“B-Brother, I’m sorry. Brother, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to eat you, I was just too hungry. Once I’ve eaten my fill, I’ll offer sacrifices to you every year!”

The man chewed on the rat meat with all his strength, tears of pain streaming down his face as he muttered in repentance. The sight was eerily grotesque.

Lin Zichen frowned, sensing something was off about the man.

He quickly turned away, deciding to take a detour home instead of passing by the garbage station ahead.

But just as he turned to leave, the man in the pile of trash noticed him, lifted his head to look at Lin Zichen’s back and said to the half-eaten rat in his hand, “B-Brother, I-I don’t have to eat you anymore, I-I can eat humans instead!”

The man’s voice was crazed, yet in the stillness of the night, it was bone-chilling.

When Lin Zichen heard the words “eat humans,” his face changed instantly and he bolted without hesitation.

In just a second, he had already sprinted nearly thirty meters, widening the distance from the garbage station.

But the next second, he heard footsteps closing in from behind.

When he turned to look, he saw the man who had been eating the rat now chasing after him.

The man’s face was splitting open with multiple scarlet eyes at a speed visible to the naked eye and fine fur was sprouting across his exposed skin—he was rapidly transforming into a Giant Aberrant Rat.

‘Isn’t that the lunatic from the marketplace earlier?!’

Before the man’s transformation completed, Lin Zichen recognized him as the same person who had caused trouble at the vegetable market during the day.

“Meat, I want meat, I want human meat, human meat!”

The man was running faster and faster, his expression growing more twisted, drooling thick saliva as he rasped and chased Lin Zichen madly.

Seeing the man rapidly closing the distance, Lin Zichen knew he couldn’t outrun him.

So, the moment the man caught up, Lin Zichen spun around and kicked him square in the chest with full force!

Bang!

The unprepared man was sent flying, tumbling dozens of meters across the ground before collapsing, barely clinging to life.

During the previous battle when he had been blasted by the Female Cyborg’s special ammunition, he had been gravely injured, leaving his body too weak to fully transform into a Ratman—he couldn’t withstand Lin Zichen’s kick at all.

Injured that badly from one blow?

Seeing the half-human, half-rat man lying motionless on the ground, only able to let out feeble groans, Lin Zichen wondered if his eyes were deceiving him.

From his understanding, Ratmen could endure gunfire.

Even if their bodies were riddled with bullets, they could regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye, returning to full strength and energy.

Whatever the case, he should finish the job and make sure the thing was dead.

With that thought, Lin Zichen ran to the roadside full of stones, bent down to pick one up and began throwing them from afar at the man lying half-dead on the ground.

Thud... thud... thud!

Stone after stone slammed into the man’s body, crushing through flesh and sending dull, heavy impacts echoing through the night.

Ten stones, dozens, then hundreds...

Lin Zichen was cautious—even when the man’s body was pulverized into a mangled mess, he continued pelting from a distance, never daring to approach.

Only after more than ten minutes, when the man’s body had turned completely into minced meat, did he finally edge closer, carefully.

He wanted to check if the man was truly dead and whether he could absorb the other’s Life Origin.

After nearly half a minute of careful approach, Lin Zichen confirmed the man’s body—now just a puddle of flesh—was completely dead. He finally let out a breath of relief.

He crouched down, fighting back nausea and extended a finger to touch the flesh, absorbing the Giant Aberrant Rat’s Life Origin contained within.

[You have absorbed a trace of the Giant Aberrant Rat’s Life Origin]

[Giant Aberrant Rat Compendium: 7%]

Lin Zichen frowned slightly.

‘Only a 2% increase?’

He remembered the last time he absorbed a Ratman’s Life Origin, the Compendium progress bar had jumped by 5%.

But this time, only 2%.

Why so little?

He thought back carefully about the differences between the two absorptions.

And he realized there was indeed a difference.

The Ratman that had been blasted to ashes by the Female Cyborg’s laser was much stronger and according to the late captain of the Security Team, that Ratman had fused with the Rat King Gene.

Perhaps the Life Origins of Giant Aberrant Rats vary in quality, which would explain the difference in Compendium progress.

Lin Zichen pondered briefly, then shook off the thought.

He quickly erased all traces he had left at the scene.

Once done, he left immediately.

* * *

Time passed second by second.

When dawn finally broke, as the first light of morning crept across the sky, the Cyborg who had been searching for the Ratman’s trail appeared above the garbage station.

Before long, he spotted a patch of flesh not far from the garbage station.

Having handled multiple Ratman incidents before, he recognized it instantly—it was Ratman flesh.

And it happened to be the remains of the very Ratman he’d been searching for all night.

He hovered above the remains.

Deactivating his thruster propulsion system, he descended beside the pile of flesh and studied it closely, frowning.

‘Who killed this Ratman?’

* * *

In a dimly lit cave somewhere.

A muscular middle-aged man carried a young, beautiful woman on his shoulder, walking quickly toward a dark altar.

When he placed her on the altar, eight scarlet eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness ahead.

Each one was the size of a football, glowing ominously red, radiating an oppressive aura.

“Why only one woman?”

An old voice echoed from the darkness.

The man immediately dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead to the ground as he humbly explained,

“Lord Rat God, young women outside are too wary now. They don’t go out at night and when they do during the day, they travel in groups. It’s hard to catch them.”

“Then next time, capture young men instead,” the old voice replied.

“I understand, Lord Rat God,” the man said reverently.

The moment he finished speaking, a piece of writhing flesh was thrown out from the darkness.

The man’s eyes lit up in excitement.

He shouted, “Thank you for your blessing, Lord Rat God!” then eagerly snatched up the flesh and devoured it hungrily.

At the same time, the unconscious woman on the altar was suddenly snatched away by a long tongue extending from the shadows.

Moments later, the sound of flesh being chewed echoed dully in the darkness.

After a long silence, the old voice spoke for the third time.

“Don’t catch ordinary people anymore. They’re too miserable and don’t taste good. I want to eat those high and mighty ones—their flesh is tender and rich.”