Fish

This was the true apex predator of this grassy plain.

A thought surfaced in Lu Ban's gradually fading consciousness.

He saw that the school of fish didn't directly charge the bus, but instead circled around it, like hunters poised to strike, ready to attack if Lu Ban made even the slightest mistake.

Lu Ban's babbling seemed to be the key. Even these colossal creatures couldn't resist the invasion of his nonsensical utterances, though their tolerance was clearly higher. As long as they didn't get too close, they weren't significantly affected.

Lu Ban didn't know who broke first.

In the agony of his brain cells burning out, Lu Ban witnessed a scene he had rarely seen in his life.

Across the vast, desolate grassland where no one survived, grass taller than three meters swayed, its eerie green light like the sea, illuminating the pitch-black, deep sky.

From the silent grass, countless dark shadows emerged, as if appearing from nowhere, converging on the bus.

Those were fish.

Fish of slightly different shapes, soaring through the sky as if their ordinary, common brethren were navigating through aquatic plants in the water.

Lu Ban didn't bother counting them.

He just stared straight ahead.

In the rearview mirror, Mary, her throat ripped apart, was no longer moving. Grass was slowly growing from her body, assimilating her flesh and blood into a fertile ground for its own cultivation.

Stone's eyes were bloodshot. He covered his ears with both hands, curled up on the ground, blood flowing from his nostrils, glasses, and mouth.

Something within the two Rat People inside the bus stirred, finally reaching its limit.

Bang—

The bodies of the two exploded, limbs flying, splattering all over the carriage.

Upon seeing this, Lu Ban grasped a spark of inspiration.

He closed his mouth.

The maddening babbling abruptly ceased, and the entire grassland fell silent, save for the hum of the engine and the friction of the tires.

In this moment of peace, Lu Ban called out.

"Throw these corpses out!"

He yelled at Stone.

Almost simultaneously, Lu Ban used the crowbar to brace the accelerator, the crowbar, as if integrated with his own body, precisely wedged against the pedal and secured, keeping the bus at maximum speed.

He quickly moved to the back, picked up the shattered heads of the Rat People, and threw them out the window.

As the grotesque heads flew out the window, they didn't fall in a parabolic trajectory. Instead, they seemed to defy gravity, hovering in mid-air before being quickly left behind by the speeding bus.

In the unseen night sky, the heads instantly attracted the attention of the fish. The grassland erupted as over ten fish abandoned their pursuit of the bus to devour the delicious Rat People heads.

Lu Ban continued to throw the mangled remains of the two Rat People out the window, drawing the fish into a frenzy as they tore at the bodies in mid-air.

He finally looked at Mary, who had stopped breathing.

The middle-aged woman's body was covered in grass, making her look like a maiden adorned with a bouquet of flowers.

Lu Ban murmured an apology, lifted Mary's corpse, and tossed it out the door.

The last few fish following the bus also gave up their pursuit, circling Mary's body, pecking at it bite by bite, dismembering it in an instant.

Stone looked at Lu Ban, his eyes filled with a mixture of terror and awe.

"Stay away from me."

Lu Ban said, raising his hand and grasping the tender sprout emerging from under his eye, then yanking it hard.

The ivy-like sprout convulsed, writhing like a horsehair worm, causing Lu Ban's eye pressure to rise, his right eye turning red.

But Lu Ban showed no mercy, coiling it around his hand again and again, pulling the sprout out completely.

The new sprout, covered in tender leaves, twisted in Lu Ban's hand. He tossed it out the window.

Returning to the driver's seat, Lu Ban picked up the crowbar, sat down, gripped the steering wheel with his left hand, and yanked his left upper arm with his right. The grass and plants protruding from the wound inflicted by the Rat People were pulled out in the same manner and thrown out the window.

At the same time, Lu Ban's babbling, originating from distant stars, began once more.

"■■■■■—"

The plants on his body, poised to act, trembled and shook, ceasing their growth. Whether it was an illusion or not, even the fluorescent glow of the grass by the roadside around the bus seemed to dim.

Stone sat in the last row, covering his ears, desperately enduring Lu Ban's babbling.

Lu Ban saw that ahead, not far away, the fluorescent glow had disappeared.

For the first time, he truly wished to see darkness.

A moment later, the bus drove out of the grassland.

Or rather, Lu Ban saw the grassland itself contracting.

It moved like a living creature, shifting towards the area to the left of the bus.

"So that's how it is. Just like the Rat Tide moves periodically, this grassland also moves on its own."

"The abnormally active grassland, the soil, the air, and those fish, they constitute a peculiar ecosystem."

"Rat People... utilizing this ecosystem?"

Lu Ban, snapping out of his daze, thought quickly while his brain was still processing.

"These Rat People themselves don't seem to be affected by the grass. Just like the fish. Could it be that some kind of symbiosis has formed between them?"

"The Rat People attack passing vehicles, the grass digests them, and the nutrients ultimately become food for the fish. And the nutrients the grass needs might come from those fish flying in the sky?"

In the wilderness of the Ruined Capital, this ecosystem seemed to be self-contained.

Lu Ban could well understand why "Hound," a bounty hunter, and Mary, a biologist, had no knowledge or warning about this grass.

It was likely because no traveler who had witnessed this bizarre "creature" had survived.

"You're very lucky."

Thinking this, Lu Ban said to Stone, who was curled up in the passenger seat.

"You've witnessed a unique ecological structure in these ruins."

"Lucky?"

Stone found Lu Ban's statement hard to believe.

He still had Lu Ban's rambling echoes in his mind, as if a voice was constantly ringing in his ears. Knowledge that Stone couldn't comprehend was trying to restructure his brain.

This made Stone's face turn pale, as if he were carsick, wanting to vomit, but there was nothing left in his stomach.

"...I read in a book once that the Rat People were originally human."

To try and alleviate his pain, Stone recalled something he had read.

"They once had a city, back when the Ruined Capital wasn't ruined."

"That city was even more glorious, more prosperous, more lively than the Ruined Capital. It was a true City of Hope."

"They relied on the mines in the city center, excavated rare ores, and used these ores as fuel to build giant machines."

As he spoke, Stone's tone grew calmer. The pain seemed to recede. He could feel his story and memories reaching a kind of harmonious consensus with the incessant rambling in his head. He even felt an incredible sense of beauty, wanting to pour out everything on his mind.

"But they dug deeper and deeper, and finally, they dug up something terrifying."

"In one night, the entire city collapsed and became ruins."

"Everyone thought the city had suffered a disaster, that no one survived. But in reality, they all survived."

"They survived, and were dominated by that terrifying entity, becoming creatures that could not bear sunlight."

"They became the Rat People."

Hearing this, Lu Ban turned his head slightly.

He saw that the young man, whose face was covered in bloodstains and who had braved life and death for the Ruined Capital, now wore a cold and eerie smile.

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