CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 58: THE MUTATION ARRIVES

"Moreover, haven’t you noticed? Whether it’s the federal higher-ups or these soldiers, they have all tacitly accepted this ’choice’..." Sun Hang continued, "aside from setting up a blockade, they haven’t done anything else."

"What about Yang Qi?"

Sun Hang was silent for a moment, then said, "I can’t save her."

...

...

Time ticked by, and fewer and fewer people paced inside the base. Everyone had returned to their respective posts, waiting quietly for that moment to arrive.

Sun Hang heard it clearly, when the clock ticked from 14:59 to 15:00, the colonel standing next to him swallowed hard.

"Fifteen minutes left." Yang Lian clenched the tablet in her hands, her knuckles slightly white.

...

May 19, 15:14.

The last minute.

The enormous air force base fell silent; the thumping of hearts had never been so loud.

In the last ten seconds, everyone held their breath.

Five seconds.

Three seconds.

One second.

A cold breeze blew by, lifting a piece of discarded paper from the ground, spinning it twice in the air before it finally landed at the step where Sun Hang had been sitting to eat.

Nothing happened.

"What’s going on?" The colonel was the first to break the silence, turning to look at Sun Hang as he said in a deep voice, "I need an explanation."

Just then, Sun Hang’s phone rang, showing a call from an unknown number.

Sun Hang pressed the answer button, and Ye Xuan’s voice came through the receiver, "The anomaly didn’t happen, why?"

"Time can’t be wrong." Sun Hang said to those around him, "I did indeed see the time displayed on the Financial Center Building as 3:15 PM on May 19... so the only error must be the perspective."

"Perspective?" Clearly, the colonel didn’t understand what Sun Hang meant.

"This 3:15 PM on May 19 is the time point for those people," Sun Hang glanced at the temporary campsite on the playground in the distance, "And from our perspective, the time point in the real world should be ten hours later, at 1:15 AM on May 20."

The colonel stared at Sun Hang for a long moment before slowly saying, "I’ll give you one last chance, if nothing unusual happens in ten hours, you won’t escape responsibility... The recordings of your conversations with the hijacker in the command room have all been preserved."

"From what you just said, it sounds like you hope the anomaly happens?" Sun Hang glanced at him and asked.

The colonel was immediately choked by this, taking three deep breaths before saying in a deep voice, "Of course I don’t want the anomaly to happen, but I can’t tolerate someone using illegal means to disrupt the order of the military and society."

"Then just keep waiting." Sun Hang simply took out his phone to play the game he just downloaded.

An entire afternoon quickly passed in waiting, and night slowly fell.

The massive floodlights came on again, the harsh white light enveloping every corner of the base, casting people’s skin in a ghastly pallor like a zombie.

Many people’s eyes were bloodshot—during these three days, almost no one had a good night’s sleep, especially the 188 people in the barracks, all faces lined with exhaustion, dark circles under their eyes and greasy, clumped hair become standard.

The temporary barracks had restrooms but no showers—initially, some protested against this, but as time passed, people stopped caring about such trivial matters.

They were more concerned about what they would face when "that moment" arrived.

Sun Hang smoothed his hair, and in just ten minutes in the night breeze, it had almost completely dried.

He glanced at Yang Lian, whose face was shiny with grease, and asked, "Not going to take a shower? You might not get a chance later."

"Not in the mood." Yang Lian said, her head down, scribbling on the tablet with a mix of different mathematical formulas filling pages; who knows what she was calculating.

"Did you study math or physics in university?" Sun Hang leaned over, taking a peek at the ’esoteric’ text on the screen.

"Mysterious Creature Studies." Yang Lian answered without looking up.

This was a niche but extremely important major, niche for two reasons: one, the entry score was extremely high, well above all conventional majors; two, few parents agreed to their children choosing this major.

Because being admitted meant dealing with extremely dangerous creatures for the rest of your life, few parents could accept their children working in this field, for one simple reason—the mortality rate was too high.

"I just wanted to follow in my sister’s footsteps." Yang Lian continued, "But I made a serious mistake during the final interview, wasn’t selected by the Mysterious Creature Research Institute, and had to settle for the Anomaly Investigation Bureau."

"Didn’t expect you to be a sister-complex."

"It’s 11:57." Yang Lian noted, "Just three minutes until May 20."

"No rush, there’s still more than an hour." Sun Hang said.

"You’re not planning to save her, are you?" Yang Lian suddenly asked.

Sun Hang didn’t reply, pulling out his phone to play.

"I’ll find a way myself," Yang Lian said again.

"I suggest you don’t do anything foolish."

"I’ll take responsibility for my actions."

"Your sister surely wouldn’t want you jeopardizing yourself for her." Sun Hang added, "Think about your parents... You don’t have any other siblings, right?"

"... I suddenly find you really... annoying."

...

May 20, early morning, 1:12.

"Three minutes," the colonel, now dressed in urban camouflage fatigues, held a lit cigarette.

At his feet, cigarette butts scattered—the man, nearing fifty, hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, relying on nicotine to keep going.

Sun Hang started the timer on his phone, simulating the ’tick-tock’ of a mechanical clock, each sound beating like a drum on everyone’s hearts.

Three minutes, one hundred and eighty seconds.

The colonel held the cigarette but didn’t take a drag, letting the ash dangle.

When the timer hit zero, a piercing scream from the temporary barracks shattered the still night.

The colonel flinched, the cigarette flew from his hand as he shouted, "Quick! Find out what’s happening in the temporary barracks!"

But before the soldiers could act, a man burst through the tent flaps, a look of terror in his eyes, screaming "Save me" as he sprinted toward the blockade.

But within seconds, his body began to turn transparent... as he reached the last few meters from the blockade, he completely vanished from view, as if he had never existed.

The soldiers behind the blockade were stunned until the second, third person rushed out, snapping to action by raising their weapons, ordering them back to the barracks.

"The anomaly actually happened..." the colonel muttered.

"Switch to the No. 4 drone’s surveillance feed," Sun Hang instructed the tech officer at the computer.

The No. 4 drone was deployed specifically by Sun Hang to monitor Tent 19.

Tent 19 housed the family of Ding Yuanjiang, a committee member of the Celestial City Management Committee. Besides him and his wife were their two feverish children and two adamant elders.

The elders weren’t missing persons; they weren’t marked by any mysterious creature and their perception of time aligned with reality.

Yet now, on the surveillance footage, the elders clutching desperately to the children were turning transparent.

"The anomaly can ’infect’." Sun Hang stated evenly, watching the footage, "Just as expected."

If not for his and Ye Xuan’s insistence on gathering all the missing together, far more than 188 people would be affected.

Just as Sun Hang was about to see what the military’s next move would be, his phone buzzed madly.

"Hello?"

"Sun Hang, it’s bad!" The call was from Song Yarong from the institute, earlier tasked with monitoring the southern cemetery, "The southern cemetery recorded extensive creature activity! Plus, many are creatures already documented as eradicated! Somehow, they’ve mysteriously revived!"

"It’s not a revival... these creatures are from sixty-five years ago when they hadn’t been destroyed yet."

"There’s worse news!" Song Yarong’s breathless voice continued.

"Go on."

"The Federal Anomaly Investigation Bureau reported the reappearance of the phenomenon-class creature ’Beta-3: Eternal Night’ missing for 130 years..." Song Yarong’s voice held a tremble, "Its area of effect is... the entire Shuzhou Region."