Mouse City-Pestus
When William heard the name of the city, he couldn't help but think of the first powerful enemy he encountered when he just became a gentleman, the corrupt gentleman Mr. Li under the Twilight Clinic.
William himself was also very curious about what a city named after the plague would look like.
Just halfway through the journey, the flight attendant in charge of this voyage approached William again, it seemed that there was something very important that needed to be notified at short notice.
"Mr. William, we just received a short-wave transmission from the head office, informing us that Rat City has also been designated as a restricted area. How about we change the destination and send you to another nearby city?"
"Did you just change it?"
"That's right."
"The itinerary remains unchanged. Take me as close to Rat City as possible. I was planning to visit the abyss this time, so it would be good to familiarize myself with the conditions at the edge of the abyss in advance."
"OK."
The worm car stopped ten kilometers away from Rat City.
Even from such a distance, William could still see the general outline of Rat City. The towering city walls reached hundreds of meters and were crooked, not seeming to be made of regular rough stone.
A large amount of "green gas" representing the plague continued to pour out from the sky above the city, dyeing the clouds above the city green. Some clouds were still dripping with green rain, as if the sky was nauseating because of it.
The dilapidated roads were covered with fungi, and rats could crawl across the road at any time.
The appearance of these rats was beyond William's knowledge, and only a few of them were normal.
For most mice, only the head remains unchanged, while the body is either crawling like a child or having multiple legs like an octopus.
There was even a ball of fur covered with rat heads that rolled by, leaving behind a foul-smelling, quickly evaporating green bacterial liquid. The smell was exactly like the smell of a dead rat fetus that accidentally fell into the sink and was soaked for several days.
"Since entering the Old World, although the various epidemic areas have symptoms, they are relatively 'clean'. This is the first time I have come to such a truly dirty and messy place.
Let me see what the so-called Rat City looks like inside."
William slowly discovered a problem while walking on the main road. Although fertility in the old world was blocked, these mice were able to produce companions through "proliferation" with extremely high efficiency, which was obviously related to cancer.
Through knowledge verification with 'Thirteen', it was confirmed that Rat City was indeed under the jurisdiction of Cancer Palace, but the degree of connection was not high and it was basically free-range.
As they approached the city along the main road and saw the city wall structure, even the knowledgeable William was stunned.
The city wall was not built with stone or steel, but with local materials.
Due to their unbridled proliferation, there are many deformed and short-lived rats. Moreover, the city can only accommodate a limited number of rats, so the weak ones must either leave or die.
Therefore, a large number of corpses are produced in Rat City and its surrounding areas every day.
Burning corpses is too troublesome and not conducive to the spread of disease.
The Rat City used the bodies of dead rats as building materials and built the city walls with ancestral craftsmanship. The decayed liquid that flowed out of the bodies acted as an adhesive.
Eventually, the height of the city wall exceeded 100 meters, and even a second city wall was built on the outside.
Even the patients in the old world would still feel uncomfortable seeing this scene and would be unwilling to get close. Even if there were no city walls blocking the way, no one would want to attack this city.
Not only will you offend the Cancer Palace, you may also end up contracting a plague, or even the stolen treasure chest may contain only a bunch of old papers.
However, William soon noticed another problem.
There was clearly an underground sun moving not far away, but the sunlight that reached Rat City was pitifully small, as if there was a barrier blocking the sunlight from entering.
"Is it because of the excessive accumulation of corpses? Or is there some other reason... I always feel that this city is hiding something other than the highly contagious diseases it has.
There must be a reason why the Blackworm Company listed it as a restricted area. Perhaps this city has also been affected to some extent by the unknown abyss, and has even changed in secret."
Just as William stopped in front of the city wall to think, he suddenly felt a hot feeling in his shoulder.
Little Grape, who was taking a nap, suddenly woke up. Not only did he crawl out of my shoulder, he also opened his "Eye of Grayness" on his own initiative, and his eyes seemed to be longing for something.
"Little Grape, what's wrong?"
“William! This Grape’s body has a strong sense of homology with the city in front of me. One of the core ancient corpses that makes up my body may be related to these strange old world rats, or some infectious disease contained in the town.”
"Fuck~ You have such a heavy taste?"
"Bah! What do you mean I have a heavy taste? It's obviously the XP of the cemetery manager who raised me that's the problem! My body composition is determined by him.
Let’s not talk too much for now. Since we happened to meet here, let’s go in and take a look. If I can find suitable grapes or a large plague gathering, maybe I can awaken the second part of me.
By then, my strength will have greatly increased, so won't it be easy for me to take down the Abyss?"
Saying,
Little Grape also spit out four ancient corpse eyeballs from his mouth, which symbolized his main composition.
The first eyeball on the right corresponds to the activated "Eyeball Collector. Gumhar". A strange and cold evil aura condenses on its surface, and it has a multi-child structure.
As for the other three, they were all in a dim state and had not yet been activated.
However, one of them slightly reflected a plague green light similar to that of Rat City, which meant that Little Grape's perception was indeed correct.
"Little Grape, you'd better keep a low profile.
Since you can sense it, it is very likely that a rat in the city, or even a large group of rats, can sense you."
"What are you afraid of! Aren't you already able to fight the Knight of the Tumor? I, Grape, can even control the Evil Sun. I'll see which rat dares to come close to me. I'll treat you to rat skewers then!"
"How about you, Little Grape, just transform into a prophet and we split up in the city. That would be more efficient?"
"Ahem~ We are new to the place, so it's not a good idea to split up right after entering the city. Oh, I'm still a little sleepy. I'm going to continue my nap. Call me if you find anything."
Seeing the little grape retracted into the body, William didn't say much.
After tidying up his clothes and putting on the usual needle mask, he officially walked into the interior of this plague city.
There is no watchman at the gate,
The gate of Rat City looked like a huge gap bitten out by rats' teeth. It was raining heavily inside, and even green rain water was overflowing from the gate.
Although there were no guards, there were several vendors standing at the door;
They all have rodent-like heads, the only difference being whether they have hair or not.
Although they were wearing clothes, they were extremely dirty, and through the holes in the clothes one could even see their skin, which was covered with pus.
When they saw William, a stranger who was well-dressed and even wearing an exquisite mask, they immediately surrounded him.
"Sir, I offer the freshest inner membrane umbrellas, which are taken from the stomachs of undivided ratmen. They can effectively resist the "corrupted rain". You can take them away for only 10 coins.
I also offer a full-body raincoat that works even better for just 30 coins."
"Do you need to stay at the hotel, boss? This is a converted house from ours, so it's guaranteed to be clean and undisturbed.
We also provide "home service". My wife's split individuals are fair-skinned, beautiful, with smooth hair, and are very good at housework. How about it? Do you want to try it? My wife is great.
The fee is not high, only 20 a day is enough.”
"Professionals lead the way! Professionals lead the way, we can take any road! We can reach any place as quickly as possible."
William turned his head and looked at the white ratman who was calling out to lead the way.
There are several small hand structures on the abdomen of its upright body, one of the eyes on its face has been gouged out, and the white fur color is caused by aging. It seems quite reliable.
"Lead the way."
While William was looking at the white mouse, he lightly tapped the iron needle of the mask with his index finger.
bite!
The sound was so loud that, except for the white mouse that was asked to lead the way, the other mice all felt a pain from the depths of their souls.
When they recovered, the young man they had surrounded had disappeared.