Rat Tide

"Head south! Run south! There are cliffs and forests that way, and the terrain is complicated!" Wang Ji quickly made his decision. He had Spiritual Force, especially the ability to scan. With Iron Will boosting it, its range reached a full forty-meter radius, and its precision was much greater. The more complex the terrain, the better it was for Wang Ji to escape.

Ordinary fighters might have powerful bodies, but if they stepped wrong, wouldn't they need to adjust their balance? If the soil was loose, wouldn't that greatly slow them down? Of course it would!

With Spiritual Force boosting him, Wang Ji's speed reached 89 m/s, nearly matching a Beginner War General. His Spiritual Force also scanned the path ahead, letting him choose the best places to land in advance and push aside vines and branches blocking his way. His speed hardly dropped at all.

Behind him, Liu Zhendong was a seasoned Beginner War General and could reach nearly 110 m/s. But in the forest, he could only move a little faster than Wang Ji.

The gap was slowly closing, but Liu Zhendong didn't have an overwhelming advantage.

"Faster! A little faster!" Wang Ji incorporated his Micro-level footwork into his escape. Often, he only needed a slight sidestep to avoid a tree without losing any speed.

The men behind him were racing along at nearly a hundred meters per second. Every so often, they nearly lost control and slammed into a tree, forcing them to slow down to avoid it before accelerating again.

But the three pursuers were War Generals, after all, and the distance between them was shrinking.

"You can't get away! Surrender, and I might spare your life!" Liu Zhendong roared.

Seeing Liu Zhendong close to within forty meters, Wang Ji flicked his wrist and sent a flying knife shooting behind him. It seemed to have eyes of its own as it made straight for Liu Zhendong's throat.

"Damn it! The kid's running with his back to me, and his knife is still that accurate!" Liu Zhendong barely had time to react. He slammed on the brakes and blocked the knife with his arm shield.

"Clang!" The knife carved a half-centimeter-deep gash into the shield.

"Damn!" Liu Zhendong was terrified. What series was that flying knife? At least Series 7 or 8! It was incredibly sharp! If it had hit his body... Liu Zhendong shuddered.

That delay widened the distance between them by more than a hundred meters.

"Kid, stop running!" Liu Zhendong continued the pursuit.

"Whoosh!" A mountain could seem close but take forever to reach. After seven or eight minutes, Wang Ji finally dashed into the forest.

Liu Zhendong, Dayang, and Kezi continued to pursue him relentlessly.

"Whoosh!" A cliff stretched out ahead, over a hundred meters high. But Wang Ji charged straight over it as if he hadn't noticed.

Wang Ji seemed to be using his hands and feet to brace himself and slow his fall against the sheer cliff face, but his 1,200 kilograms of Spiritual Force was already supporting him at his boots and belt. It looked perilous, but he was perfectly safe.

The three men behind him were different. Their faces turned ashen as they watched Wang Ji leap off the cliff as if he didn't care whether he lived or died. A fall of over a hundred meters could easily break their bones. They slammed on the brakes and only just managed to stop at the edge.

"Argh!" Furious, Liu Zhendong hurled the shield in his hand. It let out a terrifying whistling sound as it hurtled toward Wang Ji. Most of Wang Ji's Spiritual Force was supporting his body. Even if he could spare some to block it, he couldn't stop something carrying over ten thousand kilograms of force.

"Bang!" The shield slowed slightly, then slammed into Wang Ji's back.

"Pfft!" Wang Ji spat out a mouthful of blood. His Series 5 combat suit protected him, but he still felt as if his body were about to fall apart.

"Essence Source, 10 points!" Wang Ji growled inwardly.

His injuries healed in an instant, leaving only a trace of pleasant warmth that slightly improved his physical fitness. It also restored some of the energy his body had spent in its desperate burst of speed.

Without looking back, Wang Ji continued fleeing.

"Take another route! Chase him!" Liu Zhendong's face was livid.

"This..." Dayang and Kezi hesitated. Wang Ji had shown a speed almost equal to theirs. He wasn't someone they could kill with a casual squeeze, as they'd initially thought. No wonder their captain hadn't come. The captain really did have a keen eye. If they failed to kill Wang Ji, they'd make an enemy of him and invite trouble down the line.

"Two million each once we're done!" Liu Zhendong said through gritted teeth.

"Fine! Let's chase him!" The three quickly leaped down from a gentler slope and resumed their pursuit.

