Chapter 51 – Rat Feasts on Humans

Lu Yuan stuck his head out of the car window.

Only then did he realize the taxi had already driven two streets past his home.

Looking to his left, he saw a dark, shadowy alley entrance almost level with the car.

Lu Yuan sniffed the air, detecting a faint, sewer-like stench.

It was the giant rat!

Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat.

After some thought, he took out his mobile phone and said to the cursing taxi driver in the front seat, “I’ll get out here. How much? I’ll pay you.”

After paying the fare, Lu Yuan prepared to get out of the car and casually asked the driver out of curiosity.

“The thing you said suddenly dashed across the road, where did it go?”

“There!”

The driver pointed to the nearby alley entrance, “Probably a stray dog. Good thing I braked in time, didn’t hit it.”

Lu Yuan thought to himself, what a pity.

If the giant rat had been hit by the taxi and killed, it would have removed a menace from the nearby community, saving him the constant worry.

Watching the taxi turn around and drive away, Lu Yuan quickly walked to the alley.

Inside, it was still pitch black. Even with his constitution points of 11 granting him better-than-average vision, he couldn’t see clearly.

The stench was even stronger now, confirming his suspicion that the giant rat he had once encountered was hiding inside.

Lu Yuan hesitated.

On one hand, he did want to rid the area of this “scourge.”

After all, he had seen the giant rat’s ferocity firsthand, more savage than an ordinary wild animal.

An average person encountering it would likely be in trouble, and Lu Yuan didn’t want to see any fatalities.

This kind of “heroic” thought was something the Lu Yuan of a few months ago wouldn’t have had.

But times had changed.

Now he felt he had made some progress in his martial arts practice.

Facing such a physical challenge, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of eager excitement.

Opportunities to use his martial arts techniques in real life were rare.

Encounters like those in novels where you bump into thugs harassing women, robbers holding up banks, or terrorists bombing buildings are practically impossible in real life.

Even the kidnapping case he stumbled upon last time was a stroke of luck.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” the saying goes. Perhaps this was the mindset Lu Yuan had.

The stronger one’s abilities, the stronger the desire to use and showcase them.

At least, that’s how Lu Yuan felt.

However, on the other hand…

Lu Yuan thought the alley was too dark and rushing in might be dangerous.

“That giant rat reeks of a foul odor, likely carrying bacteria and viruses. If I get scratched or bitten and the wound gets infected, that would be bad luck.”

“Maybe I should go home first and gear up?”

Lu Yuan considered going home to change into long sleeves and pants, find a suitable weapon, and then call the police.

If he could manage to stall the giant rat until the police and fire brigade arrived, they would have a good chance of subduing it.

With this in mind, Lu Yuan turned to head home.

Just as he turned around, a sharp “clink” echoed from the dark alley.

It sounded like something had fallen to the ground.

Lu Yuan quickly turned back, his expression wary as he stared into the darkness.

He pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and pressed the “flashlight” icon on the screen.

“Shhh——”

A beam of white light shot out from the phone.

Lu Yuan held up the phone to illuminate the path ahead.

Scattered on the narrow alley floor were some fruit peels, plastic bags, and other trash, likely dumped there by the giant rat from the sewer or a garbage can.

As the light moved, something suddenly caught Lu Yuan’s eye, causing his pupils to contract slightly.

After some consideration, he took a couple of steps into the alley.

Cautiously moving closer with the flashlight, he nudged the object with his foot.

It was a uniquely shaped hairpin, its color somewhere between pink and bright red.

The hairpin was entirely “wet,” as if it had just been fished out from somewhere.

Since the kidnapping case, Lu Yuan had become particularly sensitive to items like girls’ hairpins.

Lu Yuan stood in the same alley, staring at the same items, as an inexplicable feeling of unease slowly crept up from the depths of his heart.

“Was that sound just now from this hairpin?”

As he pondered this, a rustling noise suddenly broke the silence.

His expression tightened, and he quickly raised his mobile phone, shining its light further down the alley.

The alley grew narrower as it went deeper, with random clutter piled along the sides. It was unclear whether this was its usual state or the remnants left by recent tenants who had moved out.

The phone’s flashlight barely penetrated two meters before being swallowed by the darkness.

Lu Yuan couldn’t make out the exact scene.

He could only see a dark shape shifting under a pile of haphazardly arranged junk ahead.

A foul stench wafted over with the wind.

“It’s that giant rat!”

Lu Yuan covered his nose, frowning deeply.

After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to retreat and proceed with his original plan.

The stench was so overwhelming that wearing long sleeves and pants wouldn’t suffice; he’d need a mask or even a gas mask.

To avoid startling the giant rat, Lu Yuan retreated slowly, step by step, out of the alley.

But before he could take more than two steps back, the rustling sound ahead grew louder.

Eventually, it turned into a series of loud thuds, as if something was struggling desperately within the pile of junk, slapping against the items, creating a cacophony.

Lu Yuan stopped retreating.

His expression hardened as he raised the light and quickly advanced.

He covered about ten steps before the flashlight finally revealed the source of the commotion.

A giant rat, over a meter long and as bulky as a large dog, was crouched in front of a woman with disheveled black hair.

It seemed to be gnawing at the woman’s face.

Her body trembled violently, her limbs flailing and striking the surrounding debris, producing a series of sharp, crackling sounds.

“Buzz——”

Lu Yuan’s mind went blank for a moment.

An indescribable emotion surged to the forefront of his consciousness.

“A rat is eating a human?!”

Lu Yuan didn’t have time to think. He quickly looked down, grabbed a beer bottle lying on the ground, and hurled it at the giant rat with all his might.

He used his full strength.

With the 12 strength points of his arm, the beer bottle flew like a projectile.

Almost as soon as he completed the throwing motion, the beer bottle smashed onto the ground beside the giant rat with a loud “bang.”

His aim was off, and he missed, but the explosion startled the giant rat.

The rat, which had been focused on chewing, squeaked and jumped aside, turning to glare at Lu Yuan menacingly.

Under the beam of the mobile phone light, the creature’s eyes seemed to glow.

“Damn it!”

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and looked down for a weapon.

He was in luck; right by his feet was a rusty rebar about a meter long.

He grabbed it and was ready to attack the giant rat.

But before he could swing, the rat took advantage of the moment he bent down. It bit into the struggling woman on the ground and darted deeper into the alley.

“It can carry a whole person? This thing is a monster!”

Shocked and horrified, Lu Yuan didn’t waste any time and chased after it.

At this moment, he couldn’t afford to think about going home to prepare. The words “rescue the person” were nailed into his mind like a stubborn spike.

The giant rat, carrying a person, moved at an astonishing speed.

Its long tail slithered along the ground like a snake.

Lu Yuan wanted to throw the rebar at it but feared he might hurt the woman in the rat’s jaws.

As he struggled with what to do, the alley ahead suddenly narrowed.

The giant rat slipped through the narrow passageway in a flash, but the woman, due to her size, got caught and fell to the ground, unable to pass through.