An Unusual Check-In Trait

Faced with the pack of Scarlet-Eyed Giant Rats charging at him, Chu Ge immediately activated Instant and met them with his blade.

Whoosh!

The blade slashed through the night sky, cleaving the giant rat at the front in two before it could even squeal.

Xiao Yan didn't hold him back, either.

She shifted her feet nimbly, dodged a giant rat that had lunged in front of her, and gripped her scythe in both hands as she swept it horizontally.

Another giant rat was sliced in half at the waist.

In their berserk state, the giant rats had lost all reason. Only slaughter remained in their eyes.

Seeing their companions fall one after another, the remaining rats showed no fear. Instead, they charged even harder, as though pumped full of stimulants.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

Fangs and claws gleamed coldly beneath the streetlights, and the sight of more than a dozen pairs of scarlet eyes gathered together made one's scalp tingle.

Even a few ordinary Qi and Blood Realm martial artists in their place would have been torn apart by more than a dozen berserk Scarlet-Eyed Giant Rats.

Only Chu Ge and Xiao Yan could barely keep the situation under control. One had reached the hundredth layer of Qi and Blood, while the other had recently broken through to the ninety-first. Both stood at the peak of the realm, and both had traits and top-grade Bronze Weapons to rely on.

Flashes of blade and scythe crossed. Just after cutting down the third rat, Chu Ge suddenly heard something whistling through the air overhead.

"Get out of the way!"

His warning was sharp, and Xiao Yan didn't hesitate for a moment.

They both slashed to drive back the giant rats in front of them, then turned and jumped into the lake behind them.

With two splashes, they had barely plunged into the water when an enormous fireball slammed into the battlefield they had just left.

Boom.

Flames shot skyward, turning everything within dozens of meters into a sea of fire.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!"

Screams rang out one after another. The weaker giant rats were burned straight to ash, and even the stronger ones didn't last half a second before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

In just a blink, every one of the dozen-plus giant rats was dead, leaving only scorched ground behind.

Chu Ge and Xiao Yan stayed in the lake with only their heads above water, watching as tongues of flame swept across the entire area.

Only after the sea of fire had completely died out did they exchange a glance, confirm that the danger had passed, and swim for shore.

When they climbed out, both were soaked through.

The autumn night breeze swept over them, making them shrink from the chill.

Fortunately, both were martial artists with hardy constitutions. An ordinary person who went through all that would most likely have caught a nasty cold.

Xiao Yan shook her hair.

Water droplets splashed all over Chu Ge's face, carrying a hint of jasmine fragrance.

He turned to look at her.

"Hey, Silly Roe Deer, could you watch it?"

"Bleh, bleh, bleh." The girl stuck out her tongue and hurriedly dodged a couple of steps to the side.

Just then, the patrol team arrived, led by none other than Lin Lan.

She first glanced at the scorch marks on the ground. The heat left by the flames still lingered in the air. Then she looked at the two dripping figures and asked, "Are you two all right?"

"We're fine." Chu Ge shook his head slightly, his face a little pale. "Thanks for stepping in when you did. Any later, and the two of us probably would have been done for."

He was telling the truth.

Instant had almost stacked to its fourth stage just now. If he had held on any longer, even if he managed to cut down all the giant rats, the side effects would have drained him dry.

If he had actually passed out, tomorrow's East Sea Martial Arts School Competition would definitely have been out of the question.

"Good." Lin Lan nodded, her gaze lingering on Chu Ge's face for two extra seconds.

She thought it was quite a coincidence, too.

East Sea was so big, yet she kept running into this extraordinary man who had broken off his engagement to her younger female cousin.

And every time, it was because of Scarlet-Eyed Giant Rats.

As for why she called Chu Ge an "extraordinary man"...

It was because everyone in their circle called him that in private.

After all, a normal person wouldn't say something like, "Romance will slow me down from fighting my way through this high-martial world."

She put the thought aside and asked a few routine questions.

When she finished, she casually added, "What are you planning to do next? Continue your date along the lake?"

"We're not on a date." Chu Ge tugged at the hem of his soaked clothes and frowned. "We came out tonight to find demonic beasts to practice on. We're heading back now."

Xiao Yan nodded along and corrected her with a perfectly serious face. "That's right. I'm his older female cousin, not his girlfriend."

"I see." Lin Lan nodded, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from curling up slightly.

Of course she knew what their relationship was.

The eldest young lady of the Xiao Family and the young master of the Chu Family had grown up together. Who in East Sea's upper circles didn't know that?

If the two hadn't been cousins, that childhood engagement would never have fallen to Lin Luyin.

Lin Lan herself was a veteran incest-genre fan who had reread related manga and novels over and over.

In her experience, there was definitely something hard to put into words between Chu Ge and Xiao Yan.

She had deliberately said that to test them, hoping to see whether hitting a secret nerve would make them blush.

But neither of them reacted at all.

Boring.

She asked again, "Do you live far away? Want me to have someone escort you back?"

Chu Ge hesitated.

They had just finished a tough fight and didn't have much Primordial Force left. If they ran into more demonic beasts on the way back, it would indeed be troublesome.

"Wouldn't that be too much trouble? You're still on duty, after all."

