The red light enveloped the giant rat's corpse, along with the severed limbs, and then they were all fused into the pages of the Book of Blood Spirit.
After the fusion was complete, Yan Meiyu opened her eyes and took the initiative to say, "The contract was successful, it's a Rot Skin Rat."
With a thought, the giant rat, as long as half a meter without counting its tail, reappeared in front of the three of them.
This Rot Skin Rat was half a meter long, not counting the tail. If you included the tail, it was almost a meter, comparable in size to some ordinary dogs.
"My body has also been strengthened, but the change isn't particularly significant. However, this Rot Skin Rat seems to have a skill..."
Yan Meiyu's gaze stealthily glanced at Su Han, thinking, "Su Han must also have skills, which seem to be even more formidable."
Surprised, Su Han looked at Yan Meiyu and asked, "What skill?"
Yan Meiyu did not hide anything since sharing information as a team was one of the best ways to build trust.
"Rot Poison (Weak), its Claw Strikes and bites carry Rot Poison, which can cause infection and poisoning if not treated properly."
Gan Xinglei muttered and interjected, "Kind of like the Komodo dragon, huh?"
Su Han nodded, "You let the Rot Skin Rat scout ahead, my Angel Envoy will follow second, and Old Gan's Angel Envoy will take up the rear."
"Got it, I'll take care of the rear."
During the simple exploration, Yan Meiyu and Gan Xinglei's performances helped to establish a basic trust in the team, and such arrangements could enhance efficiency even more.
On the sixth floor, the doors of three households were wide open, with conspicuous bloodstains and impact marks on them, clearly the work of monsters.
Yan Meiyu controlled the Rot Skin Rat and approached the nearest door, circumventing the corpses on the ground to reach the doorstep.
The closer she got, the more obvious the marks on the door became, and one could faintly see the scratches where the paint had peeled off.
Seeing the broken door lock, Gan Xinglei whispered, "It's been broken through; I wonder if it was those two earlier."
A flesh corpse's strength was greater than that of an ordinary person – a twisted body and rage allowed it to unleash more power.
In such a situation, a security door cannot withstand the impact.
The living room was in disarray, the sofa stained red with blood, and a body lay on it, missing more than half.
"Look for useful things, and also food."
The three entered the house, and after confirming there were no flesh corpses in the living room, they began to search for supplies separately.
With Angel Envoys scouting ahead, even entering the bedrooms wasn't worrisome, as they didn't have to fear monsters hiding inside and launching a sneak attack.
Su Han searched for supplies in the kitchen and living room, Gan Xinglei went to the secondary bedroom and guest bedroom, while Yan Meiyu headed for the master bedroom.
The kitchen was relatively tidy, with the fridge and cabinets still intact.
But when Su Han opened the refrigerator, a rotten smell immediately wafted out.
Without electricity for a day and a night, and in a completely sealed environment, everything had gone bad.
Other than the rice seasoning, which might still be usable, everything else in the refrigerator was likely spoiled.
As for the contents of the freezer, the ice had all melted, leaving water flowing all over once the door was opened, soaking everything, mainly some ribs and such.
Although they only seemed to have defrosted and not yet gone bad, Su Han didn't dare to take any.
In the current situation, even a case of diarrhea could not be treated by a doctor; it was better to be cautious and avoid risks.
"Su Han."
Suddenly, Gan Xinglei's voice came through, and, on alert, Su Han quickly headed for the secondary bedroom.
"What's the situation?"
Gan Xinglei stood by the door with a grim expression and said in a low voice, "There's a survivor, but the situation doesn't look good."
He pointed in the direction of the wardrobe; the doors were already open. It was a large floor wardrobe, big enough to hide a person inside.
Su Han, accompanied by his Angel Envoy flesh corpse, walked over and looked into the wardrobe.
Nestled among the clothes was a young woman, pale-faced, with her eyes tightly shut, and her body trembling incessantly.
"Drip-drop"
The sound of dripping came, and upon closer inspection, it was blood dripping from the pile of clothes, originating from the woman's abdomen.
"First get her out and lay her on the bed."
Su Han had his Angel Envoy carry the woman out, then placed her on the bed, whereupon he heard Yan Meiyu, whom Gan Xinglei had called earlier, hurry over.
After she examined the woman's condition, Yan Meiyu stood up and shook her head, her face looking rather bleak, "There's a hole in her abdomen from a bite, and she's still feverish; the wound is likely infected, and she's lost a lot of blood."
