radicalducati Chapter 94 The Rat in the Wall?
Chapter 94 The Rat in the Wall?
The survivors were extremely grateful for the immense satisfaction they felt.
However, they then dispersed and returned to their small cubicles in the family lounge.
The two hovering blades also left Lü Rong's neck and, under precise control, returned to their previous positions.
Lu Rong's face turned from white to green, then from green to red. He glared at Zhao Jia with resentment, as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end, he only managed to squeeze out a "fox borrowing the tiger's power" through gritted teeth, and then, like a stray dog that had lost a fight, he left dejectedly.
Zhao Jia simply chuckled.
The insignificant authority was easily crushed by a more powerful force, yet dared not harbor the slightest resentment towards the force itself. Instead, it directed its anger at the seemingly powerless person beside it, a pathetic and laughable clown.
However, not everyone left.
There were still a few scattered people who, after filling their water bottles, remained around the two, their eyes darting around, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.
The wolves looked at them with some confusion, seemingly not understanding why they hadn't left even though their needs had been met.
"Is there anything else?" Zhao Jia asked.
"I... I'll give you this watch! Take me with you!"
"What's the use of a watch! I have a whole box of lighters! Please take me with you!"
"I have nothing... but I can do any kind of work! Please!"
Several people spoke at the same time, their voices anxious and chaotic.
It took Zhao Jia quite a while to sort out the core idea they wanted to express amidst the noise.
They want to leave. At any cost, for a simple reason.
First, this place is not safe. Occasionally, huge, fast-moving mutant rats appear at night, and several people have been bitten.
Secondly, and most frighteningly, is the fact that the people here can go insane for no apparent reason.
Not many days have passed since the disaster struck, and in this small survivor settlement, four people have already gone insane.
Besides the glutton who was just executed by the wolves, there were three others before him.
"Were there any unusual behaviors before the outburst?"
Zhao Jia turned his gaze to one of the elderly men who appeared to be the oldest and whose logic was also the clearest.
Of course, the so-called logical clarity is only at the level of "the tallest among the short".
"Yes! Yes!" A flicker of fear crossed the old man's eyes. "They've all gone mad, like they're possessed!"
"Take that competitive eater, for example. A few days before he went crazy, he was like he was possessed, turning the kitchen upside down!"
"Then, he caught all the live creatures he could find—geckos, insects, rats—and mixed them together, forcing himself and the executive to eat them."
He even cooked his portion over a fire, but made the executive eat it raw.
"...That's ruthless, although that last sentence actually made him seem less insane," Zhao Jia remarked.
"The second to last one to go crazy was that lame man who fawned over Lü Rong."
"That cripple isn't actually a bad person, he's just good at talking and getting things done. I heard he used to be a gangster when he was younger, but he only settled down after being shot in the knee."
Until I took an arrow to the knee? What era are we living in? Such an old joke. Zhao Jia's inner monologue continued uncontrollably.
I even felt a bit stifled, because there was no one here who could understand my complaints.
"How did he go insane?"
"Sigh, he's getting weirder every day. First, he would hide in a corner and talk to himself, spouting nonsense. Then it got to the point where he wanted to hit anyone he saw."
"On the last morning, he suddenly rushed out like a mad dog, jumping and leaping around in the yard, and no one dared to stop him. He was soaked to the bone by the red rain, and soon collapsed on the ground, motionless."
"The other two have very similar symptoms."
"Where's the body?" Zhao Jia astutely grasped the key point. "Was it cremated?"
"How can we cremate him!" The old man waved his hands repeatedly. "Diesel is too precious. We need to save it for the generator or to fight monsters."
"We took advantage of the light rain and, led by Lao Zhang, quickly dug a hole and buried them."
"Old Zhang?"
"Look, that's him." The old man pointed to a spot not far away.
Zhao Jia and Lang looked in the direction he pointed, and there was the middle-aged man with a beer belly who had smoothed things over during the conflict and was now looking at them with concern.
The middle-aged man, known as Old Zhang, noticed the gazes of the crowd and gave the two of them a smile that could be described as ingratiating.
"I am a forensic pathologist, or rather, I used to be a forensic pathologist."
"I see." Zhao Jia instantly understood.
No wonder when the wolf used its telekinesis to warn Lü Rong, a professional scalpel flew out of his pocket.
Old Zhang approached the two with a beaming smile, adopting a humble posture and praising them enthusiastically:
"Oh! Thank you so much! Each of you has solved a huge problem for us! On behalf of everyone, I extend the warmest welcome to you both!"
