LWGP - Chapter 91
Chapter 91: The Rat Swarm
"What's the test based on? Is everyone like this?"
Wang Jiu was no longer hung up on the 13 attribute points, but was instead concerned about their origin.
System: "It's based on your life's demonstrated abilities and the judgment of others in society. Not everyone has talent elements; mediocre people often have none. Our guiding principle is—every trade has its principles. Even a bricklayer, as long as they're skilled at laying bricks, will have a corresponding talent. Fate doesn't shortchange anyone who works hard, at least not in the new wilderness world. However, someone like you is rare."
"Is there a ranking for these? From strongest to weakest?"
Wang Jiu asked, but the System denied it, saying it was the other way around.
From weakest to strongest.
In other words, her doctor attribute, the most positive one, was actually the weakest. The strongest was the last one—Witch's Sacrifice.
Then Mountain Ghost.
Why did it feel like it was still insulting her?
Wang Jiu stared at the last two elements, her expression profound, a flicker in her eyes.
Her thoughts were always meticulous and deep, and for a moment, even the System couldn't tell what she was thinking.
The System reminded her: "Their presence is very strong, far exceeding the other elements. They will have an extremely powerful influence on your future profession. Are you sure you want to select them?"
Excluding other interference—in fact, as a program, it wouldn't have any other interference—it felt the most correct choice was already obvious.
But Wang Jiu didn't answer. She just quickly set the three elements, and in this order: Doctor with Extraordinary Skill Who Saved Countless Lives, Mountain Ghost, Witch's Sacrifice.
She put the strongest one last and the weakest one first, which didn't align with her personality of pursuing extreme benefits.
The System was very surprised but didn't ask, because it knew she might not answer.
But it guessed it had something to do with the Old Lady.
Because Wang Jiu had suddenly confirmed learning "Holy Light."
"What's this red potion? For restoring HP?" Wang Jiu saw the note on it; one bottle could directly restore 5 points of lost HP.
A small red potion.
It was the first time she had seen an item related to HP.
This made her think of the Bloodthirsty Beast, and also of the Old Lady.
She remembered the conditions the System had mentioned for saving the Old Lady. She had thought she wouldn't encounter Bloodthirsty-type monsters until she was over level 50.
Now that she had obtained such an item, she was a little suspicious.
"You might think that everyone has HP protection now and can resurrect after dying, but in the future, you'll discover that this world is far crueler than you imagine. The Bloodthirsty Beast isn't the only thing that's fatal."
The System could only give this one hint.
Wang Jiu was lost in thought, while also sensing a strange feeling that lingered around her after the three-element order was confirmed.
Her knowledge and control over medicine, as well as the dark memories flashing from her childhood, crept into her heart like clinging, evil moss.
Finally, she calmed herself and quickly spun the Lucky Wheel once.
Ding.
A jewel-encrusted collar fell into her lap.
The System preemptively struck: "This isn't a dog collar. Take a closer look."
Without even looking, Wang Jiu asked the System: "A sex collar?"
System: "…"
Wang Jiu took a closer look and raised an eyebrow.
It was actually a collar for capturing pets. There was a chance of failure, but no limit to the number of attempts. You could keep trying until you succeeded—as long as you could ensure the target didn't escape your control.
It was a pretty good item, but Wang Jiu frowned slightly.
"I don't like pets. I'd rather have a puppet."
It felt like the Lucky Wheel rarely gave her anything she truly wanted. She was a bit disheartened and casually spun it one last time.
Ding!
A square-shaped object jumped into her lap.
Wang Jiu froze, glanced down, and the unpleasant look on her face suddenly melted away like snow.
"System."
System: "What."
Wang Jiu: "Love you."
System: "…"
Just because of a 100-square-meter Homestead?
You materialistic woman! Ptooey!
Wang Shu washed the bowls, chopsticks, and pot, then put away the table and chairs. He was so diligent that Dao Dao and Qiao Xuejing felt quite embarrassed and wanted to help, but he stopped them.
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm used to this kind of work. I've loved doing it since I was a kid."
Wang Shu genuinely enjoyed it and worked quickly. Qiao Xuejing stayed by his side, absorbing resources while keeping an eye out to prevent him from being ambushed.
After all, Liao Luo and the others hadn't left; it seemed they were planning to spend the night here.
"They said it would be dangerous when night fell at 6 o'clock, but we haven't seen anything yet. Still, most people don't dare to leave the novice village, afraid of accidents."
Some people had seen the level 9 bronze BOSS that appeared earlier and felt that there were still some dangerous wild monsters within the novice village's range. It was best to just fight small mobs on the outskirts, or else get ready for bed.
