Night’s Nomenclature

"Get closer together! Adult men, surround the elderly, children, and women in the middle. Everyone look for something handy nearby to beat the rats, don't let the rat swarm get close to the crowd!" Qing Chen shouted: "Those who are still in the house, come out and meet us quickly, we must leave!"

He used the Marionette like a knife, shuttling through the long street like a shadow, any rat that tried to approach was cut in two by the sharp Marionette.

With Qing Chen's speed, he actually protected the crowd so tightly that not a single rat could get through, but he didn't try to use the Power of Thunder again, keeping it as a trump card.

Because he didn't know if Shendai had regular troops ambushed in this city, if there were any, then the unmeasured would be his real trump card against Firearms.

The Marionette was completely invisible in the dark night, it glided across the rats, Qing Chen only felt the threads cutting through the rats without any hindrance.

Cutting through skin and muscle, severing bones and fascia, the rats instantly turned to ashes.

At this time, Qing Chen was surprised to find that the Marionette was actively sacrificing the bodies of the rat swarm, the Forbidden Artifact, which had been picky about its diet for so long, had actually started to eat everything, regardless of whether it was meat or vegetables!

When the Marionette sacrificed the rat swarm, the threads grew very slowly, but Qing Chen clearly sensed that its fourth thread was indeed growing.

After the Forbidden Zone 00 battle, the fourth thread of the Marionette was about to be formed, only a hair's breadth away.

However, Qing Chen didn't have time to focus on his gains now.

There were about 300 more refugees alive on the streets of District 4.

Old people, women, men, and children.

Boxers, gamblers, spectators, merchants, waiters.

There were all sorts of people, Qing Chen wanted them to gather together, to stick together to protect the old, weak, women and children.

At this time, the rat swarm was still rampaging in various bars, residential buildings, and boxing gyms, which were the places where the most humans were.

So the people on the street, as long as everyone unites, there is still a chance to survive.

Qing Chen defined the breeding number of the rat swarm into three stages.

When he was on Whale Island, he once said to the Time Travelers: "The rat swarm before the return belongs to the first stage, they have just swallowed Shendai Qianchi's body, and are in the early stage of reproduction. At this time, they dare not openly attack humans on the street, they can only slowly erode the human boundaries in dark corners."

"After the crossing, we may face the second stage of the rat swarm, at that time, the rats will take to the streets, and will begin to conquer various urban areas in an organized and disciplined manner. They will try to drive people to the streets to flee for their lives, or drive people into buildings to become turtles in a jar, anything is possible. Remember, at this time, the number of rats is still not enough to cover the whole city, they can only cover one third at most, their purpose in attacking humans is to eat. If we encounter the second stage, we must unite, kill and run, only by reaching the Lower Three Districts can we be temporarily safe."

"Then there is the third stage, at that time, the rat swarm has already wiped out more than half of the humans in the city, their population has increased five or ten times, City 10 will become their territory. At that time, we have no choice but to defend the Lower Three Districts and wait for rescue."

In Qing Chen's view, this is only the second stage, as long as everyone unites, there is still a chance to live.

But things went against his wishes.

When the formation was shrinking, several strong boxers actually squeezed towards the center of the crowd. Once a rat rushed towards them, they would use the people around them as shields, and even push women out to attract the rats' attention.

A boxer was tall and burly, he easily lifted an old man in his hand, using the old man as his own shield.

Several strong boxers were escaping for their lives, while shouting at Qing Chen: "Run, don't stay here! Don't wait for the people in the bar!"

Qing Chen's face gradually turned cold, he saved people because he had arranged for countless people to die in his plan.

More than 600 Kunlun Members, 12,000 family members, everyone was risking their lives for his goal.

Those people were dying one after another, Qing Chen thought of all this, and he couldn't continue to be selfish.

Otherwise, what he had said to Dianfu, Luo Wanya, and Xiao San would all become hypocritical jokes.

Qing Chen wanted to be a good person, but that didn't mean he was a pushover.

He pulled a thin, gambler-looking man and asked: "Do you recognize these three boxers? Have you ever bet on them?"

The gambler nodded: "I know them, they are all Land Cruiser level boxers, these three bastards like to fix matches."

"What are their names?" Qing Chen roared.

