He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

The white wolf ran wildly between the rooftops, its silvery-white figure leaving a blurry afterimage in the night.

Its heart was pounding as if it were about to explode, each beat pumping an even more violent force into its limbs and bones.

That power does not belong to it.

He does not belong to Bai Ziheng.

It roars in the blood vessels and gnaws in the bone marrow.

He tried to drown his last shred of sanity with the most primal hunger.

Stop.

Stop running.

Turn back, go back, there are still living creatures there, and still food left to eat...

To shut up.

Bai Ziheng roared at himself in his mind, but even that voice was trembling, growing fainter and fainter, and farther and farther away.

He didn't know how long he ran, nor where he ended up.

The rooftops that claws trod have transformed from corrugated iron sheds in industrial areas into insulation layers for residential buildings.

It turned into a place he neither knew nor recognized.

All the streetlights blurred into a dim, yellowish river of light beneath his feet, and he couldn't tell which way was which.

All I could feel was the beast inside me slowly taking over the steering wheel.

Its instincts drive it to a place where it feels safe.

elder sister......

That face flashed through my mind, as did that little breakfast shop on Huai Shu Street.

He flashed an image of her standing behind the steaming pot of noodles, wearing that faded apron and smiling at him.

Then it felt like his heart was being gripped tightly by a claw.

No, absolutely not.

Only my older sister, I absolutely cannot let her see me like this now.

We absolutely must not involve her in this monster-infested world.

Where else could he go? Where else could he possibly go?

By the time he came to his senses, his claws had already landed on the bridge.

It was a rather old bridge, and the surrounding area was not a bustling city.

It's more like a small county town.

The moonlight spilled onto the lake, shattering into countless silvery scales.

He looked down at the reflection in the water.

Half human, half wolf.

Something is dying out in the man's eye, while in the wolf's eye there is only hunger.

They couldn't even recognize their own reflection.

Bai Ziheng lost his last bit of strength, his body lurched forward, and he fell into the river.

It's strange, why did I want to come here?

The icy river water went over my head, into my ears, into my nose, and the world became a dull, murky mess.

He continued to sink, the water pressure squeezing him from all sides.

Deep within his consciousness, the monster awoke.

A deafening clang of chains clashing echoed from the abyss, and the creature whose body was pierced by countless thick chains slowly raised its head.

Crimson eyes gleamed in the darkness.

It raised a claw bound by chains, reaching out towards him through the endless darkness, across the boundary between consciousnesses.

That hand was trying to reach him.

It will devour everything he has while he is weak.

Bai Ziheng watched the claw getting closer and closer, and he no longer had the strength to struggle.

Is there no place for me in this world anymore?

...Then let's leave it at that.

At that moment, a hand grabbed his collar and pulled him up sharply.

It was a withered and twisted hand, yet it was also warmer.

Bai Ziheng opened his eyes in the murky river water and saw a monster with long hair spreading out in the water.

The face was twisted and ugly, with protruding bones and skin as rough as tree bark.

His golden vertical pupils burned with a light he couldn't understand yet felt strangely familiar with.

It held him protectively in its arms, embracing him tightly, and turned its head towards the abyss.

You can't protect him forever.

From the depths of darkness, the giant beast bound by chains uttered a low growl.

One day, he will belong to me.

The monster did not answer.

He simply held the half-wolf, half-human boy in his arms even tighter.

Then, carrying Bai Ziheng, they swam upstream, passing through layers of dark currents and deep waters where the moonlight could not reach.

It passed through the silence that had kept me guarding for countless days and nights.

It put him back on the shore.

It's the same spot back then, the entrance to that bridge, the place where cicadas chirped loudly in the summer and grasshoppers jumped around on the riverbank.

Bai Ziheng lay on the gravel, half of his face still bearing traces of wolf fur.

After the monster placed him down, it turned to leave, but in that instant, the unconscious Bai Ziheng grabbed its wrist.

Its body stiffened abruptly, and it instinctively shrank its shoulders, turning its ugly face away and trying to pull its hand back.

