Night’s Nomenclature

The midnight was pitch black.

On the main street of the Lower Three Districts, Home Families built a bonfire with iron pots.

Amid the darkness and firelight were chaos and bloodshed.

Outside the Lower Three Districts, screams and howls echoed everywhere.

At this moment, the residents of the Lower Three Districts were forced into the streets by the Guardians' Union with knives and guns. Then, those who had not yet entered the Key Gate saw a tide of rats pouring out.

Everyone panicked and screamed.

Xiao San suddenly roared in the street: "Everyone, don't panic! Members of the Community Union, listen up! If the Rat Tide dares to come into the Lower Three Districts, shoot them!"

After saying this, he picked up a radio and shouted: "Liu He, where are you? What about the weapons?"

"Coming, coming!" Liu He led people to carry boxes of munitions and medicines from the residential buildings.

They never imagined that the Community Union possessed such a powerful armed force!

They watched as the Guardians' Union moved dozens upon dozens of boxes of ammunition, distributing them to the Home Families.

It wasn't just the families. When the Lower Three Districts were reorganized, over 40,000 gang members were incorporated.

Now, the most heinous core members of each gang are working on sewing machines. Those who can be reformed are merged into the Community Union, managing hundreds of gangs.

The Guardians' Union is the brain of hundreds of gangs, and those gangs are all at their disposal.

Therefore, the Guardians' Union's influence in the Lower Three Districts is not just the 12,000 families, but also more than 40,000 gang members.

This number is comparable to City 10's Garrison Troops!

Although gang members are not as well-trained as Garrison Troops, the sheer number is impressive.

Originally, the Guardians' Union planned to slowly transform these gang members into new families, but they hadn't had the time.

Xiao San said into the radio: "Gangs, come and get your weapons. If I see any of you bullying civilians, I'll twist your heads off. Liu He, transport the medicine into the Key Gate, and quickly transfer supplies and water."

The medicine was purchased in batches. After receiving Luo Wanya's notice, the Home Families, having nothing better to do, went to pharmacies to buy antibiotics and stockpiled them.

Half of the munitions were confiscated from the Lower Three Districts gangs, and half were purchased in batches from the black market in City 10.

The Guardians' Union had been steadily stockpiling munitions from the black market for future battles, until Shadow cracked down on the black market.

To be honest, the Home Families were worried at that time, thinking, "Isn't this like a clash between dragons and tigers?"

At that time, the Home Families had already guessed Leader's identity, knowing that Leader was the next boss of the Qing Clan Secret Intelligence Agency. So although Shadow disrupted their plan, no one said anything.

Now, each family is assigned weapons, ready to fight the Rat Tide. If time wasn't so pressing, they would have even dug a moat between the districts.

Golden Family Qin Shuli came to Xiao San's side: "After the Rat Tide emerged from the ground, it attacked the Sixth District first, not us directly. However, a group of rats didn't leave, they're still watching us in the dark, it seems like they have some plan... Yes, we definitely don't have enough weapons, only over a thousand automatic rifles, but we have tens of thousands of people."

Xiao San gritted his teeth: "Those without guns use knives, those without knives find a stool, we'll smash the rats to death. The Leader said we must defend Longlin Road, Union Road, and Binhe Road, these three lifelines. We'll die on these three roads!"

Qin Shuli looked at him deeply: "Don't worry, I'll organize."

Xiao San continued: "What about those who are working on sewing machines? You know what to do?"

Qin Shuli paused, then said: "Don't worry, I'll handle it."

With that, he turned and ordered the Home Families to go into the various buildings to collect kitchen knives left behind by residents.

Facing the Rat Tide was an army that couldn't even gather enough weapons.

Qin Shuli took more than ten people and slowly walked towards Ruixin Building, where all the heinous prisoners were kept by the Guardians' Union, working on sewing machines and folding boxes, generating income for the Guardians' Union through labor reform.

Each prisoner here had committed murder, either cutting out someone's organs or trafficking children—all heinous criminals that the Guardians' Union didn't believe would repent.

After entering the building, Qin Shuli said loudly: "Those from the Guardians' Union, follow me."

There were originally more than a hundred family members acting as guards in the building, now they also followed Qin Shuli, like special forces, penetrating the entire building.

One of the guards asked: "Golden Family, what are you doing?"

"Execute all the prisoners," Qin Shuli said coldly.

This boss, who used to run a small factory in Outer World Luo City, had somehow become like this.

The Home Families responsible for guarding this building were stunned. The prisoners were now unarmed, yet they were going to be executed directly?

