Big Black Rat

After hearing Xilin out, Shute used the communicator to say a few words, then handed it to Xilin. "Tell Boss Huo."

Xilin took the communicator and explained what they knew to Huoding, then sent over the series of data from their instrument analysis. The evidence was more than persuasive enough.

"Keep all the blood samples and other specimens you've collected. I'll send people to pick them up. I'll also have the other teams collect more samples." After hearing Xilin's report, Huoding realized how serious the situation was and went over a few things Xilin needed to watch out for.

"Okay, understood. We'll be careful..."

Xilin suddenly paused in the middle of his call with Huoding. He spun around and fired two quick shots. There was no time to hesitate or aim; every movement flowed into the next.

Bang! Bang!

Nearby, Shute was still talking with his team. He sensed danger as soon as Xilin raised his gun, but before he could react, Xilin's two bullets tore past. The bullets swept by Shute's hair, just beside his ear. He could still feel the heat of the explosive rounds as they flew past, and smell the singed hair left behind in their wake.

It was a black rat nearly two meters long, not counting its tail. When the first shot hit it, the bullet only exploded in a small area of its body. The chemical agent hadn't quickly spread throughout it, so without the second bullet right behind it, the rat would still have had enough strength to claw Shute in the back and tear him apart.

The black rat, hit by both shots, lay on the ground twitching. Its dagger-sharp claws gouged several deep Claw Marks into the floor. Clearly, these rats were far more resistant to the chemical agent in the bullets than the ones they'd encountered earlier.

Before the bloodstains had completely powdered away, Xilin quickly took out a syringe and drew up some of the blood on the ground, then put it into a small tube containing a neutralizing agent and an anticoagulant. While the others watched, still so shocked they nearly jumped out of their skins, he also cut a piece of flesh from the Big Black Rat and soaked it in a bag of neutralizing agent.

The team members felt a chill run down their backs. They couldn't tell whether the rat or Xilin had frightened them more. Couldn't the guy do anything to put them at ease?! The rat was still twitching and hadn't even died, yet he'd already rushed over to draw blood and cut off a piece of flesh. Wasn't he afraid it would claw him one last time before it died?

The Big Black Rat's blood-red eyes gradually dimmed and turned black. At last, it died and slowly powdered away. But its several dagger-sharp claws remained perfectly intact.

"Thank you," Shute said as he came to his senses. He and the others had been talking, but they'd still been on their guard. Yet nobody had noticed the Big Black Rat approaching; even he hadn't sensed the danger until Xilin raised his gun. Though Shute had been facing away from it, he'd still sensed its speed as it charged in—several times faster than the other rats, and utterly silent. By the time you noticed it, it was already too late.

The communicator with Huoding was still on. Through its video feed, Huoding had already seen what had just happened. There was no need for further proof; he'd witnessed for himself the stronger black rats Xilin had described. If the ones beneath the base were all like this, the consequences would be unthinkable.

If Xilin hadn't warned them, the hidden Black Rat Elites would probably have taken advantage of the teams' absence to kill the researchers in the base's central area and the members of the two squads sent to rescue them while everyone else was surrounding the Rat Nest at the Waste Disposal Plant.

Picking up one of the intact rat claws, he drew it across the nearby lab bench. It sliced easily through the hardened surface, leaving a clean cut.

"Holy crap, this thing is incredible!" one of the team members exclaimed. It was far beyond anything they'd predicted.

"This Big Black Rat was probably on patrol, checking whether the Action Team had all left. After all, based on the timing, the other teams should've already left the base for the Waste Disposal Plant, but we were still here." Xilin offered his guess. The fact that the rat had made it here safely also meant it wasn't afraid of the rat poison sprayed in the underground passageways.

"I've already ordered six teams to return. I'm leaving two teams and the armed aircraft over there. If they can't handle it, I'll have the aircraft flatten the whole area with its high-energy cannon." Huoding no longer had the energy to worry about the Waste Disposal Plant. Xilin's warning had him too agitated to sit still.

Meanwhile, just as the protective shield around the base's central area was about to be lowered so the Tenth Team could begin the rescue, Huoding urgently called it off. At the same time, the engineers protected by the Ninth Team, who had been racing to repair the power supply and other critical equipment, were hurriedly brought back aboard the aircraft. The base was too dangerous...

They immediately began processing the samples and data Xilin had submitted. Huoding then issued new orders to every team leader and sent more machines into the underground passageways to widen them. Otherwise, the soldiers wouldn't be able to move once they went down. They'd be nothing but food.

Strangely, the farther down the tunnels went, the wider they became. There was no need for machines to enlarge them. Once a machine reached a certain depth, the black rats below tore it apart. But before it was destroyed, its onboard detectors had registered large numbers of abnormal lifeforms below. This confirmed Xilin's guess.

But this raised another question: why were the tunnels below so wide? Did that mean there were even bigger black rats? For now, there was no answer.

Perhaps they'd sensed something, because the black rats hidden deep beneath the base began stirring earlier than expected.

Eight teams were deployed, some entering the underground tunnels and others remaining at various points around the base.

As Huoding had instructed, everyone fired at least two shots at any black rat that climbed out of a hole. Aside from the holes already opened inside the base, these Big Black Rats had also opened many more as they charged toward the surface, in places outside the Action Team's line of fire.

They were like a horde of frenzied avengers, utterly indifferent to their own lives as they rushed toward the central area. Their speed and keen senses made them much harder to hit. The Action Teams also had to keep changing positions, since a Big Black Rat could suddenly burst out of the ground at any moment. Several people had already been dragged into holes by rats that sprang out of nowhere. They hadn't even had time to scream.

Xilin's team went underground. It was very dark in the tunnel, but their masks were equipped with night vision. After all, there were far fewer interference devices underground than inside the base. The team members worked well together, and so far, nobody had been hurt. Their firepower was concentrated in the underground tunnel.

As they went deeper, the tunnel widened until three people could walk side by side. At a fork, they found a pool of blood. It wasn't from a black rat, but from a person. At the same time, a faint cry for help reached them.

Thanks to book friend Wu Wanyan for the reward!

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