The sun had yet to set, but the valley was already growing dim.
Su Mo found a natural cave to take shelter in, planning to make do for the night and search for a better spot the next day.
Compared to before, he was much better prepared this time, bringing along various tools for survival—pots, pans, fire starters, food, and fresh water.
Especially after looting Jack, his supplies had become even more abundant.
Just imagine—who else could enjoy a meal of white rice and fresh vegetables while surviving in the wild? And to wash it all down with milk afterward? Life couldn’t be more comfortable.
Perhaps it was the aroma of the food that attracted wild beasts, as a rustling sound came from outside the cave.
Su Mo set down his bowl and chopsticks, picked up his knife, and stepped out.
To his surprise, there was no wild animal waiting for him—just a man who looked like he hadn’t eaten in a long time.
His body was emaciated, with barely any flesh on his bones, his skull faintly visible beneath his skin. His hollow eyes stared blankly in Su Mo’s direction.
“Hey, what do you want?” Su Mo called out.
No response.
He tried again, “If you’re here for food, I don’t mind sharing some with you.”
Still, the man remained motionless. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, Su Mo would have thought he was already dead.
Cautiously, Su Mo approached, stopping about three meters away, his knife at the ready. “Brother, can you hear me?”
Suddenly, the man lifted his head, his lips twisting into an eerie grin. “Heh heh heh…”
The laughter seemed to crawl straight from his throat—hoarse, muffled, and deeply unsettling.
At the same time, his body drifted toward Su Mo like a ghost, unnaturally fast.
Su Mo had already braced for a fight. With a single slash, the man’s head tumbled to the ground.
The headless body collapsed in an instant, dissolving into a pile of skin and bones.
Frowning at the bizarre scene, Su Mo decided to play it safe—he set the remains ablaze. Then, he sat at the cave entrance, meditating while keeping a vigilant watch on his surroundings.
Midnight arrived.
A piercing wolf’s howl tore through the sky, sending a chill down Su Mo’s spine and raising goosebumps across his skin.
Strangely, the howl ignited a surge of anger in him, shattering his calm and forcibly interrupting his meditation.
Su Mo immediately realized the howl’s peculiar nature—it seemed to be some kind of mental attack, capable of manipulating emotions.
He tried to steady himself, but as the howling grew louder, he found it impossible. Even covering his ears did nothing; the sound seemed to bore directly into his brain.
What’s going on? Su Mo thought, his breathing growing ragged. Commander Yang’s guide never mentioned this, and even Ah Kun’s intel didn’t say anything about wolf howls affecting emotions in the Longshan Ruins.
His mood darkened further as his frustration mounted.
Glancing at the campfire, he noticed a smooth stone among the flames—pristine except for a single speck of ash clinging to its surface.
For some reason, the sight irritated him beyond reason.
With a kick, he sent the stone flying far into the distance.
It happened to strike a large bird drinking by the water. The bird shrieked in pain.
“SCREECH—”
A sudden gust of wind followed as the bird—its wingspan wide enough to pass through the cave entrance—swooped straight at Su Mo.
In the firelight, Su Mo could clearly see its ferocious features: razor-sharp talons and a pair of eyes glowing with a sinister red light.
“Looking to die?”**
Su Mo lunged forward, colliding head-on with the bird.
BAM!
The impact sent the bird crashing several meters away.
Screeching, its eyes burned even redder, its entire body radiating bloodlust.
Strangely, Su Mo felt exhilarated. Instead of using his knife, he charged bare-handed, engaging the bird in a brutal brawl.
Blood splattered across the cave walls. Feathers flew everywhere.
The fight was savage.
Both man and bird seemed tireless, growing more frenzied with each strike—until finally, the bird, now drenched in blood, lay motionless on the ground.
Only then did Su Mo stop.
He was covered in blood—some the bird’s, some his own.
As silence returned, the gentle sound of flowing water jolted him back to his senses.
“What… just happened to me?” He stared around in disbelief. “Why did I lose control?”
All he remembered was the surge of rage when he saw the bird, followed by the blind, escalating violence—until he had lost all self-awareness.
Looking back, a chill ran through him.
What if it hadn’t been the bird, but a teammate? Would I have attacked them just as viciously?
Realizing the terrifying consequences of the wolf howl’s emotional manipulation, Su Mo felt helpless.
During a lull in the howling, he quickly cleaned up the battlefield—otherwise, the scent of blood would only attract more beasts.
And most likely, more of those red-eyed creatures.
Thinking of that, he pulled out a mirror and checked his reflection.
Just as he suspected—his own eyes had turned red, though lighter than the bird’s. Likely because the effect hadn’t fully taken hold yet.
He snapped a photo with his signal-less phone, documenting his current state.
The rest of the night passed without incident, granting Su Mo a rare moment of rest.
At the first light of dawn, he set off downstream.
Even as the sky brightened, the valley floor remained shrouded in darkness, forcing him to rely on a flashlight.
It wasn’t until noon that sunlight finally pierced through, bringing a sliver of warmth to the shadowed depths.
Over the next few days, he kept moving.
Occasionally, other creatures attacked, but none matched the bird’s strength. Su Mo dispatched them with ease.
Luckily, the eerie wolf howls never returned, and his eyes eventually reverted to normal.
Recalling that night, Su Mo noticed something odd:
Creatures under the red-eye effect not only lost their rationality but also seemed to gain a temporary boost in power—and the stronger they originally were, the greater the enhancement.
The bird, under the red-eye effect, had barely reached D-rank. Normally, Su Mo would’ve needed some effort to subdue it.
Yet at the time, he had crushed it effortlessly—bare-handed, no less, beating it to death without even giving it a chance to fight back.
Later, when he checked his injuries, he found only minor scratches.
In other words, he hadn’t just killed it—he had overwhelmed it.
That was something only a seasoned D-rank fighter could pull off.
So what exactly is this red-eye effect? Su Mo wondered. How does it manipulate emotions while also granting temporary strength?
If he could unravel these mysteries and glean some insights from them, this trip to the ruins would be more than worth it.