Chapter 53 – Go to Hell!

Lu Yuan’s body flew backward uncontrollably.

His mind went blank for a brief moment.

A foul stench mixed with a metallic tang assaulted him from his right shoulder.

Lu Yuan snapped out of his daze as if shocked by electricity, instinctively turning his head to dodge.

In the next second…

“Hiss—”

A grotesque and terrifying head suddenly appeared near his right shoulder, its teeth grazing past his cheek in a vicious bite.

The overpowering stench made Lu Yuan almost retch.

Instinctively, he swung around and delivered a fierce punch to Ratman’s jaw.

“Bang—”

A dull, heavy thud.

Using the recoil from the punch, Lu Yuan broke free from Ratman’s grasp, executing several slick moves with his Level 4 basic footwork, retreating to the wall.

Ratman staggered back a few steps from the heavy punch, shaking its head vigorously.

“Roar—”

A terrifying, inhuman growl emanated from deep within its throat. A fierce glint flashed in its eyes, followed by a heavy thud against the wall behind it.

“Bang!”

A small dent appeared in the concrete wall.

The grotesque Ratman turned into a black blur, shooting towards Lu Yuan like lightning.

Ratman’s speed was too fast.

Lu Yuan was holding his mobile phone in one hand, and before he could react, the black shadow had tackled him hard, sending him rolling into a pile of debris behind him.

“Roar—Hiss…”

Ratman’s entire body pressed down on Lu Yuan, strange syllables spilling out of its gaping maw.

Its long tail lashed wildly, striking the ground with loud, sharp cracks.

Lu Yuan gripped Ratman’s front claws tightly with both hands, his mind reeling.

Ratman’s strength was astonishingly immense.

His 12 strength points were no match for it. He was pinned to the ground, unable to move.

“Roar—”

In the darkness, Lu Yuan couldn’t see Ratman’s current form, only hearing a low growl at close range.

Then, something warm and slimy seemed to drip down.

Hot air, like that from a boiling ten-year-old sewer, blasted onto Lu Yuan’s face.

The stench made him want to vomit, but he couldn’t move. The discomfort was almost unbearable.

“Chirp, chirp—”

A sound rapidly approached his ear.

Rustling noises.

It was the sound of a giant rat moving swiftly.

Lu Yuan had no time to turn his head to look.

Because now he could see clearly.

A massive mouth stretched to the roots, with jagged, interlocking fangs and a black tongue twisting like a snake, was pressing closer and closer to his head.

Lu Yuan’s pupils contracted sharply.

“Damn it, I really can’t make it this time!”

“Next time, next time. You guys have fun.”

On the sidewalk by the road, a fashionable young woman in her early twenties put down her mobile phone with a look of helplessness.

She glanced at the time displayed on the phone screen and couldn’t help but complain.

“Mom is so annoying. It’s not even eleven o’clock yet, and she’s already urging me to come home.”

“The missing persons case has hundreds of thousands of people in all of Jiaoyan. How likely is it to happen to me?”

“Besides, the streetlights are on everywhere. It’s not like I’m going into an alley.”

As she spoke, the girl instinctively glanced at an alley she happened to be passing by.

Just as she was about to walk past it…

“Crash—”

A noise came from the alley, startling the girl.

“What was that?”

The girl widened her eyes and looked into the alley.

Inside, it was pitch black, and she couldn’t see anything.

But she could sense something moving in there, and faint, strange, heavy breathing sounds seemed to come from within.

Curiosity drove the girl.

She turned on the flashlight on her mobile phone, slowly extending her phone into the alley. The light, though not very bright, gradually illuminated the scene inside. As it moved to a certain spot, the girl’s arm holding the phone suddenly froze, her expression fixed, her whole body like she had seen something extremely terrifying.

“Bang!”

A dull, loud noise suddenly exploded in the alley.

Accompanied by a beast-like howl of agony, a black shadow with a tail flew past the girl’s side like a cannonball, crashing into a trash can behind her with a loud “bang.”

The girl trembled violently.

It felt like an eternity had passed, though it was only a few seconds.

“Ah!!!”

A piercing scream shattered the quiet of the entire street.

Ratman, crouching on the ground like a beast with its mouth wide open in a biting motion, suddenly had its back arch high.

It was as if it had been hit hard in the chest by a speeding truck.

With a “bang!” it was sent flying backward.

It flew a good ten meters, out of the alley, and only stopped after crashing into a trash can at the alley entrance.

“Chirp—”

With the girl’s scream at the alley entrance, the giant rat lurking in the alley went berserk. It let out a wild cry and lunged toward the source of the explosion of strength.

The shrill screech was abruptly cut off the moment it leaped.

A second later.

The giant rat’s massive body was lifted high by an arm.

Its head was gripped tightly by five slender, white fingers. The plump body struggled and twisted frantically in mid-air but couldn’t break free in the slightest, emitting only furious and crazed screeches.

“Crash—”

Scattered debris and garbage were swept aside as a figure stood up from within.

“Spit!”

Lu Yuan spat forcefully, then wiped the filth off his face with a blank expression.

He glanced at the giant rat struggling desperately in his grip.

A flash of ferocity appeared in his eyes.

The veins on the arm gripping the giant rat bulged visibly.

With a sudden exertion of strength, he flung it against the nearby wall.

“Bang!”

The giant rat was slammed into the wall with an indescribable force.

Several cracks appeared in the concrete wall.

The giant rat went limp.

Its plump body slid down the wall like a liquid, revealing a noticeable dent in the wall.

Having done all this, a slight sense of relief finally appeared in Lu Yuan’s eyes.

However, when Lu Yuan’s gaze shifted to the alley entrance and saw the Ratman, who had already gotten up and was glaring at him with a malevolent and venomous expression, Lu Yuan’s ferocity reignited like a wildfire.

“Damn it!”

Lu Yuan’s handsome face twisted slightly in rage.

He kicked away the obstructing garbage in front of him and took deliberate steps toward the Ratman.

The Ratman, also seemingly enraged, ignored the girl trembling on the ground, a wet stain spreading beneath her. Fixing its eyes on Lu Yuan, it let out a low growl and charged at him like a bolt of lightning.

The long tail behind it cracked through the air like firecrackers.

A fierce glint flashed in Lu Yuan’s eyes, his pupils briefly contracting and dilating.

“Level 3 [Absolute Concentration]! Activate!”

“Whoosh!”

A swift, impeccably executed roundhouse kick sliced through the air like a swinging battle-axe.

It precisely intercepted the dark figure mid-flight, then with a side press, slammed it hard against the adjacent wall.

“Boom!”

The Ratman’s body was almost entirely embedded into the wall, deeply sunken in.

Lu Yuan quickly stepped forward, his muscular arm shooting out.

He grabbed the Ratman’s neck and forcefully yanked it out of the wall.

With all his strength, he smashed it onto the ground at his feet.

“You tried to bite me just now?!”

“Go to hell!”

“Boom!”