Rat City - Pestis
When William heard the na of such a city, he couldn’t help but recall the first mighty foe he had encountered when he had just beco a gentleman, located beneath the Twilight Clinic—Mr. Lee, the Fallen Gentleman.
William was also curious about what kind of scene a city nad after the Rat Plague would present.
Halfway through the journey, the flight attendant responsible for this trip approached William again, seeming to have an important matter that needed imdiate attention.
"Mr. William, we just received a short wave transmission from the headquarters, informing us that Rat City has also been listed as a restricted area. Should we change our destination and take you to another nearby city?"
"Was it just changed?"
"Indeed."
"Keep the itinerary the sa;
get
as close as possible to Rat City. This trip was intended for
to contact the Abyss, so becoming familiar with the conditions at the edge of the Abyss earlier might be good too."
"Understood."
The Ascaris Car stopped ten kiloters from Rat City.
Even from this distance, William could still make out the general silhouette of Rat City, its towering city walls stretching hundreds of ters and seeming not to be made of regular, crudely carved stone.
And a lot of ’green gas’, symbolic of the plague, continuously gushed out above the city, dying the clouds green, with so of them even dripping green rainwater as if the sky was thereby nauseous.
The dilapidated roads were covered with fungi, and ’rats’ were frequently skittering across the road.
The form of these rats had already surpassed William’s knowledge;
only a few appeared normal,
while most of the rats had unchanged heads but bodies that crawled like children or had multiple legs like octopuses.
There was even a ball covered in rat heads rolling past, leaving behind a stench of rapidly evaporating green fungal liquid that slled just like rat fetuses accidentally fell into the sink and were soaked for several days.
"Since entering the Old World, although all the Source Epidemic Areas had their own expressions of illness, they were relatively ’clean’. This is my first visit to a genuinely filthy and chaotic place.
Let
see what the inside of the so-called Rat City really looks like."
Walking on the main road, William slowly realized a problem: although fertility in the Old World was sealed, these rats could still reproduce companions at a high rate through ’proliferation’, which clearly had so association with cancer.
After verifying knowledge with ’Thirteen,’ it is confird that Rat City is indeed governed by the Cancer Palace, but the association is not strong, it is basically laissez-faire.
When approaching the city along the main road, the sight of the city wall structure made even the well-versed William pause.
The city walls were not constructed from stone or steel but were made from ’local materials’.
Due to uncontrolled mass proliferation, there were a number of distorted, short-lived rat individuals, and since the city could only accommodate a limited number of rats, the excess weak ones either had to leave or wait to die.
Thus, Rat City and its surroundings produced a large number of corpses daily,
Burning the corpses was too troubleso and not conducive to the spread of disease,
so Rat City used the deceased rats’ bodies as construction materials, stacking the city walls with ancestral craftsmanship, with the decay liquid inside the bodies acting as an adhesive.
This eventually made the city walls over a hundred ters high, even piling up a second wall around the periter.
Even the Patients of the Old World would find this scene uncomfortable and not want to approach, even without the barrier of the city walls.
It would offend the Cancer Palace, and in the end, one may catch a plague or even find that the stolen treasure chest just contains an old thesis defense.
However, William soon noticed another problem.
Though an Underground Sun was moving not far away, the sunlight that fell on Rat City was pitifully scarce, as if there was a Barrier blocking the sunlight.
"Is it due to the excessive accumulation of corpses? Or is there so other reason... I always feel that in addition to its inherent virulent infectious diseases, this city is hiding sothing else.
The Black Ascaris Company has its reasons for listing it as a restricted area;
perhaps this city is also influenced by the unknown Abyss to so extent or has already undergone so changes in secret."
As William stood before the city wall pensive, a sudden surge of burning heat ca from his shoulder.
The napping Grape suddenly woke up, popping out from the shoulder and not only peeking out but also actively looking around with the ’Ashen Eye,’ as if craving for sothing.
"Grape, what’s wrong?"
"William! The body of this grape has a strong homologous induction with this city before us, and one of the core ancient corpses that constitutes my physical body may be related to these strange Old World rats, or so contagious disease inherent in the town."
"Damn~are you into such hardcore stuff?"
"Pish! What do you an by hardcore, clearly the problem lies with the XP of the Cetery Manager who bred ! The composition of my body was determined by him.
Let’s not talk about that now, since we’re here, let’s go in and take a look. If we can find suitable grapes or a large plague aggregate, perhaps it could awaken the second part of .
Then, wouldn’t my strength greatly increase, easily taking down the Abyss?"
While saying this,
Little Grape even spat out four eyeballs that symbolized his main constituents from ancient corpses.
The first eyeball on the right corresponded to the activated "Eye Collector. Gemhar" and was covered with a strange and icy evil aura, structured with multiple pupils.
As for the other three, they were dim and unactivated.
However, one of them dimly reflected the plague green light similar to that of Rat City, which indicated that Little Grape’s sensing was indeed correct.
"Little Grape, you’d better keep a low profile.
Since you can generate induction here, it’s very likely that so rat in the city, or even a large group of rats, could sense you too."
"What’s there to be afraid of! Aren’t you already capable of fighting with the Honored Tumor Knight? I, Little Grape, can even wield the Evil Sun. Let’s see which rat dares to co near, and then I’ll treat you to a rat skewer, how about that!"
"Why don’t you transform into your Prophet Form directly, Little Grape? We can split up and act separately in the city, which would be more efficient?"
"Cough cough~ not familiar with the place and just entered the city, splitting up might not be a good idea. Ah, I’m feeling a bit sleepy, let
continue my nap from earlier. If you find anything, rember to call ."
Seeing Little Grape retract back into his body, William did not say much more.
After straightening his clothes and putting on his usual spiked mask, he solemnly walked towards the interior of the Plague City.
There was not a single guardian at the city gate, f
The main gate of Rat City looked like it had been gnawed by rats, creating a huge gap, and inside, it was pouring rain, even with green rainwater spilling out from the gate.
Although there were no guards, several traders were standing by the gate,
all of them bore the heads of rodents, the only difference being whether they were with fur or without.
Despite wearing dirty clothes, through the holes in the clothing one could even glimpse at their pus-filled skin layers
Seeing William, a man of distinct appearance and even wearing a refined mask, they imdiately sward around him.
"Sir, I offer the freshest mucous mbrane umbrellas here, made from the stomach pouches of undivided rat people, effective against ’rot rain’, only 10 coins to take one ho.
I also offer full-body raincoats, which work even better, only for 30 coins."
"Boss, do you need a place to stay? My house is remodeled to guarantee cleanliness and no disturbances.
Plus, we offer ’homade services’;
my wife’s split entities are each fair-skinned, beautiful, with soft fur, and very good at household chores. How about it? Do you want to try it, my wife is really great.
The charge is not high, only 20 a day."
"Professional guide! Professional guide, I can take any road, reach any place the fastest."
William turned his head to look at the shouting white rat person,
whose upright body had multiple small hands on its abdon, and one of the eyes on its face was gouged out, its white fur appeared to be due to aging, and seed quite reliable at that.
"Lead the way."
As William looked at this white rat, he lightly flicked the iron pin on his mask with his index finger.
Ding!
The sound resonated, and apart from the white rat that was asked to lead the way, the rest felt a sudden pain deep in their souls.
When they recovered, the youth they had surrounded had disappeared.
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