The wildlife reserve was different at night.
No one would drive in the reserve after dark—
Unless that person was completely inexperienced at driving but fully followed someone else's commands.
When Chu Tingwu told Lian where to drive, she would drive there; when Chu Tingwu told her to stop, she would stop unconditionally.
The sky was filled with stars, and various animal sounds could be heard in the distance... On this night, some creatures were still hunting, some were sleeping peacefully, some were silently stepping into death in the darkness, and some humans had intruded into territory that belonged to animals.
The Red Rock Reserve was vast, and although hunting was prohibited, it was impossible to fence off the entire protected area.
It stretched across the state, and beyond the reserve's boundaries lay hunting zones.
In America, hunting wild beasts was permitted, and hunters could aim their guns at coyotes that wandered into town at any time.
But since patrol and surveillance in the reserve had become stricter, few hunters would venture into the protected area to hunt anymore. When the cost exceeded the benefit, people would think twice.
However, sometimes the potential profit outweighed the risk, making it worth the gamble for some.
Chu Tingwu told Lian to stop the car.
She leaped from the vehicle in a way that violated proper protocol, walking in complete darkness without any protection.
That sound seemed to be getting closer.
Chu Tingwu recognized it as the sound of a high-clearance vehicle.
But it wasn't just the engine noise that had awakened her.
She had a premonition and opened her personal interface, clicking on the experience bar of the [Intuition] skill. Intuition was still at level 1, but not long ago, its experience had increased slightly.
Lian turned off the car lights.
Chu Tingwu climbed onto the car roof, and the two maintained their tacit understanding without communicating.
Chu Tingwu asked, "Is it poaching?"
The system didn't know either.
The system was powerful, but at this moment it was also melancholic—in places beyond electronic signal coverage, what it could do seemed no more than what a "beast" could, and what Chu Tingwu sensed through her beast-like instincts, the system, as an electronic program, couldn't fully comprehend.
The young one's growth had gradually exceeded the range it could control, and the system felt helpless about being unable to assist its ward.
—Just like when parents discover they can no longer help their children with math problems.
Chu Tingwu had the system launch a drone and blocked the drone's position signal from being sent to the reserve's control center.
Unlike every time before, as if freed from restraints, the drone flew higher and higher, and the system didn't send the monitored video to Chu Tingwu's phone but displayed the video content directly on the virtual interface.
Under the starlight, the drone silently hovered in the air, capturing the scene below.
Headlights pierced through the darkness.
An off-road vehicle that theoretically shouldn't be in the reserve was bumping along toward the distance.
Since Lian's car had been turned off and its lights were out, this off-road vehicle almost "brushed past" them, driving along the river on the opposite bank.
Lian pressed her face close to the window, silently watching.
Then, she saw the wolves.
Before actually seeing the wolves, perhaps because she had studied these wolves and spent so much time with them, she first "hallucinated" the sound of the wolf pack running.
Theoretically, these sounds shouldn't have reached her ears because the distance was too great, but she truly heard them in advance.
Some time after the vehicle had passed, Lian finally saw the eyes of the wolf pack in the darkness.
It was Michelle's pack.
In the darkness, the wolves' silhouettes occasionally appeared in the flickering light reflected off the river.
The pack ran hurriedly past. One wolf accidentally fell into the shallow water, struggling to splash its way back to shore. Its kin came over to lick its wet fur, then gave a soft howl, urging it to keep up.
If that wolf couldn't keep up, its kin would nudge it a couple of times, signaling it to return, then continue running forward at the alpha's call.
When the alpha's voice rang out, Lian felt an electric sensation course through her body—
She recognized it was Michelle.
It could only be Michelle!
Her hand unconsciously moved to the steering wheel. She didn't know why Michelle's pack was running at night, but it must have something to do with that strange off-road vehicle.
At this moment, Chu Tingwu flipped back into the passenger seat and signaled to Lian: "Drive, without the lights."
Lian: "..."
She silently turned the steering wheel.
Driving at night along a wild riverbank without headlights, with a running wolf pack nearby... any one of these things seemed like a death wish, but Lian did as told.
—After many years, she felt the same sensation as when she had found a strange, unique book in the library.
That book was thick and had no electronic version, so she had to finish reading it in the library.
She memorized the entire book in one afternoon, and its contents still gleamed in her heart to this day.
Now Chu Tingwu was that book, and Lian had turned to a new page on this night... a page that made her heart tremble.
The path ahead was dark, wolves ran on the opposite riverbank, and beside her sat someone quietly gazing into the darkness, occasionally reminding Lian to adjust course to avoid shallow pits and animals—and Lian, hands gripping the steering wheel, unconsciously smiled.
She said: "This car has a positioning system."
Chu Tingwu glanced at her.