The wound kept oozing blood, and although Yan Meiyu was now pressing down on it with clothes, it continued to bleed slowly; stopping the blood flow was challenging, not to mention the woman was still running a high fever, her skin burning hot.
A moment of silence fell among the three of them. Su Han spoke, "Give her some water to drink, see if there are any anti-inflammatory drugs you can use on her. If she doesn't improve by tomorrow, I'll handle it."
None of them were doctors, and seeking medical help was not feasible under the current circumstances. Survival was now a matter of fate.
Yan Meiyu nodded in agreement, "Okay, I found some in the master bedroom."
After a cursory treatment of the woman, they closed the bedroom door tightly and then regrouped in the living room.
"I found some snacks and household medicines in the master bedroom, but not much. There are two power banks though, with enough charge to power our flashlights."
Yan Meiyu laid out the items she found on the table. Gan Xinglei then added, "There's not much in the guest and secondary bedrooms, just a fruit knife. Su Han, do we need to dismantle for metal this time?"
He remembered Su Han was in need of metal, probably for one of his Angel Envoy's Skills, hence the question.
The stronger Su Han became, the safer they would be.
Su Han pondered for a while, still undecided about the materials needed for the third Fusion. Although he could start over with the Fusion process, he could not afford to waste time and materials.
Fusing with ordinary metal at LV2 had already consumed several hundred pounds; naturally, the material requirement for LV3 would be much more significant.
To gather that much material, one would need to scour every room in a building, and that would likely still not be enough unless they disassembled load-bearing walls.
However, no one in their right mind would do that.
"Not for now," he shook his head and said, "Let's continue scavenging for resources and try to clear the lower floors. Without a refrigerator, we hardly have any fresh food left. Preserved meat, rice, pasta, canned goods, and snacks are still fine. Anything else will probably be sparse, and sooner or later we'll have to look outside. The sooner we clear the floors below, the sooner we can plan our next move."
He hadn't found much food in the kitchen either, just a small bag of rice and flour, so he was well aware of the situation.
"Alright, let's continue."
Their teamwork gradually became more in sync as they kept scavenging for supplies on the sixth floor. In another room with its door busted open, they encountered another corpse.
This time, Yan Meiyu's Rot Skin Rat acted immediately, leaping forward to exploit its advantage by biting at the neck of the corpse, ripping off a large chunk of flesh down to the bone.
Then Su Han's Angel Envoy followed, with its Claw piercing directly through the corpse's heart, killing it.
Compared to the corpse, perhaps the Rot Skin Rat's strength was not its strong suit, but had it been a person, that attack would have surely been lethal.
The wound was not only deep, but the Rot Skin Rat's strikes also carried Rot Poison.
They cleared one apartment after another. By late morning, they had cleaned up the entire sixth floor.
Apart from the woman in the first room, there were no survivors on the sixth floor. One apartment was empty, and two or three showed traces of slaughter, a complete mess.
Three pounds of preserved meat, thirty pounds of rice and flour, five bags of dried noodles, ten packets of instant noodles, and a multitude of snacks made up their scavenged supplies.
There were also many medications, mostly common drugs, not much different from what they had found before.
The haul was meager, to the point where it didn't even fill three backpacks when divided amongst them.
After considering the situation, the three of them decided to continue clearing downward to the fifth floor.
The situation on the fifth floor was not much better than on the sixth. In the hallway, there were three roaming corpses gathered at the end of the corridor, in front of a door.
"Roar"
The three twisted figures of the corpses spotted Su Han's group at the other end of the hallway and charged straight at them.
They were ferocious, but after the cleaning of the sixth floor, Gan Xinglei and Yan Meiyu had become more adept at surviving in this post-apocalyptic world.
Gan Xinglei, using his Angel Envoy, stepped forward and grappled one corpse, while Yan Meiyu's Rot Skin Rat leapt up and took advantage of the moment to gnaw the controlled corpse's head to a pulp.
The two of them worked seamlessly together and quickly dealt with one of the corpses.
As for the remaining ones, they rushed forward only to be blocked by Su Han's Angel Envoy, which threw one aside with a heavy punch and then decapitated it with its Claw.
The other shrieked and lunged at the Angel Envoy. A grating screech filled the air as Iron Skin blocked the attack, followed by the Angel Envoy's Claw piercing its heart the very next moment.
After cleaning up the corpses and with the hallway stained red with blood, the three had gradually grown accustomed to the sight.
"Let's start with this room..."
"Creak"
Before Su Han could finish, the door suddenly opened, and a skinny man with glasses and a somber expression cautiously peered out, "You... you're the rescuers, right?"