The neon tubes sizzled in the torrential rain of 2049. Irene Chen curled up in the corner of a shabby rented apartment, her nails unconsciously scratching the rusty tin wall. On the holographic news, the face of Lawrence Chen, CEO of New Era Biotech, filled the entire wall: "The Wolf Descendant Serum has cured 30 million patients worldwide. A new era of genetic evolution is about to arrive."
"Miss Chen, it's time to go to the hospital." The smart bracelet vibrated to remind her, displaying the last appointment for treatment. Irene adjusted her hoodie in front of the cracked mirror. Purple patterns in the shape of wolf claws faintly emerged under the skin at the back of her neck — that was a side effect of the third injection.
Passing through the 23-story vertical slum, hovering floating advertisements were above her head: "Genetic Purification Camp, giving you a brand-new life!" Irene quickened her pace. When passing by the genetic testing station, the wolf head specimen in the glass showcase suddenly let out an electronic howl, startling her so much that she knocked over the holographic fruit stall on the street.
The smell of disinfectant in the New Era Biotech Medical Center made her nauseous. "This is the last injection, and then you can return to normal." The attending physician, Anderson, pushed his gold-rimmed glasses. The fluorescent blue liquid in the syringe rippled eerily under the ultraviolet light. Irene noticed the wolf head badge on the nurse's chest, which was exactly the same as the symbol of the Lunar Tide Alliance in her mother's remaining diary.
During the injection, the surveillance camera suddenly flashed red. Anderson's hand was trembling: "Miss Chen, your father..." Before he could finish, the alarm sounded in the corridor. Irene ripped off the infusion tube and rushed towards the emergency exit. Behind her, Anderson's voice shouted: "They're going to take you to the purification camp!"
The Kowloon Walled City in the torrential rain was like a steel forest. Irene ran under the wolf head totem formed by neon lights, and suddenly, the howl of a wolf from the depths of the subway tunnel rang in her ears. She reached for her mother's tranquilizer in her pocket, only to find that the medicine bottle was empty.
Irene locked the door behind her, and her reflection in the mirror began to distort. Her nails gradually turned into black sharp claws, her pupils split into vertical lines, and the blood vessels under her skin glowed with a faint blue light. A drone spraying genetic stabilizer passed by the window, and the pungent smell made her kneel on the ground, and a non-human growl came from her throat.
"Control it!" She bit through her tongue, and the smell of blood temporarily suppressed the urge to transform. The holographic TV was broadcasting the news of the riot in the purification camp in the Arctic Circle, and the figure of Victor — the defected scientist she had met in the black market clinic — flashed in the background of the picture.
The tranquilizers in the refrigerator had long expired. The label "Anti-Wolf No. 3" reminded her of the fire in her mother's laboratory. When her finger swiped across the freezer compartment, the ice crystals instantly vaporized under her wolf claws. Irene grabbed her backpack and rushed towards the rooftop. The searchlights on the helipad pierced through the rain curtain, illuminating three armed helicopters painted with the New Era logo.
"The target is in sight!" A mechanical voice came from the loudspeaker. Irene leaped towards the ventilation duct, and her sharp claws scraped sparks on the metal surface. The tranquilizer dart fired by the helicopter grazed her ear, and she smelled the scent of silver — this legendary metal that could subdue werewolves was now attached to the bullet in the form of a nano-coating.
In the shadow of the rooftop wind turbine, Irene found the encrypted chip left by her mother. The moment she inserted it into her smart bracelet, a holographic projection of a wolf head totem emerged, surrounded by the English prompt "Key Sequence". A loud noise of the agents breaking down the door came from downstairs. Irene clenched the chip and jumped into the torrential rain.
Irene ran wildly on the rooftops of the slum. The moment the moonlight pierced through the clouds, she completely lost control. Amid the crisp sound of bones breaking and rearranging, her body expanded into a half-human, half-wolf form, and her sharp claws easily tore through the bulletproof vest.
"Fire!" The command of the captain of the Genetic Agents Team was caught by Irene's wolf ears. She rolled to the side, anticipating the trajectory of the bullets. The wolf head totem in the holographic advertisement suddenly turned into her face. This was a jamming program remotely controlled by Kevin.