Many people had no houses, beds, tables, or chairs. After living in a civilized world for so many years, they were very unaccustomed to this after a long day of exhaustion. But there was no choice but to hide in the ruins and lie down as best they could. Fortunately, with their increased attributes, their physical condition was better than before. Some of the elderly, in particular, felt they were better off than they used to be.
"Work hard, and there will always be a way out." A white-haired old man patted his little grandson in his arms, saying this to his worried, crying, and anxious children.
Outside, Wang Shu, sitting by the campfire, also began to organize his gains. As he sorted, he looked at the various scenes of life among the thousands of people nearby and couldn't help but sigh, "Yesterday, I was a man who owned six properties in Shanghai, and now I'm living like this."
Dao Dao shot him a look. "My master owns several real estate companies."
Flexing his wealth?
Wang Shu frowned. "I still have one property now."
Fuck!
Dao Dao was about to kick him with her trotter but was stopped by Qiao Xuejing. Seeing the joy in Wang Shu's eyes, she couldn't help but smile and ask in a warm voice, "So happy. Did you get a Garden Field?"
"Yeah, yeah! I don't know which idiot dropped them! Two of them!"
Not far away, He Ming: "…"
I'm the one who dropped them!
So sickening!
But this damn fatty has a Homestead?
Even more sickening!
Before anyone could react, they saw Wang Shu happily walk to the edge of Wang Jiu's Homestead and place down his 180-square-meter Homestead.
The mansion was blinding.
Jiang Kaikai, who had been weeping with joy over his 25-square-meter Homestead: "What the fuck!"
Liao Luo and Zhao Shanxiao: "…"
The surrounding crowd exploded, including the old man who had been comforting his children earlier.
Um… how are we supposed to sleep now?!!
Jealousy is making our cell walls separate!
Liao Luo couldn't help but mock with a sourness that could flip one's skull, "It's even bigger than your master's house. Aren't you afraid she'll annihilate you?"
Just as he finished speaking, Wang Shu's Homestead was pushed aside, moved a good few meters away.
Because Wang Jiu's house had expanded.
110 + 100 = 210 square meters.
Jiang Kaikai shot to his feet, but quickly sat back down. He said to the grim-faced Zhao Shanxiao, "This definitely isn't the result of the house devouring something. It must be that she got a new, complete Homestead and merged it directly. She must have had several spins on the Lucky Wheel. This woman either has heaven-defying luck or her dungeon ratings are insane."
It must be that her ratings are insane. As for luck, that's not apparent.
Zhao Shanxiao said thoughtfully, "If that's the case, having her carry us through a dungeon…"
Liao Luo: "Are you drunk? Forgot the slave contract? Even if she gets a double-12 rating, it has nothing to do with us."
The two, having had a large basin of cold water thrown on them, felt they definitely wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.
But Wang Jiu was already asleep.
Not far away, Xie Lu, sitting cross-legged on the ground, glanced at the Homestead, said nothing, and closed his eyes to continue resting.
In the dead of night, Wang Jiu, who was sleeping soundly, felt a certain heat in her body. It was as if some physiological need had been enticed, aroused, that kind of craving…
The gossamer-thin silk nightgown clung to her graceful figure, seeming to caress her skin more intimately with every slight movement of her limbs, inch by inch, up from her thighs, up…
A breath of unbearable heat seemed to escape from her slightly parted lips.
Wang Jiu suddenly opened her eyes, propping herself up slightly, one hand resting on the soft, faintly glowing bed beneath her.
This damn bed was toxic, like she was high on something.
Just as she was about to curse the System, she suddenly felt something was wrong.
She seemed to smell a strange odor.
It was a faint odor in the air, but because her Agility was so high, her 560 AGI allowed her to detect the faint, rank smell within it.
This rankness had nothing to do with blood; it was the stench of living creatures.
It came from underground, from decay, from the accumulated stench of moving through all sorts of filth.
It was nauseating.
The wind carried it, growing stronger and stronger.
It was familiar, as if she had smelled it somewhere during the night.
That's it!
After noticing the strangeness in the air, Wang Jiu immediately ignored the damn bed and began to keenly sense her surroundings.
She heard a faint sound.
A dense, rustling sound, as if it was getting closer.
Wang Jiu's expression changed slightly. She got up quickly, with no time to change clothes. She just put on that useless fashion outfit, then pulled open the door. She kicked Qiao Xuejing and Dao Dao next door, then kicked awake Wang Shu, who was snoring under a blanket by the edge of the field.
"What's wrong?" Qiao Xuejing and Dao Dao had been sleeping on a thin quilt, also in pajamas, but theirs was an elegant and proper two-piece set, not at all in the same league as a seductive vixen like Wang Jiu.
So when she saw Wang Jiu kicking the door in that… outfit… she froze for a moment, realizing something must have happened.