His tone was so sincere, as if he were welcoming an inspecting leader. Could a forensic pathologist really be so... diplomatic?
"Also, it's getting late, and the rain is getting heavier outside. You two must be tired from your journey. Why don't you go and rest? There are still plenty of empty rooms here."
Old Zhang led them solicitously toward the family rest room.
The group of people who had been surrounding them earlier wisely kept quiet and followed behind in twos and threes, preparing to go home.
"Oh, right."
As they walked along the road, Zhao Jia seemed to suddenly remember something and casually asked the old man from earlier a question.
"Did that executive who ate with the competitive eater end up choking to death?"
"Oh, that was terrible!" the old man replied immediately, a look of lingering fear on his face.
"While eating, I suddenly started vomiting, vomiting so hard that I felt dizzy and disoriented. Then I grabbed my own neck, arched my back like a bridge, and convulsed uncontrollably. I died in no time."
"Suffocated to death... How could it be so tragic?" Zhao Jia felt sorry for the man.
"It's not that exaggerated." Old Zhang, who was walking at the front, suddenly turned around and interrupted the group's thoughts with a smile.
"The old man's memory isn't good, and his description was exaggerated. However, the actual scene wasn't much better."
He spoke in a tone accustomed to all kinds of corpses: "It was indeed suffocation. However, it wasn't from choking on vomit."
"I examined him, and it turns out he had a severe allergic reaction to a certain protein in those insects, which caused laryngeal edema and blocked his trachea."
"Is that why you struggled so fiercely because you couldn't breathe...?"
The wolf murmured thoughtfully, acknowledging the reasonable explanation.
Zhao Jia simply nodded silently, offering no comment.
The family lounge was a large space divided into many small cubicles. Zhang Guodong led them to two adjacent rooms at the far end of the corridor.
"With Miss Wolf here, everyone can finally get a good night's sleep tonight."
"You two should get some rest too. Especially Miss Wolf, did you go out to clear out the monsters around here?"
"Yes, roughly... a radius of three kilometers." The wolf's answer was casual, but it caused a fleeting look of astonishment to cross Zhang Guodong's face.
"Also, just like they said, there are indeed mutated rats around here at night. But don't worry, we'll have people keep watch. These guys aren't strong."
He waved goodbye to the two of them.
The corridor returned to silence.
The wolf turned around, gave Zhao Jia a faint smile, and the light around her faded, turning her back into the girl wearing asymmetrical stockings.
"Why...why are people still unhappy even when I do good deeds?" The smile on her face vanished instantly, as if she were talking to herself, her voice carrying a noticeable hint of disappointment.
Zhao Jia was about to speak, offering his own philosophy of being a corporate slave to comfort him, when the wolf looked at him and shook its head.
"Never mind, I understand." She seemed to be just venting and didn't want to answer.
"...Would you like to come in? My room is quite big." She extended an invitation.
"...No need," Zhao Jia declined. "I feel there are still quite a few doubts that need to be sorted out, and I'd like to be alone for a while."
"And," he pointed to the two doors that were right next to each other.
"The soundproofing here isn't very good. I'm sitting by the door, so I can react immediately to any unexpected incidents. I can also hear people coming in from outside. You should rest first."
The wolf didn't insist any further, but simply nodded, went into his room, and gently closed the door.
Zhao Jia also went into his room.
He simply found a chair, sat down, and began to review all the information he had gathered that day.
The air inside the crematorium was cold and damp. Although it was the height of summer, the temperature was much lower than before because of the eerie red clouds that blocked out the sunlight.
Even the rumbling thunder was quite hypnotic. He thought about it absentmindedly, but his eyelids began to grow heavier and heavier.
"boom!"
A sudden clap of thunder jolted him awake. He realized that this drowsiness was quite inappropriate.
wrong.
Alarm bells rang in Zhao Jia's mind. He pinched his thigh hard, instantly snapping himself back to reality.
It's only just gotten dark, and given his routine and mental state, he shouldn't be feeling sleepy at this hour. Moreover, this seems different from typical drowsiness.
He completed the transformation without hesitation.
A green light flashed, and Little Green cautiously looked around. The room was empty, and there was nothing unusual.
But after becoming a magical girl, her heightened senses picked up some extremely subtle noises that were masked by the sounds of thunder and rain.
The sound was coming from the ceiling.
It was a rustling sound, like countless tiny claws crawling rapidly on a concrete floor.
A swarm of rats? That sounds like quite a lot.
She held her breath and focused her hearing to the limit.
Judging from the sounds, the swarm of rats seemed to be crawling in one direction.
It's the room next to Little Green's, the place where the wolf lives!