"Kevin?" Irene's consciousness struggled amidst her wolfish nature. The hacker's voice came from the implanted earpiece: "Run east! I'll be waiting to pick you up on the highway."
The chase moved to the vertical highway, and the holographic advertisement projected the slogan "Wolf Descendant Serum, the Path to Evolution". Irene leaped onto the roof of the speeding maglev train, and her sharp claws sliced through the swarm of drones in the air. The sonic weapon of the agents' team created auditory hallucinations, and the lullaby hummed by her mother in her childhood intertwined with the howls of wolves.
"Mom..." This word triggered the hidden genetic lock. Irene's pupils flashed with emerald green light, and all the attack trajectories were displayed on her retina. She turned around and pounced on the helicopter. The moment her sharp claws tore open the cockpit, she saw the Lunar Tide Alliance badge on the pilot's chest.
"Don't kill me!" The pilot threw out the communicator, "Go to the Arctic Circle and find Victor!" At the moment when Irene paused on the verge of going on a rampage, she caught a glimpse of the terrified child on the balcony of the slum. The gap between humans and wolf descendants pierced her heart like a sharp blade, and she let out a roar and leaped into the night.
The stagnant water in the subway tunnel reflected the blood moon. Irene was dragged into the black market clinic by Victor while she was unconscious. Lucia's scalpel was cutting open her skin, and the purple genetic patterns hissed under the silver tools.
"Her gene chain has a double-helix nested structure." Victor projected the holographic map onto the damp wall, and the four letters "Key Sequence" flickered among the DNA strands. Lucia handed over the silver suppressor, and the runes lit up when they touched the skin: "This was forged with the bone powder of a Viking werewolf."
Irene woke up in excruciating pain and heard the argument between Lucia and Victor: "The Lunar Tide Alliance wants the living key, not a corpse!" Victor projected his sister's experimental video onto the ceiling: "They injected her with dinosaur genes!" In the picture, the girl's body was mutating into a hybrid of a lizard and a wolf.
"The Adam Project aims to create a monster that can devour all species." Lucia injected the tranquilizer into Irene's vein, "And your genes are the activation code." Irene noticed that the number on the label of the medicine bottle was exactly the same as the experimental record of Victor's sister.
Footsteps came from outside the tunnel. Suddenly, Lucia stabbed a silver needle into the back of Victor's neck: "Sorry, I have to ensure the interests of the alliance." Before losing consciousness, Victor stuffed the encrypted chip left by their mother into Irene's palm: "Go to the Arctic Circle and find my sister..."
Irene carried Victor and fled the clinic. The nano-tracker of the tranquilizer under the moonlight showed a red trajectory. At the end of the subway tunnel, the shadow of the Lunar Tide Alliance's warship was approaching.
Kevin's neural interface was connected to the entire city's data stream, and his consciousness swam in the ocean of 0s and 1s. The holographic projection of the electronic wolf suddenly appeared, and every hair was flowing code.
"Kevin Wu, a top-level wanted criminal of New Era Biotech." The electronic wolf's voice had a mechanical tremor. "Hand over the genetic data of Irene Chen." Kevin detonated the pre-set electromagnetic pulse, and the electronic wolf's program twisted and dissipated in the data stream.
Deep in the encrypted database of the New Era, Kevin discovered the three-dimensional structure diagram of the "Pan-Species Fusion Virus". The arrangement of the virus's base pairs was astonishingly similar to Irene's wolf genes, and the annotation read: "After the key sequence is activated, the virus will complete a global infection within 72 hours."
When retrieving the experimental video of Victor's sister, the surveillance footage suddenly turned towards the camera. The researcher took off the gas mask, revealing half of a wolf's face: "Tell Victor that his sister is now my pet." When Kevin intercepted the footage, he found the coordinates of the Arctic Circle Purification Camp in the background.
"Irene, your father created this virus." Kevin transmitted the data to her wristband. "And your mother's genetic research is the only antidote." The virtual reality was suddenly covered by a red alert, and Kevin's hacking tools had been implanted with a backdoor program of New Era Biotech.
