Wolf

0401 slumped onto the back seat like a deflated balloon, staring blankly at the Blood Moon through the sunroof. Sun Hang, meanwhile, pulled out his phone and opened the web browser.

Unfortunately, the internet had not yet existed more than sixty years ago, and even wireless communications had not become widespread. Otherwise, Sun Hang would have liked to see whether his phone could pick up radio signals from that era.

He typed the words "Blood Moon" into the browser's search bar. After giving it some thought, he added the note "Class B, No. 6 Anomaly."

Sun Hang hit the search button, and after a brief delay, 160,000 results popped up.

After thinking for a moment, he added another note: "September 15, Year 4654 of the Yellow Calendar." In the blink of an eye, the results dropped from 160,000 to a mere thirty-odd.

Those thirty-odd entries were basically all official records from the Xiazhou Federation. Most of the people who had personally experienced that Blood Moon sixty-five years ago had already passed away. Information had been limited back then, and there had been no internet, so the clues that had survived and could still be found online by Sun Hang were pitifully few.

Yet among those thirty-odd records, not a single one was connected to Tianfu City.

Sun Hang sighed and could only change the search terms to "Tianfu City, September 15, Year 4654 of the Yellow Calendar," deleting everything related to the Blood Moon.

"Hm?"

Although the results still had nothing to do with the Blood Moon, one piece of information caught Sun Hang's attention.

It was a scanned copy of a local chronicle. It recorded that between September 15 and 20, Year 4654 of the Yellow Calendar, 150,000 refugees displaced by anomalies had entered Shu Province from the Yuanmou region.

In those days, Tianfu City was not yet called Tianfu City. It still used its ancient name, Jinguan City. The vast basin centered on Jinguan City was Shu Province.

Back then, the boundary of human activity extended another four to five hundred kilometers southwest. The entire Yundian Plateau, including Yuanmou City, was the front line against anomaly incursions.

Just as Sun Hang was about to follow this lead and investigate whether the refugees' arrival had anything to do with the Blood Moon, Yang Qi's voice suddenly rang out.

"Something has its eyes on us... I can feel it."

"What is it?" 0401 instantly sat upright in fright, clutching the seat belt in front of him tightly.

"Just beasts." Wang Xiyi racked the slide of her pistol, chambering a round from the magazine.

This was undeveloped wilderness from sixty-five years ago. There were no people and no roads, and the SUV rumbled across uneven wasteland. Sun Hang looked out the window and saw several scarlet glints flash through the night before vanishing from sight.

"Looks like wild wolves," Sun Hang said.

"There haven't been wild wolves near Tianfu City for many years. If not for the anomalies, this would probably make tomorrow's Tianfu Daily headline," Yang Qi remarked casually.

"Then can we kill the wolves? Would that violate wildlife protection laws?" Sun Hang asked.

"When the Blood Moon appears, wildlife protection laws are considered suspended by default," Yang Qi said.

"That's good."

"But avoid firing if possible. I'm worried it might alert something else." After saying that, Yang Qi pressed harder on the accelerator. "I'll speed up and see if we can shake these wolves off."

"Too late. We're surrounded," Wang Xiyi said flatly.

More than a dozen scarlet points appeared directly in front of the SUV... no, not just in front. There were also points to the left, right, and behind them. At two points per wolf, nearly fifty wolves had them surrounded.

"That many?" Yang Qi frowned slightly.

Fifty wolves was already beyond the size of the vast majority of wolf packs. Even in places perfectly suited for wild wolves, with abundant food and few natural enemies, the largest packs rarely exceeded thirty.

"Even sixty-five years ago, there couldn't have been wolf packs this large in Shu Province, right?" Yang Qi asked doubtfully.

"No, they aren't one pack, but many..." Wang Xiyi's nostrils twitched slightly. "I can smell it. These beasts belong to several different groups. They've merely gathered together under the Blood Moon's influence..."

"Are these all the wolves in this area? Why aren't they going after the other teams?" 0401's face turned pale.

"Because there are two Anomaly Hunters in this vehicle. It's only natural that we'd receive special attention." Yang Qi gripped the steering wheel with both hands and said in a low voice, "Hold on tight. I'm going to accelerate and charge through... If they stay in front of the car, don't blame me for running them over!"

The SUV's engine began to roar deafeningly. The tachometer needle on the dashboard swung wildly to the right, while the vehicle's jolting grew increasingly violent as it picked up speed. It felt as though the car might fly apart at any moment. Caught off guard, 0401's head had already made two "intimate contacts" with the roof.

The distance steadily closed. Under the headlights, Sun Hang finally got a clear look at the wild wolves blocking their path.

They were a full size larger than the adult wild wolves Sun Hang remembered. Most of them exceeded two meters in body length. If they stood on their hind legs, they could easily reach up and grab the SUV's roof.

"Are you sure these wolves have merely become more irritable and aggressive?" 0401 asked, his voice trembling slightly.

All of the wolves' eyes emitted a terrifying red glow, just like the Blood Moon overhead. Nocturnal animals' eyes could "glow" because the bottoms of their retinas had a special reflective layer that gathered weak ambient light and reflected it outward, forming points of light in the darkness like ghostly flames.

This reflective effect was not obvious when there was sufficient light. But now, the bloody red glow in the eyes of the wolves illuminated by the headlights seemed capable of piercing through the beams themselves, glaringly conspicuous.

Facing the SUV as it sped toward them, the wolves did not dodge. Instead, they pounced! Their several-hundred-pound bodies slammed heavily into the windshield, denting the bulletproof glass capable of stopping 7.62-millimeter rounds. Spiderweb cracks spread from the points of impact all the way to the edges of the window.

Two wolves were sent flying sideways by the collision, but another hooked its front claws onto the roof rack and sprawled across the windshield, repeatedly smashing its head into the glass that was already on the verge of shattering.

"These beasts have been strengthened by the Blood Moon." Yang Qi frowned. "This kind of situation... rarely happens."

Sun Hang noticed that the wolf's body was rapidly swelling. Its fur was torn open by muscles that were expanding at a terrifying rate, and blood-soaked subcutaneous tissue forced its way out through the ruptures, like tumors too large to be contained.

"Strengthened? This is mutation, isn't it?!" 0401 shouted, slurring his words slightly. "Th-this wolf has already turned into an anomaly, hasn't it?!"