Chapter 63

Evening, past ten o'clock.

Hogen City had already fallen into a deep sleep by this time.

Except for a few drunks and certain special professionals who only move at night, most people were already fast asleep at home and would not wander outside.

The night was very quiet, with occasional bird calls and insect chirps, or noise made by drunks.

Gao De, who had quietly left the herb garden from the backyard, moved very lightly and quickly toward the city center.

Crossing the dirty and chaotic slum area, he occasionally saw a few figures.

There were quite a few restless people in the slums at night.

Soon, Gao De arrived at the civilian living area, which was relatively much safer and cleaner.

Every time he sold herbs before, he would stroll around Hogen City.

Therefore, compared to when he first arrived in this world, Gao De was now quite familiar with Hogen City.

So, Gao De quickly found the target of this trip.

A sewer entrance in the civilian area.

Gao De scanned his surroundings and quickly found a suitable position.

Opposite the sewer entrance, there was a street tree with lush branches and leaves.

He quickly approached the street tree, took out his childhood experience of climbing trees, climbed up in a few moves, and hid his figure in the shadows of the tree.

Confirming that the branches and leaves of the street tree covered his figure tightly, without even a trace or shadow leaking out, Gao De carefully parted the branches and then stared fixedly at the sewer entrance.

The purpose of his trip was obvious: to conduct a final verification of his speculation and try to figure out the true identity of the "culprit" behind the strange events in the city.

There were not many sewer entrances in the city, but there were not few either.

So "waiting for a rabbit" still had a bit of luck involved.

It's just that Gao De couldn't think of any other better way.

Squatting on the tree like this for more than an hour.

The moon rose above the willow branches.

Just when Gao De was beginning to feel sleepy, a faint rustling sound entered his ears.

This made his spirits soar, and all his sleepiness disappeared without a trace.

He widened his eyes and looked in the direction the sound came from—the sewer entrance.

In Gao De's horrified gaze, a swarm of black rats poured out from that dark entrance that could only accommodate one person.

These rats were of a very normal size, definitely not the terrifying creatures like the wolf rats that had raided the herb garden before; they looked no different from the most common kind of rat.

But in the dark of night, the appearance of so many rats in a group was in itself an extremely eerie thing.

After leaving the sewer entrance, these rats surged in one direction like a tide.

In just a moment, this large group of rats disappeared from Gao De's sight and into the night.

Gao De, who had witnessed this horrifying scene with his own eyes, waited silently.

Another half an hour or so later.

Under the moonlight, dense black dots appeared again, surging toward the sewer entrance here.

When the black dots grew larger in Gao De's sight, until he could see the appearance of those rats.

"Hiss!" Gao De couldn't help but gasp.

The moonlight pierced through the sparse clouds, illuminating the eerie scene before him.

These rats, lined up in a row, with uniform movements, were actually working together to carry several humans who seemed to be in a coma or asleep.

"One, two, three." Gao De scanned them and determined the number of humans carried by this strange rat swarm.

These three people showed no signs of waking up under such intense movement.

The rat swarm had a clear goal and carried the three people to the front of the sewer entrance.

"And then?" Gao De really couldn't imagine what this group of rats would do next.

Bring these three people into the sewer? What was the purpose of doing this? The next moment, Gao De's doubt was answered.

With a "whoosh."

A blood-red light shot out from the dark sewer entrance.

With the help of the moonlight, Gao De saw the true face of that blood-red light.

It was a blood-red vine.

The blood-red vine stretched out from the sewer and curled toward one of the three humans carried by the rat swarm.

The vine had sharp thorns, which at this moment were like teeth, piercing into the human's skin. Then, the blood in the human's body flowed out like a stream and was quickly absorbed by the vine.

Correspondingly, the person's body was shriveling at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A chill flowed from the soles of Gao De's feet throughout his whole body.

His breathing became heavy.

In just a few minutes, a living person had turned into a pale, shriveled corpse right under Gao De's nose.

And the vine was stretching its branches and leaves after drinking blood.

It was clearly just a vine, but Gao De seemed to perceive that it was releasing a joyful and comfortable emotion at this moment.

At the same time, a faint red mist rose from the branches and leaves of the vine, permeated, and surged into the bodies of the rat swarm.

The next moment, a familiar and horrifying scene happened before Gao De's eyes.

Under the nourishment of the red mist, the eyes of the rat swarm turned into an eerie deep red, just like burning rubies, flashing with ominous light in the night.

It was exactly the same as the two points of deep red Gao De had caught a glimpse of when he left the sewer last time.

In the dark of night, so many deep red eyes flashing with ghostly light made one's scalp tighten.

"Symbiosis..." Gao De whispered in his heart.

Clearly, the rat swarm and this strange plant had a classic symbiotic relationship.

The strange plant should have the characteristics of a plant, unable to move, and needs the rat swarm to hunt for it.

And the rat swarm needs the strange red mist released by this strange plant after it enjoys its food.

Although he didn't know the specific effect, it was definitely beneficial to them.

Seeing that the vine was "full" for the time being and the red-eyed monster rats had finished enjoying the red mist, a small part of the rat swarm separated, bit the clothing of the corpse, and dragged it into the sewer.

Soon, the corpse fell straight down the sewer entrance, into the sewer, and disappeared.

The culprit, the process of the crime, the whereabouts of the bodies—Gao De had learned the truth about everything regarding this strange case of missing persons at this moment.

He even corrected his previous judgment.

Why did the big shots in the city delay in solving the missing persons case?

It wasn't necessarily that they hadn't considered the possibility of the sewer at all.

It's just that unless they happened to see the red-eyed form of the rat swarm.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, even if the city guards searched the sewers and saw these rats with their own eyes, how would they associate such normal-looking rats that seemed to have no threat with the culprit? The existence of rats in the sewer was a very normal thing to begin with.

This disguise was too natural.

And on the scene, this "feeding" was not over yet.

After a moment of pause, the vine seemed to have finished digesting and began to move again.

The target was undoubtedly one of the remaining two people.

Whoosh! Just as the vine moved.

A scorching light burst out in the night, piercing the dull air and throwing itself into the rat swarm gathered beside the vine.

It was an arrow-shaped flame.

The moment the flame arrow hit the target rat, it erupted with an explosion and a dazzling light, and the flames quickly spread, enveloping a small group of red-eyed monster rats at the center of the explosion.

The red-eyed rat swarm scattered and fled under this sudden flame attack.

Screams and the crackling of flames intertwined.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of burnt fur.

"What's that sound!"

"It came from over there, hurry over and take a look!"

Da da da! Rapid, messy, but powerful footsteps came.

The explosion and light, which were unusually abrupt and shocking in the quiet night, quickly attracted the attention of a team of city guards patrolling just a street away.

Seeming to have heard the movement of the city guards, the red-eyed rat swarm could no longer care about anything else, and amidst a flurry of squeaks, they quickly dived into the sewer entrance and disappeared.

And the corpses of the dead rats burnt by the flames were also picked up by the living red-eyed monster rats and taken back to the sewer.

The strange vine moved even faster, and with a "whoosh," it dived back along the sewer entrance passage.

At the same time, on the street tree opposite the entrance, a figure also jumped down quickly and disappeared into the night.

Scattering like birds and beasts.

(End of Chapter)