Irene's consciousness was forcibly connected to a virtual courtroom, and the images of wolf descendants from around the world floated all around. The holographic projection of Lawrence Chen appeared on the judge's bench: "Irene Chen, you are sentenced to life imprisonment on suspicion of spreading the genetic virus."
"This is a false accusation!" Irene's wolf claws scratched a crack in the virtual space. Victor's image suddenly inserted: "Look at the live surveillance of the purification camp!" In the footage from the Arctic Circle, a giant centrifuge was extracting werewolf genes, and the perfect serum was flowing through the pipes.
"The perfect serum is the virus carrier." Victor showed the mutation report of his sister. "The Adam Project will create an ultimate creature that devours all species." The projection of Lawrence Chen suddenly distorted, revealing the werewolf's fangs: "You inferior beings should be purified!"
The holographic projection of the Gene Hunting Ground Launch Ceremony covered the entire city, and Irene's image was labeled as the "Ultimate Prey". The nano-collars of the global participants all lit up red at the same time, and Kevin found that his location had been pinpointed.
"Run!" Kevin transmitted the last bit of data to Irene. "Hunter X is approaching..." The virtual space suddenly collapsed, and Irene woke up in reality to find herself locked inside the energy barrier of the Gene Hunting Ground.
Living genetic specimens floated under the dome of the genetic black market, and Irene, wearing a hood, mingled among the crowd. The auctioneer held up the Moonlight Prism: "A divine artifact that can temporarily suppress the bloodthirsty instinct. The starting bid is three million credit points."
When Irene's pupils reflected the prism, the hidden genetic lock suddenly activated. Her consciousness was pulled back to her childhood, and she saw her mother injecting a certain virus into her body in the laboratory: "Irene, you have to be the hope of humanity."
On the other side, Victor disguised himself as a buyer and approached the lizard-wolf hybrid. "Sarah, I'm here to save you." He tremblingly pressed the genetic stabilizer, but his sister's scales smoked when they came into contact with the silver agent. The hybrid suddenly lunged, and the barb on its tail stabbed into Victor's shoulder.
"This isn't her!" Victor saw the truth in the intense pain. The logo of New Era Biotech was reflected in the hybrid's pupils. He detonated the hidden electromagnetic pulse, and the hybrid dissipated in the data stream, revealing his real sister in the cryogenic chamber behind her — she had already been turned into a werewolf weapon.
Irene discovered the original werewolf gene samples in the Gene Bank, and each sample bottle was labeled with the "Adam Project". When she touched the samples, the entire building suddenly shook, and the mechanical wolfhounds of Hunter X broke through the door.
When the energy barrier of the Gene Hunting Ground rose, the wolf descendants around the world received an anonymous message from Hunter X at the same time. Irene's genetic test report was displayed in a holographic projection, and the four words "Key Sequence" were like a death sentence.
"The genetic code of Irene Chen holds the death sentence for all of you." Hunter X's voice had an electronically synthesized laugh. "Kill her, or be killed by her." The countdown on the participants' nano-collars began, and the nearest group of hunters was already approaching.
Under the ice layer of the Arctic Circle Purification Camp, Victor carried his sister's body towards the centrifuge. "I'm sorry, Sarah." He injected the genetic samples of the two of them into the device. "Let's become their nightmare together." The moment the centrifuge started, the entire purification camp was enveloped in purple energy.
Irene met Lucia at the edge of the hunting ground, and the battleship of the Lunar Tide Alliance was hovering in the air. "Join us, and we can protect you." Lucia handed over a silver suppressor. "As long as you hand over the key sequence." Irene took half a step back, and her sharp claws glinted coldly in the moonlight.
The consciousness of the wolf descendants around the world was suddenly forcibly connected, and the holographic projection of Lawrence Chen appeared in front of everyone: "The winner of the hunting ground will be granted the right to restructure the human genetic chain." Before the words were even finished, a strong light from an explosion came from the Arctic Circle, and Victor's image appeared in the mushroom cloud: "My sister said that it's time for the hunters to taste the of being hunted."