"Damn, he's like glue!" Wang Ji glanced back. The three men were still following him relentlessly from over a thousand meters away.

"The county seat! There are lots of tall buildings and complicated streets. It'll be easier to hide!" Wang Ji thought.

In the blink of an eye, he quickly changed direction. As he ran, he sent Jiang Nian a message for help. "Help me..."

County 0231.

Wang Ji raced from rooftop to rooftop. He looked as if he were risking his life, as one wrong step could send him tumbling from a high-rise—or drop him into a monster's nest even if he survived the fall. In reality, he was steady as could be.

His pursuers were the ones having a hard time.

"Ding! Instance discovered: Rat Tide! Approach the instance to enter its range."

When Wang Ji heard the words "Rat Tide," he nearly fell off the roof. A Rat Tide! A terrifying Rat Tide! But he understood a moment later: it wasn't a real Rat Tide, but an instance called Rat Tide! An instance!

You could enter an instance physically, and time continued to pass inside it. It just moved ten times faster than time in the outside world.

If he hid in the instance for one day...

In the blink of an eye, Wang Ji circled around the spot indicated by the prompt several times and quickly found the instance entrance. Then he led Liu Zhendong on another chase, like a dog being walked. In a blind spot where he was out of sight, he said, "Enter the instance! Enter physically!"

"Ding! Entering instance: Rat Tide! Instance mission: Survive. Remaining entries: 2/3."

In the blink of an eye, the world changed.

Wang Ji stood on the fourteenth floor of a high-rise.

"Rat Tide! It's a Rat Tide! Run!" someone cried desperately.

Wang Ji leaped straight up from the fourteenth floor. That was right—up. His Spiritual Force lifted him rapidly into the air along with his arm shield, and he stood on the shield.

"Caw..." A clear eagle cry rang out. Wang Ji saw two golden giant eagles circling high above. Seeing their incredible speed, he immediately understood. "Those are high-level Beast General monsters!"

Good grief, the sky really wasn't a place you could fly around in safely. Especially during a monster tide—it was definitely no place to be.

Before the giant eagles could attack, Wang Ji jumped back down. "Bang!"

Run! Get out of here, fast!

His Spiritual Force was only at Beginner Warrior Level. At most, it could carry him through the air at twenty-something meters per second. He'd be a sitting duck. He could only break through on the ground.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." Countless rats poured out from underground, from the stairwells, from the sewers, from everywhere. The small ones were as big as house cats. The largest were as big as wild boars.

Run!

"Squeak!" Countless rats surged toward Wang Ji.

"Get out of my way!" Wang Ji killed two with a single slash, but dozens more immediately swarmed toward him. "Flying knives! Use the flying knives!"

Three flying knives turned into streaks of dark light. They only carried 1,200 kilograms of force, but they were Series 8 flying knives—razor-sharp!

In an instant, Beast Soldier-level rats fell like stalks of wheat. As expected, Spiritual Force users had a natural advantage when clearing out weaker enemies. One person could take on an entire squad.

"Squeak!" A rat as big as a wild boar lunged at Wang Ji. It had to be Beast General level. Wang Ji swiftly brought down his battle knife. With a thought, an egg-sized smoke bomb flew out of his backpack toward the Beast General-level rat. The rat tried to smash it with its paw.

"Bang!" The smoke bomb exploded instantly.

In an instant, pungent, eye-watering smoke enveloped the rat.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" The rat squealed in panic and darted sideways. If it had been an ordinary smoke bomb, the rat would have escaped in an instant. But Wang Ji was controlling this smoke with his Spiritual Force, and the smoke particles followed the rat as it moved.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." Still shrouded in smoke, the rat panicked.

"Pfft!" Guided by his Spiritual Force scan, Wang Ji thrust his knife into the Beast General-level rat, twisted it to destroy all its internal organs, then quickly pulled it out.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." More rats were already swarming in.

Wang Ji was surrounded!

Standing on his shield, Wang Ji shot tens of meters into the air, leaped onto a nearby building, then quickly jumped into another street.

"Squeak..." Another rat spotted Wang Ji. A new round of killing began.

Wang Ji was covered in foul-smelling rat blood. He no longer knew how many places he'd fled through or how many rats he'd killed. He simply killed mechanically. Kill! Kill! Kill!

"Roar!" A furious, grief-stricken roar rang out!

It wasn't a monster! It was a human! A human voice!

Wang Ji quickly rose into the air. "That's..."