Chapter 52 – The Trap

Lu Yuan stopped his frantic run, staring suspiciously at the spot where the giant rat had vanished.

The place was eerily quiet, with no sound at all.

It was as if the giant rat had disappeared into thin air after it ran past that point.

Lu Yuan hesitated for a moment and decided not to continue the chase.

He slowly moved his mobile phone’s light over.

He saw the woman, abandoned by the giant rat, lying face down on the ground.

He still couldn’t see her face clearly; her disheveled black hair hung messily over her face like a wet mop.

“Could she be dead?” Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat.

Just a moment ago, the woman was struggling desperately, but after being dragged a long distance by the giant rat, she suddenly stopped moving.

Could she have been dragged to death?!

Lu Yuan decided to go over and check.

He took a step forward but hesitated again.

He stared at the woman about four or five meters away, wearing a plaid long skirt and black tights, lying motionless. He swallowed subconsciously.

He couldn’t imagine what kind of face was hidden under that mass of disheveled black hair.

The giant rat had been gnawing at her for a long time.

Scenes from horror movies he had seen in both his lives flashed continuously in Lu Yuan’s mind.

Lu Yuan suddenly realized that he might not be as brave as he had imagined.

“Rustle—”

Suddenly, there was a faint sound.

Lu Yuan’s entire body tensed slightly.

The flashlight beam in his hand instantly moved to the alley entrance ahead.

He saw a grotesque rat head silently peeking out from the alley entrance, quietly watching him.

“Plop—”

The woman lying on the ground twitched slightly at this moment.

“Not good!”

The atmosphere in the alley, which had just calmed down for a moment, instantly became tense again.

Without a second thought, Lu Yuan rushed towards the woman.

With only four or five meters between them, he could reach her in just a couple of steps and protect her.

But the moment Lu Yuan took a step, an inexplicable feeling of unease washed over him.

Blood smell!

Why wasn’t there any smell of blood?!

There seemed to be no blood on the ground either.

This woman had been gnawed by the giant rat for so long, yet not a drop of blood had been shed?

The stench was overwhelming!

The closer he got, the worse it smelled!

Was this woman just pulled out of a cesspool? How could the stench on her be even stronger than that of the giant rat?

Images of the woman with the hairpin and the foul-smelling giant rat flashed through Lu Yuan’s mind like a rapid slideshow.

Just one step away from the woman,

Lu Yuan came to an abrupt halt.

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning across the night sky—

Something’s wrong! This is a trap!

At that moment,

the woman lying face down in front of him suddenly sprang up with a swish.

She lunged at him in a bizarre, four-limbed twisting motion.

Lu Yuan barely had time to think.

He swung the rusty rebar in his right hand instinctively.

“Whoosh—”

The rebar sliced through the air, emitting a sharp, low whistle.

“Thud!”

The impact was like hitting a stone wrapped in cloth.

The force of the recoil sent a jolt of pain through Lu Yuan’s hand!

The strange woman, who had almost pounced on his face, was sent flying by the blow.

Even her “head” was knocked off.

No, it wasn’t her head; it was just a mass of black hair.

The hair seemed to be stuck to something white, like a large piece of flesh.

“Huff, huff—”

Lu Yuan’s heart raced as he gasped for air, his face filled with lingering fear.

The series of rapid changes brought him back to a childhood memory of walking home from school and nearly falling into a suddenly appearing pit.

He barely had time to stop, but managed to step over the pit just in time.

Looking back at the pit, his heart filled with a mix of relief, fear, and excitement.

He quickly lifted his mobile phone’s flashlight and pointed it towards the woman he had struck with the rebar.

In the corner of the alley, not far away, crouched a deformed and grotesque figure.

It had long limbs, with long, pointed fingers and toes covered in short, dense black hair.

“Squeak, squeak—squeak, squeak—”

The creature huddled in the corner, clutching its head, emitting a sound like intense teeth grinding.

It seemed to be in pain from Lu Yuan’s earlier strike.

But the way it expressed pain was both terrifying and bizarre, nothing like any normal human reaction.

The more Lu Yuan observed, the more frightened he became. He began to slowly step backward.

As he retreated, the creature in the corner suddenly lifted its head from its arms.

“Crack—”

Lu Yuan’s steps halted abruptly.

In an instant, it felt as if something had struck him hard. His muscles tensed, and he stood frozen.

That was a face beyond human imagination.

Decayed, pustulous, pitted, with no upper or lower lips, exposing jagged teeth.

It looked as if it had been soaked in acid, with patches of black hair sprouting in places.

It resembled a rat, yet retained some human facial features.

In the cold, harsh light of his mobile phone’s flashlight, the creature’s bulging eyes gleamed with a fierce, sinister light, making it incredibly unsettling.

Lu Yuan couldn’t hold it together any longer. It felt as if a voice inside him was screaming—

“Don’t come any closer!!”

The grotesque Ratman, after revealing its head, stood up from the wall. It was even taller than Lu Yuan.

It wore a deep gray plaid dress awkwardly put on backward.

There was a noticeable dent on its bald head, clearly from the rebar strike Lu Yuan had delivered.

In that moment, Lu Yuan understood.

The Ratman had probably been wearing a wig, hiding its face in the fake hair, and lying on the ground pretending to be a woman struggling against a giant rat.

All along, those eyes had been fixed on him.

He recalled the red hairpin that had been deliberately dropped to make noise and lure him into the alley.

A trap!

The word flashed in Lu Yuan’s mind instantly.

Without a moment’s hesitation,

he turned and ran.

This time, even faster than before.

Lu Yuan had been growing stronger rapidly, filled with “excess energy” and an overwhelming desire to prove himself.

Taking on small-time thugs, robbers, or even a giant rat over a meter long was no problem for him; he wouldn’t even bat an eye.

But dealing with a creature that was neither human nor rat, completely beyond his understanding, was another matter entirely.

Moreover, this thing wasn’t just a brute; it had the smarts to fake being a victim and lure him in for a surprise attack.

It was clearly targeting him specifically.

Even Ultraman wouldn’t fight in a monster’s lair!

Run!

Run out of the alley and call the police!

But the Ratman was faster than he expected.

As Lu Yuan ran, he heard a series of beastly snarls behind him, followed by a “scrape—scrape—” sound, like claws raking against concrete, rapidly closing in.

Gritting his teeth, Lu Yuan summoned all his strength and flung the rusty rebar behind him.

The rebar whistled through the air.

He didn’t know if it hit the target, but the sense of something closing in on him seemed to slow just a bit.

He was almost at the alley entrance.

Just as he felt a moment of relief,

a dark shadow darted past him like lightning, defying gravity to leap onto the wall.

Then it kicked off the wall, lunging straight at him.

It was the giant rat!

“Get lost!”

Lu Yuan roared inwardly, throwing a precise hook punch.

He struck the shadow aiming for his face.

It felt like hitting a heavy, elastic sandbag.

The giant rat let out a screech and was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing heavily into the wall.

But Lu Yuan’s steps faltered slightly.

A pungent stench rushed up from behind, pressing against his cheek.

Something gripped his shoulder tightly.

Lu Yuan turned his head slightly, but before he could see what was grabbing him,

a tremendous force yanked him backward!

He watched helplessly as the alley entrance, bathed in the dim glow of the streetlight, quickly receded.