Chased by several flies, Liu Lian took off running first, with Tom and Li Qiang following behind, occasionally swatting away the annoying flies. Eventually, they ended up running into an alley on the roadside.
Calling it an alley was an understatement; now it was more than 40 meters wide, almost like a main road.
Flies eat and excrete simultaneously, so they feed frequently. When Tom and the others ran far away, the flies lost interest and returned to licking the corpse.
Tom stopped Liu Lian, and the three of them gathered to assess the situation.
"Where... where are we?" Liu Lian panted heavily, hands on his knees, his throat wheezing like a broken bell. It was the fastest he had ever run, and recalling the nauseating experience of being licked by flies, even he, a somewhat cynical guy about the end of the world, couldn't bear it.
"You're such a fool!" Li Qiang lightly tapped his head. "Running around and ending up in this stinky alley. There are a lot of mosquitoes here; they could drain you dry in minutes."
"Then let's get going... ah... no, let me catch my breath first, I'm so tired."
Rushing into dark corners was indeed a bad idea. If Liu Lian hadn't kept shouting, Tom wouldn't have wanted to follow. With the big knife in hand, he cautiously surveyed the surroundings, not daring to let his guard down for a moment. "Hurry up, let's get out of here."
"Okay, okay!" Liu Lian stood up, still panting heavily. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly raised his hand and said, "Listen, what's that sound?"
"Sound?" Tom strained his ears, shaking his head. "I don't hear anything."
Li Qiang also shook his head. "Didn't hear anything. Are you hearing things?"
"No, it's there! It's a girl's voice, over there..." Liu Lian pointed to the depths of the alley. "She's calling for help."
Tom and Li Qiang exchanged glances. Li Qiang said, "We didn't hear anything, even if it... I think right now, we can barely take care of ourselves. Rescuing someone should be left to superheroes."
"It's Yingying, I heard her voice!" Liu Lian exclaimed excitedly. "I didn't mishear, it's definitely Yingying's voice, right in there. Let's go, let's save Yingying!"
"What nonsense?" Li Qiang refused to believe. "Is it Zhao Yingying, the technician from the spa? And you can recognize her voice? Sounds like a hallucination to me."
"No, I swear, I really heard it!"
Tom approached, grabbing Liu Lian's head to examine it. Liu Lian was bewildered and tried to struggle, but Tom warned him not to move, so he complied.
"Exactly!" Tom said. "Stick your hand out."
Liu Lian extended his hand, and they saw a faint red light emanating from the bandaged wrist. It startled him.
"Your ears are glowing red," Tom said, stepping back.
Li Qiang, delighted, stepped forward, grabbed Liu Lian's head, and examined it. "Oh, it's true! Your ears can be used as a flashlight!"
"Get off me! Haha!" Liu Lian unwrapped the bandage, revealing the small ruby Tom had assigned to him. "I thought I'd keep it with me; if it works, I'll know. Turns out... Haha! I've got a magic touch too, haha!"
The small ruby in his hand also twinkled with a faint red light.
Li Qiang quickly untied his own bandage, but unfortunately, his ruby showed no reaction, leaving him quite disappointed. "Mine didn't do anything."
Tom patted his shoulder. "It's okay, if Liu Lian can have it, you'll have a chance too, as long as you're alive."
Li Qiang looked at Tom skeptically. "Really?"
Tom nodded. "Really! As long as you're alive!"
"Okay!"
Liu Lian slapped his thigh. "Alright, hurry up, Tom, let's go save Yingying, please? We can't just stand by and watch. I even heard the sound of rats; she's in danger!"
Tom was hesitant. With their current level of power, dealing with a few mutated ants was no problem, but facing a rat would be difficult. However, seeing Liu Lian's pleading eyes, he knew that as the backbone of the team, he sometimes had to consider his teammates' needs.
It was obvious that Liu Lian had a crush on Zhao Yingying, the third technician at the spa. Tom felt that if he didn't do anything and just vetoed it, this chubby guy would definitely go on his own. Without enhanced strength to face a rat, it would be a dead end.
"Alright, let's take a look, but you have to listen to me. If it's not feasible, we'll run. After all, even with enhanced strength, I'm not confident about facing a big rat."
Liu Lian nodded gratefully. "I understand! Let's do what we can. If it's not possible, we retreat!"
With both of them speaking up, Li Qiang couldn't say much. He could only tighten his grip on his big knife to show his stance.
The three cautiously moved towards the depths of the alley. After turning a corner, they saw a rat gnawing on a human body with its back to them, while in the corner, a woman with a pale body trembled with fear.
