As they spoke, something stirred on the ground. Something rustled as it dug open the hole they had just filled, and a body like a leopard cat's crawled out.
Lei Qi immediately fired at the mutated animal, successfully killing the one that had just emerged.
The others following behind it heard the noise and scurried out, scattering in all directions.
Sang Luoluo's heart raced. "What are those things?! They can even dig tunnels?"
Lei Qi shone his flashlight over it, and Sang Luoluo saw an enormous mutated rat. By her estimate, it weighed over twenty jin. Its claws were sharp, as were its exposed teeth.
Lei Qi looked grim. "Mutated rats. Once you find one of these things, there's never just one. They come out in packs. There's no telling how many more are moving around underground."
"Huh? Then what do we do? Filling in the holes doesn't seem to stop them," Sang Luoluo said worriedly.
Lei Qi said, "Like you said, there's no good solution. They're probably what chewed through the defensive electric fence, and they can dig tunnels too. We have to keep an eye on them so they don't eat the others."
"Our only chance of survival now is to wait for reinforcements from the base."
Sang Luoluo suddenly remembered that she still had pesticides in her spatial warehouse, both dichlorvos and rat poison.
"I have an idea."
Lei Qi sounded uncertain. "Don't go taking risks."
Sang Luoluo tore the label off the dichlorvos before taking it out. Feeling that this wasn't a sure bet, she also took out some rat poison after obscuring the side bearing its production date.
She had bought all these for the farm back home. Her space didn't need them, but after buying them, she had felt that storing them in her space was convenient, so she had bought a batch and put it all in her spatial warehouse.
There was paraquat too, and Sang Luoluo took that out as well.
"What is all this? It smells so pungent." Lei Qi covered his nose.
Sang Luoluo thought for a moment, then fished a steamed bun out of her space, cut it into slices, and sprinkled half the rat poison over them.
She tossed them near the hole.
"Is that... food? You're just throwing it away!" Lei Qi said in exasperation. When he saw clearly that they were slices of steamed bun, he nearly exploded. "Those are steamed bun slices! Steamed buns! Lady! You're just letting those mutated rats have them?"
Sang Luoluo spread her hands. "You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. They're coated with rat poison."
Lei Qi was exasperated by her lack of worldly experience. "You could use other food instead! Don't use food this good!"
The aroma of food soon attracted the mutated rats. Two crawled over, and one snatched a slice of steamed bun and swallowed the whole thing in two bites.
Seeing this, Sang Luoluo tossed out a few more slices.
Lei Qi was heartbroken and anguished. How could she treat food like this!
Seeing his reaction, Sang Luoluo tossed him a slice of steamed bun. "Here, stop wailing!"
Lei Qi caught it, then immediately asked, "There's no rat poison on this, right?"
Sang Luoluo chuckled. "You don't have to eat it."
In the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of food. Lei Qi wolfed down the slice of steamed bun. It was delicious. This was what food should taste like. It had soul.
Soon, several more rats ran over and ate the steamed bun slices.
Before long, they collapsed and didn't get up.
Dead as doornails.
Four lay on the ground.
Sang Luoluo placed more slices of steamed bun around their group, afraid the mutated rats would eat people when they weren't paying attention. Compared with that, it was better for them to eat steamed bun slices plus rat poison.
Although this method helped a little, its usefulness was limited. Lei Qi reminded her, "That little bit of rat poison won't do much. There's no telling how many mutated rats are waiting underground."
Sang Luoluo knew that Lei Qi was right, but there was no better solution right now. She could only give it a try first.
After mixing the dichlorvos and paraquat together, Sang Luoluo strapped on the electric sprayer and began spraying pesticide on the pink-flowered vines covering the fence.
Lei Qi asked, "How do you even have something like that?"
Sang Luoluo said mildly, "Oh, we bought it at home before."
The pesticide left a white layer of dried residue on the leaves.
Only when dawn arrived did the two of them see clearly that the pink-flowered vines were densely packed all around them. They could no longer get out.
It had only been one night. Why had these vines grown so fast?
Mutated rats emerged to attack the people lying on the ground. Lei Qi had been standing guard for a while and shot the mutated rats that came running out.
Sang Luoluo looked at the rats' fur, as coarse as dried grass. Their size alone was frightening enough.
Sang Luoluo said, "We can't just keep guarding them like this. As more mutated rat corpses pile up here, they're bound to attract other mutated animals."
Zhang Yunyun suddenly began breathing rapidly. Still unconscious, she looked as though she wasn't going to make it.