While this was reasonable, it was certainly inhuman.

Qin Shuli looked back at them: "No time to explain, this is the Leader's order, don't be soft-hearted."

Executing serious criminals was Qing Chen's order.

It was because the Guardians' Union might not be able to withstand the Rat Tide, and they couldn't possibly waste manpower and firepower to continue guarding these prisoners.

But if these serious criminals were left unguarded, if they escaped, many innocent civilians would be harmed.

That's something Qing Chen didn't want to see.

Therefore, Qing Chen chose to use harsh measures in troubled times—to deal with the matter decisively.

It must be said that in the last five days of the countdown to the time travel, Qing Chen did a lot of thinking. He needed to fill in all the details and make ruthless decisions, even if they weren't understood.

Intense gunfire rang out in Ruixin Building. Qin Shuli and the others advanced quickly, executing one prisoner after another in each room, killing mercilessly.

Their hearts grew cold.

Outside the Lower Three Districts, a group of rats didn't attack the buildings in the Sixth District, nor did they rush to conquer the Lower Three Districts. They were quietly waiting in the darkness not far from the Lower Three Districts' defense line.

No one knew what they were waiting for.

The residents behind the Lower Three Districts didn't know what was happening, or even that there was a Rat Tide.

In the crowd who saw the Rat Tide, a resident suddenly said: "Could these rats be waiting for their underground counterparts to emerge from our rear? I remember someone saying that wolves hunt this way. A group of wolves will attract attention from the front, while the others will go around to the rear!"

The residents were startled. They looked back at the sewers and manholes behind them, but they found that there wasn't a single rat in the Lower Three Districts.

The manholes in the Sixth District next door were all broken open, with rats pouring out continuously, making people's scalps tingle.

You know, during the years of mosquito and rat plagues, the Lower Three Districts were always the worst affected area, because it was so dirty, chaotic, and poor.

But now, the dirtiest and most chaotic Lower Three Districts were fine, and the manholes were quiet, without a sound.

The resident who spoke just now scratched his head: "Maybe I was wrong?"

Xiao San shook his head: "You weren't wrong, they're really under our feet."

In the underground sewers, where no one could see, countless rats were marching rapidly.

They carried a strange hatred, planning to return to the Lower Three Districts, to swallow and engulf the place that had slaughtered their companions.

They were going to tear apart the Lower Three Districts' defenses from the inside.

What surprised the rats was that they searched underground for a long time, and the pipes that should have led to the surface, toilets, and drains, had all disappeared.

No, to be precise, they were all blocked by rapid-drying concrete!

You know, the Federation's construction industry is one of the best, otherwise they wouldn't be able to build skyscrapers over a hundred stories tall.

The rapid-drying concrete contained special chemical components, drying in 10 seconds, able to withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake, requiring special chemical reagents to dissolve during demolition.

This stuff was easy to use to block sewers.

The Guardians' Union had been working on infrastructure projects, and they would repair dilapidated houses, so they had a lot of concrete left, and they used it all on this.

The Rat King had a hatred for the Lower Three Districts, because it had originally planned to use the dirty, chaotic, and poor Lower Three Districts as a food source, and then spread to the entire city, but it failed at the first stop, and finally turned its target to the Fifth District.

Now it had returned, thinking that such a large number of rats would surely succeed in revenge, but they couldn't even find an exit!

At this moment, the rats were scattering underground, searching for an exit. Some rats tried to dig open the concrete, but they scratched for a long time, their claws broken, and they couldn't dig open the sewers.

The Guardians' Union had indeed defended the Lower Three Districts very thoroughly. The Rat King had no idea how crazy these families could be for the sake of winning advanced awards!

The rats scattered underground for more than twenty minutes and didn't find a single way to enter the Lower Three Districts from the inside.

Moreover, the rats suddenly smelled the scent of food as they marched.

Some rats instinctively looked for food, and then saw rice grains in the sewers.

Some rats ate a few grains and died immediately. It was rat poison left by the Guardians' Union before pouring in the concrete. Based on the principle of killing as many as possible, the Home Families poured all the rat poison they could find on the market into the sewer system.

After one rat died from eating the poison, the rats nearby pounced on it and bit it, trying to share their companion.

But before they could bite a few times, they also died.

Except for the Rat King, the intelligence of the whole group of rats was not fully developed, so this batch of rat poison alone killed hundreds of rats in places unseen.

Only when the Rat King noticed the anomaly did it order the rats underground to quickly retreat.

On the surface, nearly a thousand more family members were standing by with munitions, tens of thousands of gang members were holding kitchen knives, guarding Longlin Road, Union Road, and Binhe Road, and there were sentries on the buildings.

