Night’s Nomenclature

"The Rat Tide is coming again!" someone on the watchtower yelled, banging their frying pan with an iron rod.

The voice from the tall building was hoarse, as if the vocal cords would break under pressure the next second.

The banging was three short and one long, the signal for a Rat Tide attack. This time, there were more than last time; last time it was only two short and one long!

Qing Chen looked up and saw Zhang Mengqian.

This should be Xiao Mengqian volunteering to be on watch. The Rat Tide can move in the shadows, but as long as he stands in a conspicuous place, the Rat Tide will be exposed as soon as it sees him.

This is Xiao Mengqian's sixth sense.

The Home Families guarding the frontline heard Zhang Mengqian's warning and roared in unison, "The Rat Tide is here!"

Roar after roar echoed into the distance.

The Home Families who were sleeping sat up, instinctively reaching for the kitchen knives beside them.

Not only the Guardians' Union, but also tens of thousands of refugees finally took up their weapons, fighting the Rat Tide together, and then bandaging their wounds.

Many young refugees began to ask their families: If they survive, how can they join you?

The Home Families said reservedly: It's not that anyone who wants to join can join, there's an assessment.

Everyone on the front line was different from the Federation army. Just days ago, they didn't know each other, but today they are fighting together for survival.

There are no well-trained soldiers, only people fighting for a breath.

Qing Chen frowned and asked, "How long ago was the last Rat Tide?"

Qing Yi: "One hour."

"They basically charge as soon as they gather," Qing Chen sighed, "The attacks will be more frequent in the future."

"Sir, has the Rat Tide been controlled by Shendai Qianchi?" Qing Yi curiously asked.

"I'm not sure, but I guess not. The rats are attacking intermittently. They're still trying to drain our energy and wear us down. If Shendai Qianchi has already taken control, the Rat Tide would be far more frantic. The Rat King cares about his subjects, but Shendai Qianchi wouldn't care about the rats. As long as he gets the Lower Three Districts, he can naturally replenish food and breed more rats."

At this time, the Rat Tide surged forward.

The Lower Three Districts' defense lines were breached in several places in an instant.

The Home Families and refugees were too tired to be as energetic as before.

Qing Chen ran towards the collapsing front line, "Save people!"

But before they could provide support, a group of middle-aged people rushed out from behind the front line. They wrapped clothes around their necks, waving chairs to reinforce the front line, frantically smashing rats to death, and pushing the front line back!

Qing Chen slowly stopped in his tracks.

The Guardians' Union is slowly infecting everyone with their spirit of sacrifice, making them understand that

the new world requires everyone to kill their once cowardly selves and become new heroes. This may be the meaning of the Guardians' Union's existence.

The Secret Spy Agency members also charged to the front lines. With their powerful strength, they formed a mobile force, filling in gaps wherever they appeared.

They didn't know how long they had been fighting or how many people had been carried to the rear.

According to Qin Shuli's incomplete statistics, in 6 days, the Lower Three Districts had suffered more than 10,000 casualties, including Guardians' Union families and refugees.

Return Countdown: 9:01.

"Qing Yi, let's break out," Qing Chen said calmly.

"Huh? Aren't we waiting for the Rat Tide to retreat, sir?" Qing Yi's scalp tingled.

"No time, Kunlun can't wait," Qing Chen said, "Secret Spy Agency!"

"Yes!"

The 9 Secret Spy Agency experts behind Qing Yi shouted.

"Let's go," Qing Chen said, "The first target is the PCE headquarters, to help the Kunlun organization evacuate."

Qing Chen looked at Xiao San: "Can you hold on?"

He asked a second time.

Xiao San nodded: "Yes."

Even though Xiao San's arms were injured, his tone remained firm and resolute.

"Hold the line."

Qing Chen only said these two words, no more explanation needed.

At this moment, there were over a million Rat Tide outside the front line, and snow was falling.

Qing Chen came to the front line.

He breathed in.

A cloud of air was exhaled, and the snow flying in the sky was actually rolled up like a waterfall. Before the crystal-clear snowflakes turned into water when they landed, they turned into sharp blades, cutting through the muscles and bones of the Rat Tide.

This breath of air swept away the Rat Tide in front of him. After the snow fell, only the white bones of thousands of rats remained on the ground!

The Secret Spy Agency experts watched silently. They originally thought they would have to fight desperately to protect their new boss during this risky adventure, but they never expected him to open a path through the Rat Tide single-handedly!

"Kill!" Qing Chen roared.

This roar was like a war horn, awakening the long-dormant killing intent of the spies.

They have stayed in the city for too long, haven't had good opponents, and rarely faced critical moments, causing many to forget what kind of powerful violent intelligence agency the Secret Spy Agency actually is.

