Blood Moon

Though these hills were barren, they were far from desolate—at this moment, people carrying lighting equipment covered the mountainsides. Judging by their uniforms, there were personnel from the Public Security Bureau and the Investigation Bureau, as well as soldiers from the Tianfu City Guard and regular troops of the Xiazhou Federation.

Sun Hang and the other two jumped out of the vehicle, and two investigators immediately came over to greet them—their uniforms bore the Investigation Bureau's insignia and identification codes, marking them as official Investigation Bureau personnel.

"Any new discoveries?" Yang Qi asked.

The two investigators shook their heads in unison.

"I have a question," Sun Hang said. "How did you determine that this place had reverted to how it looked decades ago, before development—instead of the entire cemetery simply vanishing and leaving behind nothing but a barren mountain?"

"Because they found this at the scene." Yang Qi took an opaque evidence bag from one of the investigators and tossed it to Sun Hang.

"Can I open it?" Sun Hang asked.

Yang Qi nodded.

Inside the bag was a tin biscuit can. The paint on its surface was somewhat scratched, but the scratched areas showed no rust. Sun Hang turned the can over and found a line of text printed on the bottom.

"Production date: January 10, Year 4653 of the Lunar Calendar. Shelf life: 24 months."

It was a can of butter cookies. The lid was visibly warped and offered almost no seal at all. Even the bottom of the evidence bag was covered with quite a few golden cookie crumbs.

Sun Hang gently pried open the warped lid with his fingernail and found several shattered cookies still inside.

These butter cookies had no individual wrapping; the tin can was their only packaging.

Sun Hang picked up one of them and found that it had not spoiled or grown moldy. It had not even gone soft from moisture. With a slight squeeze of his fingertips, he could still hear the crisp crackle of the cookie being crushed.

"Cookies made sixty-six years ago couldn't possibly remain in this condition, not even the kind of compressed biscuits designed for long-term storage," Yang Qi said.

"Tsk." Wang Xiyi took the can and picked up a cookie as well... The next second, it turned into powder in her palm and trickled back into the can.

"At first, we thought the space occupied by the cemetery might have undergone Spacetime Displacement with a scene from decades ago," Yang Qi said. "But based on your description, those missing people may not have gone to decades in the past, but to the future."

"No, I don't think so." Sun Hang shook his head. "If it were just time travel, the travelers themselves shouldn't have aged so drastically... From what I saw, I think time in the space they occupied had accelerated by thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of times."

"If time had simply accelerated, you should have seen skeletons, not living people who had grown old." Yang Qi frowned. "Humans need food and air to sustain their metabolism. If time suddenly sped up by thousands of times, those people would have died long ago."

"But aging is itself one of the visible manifestations of metabolism," Sun Hang argued.

"...You're not wrong." Yang Qi sighed. "The anomalous phenomena caused by anomalous entities simply cannot be explained by any scientific theory we know... And that is precisely why only people like you, infected with the Anomalization Virus, can contend with anomalous entities."

"Then what do you think I should do now? Search every inch of this barren mountain like these people?"

"Wait. No matter how anxious we are, all we can do is wait," Yang Qi said gravely. "Wait for the resonance to appear again."

Just then, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from nearby. "0420? You're actually still alive?!"

Sun Hang turned around. Sure enough, 0401, dressed in a gray uniform without insignia, was standing on a small slope with one hand resting on a shovel, staring at him in shock.

"You sound like you were hoping I'd die."

"No... no, no, no, that's not what I meant. I'm just surprised..." 0401 waved his hands repeatedly. "You didn't make it out of the basement that day, and you never returned to the Investigation Bureau afterward. I thought you had already... Wait, is that—did they actually issue you a gun?"

"There are wild animals in these remote mountains at night. Isn't it normal to issue a gun?"

"Fuck, then why don't I have one? No, that's not it! You're not a Temporary Investigator anymore! What the hell happened after that day?" 0401 wanted to press further, but an ominous dark crimson glow suddenly blanketed the entire hillside, forcibly cutting him off.

He stiffly turned his neck and looked up at the sky.

Amid the gloomy clouds, a crimson full moon hung high above, radiating an eerie blood-red light.

"Damn it," Wang Xiyi cursed under her breath.

"Why did it have to be now... This is going to be troublesome." Yang Qi frowned as well.

"What is that?" Sun Hang asked as he stared at the Blood Moon overhead.

Among the memories he still retained, there was no information related to the "Blood Moon."

"A Phenomenon-type anomalous entity: Blood Moon, serial number B6," Yang Qi said. "According to observation records from previous years, the Blood Moon has a certain chance of appearing on every full-moon night... Today is the fifteenth day of the fifth month, Year 4719 of the Lunar Calendar. It happens to be a full-moon night."

"Blood Moon... Is it dangerous?" Sun Hang asked.

"The Blood Moon itself does not cause direct destruction, but whenever it appears, the beasts of the wilderness become exceptionally violent, and the abilities of all kinds of anomalous entities are amplified... The deadliest part is that the infection process in those infected with the Anomalization Virus also worsens." Yang Qi explained, "So whenever the Blood Moon appears, every City-state treats it as a major threat. Curfews, increased patrols, and reinforced city defenses are merely the most basic measures. At the same time, investigation assignments and anomalous entity extermination missions everywhere are urgently suspended. All investigators and hunters are recalled and placed on high alert."

"Recalling the hunters isn't actually to guard against anomalous entities that might appear," Wang Xiyi added with a frown. "It's to guard against unstable hunters turning into anomalous entities... Hunters whose infection process is close to the danger threshold are locked in special rooms. The moment a mutation occurs, they're immediately 'neutralized'..."

"You've been locked up before?"

"Once. When the Blood Moon appeared, I had just come out of my beast form. It took five suppressant injections in a row just to maintain my human shape. I nearly died." Wang Xiyi spoke lightly, as though the person who had nearly died in the story had been someone else rather than herself.