The First Drop of Blood!

"What was this strange feeling?"

As he carefully sensed the various buffs coursing through his body, a warm current flowed through every corner of him.

Merlin could feel the lightness in his body. As he bounced in place, his movements became incredibly nimble. Even in a dim environment, he could clearly detect things far away with his sharp hearing and sense of smell.

And under the enhancement of this strange power, A long-lost sense of security quietly surfaced in his heart—the kind he had only felt as a child, when his parents were still alive.

"So living creatures really can be [Equipped], but only when they aren't resisting?"

Merlin's understanding and use of his [Equipment Slot] deepened a little further. Clutching a dagger in his right hand, he hunched over and ran toward the outskirts of the city.

He was not far from Frevanz's border now. Merlin believed he could definitely make it out and escape with his life.

Having equipped the rat, he was affected by the innate traits of that creature.

As he kept running, Merlin gradually adapted to the subtle changes in his body.

Compared to before equipping it, his stamina and agility grew stronger and stronger. Sniffing the various scents of living creatures lingering in the air, Merlin used those scents to avoid the executioners roaming the streets and hunting down survivors, his eyes filled with excitement.

"Were rats actually this powerful?"

Half an hour later.

Merlin, hiding atop a three-story guesthouse, widened his eyes.

He looked at the border at the edge of the city, a hundred meters away, surrounded by iron fencing.

"Has it been completely sealed off?"

He looked at the armed soldiers from other countries standing guard behind the fence in protective suits.

Merlin's face fell silent. Suddenly, a group of residents squeezed through a gap in the fence.

Merlin's eyes gradually lit up.

But immediately afterward, muzzle flashes erupted one after another, followed by a column of orange-red flames.

It was a flamethrower.

Amid shrill screams, bodies trembled as they fell beneath the storm of bullets. A bone-chilling cold engulfed Merlin's heart.

"Are they trying to wipe us all out?"

He forced the words out through clenched teeth, biting his lip so hard that pain shot through his mind.

"I can't stay here. From the looks of it, the outskirts are even more dangerous than the city itself. The sewers—right, the sewers lead to the sea.

"I can equip fish. Right, I can definitely escape alive."

Thanks to the immense wealth brought by its lead ore mines, Frevanz had a well-developed underground sewer system.

Merlin slowly lowered his body and moved backward. Soon, he easily jumped down from the five-meter-high rooftop onto the street below.

He quickly ran back toward the city center.

Along the way, he avoided the armed soldiers from other countries who were slaughtering people everywhere.

At the same time, He also avoided the increasingly violent "resisting civilians" within Frevanz.

Not long after, after weaving through streets and alleys, he arrived at a sewer entrance. Seeing no one nearby, Merlin lifted the manhole cover, climbed inside, and closed it behind him.

He glanced at the five-meter drop below.

Splash!

His feet landed in the muddy sewer water that reached halfway up his calves.

The thick stench rushed into his nose, but surprisingly, Merlin did not feel particularly uncomfortable either mentally or physically.

At the same time, he heard the squeaks of quite a few rats in the darkness. He froze for a moment, then pursed his lips and murmured softly, "I'm like a rat now!"

Slowly exhaling a breath of foul air, Merlin observed the flow of the wastewater and waded through the filthy water, one deep step and one shallow step at a time.

He headed toward the sewer's exit.

Accompanied by the squeaks of rats and the strange chirping of insects, Merlin braced himself against the sewer wall as he continued through the complex underground passages.

A moment later, Merlin suddenly stopped at a corner.

From not far beyond the bend came the wet, slapping sound of footsteps, mixed with a stream of curses.

"That damned Dalami, making me come down into a filthy place like this. It's all because of these damn infected people from Frevanz..."

As the cursing drew closer to the corner, an orange-yellow glow came with it.

Merlin gradually slowed his breathing. Intense hesitation flashed in his eyes. He wanted to retreat the way he had come, yet unwillingness filled his heart. Then all that unwillingness transformed into ferocity.

When enemies met on a narrow path.

