Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 740 - 738: Rat King
BUZZ.
The corridor floor trembled at a high frequency, as dust and wall plaster rattled down, swirling like smoke in the flickering lights on both sides of the walls, weaving a fine, silk-like curtain of light.
Rustling, fragmentary sounds rose at the end of the staircase, as if a multitude of rodent-like creatures were scurrying and rushing over.
"They're here."
Bai Haozheng's face was expressionless; his Telekinesis, deep as the sea, slowly swirled and churned around him like the buildup of a thunderstorm within a dense layer of rain clouds.
The Spirit Vision Guards placed at both ends of the corridor emitted sharp cries as they shifted from an invisible spiritual state to that of a blood-red spherical mist—this indicated that the Spirit Vision Guards had detected deep hostility and extremely high-energy reactions.
The Plague Doctor slammed his staff down, and a green ripple spread out from his feet along the ground. Players touched by the ripple felt a lightness throughout their bodies, their muscles and bones sending back a relaxed and pleasant response.
[Increase Resistance]
[Life Sustainment Magic]
[Blessing Magic]
[Good and Evil Protection]
...
Beyond emergency medical care, the Plague Doctor could also cast several Priest Divine Arts. Divine Arts do not necessarily require devoted worship of one or a few specific Deities to borrow power. Instead, by drawing upon the inherent raw energy of nature (like Primitive Shamans and Druids), or by harnessing the sacred significance of oaths to excavate one's own spiritual power (the more precise the rules of the oath and the more severe the punishment, the more power obtained, akin to a Great Oath, Silent Zen, or the Ten Commandments of the Knights), one can also cast Divine Arts.
Boosted by the buff spells, the players' spirits were lifted, while the Plague Doctor's face turned a shade paler. His right hand held the staff, maintaining the output of Divine Arts, while his left hand reached into his coat, pulling out a bottle of dark green Magic Potion from within.
With a POP of his thumbnail, he pried off the cork. He raised the bottle and glugged down the potion in one go.
Medical skills generally consume a large amount of Spirit Energy Value, Sanity Value, Stamina Points, and unquantified spiritual power and Concentration. Medical specialty players who wish to maintain their performance during intense, lengthy battles usually have to drink dozens, if not hundreds, of Magic Potions with various effects.
Some Magic Potions sold in the System's store activate with just the motion of drinking, without the need to actually ingest them. However, other Magic Potions from the store, and those crafted by players from different guilds, do require actual consumption. Additionally, some mystical Magic Potions demand that the user raise the bottle and allow the liquid to pass through the esophagus into the stomach—ensuring that players cannot just inject the Magic Potion directly into their veins via a tube.
With all these factors combined, support class players (including but not limited to healers) tend to possess hearty appetites and high tolerances for drink. No matter the flavor or ingredients of the Magic Potion, they can down it with a straight face.
A jug and a half of white liquor, beer pouring in freely;
Devoting youth to the small drinking table, to live and dream drunkenly.
Some support players who haven't extensively modified their bodies even prepare large-capacity adult diapers to wear inside their pants because they have to drink so many Magic Potions during every script mission, making it difficult to relieve themselves during battle.
As for whether the Plague Doctor was wearing one... that falls into the esoteric realm of quantum observation.
With a wave of his hand, the Plague Doctor made the Glass Bottle and cork vanish. He let out a green burp. As the aromatic scent of fresh herbs diffused and filled the corridor, the green ripple enveloping the players grew even more intense.
BOOM!
In the next second, the stairwell doors on both sides of the twelfth-floor corridor were violently smashed open. A vast shadow, black as ink and obstructing the light, poured in from both sides of the corridor like a flood, emitting a piercing, ear-splitting noise as if the screams of numerous wild beasts overlapped.
It was... the Rat King.
Wanli Fengdao took a deep breath, his scalp tingling.
The so-called Rat King was not a monarch among rats, nor was it a specific Magical Beast or demon. It was a peculiar phenomenon where the tails of multiple rats became entangled. In the Middle Ages, people had witnessed swarms of rats moving together. Most of them were brown or black rats that huddled together for warmth during winter. Their tail fur, along with food, feces, sebaceous secretions, and sewage, would fuse, forming a binding substance that firmly tied their tails together. The more they struggled, the tighter their tails became entwined, eventually forming an extremely intricate knot that made it impossible for any individual rat to escape. This forced them to become a massive rat swarm that moved in erratic circles—a twisted, weird, sickening, and disgusting sight, utterly devoid of any "kingly" qualities.
