Bab 49 Kawanan Tikus

Yang Lin, Yizhou, and all the others clutched their blades and short swords, staring intently at the direction of the cold storage door. The moment it opened, they would rush out instantly.

Creeak—!

The cold storage door slowly cracked open.

Just as everyone was preparing to launch an attack, a voice that Yang Lin found extremely familiar echoed through the air.

"Captain Yang?"

Hearing the voice of a human, everyone inside the cold storage froze, their gazes instantly locking onto the doorway.

Immediately after, they saw Song Chen and his group walking in from outside.

"Mr. Song?"

Yang Lin’s eyes widened in disbelief; he never expected to run into Song Chen here of all places.

"You really are here."

Song Chen walked into the cold storage, looking up and down at the five members of the White Tiger Squad. Seeing that they were unharmed aside from severe psychic energy depletion, he felt slightly relieved.

Meanwhile, the five members of the White Tiger Squad looked at Song Chen with faces full of confusion.

Song Qing asked anxiously, "Why did you run all the way out here?"

Because Song Chen had previously shared food with them, the attitudes of the five White Tiger Squad members naturally carried a sense of closeness. Seeing Song Chen—who should have been safe inside the villa—suddenly appear here, they felt a mix of panic and worry.

Clearly, Song Chen’s residential area was located in the south. How could he suddenly run all the way to the northern suburbs, and to such a dangerous place at that? Wasn't this pure suicide?

Subconsciously, everyone in the White Tiger Squad believed that someone willing to share food after the apocalypse couldn't possibly be a bad person. Therefore, they didn't even wonder why Song Chen had appeared in the northern suburbs so far away from the villa; their minds were entirely occupied with how to get him out safely.

Facing the White Tiger Squad members whose faces were written with concern, Song Chen felt a slight warmth in his heart and smiled, shaking his head.

"Now is not the time to talk about this. But how did you guys end up trapped in the cold storage?"

Hearing Song Chen's question, Yang Lin let out a heavy sigh.

"There's nothing unspeakable about it. We came here to scavenge for supplies, but during the operation, we ran into a mutated rat swarm and were forced to hide in here."

He summarized the entire process in just a few short sentences, but in reality, the situation Yang Lin and the others had faced was far more perilous than described.

The mutated rat swarm was huge in number, and their movement speed was much faster than that of zombies. Their gunfire couldn't suppress them in time, leaving them with no choice but to rely on their elemental abilities to fend them off.

However, this was still the early stage of the apocalypse, and their ability levels were not high. Their consumption rate was massive while their capacity was small, so they quickly found themselves stretched thin, forced to retreat step by step by the rat swarm until they had no other option but to take refuge in the cold storage.

Fortunately, the cold storage door opened outward, and the mutated rats possessed low intelligence and didn't know how to open doors. Otherwise, they wouldn't have even lasted until Song Chen came to their rescue.

"A rat swarm, as expected?" Song Chen furrowed his brows slightly.

"Mr. Song, have you encountered this kind of rat swarm before?" Yang Lin asked in astonishment.

"No," Song Chen shook his head. "We also saw mutated rats on our way here, though not in swarms. But creatures seem to love gathering in groups after mutation, so I guessed that a rat swarm might be active around here."

Song Chen was spouting nonsense with his eyes wide open.

Of course, he knew their activity patterns because he had suffered heavy losses at the hands of rat swarms in his past life, and everything he just said was completely fabricated on the spot.

However, the others didn't know that.

Hearing Song Chen speak with such logical coherence, each of them wore an expression of sudden realization.

"So that's how it is!"

"Ahem!" Song Chen gave a light cough, then changed the subject. "The rat swarm is no longer outside. Although I'm not sure what the reason is, right now is the best time for us to leave."

Everyone felt a bit perplexed.

Back then, the rat swarm had chased right behind them for several laps. When they first hid in the cold storage, they could still hear the scratching sounds against the door from the outside. Why would they give up so easily now?

Strange as it seemed, they didn't doubt Song Chen's words.

After all, to mutated creatures, humans were food. If the rat swarm was still guarding the outside of the cold storage, Song Chen's group wouldn't have been able to get in at all.

"Alright! Then let's make the most of our time."

Not knowing when the rat swarm might return, everyone didn't dare to delay and immediately packed their gear, preparing to leave the cold storage.

Members of both the White Tiger Squad and the Xuanwu Squad were carrying quite large backpacks, stuffed to the brim. Presumably, these contained the supplies stored inside the cold storage.

Seeing this, Song Chen couldn't help but sigh with genuine admiration.

Even at a time like this, they hadn't forgotten their assigned mission; they truly lived up to the name of an elite squad.

If his own subordinates could have this kind of awareness, he probably wouldn't have to worry about anything.

"Huh?" Song Chen looked around. "Are there only the few of you?"

Aside from the five logistics members whose whereabouts outside were unknown, there should have been fifteen people in the first batch entering the commercial building. Yet now, there were only five members each from the White Tiger and Xuanwu squads, leaving an entire squad missing.

Yang Lin shook his head. "After clearing out the zombies on the first floor, the Vermilion Bird Squad split up from us and headed upstairs."

Hearing this, Song Chen furrowed his brows slightly. "Do you have a way to contact them?"

"We did, but we don't know where it got dropped while we were being chased by the rat swarm earlier," Yang Lin replied with a sigh.

Right now, most communication devices were no longer functional, and the means for long-distance contact were pitifully scarce. Each of their squads only possessed a single special walkie-talkie, but they had been so busy dodging the rat swarm that they had no idea where it was dropped.

"Then forget it, let's head out first."

Song Chen motioned for Yang Lin and the others to move out, while he himself hung back at the very end when no one was paying attention. Taking advantage of the darkness as cover, he swept every single item inside the cold storage into his spatial dimension.

Never mind what kind of items they were; there was no time to sort through them now, so he would just cram everything into his space first and figure it out later.

Yang Lin and the others, who were leaving, had no idea that the moment they stepped out, the massive cold storage was completely emptied by Song Chen.

Song Chen wasn't worried about being discovered later either.

After all, he was leaving alongside the main group, and no one saw him moving the goods. When the time came and the supplies inside the cold storage were gone, no one could pin it on him with absolute certainty—someone else might have been there after all.

In short, it was none of his business.

Upon leaving the cold storage, the members of the White Tiger and Xuanwu squads discovered that the mutated rats were indeed gone, and they quickly hurried toward the exit of the supermarket alongside Song Chen's group.

No one knew if the mutated rat swarm would return the next second. As long as they hadn't left the supermarket, danger could strike at any moment.

Just as they left the passageway leading out of the cold storage and returned to the fresh produce section, a series of subtle scratching sounds echoed through the air.

"What's that sound?"

Lu Peng, whose senses were the sharpest, was the first to notice that something was amiss. He immediately turned his head toward the source of the sound, but the surroundings were pitch black, and he couldn't make out anything at all.

"Woof!"

Suddenly, Langya, who had been guarding by Song Chen's side, also spun around, letting out a fierce bark toward the darkness behind them, his entire body tensed in a state of high alert.

A sense of deep foreboding gripped Song Chen's heart. "The rat swarm is back!"

The moment his voice fell, pitch-black, oversized mutated rats lunged fiercely out of the darkness.