The fingers of his right hand, gripping the dagger, repeatedly tightened and loosened. After equipping [Rat], his hearing had received a considerable boost, allowing him to clearly judge the other person's distance.

Merlin pressed himself close to the corner.

Listening to the approaching footsteps and the suppressed breathing, he counted silently in his heart. Five, four... two. The orange light grew larger and larger, and a leg pulled from the filthy water stepped around the corner.

In an instant, Merlin raised his left arm and slammed it forward. At the same time, Bang!

Merlin's left arm caught the man by the neck, knocking the newcomer into the sewage in one motion. Straddling him, Merlin gripped his dagger in his right hand and viciously drove it into the man's neck.

The sharp dagger pierced the protective mask around his neck. The next moment, a guttural, rasping roar came from the man's mouth as he struggled violently. Bang! A piercing gunshot rang out.

Merlin's eyes widened at once. He pulled out the dagger, then forcefully stabbed it into the side of the man's neck again. Squelch!

The struggle of the person beneath him immediately weakened. A few seconds later, it ceased altogether.

Merlin stared blankly at the dead figure beneath him. This soldier from another country had died just like that beneath his dagger.

Amid the stench, a thick bloody smell flooded his nostrils. Merlin suddenly shuddered, his throat itching and spasming as he began to retch.

But in the next moment, shouts rang out from the distance beyond the other side of the corner.

Merlin snapped back to his senses, hurriedly got up, and ran quickly back the way he had come.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots kept ringing out behind him, bullets striking the ground not far behind his back.

Merlin nimbly dodged left and right through the tunnel, rolling and leaping through the sewage around him.

Before long, he had put a considerable distance between himself and his pursuers.

As time ticked by, with his own ragged breathing and the footsteps behind him steadily fading, Merlin rounded another corner. A vicious gleam flashed through his eyes.

He gradually slowed down.

He pressed himself against a filth-covered wall at a bend in the sewer and listened carefully to the distant sounds.

The sounds kept growing fainter. Thanks to a rat's sense of spatial awareness, Merlin realized that those chasing him had stopped pursuing him.

He slowed his breathing, and his violently pounding heart gradually calmed. "They stopped chasing me? Or they just couldn't catch up?"

He pondered, Should I sneak over and kill them? If I let them get away, this sewer route will become extremely dangerous from now on.

Merlin's thoughts had begun to subtly change after killing someone. At this moment, he was like a ferocious beast that had tasted blood.

As he calmed down, Merlin suddenly felt a stabbing pain on the outer side of his left thigh.

His heart jolted, and he hurriedly checked it. A few seconds later, he let out a sigh of relief.

"I wasn't hit by that stray shot just now."

But he quickly realized that he had been scratched by some unknown thing in the sewer while fleeing in panic.

His expression darkened. The environment here was extremely harsh. If he stayed too long and the wound became infected...

"I can't just let them go."

A vicious glint flashed through Merlin's eyes.

"[Rat] naturally possesses extraordinary resistance to harsh environments."

Having made up his mind, Merlin turned around and carefully listened to the sounds growing more distant. Then he slowly moved his feet and followed after them.

They had chased him like a rat, yet they had failed to realize that a rat could turn back as well.

As he drew closer, Merlin heard them talking.

"That little rat can sure as hell run. These damn infected actually tried to escape through the sewers?"

"Exactly. Good thing Lord Dalami had the foresight to have us guard the sewer exits in every direction."

"I heard the other squads have already taken out quite a few rats. Why can't these damn Frevanz bastards just stay here and die on their own?

They just have to cause trouble for us.

They say Lead Platinum Disease is an incurable, highly contagious disease. They're already doomed, yet they still have to bring us trouble.

Alfa got taken out, too.

A bunch of damn bastards!"

Not far away, Merlin's gaze fell silent. It seemed he was not the only one with clever ideas.

"Looks like the sewer route is no longer viable."

Hesitation flashed through Merlin's eyes before he slowly backed away. The risk was not worth the reward.

He could not risk being shot just to take a dead end. He had to know when to cut his losses.