Chapter 3: Alarming Change
When Lanny turned around, Alan was already standing at the bedroom door. The five-year-old boy was surprisingly calm. "Mom, what's a predator?" Ellen asked softly.
"Demon." Lanny said simply and added, "Sad devil."
It was many years before Allen understood the meaning of this sentence. But now, Lanny has no time to let him experience this: "Alan, we have to get out of here. Bring your dagger and don't pack the rest!"
The mother and son had just run out of the door with their simple luggage. A flash of fire came from the town entrance, and then the explosion occurred in a bungalow not far from them. Flames sprayed out from the windows and doors of the bungalow. He lifted the roof of the house and soared ten meters into the sky!
Along with the burst of flames, a powerful shockwave spread out and threw Lanny and her son back into the room. The two of them fell into a ball. After a few seconds, Lanny recovered from her dizziness. She shook Alan, and the boy struggled to get up to show that he was fine. Lanny turned around to leave the room, only to see a few figures emerge from the flames a few meters away.
Those were a few men, but they weren't the men of the town. They were smeared with paint or tattoos and armed with chainsaws or submachine guns, killing several nearby residents. One of the men looked towards the room, his gaze intersecting with Lanny's in midair.
Lanny gritted her teeth and rushed forward to close the door. Then he dragged a table behind the door and ran back, opening a patched blanket in the corner of the room, beneath which was a cellar. Usually used to hide some food, Lanny opened the cellar and waved for Alan to come over.
Alan seemed to know what was going to happen. His body trembled slightly, but he didn't say a word. He walked over, and Lanny kissed his forehead and said, "Hide here, Ellen. You must live! And that dagger killed your father. His name is Archimedes. Without him, there would be no cursed fate for us today!"
Alan's body trembled. He instinctively remembered a name: Archimedes. He was in the cellar. The space wasn't completely dark. From above, there was a faint light and some noise.
The sound of the door being knocked heavily.
Then there was a loud noise, as if a heavy object had fallen to the ground. Then, Lanny's shout and the sound of a pistol sounded at the same time. Alan sat down in silence. Suddenly, an intense explosion sounded above his head. Scorching flames swept across the cellar. The blazing fire shone on the boy's face through the weak wooden door.
It was the sound of a grenade exploding.
That night, screams, roars, and explosions sounded non-stop. In the small cellar, Alan remained motionless like a statue. He didn't cry, just like the night he was born. However, misty water vapor rose from his bright red eyes.
At the same time, a corner of that young soul became hard and cold.
No matter how long the night was, there was still time to pass. When Alan came out of the house, he saw a large burnt area. Originally, the streets were covered with silver-white snowflakes yesterday, but now they were bare and pitch-black. On the charred ground, there were scattered shattered corpses. Amongst them, Alan saw a broken finger with a silver ring smoked black by fire.
An indescribable sadness surged into his chest. The boy took a deep breath and didn't let himself cry.
That's Lanny's ring.
On the streets of the small town, corpses could be seen everywhere in the collapsed houses. Among these corpses, many were residents of the town, mostly men, and some were women and children. Not far away, Alan saw Moss, the fatty who was a year older than Alan, next door. Not long ago, Alan had fought with him, but now, poor little Moss only had one half of his body left, and the other half of his corpse had disappeared without a trace.
Alan raised his head, looking a little confused. There were no living people in the town. Whether it was the survivors or the so-called predators, they had already left before dawn. The world was so big that it seemed boundless; At the same time, it was too small to accommodate a boy.
For a moment, Alan didn't know where to go.
Alan walked blankly down the street, and a gentle breeze blew from behind him at some unknown time. There was a fishy smell in the breeze. Just as he turned around, he saw a black shadow pouncing over from the house behind him. There was a rumble in his mind, and then he could not hear anything. The world became silent. His pupils dilated slightly, allowing him to clearly see that this black shadow was actually a wolf.
A wolf the size of a calf.
Its large, powerful mouth was enough to bite off a few centimetres thick iron bars. Naturally, it could easily bite off Allen's neck.
This is the snow wolf, a level 1 dangerous species that only moves and hunts in winter. Normally, experienced hunters could deal with such dangerous species, but Allen was only a five-year-old child!
In the eyes of the Snow Wolf, this was a food that could be easily captured. Although the human child's meat was not large, it tasted very delicious. The snow wolf could not wait to drink the warm blood from its tender neck. However, when it saw the silver-gray patterns around the boy's eyes that were like red gemstones, the Snow Wolf actually felt fear!
It was like bumping into a natural enemy, not a delicious human child.
Everything that followed happened in the blink of an eye.