"Chen Chuan, Lü Chi, Wang Gan," the gambler was so scared that he immediately blurted out all the names he knew.

The Marionette had harsh conditions, if it were a frontal battlefield, he would have no chance to ask the soldiers' names, so the Marionette could only be used as a knife.

And these three boxers with names were exactly the puppets Qing Chen needed!

The next moment, Qing Chen had already pushed through the crowd to the three boxers.

The boxers realized something was wrong and wanted to punch Qing Chen, but all they saw was Qing Chen's cold expression.

The boy simply tilted his head slightly, and effortlessly dodged the punch.

Land Cruiser level?

Those were things Qing Chen had played with a long time ago, a long time ago, he was the Land Cruiser level boxing champion of City 18.

This intimidating title only corresponded to D-Class Metahumans.

In an instant, the transparent threads in Qing Chen's hand suddenly separated, extremely cleverly wrapping around the wrists of the three boxers.

The Marionette was excited.

The end of each thread was like a small snake opening its mouth, fiercely piercing into the wrist veins of the three boxers.

For the past few months, it had been used as a knife by Qing Chen.

Among the Marionette's previous owners, two had divided the threads into 18 strands, that was its peak state.

Now, in order to remind Qing Chen of its original function, it even ate rats!

It was so hard!

This thing finally remembered its original function as a Forbidden Artifact!

In the chaos of the crowd, no one noticed what Qing Chen had done, then the three boxers volunteered to kill out of the crowd, patrolling around the crowd, protecting everyone.

The rat swarm surrounded them, but these three people were not afraid, while shouting at everyone not to be afraid, they fought separately at an extremely fast speed, they actually blocked the rat swarm!

The gambler who had just been questioned by Qing Chen felt that the three boxers suddenly became powerful.

It wasn't that they suddenly became brave, but that they really became powerful.

The exertion of strength and force perfectly matched a certain law and rhythm, the breathing frequency and action bursts perfectly coordinated, even a layman would find it pleasing to the eye.

The gambler thought, "So you guys are so powerful, you bastards were really fixing matches before!"

But what the gambler didn't know was that the three boxers suddenly became powerful not because they were powerful themselves, but because Qing Chen was controlling them wholeheartedly.

At this time, a rat jumped up, wanting to jump over the three people and rush into the crowd, forcing the crowd to disperse.

But when the rat was flying in the air, it was cut in half by an unknown sharp weapon, and the next second, the rat's body turned to ashes in the air.

It was sacrificed.

Several more rats pounced, but in the night, it was as if someone had used a thread of silk to form a deadly net, with Qing Chen as the center, and the three boxers as fulcrums, firmly protecting the refugees in the middle.

All this happened in the dark, Qing Chen was like a chess player, holding three chess pieces and using four minds at once.

The skill of using multiple minds at once, which he had been practicing with the Rubik's Cube for a long time, finally came in handy.

Qing Chen shouted: "Don't panic, just like us, actively defend against the rat swarm, they are only slightly faster, not that terrifying! All adult men, come out for me, if I see anyone hiding behind children and old people, I will kill him immediately!"

At this time, City 10 was dark and fearful, the refugees heard Qing Chen's words as if they had been given a shot in the arm, finally more than ten men were willing to come out and help kill the rats.

Among them, 1 were young people, only 1 were middle-aged men.

The remaining middle-aged men still chose to hide in the crowd and watch others fight.

Qing Chen felt uneasy, the rats on the street were getting more and more, they had been killing hard for half a day, and the crowd hadn't advanced many meters.

At this moment, in a private club on the street, someone rushed out in panic and screaming.

At first, it was the waiter, followed by a middle-aged man in a suit and two women in gold sequined evening dresses and high heels.

Four bodyguards protected these people, their expressions hurried, they used candles to light the way, guiding their employer.

The refugees saw the two women in the light and exclaimed in surprise: "Wang, Zhou Jieyi!"

Wang and Zhou Jieyi were two famous actresses in the Federation, considered first-line actresses in the Federation's film industry, no one expected to see the two actresses fleeing with everyone at this time.

Qing Chen did recognize the middle-aged man next to the two actresses, Chen Lu, a member of parliament from City 1 district!

This member of parliament was a member of the Chen Family's side branch, and also one of the Chen Family's representatives in the Federation's political center, his speeches were inspiring and very motivating, and he had just passed an employment bill a few days ago.