She quickly got up with the startled Dao Dao and asked, while preparing to change clothes.
"I don't know. There might be danger."
"Nice figure, but the pajamas are a bit ugly."
Then Wang Jiu left.
Qiao Xuejing: "…"
She was only wearing this kind of thing out of politeness since she was living under someone else's roof, okay?
It's the apocalypse. Who would bring pretty silk lingerie?
Dao Dao: "You stuffed two sets in my space, remember?"
Qiao Xuejing: "…"
Fine. Women, oh, women.
At the same time, in a part of the novice village quite some distance from the resurrection point, a few small groups that had gone out to fight wild monsters had just finished a battle. They were planning to rest in some ruins and wait to run a dungeon the next day. But not long after they lay down, the light of their campfire gradually died out. They were unaware that dense black shadows were surrounding them, and then…
Faint screams were instantly swallowed by the swarm. In less than thirty seconds, only shockingly clean-picked white bones were left on the ground.
Kicked awake, Wang Shu was completely bewildered. Last night, after setting up his Garden Fields, he had borrowed a bag of seeds from Wang Jiu at a usurious rate. But out of a desire to cling to a powerful backer for safety, he had insisted on sleeping near Wang Jiu's place because it felt secure. He never expected a sudden incident.
"Master, is there danger?"
Wang Shu didn't even bother changing. After getting up and rubbing his eyes, he took out two bottles of water, giving one to Wang Jiu and drinking the other himself.
"Go out and shout. Wake up as many people as you can. Tell everyone to get to the resurrection point as fast as possible. Hurry."
Hearing this, Wang Shu immediately went out. Soon, there was a commotion outside. Almost everyone was woken up. They were initially angry, but when they heard from Wang Shu that it was Wang Jiu who had sensed danger… almost everyone believed it.
If this Demon King said there was danger, then there was definitely danger.
"Quick! Get to the resurrection point!"
Liao Luo and the others were naturally woken up as well. "Danger?"
What kind of danger would warrant such a big reaction from the Demon King!
Voldemort or Sadako??
Liao Luo got up, took out his spare bronze weapon, and looked around. He didn't notice any movement.
But he looked at Zhao Shanxiao, whose expression was a bit grave.
"There does seem to be a faint sound, but my Agility isn't as high as hers. Get the others to the resurrection point first. Everyone with stats averaging over 100, stay on the edge of the resurrection point. Remember, you must get your families inside the resurrection point. Hurry!"
Zhao Shanxiao gave the order decisively, and Pan Zhen and the others immediately sprang into action.
Many people who had been resting nearby were roused. Fortunately, the distance wasn't far. A large crowd started running, hurriedly making their way to the large circular resurrection point that could hold several thousand people.
By this time, Wang Jiu had already come out the back and jumped onto the roof of a ruin, where she had been scanning the surroundings for over ten seconds.
She hadn't seen anything yet, but she felt this sense of unease growing stronger.
Out of caution, she even activated the insight skill of her Fish Abyss Badge, scanning the area. Many people on the periphery were within her scanning range. Suddenly, in a spot she had just scanned… about three hundred meters away, a family was helping an old person and a child move toward the resurrection point. But about four or five meters behind them, a black shadow flashed through the grass.
As Wang Jiu's scan passed over it, an object popped up.
Rat (Rat Race Player)
Race Attributes: A highly social creature with terrifying destructive and devouring capabilities. Its danger level increases exponentially with its numbers and evolutionary speed. Currently fears light.
Creature Attributes:
Strength: 1.
Agility: 3.
Stamina: 2
The creature attributes were terrible, but the key was the race attributes.
With just this piece of information, Wang Jiu's pupils dilated. She quickly took out an arrow and aimed at the thing that suddenly shot out, pouncing toward the woman holding a child…
Squeak! An arrow tore through the air, killing the rat—which was incredibly weak to her—in a single shot.
But it was plump, almost the size of a cat.
The fleeing family was startled. But when they looked back, the young man saw countless glowing green eyes emerging from the ground in the darkness.
"Go!"
He made a split-second decision and pushed his wife forward.
"We can resurrect! Get the child to the resurrection point! Quick!"
The family relayed the child. First the husband, then the wife, then the elderly man. Finally, the old woman threw the child, who was caught by Qiao Xuejing as she rushed over. But Qiao Xuejing saw the woman being covered by a dense swarm of rats that poured out of the darkness.
A family of five. In the blink of an eye, four of them were devoured, leaving only a three-year-old girl who was an ordinary person.
Qiao Xuejing turned and ran. Her speed far surpassed the rats, but she was still scared pale by the dark tide of the rat swarm spreading out behind her.
She was also moved by the sacrifice of the four family members who had seamlessly relayed the child to save her.
