They clung like maggots to the bone—tenacious and lethal. To drive them away, they had to solve the problem at its root. Once the source left, the Rat Plague would disperse.
"The source?"
Ji Yan froze for a moment.
Sure enough, mindlessly clearing them out would not work.
But what was the source? Where was it?
As Ji Yan pondered, he gripped the Chopper in reverse and continued killing.
Whatever.
If he had any questions, his talent would answer them!
The other players shook their heads when they saw Ji Yan stubbornly clearing out the Rat Plague.
There were thousands of them. How could he possibly clear them all?
And it had to be resolved before nightfall. At most, they had four hours left!
"Simple-minded."
Long Yuan sneered, but then he noticed the Chopper in Ji Yan's hand.
"Is that the Wife's Cleaver from the Grudge Eerie in Apartment 702?"
"How did this guy get his hands on it?"
Long Yuan raised his brows.
He had cleared seventy percent of the mission stages in Crimson Apartment. The remaining thirty percent were all tough nuts to crack.
Apartment 702's mission stage was among them.
Back then, he had spent two days trying to obtain it without success, so he stopped wasting his energy on it.
Yet he had never expected another player to obtain that Eerie Weapon.
Long Yuan opened Ji Yan's main panel.
It was so bare-bones that it could only be described as utterly destitute.
"Survived in the game for five days?"
Long Yuan was stunned, then quickly understood. "Looks like this newbie got lucky as hell."
"That Chopper is mine."
Long Yuan smiled.
Taking equipment from clueless newcomers like this had long been routine for him. He had more than enough methods.
Ji Yan had no idea that someone had set their sights on his Chopper. He kept killing Mutant Rats one after another.
Almost every five rats, a Hidden Information Panel popped up.
"Kid, stop wasting your strength. It's impossible."
"Why not draw a thousand milliliters of blood with us... Once we get the mission food, perhaps we can recover after resting for a few days."
That was what the players said, though none of them believed it themselves.
Ji Yan seemed not to hear them. He focused on killing rats and obtaining hidden information.
Plague Eerie: A type of Disaster Eerie that carries Rat Plague disasters. It has no fixed residence in the Eerie World and enjoys inhabiting buildings steeped in deep resentment. By gnawing away at resentful souls, it nourishes and expands its Rat Plague, increasing its own strength.
"Got it!"
"This should be the source Eerie."
Ji Yan's eyes lit up. At that moment, he saw the Mutant Rats suddenly surge toward the rear, as though something had drawn them in.
In his line of sight, a human figure slowly crawled out from beneath the filthy Drain Ditch, covered in sewage and garbage.
Calling it human was inaccurate. It was an Eerie.
After it crawled out, the surrounding Mutant Rats all made way for it. Dragging a large amount of filthy water behind it, it walked to the base of the apartment wall.
It crouched down, dug at something with both hands, and began stuffing its mouth with it.
And under its bizarre feeding, the entire Crimson Apartment began to shake violently!
The massive Apartment Building was shrouded in pitch-black resentment, as though countless wronged souls were wailing.
In just a few minutes, the Plague Eerie had chewed a bowl-sized hole into the corner of the wall!
The moment the hole appeared, the Mutant Rats scrambled to burrow inside.
"Delicious, so delicious!!"
"Tasty! I can't finish it all, it's too delicious!"
The Apartment Building was on the verge of collapse.
The Mutant Rats that had burrowed inside gnawed on anything they could find within the apartment.
Like termites, they seemed determined not to stop until they had hollowed out the entire apartment.
After stomping a Mutant Rat into pulp, the Bewitching Eerie living in Apartment 101 on the first floor was the first to suffer, her eyes full of disgust.
"Damn it! The rent in this apartment is already absurdly expensive, and they can't even deal with basic sanitation!"
"This is infuriating!"
Outside, Cheng Fang was also howling miserably.
"Fuck! That rat is huge! Damn, why are there so many?"