It wasn't the worst situation; the current rat was small, and it didn't seem to have mutated. Its size was similar to that of a mountain goat. But after eating human flesh, who knew how it would change.
Tom signaled for Liu Lian to be quiet, then moved slowly to the side of the small rat, hands tightly gripping the big knife.
The small rat was happily feasting on the human body, completely unaware of the three unwelcome guests behind it.
Following Tom's instructions, Li Qiang forcefully threw the hollowed-out spike of a mutated mosquito at the rat. The spike was sharp and heavy; when thrown, it pierced the rat's buttocks, causing the small rat to squeak in pain, turn around, and angrily open its mouth at Li Qiang, baring its crimson teeth in a display of defiance.
Early in the morning, Tom, who had been waiting by the side, his hands glowing red, forcefully stabbed towards the neck of the small rat with his large knife.
The blade was very sharp, and with Tom's strength tripled, it pierced fiercely into the neck of the small rat, leaving only one-third of the blade.
The small rat struggled desperately, but Tom gripped the blade tightly against its neck bone, rendering it immobile, only able to emit piercing screams.
Meanwhile, Li Qiang on the side took a deep breath, wanting to rush up and help, but his legs went weak. Seeing this, Liu Lian immediately grabbed the large knife and rushed forward, shouting.
For the sake of rescuing the girl, Liu Lian was also determined. He yelled, wielding the large knife with both hands, hacking wildly at the head of the small rat, completely without any technique.
The reason humans can stand at the top of the food chain is because they are adept at creating and using tools. The sharp blade left one wound after another on the small rat's head. Soon, the small rat stopped making noise and moving altogether.
"That's enough, enough!" Tom intervened. "It's dead!"
"Dead?" Liu Lian looked closely and saw that the small rat's skull had been cut open in several places, blood flowing everywhere, its eyes punctured with large holes, tongue hanging out lifelessly. He immediately asked excitedly, "Did I kill it?"
Tom pulled out the large knife and patted his shoulder. "Yes, you killed it! Well done! Go and find the girl now." With that, he walked over to Li Qiang. Li Qiang felt embarrassed; he had hesitated earlier and hadn't come up to help Tom kill the small rat.
Tom didn't mind too much. He had known since he first met Li Qiang that he was a coward. The first time, he had even escaped without any guilt. But after the encounter with the ant queen, out of the seven men and women, dead or fled, only the three of them remained. Tom realized that at least Li Qiang was a sincere person. Once he changed his bad temper, there was no reason they couldn't travel together. At least this time, Li Qiang realized he was too cowardly and felt ashamed.
On the other hand, Liu Lian, confirming with his eyes that he had indeed met the right person, was very happy. He immediately approached and gently comforted her.
"Miss Yingying, don't be afraid, it's all over now." Liu Lian picked up the discarded cloth and gently draped it over her, covering her exposed body.
The girl was now without makeup, tears and snot running down her face, extremely frightened. Upon confirming that she was among allies and not terrifying rats, she immediately hugged Liu Lian and burst into tears, releasing the fear in her heart.
Zhao Yingying was very grateful to Liu Lian for saving her. After a quick look around to confirm that there was no danger nearby, Tom asked about the girl.
Zhao Yingying was indeed the female technician from the spa. According to her, at around 2 a.m. on April 6th, everyone suddenly fell into a deep sleep, and when they woke up in the morning, they found that they had all shrunk.
This caused quite a bit of confusion. Several guests shouted that it was the spa's doing and wanted to call the police, only to find that the phones and internet were not working, and even the satellite TV had no signal.
Because they had shrunk, they couldn't reach the food and drinks on the table. The spa manager sent two boys to call the police, but they never returned.
By noon, they were too hungry, so they decided to go out together to seek help.
They initially wanted to go to the neighboring short courtyard for help, but found dogs there, so they gave up. Then they wanted to go to the police station, thinking that the boys who had gone earlier had abandoned them, only to see two bodies with only skeletons left on the way, which scared them back.
Wanting to find something to eat at the small restaurant, they encountered a large cockroach and fled in panic again. The two slowest fat guests were swarmed by a few cockroaches and devoured.
At the manager's suggestion, they decided to go to the nearest small supermarket for food, hoping it would be safer there.
After Zhao Yingying finished speaking, Li Qiang was excited. "Great, Tom, so now... we go to the supermarket?"
Tom glanced at the dead small rat. "Of course, and we need to be quick, the faster, the better."
Not long after the four of them left, a dark figure jumped down from a nearby window, a large rat. The rat was entirely black, with no abnormalities in its size. However, when it arrived at the dead small rat, it sniffed a few times, and its pupils turned red.