Evolving infinitely from ground zero

“Bro, brother, I’m sorry.”

“Brother, you have to forgive me, I, I didn’t mean to eat you, I, I’m just too hungry.”

“Once I’m full, I, I will make offerings to you every year!”

The man chewed on the rat meat forcefully, tears of remorse streaming down his contorted face, looking exceptionally eerie.

Lin Zichen frowned, realizing something was off about the man.

He immediately turned and left, deciding to take a detour and not to go back home by way of the garbage station in front.

But just as he turned to leave, the man in the garbage heap sensed his presence, looked up at his retreating figure, and said to the half-eaten rat in his hand:

“Bro, brother, I, I don’t have to eat you anymore, I, I can eat people!”

The man’s voice was crazed, but in the silent night, it sounded utterly chilling.

At the mention of “eating people,” Lin Zichen’s face turned pale, and he instantly took off running.

In just a short second, he had covered nearly 30 meters, quickly putting distance between him and the garbage station.

But in the next second, he heard footsteps closing in from behind.

Looking back, he saw the man who had been eating the rat catching up with him!

The man’s face was splitting open with visible speed, revealing many crimson eyes, whilst small tufts of fur were growing out of his exposed skin, rapidly turning into a giant Mutant Rat.

Was it the madman from during the day?!

Before the man completed his transformation, Lin Zichen recognized him as the one who caused a scene in the vegetable market that day.

“Flesh, I, I want to eat meat, I, I want human flesh, eat human flesh!”

The man picked up speed, his expression growing more ferocious by the moment, chasing Lin Zichen from behind frantically while drooling viscously and making a hoarse noise.

Seeing the half-human half-rat gaining on him, Lin Zichen knew he couldn’t outrun him.

So, the moment the man caught up to him, Lin Zichen turned around and kicked forcefully toward the man’s chest!

There was a loud “bang!”

The unprepared man was kicked into the air, rolling dozens of meters before coming to a stop, lying on the ground, barely alive.

Earlier, when he was bombarded with specialized ammunition by the Mechanically Modified Human, he had been gravely injured, which left him extremely weak now, unable to fully transform into a Rat Man and completely unable to withstand Lin Zichen’s full-strength kick.

Severely injured from the strike?

When he saw the half-man half-rat lying on the ground, motionless except for faint groaning, Lin Zichen thought his eyes were deceiving him for a moment.

In his mind, Rat Men were beings that could withstand gunfire.

Even if they were shot to shreds, they could regenerate at a visibly rapid rate, then stand up again at full health and vigor.

Whatever the case, he’d finish off the man first!

Thinking this, Lin Zichen immediately ran to the side of the road littered with stones, bent down, picked up rocks from the ground, and threw them fiercely at the man lying on the ground, gasping for life.

“Splurch… Splurch… Splurch!”

One stone after another hit the man’s body, piercing through his flesh and producing a series of dull thuds.

Ten, dozens, hundreds…

Lin Zichen was cautious, continuing to throw stones at the corpse from afar, making sure not to go one step closer, even though the man’s body was already smashed beyond recognition.

Only after more than ten minutes passed, with the man’s body turned into mincemeat by the rocks, did Lin Zichen cautiously approach.

He wanted to see if the man was truly dead, to see if he could absorb the life essence of the other party.

It took nearly half a minute of careful approach for Lin Zichen to find that the man turned into a pile of flesh on the ground was indeed completely dead, and he sighed in relief.

Then he squatted down, suppressing his disgust, extended one finger to touch the meaty mess on the ground, and absorbed the life essence contained within it from the giant Mutant Rat.

[You have absorbed a trace of the “Giant Mutant Rat’s” life essence]

[Giant Mutant Rat Compendium: 7%]

Lin Zichen’s brow furrowed slightly, just a 2% increase?

He remembered that the last time he devoured the life source of the giant Mutant Rat within the Rat People, the progress bar for unlocking the atlas jumped by 5%.

However, this time, it was only 2%.

Why was it so little?

Lin Zichen tried hard to recall what had been different between the two devouring events.

And indeed, he found a difference.

The Rat Person, who had been blasted into char by the female Mechanically Modified Human’s laser, seemed stronger, and he had heard from the now-dead head of the security team that this Rat Person had fused with the Rat King’s genes.

Perhaps there was a difference in the quality of the life sources of the giant Mutant Rats that led to the different increases in the progress bar for the atlas after each devouring.

Lin Zichen just thought about it briefly and didn’t dwell on the question for too long.

He quickly and efficiently began to clean up the traces he had left at the scene.

After cleaning up for a moment, he immediately left.

Time passed by minute by minute.

When dawn broke the sky and faint light emerged, the Mechanically Modified Human who had been searching for the Rat People’s trace appeared above the dump.

Then, not far from the dump, he quickly discovered a pool of flesh on the ground.

Having dealt with several Rat Person incidents before, he recognized at a glance that it was the flesh of a Rat Person.

Moreover, it was precisely the one he had been searching for all night.

He flew above the flesh.

He turned off the anti-airflow propulsion device.

The Mechanically Modified Human landed beside the flesh and stared at it for a moment, a question brewing in his mind.

Who killed this Rat Person?

In a dimly lit cave somewhere.

A burly middle-aged man, carrying a young and beautiful woman, hurriedly walked up to a dim altar and stopped.

When he laid the woman on the altar, eight crimson eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness ahead.

Each eye was as large as a soccer ball, emitting a strange red glow and exuding an oppressive feeling.

“Why is there only one woman?”

An old voice came from the darkness.

Upon hearing the voice, the man immediately knelt down, pressing his forehead to the ground and humbly explained,

“Rat God, the young women outside are very wary now, not going out at night, and they always go out in groups during the day. They are hard to capture.”

“Then next time, grab a young man,” the old voice spoke again.

The man devoutly said, “I understand, Rat God.”

No sooner had his words fallen than a piece of wriggling flesh was thrown out from the darkness.

At the sight of the flesh, the man showed a look of excitement.

He excitedly shouted, “Thank you for the blessing of the Rat God,” and then hurriedly picked up the flesh and stuffed it into his mouth, devouring it ravenously.

At the same time, the young woman lying unconscious on the altar was suddenly wrapped up by a tongue that emerged from the darkness and disappeared.

Immediately after, a dull chewing sound of flesh came from the darkness.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the old voice resonated in the darkness for the third time:

“Next time don’t capture ordinary people, they taste too bitter and aren’t delicious. I want to eat those who are high above, they live in luxury, their meat is tender and delicious.”

PS: Holding out a bowl here, asking for your monthly and recommendation tickets!