32: Fire Rat Colony

"Whoosh, whoosh."

Shi Lei drew his bow and released a rapid volley of arrows.

Every arrow found its mark, striking a rat dead on the ground.

But there were simply too many rats, and some managed to get through the arrow rain, scurrying into the hall.

An Qian and the others also drew their weapons, bending down to chop at the ground, slicing the rats that had luckily dodged the arrows in half.

Before long, all forty-odd arrows in Shi Lei's spatial ring were expended.

By this time, the rats crawling in from the bathroom had gradually decreased.

Shi Lei put away his short bow, took out the Seven Star Sword, and joined the others in dealing with the remaining rats.

"Ah!"

Zhang Yong cried out in pain, his steps no longer as nimble as before; he must have been bitten by a rat.

It took a while for everyone to kill all the rats in the hall.

"Damn rats!"

Zhang Yong cursed as he tore down a mosquito net from the bedroom to bandage himself.

Shi Lei walked into the master bedroom's bathroom and found that the bathroom's exhaust fan had been gnawed to pieces; presumably, the rats had come in through the exhaust vent earlier.

Unable to find anything suitable to block the exhaust vent, he had no choice but to close the bathroom door.

After leaving, he also closed the master bedroom door.

Shi Lei sat on the sofa and said, "This wave of rats has been dealt with, but we don't know if they'll come again. Everyone, please share any suggestions you have."

An Qian proposed, "We should change to a different house and try to spray ourselves with something rats are afraid of."

Xiaoli also suggested, "Can we light a big fire? Aren't animals all afraid of fire?"

"Squeak, squeak!"

Before they could come up with a plan, another chorus of rat squeaks came from outside.

"Damn it, there's no end to this!"

Zhang Yong, in a fit of anger, chopped a chair to pieces.

He paused, then said sarcastically, "In my opinion, we should have run out of town before dark. Someone just had to waste time flying a drone. What did that accomplish?"

Xiaoli's almond eyes widened, and she retorted, "Hindsight!"

This world had become unsafe everywhere; if they ran at every little disturbance, where could they possibly run to?

"Let me see if we can move to a different place." Shi Lei walked to the window, turned on his powerful flashlight, and shined it outside.

Outside, there were dense masses of rats, though not as terrifying as the ones outside the Supermarket earlier, there were at least a thousand of them.

Is it really necessary?

It was just killing one small rat of theirs.

Shi Lei was disgusted by the rats' retaliatory behavior.

In a fit of rage, he declared, "Let's kill these stinking rats! Today, we'll try burning the rat horde!"

Shi Lei first took out clothes and quilts from the room and laid them from the hall all the way up to the second-floor staircase, then poured several barrels of diesel throughout the first floor.

"You all go up to the second floor first. Once the fire starts, open the balcony door and jump down."

Shi Lei sent the three upstairs first, then moved a table to prop against the main door.

He tied a rope to the table, with the other end of the rope placed near the staircase.

He unlocked the door, jammed it open, relying solely on the table to hold it.

Still feeling it wasn't secure enough, he took out a rack and placed it near the staircase entrance.

At the top of the rack, he placed a large piece of Crimson Eagle meat, still bloody.

With a pull of the rope, the table fell backward, and the main door swung open.

The rats outside surged in.

With two quick arrows, he shattered the two windows next to the hall, and the rats from that area also scurried in.

The rats that entered smelled the Crimson Eagle meat and scrambled onto the rack.

The rack was quickly overwhelmed by the multitude of rats and collapsed, and the Crimson Eagle meat on it was completely devoured.

More and more rats crawled in, piling up layer upon layer throughout the entire hall.

Smelling human scent, the rats began to climb up the stairs.

Shi Lei took out a barrel of diesel, poured it down, then took out a lighter, lit it, and threw it down.

The raging fire instantly spread throughout the entire hall.

A pungent smell of burning fur immediately assaulted their noses.

Shi Lei turned and went to the second-floor hall.

The thick smoke from below had already risen.

"Let's jump down."

Shi Lei opened the glass door of the balcony, kicked away a few rats that had scurried in, and flipped himself over, jumping down.

An Qian and the others also jumped down one by one.

All of them had leveled up several times using crystals, and their physical capabilities were stronger than those of special forces soldiers.

Jumping down from over three meters high was no problem at all.

As soon as Shi Lei jumped down, a few scattered rats scurried over, squeaking, trying to attack him.

With a few swift sword strokes, he easily annihilated those stinking rats.

After moving more than ten meters away from the building, he turned around and saw that the area behind him had become a sea of flames.

A small number of rats that hadn't died instantly, their bodies aflame, scurried out of the building, but after running for a bit, they could no longer move, then were burned to charcoal.

Waves of unpleasant burnt meat smell drifted over with the wind.

"Let's go."

Shi Lei took out the Thunder Dragon from his ring, ignited it, and started it.

Xiaoli straddled the motorcycle and hugged Shi Lei's waist.

An Qian swung her leg over and sat behind Xiaoli.

"What about me?"

Zhang Yong looked at the Thunder Dragon's seat; there was no way he could squeeze on.

"Hmph, aren't you very capable? Where's your vehicle now?"

Xiaoli glanced at him, saying grumpily.

His motorcycle had been parked in front of the building's main door and was now engulfed in flames.

"Qin Shi Lei, do you have another vehicle?"

An Qian tried asking.

Shi Lei casually tossed out another motorcycle.

Before Zhang Yong could even start his motorcycle, Shi Lei twisted the throttle and sped off towards the east.

"Screech..."

Before they had even gone two hundred meters, Shi Lei slammed on the brakes, stopping abruptly, then turned around and sped off in another direction.

The motorcycle behind him couldn't stop in time and almost crashed into a large group of rats ahead.

Zhang Yong cursed and quickly turned around to chase after the Thunder Dragon.

Shi Lei rode several hundred meters along the west side, only to encounter another large group of rats ahead, so he had no choice but to turn around and head south.

This time, before they had even gone a hundred meters, they reached the town's boundary; there was no road ahead.

He turned around and randomly chose a small path to ride down.

However, it wasn't long before another group of rats appeared.

"Hold on tight."

Shi Lei accelerated, directly charging into the rat horde.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

Countless rats shrieked in agony, and even more rats were crushed into pulp by the Thunder Dragon, meeting their demise.

Riding over the rats, the Thunder Dragon became bumpy and swayed.

It was like driving on a rough mountain road; An Qian, who was behind, almost fell off, scaring her into quickly hugging the Xiaoli in front.

They continued for two to three hundred meters before finally passing through the rat horde.

Shi Lei drove the Thunder Dragon for another three to four hundred meters before stopping in front of a two-story building.

After a series of twists and turns, Zhang Yong, who was behind, couldn't keep up and had disappeared.

Pushing the door open, a rat scurried into the shadows.

"Whoosh!"

Shi Lei, who was already prepared, shot an arrow directly into the rat's head, and the latter died without making a sound.

"This isn't the vanguard of that rat group again, is it?"

Xiaoli said with lingering fear.