Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 21 Blood Moon

Although this hill is barren, it is not desolate - at this moment, the whole hill is filled with people with lighting equipment. Judging from their uniforms, there are people from the Public Security Bureau, the Abnormal Investigation Bureau, soldiers from the Tianfu City Guard, and regular soldiers from the Xiazhou Federation.

Sun Hang and the other two jumped out of the car, and were immediately greeted by two investigators - both of them had the Investigation Bureau's emblem and identification codes on their uniforms, and it was obvious that they were full-time Investigation Bureau members.

"Are there any new discoveries?" Yang Qi asked.

The two investigators shook their heads in unison.

"I have a question," Sun Hang said, "How did you confirm that this place has become the undeveloped state it was decades ago - rather than the entire cemetery disappearing, leaving only a barren mountain?"

"Because they found this at the scene." Yang Qi took an opaque evidence bag from an investigator and threw it to Sun Hang.

"Can I open it and take a look?" Sun Hang asked.

Yang Qi nodded.

Inside the bag was a tinplate biscuit can. The paint on the can was a little scratched, but there was no rust on the scratched areas. Sun Hang turned the biscuit can over and found a line of text printed on the bottom of the can.

"Date of production: January 4653, 1 in the lunar calendar. Shelf life: 10 months."

This is a jar of butter cookies. The lid is obviously deformed and almost not sealed. Even the bottom of the evidence bag that contains it is piled with a lot of golden cookie crumbs.

Sun Hang gently pried open the deformed lid with his fingernails and found several broken biscuits in the can.

This type of butter cookie is not individually packaged inside, and the tinplate can outside is their only packaging.

Sun Hang picked up one of the biscuits and found that not only was the biscuit not spoiled or moldy, it was not even damp. When he applied light pressure with his fingertips, he could hear the crisp sound when the biscuit was squeezed.

"The biscuits produced sixty-six years ago, even those long-lasting compressed biscuits, could not have maintained this state," said Yang Qi.

"Tsk." Wang Xiyi took the can and picked up a biscuit... The next second, the biscuit turned into powder in her palm and fell back into the can.

"We initially thought that the space where the cemetery is located might have been replaced with the scene decades ago." Yang Qi said, "But according to your description, those missing people may not have gone to decades ago, but to the future."

"No, I don't think so." Sun Hang shook his head. "If it's just time travel, the travelers themselves shouldn't become so old... From what I saw, I think the speed of time in the space they are in has been accelerated by thousands or even tens of thousands of times."

"If the speed of time simply increased, you should see skeletons instead of aging living people." Yang Qi frowned. "Humans need to eat and breathe to maintain their metabolism. If the speed of time suddenly increased by thousands of times, those people would have died long ago."

"But aging is just one of the manifestations of metabolism," Sun Hang retorted.

"...You are right." Yang Qi sighed, "The abnormal phenomena caused by the weird things cannot be explained by the scientific theories we know... It is precisely for this reason that only people like you who are infected with the weird virus can fight against the weird things."

"Then what do you think I should do now? Should I search this barren mountain like this group of people?" "Wait. No matter how urgent it is, we can only wait." Yang Qi said in a deep voice, "Wait until the resonance induction appears again."

At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly came from not far away: "0420? You are still alive?!"

Sun Hang turned his head and, as expected, saw 0401, wearing a grey uniform without any emblem, standing on the hillside with a shovel in his hand, staring at him in astonishment.

"You seem to wish I were dead?"

"No... no no no, that's not what I meant. I'm just surprised..." 0401 waved his hands repeatedly, "It's just that you didn't run out of the basement that day, and later you didn't return to the Bureau of Investigation. I thought you had... Wait, what's on your shoulder? They actually gave you a gun?"

"There are wild beasts roaming in the wilderness at night. Isn't it normal to be armed with guns?"

"Fuck, then why didn't I have it? No! You are no longer a temporary investigator now! What happened that day?" 0401 wanted to ask more, but an ominous dark red light suddenly covered the entire hillside, interrupting 0401's words.

He turned his neck somewhat stiffly and looked toward the sky.

A bloody full moon hung high among the gloomy clouds, emitting an eerie blood-red light.

"Damn it." Wang Xiyi cursed softly.

"Why does it have to be at this time... This is troublesome." Yang Qi also frowned.

"What is that?" Sun Hang looked at the blood moon in the sky and asked.

In the only memory he had left, there was no information related to the "Blood Moon".

"'Phenomenon' strange object, blood moon, serial number 'Yi Liu'." Yang Qi said, "According to observation records over the years, there is a certain probability that a blood moon will appear on the full moon night of each month... Today is the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar year 4719, which happens to be a full moon night."

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

"The blood moon itself does not cause direct damage, but every time it appears, the wild beasts in the wasteland will become particularly violent, and the abilities of various monsters will be amplified... The most fatal point is that those who are infected with the weird virus will also be infected more seriously." Yang Qi explained, "So every time the blood moon appears, each city-state will be on high alert. Curfew, increased patrols and city defense are the most basic measures. At the same time, investigation missions and monster-killing missions in various places will be urgently stopped, and all investigators and hunters will be recalled and on high alert."

"The reason we called the hunters back wasn't to guard against possible monsters," Wang Xiyi added with a frown, "but to prevent those hunters who are in an unstable state from becoming monsters... Hunters whose infection process is close to the dangerous threshold will be locked in a special room. Once a mutation occurs, they will be immediately 'de-contaminated'..."

“Have you ever been imprisoned?”

"I was locked up once. When the blood moon appeared, I had just finished transforming into a beast. I had to inject five inhibitors in a row to maintain my human form. I almost died." Wang Xiyi said lightly, as if it was someone else who almost died in the story, not her.

(End of this chapter)