"Stop fantasizing already!
This is just an ordinary technological parallel world... ordinary my ass!
Damn it, which decent person transmigrates without a Golden Finger!"
Brian gave himself two slaps, and only with the pain was he able to suppress the various wild thoughts in his heart again.
He made himself a simple sandwich.
Filled his stomach.
Brian carried the brewed traditional medicine out to the balcony.
It was probably around six in the evening.
In Los Angeles during September, the sky had not yet completely darkened at this time.
The street lights in the complex were already on.
From the public facilities area, one could see some families playing with their children in the community.
On the streets, there were office workers with faces full of fatigue just getting off work, yet they maintained smiles, warmly greeting some of the passing residents.
Everyone here seemed polite, dressed neatly, their smiles standardized, as if they were all wearing masks of the same style, yet with an unnaturalness to them, like ordinary people without any profound background, trying clumsily to imitate the lifestyle of the upper class.
The reason was simple.
The residents here, even if they weren't tenants like Brian, were not very wealthy.
The truly wealthy people wouldn't live here.
...
Brian shifted his gaze back to the sky.
At this moment, the sky was at the dim and hazy intersection of dusk and night, the afterglow of the sunset not completely gone, the bright moon yet to rise, which made it appear slightly gloomy.
It was a very strange feeling.
This gloominess wasn't that of the sky darkening, but rather as if the sky was shrouded with a layer of unknown fine dust, causing the light to be sparse and unable to penetrate well down to the ground, creating a hazy gloom.
Looking at it for too long would even make one feel uncomfortable.
Brian looked at the sky for a few seconds, and then redirected his gaze.
He frowned, downed the traditional medicine in his hand, until the hot soup seethed in his stomach and the heat dissipated through his pores, expelled with some hot sweat. Only then did he let out a satisfied breath of warm air, turned around, and returned to the living room.
He sat down in front of the computer.
Brian opened the control software for the hidden surveillance in the living room, rewound the progress bar, and dragged it to the moment Uncle Billy burst into the apartment, starting to analyze frame by frame.
The scene before him reemerged.
Uncle Billy, before entering the room, walked straight towards him, showing no surprise at him being home.
This meant that the other party had been keeping track of his movements.
This was also something that Brian had been puzzled about.
Because from the time he resigned and was nearly buried alive, it was clear that there were extra eyes for the Kamor family within the Forensic Bureau.
Even if he hadn't joined the so-called 'crime experiment group,' Uncle Billy had the capacity to plant someone else to join.
They didn't lack him at all!
The previous excuse given to him to verify the password didn't make any logical sense!
The key lay in the time before Brian attempted to resign.
Uncle Billy had always been very friendly towards Brian, valuing and caring for him a lot.
But after that incident, Uncle Billy's attitude subtly started to change.
For example, after Brian's foster parents became seriously ill and he sought help from the family, he was directly rejected by Uncle Billy, and only received help from a cousin, who wasn't on bad terms with him, lending him some money to tide over the crisis.
Probably at that time.
Uncle Billy had thought of using money to add a layer of shackles to Brian, to prevent him from running away on his own.
The response to the live burial was also too strange.
His attitude towards the family was always crystal clear, and he could have spoken directly about any issues. Instead, to threaten him with burial was not normal at all, as though it was done on purpose.
So, what exactly was Uncle Billy's goal?
...
As the surveillance footage continued, it quickly reached the moment Uncle Billy was preparing to leave.
Brian set the playback speed to the lowest and perked up.
He saw in the footage.
Uncle Billy stood up, about to leave, but seemed to think of something, looked back unintentionally, and suggested that Brian watch the Blood Moon anomaly that evening, an event that occurred once every thirty years.
Brian watched it once and didn't find anything amiss.
The footage continued to advance.
When Brian casually brought up the part-time job and gave a perfunctory reply.
In the video, there was an obvious change in Uncle Billy.
Brian held his breath and stared intently at the transformation happening to Uncle Billy's body: It seemed that Uncle Billy was triggered by his words, his already bear-like muscular physique suddenly inflated a bit more, and then, the moment the other turned his head, it reverted back to normal!
"What the hell?"
If not for the clear capture by the surveillance, Brian almost thought he was hallucinating again.
He instinctively thought of his uncle's inhuman eyes.
This wasn't an illusion!
This was no illusion!
Based on his understanding of the human body, Brian was absolutely certain, that was not a change a normal human could undergo!
He felt like his worldview was becoming chaotic.
Werewolf?
Or some other kind of monster?
The over ten pounds of explosives he had prepared.
Could they really handle an uncle like this?
Moreover, it seemed that the purpose of Uncle Billy's visit wasn't the so-called three-year agreement and secret, but... to have him moon-gaze??
Could it be that he was about to awaken some werewolf bloodline?
...
"My head is so bloated!"
Brian scratched his head, feeling a little itchy.
Lacking critical information, he couldn't think of anything.
After washing his face and regaining his composure, Brian began his analysis:
According to Uncle Billy.
He had him enter the Forensic Bureau to join the 'Crime Experiment Group' to validate the secret that might once again elevate the Kamor family.
But analyzing the surveillance frame by frame.
This abnormal uncle, who didn't seem like a regular human, appeared to care more about today's Blood Moon phenomenon.
To be precise.
He was more concerned with whether he could gaze at the moon on time.
For this, he had specifically come over, using the three-year promise as a pretext to remind and threaten him.
...
Brian felt his speculation was far-fetched.
But after ruling out all the impossibilities.
There was only one truth!
That was, in Uncle Billy's subconscious, him gazing at the moon = that so-called secret = the correct path to make the Kamor family great again.
If this was the truth.
A new question emerged in Brian's mind: What secret did this once-in-thirty-years Blood Moon phenomenon hold?
Could it really be related to werewolves or something?
Brian decided not to go to his part-time job today.
He was going to moon-gaze!
...
At eleven o'clock at night.
Brian yawned and sat on the balcony, his eyes drowsily looking at the dim sky above where only a few little stars twinkled amid the light pollution, a silver moon floated in the air, without a hint of blood-red color.
It was almost midnight.
He was starting to doubt whether the so-called Blood Moon phenomenon would appear tonight.
Earlier, he had searched online for this Blood Moon phenomenon, which was completely different from that of his previous life, but hadn't found anything unusual. Instead, there were many cults that used the Blood Moon as a way to preach doomsday theories and had caused many notorious bloodbaths.
As he was lost in thought.
The noise and exclamations of neighbors came from afar: "The moon's turning red! Oh God, it's amazing!"
A faint blood-red hue rapidly enveloped the original silvery-grey, filling the surroundings with an ominous and oppressive atmosphere, as if Satan had arrived, or as if it were a spectacle from Hell, spreading across the heavens, casting down teeming tendrils like iron chains...
Almost simultaneously.
Brian stiffened as his body was covered by the bloody moonlight.
He seemed to lose consciousness, his expression vacant as he raised his head and stared motionlessly at the sky above, as if to imprint that eerie blood-red moon deep into his eyes...
The Blood Moon had truly arrived!