novelraw Chapter 293 - 280: Friendly Rat
Chapter 293 - 280: Friendly Rat
The peculiar scent in the air grew more intense.
Zhao Qingxiao bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The metallic tang of blood filled his mouth, its slight sting temporarily cutting through the grogginess clouding his mind.
He tightened his grip on the gun, his already blurry vision slowly sweeping across the area before him.
He knew the thing was here. He couldn’t see it, but the mysterious disappearance of the spiritual power he’d just released was proof of its existence.
Zhao Qingxiao knew full well that against an unknown entity he couldn’t see or hear—one that could devour superpowers—he stood no chance.
But he couldn’t give up.
His comrades were right behind him.
Zhao Qingxiao forced his eyes open, but his vision and his consciousness were fading.
He even started hallucinating. It was as if they were back at the base, safe and sound, finally able to get some proper sleep...
’No.’ His comrades were unconscious, and he was the only one left who could fight.
Zhao Qingxiao bit his tongue again, trying to stay lucid. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the gun.
He’d faced tougher situations on missions before, countless life-or-death scrapes, but none had ever felt like this.
In his groggy state, a voice was constantly tempting him. ’Rest... just rest...’
Reason told him this feeling was wrong.
’I must be under some kind of influence. Everything I’m sensing is an illusion, a hallucination.’
And yet, in reality, he felt increasingly exhausted, desperately wanting to just close his eyes and sleep...
It was then that Zhao Qingxiao suddenly looked up and saw a golden-furred rat dashing toward him.
Biting his tongue, he slowly raised his gun.
’It’s finally here, is it?’
The Mutated Rat King, already halfway there, screeched to a halt. Its beady red eyes widened. ’...!’
’What the hell? Are you kidding me? I’m here to save you, and you’re pointing a gun at me?’
Zhao Qingxiao’s brow furrowed. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, muttering, "This has to be a hallucination."
’Otherwise, how could I see a complex expression of anger and disbelief on a rat’s face?’
’It’s not like it’s some kind of demon...’
Just as the shot rang out, an Air Shield materialized in front of the Mutated Rat King.
The Superpower Bullet was sucked into a vortex of air and diverted into a deep fissure in the ground.
The Mutated Rat King landed on all fours, its back slightly arched in a ready-to-pounce stance. Facing the man leaning against the SUV, it let out two angry SQUEAKS.
’Damn it all, you’re really trying to kill me! You think I won’t bite back?!’
Meanwhile, Zhao Qingxiao raised his gun again.
Mutated Rat King: ’Again?’
’Freeloading off me is one thing, but I draw the line at getting shot at.’ The Mutated Rat King arched its back, lifted its head, and scraped two deep gashes in the ground with its front paws.
Just as Zhao Qingxiao was about to fire again, Zhao Li rushed over from a distance, shouting, "Don’t shoot! It’s a friendly rat!"
Zhao Qingxiao froze. ’What the hell is a friendly rat?’
’This has to be another hallucination.’
Fortunately, he was a Spiritual Element user. Even though his powers were gone, a petty trick like this couldn’t fool him.
He slowly turned the gun on Zhao Li.
Zhao Li: "..."
Just then, a vine shot out of nowhere. With a sharp WHACK, it knocked the Superpower Gun from Zhao Qingxiao’s hand.
Zhao Qingxiao’s mind was still sluggish. He glanced at the Superpower Gun, now lying on the ground some distance away, and mumbled, "Not a hallucination?"
"Hallucination my ass!" Zhao Li quickly pulled a gas mask from his pack and slapped it onto Zhao Qingxiao’s face. Seeing him still staring at the Mutated Rat King with an expression of existential crisis, he couldn’t help but add with a strange tone, "Stop staring. That little thing is freakishly smart. Probably a demon spirit or something."
The Mutated Rat King scampered over, circled him once, and then lifted its chin disdainfully.