The Bewitching Eerie coldly addressed Cheng Fang. "Don't let any rats into my room."
"If even one gets in, you won't need to stay here anymore."
Cheng Fang felt utterly wronged, inwardly grumbling without end. I have to do every dirty job. I must have committed some terrible sin in my past life!
As time passed, more and more residents inside the apartment began voicing their complaints.
The Landlord cleaned the corridor. Listening to the endless grumbling, he snorted and transmitted his voice outside the apartment. "Tell them to hurry up and clear the Rat Plague."
"If they can't clear it, they needn't come back."
"This apartment never lacks residents, let alone these pitiful outsiders who can't even afford the rent."
The Bandage Eerie received the Landlord's message and relayed it to the Cleanup Squad.
The Cleanup Squad was already under immense pressure. Hearing this, they finally yielded to Long Yuan.
"Brother Long, I'm willing to help feed that blade. Please act quickly."
"I'm willing too. At least we can survive after losing a thousand milliliters of blood. If we can't return to the apartment, we'll definitely die."
"I'd rather be drained to death than be eaten bite by bite by the Eeries in the fog."
Long Yuan showed little reaction to their compromise. His gaze fell on Ji Yan in the distance.
"There's still one more."
The players hurriedly began persuading Ji Yan again.
Ji Yan shook the blood from his hand and gave Long Yuan a flat glance.
"Why should we rely on him?"
"This Rat Plague was brought by that Plague Eerie. Kill that Eerie, and the Rat Plague will naturally fall apart."
Over there, the Plague Eerie gnawing at the Apartment Building was gradually swelling from its originally skinny body as it fed.
Long Yuan smiled in surprise. "You actually know about Plague Eeries?"
"Indeed, once the Plague Eerie dies, the Rat Plague will disperse."
"But it's like having a question laid out before you. Everyone knows the answer is in the textbook, but how many can actually solve it?"
Long Yuan rested both hands behind his head.
"At minimum, a Plague Eerie requires a treasured-quality Eerie Weapon to kill, and that's only if you know its weakness."
"Among the few of you here, who has that equipment? And who has that confidence?"
The players fell silent.
A female player quietly spoke to Ji Yan. "Brother, compromise for everyone's sake."
"Yeah, look how well you're doing. Drawing a little blood won't kill you. We've been starving for days, and none of us have complained!"
"Hurry up and agree! If he leaves, we're all finished! Don't be the one rotten egg that gets us all killed!"
Driven by their instinct to survive, the players took turns lecturing Ji Yan. Some pleaded, while others pressured him.
Just as Ji Yan was about to speak, Long Yuan suddenly changed his mind. "I've reconsidered."
He pointed at Ji Yan. "You, in addition to the original condition, have one more requirement. That Chopper belongs to me."
"Why?" Ji Yan asked.
"No reason. I just don't like the sight of you."
"Agree, and I'll save you."
"Refuse, and I'll leave right now."
Long Yuan directed every point of conflict toward Ji Yan, pushing him into the spotlight.
In this situation, the other players would be the most anxious. They would desperately pile pressure onto Ji Yan.
If Long Yuan left, Ji Yan would be the only sinner.
Therefore, no matter how excessive Long Yuan's conditions became, Ji Yan had no choice but to agree.
Long Yuan had far too many ways to toy with people's hearts.
Ji Yan saw through it as well.
This guy was targeting him solely because he had his eye on the Chopper.
Looking at the hidden information he had obtained, Ji Yan suddenly thought of something.
"What if you can't kill that Plague Eerie?" Ji Yan asked.
"I've killed no fewer than ten Disaster Eeries like this in this Dungeon."
"What do you think?"
Ji Yan said, "There are exceptions to everything."
Long Yuan laughed in fury. "If I can't kill it, this kitchen knife of mine is yours!"
"Deal."
Seeing Ji Yan agree so readily, Long Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly. He could not help wondering where this guy got his confidence from. Could it be that he had noticed some other special trait of the Plague Eerie?
Before you continue