The young girl smiled softly: "When we drove out, the positioning was already blocked, and any location queries would be redirected to another car at the facility."
So, as long as they returned to camp before dawn, no one would know this car had ever been taken out.
Lian: "Then I should also tell you some good news—there's a tranquilizer gun behind the second row of seats."
Chu Tingwu: "Let's hope we won't need it."
Although they had set out later, they were gradually catching up to the wolf pack, seeing the wolves running at the front.
-
Grantham stared ahead.
He hadn't used his high beams at first, but now he had no choice.
The wolf pack...
He hadn't expected the wolf pack to discover them so quickly and pursue them so decisively!
After all, what the client wanted wasn't the white wolf behind them! The client had requested Michelle's great-granddaughter, a sub-adult white wolf that had already started participating in the pack's hunts!
Entering the reserve to steal wolves was indeed difficult, and the client wanted it alive—but the payment was simply too generous.
So Grantham gathered his companions, and four people entered the reserve posing as tourists.
He estimated this job would take four days to complete, so he made a comprehensive plan, including how to lure the target with prey, how to tranquilize the target, how to escape the reserve, find their contact, and transport the target out by sea.
He first anonymously hired two groups of tourists to deliberately enter the core area during their visit, bringing equipment in batches, then sabotage the surveillance cameras. Using a pre-purchased ranger patrol route map, they avoided the rangers and camped in the reserve for a day.
After confirming they hadn't been discovered, Grantham retrieved the equipment and began the "hunt."
Everything went smoothly. After identifying the target's movement patterns, Grantham didn't personally kill an animal to lure them but instead remotely shot a red deer from a distance near the wolf pack.
The deer's scent quickly attracted one of Michelle's pack wolves, which then returned to call its packmates to feast.
The target appeared quickly.
This young white wolf was apparently called "Dawn" or "Morning Star" or "Star" or some other numerical designation—Grantham didn't care, as long as he knew it was worth sixty thousand pounds.
The young white wolf eagerly charged down the slope, howling "awoo" to call its packmates to follow.
The sunset turned its fur golden, as shadows of night appeared on the horizon.
"Bang—"
The silenced hunting rifle killed the black wolf beside the white one with a single shot.
That seemed to be its brother.
The white wolf appeared completely shocked.
The wolves in the reserve had never heard gunshots, so Grantham believed they weren't truly "wild beasts." If the world was a giant hunting ground, humans were the apex predators.
The wolf pack had to learn to survive under human threats; living in the reserve, they were merely existing in a larger cage.
He silently loaded his gun, this time aiming at another wolf.
Though the wolves didn't understand what guns were, they instinctively chose to retreat and lie low when they sensed the attack.
The white wolf lay down, nudging its bleeding brother with its nose. Though the wounded wolf's breathing was growing faint, it wasn't truly dead yet.
Another wolf seemed ready to flee, and it found itself in Grantham's crosshairs.
Wolves are highly perceptive creatures.
Grantham believed this might be his only chance to earn that six hundred thousand.
If he failed once, the Michelle pack might retreat deep into the canyon, far from the plains accessible by vehicle.
So, he had to ensure absolute success.
The tranquilizer gun's range wasn't sufficient, and unfamiliar vehicles approaching would certainly alert the pack.
He needed to teach these wolves with bullets that running would result in attack - they needed to learn to stay hidden.
A howl echoed from the distance.
Grantham: "Drive! Quickly!"
His companion immediately drove closer, while Grantham's heart pounded. Night had fallen completely, and what happened next would depend on the pack's reaction speed and whether "Dawn" would follow his script.
This adolescent white wolf was far too inexperienced.
She didn't run.
Even after catching the scent of approaching vehicles and feeling the ground's vibrations, she didn't flee. She continued licking her brother's wounds as blood kept flowing.
When the tranquilizer dart entered her body, two wolf bodies lay on the ground.
The other companions jumped out of the vehicle and began loading Dawn as quickly as possible.
Grantham smiled, "You hunt deer and cattle anyway, consuming several kilograms of meat daily. With the deer carcass right there, how is this any different from dying during a hunt?"
He felt absolutely no guilt - animals living in reserves were merely livestock.
At that moment, the black wolf they thought dead suddenly opened its jaws and viciously bit one companion's ankle. The man let out a brief cry of pain before suppressing it.
Just as Grantham was about to signal for silence, another companion instinctively shot at the black wolf.
Grantham: "You—"
Idiot!
His personal handgun didn't have a silencer!
Compared to the other gunshots, this one stood out starkly in the darkness.
Still, it was just one shot - it shouldn't lead to immediate discovery, and they'd already completed half their mission.
After that shot rang out, wolf howls erupted the next second.
Not only was the Michelle pack howling in rage, but howls seemed to come from other directions as well.
