My Werewolf System

Chapter 1760  The Lost City (Part 2)

“You guys have a massive, far-reaching information network, right?” Kai asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked directly at the three ancient beings. “You have eyes and ears in places we can’t even begin to access. Then shouldn’t you have at least heard of him once? You must have known about his name, or at least had an idea of a figure like this operating in the shadows.”

Hearing this, Rowa and Haylock slowly turned their heads to look at Jin. The subtle shift in their body language spoke volumes. It appeared as if certain high-level information was strictly compartmentalized, kept exclusively within the inner circles of specific families. From the look of things, the Fourth Family handled the deeper intelligence.

“We have nothing concrete,” Jin replied, his voice calm and measured. “We only have fragments. But we have had our guesses that there could be a possibility of such an ancient entity existing.”

Jin stepped forward, his expression serious. “If what you are saying is the absolute truth, nothing so direct has happened before involving this figure. They would have had to have stayed in hiding for hundreds of years, operating so quietly that no major issues ever appeared on our radar.”

The others in the room could easily guess why that was the case. Most likely, Unzoku had been incredibly weak for centuries. He needed an immense amount of time to gather enough power and influence to do any of what he was currently executing.

He had needed time to orchestrate his grand design: trying to turn Lupus against them, manipulating events that led to Kai turning into an Alpha, and now, successfully creating these mutated monsters of Werewolves. Furthermore, the global Werewolf situation had never been this chaotic or public before, which meant circumstances had finally forced Unzoku to step out of the shadows as well.

“Let me say this again, and I want you to listen carefully,” Rowa claimed, his voice dropping into a dangerous, threatening octave. “Think about how our society functions. If rogue vampires were out attacking civilians in the open, hunting on their own with absolutely no sense of order or secrecy, we would take it as our absolute responsibility to step in and eradicate them. We police our own.”

Rowa took a step closer to Gary, his red aura faintly pulsing. “You can pass the blame onto this Unzoku person all you want. But at the end of the day, it is your race. It is your nature that acts like this, tearing through flesh and bone. If you cannot control the beasts under your banner, then we will have to force our control down upon you instead.”

“And I think that’s quite enough of the preaching for one day,” Haylock interrupted, holding up a hand. His tone was light, but there was an underlying edge to it. “Remember that Gary is a young leader. He has been thrust into this position rather rashly, and the world is changing fast. The important thing right now is that we try to sort this mess out together, right?”

Rowa looked like he desperately wanted to say more. His jaw clenched tight, but the large, knowing grin plastered across Haylock’s face made him simply click his tongue in annoyance and step back.

“Of course,” Gary answered, his eyes darting between the three leaders to ensure the immediate threat had passed. “We were planning to do everything we can to stop Unzoku and clean up this mess, even before you guys got involved.”

“Can you tell us more about Centrefield?” Kai asked, seizing the opportunity to gather crucial intel. “You said that the biggest issue is localized there. Is there a specific reason for that? And what about the report that just came in saying the entire city is on lockdown?”

“That lockdown was our doing,” Jin answered matter-of-factly.

The casual admission sent a chill down the Howlers' spines.

“We have the infrastructure to control the situation in different areas of the country,” Jin continued. “We can suppress media, divert attention, and make sure the general public doesn’t really know what is happening in the smaller outbreak zones. But Centrefield… Centrefield is too far gone. For now, it’s best that the outside world has absolutely no idea what is happening within its borders.”

Jin’s expression darkened, a rare look of grim resignation crossing his ageless features. “We had sent out elite operational teams to every affected city to deal with the issue. The team that had been dispatched to Centrefield was completely annihilated. Wiped out to the last man.”

He paused, letting the severity of the loss sink in. “After we lost contact, I personally decided to head to the outskirts of Centrefield to try and scout what was going on. From what I could see, Centrefield has essentially become an apocalyptic town.”

“How bad is it?” Gary asked, his voice barely a whisper.

“There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of these corrupted Werewolves roaming the city streets,” Jin revealed. “We don’t even know how many members of the general public are still alive at this moment, if any. The military-grade lockdown is there to stop the panic from spreading among the people nationwide, and to stop the situation from growing worse by keeping those beasts contained.”

Gary and Kai instinctively looked at each other, a shared dread passing between them. Their minds instantly went to Midwak and the Strike Force. What had happened to them? Had they been overwhelmed and turned into these crazed, mindless Werewolves? Or were they currently in hiding, trapped in a ruined city due to how many citizens had been turned?

They were still registering as alive in the Pack System, which was giving Gary some desperate shred of hope, but the guilt was eating him alive. Centrefield was the city he had personally promised to protect. It was the city that Don had given his life for. And now, it was gone, overrun by monsters.

On top of the emotional crushing weight, the Howlers were slowly realizing the terrifying extent of the Vampires' influence. To be able to unilaterally lock down an entire major city, blockade the roads, and completely block all telephone, internet, and satellite signals... it was god-like power over human society. It made Gary and Kai realize that maybe their hard-fought position as "Kings of the Underworld" was nothing but child's play in the eyes of these ancient families.

“There was one more strange thing that we should report as well, something that doesn't fit the pattern,” Jin said, drawing their attention back. “All over the country, where these isolated incidents were occurring, the dead, mutilated bodies of normal human civilians were found left behind. But, when it came to Altereds… there were multiple cases of Altereds who had simply gone missing without a trace. No bodies, no blood trails.”

Jin looked directly at Gary. “I don’t suppose you know anything about why that would be, do you?”

Gary frowned and slowly shook his head.

“We Werewolves can get stronger by eating beasts and Altereds,” Gary explained, thinking back to his own system and instincts. “So, if anything, I would have thought it was the exact opposite. I would expect them to be eating the Altereds on the spot to gain power, not taking them somewhere else alive.”

“Maybe they are capturing them and taking them back to feed to Unzoku, to help grow his strength?” Innu added from the back of the room, offering a grim theory.

“If this Unzoku is even stronger than you Alphas, I highly doubt that,” Rowa said, immediately dismissing the idea with a scoff. “Absorbing the energy of weak, low-tier Altereds would do next to nothing to increase the strength of an ancient being. It would be like a whale trying to feed on a single plankton. Yet, even the weakest of Altereds have been taken.”

“We can stand around here and discuss theories all we like, but it’s not going to change anything on the ground,” Haylock said, clapping his hands together once. The sharp sound echoed in the large hall.

He looked at Gary, his playful demeanor replaced with absolute authority. “Gary, you swore that this wasn’t your doing, right? You claim you want to stop it.”

Gary nodded firmly. “I do.”

“Then we have a very simple way to solve all of this,” Haylock concluded, a sharp glint in his eye. “We want you and your group to go and solve the issue at Centrefield. And to ensure it gets done right... we are coming with you.”

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