Rat Pendants Are So Cool, Why Don't You Buy One?

After hearing Yuan Zhu, who was hiding off to the side, mutter "rat" under his breath, the middle-aged man suddenly turned to look at him and casually asked in a joking tone, "What, you don't know what 'rat' means?"

The rat in his question clearly did not refer to an ordinary rat pendant. This seemingly offhand question was also meant to test him.

The Little Elf spoke simultaneously over the mental channel. "Boss, this fatty is deliberately probing you. He must have been influenced by that young man and grown suspicious of you as well. That bastard targets you at every turn. Why not write his name down in a little notebook and find a chance to get even later?"

Yuan Zhu paid no attention to the Little Elf and her venomous tongue.

He had figured it out: this little thing was always spouting nonsense, yet everything she said was especially pleasing to his ears. If her host had poor self-control and failed to restrain her, it would be like bingeing short videos—you would only grow more addicted the more you listened, until your perception of reality became warped.

Put in plain terms, it meant being so absurdly confident that you had no clue what you were worth, constantly misjudging the actual situation while remaining stubbornly self-assured. Like some Manager Kai Shen of an express delivery company: "The advantage lies with us, the great emperor of micromanagement." It was not that he had no ability—his actual operational ability was simply not even a tiny bit there.

So Yuan Zhu decided, Starting today, I shall abstain from the Little Elf! He could only selectively heed her reasonable advice and must never lose himself in the saturated barrage of rainbow-fart flattery.

Faced with the middle-aged man's question, Yuan Zhu frantically worked his brain and had the Little Elf help search the memory bank. At last, the relevant knowledge point that had been on the tip of his tongue successfully burst forth.

"Ha, you mean the Rat King, right? How could I possibly not know? Strictly speaking, the Rat King is one of the Twelve Duty Cycle Commanders, the first of the Twelve Zodiacs. It is also the source of the occult Month of Wisdom."

After hearing Yuan Zhu's answer, the middle-aged man smiled noncommittally and teased, "Looks like the aftereffects on your mental state aren't too serious. You even remember common knowledge like this. Then what is your birth zodiac? Do you remember?"

Yuan Zhu realized that the other party was conducting another covert investigation into him. Their earlier questioning had been intended to learn the details of the murder case. Now, they were testing him personally. They still suspected that something had been done to him during the Sacrifice Ritual.

"My zodiac is Spider. I was born on the third day of the third month, the Month of Slumber."

More strange knowledge surged forth, and Yuan Zhu learned that Du Ling Planet also possessed a set of Twelve Zodiacs. The ancient version of the Twelve Zodiacs had originally matched Earth's version in content, though several of its positions were mixed up. It circulated only within the eastern ancient nations of Geng Continent and had been used for a thousand years.

The new version of the Twelve Zodiacs, however, had been jointly compiled one hundred and fifty years ago at the initiative of the current Great Emperor of the Red Dragon Empire, who called upon all powerful nations and religious forces with regional influence across the world to participate.

The ancient old version of the Twelve Zodiacs possessed only cultural significance and no other meaning. Its circulation was limited, and its influence was weak.

The new version of the Twelve Zodiacs was different. It had emerged only after all factions fought, negotiated, and compromised, selecting twelve True Gods from within and beyond Du Ling Star that genuinely existed and could each represent a natural phenomenon.

Thus, the new Twelve Zodiacs combined multiple meanings, such as "year gods" and "moon phases." Beyond their ordinary cultural significance, they were also a genuine open-source occult foundation carrying supernatural factors.

This was a basic set of ritual materials freely available to all humanity—intelligent species. Anyone interested could try using their birth data and the functions of the Twelve Duty Cycle Commanders for divination and calculation. Whether one calculated fortune, career, or romance, it could produce actual results rather than being mere superstition or fraudulent trickery.

In this world, the first of the Twelve Zodiacs was a deity known as the Rat King. By reviewing his life, Yuan Zhu confirmed that he had never seen the other party's Temple. Nor had he heard of any shrine or temple in Running City specifically dedicated to it.

Yet as an Orthodox God of global significance, the Rat King's influence was everywhere. Its greatest presence among the people was the custom throughout the New Federation of hanging rat pendants outside one's home to pray for blessings and welcome the new year.

That was because the Rat King was not only the first of the zodiac, but also influenced the first month of every year—the Month of Wisdom.

It was currently June, the Corpse Moon. And this Sacrifice Ritual had used the concept of the "Corpse Moon" in several places to amplify its effects.

