The dusk clouds had already burned to their most brilliant stage.

That fiery-red afterglow should have been bright and warm, but at this moment, because its color was too vivid, it seemed to have been draped in a layer of blood, giving people an ominous feeling.

It was evening now. The busy day was nearly over, and the bustling, prosperous nightlife was about to begin. As the central point where more than a dozen streets converged, the square had also reached its peak flow of people.

On top of that, news had spread one after another that an elf and a beautiful young man had played piano near the fountain, so even more people were gathering toward the square.

Looking around, tourists of every race were coming and going everywhere.

They were completely unaware that danger was approaching, still strolling leisurely through the square.

The accident happened at exactly this moment.

The surrounding space seemed to distort and ripple for an instant.

Before the tourists gathered in the square could react, the sky abruptly darkened.

All the light disappeared at this moment, and endless darkness shrouded everything.

When everyone’s vision brightened again, beastlike roars rang out together with heart-rending screams.

“My hand! Help—aaah!”

“Oh my God! It... it’s eating him! It ate his hand!”

“What... what the hell is that thing?!”

“Aaah, run! There are monsters here—!”

All kinds of screams rose and fell. At some point, one black hollow after another, like giant cocoons, had appeared across the square.

Huge figures like monsters crawled out of the black holes. The moment they smelled the scent of living people, they immediately became excited.

And the crowds near the black holes who had not reacted in time instantly became these monsters’ first meal after their hunger.

With the first scream, the bloody slaughter also began.

The moment they saw blood gushing endlessly from severed limbs, the crowd instantly scattered in all directions, crying and screaming.

However, too many people had gathered in the square. The frightened tourists darted everywhere like headless flies, and the disorderly chaos made escape even more difficult.

Monsters were still pouring out of the black holes, and the square that had been lively and bustling just moments ago became a bloody hell on earth in the blink of an eye.

Some people tried to run out toward the streets, only to discover that the streets seemed to have been sealed by some invisible thing.

The moment they ran near the street entrances, they were blocked by a semi-transparent barrier formed from pale-blue streams of data light.

—They could not leave this place.

If someone could look down from the sky at this moment, they would discover that, with the square as the center, more than a dozen connected streets had all been cut off from the outside world by a semi-transparent barrier.

The people outside still did not know what was happening inside, while the people inside were still fleeing in panic from the pursuit of those monsters.

All of this was taken in by a man wearing a vest and shirt.

In a place no one noticed, he stood at the edge of a tall building.

From his angle, he could see the dense network of streets below, like a tangled mass of stems and leaf veins. The people inside were like tiny ants.

And at this moment, all the ants were desperately fleeing for their lives.

The last of the dusk afterglow vanished completely, and the sky darkened.

Terrified screams, agonized wails, and the excited roars of beasts formed this unusual night.

Dan quietly watched the chaos happening below.

His posture was very leisurely. On the table behind him, there was even a bottle of red wine and a half-finished steak.

A vivid rose was pinned to his chest.

If not for the bloody scenes unfolding below, then judging only by his current appearance, it would seem as though he were attending a relaxed and pleasant banquet.

Behind him, two figures stood, one on his left and one on his right.

Dan turned around. As he passed the figure on the left, he gave a light laugh and said, “Good child. You did very well.”

But Bai Yi’s face remained expressionless.

Whether it was the wails continuously ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) coming from below or Dan’s words, none of it seemed important to him. There was not the slightest emotional fluctuation in his eyes.

Fenrir was the opposite. The corners of his lips curved slightly, as if he were smiling, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

And Dan did not care about these two experimental subjects in the slightest.

No matter what little thoughts they had, as long as he was still alive, as long as the institute existed for even one more day, they would never be able to escape his control.

.........

When the sudden change occurred, Wen Yuzhi was still in the square.

By coincidence, a black hole appeared right beside him.

Out of his instinctive sense for danger, Wen—

And the ones who reacted faster than him were Izeer and those Saint Clan royal guards.

Izeer hurriedly grasped Wen Yuzhi’s hand.

“Careful!”

His low voice rang beside Wen Yuzhi’s ear.

Wen Yuzhi felt himself being pulled away. Then someone stood in front of him.

And in the next moment, that monster that had just appeared was killed by Woke and the others.

Wen Yuzhi had not done anything, yet the danger had already been quietly resolved.

He looked at the tall figure before him and only felt that this scene was very familiar.

Back then on Blackrock Star, when they had encountered stray beasts in the ruins, there had also been someone who held his hand like this and led him forward without stopping.