’...What are you looking at? Never seen a rat as handsome as me?’
Zhao Qingxiao: ’...What the hell? How did I understand that from a rat’s expression?’
He fell silent for a moment. "It..."
"Never mind the rat," Zhao Li cut in. He had already opened the SUV’s door and was checking on the teammates inside. "What happened to you guys? How did the Captain get taken out too?"
Thank god, they were all still alive, though their breathing was shallow.
’But... how did even the Captain get taken out this time?’
To Zhao Li, this was unbelievable.
After all, the Captain was the most vigilant of them all. He was usually the first to sense danger!
His incredible intuition had saved them from countless life-or-death situations. How could he have been caught off guard this time?
"We found the coordinates Miss Gu gave us..." Zhao Qingxiao recounted the events, his voice strained.
He finished, "Later, we spotted the research institute’s vehicle and decided to follow it. After that... the Captain noticed something was wrong... By the time I came to, he was already unconscious."
"Right, how did you find us?" he asked, looking up at Zhao Li.
Zhao Li stepped back from the SUV. "Miss Gu led us here." He paused. "Mr. Wei came too." He then added, "Miss Gu said she had to deal with the source of that smell first. I was worried, so I came on ahead."
As he spoke, he moved to help Zhao Qingxiao into the vehicle, but he suddenly felt something sticky on the hand supporting him.
Zhao Li looked down and saw a massive gash on Zhao Qingxiao’s back. He was shocked. "You’re injured?"
Zhao Qingxiao gasped for breath. "It’s nothing... just a scratch. I’m not gonna die from it."
But Zhao Li was tense. "Was it a zombie, or...?"
Although high-level superpowered individuals weren’t easily infected by the zombie virus, they weren’t completely immune either.
Zhao Qingxiao was about to say no when his vision suddenly went black and he collapsed.
Alarmed, Zhao Li frantically pressed the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. "Mr. Wei..."
By the time Gu Xi and the others arrived, Zhao Qingxiao had fallen into a deep coma. Zhao Li was in the middle of cleaning the wound on his back.
Wei Heng got into the vehicle to check on the other team members. They were all unconscious, just like Zhao Qingxiao.
"Is this poison?" Zhang Wen frowned. "Fang Rui isn’t with us. I don’t know if the small amount of antidote we have on hand will be of any use."
"It’s not poison," Gu Xi stated firmly after examining them. "It’s parasitic."
’Parasitic?’
Everyone’s heart sank. Mutated parasites were notoriously one of the most troublesome threats of the apocalypse.
If it were just poison, they could analyze the blood and eventually find an antidote.
Failing that, there was always the Healing System.
But with parasites, once the mutated organism fully bonded with its host, it was basically a death sentence.
Not even the Healing System could do anything at that point.
And yet... they heard Gu Xi say, "It’s fine. Not a big deal."
Hearing this, both Zhang Wen and Zhao Li were stunned. ’Can Miss Gu handle parasites, too?’
But before they could voice their question, a vine shot from Gu Xi’s hand, rapidly extending. It wrapped around the teammates in the car one by one, trussing them up like a string of dumplings.
Zhao Li and the others watched her, their expressions complicated. ’Is she really being this casual about it? Seems a little... HOLY SHIT!’
A green radiance flared from the vine, instantly enveloping the bound men.
The men immediately began to struggle violently. Half of Liu Hao’s body turned to metal, while faint bolts of lightning flickered across Ye Junhan’s skin. Nearly all of them were showing signs of their powers leaking out of control.
’This is bad.’
Wei Heng and the others instinctively rushed forward to help hold them down.
But Ye Junhan and Liu Hao suddenly snapped their eyes open, their gazes, now burning crimson, fixed upon them.
In that instant, Wei Heng and his men felt as if they were being stared down by some abyssal beast, as if at any moment they could be dragged into the abyss, into a state of eternal damnation.
It was a very strange feeling...