On television, Chen Lu had eloquently stated that the Federation's employment rate would immediately improve, and the people's lives would also become happier.

The four bodyguards escorted their employer and the two ladies into the crowd, carefully hiding themselves.

Qing Chen knew without looking that a Rat Tide must have also broken out in the private club.

In order to prevent rats and cockroaches, the sewers in the Federation's private clubs were specially treated with reverse floor drains, and rats usually couldn't climb up.

But they underestimated the ferocity and intelligence of the rat swarm, the rats actually broke open the sealed floor drains and conquered the private club.

Qing Chen glanced at the four bodyguards, they should be carrying guns, so Qing Chen shouted: "Bodyguards, come and help, let's kill our way out!"

The four bodyguards just started to move, but Chen Lu sternly said: "Whose bodyguards are you? Stay by my side, don't go anywhere."

Qing Chen frowned, he shouted across the air: "If you don't come out to help, everyone will die, the best way now is to kill our way out!"

Chen Lu sneered at the bodyguards and said: "Don't listen to him, you only need to protect the three of us, when the power went out, Li Ling has already gone to find the Garrison Troops to come and pick us up, they should be here soon!"

When the power went out, Chen Lu didn't panic, but immediately asked someone to find the Garrison Troops in his capacity as a member of parliament.

There were officers from the Chen Family in that army, they couldn't let him, a member of parliament, get into trouble.

Qing Chen's face grew cold, but the arrival of the Garrison Troops was good news.

There were 50,000 Garrison Troops stationed in the city, if a member of parliament sent someone to ask for help, they would definitely send troops to rescue them.

Because, the members of parliament were the main characters of this political center city.

"Boss, I have an idea to prevent the Rat Tide!" Someone shouted from the crowd.

Qing Chen looked back and saw Zhang Mengqian taking off his clothes, using the dagger he carried with him to cut the clothes into four strips, and then wrapping them around the necks of the four children.

The little boy had discovered that the human carotid artery was the priority target for all rats, only in this way could the human's resistance be efficiently eliminated.

Therefore, wrapping clothes around the neck was a good protective measure.

Once the carotid artery was protected, even if the body was bitten by several rats, it would not necessarily die immediately. If timely treatment and vaccination could be given, the injured person would most likely survive.

Zhang Mengqian was only a 14-year-old child himself, but he was now taking care of others in the crisis.

Qing Chen controlled the Marionette to block the Rat Tide, while saying: "Good job, everyone present immediately take off your coats and wrap them around your necks, don't give the rats a chance to bite you to death!"

The refugees scrambled to follow suit.

A young man in charge of the outer perimeter had just wrapped his coat around his neck when he saw a rat sneaking into his feet from a gap, pulling his clothes up.

However, when it climbed to the neck, it found that there was nowhere to bite.

The rat wanted to bite through the clothes, but the denim jacket was too strong, it bit several times and still couldn't bite through the layers of clothes.

In a fit of rage, it could only bite the young man's ear, tearing off a piece of flesh!

The refugees in the crowd saw this scene, everyone helped to slap the rat while shouting: "Effective, this method really works!"

As long as the rat couldn't bite the person to death at once, the person would have a chance to fight back!

As they spoke, the roar of vehicle engines came from afar, and more than ten diesel Off-road Vehicles sped over, dozens of Garrison Troops soldiers on the vehicles carrying automatic rifles, frantically shooting at the rat swarms along the way.

Heavy machine guns were also mounted on the rear of the Off-road Vehicles, firing 600 rounds per minute.

When the residents saw the Garrison Troops in their panic and helplessness, their eyes lit up: "Quick, quick, quick, the Garrison Troops are here to save us!"

Saying this, everyone rushed towards the Garrison Troops.

But Qing Chen secretly felt bad, these Garrison Troops didn't seem to know what was happening in BC City, they didn't even realize that this rat plague was not temporary, but a real disaster.

At this time, more than ten Off-road Vehicles were simply not enough, although shooting at the rat swarms with machine guns could kill many rats, this action was too high-profile.

Qing Chen knew very well that the Garrison Troops in City 10, although well-equipped, were not allowed to participate in actual combat or exercises under the intentional control of the Conglomerate.

