January 22
The order was given—
Retreat.
As the lead wolf threw back its head and let out a sky-shaking howl, the roar rolled through the entire valley like thunder splitting the heavens. Most of the wolves at the front, already whipped into a frenzy by the blood of their fallen packmates, turned back to look. Savage light blazed in their crimson eyes; it was obvious they had no desire to withdraw like this.
Once infected animals were roused into a murderous state, it was very difficult for them to regain anything resembling reason.
Only when the alpha howled a second time did they finally begin to fall back, albeit grudgingly.
Even so, a few lucky bullets still found them. Several wolves broke from the retreating pack after being hit, perhaps because the virus had not completely dulled their sense of pain.
From Xiangzi's side, the heat signatures in the forest were rapidly receding, leaving behind only a few faint orange-red smears still visible.
Even a wolf king that commanded its pack with a single call could not fully control every individual. In that respect, they were nowhere near as formidable as the "Tyrant"-type infected.
Naturally, a handful of beasts had gone completely feral and ignored the retreat order, continuing their suicidal charge forward. But instead of bringing death to their enemies, they only hurled themselves into it.
Their virus-ravaged brains could no longer command their bodies properly.
Bodies riddled with bullet holes lost all control. Blood sprayed everywhere like an overturned bottle of sauce; filthy carcasses were shredded by incoming rounds, limbs flying in all directions.
Still, a few scattered wolves managed to slip through the dense web of fire.
Every wolf in the pack had a different physique, and the speed at which the virus transformed them was not uniform. Some dropped the moment rifle rounds struck their torsos, while others kept charging even after vital hits, scarcely pausing in a stagger.
But no matter how desperately they lunged forward, none of them even touched the fence. Under the stark flood of electric lights, more than a dozen of those reckless mad wolves were buried in the snow.
The muzzle flashes lit up the night sky itself.
Bang, bang, bang...
A string of bullets tore into the last wolf.
Hit by several rounds, it finally collapsed beside the others. These last maddened wolves had been thoroughly sent on their way.
At that point, the scene in front of Xiangzi and the others was complete devastation: corpses in every conceivable posture, accompanied only by blood and gunsmoke. Stray rounds had even punched into the trees farther back, shaking loose clumps of snow from the branches.
Seeing no more moving heat signatures in her sight, everyone finally stopped firing.
Miranda let out a breath of relief. The shoulder braced against her stock throbbed dully. The recoil of the Type 20 rifle was not especially severe, but after several full bursts, that still took its toll.
Takashiro Xiangzi, however, remained grim. She was already reloading magazines with stripper clips, one after another, feeding rounds into them with practiced hands.
"Is it over...?"
"No. They'll be back."
Her breathing steady, she kept her gaze fixed ahead as she answered.
Truthfully, she almost wanted the whole pack to rush them head-on. One huge wave would be terrifying, but if they held, it would end there.
What they had now, however, looked like something worse: a drawn-out cycle of attacks.
A war of attrition.
And that would wear them down.
Aren't wolves supposed to be fearless? These things were infected, supposedly enhanced. And this is what they do—run? All those idiots online who hype wolves up can come out and take a beating.
Her electric fence, her Molotovs, all the measures she had painstakingly prepared for the wolves—none of them had even been used. And now the wolves had simply withdrawn?
"Xiangzi, the wolves are gone. What do we do now?"
Huaxiu asked. Xiangzi's instinct screamed that whatever came next would be even worse.
"Anything abnormal means trouble. Everyone stay sharp. Something more dangerous may be coming. Huaxiu, turn on the electric fence now!"
"Yes!"
During that brief gap, Huaxiu threw the switch. Light and current surged through the line at once, turning the lone building deep in the snowy mountains into a dangerous strongpoint. Xiangzi's courtyard had become a true defensive position.
The atmosphere before the next clash was suffocating. Even the most optimistic among them had a shadow hanging over their faces.
"Reload now. Make sure you're full on ammo. Bring up the other weapons too—shotguns, sniper rifles, grenades. Use them freely tonight. Whatever it takes, we hold this place!"
Everyone acknowledged her command. Brass cartridges and magazines clicked and chimed sharply together in the cold air.
As she reloaded, Xiangzi kept checking her live map.
One corner of it had been swallowed by blackness. She could see nothing there.
That strange patch sent a chill straight down her spine.
The view was gone. Completely.
No drones in weather like this—launch one and the wind would snatch it away, and then it would crash.
Which left the live map.
And now even that dependable tool seemed to be failing her?
She had used it countless times, but this was the first time she had seen something like this.
So, inwardly, she urgently called to the system.
"System! System!"
A second later, the system replied.
A blurred zone has appeared on the map? … Xiangzi, you'd better brace yourself. A powerful hostile target has shown up there. And yes—an emergency mission just popped.
"Ah—!"
The dangerous zone itself did not shock her; she had been mentally preparing for that. But the mention of a mission made her panic for a moment.
Was there more she had to do now?
She immediately opened the mission panel. The description, at least, let her breathe a little easier.
Hero of the Night:Night is often seen as the dark counterpart to day. At such an hour, the living should return to safe homes, sleep, and wait for tomorrow. But in the darkness, someone must step forward to destroy the threats that come.
Eliminate the attacking infected creatures and hold out until sunrise.
So this really was just the current crisis, turned into a mission.
At least there was no side objective.
But when Xiangzi looked at the reward, her head started to hurt again.
Normally, mission difficulty and reward scaled together. The better the reward, the higher the price one had to pay.
