Chapter 1157 - 681: The Beginning of Disaster
Chapter 1157: Chapter 681: The Beginning of Disaster
"Everyone, gather around! Adult males surround the elderly, children, and women in the center, everyone find nearby objects to fight the rats, don’t let the rat swarm get close to the crowd!" Qing Chen shouted, "Those still inside the houses, come out quickly and join us, we must leave now!"
He wielded the Puppeteer as a blade, flitting through the long street like a shadow, slicing any rats attempting to approach cleanly in two.
With Qing Chen’s speed, he managed to protect the crowd airtight, though he refrained from using the Thunder power, keeping it as his trump card.
Because he was unsure whether the Jindai had regular troops ambushed in this city, if they did, Thunder would be his real card against their firearms.
In the dark, the Puppeteer was entirely invisible and without form, slicing through the rats as Qing Chen felt the threads cut effortlessly through their bodies.
Cutting skin and muscle, severing bone and fascia, the rats vanished into dust instantly.
At this moment, Qing Chen was astonished to discover that the Puppeteer was actively sacrificing the corpses of the rat swarms, this taboo item that had long been picky about its diet was now consuming indiscriminately!
During the Puppet’s sacrifice of the rat swarm, the threads lengthened very slowly, yet Qing Chen distinctly felt that its fourth thread was indeed growing.
After the battle at Taboo Land No. 002, the Puppeteer’s fourth thread was about to be shaped, just a millimeter away.
Qing Chen suddenly pondered, if he sacrificed the entire city’s rat swarm, could the Puppeteer directly grow nine threads?
However, Qing Chen had no time to focus on his own gains.
On the Fourth District Long Street, there were roughly over three hundred refugees still alive.
Elderly, women, men, children.
Fighters, gamblers, audience members, vendors, waiters.
All sorts of people, Qing Chen wanted them to contract tightly together, forming a shield to protect the elderly, women, and children.
At this moment, the rat swarm was still rampaging in various bars, residential buildings, and boxing gyms, where humans were most congregated.
Thus the people on the street, only if everyone united could they possibly leave alive.
Qing Chen defined the rat swarm’s proliferation into three stages.
While on Whale Island, he told the Time Travelers, "The rat swarm before we returned belongs to the first stage, they have just swallowed Jindai Chika’s corpse, still in the initial phase of proliferation. At this time, they dare not openly attack humans on the streets, only silently encroaching on human boundaries in dark corners."
"After crossing over, we might face the second stage of the rat swarm. Then the rats will take to the streets, organized and disciplined, starting to attack various districts. They will try to chase humans into the streets to flee for their lives or drive them into buildings to trap them, anything is possible. Remember, at this time the rat swarm’s numbers are still insufficient to cover the entire city, perhaps only covering one-third. Their goal in attacking humans is purely for feeding. If we encounter the second stage, we must unite and fight while running, we can only temporarily be safe by reaching the Lower Third District."
"Then comes the third stage, when the rat swarm has already wiped out more than half of the humans in the city, their population multiplied fivefold or even tenfold, and City No. 10 will become their territory. At that time, besides holding fort in the Lower Third District waiting for rescue, we have no other options."
In Qing Chen’s view, right now was only the second stage, only if everyone united could there still be a chance to survive.
But things didn’t go as hoped.
When the formation shrank, a few strong fighters squeezed into the center of the crowd, and whenever rats lunged at them, they’d use people around them as shields, even pushing women out to divert the rats’ attention.
A fighter, tall and burly, effortlessly lifted an elderly man in his hand, using him as a shield.
Several strong fighters, while fleeing for their lives, shouted at Qing Chen, "Run! Don’t stay here! Don’t wait for the people in the bars!"
Qing Chen’s expression turned cold, he was saving people because he had arranged for countless people to die in his plans.
Over six hundred Kunlun members, twelve thousand families, everyone risking their lives for his goals.
Those people were dying one after another, thinking about all this, Qing Chen couldn’t continue being selfish.
Otherwise, the words he once spoke to Iodophor, Luo Wanya, and others would become hypocritical jokes.
Qing Chen wanted to be a good person, but that didn’t mean he was a pushover.
He grabbed a gaunt, gambler-looking person and asked, "Do you know these three fighters, ever bet on them?"
The gambler nodded, "I know them, they’re all Land Cruise Grade fighters, these three bastards all love to throw fake fights..."
"What’s their names?" Qing Chen roared.
"Chen Cuan, Lu Chi, Wang Gan," the gambler said every name he knew, frightened.
The Puppeteer required stringent conditions, if it was a direct battlefield he wouldn’t have a chance to ask the soldiers’ names, so the Puppeteer could only be used as a blade.
And these three renowned fighters were exactly the Puppeteer Qing Chen needed!
The next moment, Qing Chen had already pushed through the crowd to the side of these fighters.
The fighters realized something was wrong, wanting to punch and strike at Qing Chen, but all they saw was Qing Chen’s cold expression.
They saw the young man only slightly tilting his head, easily avoiding the incoming punch.
Land Cruise Grade?
That was something Qing Chen had left behind playing with long ago, not knowing how long ago, he was already the Land Cruise Grade boxing champion of City No. 18.