"What trouble?" Lin Lan said earnestly. "We come out to patrol in the middle of the night precisely to protect the citizens."

"You two are citizens too. Protecting you is our duty. That's official business."

Chu Ge was momentarily taken aback.

The greatest heroes serve their country and its people? Her words almost made him want to join the Martial Arts Association.

Still, a position like that wasn't something one could get just by wanting it. A job in the system required both strength and good character.

Commonly known as taking the civil service exam.

"Then sorry for the trouble." Chu Ge gave her a faint smile. "I'll send your department a commendation banner another day."

"It's our duty." Lin Lan smiled as well, then turned and called to a team member nearby. "Xiao Li, escort them home. Stay safe on the way."

"Yes, Sister Lan! I guarantee I'll complete the mission!" The patrolman called Xiao Li nodded emphatically and gave a proper salute.

"Who's your Sister Lan? Use my rank when we're working!"

As soon as she said it, Lin Lan herself froze.

Why did that sound so familiar?

She couldn't remember for the moment.

But she had to admit, it felt pretty good to say.

"Yes, Captain!"

The three turned and headed out of the park. Lin Lan stood where she was, watching them leave as she took out her phone.

Her fingers flew across the screen as she sent Xiao Li a message:

"Keep an eye on those two for me. If they make any little gestures only couples make, remember to tell me. I'll buy you milk tea another day. Double the reward if you have photos."

Xiao Li replied quickly: "Captain, isn't it wrong to secretly photograph people and invade their privacy?"

Lin Lan thought about it and decided he was right. They couldn't do anything illegal.

She replied, "You have a point. Secretly photographing them really won't do, so just take a selfie and accidentally get them in the background."

At the end, she added another sentence:

"If anything happens, I'll take responsibility."

To Lin Lan, commendation banners and the like were all meaningless. How could they compare to eating melon?

Her motto in life was simple:

Be a rat in a tunnel, digging exclusively for the sweet morsels of forbidden love. The more thrilling, the sweeter the taste.

She put away her phone and checked the time.

It was only eleven thirty. There was still a long time until the shift change at two in the morning.

The night was long, and she had to find some entertainment to pass the time.

She opened a manga website she had bookmarked long ago and found a title called "Cousin, Don't Look Back, I Really Am Not Your Older Cousin."

She scrolled all the way to the bottom.

The page showed that it still hadn't been updated. The comment section was full of readers howling for updates, with hundreds of replies.

Lin Lan frowned, a little annoyed.

Working overtime was bad enough, but now even her spiritual sustenance had stopped updating. Life was becoming unbearable.

She hoped Xu Junyuan's concert would hurry up and arrive, so she could at least have some fresh entertainment.

She casually tipped the author a few hundred yuan, locked her phone, straightened her uniform, and turned to continue her patrol.

There was melon to eat, but work to do too.

After all, she was being paid, so she had to do some proper work.

Meanwhile, Xiao Li accompanied Chu Ge and Xiao Yan home.

Xiao Yan chattered all the way, talking about how powerful that fireball had been and how nice Lin Lan seemed, and saying she wanted to send a commendation banner too.

Chu Ge barely joined in, walking beside her as he silently regulated his breathing.

That fight had taken a lot out of him.

His muscles had torn from fighting at high speed, and he had also taken the impacts of several giant rats head-on. Now his whole body ached.

Before long, Xiao Yan's eyelids began to droop. Carrying her giant scythe, she swayed as she walked and nearly ran into a streetlight.

"I can't go on. I'm so sleepy..."

"Give it to me." A little helpless, Chu Ge reached out and took the scythe from her hand. "Hold on to my clothes while you walk."

"Am I really that useless?" Xiao Yan muttered, unconvinced.

"Fine, suit yourself."

Xiao Li walked beside them, pretending to look at the scenery by the road while secretly watching them out of the corner of his eye.

He silently grumbled to himself that the captain was really something. Those two were clearly just a normal older sister and younger brother. What romantic tension was there?

Besides, what could possibly happen between cousins? Who would be unable to think straight enough to enter Haijiao?

He took out his phone and snapped a selfie, with half of Chu Ge and Xiao Yan's figures just visible in the background.

After taking it, he messaged Lin Lan:

"Captain, got the photo. There really aren't any intimate gestures. They're just walking and chatting normally."

After sending it, he tucked his phone back into his pocket and continued leading the way dutifully.

The night grew darker, and fewer and fewer cars remained on the streets.

The three figures slowly blended into the light and shadows of the streetlamps as they walked farther and farther away.

It was exactly midnight when Chu Ge returned to the residential complex, and the notification that check-in had refreshed sounded in his mind.

He first took Xiao Yan home, then went upstairs to his own place and headed straight for the bathroom as soon as he walked in.

As the warm water poured over him, the soreness throughout his body finally eased considerably.

He came out drying his hair, walked to the window, and glanced in the direction of Lakeside Park.

Scarlet-Eyed Giant Rats were appearing more and more frequently, and there was also the berserk transformation whose cause was unknown.

This was definitely no coincidence.

The beast tide from ten years ago was probably going to happen again.

His gaze darkened a little.

"System, check in."

The next second, the notification for a successful check-in sounded, but what he received made Chu Ge pause in surprise.