Breaking Free

When the squad leader sensed something was wrong, he reported their situation and the names of the squad members to Huoding. Everyone knew that even if Huoding wanted to rescue them, he was powerless to do so. Similar situations had arisen in several other places, but Saqi's squad had been the first to encounter the black rats returning to their tunnels from the surface.

Huoding listened to his squad members' breathing over the communicator, along with the sounds growing louder by the second. His heart felt unbearably heavy. They were all still alive now; he could still hear them breathing. But what about the next moment? The team members around Huoding had reddened eyes, but there was nothing they could do. They couldn't get there in time.

Underground, the squad members could already see the black rats at the far end of the passage through their night-vision goggles.

"Get ready... to fi—"

Before the squad leader could finish saying "fire," a voice suddenly came through the communicator.

"All squad members who've encountered a large group of black rats returning from the surface: if you want to live, don't shoot! Move to the side at once and press yourselves against the tunnel wall! Remember, don't shoot!"

Xilin! It was Xilin!

The black rats were getting closer, but the squad leader hesitated.

"Do as he says! Don't shoot! Get to the side and press yourselves against the wall!" On the surface, Knight, who was standing beside Huoding, snatched the communicator from his hand and shouted into it.

The squad leader gritted his teeth. "Do it!"

By the time the squad members had pressed themselves against the wall, the black rats were already three meters away. They'd been this close to black rats before, but then they'd had their weapons raised. This was nothing like that.

When the first black rat raced past them, their hearts nearly leaped into their throats. Its huge incisors and sharp claws were inches away, its eyes bloodred, and its rank stench filled the air. The squad members' scalps prickled. Some were even ready to die.

But the black rat seemed not to see them at all. It kept up its speed and shot past.

Then one, then another, then another...

Saqi felt the black rat's coarse black fur brush against him, and could hardly believe it. These were black rats—real Big Black Rats, mutated black rats that might not go down even after two shots! He could still sense the murderous ferocity radiating from them, but... damn it, they just went past. They really did! They didn't even glance their way.

This was definitely the most terrifying and bizarre thing any of them had ever experienced!

Only Xilin knew what the Black Rat Leader's howl meant: every black rat was to drop what it was doing, ignore everything else, and focus all its efforts on surrounding Xilin. As long as they got the White Ball back, they'd have a chance to rise again.

On the other end of the communicator, Huoding and the team members around him held their breath as they listened to the black rats' pounding footsteps. The video feed was on, but the darkness made it hard to see anything. Still, the red eyes were fairly distinct. Just watching the communicator made their adrenaline surge and sent a chill through them. They could imagine how the few people on the other end must feel, with the black rats passing right by them.

After the black rats had passed, the rumbling sounds faded into the distance.

Knight breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, Xilin was no ordinary person. But when he tried to contact Xilin again, he couldn't get through.

After seeing what happened to this squad, the other squads in the same situation followed suit. They hadn't realized how much courage it took until they did it. Anyone timid would have fainted on the spot.

In the tunnel, the squad members' backs were almost soaked through. They remained pressed against the wall, their bodies still stiff, hardly daring to breathe.

Once they came to their senses, relief at having survived mingled with a strange feeling. The impassioned, heroic atmosphere from before had been swept away without a trace. It was like spending ages working yourself up to take a dump, only to let out a fart instead—absurd and laughable. Their feelings were complicated, to say the least.

Good thing that kid warned them in time. Otherwise... The squad members shuddered just thinking about it.

If they knew that Xilin was the one who'd brought the black rats back in the first place, they'd have been furious enough to wring his neck.

Still running, Xilin figured the time was about right and put the White Ball into Yuanye's Ring. Other spatial items might have been unstable, but he'd tested this one earlier and it worked just fine. As expected of something from the mysterious Shangshu Fuji Yuanye Family.

After putting the White Ball away, Xilin sprayed himself with some prepared chemicals, removing the ointment he'd deliberately smeared on himself earlier to give off a scent humans couldn't detect. As a Hunter, he'd misled prey with scent plenty of times...

Xilin had left the Big Black Rat far behind. If it could talk, it would probably say, "Damn it, you're fast! Which one of us is the rat here?! This guy isn't human—he really isn't!"

When the Black Rat Leader followed the scent, all it found was a cat's face sprayed on the tunnel wall in fluorescent paint, grinning like an idiot. Beside it was a huge "Meow"...

Farther ahead, the scent vanished.

Xilin didn't know whether the Big Black Rat could recognize the word "Meow," but it was obviously furious enough to smoke. As long as it added fuel to the fire, that was all he needed. With Xilin, the one who'd stolen the White Ball, nowhere to be found, and that taunting cat face on top of it, what would the Black Rat Leader do?

The revenge against the base researchers had long since been kicked to the other side of the universe. Now all the Big Black Rat wanted was to find that detestable human, take back the White Ball, tear him to pieces, and grind him into the dirt!

The personnel in the underground tunnels were all withdrawing to the surface. With the Black Rat Leader so enraged and no target to vent its fury on, what was it most likely to do? Charge up to the surface.

And what was waiting on the surface? The concentrated firepower of the task force, with armed aircraft overhead. Following the principle of capturing the leader first, the Big Black Rat would be a target for everyone the moment it emerged. And without the White Ball sustaining it, its stamina was already waning and its physical defenses had weakened considerably. Its attack power was still formidable, but it was clearly much less of a threat than before. Xilin trusted Huoding to handle it.

Xilin took another route to the surface, avoiding the groups of black rats summoned by the Black Rat Leader. When he was close to the surface, he sensed a squad nearby, so he took another path and ran ahead of them. Using the Rat Claw he'd collected, he tore his Combat Suit and left several gashes. He controlled the color and viscosity of the blood, as well as how the wounds had clotted, making them look like they'd been there for a while.

He'd already injected himself with two tubes of Serum Antibody. Xilin forced his face to pale, making himself look like a wounded man who'd lost too much blood and was utterly exhausted. He'd destroyed his communicator after the previous call, so no one could use its signal to track his location.

Once he'd finished preparing and checked everything over, Xilin lay down and calmly waited for the squad passing through. Things unfolded much as he'd expected: they took him for a wounded man and helped him back to the surface.

After confirming that Xilin was merely injured and not in any danger, Huoding felt relieved. Otherwise, how would he explain it to Old Master Mo when they got back?

Xilin told Huoding his "guess," and as soon as he'd heard it, Huoding ordered everyone to get ready and wait for the black rats underground to emerge. He also thought, As expected of Old Master Mo's prized student. His predictions are always spot-on.