In the dim cabin, centered on the two of them, a terrifying black qi poured out like a flood. Lu Chuan slowly turned his neck, like a man who had been trapped in a cramped space and had finally crawled out.
Inside the room, centered on the two figures at the highest point, a terrifying black qi erupted with a roar, sweeping away every rat that came close within range.
Lu Chuan took a deep breath, long and steady. As his eyes moved, red light blazed fiercely in his pupils. He looked like a lion that had long been confined in a cage and was finally free of its shackles. He lightly flexed his neck, producing crisp cracking sounds.
『No, what is going on with this newcomer? Why does he have such an overwhelming presence??』
『Even top-tier big shots rarely give off this kind of feeling… but why do I keep feeling this strange sense of familiarity??』
『To the person above, same here! When I look at him, I can’t help but think of the time I accidentally wandered into a high-level instance and got chased and gnawed on by an S-rank Grotesque…』
『Yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly the feeling!』
『But how could a newcomer have the oppressive presence of an S-rank Grotesque…? Could he have used some kind of item that rapidly boosts strength?』
『Those kinds of items usually only last a very short time, right? Typically just over ten seconds. Even if it can temporarily raise his strength to S-rank, every single one of those human-faced mice opposite him is S-rank now. Can they really hold out for three minutes?』
『No idea. Let’s keep watching.』
…
With Lu Chuan’s strength fully unleashed, Qin Guan slowly scanned the swarm of rats. From a certain angle, the barrage comments were not wrong at all.
Because of the temporary enhancement, every rat in front of them had now been raised to S level.
If the opponent were only a single Grotesque, he believed Lu Chuan could win with ease.
But if they were facing hundreds or thousands of S-rank creatures…?
Sure enough, the rats that had been swept away in the first round of attacks quickly got back up unharmed, baring their teeth and snarling once more.
If they had initially been extremely uncomfortable with the newfound strength in their bodies, then during that last attack, these rats that had long lurked underground had already tasted power and were now eager to strike back.
Three minutes.
They had to hold out for a full three minutes in this surging swarm of rats.
For anyone, that was an impossible challenge.
Qin Guan poked Lu Chuan and felt his fingertip bump against the other man’s muscles.
“What is it?”
Lu Chuan looked down at him.
“I’m wondering whether, if I threw you down there, it would be enough for them to eat for three minutes,” Qin Guan said honestly.
“You should be asking whether they’d be enough for me to eat for three minutes.”
“Talk too big and you’ll strain your back.”
“Good thing my back is fine.”
The words had barely left his mouth when a fat human-faced mouse shot out from the side and lunged straight for Lu Chuan’s face!
Under the instance’s enhancement, the originally delicate and handsome human face on its head had now swollen grotesquely, covered in tumors and pustules of all sizes. Two fangs jutting from its mouth curved outward, dripping foul venom as it bit toward Lu Chuan!
In the end, the real horror of the human-faced mouse was not its attack power, but the bacteria it carried, formed from a mass of resentment.
A single slight contact could lead to assimilation.
Seeing the thing hurtling toward him, Lu Chuan tilted his head to dodge. A sharp black qi condensed from his fingertips, faintly carrying the power to slice through void itself.
Lu Chuan swept his finger like a blade, cutting upward in one stroke, and the human-faced mouse was split cleanly in half on the spot!
Qin Guan turned sideways, using his Agility to dodge the splashing blood and viscera, and said in a low voice, “Left side!”
Without looking back, Lu Chuan sent three streaks of black qi toward the direction Qin Guan indicated, instantly pinning three rats to the wall.
But as more and more rats surged in, even Lu Chuan gradually began to struggle. Several times, he was almost bitten by little rats darting out from the corners, but fortunately Qin Guan reacted quickly and kept those things from succeeding.
And by then, only one minute had passed.
『Wow, I have to say these two newcomers actually have something. I originally thought they wouldn’t even last a minute.』
『What’s the point of lasting just one minute? The rats outside are still pouring in. Killing them one by one like this, whether they die or not is only a matter of time.』
Indeed, although Lu Chuan still looked relatively at ease, if the rats kept flooding in, there was no way they would survive for three minutes.
Qin Guan quickly scanned the room and already had his answer.
“Lu Chuan! Take off your clothes!”
On the other side, Lu Chuan clearly choked.