In the end, the rats didn't choose to continue attacking the Lower Three Districts, but instead surged towards other districts like a tide.

The Rat King had developed intelligence, and that intelligence seemed to come from the brain of Shendai Qianchi's corpse.

After weighing the situation, the Rat Tide was not yet fully formed, it hadn't undergone sufficient reproduction and evolution, and at this time, fighting a well-prepared Lower Three Districts might delay its overall progress, so it was better to swallow other places first, and then deal with this isolated Lower Three Districts.

At this time, the residents of the Lower Three Districts were stunned. What's going on? Why did the Rat Tide retreat?

In the Sixth District next to the Lower Three Districts, people observed from the buildings that this side was peaceful and hadn't been attacked by the Rat Tide.

Some people bravely organized a group of people to rush out, aiming to rush to the Lower Three Districts in one go.

However, as soon as these hundreds of people rushed out of the building, seeing that they were only over two hundred meters away from the Lower Three Districts' defense line, thousands of rats suddenly rushed out from somewhere and surged towards them fiercely!

Inside the defense line, Xiao San and the others saw this scene by the firelight.

The residents also saw this scene.

They saw that the people who had just rushed out were surrounded by the rat swarm and then forced back into the distance by the rat swarm.

In the night, someone shouted to the Lower Three Districts' defense line: "Help!"

Some refugees were pounced on by rats, then slowly dragged into the shadows and darkness of the buildings.

Purple family member Liu He said: "We can't go, our own defense line isn't stable. The Leader said that when we see the signal, we'll go out and open the passage to receive the Time Travelers from Whale Island. We haven't seen the signal yet, we can't rush out. Have you forgotten the Leader's Plan B? Once we use Plan B, saving the entire city would be a pipe dream, we must prioritize our own safety."

However, Xiao San said coldly: "You didn't understand the Leader's meaning. Although the Leader told us to stay here, he really wants to save all the citizens. The Rat Tide has just emerged, it hasn't reproduced to a larger number, we can save people."

"It's too dangerous," Liu He pulled him: "We can't go!"

Xiao San looked at him seriously: "What is the meaning of our Guardians' Union's existence? Is it just to survive? Don't worry, the Rat Tide is not yet powerful! Liu He, you stay behind, the second team, follow me!"

Xiao San recalled what the Leader had said: "But this is the meaning of the Guardians' Union's existence, Lao Luo. Only when the Guardians' Union sincerely helps the world, will the world be willing to help us. If the world and fate require us to sacrifice in this catastrophe to prove the sincerity of our efforts to change the world, then I don't mind becoming one of those sacrifices."

The Leader could sacrifice, what couldn't he sacrifice?

With that, Xiao San led dozens of people into the darkness ahead.

Gunshots and screams echoed incessantly.

Liu He watched silently, his heart tightening, until the gunshots ceased in the darkness, and his heart slowly sank.

The cessation of gunfire most likely meant...

Before he could figure it out, he heard footsteps coming from the darkness. Xiao San was carrying two children on his shoulders, and the other family members were also carrying people, all running towards the light.

Xiao San roared: "Prepare to fire, we'll kill all those rats once we cross the defense line!"

All the family members ran wildly, followed by thousands of refugees.

Xiao San carried the two children across the defense line and was about to open fire.

But the Home Families were stunned to find that once they approached the defense line, the rat swarm stopped chasing.

Some family members cheered behind the defense line, but Xiao San quickly stopped them: "All units, take a break, we still have a hard battle ahead."

The residents heard Xiao San's words and wondered, these gang members seemed to know what was going to happen, and they were ready to fight these rats?

Now, when they recalled the Community Union's actions in driving them away, it didn't seem like they were trying to sell them out, but rather to lead them to safety.

From beginning to end, the members of the Community Union only cursed verbally, and at most fired shots into the air, or at most kicked a man's butt.

Women, children, and the elderly were not harassed by these ferocious gang members.

At this time, Xiao San explained loudly to the residents: "Don't be afraid, all the sewers have been blocked by us. During this time, we used the rat extermination special campaign to check all the possible places where rats could pass, there will be no omissions, please evacuate in an orderly manner as soon as possible."

Having said that, Xiao San probably felt that his ferocious image was about to collapse, so he quickly became fierce again: "You all f****** move, whoever dares to delay the advance of the team, I'll shoot him dead right now!"

The difference in attitude surprised the residents, but they were no longer so resistant to the Guardians' Union's arrangements.