As pests that stole grain and spread disease, rats naturally disgusted people. But rats could also be divided into many categories. For instance, the cute, bouncy-looking, miniature northern mouse, huddling in a corner with wide eyes: "Auntie, I only ate two grains of rice." Then there was another kind, bigger than a cat and packed with nitrogen-pumped bulging muscles, strutting beneath streetlamps without fear of humans, arm in arm with southern Cockroaches as it barged into a restaurant: "Old man, go fry your lord two dishes! Meat!"

Ordinary residents of the New Federation would deliberately pick out good-looking little mice or hamsters. They would kill them, gut them, knead and extract their fur, dry them... then finally stuff their bodies full of spices and sew them shut, filling their eye sockets with cheap gemstones or glass. The result was a lifelike "sachet" little specimen, hung outside the home during the New Year to bring good luck.

Usually, these dried little rats would also be dressed in tiny clothes and hats, creatively desecrated in every possible way... They looked just like cartoon dolls, their cuteness shooting up another level or two. Some people even used them as pendants, hanging them from luxury bags or their belts to show off.

The widespread commoner trend of hanging rat pendants had originated with wealthy aristocratic households, major corporations, and upscale roadside shops, which usually hung rats outside their doors.

Whatever the rich did, the poor followed suit, believing they could ride the trend and snatch away a share of good fortune.

And whatever the common masses did influenced the indigenous people of the New Continent, who followed their example as well.

Once most indigenous people had started hanging rats, the western immigrants on the eastern coast and the aliens from the Magic Universe also began copying the practice in droves without really understanding why... And just like that, a trend was born.

Nowadays, beating a damned rat to death on sight by the roadside and hanging an adorable, good-looking dried rat corpse during the New Year had become two perfectly compatible pieces of common sense.

No one resisted "dried rat corpse pendants" just because rats were vile creatures that deserved to die, and no one sympathized with or pitied damned rats just because they worshipped "rat pendants."

The people of Du Ling Star were mentally perfectly normal, but their common sense and customs were exceptionally abnormal.

Those genuine large rats hung high by rich young masters were the ones that truly entered the realm of occultism and formed supernatural connections with the Divine Mandate Rat King. Their purpose was not to pray for blessings, serve as sachets, or ensure that one's children grew up smart and healthy. They were simply surveillance devices! Genuine dried rat corpses were extremely expensive inventions—a kind of "biological dried-corpse surveillance device" whose operating principles were unknown and which involved gods and supernatural domains.

The bodies of such rats were insignificant and were preserved only for appearance and completeness. What was truly expensive was their heads. After occult modification and processing, their eyes could record images—optional Plus infrared night-vision edition, Max thermal-sensing edition—and store them in their brains. They could accumulate up to a week's worth of information, which could then be read, played back, and erased through special methods...

The larger the rat, the greater its brain capacity and the more information it could store. Thus, the "rat pendants" hanging outside wealthy homes and upscale shops served as surveillance cameras plus alarm devices.

Furthermore, these rats, empowered by Divine Mandate godly power and altered through occultism, could also serve as household video cameras, recording beautiful moments in life. When a little kid celebrated a birthday, Dad would hold up a dead rat and shove it in front of his son, snapping away furiously to record their beautiful life. An eerie light flashed in the rat's eyes, and the whole family wore happy smiles.

Finally, some professionals in high-end occupations also carried "miniature sachet rats" in their pockets. Their specific function was similar to a Biological USB Drive: they could store work information and confidential materials in their brains, then use the rat-tail interface to transfer and exchange biological data.

Two intelligence agents would sneak furtively into the same restroom of the same shop, both pull a little rat from their pockets, insert each other's tails into the ports at the backs of the other rats' heads, and, after completing a thoroughly satisfying exchange of intelligence, both depart without taking away a single cloud.

Commoners could not access such high-end occult products, so they copied their outward form, developing rat figurine sachets invested with beautiful hopes, or genuine leather rat pencil cases with zippers sewn into their bellies.

Back when Yuan Zhu was in elementary school, the coolest kid in his class would pull a large dead rat from his backpack every lesson, then calmly unzip it from beneath its chin all the way down to its dick, taking pencils, rulers, erasers... from its belly. Yuan Zhu had been so envious that he swore he would buy an even bigger one someday! A mink one!

Unfortunately, to this day, he had never wasted money on a rat pencil case. Naturally, his younger brother had not been blessed with one either.

After flipping through the memories, the Little Elf commented sharply, "Ai, Brother Yuan Zhu is just too stingy. Not only does he viciously compete as a worker traitor, he is also unwilling to spend his wages enjoying life. He can't even bear to buy the coolest, most fashionable rat pencil case. How lame! Boss, you absolutely have to buy me one. I want a pink one!"

Rat pendants are so cool, why don't you buy one?

Rat pendants are so cool, why don't you cast a vote?