Grantham suddenly felt an electric sensation course through him, feeling as though they were being hunted by wolves... but that was impossible - they had the guns!
He urged his companions to get in the vehicle immediately, kicked away the grey wolf's body, then drove off with their sixty thousand pounds, following their planned route.
He turned on the headlights, despite making them more conspicuous. Though night wasn't ideal for driving, they couldn't risk delays - and he had planned a suitable route in advance.
His injured companion tended to his wound while another handled the driving, eyes steady on the road ahead.
They weren't driving particularly fast, partly due to nighttime driving hazards, and partly because they hadn't realized... what the wolf pack would do.
The humans thought they'd left the howling wolves behind.
But the wolf pack was truly beginning to act.
Michelle had summoned all relatives; this massive family surrounded the bodies of their two young members. Their calls were filled with grief, with some wolves standing still, continuously licking the faces of the deceased.
Michelle gazed into the distance and released a long howl.
The male and female alpha wolves joined in howling, and the pack's calls intertwined. They seemed to reach a decision very quickly—
Under Michelle's leadership, part of the pack stayed behind to care for the cubs and juveniles, while all adult wolves followed the alpha's footsteps.
They began pursuing the poachers, following the traces humans had left behind.
The wolves moved slightly faster than the poaching team, who dared not drive at high speed.
As stars filled the night sky, Grantham's companion finally noticed the wolves following behind.
They gradually approached a riverside - according to their intelligence, there was a ranger camp less than five kilometers away.
"Damn it..."
Grantham looked at the wolf pack behind them and finally made a decision: "Speed up, speed up!"
There were too many wolves - he needed to split up the pack first!
-
Chu Tingwu noticed that Michelle's pace had slowed.
She was old now, no longer young and strong as before. She gradually fell to the middle position, with the two alpha wolves at the front.
As adult members of the pack, they were all in the formation.
With her powerful night vision, Chu Tingwu saw other wolves instinctively glance back, but the alphas didn't turn around, continuing their forward sprint.
The rivers converged ahead, gradually becoming a small stretch of marsh. Chu Tingwu signaled Lian to turn.
Their vehicle followed behind, approaching the wolf pack.
Two wolves seemed to react instinctively, lunging at the car in anger.
But Chu Tingwu called out.
Not only was Lian skilled at mimicking wolf howls, but after hearing them so often, she could also imitate them quite well.
The lunging wolves hesitated, bumped against the car, then gradually fell back.
Lian gripped the steering wheel tightly as they practically ran alongside the wolves. At this speed, if a wolf suddenly appeared in front of the car, she definitely wouldn't be able to stop in time.
She never imagined before entering school that she'd one day be in a situation where she might hit wolves with a car.
The more numb her mind became, the more Lian acted on instinct, responding to Chu Tingwu's commands almost immediately.
The next second, while driving, she opened the rear compartment—
The vehicle's tailgate could be opened, and behind the seats was space for equipment, but it was empty since they removed the gear daily.
No, the tranquilizer gun was still there.
After opening it, Lian wondered: why did Chu Tingwu want to open the rear compartment...
The next second, she felt something rather heavy climb into the vehicle.
Lian: "..."
An inexplicably warm presence and the claustrophobic pressure seemed to be right behind her ears. The compartment remained open, cold wind rushing against her neck. Lian trembled but didn't look back.
Chu Tingwu reached out and pressed Lian's shoulder: "Keep going forward."
Lian glanced at Chu Tingwu's eyes; the girl beside her continued staring ahead silently, her calm expression giving Lian strange strength.
She pressed the accelerator to the floor.
-
But Chu Tingwu wasn't actually sure what she could do—
She had heard the gunshot.
And now, she gradually realized that the poachers seemed to be trying to outrun the wolf pack... but they weren't fools, because as the number of wolves behind them decreased, the vehicle's speed on the system screen slowed down.
They couldn't possibly maintain high speed for long while driving at night.
And instinct told Chu Tingwu that the slowing vehicle speed meant the humans inside wanted to teach these beasts a lesson.
"How dare you, as mere beasts, think of seeking revenge against humans - don't blame me for killing you then." That's probably what the people ahead were thinking.
Chu Tingwu turned to look at Michelle lying in the back seat.
When Michelle had fallen behind, she suddenly had an impulse and called out to the white wolf, then opened the rear compartment, indicating she could get in.
With her offspring recently killed by humans in vehicles, and another young one kidnapped, Chu Tingwu wasn't sure if Michelle would accept her goodwill, but as the car slowed down, the white wolf leaped into the vehicle the next moment.
This was probably the first time in their lives that the people in the car had been so close to a living wolf.
Chu Tingwu could reach out and touch Michelle's water-droplet-covered fur.
The white wolf with golden pupils silently gazed at her, then looked past her toward the distant horizon.