In the night sky outside the Lower Three Districts, where screams echoed everywhere, the once-despised Lower Three Districts had become a temporary safe haven.

Ten Guardians' Union liaison officers ran throughout the city, and more and more family members began to gather at the main base, slowly alleviating the manpower shortage.

Those Home Families organized the migration of millions of residents fiercely, while Xiao San frowned.

They had four Key Gates, and at the current speed, they could reach an efficiency of two people per second, four gates being eight people per second.

There are 600 seconds in an hour, so 8800 people can be evacuated per hour.

The Lower Three Districts housed more than half of City 10's population, according to the Guardians' Union's household registration statistics, a total of 610,000 people.

Therefore, to evacuate all the residents of the Lower Three Districts, it would take at least nine days.

But would the Rat Tide give them nine days? No, according to the Leader's estimate, the Rat Tide would slaughter the Upper Six Districts in at most three days.

The Guardians' Union could only evacuate the residents as much as possible, and hope for the Federation's army to arrive soon.

Xiao San leaned against the defense line, lit a cigarette, and silently watched the residents' queue move forward quickly.

Behind the Key Gate, people gradually understood what was happening in City 10.

And those gang members who had been fierce towards them, did not choose to flee in the face of disaster, but left a chance of survival for them.

A Hope Media reporter quietly hid in the queue, following the residents of the Lower Three Districts as they evacuated.

He originally came to investigate the anomalies in the Lower Three Districts, but he was intimidated by the Guardians' Union to the downstairs.

Because of something he saw one night while passing by, this reporter saw that the Lower Three Districts, which should have been pitch black, had become brightly lit, so he walked in involuntarily.

Before he could get a good look, he encountered the Guardians' Union enforcing the law.

The reporter witnessed the Home Families raiding two thieves' dens in a building, with the onlookers applauding.

At night, people happily gathered on the street to chat, and women dared to walk alone at night.

You know, even in District 4, the Fifth District, and the Sixth District, women couldn't walk alone after 1 a.m. Just passing through a small dark alley, they might disappear.

The reporter subconsciously looked at the small alleyways in the Lower Three Districts, where surveillance cameras were installed, with slogans like "No littering or urinating, or you'll be paraded in public," "No lawbreaking, or you'll be arrested," and "I'm watching you." The surveillance cameras patrolled back and forth, highly deterrent.

He went in and smelled it, and indeed there was no smell of urine!

You know, even in some alleys in the Third District, people would urinate.

At that time, the Hope Media reporter was dumbfounded.

Was this still the Lower Three Districts he knew? Shouldn't the Lower Three Districts be very dangerous, very dirty and chaotic, very dark? The Lower Three Districts before them had changed completely.

Something was wrong.

The reporter rented a house in the Lower Three Districts to experience life there firsthand.

Gradually, he began to understand the Community Union and met the main figures.

Later, he also found out through other channels that the Lower Three Districts in various cities of the Federation seemed to be undergoing transformation, and the overlapping core figures gradually surfaced.

The reporter began to understand that behind the Community Union composed of hundreds of gangs was a behemoth called the Guardians' Union, which had wiped out the Mechanical God Sect of City 10 and City 18.

Actually, his investigation could have been completed long ago, but the reporter hesitated because he knew that the Conglomerate simply hadn't noticed the changes in the Lower Three Districts and the transformation of the Guardians' Union.

The Conglomerate was used to being arrogant and didn't bother to look down at the Lower Three Districts.

But if Hope Media reported it, it would inevitably lead to the exposure of the Guardians' Union. What would happen then? The reporter knew the consequences.

Therefore, he burned the manuscript.

Although this matter would eventually be exposed, he would rather it be exposed later.

Later, the reporter settled in the Lower Three Districts. He felt that living here was even more comfortable than in the Fifth District.

It was about to be the reporter's turn to enter the Key Gate, and he looked at Xiao San, who was leaning against the sandbag cover and smoking alone, and suddenly left the queue.

As soon as he left the queue, a family member kicked him and fiercely asked: "What are you doing? Don't you want to live? Get back in line!"

Another family member maintained order in the queue: "The people at the back fill in, move faster!"

The reporter fell to the ground, but he didn't get angry, he just stood up, brushed off the dust, and looked at Xiao San and said: "I'm a reporter from Hope Media, I served in the 10th Brigade of the Federation's First Army, I want to stay and fight with you."

Xiao San was stunned: "Do you know what you're saying?"

The reporter nodded: "My name is Gao, I'm willing to stay, I know what might happen."

This Hope Media reporter wanted to stay and participate in the battle, and record his experiences into a story.