What was more horrifying was that the Rat King did not end with the death of an individual rat; the bodies of dead rats remained firmly fixed to the mass, slowly rotting and becoming covered in maggots, yet still moving and crawling with this large and complex group.
The largest "Rat King" specimen in history, composed of thirty-two rats, dates back two centuries and is currently preserved in the Altenburg Museum in Thuringia, Germany. Now, at this moment, the Rat King that appeared at the end of the corridor on the twelfth floor of the Dolphin Hotel... How many rats were there? Wanli Fengdao couldn't count them.
The vast shadows, black as ink and spilling out from both ends of the corridor, were composed of countless deformed rats with pointed snouts and bulging cheek pouches. They filled the corridor space, their tails tightly wound together, indistinguishable from one another. Their eyes were blood-red, and their two large, exposed upper incisors were caked with brownish-yellow plaque. Thick saliva dripped from their mouths, emitting an indescribably rank, fishy stench.
The rats at the bottom struggled to move their short limbs, laboriously supporting their kin above as they advanced. But they were too slow. The bloodthirsty impulse had already dominated every individual in the Rat King swarm. The rats perched on top mercilessly trampled the bodies of those below, screeching as they surged forward, until they, too, were engulfed by the successive waves of the encroaching horde.
"Fire!" the Black Holy Son bellowed, raising the Dark Golden Grimoire in his left hand. The grimoire flipped open to a certain page, untouched by any breeze, as the Black Holy Son rapidly recited an arcane and obscure spell.
Without needing his reminder, Wanli Fengdao and Yuyi Xinzhong, seated behind the machine gun, had already pulled the trigger.
The muzzle burst with a pale blue flame. Standard 7.62 x 51mm heavy bullets, consecrated and costing an average of 1.19 Game Coins apiece, spun out at high speed, transforming into metallic chains sowing death.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT—
The dull, resounding gunshots seemed faint amidst the Rat King's deafening shrieks. Wanli Fengdao felt the terrifying recoil of the machine gun vibrate his shoulders. Clenching his teeth, he swept the bullets back and forth.
The rats at the forefront fell like wheat sheaves reaped by a scythe, tumbling away. Black blood bloomed like roses, dotting the ground, only to be engulfed by more shadows in the next second.
This swarm of rats was made of flesh and negative energy. Their bodies were not particularly sturdy. The consecrated heavy machine gun bullets could inflict maximum damage—a graze meant death, a touch meant injury.
The wide-area Arrow barrage rained down by Liu Wu Dai, along with the Spider Landmines, Swing Hammer Traps, and Serrated Scythes installed in the corridor by Mule, also easily shredded large swaths of rats.
But there were too many. Way too many.
The two machine guns had been firing at full efficiency for three minutes. Ammunition for the Special Effect bullets was running low, yet the Rat King had not been eradicated, nor did their numbers seem to have diminished at all.
The Black Holy Son kept chanting spells, causing a large number of purple, semi-solid tentacles to grow from the corridor floor, weaving into a net to halt the rat swarm. Li Rising took out ten bags of raw materials from his backpack and used Alchemy to forge a ten-meter-long Metal Wolf Teeth Stick. Standing within the protective circle, he spun the stick, its whirling spikes tearing through the mass of rats.
The Plague Doctor, having downed several large bottles of Magic Potion, also paused his Divine Arts output. Leaning on his long staff with one hand, he took out bottles and jars from his coat with the other, hurling them at the swarm and releasing toxic gas that felled a swath of rats.
Thanks to the players' efforts, the swarming Rat King hordes were consistently kept more than five meters away from the protective circle.
Supplies were depleting, Spiritual Power was dwindling, skills and equipment were entering cooldown, and muscles were starting to ache.
"We can't go on like this," the Black Holy Son declared, swinging his Serpentine Dagger to cleave the bodies of dozens of rats mid-air, black blood splattering everywhere. "The mission guide says that for every life extinguished in any form within the Dolphin Hotel, we gain 500 Experience Points and Game Coins. We've killed so many rats but haven't received any kill notifications. Moreover, their bodies quickly dissolve after death. They are not real lives, just like the stationery monsters Yuyi Xinzhong encountered before. These are puppets created by someone."