But he held on tightly, as tightly as a drowning man clinging to the last piece of driftwood.

She dared not move, nor dared she turn around.

Bai Ziheng slowly opened his eyes.

He saw Luo Yao's beautiful face, so close, with river water still dripping from her hair and a few strands of wet hair clinging to her pale cheeks.

Her lips trembled slightly, but she still tried to force that mischievous smile that he knew all too well.

"It's okay, get a good night's sleep. Everything will be alright when you wake up tomorrow."

But he saw it.

He saw it all.

Beyond that face...

Below her neck, her shoulders, her arms, her back.

They were all the bodies of one monster.

Twisted, rough... utterly ugly.

She used all her strength to maintain this face, to preserve this small part of her appearance that he could recognize.

Carefully hiding its ugliest parts in the shadows where the moonlight doesn't reach, it maintains this humble illusion.

He was afraid that when he opened his eyes, he would see a trapped beast in the bridge arch that dared not even look at its own reflection in the water.

After all, he said it.

What he wanted was a beautiful demon girl who was only kind to him.

Instead of that ugly monster who used to cower in a dark corner clutching a tattered comic book.

Bai Ziheng looked at her, and his lips moved slightly.

Luo Yao didn't hear clearly and subconsciously moved her face closer.

"What did you say?"

"I said... I've found you..."

...

...

Inside an office of the Special Administration Bureau.

The woman hung up the secret call and turned to face the old man behind the desk.

Her movements were swift and efficient, but her voice was kept extremely low, as if she were reporting something that shouldn't be heard by anyone outside the office.

"Sir, the factory has been raided."

"Commander Zheng took the lead, and the entire Ninghai Special Administration Bureau was mobilized, bypassing all of us."

"Chen Guodong was captured alive, the production line was seized, and all the data on the processing of the beast breath and the research materials on that artificial core fell into his hands."

The old man remained silent for a long time.

He leaned back in his chair, his fingers slowly stroking the armrest, his gaze fixed on the investigation notice on the table that had not yet been signed.

He personally approved the document a few days ago, intending to make a warning to Zheng Ningyuan and let him know that this factory was not something he could touch.

But clearly, that old fox didn't take this mountain seriously at all.

"Xiao Zheng is just too impulsive."

He sighed, his tone tinged with regret, as if he were commenting on a junior he had once admired but who had made a fatal mistake.

"He had such a bright future, what a pity."

The woman did not respond.

She knew that the calmer the old man's tone, the more serious the situation was.

"There's one more thing, sir. In this incident, there was a white wolf belonging to an unknown force, but it was very powerful—at least A-rank or higher."

"Sigh, since when did I have to report to such useless trash as A-rank beasts?"

The old man waved his hand, his tone as indifferent as if he were shooing away a mosquito that had flown into his office.

It was as if the white wolf that had wiped out Chen Guodong's entire army was nothing more than a stray dog ​​on the street in his eyes.

"The most important thing now is to make Zheng Ningyuan disappear from this world completely; he is our biggest threat."

The woman lowered her head slightly, her voice completely still.

"Yes, sir. Then... regarding the power of control, should we continue pushing forward?"

"certainly."

The old man picked up his teacup and took a slow, deliberate sip.

"Keep creating new berserk anomalies, don't worry about the dosage."

"Let them do whatever they want. The crazier the things they create, the better. As long as we have the power to control them, no matter how outrageous the monsters they create, we can keep them in check."

He set down his teacup and turned to look out the window. The city lights spread out in the night, and a cold smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"The power of domination combines human and alien genes to create those blind girls, who are the perfect weapon to control berserk aliens."

He stood up, put his hands behind his back, and looked out the window at the myriad lights of homes.

It's like looking down on your own territory.

"You want us to return this power?"

"Why? This power was built up by us humans over hundreds and thousands of years, with countless lives lost."

"It no longer belongs to that thing. Anyone who tries to take it back from us... will die."