countries generally only had one or two scattered cases.

Other than China, America, the country with the most Golden-Eyed Ones, only had twelve.

The focus of the first Blood Moon Incident Yan Anqing had created lay with this first group of altered humans.

They included men and women, young and old, with fairly even representation across professions. Even the temperaments of the test subjects had been taken into consideration.

The only exception was a high school student named Yu Hongyi.

When Yan Anqing had been browsing forums for information, he had originally planned to find a student with excellent grades and looks, then turn someone else's perfect child into a campus-idol-level figure.

But after seeing the footage of Yu Hongyi being bullied, he suddenly had an interesting idea.

How could adding flowers to brocade compare to helping someone through the snow, letting the weak rise against the odds?

Thus, the fortunate Yu Hongyi became a Golden-Eyed One.

After Yan Anqing altered his photo, he underwent a magnificent transformation in an instant.

Yan Anqing turned on his computer and discovered that whether on Baidu's trending searches or Weibo's rankings, topics related to the "Crimson Moon" and "Golden-Eyed Ones" had almost completely occupied the top ten!

The recommended news on the front page was also closely connected to this "supernatural event," and discussions were endless.

"Oh my god! Golden eyes are so beautiful!"

"Jealousy is making my cells divide..."

"Does the Blood Moon Incident mean the era of Spiritual Energy Resurgence is coming? Will we be able to cultivate and achieve immortality?"

"Eh... doesn't that give me an excuse to skip blind dates and not get a girlfriend?!"

"Couldn't agree more! One person and one cat are enough for a lifetime!"

"Hehe, experts already debunked the rumors. The Crimson Moon has nothing to do with supernatural powers; it was just a normal astronomical phenomenon. Those people whose eyes turned gold merely caught an epidemic disease called 'Global Golden Eye Syndrome.'"

"666! Those so-called experts are amazing. They can even spin this? There's a short guy at our school who wasn't even 1.6 meters tall. During the Blood Moon, he shot up to two meters tall in the blink of an eye, and you fucking tell me that's an infectious disease?"

"Forcing an explanation like that—I'm laughing so hard I'm about to get abs."

"Has nobody climbed over the firewall to check Twitter, the foreign equivalent of Weibo? There are Golden-Eyed Ones overseas too! There are just way fewer than in China..."

"That's right. On a programmer forum I frequent, an Indian guy from a high caste became a Golden-Eyed One. A lot of people over there say he's the reincarnation of a Kshatriya, India's chosen king, destined to lead India in ruling the world..."

"Does he think he's the only Golden-Eyed One on Earth? I'm dying!"

"Even though I'm not a Golden-Eyed One myself, seeing India's inflated comments makes me feel superior for no reason!"

"Waaah! I want to be a Golden-Eyed One too!"

"I'm looking for a Golden-Eyed young lady to be my girlfriend. I'm twenty-three this year and just graduated from college. I have decent features, can buy groceries and cook, do housework, and go 'boo-hoo-hoo.' Interested parties, please DM me. Serious inquiries only!"

Seeing the netizens' playful and attention-seeking comments, Yan Anqing's lips curled slightly into a pleasing arc.

He checked his social feed and found that most people there were also frantically sharing events related to Global Golden Eye Syndrome.

At that moment, his phone vibrated.

The crude Photoshop image-editing game sent a notification.

"Congratulations, player. You have earned the achievement—Otherworldly Being."

"Are the Golden-Eyed Ones you created with your own hands lucky people favored by fate, or unfortunate test subjects?"

"Main Quest I completion progress: 2/3."

Seeing this message, Yan Anqing nodded slightly.

He only needed one more achievement to complete the first stage of the Main Quest.

The mission reward was simply tantalizing beyond measure.

Just as Yan Anqing was considering how to quickly obtain the third achievement, someone suddenly knocked on his door.

Knock, knock!

Knock!

Knock, knock, knock!

That strange yet familiar knocking rhythm...

Without even looking through the peephole, Yan Anqing knew who the visitor was.

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