"The strength of the anomalies has changed." Li Ang swung his Wolf Fang Club, sweeping away a large number of rats. Upon retracting it, he saw the spikes had been corroded and melted by blood and negative energy, rendering it hardly fit for use. This corrosive effect is nearly on par with the black, oily substance on the terrifying old man. Could the Rat King be a pet raised by him? Or a relative of the anomalies? Electric light flickered in Li Ang's palm; Alchemy was instantly activated, transmuting the Wolf Fang Club into a slightly smaller Guan Dao, which he thrust into the swarm to continue the slaughter. "According to what Judy Cecil said before, a Rat King would be composed of twenty to thirty rats at most—bloodthirsty and brutal, actively chasing humans, but not very smart. Shutting a door could keep them out. The current horde has clearly multiplied many times over. Either their limitations have been completely removed, or they've received new powers from the hotel. It might be related to us leaving our floors and gathering here. One thing's certain: staying on a floor where people have died doesn't prevent abnormal attacks."
"Then what do we do? We can't just retreat now, can we? It's still far from the safe time for the elevator. Once we scatter, the defensive line will be breached immediately," Wanli Fengdao said, setting down the machine gun that had run out of bullets. He rushed to the rear of the protective circle, drawing his Dragon-Slaying Sword to unleash Sword Qi against the surging waves of the Rat King. "Unfortunately, the floors and walls of the Dolphin Hotel have the peculiar attribute of absorbing Energy. Emitted Sword Qi can only fly less than ten meters before being weakened into a light breeze. The same is true for Spells and Divine Arts."
"The Energy attribute of the Rat King is very strange; it can't be recycled through Formations," Bai Haozheng said, lifting his head from where his hands pressed against the ground. "By myself, including my remaining potions, I can probably hold on for another thirty minutes."
The number of Rat Kings seemed almost infinite. The eight players collaborated closely, doing their best to hold the enemy in the middle section of the corridor. Yet, every second, a few lucky rats would still break through the multi-layered defense, smashing into the arc-shaped, semi-transparent barrier of the protective circle and being burned to ashes, simultaneously creating dense ripples on the golden barrier like raindrops on a lake.
"The Rat King isn't a life form in the true sense; it must have a central command system, like a brain. Killing it will exterminate the Rat Kings," came Mule's muffled voice from behind her Horse Head Mask, as if speaking through a gas mask (the Rat Kings were really stinky). "I have a skill that allows me to lock onto the exact worldwide locations of all direct relatives of a target, based on a large piece of its flesh. The locking process requires full concentration, without any attacks or disturbances, and no enemy targets may be present within a fifteen-meter radius. I'll find the Rat King's core; you protect me."
"Okay." Liu Wu Dai, standing beside her, didn't ask why Mule was only mentioning this skill now (likely, the skill's side effects and restrictions were severe, and it wasn't something pleasant to bring up—no player wanted a teammate who could find their entire family's whereabouts). He quickly fired an Arrow with a Mechanical arm attached, snatching a live rat from outside the protective circle. He put it into a Glass Bottle, handed it to Mule, and then stood before her, drawing his bow and releasing Exploding Arrows, pushing back the approaching Rat King horde. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
At this moment, everyone was in the same boat. No words were needed. The other players all intensified their efforts, unleashing skills and activating equipment to keep the rat swarm firmly suppressed, preventing any from slipping through to the protective circle.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Li Ang's Wolf Fang Club corroded into a Guan Dao, then from a Guan Dao into a long spear. His Swamp God Power was limited by the Dolphin Hotel, and the plant vines he cultivated could not extend more than ten meters from his body. Using the vines to create Biological Weapons was difficult—whether producing venom or explosive substances, they essentially had to be deducted from Li Ang's own body mass. Materials from the Dolphin Hotel couldn't be utilized, and the current siege meant he couldn't retrieve soil from the Automated Pet Box.
Li Ang's combat was a battle of mass and resources. The Rat Kings before him were probably just the vanguard of the hotel corridors' unholy creatures. The terrifying old man, the red-robed old woman, and other highly threatening entities had yet to appear...
"Found it!" Mule, holding the Glass Bottle in her left hand with her right index finger pressing down on the live rat inside, suddenly snapped her eyes open. She looked towards a specific direction at the left end of the corridor. "It's in the ventilation duct in the ceiling!"
BUZZ—
The wallpaper along the edge of the wall seemed to ripple for a moment. The Catastrophe Mechanical Golem tore off the Invisibility Cloak covering it and raised its arms towards the left side of the corridor, red Energy Beams brewing in its hands.
BOOM!
The Beam ruthlessly tore apart the Rat King's dense formation, filling the air with the fragrant scent of roasting meat.
