Chapter 48: Operation Rat Extermination

Chapter 48: Rat Extermination Operation

Faced with more than twenty "ground rats", it was impossible to silently annihilate them completely.

So from the very beginning, Chen Jian never issued the order to "silently destroy the enemy".

All he needed to do was end the battle as swiftly as possible, then withdraw in the shortest time.

He didn't have to worry that the noise would awaken the lurking level‑three monster; within a radius of nearly thirty kilometers, even if it were close, it would need time to arrive.

As long as he didn't leave a "guide" for it, his squad could retreat to a safe distance at full speed.

Thus, immediately after descending the stairs, Chen Jian ordered all members to deploy on the spot, marching toward the oncoming ground rats to provoke conflict.

At the same moment, the Holy Blooded shifted into combat mode, racing full‑tilt toward the direction Chen Jian indicated.

After bypassing a large thicket of shrubs growing in the cracks of the asphalt road, Chen Jian sighted the first enemy.

Without the slightest hesitation, his 191 pistol fired instantly.

With the crack of gunfire, a 5.8 mm bullet leapt from the barrel, piercing the monster's skull.

Blood sprayed, brain matter flew, and the creature collapsed before it could even utter a whimper, only its reflexive muscles still twitching the body.

The remaining monsters, as if startled by the gunfire, all rose upright, heads swiveling wildly, seemingly trying to locate the source of the shots.

Seeing their huge, erect ears, Chen Jian grasped how they operated.

When they could not hear, they relied on their olfactory organs to seek a target.

When they could hear, they used ears and eyes to hunt!

They were undoubtedly natural reconnaissance units; Chen Jian even suspected they possessed bat‑like ultrasonic hearing, for he noticed that as the monsters' heads turned, their throats rose and fell continuously—clearly they should be emitting sound, yet he heard nothing.

Good grief, do they come with built‑in radar?

Chen Jian's movements never ceased; after dropping one monster he swiftly shifted position, slamming another fleeing rat to the ground.

At the same time he bellowed his command:

“Don’t focus on killing yet—first encircle them!”

“Understood!”

“Received!”

Responses crackled in the earpieces; a second later, to Chen Jian's north, the intermittent bark of a 201 general‑purpose machine gun rang out.

“Pop‑pop‑pop‑pop—”

After a few short bursts, the ground rats panicked and surged southward.

They had clearly spotted Chen Jian’s party as “enemies”, yet they showed no urge to charge forward and fight.

On the contrary, they wanted to flee.

“Don’t let them get away!”

“Xu Lie! Take your people in and pin them down!”

“Got it!”

Xu Lie’s muffled voice came through his old radio on a specific frequency into Chen Jian’s ear; a few seconds later Chen Jian saw the Holy Blooded squad charging into the rat horde.

He had imagined that for the Holy Blooded, wiping out these rats would be as easy as slicing melons, but in reality Xu Lie’s team was making little progress!

The rats moved swiftly, and in the dense thicket their quadrupedal gait gave them an advantage.

Zeng Yi’s long blade, which should have been their most threatening weapon, kept getting snagged on branches; he had to swing several times before finally cleaving a rat in two!

They were outmatched.

Their pursuit speed was equally fast, yet even when they caught up they couldn’t land a blow—what could they do?

No wonder the Holy Blooded scouts had stumbled here before; they weren’t unable to beat the rats, they simply couldn’t catch or corner them, which ended up rousing the true monster.

They were unreliable.

Chen Jian adapted on the spot, issuing his order immediately:

“Holy Blooded, fall back! Block all other escape routes!”

“We’re going to throw grenades!”

“Understood!”

The order given, Xu Lie’s Holy Blooded scattered quickly, while meanwhile Chen Jian’s group readied their 82‑2P1.

With a soft “ding”, the grenade’s safety lever flipped open.

The primer ignited the internal explosive; in an instant, the high‑velocity steel shredded the low shrubs to fragments, then buried deep into the rats’ bodies.

After four blasts, at least seven or eight rats lay silent on the ground.

The remaining rats retracted their “scent pouches”, lowered their bellies, and bolted in desperation.

The hardest part was now upon them!

How could they exterminate the rats when the enemy refused to attack, amidst abundant cover and poor visibility in the jungle?

This was surely one of the greatest dilemmas in military history; even the mighty Americans had to resort to that special “orange juice”.

And now, Chen Jian’s problem was even more complicated than theirs, because his foes couldn’t fire a gun—they just buried their heads and ran!

Precisely because Chen Jian was decisive, he had them cornered in the low shrubbery.

If they had fled into the taller northern woods, even drones would struggle to track them.

“Xu Lie! Head north!”

“Don’t let a single one slip past!”

“Got it!”

Xu Lie’s voice was ragged; obviously this was not his forte of battlefield terrain.

Chen Jian trudged through the dense undergrowth, feeling his speed lag, so he instantly switched his exoskeleton from march mode to combat mode.

Suddenly he felt as if he had been lifted from hell to heaven.

What shrubs?

What branches?

A swipe and they snapped!

His heavy weight plus the exoskeleton’s amplified power turned the thicket from obstacle to nothing.

Speed surged; Lei Jie and Shen Yue followed suit, and in under half a minute the trio reached the new interception point.

“Pop‑pop!”

“Pop‑pop—”

“Rat‑tat‑rat‑tat—”

After a few intermittent shots, only three rats remained, charging toward the spot where Xu Lie and Zeng Yi had arrived ahead of time.

Two men, three monsters—surely they could hold the line?

But, there was none.

Zeng Yi swung his blade down, felling a gopher.

Xu Lie fired a shot that knocked down another, but the last one darted in a clever arc, skimming past Xu Lie's feet, and the knife he swung with his other hand missed.

By the time he thought to turn back, the gopher had burrowed into the dense undergrowth, vanishing completely from their sight.

Damn!

Chen Jian cursed, then barked an order:

Xu Lie! Dodge to the side!

Immediately, the weapon rack on the exoskeleton unfolded, and two sleeve-arrow micro-missiles screamed forth.

At this moment Chen Jian couldn't worry whether the missile's infrared tracking module might misidentify Xu Lie as a target; theoretically, a distance of over a hundred meters was insufficient for the tracking to engage.

If it really blew up, just consider yourself unlucky.

But Xu Lie was clearly lucky, or perhaps his jump was just swift enough.

Both missiles failed to lock onto his position, instead flying past the spot where he had stood, after he leapt nearly ten meters away.

The next second, the missiles detonated on impact.

Shrapnel flew sideways, and at the same time, the shattered remains of the monster were hurled into the air.

Dust settled, and Xu Lie, still shaken, asked:

What the hell did you just fire?

Never mind what it was.

Chen Jian stared intently at the images streaming across his smart goggles.

Just moments ago, the hovering drone had issued a new warning.

Abnormal heat source warning.

The gunfire and explosions here had indeed roused that monster.

Less than three kilometers away, at the shores of Tangsun Lake, a massive monster was coming ashore.

No wonder we couldn't find it before.

This thing is amphibious!

Get moving!

Personnel, retreat toward the Bai Sha Zhou Bridge, lure it out of the city to gain a firing line.

Keep the drone aloft for reconnaissance.

I want to see just what this thing actually is!

(End of chapter)