He Zhan and Sun Zhoushan had just taken the elevator halfway up the hotel when a violent tremor made their hearts inexplicably race.
Accompanying it was a strong sensation of weightlessness that spread through their bodies as they plummeted from over fifty meters high.
As soon as the weightlessness hit, Sun Zhoushan drew a sharp dagger from his side and sliced open the elevator with extreme speed.
Grabbing He Zhan’s wrist, they both leaped out to hang inside the elevator shaft.
A deafening sound erupted from the abyss below, and the two exchanged glances filled with confusion.
Next, they realized the entire building was starting to tilt!
The collapse of the floors led to even more violent shocks that surged like monstrous waves!
The impact felt like it would destroy the world, inducing overwhelming fear.
This pure physical destruction left He Zhan with no option.
In this moment, even Awakened individuals seemed insignificant in the face of such disaster.
Fortunately, Sun Zhoushan’s Awakened Ability was entirely geared towards the physical realm, helping them quickly escape the collapsing Dongri Grand Hotel.
"What the hell is going on?"
After crawling out of the wreckage in a disheveled state, they looked at the smoke-filled street behind them and the surrounding damaged buildings.
They couldn’t believe a nearly hundred-meter tall building could collapse like that, potentially causing immense casualties!
Luckily, before arriving at Dongri Grand Hotel, all nearby people had already been evacuated.
Otherwise, today might have become the most catastrophic day in Chengyang City since the Supernatural Calamity!
Before they could catch their breath, they heard a dense sound of footsteps like a migrating swarm of animals from the hotel’s debris.
The next moment, a dark mass moved and poured out.
"Wait, it’s... rats!"
Fear flashed simultaneously in He Zhan and Sun Zhoushan’s eyes, as they were taken aback by the current situation.
It wasn’t the rats themselves or the lingering fear from surviving the disaster.
Rather, it was the sheer number of rats—
An indefinite expanse!
Thousands upon thousands of rats, their eyes gleaming with malevolence and showing sharp, large incisors, seemed intent on devouring every living creature as they rushed toward them, like waves crashing ominously in the sea.
He Zhan stepped forward through gritted teeth, the bizarre eye on his right hand wide open, even shedding some crimson tears from the corners, causing him immense pain.
His ability, with its fully unleashed suppression range covering the entire street, acted like magic, pausing all living creatures in its sight.
The sprawling rat swarm, like dark clouds over a city, froze atop the ruins, creating an apocalyptic scene.
"Cough... Sun Zhoushan! Kill them for me!"
He Zhan coughed up two mouthfuls of dark red blood; each passing second was a torment to him.
Suppressing a single rat was as easy as breathing, but a thousand, ten thousand, maybe even hundreds of thousands beneath the Dongri Grand Hotel—
It was beyond human capability.
Yet, his suppression was terrifying for—
The rat tide that nearly engulfed the entire commercial street, not a single one could escape!
"Leave it to me!" Sun Zhoushan hesitated not a moment, drawing his pistol to shoot at the rat tide. The source of thɪs content is 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✶𝓷𝓮𝓽
Every shot he fired, at tenfold damage, was like a bomb, killing countless rats and blasting a path of blood.
In such a critical moment, Sun Zhoushan even ignored Minister Long’s prohibition, taking two grenades from the tactical belt.
Removed the safety pin and threw them into the center of the rat swarm.
Then a gust wrapped in a shockwave hit, the grenades exploded with multiples of a mortar’s force, instantly clearing a large area of rats with red eyes.
More and more rats were killed, and He Zhan felt slightly relieved as his bloody-eyes state gradually lessened, with fewer rats needing suppression.
If this continued, Sun Zhoushan could soon handle all of them.
He Zhan might suffer significant side effects from excessive use of his Awakened Ability, but that wasn’t important to him.
He only cared that no civilians would be hurt because of it.
"Who’s there!? Show yourself!"
Just as He Zhan was gasping for air and feeling the pressure lift, Sun Zhoushan suddenly turned his gun to a spot beside the ruins where rats weren’t emerging.
A person dressed in an official uniform emerged.
However, Sun Zhoushan didn’t lower his gun but instead chambered a bullet, aiming at the person’s chest.
"Who are you? The one masquerading as Wu Liang in the news?" He remembered clearly today’s mission was urgent and highly confidential.
Minister Long had only dispatched the first and second teams of Awakened individuals to handle the situation.
Totaling less than fifteen people.
Other team members were previously tasked with evacuating nearby civilians, so only he and He Zhan should be here, aside from Wu Liang and Wu Ming, whose fates inside the hotel remained unknown.
He had never seen this person in an official uniform!
"The age of prosperity is near; sacrifice is necessary..."
Yet, faced with Sun Zhoushan’s gun, the person showed no fear, instead speaking cryptic words and steadfastly gazing at him.
The next second, five more people, also in official uniforms, crawled rapidly out of the ruins behind the imposter.
They instantly scattered in different directions, catching Sun Zhoushan off guard.
With no hesitation, he pulled the trigger aiming the bullet at the imposter’s chest, intent on piercing it.
That person might be shattered completely...
But the imagery of flesh and blood flying didn’t appear; instead, the imposter had a fervent expression, holding a piece of white paper and a whistle.
As the bullet hit the white paper, it disappeared as if vanishing into the ocean without a trace.
Leaving only a bullet sketch on the paper.
The whistle sounded sharply in front of the mouth, urging one to cover their ears.
"Cough! Sun Zhoushan! The whistle! The rats!"
As the whistle blew, He Zhan abruptly coughed up a large pool of blood, falling to one knee.
Yet his right hand remained aimed, suppressing the rat tide to prevent their escape.
When the whistle blew, the rat tide he was suppressing seemed to grow more violent.
They tried to break free as if summoned, attempting to spread outside.
In an instant, He Zhan understood the whistle was likely responsible for this terrifying rat tide, urgently warning Sun Zhoushan.
Sun Zhoushan realized and stared incredulously at the imposter.
He thought about the other five imposters who fled with astonishing speed.
If each carried a whistle , capable of controlling the rat tide and causing widespread harm, and acted fraudulently in official uniforms—
The impact might not only affect this commercial street but perhaps ten others...
If it truly happens, this would be the biggest man-made crisis faced by Chengyang City’s official branch since its establishment!
And not just a crisis of destruction but an obliteration of public trust in the authorities.
These six were intending to drag down Chengyang City’s officials with themselves!
At the cost of their lives!
And countless innocent blood...