The vehicle ahead was slowing down, and the pursuing wolves were getting closer, especially the alpha wolf at the front. In the drone's camera view, a poacher stuck his head out of the window, and a hunting rifle emerged alongside it.
Chu Tingwu suddenly closed her eyes.
System: "Acknowledged."
—In dream resonance mode, the system could pull other living beings within range into Chu Tingwu's dream, but if the target had no intention of sleeping, they would likely break free from the dream quickly.
Of course, this required Chu Tingwu herself to be in the "dream" state first; directly pulling people in would violate the system's basic settings.
The next second, the poachers' vehicle suddenly swerved.
The driver slumped forward, his head hitting the steering wheel. Grantham's whole body swayed, nearly dropping the rifle. He instinctively wanted to curse, but with the distant wolf howls from behind, the alpha wolf suddenly accelerated and leaped onto the car roof.
Grantham's heart skipped a beat.
He immediately pulled his head back inside the car and signaled the driver to shake the wolf off.
The driver, just opening his eyes, said: "I'll do it right..."
The next second, his vision blurred as an inexplicable drowsiness overtook him again.
But this time, luck wasn't on their side—their vehicle violently careened down the slope—another wolf had lunged from behind, providing the final push.
"Awoooo—"
The wolf's howl seemed to explode next to their ears.
Grantham felt his heart stop for a moment.
A massive wolf paw suddenly slammed against the car window. Although everyone inside was experienced, they couldn't help but let out small screams.
Grantham: "Don't panic!"
They couldn't panic!
They were just wolves... Haven't they killed plenty of wild animals before? They had even hunted a male lion on the grasslands! Today's accidents were indeed unexpected, but this wasn't the time to curse or blame companions!
His expression turned fierce: "Pick up your guns!"
-
Lian stopped the car.
She heard the breathing behind her fade away, followed by the sound of a car door opening.
Chu Tingwu had gotten out.
Lian pressed her back tightly against the car seat. She didn't turn around, but in the faint starlight, she saw several wolves pass by the car, the white wolf among them.
Chu Tingwu's figure appeared beside the white wolf, then was obscured by the person-high grass.
The journey had been bumpy, with scattered rocks below forming an uneven road.
The human girl walked among the wolf pack, which should have seemed out of place... but Lian felt that if they hadn't been there, Chu Tingwu might have done this long ago.
She waited in place, hearing a gunshot.
Then quickly, another one.
She placed her finger on the emergency call button but never pressed it.
Suddenly, a piercing scream came from ahead, followed by the sound of a vehicle overturning—
Lian pressed her ear against the steering wheel, as if this would help her hear more.
She waited a while longer.
Up ahead, the faint car headlights suddenly disappeared.
After a long moment, a figure appeared in front.
Lian's hand pressed against the steering wheel as she squinted to recognize:
"Wu..."
The person was jogging over, and as they got closer, the moon suddenly emerged from behind the clouds. In the moonlight, Lian's sharp eyes caught sight of the sweat on Chu Tingwu's forehead.
She seemed to be "running," but differently from how normal people run. Before Lian could figure out why, Chu Tingwu suddenly leaped onto the car's hood.
She seemed surprised herself, glancing at the moon on the horizon, then supporting herself with one hand on the hood, she smoothly flipped into the passenger seat with incredible agility.
She said: "Let's head back."
Lian: "...Didn't need the tranquilizer gun?"
"No," Chu Tingwu said, "It wasn't necessary."
As they returned, the wolf pack seemed to be heading back as well. Having pursued so far, they couldn't forcefully cross other beasts' territories on their return. Michelle's pack needed to return to their territory to reunite with the few wolves left behind, possibly completing a long migration. The injured wolves were now protected in the middle, separated by some distance from the two humans in the car.
Lian looked out the window, seeing two white wolves walking side by side, moonlight coating them as if in silver.
On the return journey, Lian drove slowly, with Chu Tingwu occasionally giving her directions...
Then, not far from the camp, their car tumbled into a ditch.
Chu Tingwu: "=="
Lian: "...I got distracted for a moment."
She wasn't really distracted; she just liked to think.
They both got out of the car and stared at the upturned rear end for a while—
Chu Tingwu: "Better call for help."
The people at the camp were early risers, and the rangers arrived quickly. Freckles jumped down from the vehicle, saw the overturned car, and made a grimacing expression:
"I was just looking for you! The reserve's surveillance cameras caught poachers entering the protected area! Something big happened in the southwest, seems there are several bodies! Anyway, it's dangerous to go out alone now, the reserve is under lockdown until the bodies are identified... So what were you doing driving out so early in the morning?"
Chu Tingwu looked at Lian.
Lian: "Nothing much, I just wanted to prove to Wu that I really know how to drive."
Freckles: Well, you certainly do.
Good enough to drive straight into a ditch!