Lei Qi hurried over to check on her, opening the first-aid kit and examining her. Her heart rate was abnormal, and several others were showing symptoms of varying severity too.
Lei Qi was frantic. "If they keep going like this, I don't know if they'll survive. Yan Lang is here too. If Elder Yan finds out he died while the two of us survived, we can forget about getting by at the base."
Sang Luoluo said, "Hmm?"
Lei Qi explained, "Elder Yan is the second-in-command of the base's Guard now. He basically has the final say in everything concerning the Guard. Yan Lang is his son. Think about it."
"He's stolen so much credit from Captain Qi's missions, and Elder Yan has turned a blind eye to it. The boss has swallowed his anger for so long. If it weren't for putting food on the table, who would put up with his crap!"
Sang Luoluo immediately understood what he meant. "We can't just watch him die here now, right?"
Lei Qi said, "That's about it, but of course there's no signal here."
Suddenly remembering something, Lei Qi asked, "Can't your space hold things? Can it hold people?"
Chapter 46: Signal lost: there were only two peanuts, and you ate mine...
Could it hold people?
She really had never tried that.
Previously, to avoid exposing the secret of her space, she had never used it in front of others. Now that the situation was unusual, she felt she needed to try.
"I've never tried. Do you want to go in and give it a shot?"
Everything inside her space was under her control anyway. She could separate out an empty patch of void and let him stay inside.
Lei Qi was somewhat tempted. "Shall we give it a try, then?"
Sang Luoluo nodded. Using her consciousness, she partitioned off a patch of void on the open ground in her space, tossed Lei Qi inside, and observed his reaction with her consciousness.
Lei Qi looked around but couldn't see anything. It was frighteningly quiet. He tried to walk forward, only to discover that he was trapped in a one-square-meter area. He couldn't move forward, backward, left, or right. There was nothing but emptiness all around. What the hell was this place?!
Was this actually what the inside of Sang Luoluo's space looked like?
When he first came in, Lei Qi had found it rather comfortable. The temperature was pleasant, but now that he was confined here, he felt as though he had been locked in a cage.
After ten minutes, he felt he couldn't stay any longer and shouted, "Sang Luoluo! That's enough, let me out!"
Sang Luoluo quickly tossed him out.
Once out, Lei Qi gasped for breath and said with lingering fear, "Why is your space so terrifying?! It felt like solitary confinement. It was frighteningly quiet. No, it was even worse than solitary confinement. Thank goodness I only stayed a few minutes. I'm afraid I'd go crazy if I stayed a whole day."
Sang Luoluo spread her hands. "It's just what you experienced. I didn't even dare put you in the time-frozen zone. I'm not sure what would happen there either."
Of course the area she had deliberately partitioned off was frightening. She couldn't let anyone see the farming area inside her space. That was her trump card.
"Why couldn't I see any of the things you put into your space?"
Sang Luoluo replied, "Those are my belongings. Of course I can't let you see them. Why else do you think I separated you from them?"
"Fine. What about these people? Put them in your space?" Lei Qi asked. "That kind of confined space should be fine as long as they don't wake up, right?"
Sang Luoluo shook her head. "I'm not sure either. They don't look like they're in very good condition."
Lei Qi watched the mutated rats scurry out of a corner and fired several shots, killing them.
"We can't worry about all that now. If you don't take them with us, they'll all die here. There's no signal here now. We have to find a way to get somewhere with a signal," Lei Qi decided firmly.
Sang Luoluo felt that he was experienced, so the two of them should have no trouble traveling here. "All right, we'll do as you say."
Lei Qi placed them inside a tent, and Sang Luoluo put them into her space along with the tent, isolating them separately. Even if they woke up, they wouldn't discover anything unusual about her space.
"Take everything here that can be dismantled. We'll use it on the way," Lei Qi said decisively.
The tents had already been taken down. There was also the equipment left behind by the other squads: laser guns, other weapons and equipment, grenades and the like, as well as wilderness survival tools. The defensive electric fence was dismantled too.
Lei Qi soon finished packing everything up. There was no need for any further packing; Sang Luoluo simply waved her hand and put it into her space.
Lei Qi watched enviously. "I've noticed your ability is a lot stronger now than when I first met you. It has so many functions. If only you joined our S16 Squad. It would make things so much easier when we went out."
He regretted not having her join the squad back then.
Sang Luoluo spread her hands. "I don't plan to join any squad. Look at my combat ability. I'm just trash. Without anyone else, even staying alive out here on my own would be a problem."