"Ah! Rats! So many rats! Fatty, run!"
Dao Dao was terrified of rats. She ran with the child in her mouth, shouting.
Wang Shu had just helped some elderly and children with mobility issues into the resurrection point. It wasn't just him; even Jiang Kaikai and others were helping to ferry people. But no matter what, they could still hear shrill screams coming from within a kilometer of the resurrection point.
Those who were alone or too far away were almost all eaten.
People were constantly resurrecting at the resurrection point.
But some of the elderly and children were ordinary people. If they died… someone had definitely died for good.
"Save my child! I'm begging you, please…"
A middle-aged man was running for his life, clutching his five-year-old child, with a swarm of rats in mad pursuit.
He was some distance from Wang Shu and the others. Because of Wang Jiu's warning, the main group had already moved into the resurrection point, and now Wang Shu's group was also on its periphery, far from him…
Logically, he should have been able to outrun these rats, whose Agility was far lower than his. But the terrifying part was that they kept bursting out from under the ground—they had tunneled their way up.
In other words, these treacherous little things were surrounding the entire resurrection point via two routes: above ground and below.
Just as he was despairing, a black shadow descended, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him backward. Man and child were thrown a full three hundred meters, landing inside the resurrection point, right toward Liao Luo…
"Fuck!"
Liao Luo caught the man with one hand, then tossed him aside in disgust.
Of course, the child was fine; he was holding the kid by the collar. The middle-aged man, however, took a nasty fall.
But despite his bloody face, he was overjoyed, hugging his child and weeping with relief, thanking Liao Luo profusely.
Liao Luo ignored him.
At this moment, Wang Jiu returned to the resurrection point.
She was one of the last two to return.
The other was Xie Lu.
The rats outside had already surrounded them and were rapidly filling in the inner circle.
People kept dying and reappearing, all of them shaken and seemingly suffering from immense psychological trauma, unable to speak clearly.
Although the scene was terrifying, more than half of the crowd's attention was drawn to Wang Jiu, who had just returned.
This… late at night, to be caught off guard and captivated by such vivid, fragrant beauty.
But they quickly remembered who it was, and many people backed away in a rush, afraid this terrifying woman would gouge their eyes out.
Wang Shu and Qiao Xuejing were about to take out a coat, but they saw Xie Lu, who was next to Wang Jiu, had already produced a trench coat and handed it to her, his expression as stern as a dean of discipline.
Wang Jiu glanced at him, took it, and asked, "Do you have any other information about this rat swarm?"
His stats were all around 500; he should have sensed their presence long ago.
It seemed he had scouted outside.
"I took a look around. They should have a mini-boss commanding them, but I can't find any trace of it. It's very cunning, hiding underground. I estimate it's a small BOSS that evolved from the larger rat swarm. With us here, it doesn't dare show itself. But I don't know why, after you already discovered them and directed people to hide in the resurrection point, it still had these rats surround us."
"It's best not to get surrounded. If I were trapped by them and couldn't escape, they would chew through my armor and eventually devour me alive."
If it was like that for him, let alone the others.
This was the effect of many ants biting an elephant to death.
After Xie Lu finished speaking, he saw Wang Jiu putting on the trench coat, looking thoughtful. "If there's an intelligent leader in command, what you said is indeed a point of suspicion and goes against the norm. Could it be they have a way to break through the resurrection point's protective barrier?"
This? Is that possible?
It was hard to say if Wang Jiu was a jinx or if this game was just a bastard. As the crowd watched the dense swarm of rats surround the entire resurrection point, only a barrier of light separated them from these plump, filthy, and stinking rodents.
They were frantically gnawing at the light but were constantly repelled.
"We're protected!"
"It should be fine."
"This is a resurrection point, after all."
The hearts that had been in everyone's throats quickly settled. They were all shaken but overjoyed.
But a few individuals weren't so optimistic. At least Wang Jiu, Xie Lu, and Zhao Shanxiao noticed some of the rats were burrowing into the ground.
Why were they burrowing?
Before three seconds had passed, everyone—that is, all the novice players in 443 Novice Village—received a system notification.
"Danger! Danger! The resurrection array at your location, 443 Novice Village, is under attack by the rat swarm. It is estimated to be destroyed in ten minutes. At that time, the resurrection array will perish, and all 443 Novice Village players will lose their resurrection rights. If you die again, you will die permanently! You will die permanently!"
Everyone felt as if they had been struck by lightning on a clear day.
Except for Wang Jiu.
Amidst the crowd's extreme state of pain, panic, and infinite anxiety, she let out a soft sound of surprise. "Huh, I think I'm from 444."
Her tone carried a hint of relief and a hint of pleasure.
The crowd: Fuck!
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