And this reward felt completely absurd.
Reward: One answer from the Scales of Fate.(During one special event, you will experience extraordinary good luck.)
Good luck? Fortune? A lucky-streak buff?
"Anything involving fate and luck..." Xiangzi muttered. "If the reward's like this, doesn't that mean the mission itself is ridiculously hard?"
The system answered at once.
Look on the bright side. You were going to face this crisis anyway. Now that it's become a mission, at least there's a reward attached. I'm not the one conjuring this out of thin air. Emergency missions only appear when there's already a real threat.
...That was annoyingly reasonable.
Fine. That did make it easier to accept.
She was about to say more, but a sudden sound cut across everything.
A massive gunshot.
From far off in the forest, a burst of flame flashed once.
Then came several more shots.
Not from anyone in their group.
Brent, with her trained ear, locked onto the direction immediately.
"Over there! Bolt-action rifle!"
Everyone's attention snapped toward the sound.
Somewhere beyond the thick pines, hidden behind layers of snow-laden branches, someone was firing.
There was another sound too—an animal's agonized roar.
So there really was someone else nearby.
"What do we do?" Miranda asked.
At a time like this, Xiangzi was the only one who could decide.
Their center.
The one who kept everything together.
Xiangzi's answer came without hesitation.
"We handle it as it comes. No one goes beyond the fence. It's too dangerous out there. We stay here. If that person's lucky enough to make it to our perimeter, we can let them in. But we are not going out to save them. If we throw ourselves away too, what's the point?"
No one objected.
On an ordinary day, maybe they could have gone out and rescued someone. One person, ten people, it would not have mattered.
But this was not an ordinary day.
They were barely holding their own situation together. They did not have the spare strength to save strangers.
Then Huaxiu spoke up.
"That gunfire... could it be someone connected to the girl we brought back? She said earlier she came here with family, and that her grandfather was a hunter."
"Probably. But that doesn't change anything. We're not going out. Still..." Xiangzi paused, then added, "...we can help in another way. Brent, bring your sniper rifle over there. The rest of you stay alert and keep watching the perimeter."
A grin spread across Brent's face. Cradling her rifle, she thumped her chest once and said, "Leave it to me. My sniping is first-rate."
Nearby, Miranda could not help thinking Xiangzi really was some kind of saint.
If it had been her, she would never have made the same call. If the stranger could make it here, fine. If they died on the way, then that was fate. She would not have wasted effort.
Their own pressure was already enormous. Pulling one more person off their line for someone else? Madness.
"Positions," Xiangzi said. "Hold where you are. Tonight is for all of us."
It was a simple order, but enough.
Even Doris, the youngest, tightened her grip on the Molotov in her hand. The fear in her chest was burned away by the warmth of purpose.
For her sister.
For everyone.
After that, the distant rifle spoke six times in total.
Then it fell silent.
Perhaps the shooter had already been killed.
Or perhaps, because it was a bolt-action rifle, they had simply run dry.
"Brent, can your thermal scope see anything?" Xiangzi asked.
"Yes," Brent said, peering through the optic. "But the wind's bad. I need to be careful."
"Do what you can. Don't force it."
"Understood."
Through her scope, Brent could see two heat sources tangled together.
Close combat.
That was why she had not fired yet. The human and the animal were too close, moving too erratically.
A careless shot would kill the wrong target.
Meanwhile, the rest of them continued to watch the forest's edge, magazines ready, fingers on triggers.
Then Brent finally found her window.
"Now."
The suppressed boom of the 12.7mm rifle still sounded enormous in the snow.
"Got it," Brent said. "Confirmed hit."
In her scope, the larger shape had dropped.
On the other side—
A massive round smashed into the giant beast that had been mauling the old hunter. Saitō tried to rise from the snow, using his beloved rifle like a staff to prop himself up. At last, he staggered to his feet again.
"Hah... hah... I should... thank... whoever fired that..." he panted.
At that moment, another voice sounded at his side, and a hand reached out toward him.
"Grandpa Saitō, hurry! We have to go!"
It was Chihaya Ai.
He had found her not long ago while searching for Kuriyo, and the two of them had ended up heading this way together. Then they were ambushed by several mutated giant wolves.
When Saitō first noticed them, they were already bearing down on him. There had been no time to prepare. He had managed to drop three with his rifle. Two shots had missed. One more had struck the last wolf in a vital spot—
But had not killed it.
Ai had been too close to the beast to escape in time. To protect her, Saitō had no choice but to throw down his unloaded rifle, seize his hunting knife, and fight it at close range.
That last shot had come at exactly the right moment.
He had not been bitten, but his thick down jacket had been ripped open, feathers spilling from inside.
The remaining distance they ran with everything they had left.
To survive.
To see whether Kuriyo was still alive.
Neither of them cared anymore about the pain in their bodies.
Along the way, scattered infected creatures that got too close were picked off from farther ahead.
At last, the light in front of them illuminated the path. Behind the fence, people were standing there, watching them.
Safety was close.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 142)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter181)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter103)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter192)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 173
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 166
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 110
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 190
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 165
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 156
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 81
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 102
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 120
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 80
Uma Musume: I Want All 95
I Can Copy Unique Skills 84
Summoning an Evil God, but the 66
Supernatural Multiverse 83
My Harem Is Indescribable 75
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 81
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 75
Still playing traditional Honk 55
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 60
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 55
Checking In in Demon Slayer 60
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 65
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 35
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 35
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 39
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 58
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 42
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