If you were made a mascot, you would become a legend in the police force.

Conference room of the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Criminal Investigation Detachment.

The curtains were drawn tight, and the projector beam cleaved a ghastly white line through the smoky air. The atmosphere was as oppressive as a funeral.

But the loud crunching sounds coming from the person at the head of the table blatantly disrupted the solemn atmosphere.

Li Tuantuan slumped in the specially made reinforced boss's chair, his 300-pound weight causing the chair to groan in pain. He gripped a specially supplied bamboo stalk thicker than his arm with his left paw, eating it with juice flying everywhere, like a heartless paper shredder.

And his right hand was expertly swiping across the iPad screen.

If you didn't know better, you'd think this panda was reviewing official documents or watching suggestive videos of beautiful women.

"Look here, everyone."

Lin Wan touched the screen with the laser pointer in her hand, and the red dot trembled slightly.

"These are screenshots of surveillance footage that the technical reconnaissance team recovered from the cloud around Taiping Town before we set off. The situation... is even more hellish than we anticipated."

Screen switching.

Chenjia Village, which should have been bustling with activity, was now deathly silent, like a black-and-white portrait.

"A week ago, two old yellow oxen in Chenjia Village mysteriously disappeared. Then, the pig farm next door was wiped out overnight. Twenty breeding pigs weighing 300 jin each were gone without a trace."

Lin Wan took a deep breath, her voice strained: "The most outrageous thing is this."

The photo captures a scene in a rural courtyard.

The heavy iron chain that tethered the dog was still there, even taut, but the collar... was empty.

There were no signs of struggle, no blood, not even a drop of urine on the ground.

"It's not just livestock." Lin Wan turned to look at Li Tuantuan, who was eating bamboo shoots. "In the past few days, all the stray cats, wild dogs, and even rats in the sewers and sparrows in the trees within a ten-mile radius of Taiping Town have vanished. It's as if the bottom of the entire food chain was 'formatted' overnight by some unseen hand."

"Click."

The bamboo stick in Li Tuantuan's mouth broke.

He stopped eating, brought his chubby face close to the iPad, and zoomed in on the high-resolution image of the pigsty with two fingers.

The muddy ground was clean, with only a few very slight drag marks.

Those weren't marks from being dragged away.

It looks more like... it was instantly sucked away by some kind of giant vacuum cleaner.

"Squeak squeak squeak—!!!"

Jin Dou, who had been huddled in Li Tuantuan's hoodie pocket, suddenly poked its head out as if it had been electrocuted.

This "treasure-hunting mouse," who is usually greedy for money and would even tease a cat if given cheese, was now so frightened that its golden fur stood on end, making it look like a golden sea urchin. It covered its eyes tightly with its two little paws, desperately burrowing into Li Tuantuan's armpits, letting out a shrill scream.

It doesn't look at the photos. What it fears is the lingering "smell" in the photos.

Li Tuantuan stretched out her fleshy pads and patted Jin Dou's trembling back reassuringly.

Jin Dou is a mutated beast, and its intuition is more accurate than radar.

It didn't smell blood.

It's greed.

It's a kind of extreme hunger, extreme emptiness, a greed that wants to devour all living things. Even through the screen, that chilling aura of death almost overflows.

Li Tuantuan narrowed her signature dark circles and spat the chewed bamboo scraps into the trash can.

There was no blood.

No limbs were found.

There wasn't even a fight.

If it's a wild animal hunting, it has to spit out the bones, right? Even at a buffet, there has to be a time when you're full, right?

But this thing isn't picky about food, and it doesn't get tired of eating too much.

The coal ball stood on the back of the chair, tilting its head and staring for a long time. Suddenly, it flapped its wings, and its hoarse voice shattered the silence:

"Hey! Boss! Something's not right! This doesn't look like eating, this looks more like... buying supplies!"

"Who eats so cleanly? Are they trying to clear out their inventory?!"

Purchasing goods.

These two words were so precise that they gave Lin Wan goosebumps.

That's right, this is how you source goods.

That thing hiding deep in the Qinling Mountains isn't just doing this to fill its stomach. It's systematically and massively collecting blood and flesh energy. It's hoarding it.

Li Tuantuan tapped and clicked on the iPad. Because of his thick paw pads, typing was a bit slow, but he still stubbornly typed out a few large characters and turned the screen towards Lin Wan.

The screen clearly displayed:

It's not about eating them, it's about raising them like poisonous insects.

It's mass-producing units.

As Lin Wan looked at those words, she felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.

If they are wild beasts, they will sleep after they have eaten their fill. But if it is for "raising poisonous insects" or "expanding an army", it means that... the number of the opponent may be far greater than imagined, or that they are collectively supporting a terrifying "king".

"What about Old Wang and the others..." Lin Wan's voice trembled with tears; she dared not think any further.

The old director who always brought meat buns to Gun Gun with a smile, the kind old man who was about to retire... has he also become one of the "goods"?

Li Tuantuan shook her head.

He pointed to the empty dog ​​collar on the screen.

The watchdog didn't bark.

This suggests the attack came too quickly, or... the intimidating presence of the predator was so overwhelming that it didn't even have the courage to cry out, collapsing from fright and being dragged away.

Li Tuantuan jumped off the boss's chair.

"Squeak—"

He paced back and forth in the conference room, his claws making dull thuds on the floor.

He recalled the post-apocalyptic novels he had read in his previous life, and also the mutated rat king that was still evolving underground.

Deep in the Qinling Mountains, his former "happy old home" has now probably become a real "battleground".

He walked to the window and pulled back the curtains.

Outside the window, a bustling metropolis teems with traffic, neon lights flashing. Hundreds of kilometers away, a vast mountain range, shrouded in night, resembles a colossal beast with its jaws wide open, silently awaiting the delivery.

Afraid?

Nonsense, of course he's afraid. Li Tuantuan's current dream is to lie low and get a government job, not to become Ultraman and fight monsters.

but……

Old Wang gave him steamed buns.

Lots of steamed buns.

Besides, Lao Wang hasn't retired yet, so he can still give money in the future.

In the panda's logic, a long-term meal ticket equals private property and a sore spot.

Anyone who dares to touch my livelihood is smashing my rice bowl!

"Mmm!" (Mom, stop looking so sad, pack your things!)

Li Tuantuan suddenly turned around and waved her thick bear paw at Lin Wan. Her eyes lacked their usual languor, displaying only the ferocity of a apex predator.

No matter what kind of demons or monsters are there.

Since you dare to mess with my people, be prepared to be "physically exorcised".

He walked up to Jin Dou, who was still trembling, flicked her forehead, took out a fragment of a spirit stone that he hadn't been willing to eat before, and stuffed it into Jin Dou's arms.

"Squeak?" Jin Dou hugged the spirit stone, her eyes brimming with tears. Her emotions had calmed down a little, but she still timidly pointed at the photo, as if to say: Big brother, are we really going to die?

Li Tuantuan grinned, revealing two rows of sharp, white canine teeth.

What's there to be afraid of?

It's a monster? Am I not a monster?

Comparing meat consumption? I'm Chi You's mount, the iron-eating beast!

When it comes to "binge eating," I've never been afraid of anyone.

"Set off!"

Lin Wan wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, grabbed the car keys on the table, and her eyes regained their cold and resolute expression.

"No matter what kind of monsters or demons they are, we must find them and expose them to the light of day!"

Li Tuantuan followed behind, her rounded back exuding an aura of dominance.

The coal ball flew through the air and shouted:

"Gah! All troops, attack! Target: Qinling Mountains! Let's teach that ignorant monster a lesson!"