The temperature of that hand had also been very hot. The strength wrapping around him had been very steady, giving him a sense of peace.

The fragments in his memory overlapped with the figure before him again and again in that instant.

In that moment, Wen Yuzhi, dazed, subconsciously blurted out a name.

“...Xi Heyan?”

The figure before him could not help stiffening.

The other person did not turn back. It seemed he did not dare turn back either.

But looking at his reaction, Wen Yuzhi already had his answer.

However, he did not ask why Xi Heyan was currently using the name and identity Izeer. Right now was not a good opportunity for catching up.

They had killed one monster, but their crisis had not been completely resolved.

Monsters were still crawling out of the black holes without end. At this moment, the square was almost about to be occupied by these monsters.

Looking out, there was chaos everywhere.

And there were six Saint Clan royal guards responsible for following Wen Yuzhi today. The instant this happened, they protected little highness in the center.

Some monsters tried to approach this side.

Before they could get near, these monsters were dealt with by Woke and the others.

These Saint Clan royal guards clearly no longer intended to keep maintaining their disguises. A cold, sharp aura carrying powerful pressure poured out from them.

If one looked closely, one could even discover that faint needle-thin vertical lines had already appeared in their eyes.

—This was absolutely not the aura ordinary bodyguards should have.

Izeer—no, Xi Heyan—immediately noticed the change in these “black-clothed bodyguards.”

They felt very dangerous to him.

The degree of danger was even far more terrifying than the monsters present.

Just who were these “bodyguards” beside the young man?

No, he should say... just what was the identity of the young man behind him...?

Judging from the way the other party interacted with these “bodyguards,” their relationship did not seem to be a simple employment relationship.

And from these “bodyguards,” what Xi Heyan sensed was also an extreme, absolute protectiveness.

As if... the young man was an existence that was extremely fragile and needed to be cherished with great care.

Xi Heyan did not doubt in the slightest that if a dangerous situation appeared around Wen Yuzhi, these “bodyguards” could even use their lives to protect him.

This had clearly already exceeded the ordinary relationship between employer and bodyguard.

But just like Wen Yuzhi, Xi Heyan also did not investigate these things at this moment. Compared with everything else, the crisis before their eyes was more urgent.

The monsters before them were not unfamiliar to Wen Yuzhi and Xi Heyan.

Because these monsters were their old acquaintances, the stray beasts.

Only, compared with the stray beasts on Blackrock Star, the stray beasts appearing here were clearly like an iterated, upgraded version.

They had become even more enormous, and multiple biological traits could be seen on their bodies. It was like someone had kneaded all kinds of creatures together.

These traits that should have appeared separately on different creatures had now been gathered inside the same body, making the sight look especially ferocious and strange.

And one plus one was often greater than two. With so many biological genes fused together, these stray beasts had also gathered the powers those creatures possessed.

They could easily tear anything that blocked them to pieces.

Even worse, not only were they powerful, their skin was also extremely tough.

Some races had already reacted and begun to counterattack. However, due to Blue Luster Star’s regulations these past few days, they had no weapons in their hands right now. They could only grab random objects or simply use their own bodies as weapons.

For example, the vendor from whom Wen Yuzhi and the others had bought ice cream earlier had a body shaped like an octopus, with eight long tentacles.

Because of that, no matter how many people lined up, he could still handle it. After all, he could make eight ice creams at the same time in one go.

And now, those tentacles became his weapons.

He looked at the ice cream cart knocked over by the stray beast, and thick blood-red color appeared in the depths of his eyes.

“My cart—! Do you know I bought this cart on a loan?! I’m going to kill you bastards!”

After saying this, he stretched out eight tentacles and wrapped them around one of the stray beasts, almost desperately taking on a posture as if he were ready to perish together with it.

But even after using all his strength, he only created a tiny, insignificant wound on the stray beast’s body.

The situation at the scene was almost completely one-sided.

Logically speaking, the number of people still alive in the square was far greater than the number of monsters, but due to the chaos and fear, there were not many who truly dared to resist.

And among these people, there were even fewer who could cause damage to the monsters.

Seeing this, some people had already begun praying that the Alliance would notice the situation here and quickly send an army to support them.

However, what they did not know was that the space they were in had long since been isolated from the outside world.

The people inside could not get out, and the people outside could not get in.

The enormous square had suddenly become these stray beasts’ hunting ground, and inside it, they could slaughter to their hearts’ content.