Because, the sixth president once tried to use the City 10 Garrison Troops as his armed forces to fight against the Conglomerate.

After the Conglomerate suppressed this incident, how could they allow such a thing to happen again?

Therefore, more often, this Garrison Troops was more like an exquisite ornament in the political center, and did not have any real combat experience.

Such a unit could not stop the Rat Tide!

The most important thing was that a high-profile unit of dozens of people could not take more than 300 people to the Garrison Troops camp, these people only cared about the member of parliament, once they picked up the member of parliament, they would immediately leave!

The Garrison Troops were not here to save the refugees, they would kill all the refugees who wanted to ask for help!

Moreover, the direction from which the Garrison Troops came was exactly opposite to the Lower Three Districts.

Qing Chen couldn't go to the Garrison Troops camp with them, he had to meet up with the Guardians' Union and fight with the Home Families!

At this time, Qing Chen shouted loudly: "Don't go! Don't go, the Garrison Troops won't take you with them, it's dangerous! They're not here to save us!"

However, on one side were the boxers, and on the other side were the Federation Garrison Troops, how would the refugees choose?

In desperation, Qing Chen controlled the three puppets to start beating the refugees: "Get back, no one is allowed to approach those Garrison Troops!"

He single-handedly stopped all the refugees.

In the crowd, a woman cried: "What are you doing, let us go quickly, do you want to kill us?"

Everyone cast fearful and puzzled glances at Qing Chen and the three boxers.

But Qing Chen didn't explain much: "Don't go, they don't have enough troops to save us!"

Chen Lu was caught in the crowd, seeing that he couldn't get close to the Garrison Troops, he roared: "Are you guys crazy, do you know what you're doing?! Get out of the way! Bodyguards, shoot them dead!"

The four bodyguards reached under their ribs, but before they could react, Qing Chen was already in front of them, and in the blink of an eye, he had confiscated everyone's guns.

Just as the four bodyguards were furious, at the crossroads where the Garrison Troops were, a rat swarm like a black tide suddenly appeared, even the Rat Tide besieging Qing Chen and them abandoned the more than 300 refugees and rushed towards the Garrison Troops.

This Garrison Troops was too high-profile, they had killed countless rats along the way, finally attracting the attention of the Rat King.

Qing Chen looked around, he didn't see the Rat King's trace, which meant that the Rat King had the ability to control the rat swarm from a distance.

This was bad news, human communication had been cut off, while the rat swarm had a more efficient communication ability, was this the Rat King's ability after entering the extraordinary realm?

Countless Rat Tides, fearlessly facing the heavy machine gun fire, surged towards the Garrison Troops.

In an instant, the more than ten Off-road Vehicles were surrounded!

The refugees who had just been shouting at Qing Chen were stunned, even though they were just ordinary people who had not participated in the battle, they knew that this Garrison Troops was finished!

The guns roared, the guns held by the soldiers only had thirty rounds of magazines, and the heavy machine guns only had 100 rounds of magazines.

The firepower suppression was refreshing, but the number of rat swarms was dozens or hundreds of times that of their ammunition, and they couldn't fight them all.

When the soldiers changed magazines, the firepower paused slightly and was completely overwhelmed by the Rat Tide.

Until this moment, the refugees finally stopped and no longer rushed towards the Garrison Troops.

They remembered what Qing Chen had just said, and immediately forgot about Qing Chen's punches and kicks, and showed gratitude.

Qing Chen shouted loudly: "Everyone, don't talk, while the Rat Tide is attacking the Garrison Troops, follow me immediately!"

He ran quickly, and more than 300 refugees ran after him.

The actress Wang pulled Chen Lu's bodyguard: "Carry me!"

Saying this, she jumped onto the bodyguard's back, even at this time, she didn't want to take off her high heels!

The other actress, Zhou Jieyi, was running and her high heels fell off at some point, and she was barefoot on the ground.

Seeing Wang's actions, she followed suit and lay on the back of another bodyguard: "Carry me, I'll give you two million if we survive!"

The disaster had just broken out, the power and money in this world still had an effect.

But Qing Chen knew that it wouldn't take long for the people's inherent worldview, values, and outlook on life to be completely overturned by the crisis of life and death.

Qing Chen coldly urged: "Shut your mouths and run silently, no one is allowed to shout loudly, no one is allowed to stop until I say so!"