"Kill!"

Including Qing Yi, ten spies in black combat uniforms, followed Qing Chen without hesitation, and for a time, no rat swarm could approach them.

These people didn't even use firearms against the Rat Tide but instead wielded Secret Spy Agency-made alloy ceremonial swords.

Faced with countless Rat Tides, they trusted their unlimited potential bodies more than their limited ammunition!

The next moment, this tactical infiltration team of ten Secret Spy Agency experts, under the watchful eyes of the refugees, killed their way out of the front line as the Rat Tide surged forward!

After they broke out, the Rat Tide, like the rising tide, closed in again.

"They broke through!" a refugee said in amazement.

They actually broke through!

This is too fierce! No wonder Xiao San said that the boss could single-handedly defeat Shendai, the refugees chose to believe Xiao San's statement!

The entire dilapidated front line was immediately invigorated. Xiao San laughed loudly, "This is our leader! Kill!"

Qing Chen, with his ten spies, moved quickly. He was responsible for clearing the way, and the spies were responsible for guarding the left, right, and rear.

There was no trickery, they just kept moving forward in the Rat Tide. The Secret Spy Agency members swung their ceremonial swords so well that water couldn't get in, and the shiny sword light glittered under the moonlight at dawn.

Qing Chen's Marionette sliced through the air, turning pieces of Rat Tide into ashes.

Seeing that the sixth transparent thread was complete, and the seventh was about to grow halfway.

"Don't linger, conserve your energy," Qing Chen said, and then began to speed up. The Rat Tide kept surrounding them, but their encirclement speed was not as fast as Qing Chen and his men breaking through.

The Rat Tide encirclement around Qing Chen and the others became thinner and thinner, eventually being pierced by them!

"Go!" Qing Chen ran ahead, and they ran so fast that the main force of the Rat Tide couldn't keep up!

This team of ten spies started at C-Class, averaging B-Class, while the rat swarms, no matter how evolved, were only mid-F-Class level.

So even if they encountered the main force of the Rat Tide, Qing Chen's team was fully capable of escaping.

The situation now is completely different from Qing Chen's previous situation where he was leading ordinary people to escape.

Qing Chen and his spies charged through, perhaps because the rat swarms hadn't seen such a brave team in these few days, they were actually stunned for a moment.

They stopped for two seconds before remembering to continue chasing!

"Turn left!" Qing Chen shouted.

"Turn right!"

"Keep going!"

The map of City 10 was already familiar to Qing Chen, and he had already planned a route to the PCE Security Committee headquarters.

The spies felt that following this boss was so easy; they only needed to slash and kill, without having to use their brains.

This feeling was simply too exhilarating!

Return Countdown: 14:9:0.

Qing Chen had already seen the PCE headquarters building: "Speed up, enter, immediately find the emergency response department, act quickly, rescue the Kunlun Members, and evacuate immediately, the Rat Tide is still following us."

Qing Chen and his team quickly arrived inside the PCE headquarters.

However, to Qing Chen's surprise, there was no sign of large-scale fighting here.

After entering the headquarters building, Qing Chen quickly inspected the surroundings: only the skeletons of investigators, no Kunlun Members' skeletons.

This is wrong. If the Kunlun Members were trapped here, they would not have survived the large number of Rat Tides.

Qing Chen came to the emergency response department. All the filing cabinets here had been opened, indicating that the Kunlun Members had been here, because even if the refugees came here, they wouldn't go to the PCE headquarters to rummage around.

He went to check the equipment room.

The backup power supply had been turned on, which meant that someone had tried to turn on the computer afterwards.

Qing Chen checked the desktop computer in the emergency response department, and the plug-in hard drive had been taken away.

The Federation's hard drive was as thin as a playing card, plug-and-play, but this thin card could store 18PB.

1PB=1024TB.

1TB=1024GB.

This hard drive storage capacity was enormous.

"Strange, they've successfully reached here and taken the hard drive data I wanted, and there wasn't even a fight, so why didn't they return to the Lower Three Districts on time?" Qing Chen said.

"Sir, could it be that they got lost and passed us?" Qing Yi asked.

"No, the route I took is the route I planned for them," Qing Chen shook his head, "They didn't plan to go to the Lower Three Districts, they went somewhere else."

But where would Kunlun go?

What happened at the PCE headquarters that caused Kunlun to abandon their original plan? If there was no Rat Tide chasing them, what could have stopped them?

At this time, the spy responsible for searching the entire building came to join them: "Boss, everyone in the building is dead, I just found this on the ground, and then confirmed that all the hard drives in the monitoring department had been destroyed."

Qing Chen looked, and the other party was holding a plug-in hard drive that had been twisted to pieces!

