Mutation

These anomalies vanished in an instant. Sun Hang hesitated for only a moment before his consciousness had already returned beneath the Blood Moon.

The reflections close at hand rapidly faded before his eyes until they disappeared completely.

"What happened?" Yang Qi stepped forward and asked urgently.

"These figures seemed to be human reflections," Sun Hang answered honestly. "When I touched them, I saw a person's entire life—from youth to old age, then death."

"...Resonance?" Yang Qi froze for a moment, and her eyes immediately lit up.

"I'm not sure." Sun Hang thought back. Although those images had lingered for less than a blink, he clearly remembered that the person had worn a dark navy suit in middle age.

And in the news footage he had seen earlier, several of the leaders and officials attending the flower-laying ceremony had worn suits of similar color and style.

Could this figure... have been one of the missing officials?

Just as Sun Hang wanted to take another look at where those figures had vanished, a rich fragrance suddenly drifted over from behind him.

He turned around and saw that Wang Xiyi had somehow crouched down on the ground. Her arms were tightly wrapped around her chest, and her expression looked as though she were enduring some kind of pain.

Tiny black scales had already pushed out from beneath the skin on her neck, gleaming with a metallic luster.

"Night Fiend?!" Yang Qi noticed Wang Xiyi's change as well and cried out, "When was the last time you injected an inhibitor?!"

Sun Hang looked up at the increasingly vivid Blood Moon in the sky without saying anything, then rushed to Wang Xiyi's side in a single stride.

Suppressing the urge to pounce on her and pin her to the ground, he grabbed Wang Xiyi's arm and forcefully dragged her beyond the boundary.

The Blood Moon in the sky turned back into an ordinary moon, and the scales on Wang Xiyi's neck stopped emerging.

She was clutching the inhibitor syringe in her hand, but her fingers were so stiff that she could not inject herself no matter what she did.

"Help... me... inject it..." Wang Xiyi gasped with difficulty.

Sun Hang forcibly pried open her fingers, took the syringe, removed the cap, and drove the needle directly into her upper arm.

He crushed the glass ampoule of compressed air at the end of the disposable syringe, and the clear medication was immediately pushed into Wang Xiyi's body.

After roughly ten seconds, Wang Xiyi's rigid body finally softened again, and she collapsed weakly onto the ground.

Sun Hang glanced at the empty syringe in his hand. It still carried a nauseating "cilantro smell." He shook his head in distaste and casually stuffed it into his outer pocket.

Yang Qi crouched beside Wang Xiyi and pulled down the zipper at her collar slightly.

The dense scales that had emerged all retracted. Her neck, wrists, and other areas returned to their original smooth, fair skin, making Yang Qi let out a breath of relief.

"Was it caused by the Blood Moon?" Sun Hang asked.

"Most likely... The Blood Moon's influence is like radiation. The higher its intensity, the faster affected creatures mutate, and the more severe the mutation becomes." Yang Qi sighed. "From now on, until the Blood Moon disappears, neither you nor Night Fiend are allowed to enter the anomalous area again."

"You're planning to defy orders from above?" Sun Hang smiled. "Those people decided to 'spare no cost' this time."

"Because they're all idiots... If Night Fiend loses control because of their 'orders,' forget the search-and-rescue operation—half of Tianfu City will suffer by then!" Yang Qi said angrily. "Besides, the search-and-rescue operation hasn't been suspended. I'm still here... Take Night Fiend back to the institute first. Tell the professor everything that happened here. It won't be too late to come back after the Blood Moon disappears tomorrow."

After saying that, Yang Qi tossed the off-road vehicle's keys to Sun Hang.

Sun Hang did not refuse. He took off his gun and stuffed it directly into 0401's hands, while the latter was still completely stunned.

"Ah... Wh-what does this mean?" 0401 froze and asked.

For some reason, after getting the gun he had been yearning for, the sense of danger in his heart suddenly surged.

"Even though there are no infected around you now, there's no telling what you might encounter on the way to join up with the main force. You can't keep hiding behind women, can you?" Sun Hang said.

"..." 0401's lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing.

"Go, now." Yang Qi urged them. "The inhibitor only stabilized Night Fiend's condition temporarily. She's still in a dangerous period. You have to get her back to the institute as quickly as possible! Don't worry about me!"

0401 and Sun Hang worked together to carry Wang Xiyi into the vehicle. Sun Hang climbed into the driver's seat, glanced at the two left behind through the rearview mirror, then started the engine.

On the way back, reports of squads being attacked came through the vehicle's communications device from time to time—not just the wild wolves. Every creature in the anomalous area had begun mutating: abandoned stray dogs and cats, snakes slithering through the grass, even rats and insects at the bottom of the food chain all crawled out of the earth and began attacking everyone who stepped into the area.

Yang Qi and 0401 naturally encountered attacks from these mutated creatures as well. Fortunately, the two squads that had just merged arrived in time to provide support. Other than 0401 falling while dodging and scraping his knee, there were no casualties.

But the other squads were not so fortunate—by the time Sun Hang arrived at the institute, the death toll had roughly exceeded twenty, while the number of injured had reached three digits.

The effects produced by this Blood Moon far exceeded everyone's estimates.

More than a dozen staff members waiting in advance at the institute entrance took over Wang Xiyi. They carried her into a "metal coffin" emitting cold air, then hurried away, leaving Sun Hang standing alone on the broad steps outside the institute.

"The director needs to operate on Night Fiend immediately. Yang Qi has already reported the specific situation in the operation area," one staff member told Sun Hang before leaving. "For the next sixteen hours, you may remain on standby freely."

"And after sixteen hours?" Sun Hang asked.

"You should ask your direct supervisor, not me." The staff member tossed out that sentence and left on his own.

The entire institute was operating at a frantic pace. The few field personnel were all dispatched to South City Public Cemetery, while Wang Xiyi's sudden condition had forcibly dragged those who had gone home to rest out of bed—the faces of these lab-coated workers were almost all marked by heavy dark circles and resentment at being forced into overtime.

Sun Hang sat down on the broad steps outside the institute. At that moment, a familiar hunger rose from his stomach again.

He could not quite tell whether this hunger came from the woman who had just been carried inside, or because he had not eaten for a long time.

A pale strip of dawn had already appeared on the horizon. Sun Hang took out his phone and looked at it. The screen showed 4:45 a.m.

The last time he had eaten seemed to have been in the evening, when he had taken that bite of apple at "home."