Chapter 46 – Giant Rat

“It’s fine here.”

After leaving the club, Lu Yuan called out to Lin Zhiqin to stop at the intersection two blocks from his house.

Today ended early, it was just past nine o’clock, and Lu Yuan decided to walk the last stretch home by himself.

“Okay.”

Getting out of the car, Lin Zhiqin leaned out the window to speak to him.

“There’s another match in two days, around the same time. Is that okay for you?”

Two days later.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment. It seemed like his final exam was scheduled for that same day.

But the boxing match was in the evening, so it wouldn’t interfere.

He nodded and said, “Sure, Coach. You can arrange it.”

“Alright. Be careful on your way home.”

Lin Zhiqin waved and quickly drove away.

Watching Lin Zhiqin’s car disappear down the street, Lu Yuan turned and slowly started walking towards his home.

He felt the money envelope in his pocket and then opened his professional panel.

A series of notifications popped up.

[Your skill Advanced Boxing Techniques has improved, experience points +5]

[Your skill Advanced Leg Techniques has improved, experience points +7]

[You have experienced a battle, professional experience +56]

[Congratulations, your Martial Artist professional level has increased!]

The experience points for advanced boxing techniques had a slight increase, advanced leg techniques gained over thirty points, and professional experience went up by fifty-six.

Not a huge gain.

But considering Lu Yuan’s current strength and higher professional level, gaining experience points had become more difficult.

So, this amount of experience points wasn’t insignificant.

Moreover, the fifty-six points of professional experience were enough for his Martial Artist level to go up another rank.

Level 5 Martial Artist.

It officially surpassed his first rank as a Student.

He received an extra attribute point and a skill point as a reward.

“Finally, I can unlock the second core skill of the Student profession!”

Looking at the gray dot on the Student professional panel that had been flashing for almost half a month without lighting up, Lu Yuan felt a surge of eagerness and excitement.

Thinking about unlocking it at home, his steps quickened a bit.

He quickly crossed a street.

The streets were fairly empty past nine o’clock, but it was better than that rainy night last time.

Unconsciously, Lu Yuan found himself at the entrance to that same alley.

He instinctively looked around.

He accurately located the new electronic surveillance cameras.

They seemed to have been installed after the kidnapping incident.

Lu Yuan slowly walked past the alley entrance, habitually glancing inside.

Just as he glanced, a shadow seemed to dart quickly across his line of sight.

“Whoosh”

Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat.

He stopped in his tracks.

“What was that?!”

Lu Yuan was certain he hadn’t imagined it.

With his physique increased to 11 points, his vision had become far superior to that of an average person.

After weeks of real combat training, his senses had also become sharper.

Something had definitely just flashed past his eyes.

Lu Yuan stood still, staring into the alley.

Since the kidnapping incident, it seemed that the last few residents of this old inner-city village had moved out.

The alley had no streetlights and was completely pitch-black, contrasting sharply with the lit area where Lu Yuan was standing, as if it belonged to another world.

Suddenly, he caught a whiff of a foul stench, like the smell of a sewer rising in the summer, hitting him straight in the face.

He frowned and instinctively covered his nose.

At that moment, a rustling sound came from inside the alley.

Lu Yuan’s nerves tightened, and he wanted to leave, but an inexplicable curiosity made him stay for another second, just a second longer.

The next moment.

Two greenish, oily lights suddenly appeared in the foul darkness.

The lights flickered quickly, and then something lunged at Lu Yuan.

“Damn!”

Lu Yuan instinctively sidestepped.

His 11 agility points allowed him to narrowly avoid the thing that had leaped out of the alley.

As it missed him, the creature was fully exposed in the bright streetlight.

Lu Yuan finally saw it clearly.

It was a giant rat, over a meter long.

“Holy crap!”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but curse a second time.

Anyone else would have done the same.

Because the rat in front of Lu Yuan was just too enormous.

It was bigger and more robust than a well-fed house cat, with black fur that gleamed like satin under the streetlight.

Its long tail whipped around on the ground like a lash, and it bared its teeth at Lu Yuan.

From a distance, he could smell the scent of an old sewer.

This rat wasn’t just big; it was fierce.

Its greenish eyes were fixed on Lu Yuan, filled with a savage and ferocious expression, more like a beast than a rodent.

Lu Yuan’s body tensed slightly, his eyes locked on the rat, ready for it to lunge at him again.

“Beep! Beep!”

At that moment, the sound of a horn quickly approached from afar.

The headlights of a speeding car cut through the standoff between man and beast.

Lu Yuan moved a few steps toward the tail end of the car.

As the car passed, he saw the giant rat dart into a dark alley opposite the residential building.

“Did it run away?”

Lu Yuan couldn’t tell if he was relieved or disappointed.

He glanced back at the alley where the giant rat had emerged.

The foul smell had dissipated significantly, and the darkness didn’t seem as menacing.

After a moment of consideration, Lu Yuan took out his phone and dialed the police.

“Yes, it’s at the intersection of XX Street.”

“A very large rat, I’m not joking!”

“There’s surveillance here, you can check the footage yourself.”

“Beep, beep, beep.”

Lu Yuan hung up, unsure if his call would prompt the police to respond.

From the operator’s tone, it seemed like they thought he was joking.

It was mainly because what he described sounded too unbelievable—where in the world would you find such a huge rat?

“But even if the police do come, they might not catch it. This late at night, if it slips into a sewer, no one could find it.”

“Then again, maybe they could!”

“This world does have mechs, after all.”

As he pondered this, he continued walking towards his home.

When he reached his family’s small shop, he saw the large sign reading “XingHua Food Store,” and a shiver ran down his spine.

Oh no.

His family ran a grains and oils shop, the number one target for rats.

Lu Yuan quickly told Zheng Qiuling, who was swatting mosquitoes on her legs with a fan, to prepare more rat traps and such.

But Zheng Qiuling dismissed him with disdain.

“I’ve been in the grains and oils business for decades. Do you think I need you to teach me this? Go, go, go upstairs and do your homework!”

Well, that was pointless.

Lu Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to tell Zheng Qiuling about the giant rat he had encountered on the street.

But he was afraid of scaring her, so he reluctantly kept quiet and went upstairs.

Over the next two days.

Lu Yuan kept a special eye out for any signs of the giant rat.

That night, his call to the police did bring the officers out.

After reviewing the surveillance footage, the police were reportedly quite startled as well.

But since they couldn’t find any trace of the giant rat, there wasn’t much they could do. They emphasized rodent prevention awareness with the neighborhood committee.

They asked the committee to print some flyers and distribute them to nearby residential areas, advising residents to promptly notify them if they spotted anything unusual.

This caused a bit of a stir among the community residents, but aside from Lu Yuan, no one else had seen the giant rat.

So, the matter quickly died down.

“Tick-tock—tick-tock—”

In the final exam room at No. 4 Middle High School.

Lu Yuan looked up at the clock hanging above the blackboard, checked his exam paper one last time, then stood up.

“You! No bathroom breaks allowed in the last half hour of the exam!”

The invigilator on the podium frowned and shouted at him.

All the students in the exam room looked up at Lu Yuan.

But Lu Yuan calmly replied.

“I’m not going to the bathroom, teacher.”

“I’m submitting my test paper.”