This was definitely not twisted by Kunlun. Someone had destroyed the hard drives here before Kunlun arrived. They didn't want anyone to analyze the location of the Rat King in advance!

Shendai Qianchi!

It was that old fox-like Shendai Qianchi!

"Sir"

Qing Chen said in a low voice, "Quiet."

His pupils suddenly narrowed, revealing a golden light.

His powerful brain was operating at an unprecedented speed. He took in every detail after entering the building, organizing and analyzing it.

In an instant, his gaze passed over the spy in front of him, projecting behind the spy, as if the spy didn't exist.

The spy's hair instantly stood on end, feeling like he was being seen through!

In the boy's eyes, reality and illusion gradually overlapped.

Qing Chen seemed to see the Kunlun Members quietly sneaking in. They brought in snow water from outside, leaving footprints on the ground.

Dianfu ordered his subordinates to turn on the backup power supply, while he led people to infiltrate the emergency response department, searching for any information they needed.

The backup generator started, and the building was brightly lit again.

Dianfu turned on the computer, but found that the computer couldn't start normally. He then discovered that the plug-in hard drive behind the computer all-in-one had been destroyed.

What to do?

Qing Chen said in a low voice, "Dianfu, what would you do if you were in this desperate situation?"

In the phantom.

"No, we must find relevant clues, we must complete Qing Chen's orders," Dianfu said, "He is still waiting for us!"

A Kunlun Member said, "But there is nothing he wants here."

Dianfu: "Then find something to replace it for him!"

Qing Chen said softly, "Yes, with your personality, you won't leave without completing the mission. You will definitely help me find new clues."

This phantom, all of this is Qing Chen's guess based on the clues.

So, if he is right, Kunlun must have gone to look for new clues; they want to complete the task he gave them, to find clues about the Rat King or Shendai Qianchi!

But where would the Kunlun Members go to look?

At this time, Qing Chen said, "The Traffic Management Bureau, it will automatically store traffic monitoring video footage from the past three months. It is used for map analysis and vehicle analysis data. Kunlun went there."

Only there can they find something to replace it.

There is no monitoring in the Lower Three Districts, but there is in other districts. Qing Chen only needs the monitoring from other districts. He can observe the streets through the monitoring.

"But the hard drives here have all been destroyed, and the hard drives in the Traffic Management Bureau may be the same," Qing Yi said, "If Shendai Qianchi is so thoughtful, he wouldn't have missed that place."

At this time, Qing Yi suddenly saw Qing Chen's tired expression. Blood suddenly flowed from his nostrils; it was the result of brain overload!

"Sir!" Qing Yi anxiously asked, "Are you okay? Why don't you rest for a while?"

But Qing Chen ignored him: "Yes, what Kunlun could think of, Shendai Qianchi could certainly think of. Kunlun must have realized this, so where would they go?"

This is a race against time, a game of who can think of the winning point first.

Qing Chen looked at the ceiling, where else could ordinary people not think of, but could still find monitoring video footage?

No more!

Only the Traffic Management Bureau!

The Kunlun Members should have retreated, but they chose to bet their lives, betting that the other party hadn't had time to damage it, so they had to desperately outrun time and arrive there before their enemy!

"Go, to the Traffic Management Bureau," Qing Chen said, "No matter the result, we have to go and take a look."

An hour after this team left, the Rat Tide army followed the trail and arrived, but they seemed to be always one step behind Qing Chen.

Return Countdown: 10:0:09.

After leaving the PCE headquarters building, Qing Chen only felt a dizziness in his head. Fortunately, Qing Yi quickly supported him and pleaded, "Sir, you really need to rest. If we encounter a battle at the Traffic Bureau, you'll be exhausted, and the Kunlun Members will still die."

Qing Chen remained silent for two seconds, listening to the sounds around him, and finally chose the best solution: "Rest for an hour."

Qing Yi was right. No matter how anxious he was, he had to make sure he had the strength to fight.

He sat down, "Don't rest inside a building, be careful of the Rat Tide surrounding the building, rest here, and leave once we encounter the Rat Tide."

Qing Chen looked at the Secret Spy Agency experts in front of him: "I'm sorry, but I still need you to charge into the battle. Actually, I can't guarantee that you can return alive, and I can't even guarantee that I can return alive."

At this time, a woman wearing special combat uniform and a black balaclava pulled down her balaclava and smiled, "Boss, what are you saying? As a member of the Secret Spy Agency, we have long put life and death aside. Qing Ling can go to death with you, so what can't we do?"

Yan Chunmi, this is the Kestrel that Qing Chen knew earliest.

This woman was a third-tier actress in the Federation and a spy in the Secret Spy Agency. Because of Qing Chen's arrival, she was demoted and became Qing Chen's Kestrel.