At this time, Chen Lu was no longer speaking, he could only bow his head and run in the team, he finally realized the seriousness of the problem!

In the dark night, Qing Chen observed the environment, while trying his best to listen to the sounds on each street: "Turn left!"

Saying this, he led the refugees to turn left at the crossroads.

"Turn right!"

"Stop! Shut up!"

Qing Chen's figure stopped abruptly, everyone didn't understand, the next moment, a dense and dense sound of footsteps from the Rat Tide came from the next street.

The sound of those hard and sharp claws hitting the ground made everyone's hair stand on end.

Zhang Mengqian struggled to hold the four children in his arms, covering their mouths with his arms to prevent them from making a sound.

The refugees were terrified, and even forgot to breathe.

"Keep going!"

The team started to move again.

Qing Chen's goal was very clear, while the rat swarm was still scattered foraging, first take the crowd back to District 6.

It borders the Lower Three Districts, to reach the Lower Three Districts, only needs to travel another 30 kilometers through District 6.

Moreover, District 6 was one of the first administrative districts where the Rat Tide broke out, and he came from there.

Since it was the first place to break out, the Rat Tide had most likely already eaten it clean.

A Rat Tide without food would definitely not stay in an empty area, they would invade other administrative districts in an organized and planned way.

Then, the place that was once the most dangerous, might now be the safest.

At this time, the refugees also discovered a problem, the boy leading the way seemed to be able to predict the Prophet, avoiding every march of the rat swarm.

Turn left, turn right, stop, these orders gradually became subconscious orders in the minds of the refugees.

This is how human beings are, in panic and helplessness, once there is only one voice left in the team, whether that voice is right or wrong, they will blindly follow.

Qing Chen calculated the distance, they still had more than 20 kilometers to reach District 6, and this journey would be the most difficult.

While running, a middle-aged man suddenly saw an empty jewelry store on the side of the street.

He froze for a moment, pulled his wife's arm, signaling her to look too.

There was no one in the dark jewelry store, and there should be no rats, if there were, the boy leading the way would have reminded them long ago.

Rats, sooner or later, would be eliminated by the Federation army, but gold was not something that could be obtained for free at any time!

Just as Qing Chen stopped to wait and avoid the Rat Tide this time, the middle-aged couple secretly left the crowd and ran towards the jewelry store.

As soon as they entered the jewelry store, the man carefully looked around, making sure he didn't hear any strange sounds before urging: "Quick, quick, quick, take the gold, and catch up with the team as soon as possible!"

They wanted to open the counter, but the counter was locked.

The couple found the key in the pockets of the cashier's corpse, opened the counter, and stuffed strings of gold necklaces into their pockets until all their pockets were full.

The two were excited and scared, the huge benefits had clouded their minds.

Mortgages, car loans, everything was solved, with just this gold, they could live a high-class life.

The woman's neck and wrists were already full of gold ornaments, making her look like a rich bumpkin.

The man, who was gradually recovering his senses, said, "Okay, don't pack any more, let's go back to the team, you need to have your life to spend money."

However, when the two quietly walked out of the jewelry store, they found that the street outside had become empty at some point.

The team that should have been on the street avoiding the march of the Rat Tide was gone!

"What should we do! Where did they go?" The wife began to feel real fear.

"Quick, quick, quick, run forward a few steps, find them! They shouldn't have gone far!" Said the man.

The two ran towards the crossroads, but as soon as they got there, they heard the dense scraping sound.

The couple slowly turned around, and suddenly saw the Rat Tide rolling over like black water.

They ran back, but they couldn't outrun the Rat Tide.

The next moment, the black tide engulfed the two and the gold.

Just 10 seconds later, the Rat Tide moved on, revealing two white skeletons on the ground, and the gold ornaments on the wrists and necks of the skeletons.

Qing Chen, of course, heard the sound of them leaving the team, but even a Buddha wouldn't save a fool, and he certainly wouldn't save them.

All he did was to seek peace of mind, to live up to the efforts of Kunlun and Home Families, if after six days he returned to Whale Island, and someone asked what the commander was doing while everyone was dying one after another.

Qing Chen didn't want the people who would ask those questions to be disappointed, and he didn't want to disappoint those who had never questioned his decisions.