The Vampire Princess of the Apocalypse

Night was falling. A bright moon hung over Blue Star as people drifted to sleep as usual. Only night-shift workers and students were still grinding away. Everything seemed perfectly ordinary. No one could have guessed this was the final calm before disaster. "Ah... yawn!" Zhou Lan stretched hard after finishing his evening study assignments, then lazily turned toward the view outside. Zhou Lan was just another overworked student at Daxu High School. His monotonous routine between home and school often left him suffocating, so even during evening study, he seized any chance to enjoy the scenery. "Youth, huh? Guess I'll have to wait until college." Zhou Lan often lamented how hard life was. His thoughts tended to stray from those of ordinary people. He took things more lightly than most, living by a detached, energy-saving philosophy. To him, appreciating life's rare moments of peace mattered more than studying. Zhou Lan glanced at a girl seated several rows ahead. A trace of contentment crossed his face before he turned back to the unusual scene outside. "The moon looks a little different tonight." The full moon hung high, far darker than usual—orange-yellow, almost red. "A Blood Moon. That's a rare sight," Zhou Lan thought sleepily. This was what ordinary people called a Blood Moon: a moon with a reddish tint. It never truly became bloodred, since the way light overlapped in nature made it impossible for the moon to reflect only red. In theory, a genuine Blood Moon could not exist. As Zhou Lan stared, an enchanting crimson gleam swept over the orange moon. The color slowly spiraled, eating inward from its rim until the entire moon turned scarlet. Crimson radiance spread across the night, painting every face with a faint red glow. The moonlight felt soft and warm, like the last embers of sunset burning after dark. Trees, buildings, even the distant hills seemed draped in a veil of blood. Zhou Lan gaped at the sight. "A real Blood Moon?!" He bitterly wished he had a phone to capture this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Even at its reddest in recorded history, the moon had only deepened toward orange. It had never turned completely crimson, much less cast scarlet light like this. "Damn this school. It's making me miss the shot of a lifetime." Zhou Lan sighed deeply, then calmed down and studied the strange color above. "If I can't change it, I might as well enjoy it." His expression relaxed. "Incredible..." Captivated, Zhou Lan stared with his lips slightly parted, a soft sigh escaping him. The Blood Moon had swallowed his attention so completely that he forgot he was still in evening study. The night drowned in bloodred moonlight. An invisible transformation descended in silence and engulfed every living thing. Those asleep never noticed their bodies changing against their will, their genes rewriting themselves without a sound. Some were fortunate. Their genes evolved, awakening powers never seen before. Others could not withstand the sudden mutation and gradually transformed into mutants. The mutants lost all reason and attacked anything alive on pure instinct. Worse, some people had barely awakened an ability before a spouse or family member beside them transformed and devoured them. Just like what was happening in Zhou Lan's classroom. A faint tremor came from one corner, drawing curious looks. Those nearby soon recoiled in horror. A student's body convulsed violently as if seized by an invisible force. His eyes rolled back, and unnatural foam leaked from the corner of his mouth. His face rapidly turned bloodless. Then his skin shifted from deathly pale to a sickly blue-green, as though every drop of blood in his body had congealed. The grotesque change chilled everyone watching. The student suddenly snapped upright, held by some unnatural strength. His eyes went empty, yet a savage light no human should possess flickered within them. Sharp teeth showed as he opened his mouth and released a low, hoarse growl—the kind of monster people had only ever seen on television. Then another student changed. And another. Ten became dozens. In the end, only one quarter of the students awakened abilities. The remaining three quarters became mutants. "Aaaah!" "What's wrong with you?" "Holy s**t! I wake up from one nap and my deskmate's a zombie!" The moon-mutated world collapsed into chaos. More people were awake tonight than during the day, especially at school. Screams erupted around Zhou Lan, and panic spread in their wake. The transformed students stared with empty, ferocious eyes. They bared sharp teeth and growled from ruined throats. Chaos exploded through the classroom—screams, cries for help, and crashing desks blending into one deafening roar. The students who had awakened abilities instinctively dodged the mutants, only to slam into one another as they fled. The orderly evening study session disintegrated. With death upon them, no one could stay calmly at a desk. In all of vast Daxu, there was suddenly no room left for a single desk. Seated by the window, Zhou Lan saw his deskmate transform and kicked him away without hesitation. He sprinted to a corner. Two walls offered a sliver of security, while mutants and students packed the open side in a writhing mass. Before any mutant could bite, another fleeing student would knock it aside. Zhou Lan had luckily claimed a relatively open spot, but he still watched the melee with his heart hammering. Then the lights went out...