She originally wanted to test Qing Chen, to see if this new boss was qualified to be the boss.

As a result, this new boss didn't use the Secret Spy Agency at all, and directly threw them aside, causing so much trouble.

She had tried many times to find Shadow, hoping that Shadow could talk to Qing Chen and make more use of her, that she was very capable.

However, Shadow always refused with a smile: You haven't given him your pledge, how can he trust you? I've already told you not to play tricks, he's very capable.

The proud expression on Shadow's face at that moment made Yan Chunmi realize something.

Now, Yan Chunmi has returned to Qing Chen's side, intending to give her pledge.

Qing Chen smiled and looked at her, "You are actually here, I was too tired to hear your footsteps."

Yan Chunmi shook her head and said with a smile, "It's normal for the boss not to hear me. I used to wear high heels, they were so sexy, and my footsteps were different."

"Speak human," Qing Chen said.

Yan Chunmi became serious. She took an ear out of her tactical pocket on her outer thigh: "Boss, this is Qing Wen's right ear. At the beginning of the disaster, he wanted to evacuate to the Garrison Troops. I intercepted and killed him on the way. He's dead, and his ear is my gift to you as the director of the Secret Spy Agency."

Qing Chen was stunned.

Qing Yi: "Damn."

"Thank you for your hard work," Qing Chen said.

He knew that Yan Chunmi said this very lightly, but what kind of person is Qing Wen? He is one of the Shadow Candidates, and Qing Yun's only precious son.

The Shadow Succession stipulates that the Guardian of a Shadow Candidate is at most C-Class, but for someone as ruthless as Qing Yun, how could there not be B-Class experts secretly protecting his only son?

Even if it's an A-Class, Qing Chen wouldn't be surprised.

And Yan Chunmi, actually managed to intercept and kill Qing Wen in such chaos, this shows that Yan Chunmi herself is very powerful!

Qing Chen asked, "Did Qing Wen have a Guardian?"

"Yes, B-Class," Yan Chunmi said seriously, "We killed him together, of course, it wasn't just me, it was the twelve Kestrels under your command. Boss, from today on, we'll be on the road with no return. Don't abandon us again."

Qing Chen nodded.

Yan Chunmi publicly admitted to killing Qing Wen in front of other Secret Spy Agency members. This means she is irreconcilable with another faction.

A pledge means leaving no way out for yourself.

If Yan Chunmi and another faction had the slightest chance of reconciliation, it wouldn't be called a pledge.

And Yan Chunmi was quite ruthless, her first move was to kill the most powerful Shadow Candidate.

From then on, there was no turning back.

"Everyone, is there anything else I should know?" Qing Chen asked.

Another spy said, "We also wanted to kill Qing Yuan, but we couldn't find him. We had found clues, but when the rat plague started, we went to intercept and kill him, but we found it was just a puppet."

Qing Chen pondered, another Qing Yuan puppet, but was this Qing Yuan's ability or his father's ability?

If it was Qing Yuan's father's ability, then he should focus his investigation on the Qing Yuan father and son in this revenge matter.

He shook his head, "Who else do you want to kill together? Tell me."

A spy said, "I wanted to kill Qing Shi, but she had already left City 10. Her father took her away a few days ago, the timing was very coincidental. I don't know whether Qing Shi's father knew about this disaster in advance."

"Qing Xing had experts arranged by his father Qing Yu, and they were immediately escorted away using Airships," a spy said regretfully.

Qing Chen remained silent for a long time and said, "You don't let me down, and I won't let you down."

After saying this, he closed his eyes and began to use the Knight Breathing Technique to regulate his body's functions.

The spies' expressions became solemn. This was the new boss's promise!

An hour later, Qing Chen opened his eyes and stood up. The Knight Breathing Technique had restored most of his energy. The large amount of endorphins in his body quickly balanced all his bodily functions. This is the magic of the Knight Breathing Technique.

It makes Knights seem like tireless superheroes.

Qing Yi asked, "Sir, don't you need to rest anymore?"

"No more rest," Qing Chen smiled and patted his head, "Your hair is a bit prickly now."

"Then I should keep my watermelon head, no matter what Li Ke says!"

"No need, it's good now," Qing Chen smiled, "Qing Yi has grown up."

After saying that, he looked at the spies: "Everyone, I'll rely on you next."

The Secret Spy Agency members looked resolute and remained silent.

"Let's go, we still have seven hours to get to the Traffic Bureau, rest for ten minutes every hour!"

This time, Qing Chen didn't avoid the Rat Tide, but directly crushed them when they didn't encounter the main force of the Rat Tide.

This is the fastest way!