“This… isn’t that a bit inappropriate in public? And we’re still on live stream…”
“Cut the nonsense!”
Since Lu Chuan refused, Qin Guan simply reached out and grabbed them himself. In a few quick moves, he stripped off Lu Chuan’s coat and wrapped it around himself.
Lu Chuan seemed to sense something. “What are you doing! Are you insane!”
Qin Guan naturally couldn’t be bothered to answer him. He carefully wrapped every inch of his skin with the fabric, reducing the chances of exposure.
If they kept fighting like this, neither of them had any chance of winning.
If they were both going to die, they might as well gamble everything.
He turned his gaze toward the densest part of the swarm of rats.
Beneath the layers of writhing rats, a vaguely familiar woman’s head could be seen, still wide-mouthed, emitting shrill screams.
“Qin Guan! Come back!” Lu Chuan shouted sternly from behind.
But Qin Guan had already stopped caring about any of that. Wrapped in thick clothing, he leaped and plunged into the dense swarm of rats!
The feeling of stepping on a pile of rats was beyond description.
Disgusting, greasy, and soft. A single misstep could send his foot plunging through.
Rats were darting wildly all around him. Qin Guan knew very well that this bit of clothing could not fully isolate contact between the human-faced mice and himself. All he could do was get to that severed woman’s head as quickly as possible.
From the current situation, it seemed that these rats were all under that head’s control. If he could find a way to seize control of it, there might still be a chance for a reversal.
Qin Guan pressed Lu Chuan’s clothes over his mouth and nose, struggling to push through the swarm of rats and inch forward with difficulty.
In front of him, a rat with only half its body left suddenly jumped out, blocking his path and exposing a mouth full of broken, jagged teeth.
Qin Guan’s heart tightened. Hardening his resolve, he was just about to block it with his hand when, from afar, a streak of pitch-black energy shot over and pierced straight through the rat.
Qin Guan looked up and met Lu Chuan’s eyes.
Neither of them said anything, but both understood what the other wanted to do.
And so Qin Guan, under the assault of the overwhelming swarm of rats, moved forward step by step with difficulty. Whenever a rat was about to attack him, a perfectly timed streak of black qi would always fly in from nearby and knock it away.
Enduring the nausea, and with Lu Chuan’s help, Qin Guan made his way step by step to the densest part of the swarm of rats and picked up that head.
Even while being held in his hand, the woman still kept screaming without pause.
Qin Guan did not hesitate. He pulled out the small knife he carried with him, thrust it down in one clean, decisive motion, and stabbed straight through her head, completely destroying both the brain and the vocal cords.
The world finally fell silent.
The rats in the room seemed to have been hit by a pause button, all standing blankly in place.
Qin Guan looked up and saw that less than a palm’s width from Lu Chuan’s body, a rat covered in black fur fell limply from the air.
If he had been even a fraction of a second later, Lu Chuan would have absolutely been infected.
At this point, only two minutes and seventeen seconds had passed.
191 looked left and right, felt that under these circumstances there was really no need to keep the challenge going, and announced that the challenge was ending early.
『Total System Announcement: Congratulations to the player for completing the survival task. The instance upgrade conditions have now been met. The System is accelerating the upgrade process. Please remain calm. The S-rank instance will be loaded shortly.』
As the announcement faded, the stolen strength dispersed. The swarm of rats shrank back to its original size and collapsed weakly onto the ground, every human face showing deep exhaustion and resentment, as if drained dry and stripped of all strength.
The barrage comments across the screen were silent for a moment, then erupted into cheers like a tidal wave.
『They actually won?! Unbelievable!』
『Hahahahaha, to the people who said they’d be dead right away, how does that slap in the face feel?』
『My God, is this the first newcomer to defeat S-rank Grotesques? Doesn’t that break a record?!』
『And there were so many S-rank Grotesques too! I think even those top big shots from BM Foundation might not make it through. Qin Guan is way too strong. I really want to be assigned to the same instance as him! Maxed-out sense of security!』
191 happily fluttered in front of Qin Guan, just about to announce their victory, when the black glow beside Lu Chuan not only failed to fade, but intensified instead.
Unrestrained killing intent exploded outward, casting a shadow of death over the entire swarm of rats.
“Three minutes are up, but did I say it was over?”