The snow wolf didn't bite the boy's neck. The moment the wolf pounced down, Alan instinctively rolled forward and rolled under the wolf's stomach. The dagger in his hand naturally stabbed upwards. The boy didn't even make any other movements. He only relied on the sharpness of the dagger itself and the inertia of the snow wolf's pounce to open a long wound on the wolf's abdomen.
The boy was drenched in wolf blood, intestines and organs. By the time Alan got out of the wolf corpse, the boy had turned into a bloody man. However, before he could recover from the excitement from the aftermath of the calamity, countless green specks floated on the corners of the street, on the houses, or somewhere else.
Dangerous creatures like snow wolves usually acted together. There were a total of 23 of them, surrounding Alan in the middle.
Alan's attention was completely attracted to the Snow Wolf. He did not notice the devil's praise in his hand, and the wolf blood on the blade had completely disappeared.
There were only a few dark red traces of blood left on the blade. That was the blood of a dead person.
The wolves weren't in a hurry to attack, and Alan looked at one of them. It was the smallest snow wolf, but its entire body was covered in silver light. There was a light on its body that no one else of its kind had.
A blurry silver light. Lonely cold, murderous, like a gust of wind blowing towards the end of autumn.
The silver wolf walked out of the crowd and circled around Alan. He was still sniffing around Alan with his slightly wet nose, and the boy remained stiff throughout the whole process. Even though it was only a few seconds, Alan felt as if a century had passed.
The silver wolf retreated a little, and opened its mouth to spit out human language, "Are you afraid of me?"
Alan was astonished beyond words.
The silver wolf smiled humanely. "Although our bodies are different, we can still simulate your human voices with the vibration of certain muscles. Why, have you never seen such a thing before?"
The boy shook his head honestly.
A trace of astonishment flashed through the silver wolf's clear blue pupils, and then he said, "You don't smell bad. I like you. Your kind is dead. How about you come with me? Or become our lunch?"
"If I leave with you, will you kill me?"
"Of course not. On the contrary, I will teach you how to hunt. However, if you want food, you have to rely on yourself, just like my fellow countrymen."
"Then I'll go with you." Alan did not hesitate. He did not forget his mother's final request. No matter what, he had to survive even with the Snow Wolf.
Only by surviving would Lanny's last wish come true!
So on this day, a small youth and a silver snow wolf left the small town that had just experienced a massacre.
"By the way, my name is Bai Fang." On the way, the Silver Wolf said.
"My name is Alan."
The boy hesitated for a moment and asked, "Why did you let me go?"
"Because you're afraid of me, and because I'm lonely …"
The world does not stop because of who, the gear of time always rolls forward at its own pace. Five years of cold winter, a flick of the finger.
Dawn calendar year 433, Xia.
A group of soldiers shuttled through the mountains and forests. They were a hunting squad that was specially commissioned to hunt rare dangerous species for profit. There were only three people in the hunting team. They were all Origin Energy practitioners, especially their Guild Leader Andy, who was a Level 9 Origin Energy practitioner! As for the soldiers, they were actually hired from nearby Gaule City. The reason was because the mercenary was familiar with the surroundings.
At this time, the mercenary captain Gu Te said: "Boss, we are not far from the wolf nest."
Guild Leader Andy looked at him and said, "Guild Leader, are you sure those damned snow wolves are nearby?"
"Last month, when we were commissioned by Gaule City to conduct a routine biological survey of the mountains and forests in this area, we did discover the Snow Wolf's nest. If those fellows hadn't moved away, they wouldn't be wrong." "Summer is a long-hated season for snow wolves. During this season, they usually hide in cool caves for an entire summer, so the chances of relocating are low," Gutt stressed.
"Very good." Andy jumped up with a greedy look in his eyes. "I heard that there is a Silver Snow Wolf in this Snow Wolf. The fur of the Silver Snow Wolf is hard to find! It seems like it's hard not to get rich this time."
At the same time as the hunting group appeared, a horned deer was lingering in the bushes on the other side of the forest. It had horns that were as complex as a crown. This was the weapon it used to protect itself. It was arching the grass with its horns, a means of testing whether there was any danger lurking in the grass. After confirming that there was no danger, it gnawed on the green grass. It could decompose water and fibre from the grass to sustain its life.
Suddenly, the horned deer raised its head, and then its powerful hind legs pressed down on the ground, immediately sweeping into a beautiful arc. The horned deer had sensed danger. This was a near-intuitive perception that had saved it many times so far. However, this time was an exception. A silver light suddenly flashed from under the tree not far away. The horned deer's body suddenly trembled in midair and fell to the ground with a wailing cry.
A sharp dagger disappeared and nailed into its neck. The horned deer's eyes were filled with fear. It could feel that something in its body was being sucked away. It still hadn't died yet, and its limbs were kicking wildly, but it was powerless to get up. It could only watch in despair as the predator emerged from the shade of the tree.