Chapter 483: 483

Chapter 483: Rat Horde, Zombies, Mutation!

“Damn it!”

All the veteran hunters cussed.

The roller bladers were couriers often seen in the lair. They were needed to deliver a large amount of betting chips, materials, crystals, and resources safely and secretly outside, because they could not be seen in public.

The owners of the goods hoped that by having the goods taken from their hands, they could remove themselves from the situation.

Rollerbladers became a job because of this.

They did not know the identities of the item deliverers or the people receiving the items. They also did not know what goods they were delivering. As long as they got the money and sent the goods, even if they were captured, they would not reveal any secrets.

“Why are there nine rollerbladers?”

“Could it be that Big Brother gathered nine bags of stolen goods and sent them all out to the mastermind?”

“Then, which rollerblader should we chase after?”

The veterans felt really troubled.

Meng Chao thought about it and said, “It’s not nine bags of stolen goods. Just now, Big Brother Knife said very clearly that the two robbers were late by a few hours, and most of the things the robbers stole were fresh monster materials. Once taken out of the storage environment, they have to be sent to the pharmacies or labs for refinement right away or they would lose their efficacy.

“So, all the stolen goods must have been sent to the mastermind the moment they entered the lair.

“Besides, the nine rollerbladers are heading off in different directions. I think that at most, one of the nine backpacks contains stolen goods. The other eight bags and eight rollerbladers are all for the sake of confusion and anti-tracking!”

“Makes sense.” Everyone’s mind raced, and they quickly reevaluated the situation.

Xue Rui nodded and said, “The other party shouldn’t have noticed us, but if the mastermind can come up with hundreds of crimes and turn third-rate vermin into well-trained, professional robbers, they must be meticulous and devious. It’s impossible for them to not take precautions and set up some anti-tracking. It’s only logical for them to do so.”

It did not take much money to hire a rollerblader to randomly move around the lair.

But the veteran hunters found it troublesome.

Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong gritted his teeth and said, “We can’t let a single one of them escape. Mo Lan, Xue Rui, and everyone else split into groups of two and follow one rollerblader each. Make sure you see where they’re going clearly, especially to whom they hand their backpacks over.

“Meng Chao, you stay and watch Big Brother Knife with me!”

They were running out of time and could not waste it looking for a better solution. When the nine rollerbladers were about to vanish, the veteran hunters looked for the most reliable partners based on the teamwork they built over the years fighting in the jungle. Then, like ghosts, they quietly went out to chase their targets.

A small sting of pain rose behind their ears, and their optical signals turned into invisible waves that were sent into their brains.

The nine rollerbladers might have been born and bred in the lair and were as agile as apes, but they could not escape from the veteran hunters’ eyes, ears, and noses.

Their actions in the alleys were under tight scrutiny.

However, the hunters could not act ostentatiously in the lair this time, because it was a secret operation. There were only twenty captors, and that was including Meng Chao.

Eighteen people split up for the operation, leaving behind Meng Chao and Zhou Chong in the area, so their overall fighting strength was quite weak.

Fortunately, Zhou Chong was at Spirit Armor Realm, while Meng Chao’s fighting strength was far greater than his cultivation realm implied.

They moved like lightning and shot into the building with the picture of the tiger with wings. Then, as if they had fused into the shadows, they shot up to the third floor and quietly went to the room where Big Brother Knife was.

Just when they wanted to press themselves against the wall, they heard movement inside.

The sound of the door opening stopped them.

They did not have time to hide, so they flipped down the spiral staircase at the same time and stuck themselves to the back of the stairs like two huge bats.

Zhou Chong was about to remind Meng Chao to control his breathing, heartbeat, and vitality magnetic field when he realized that he was suddenly unable to sense Meng Chao.

It was as if Meng Chao had turned into a dead person or been swallowed by a black hole.

Zhou Chong was a little stunned. He could not help but turn his head to look. Meng Chao was still by his side, alive and well.

He gasped in spite of himself, and his appraisal of the youngest Heaven Realm superhuman in Dragon City increased by a few degrees.

Big Brother Knife walked down the stairs.

His hands were empty, and he was whistling. It appeared that he was in a good mood.

He did not notice that there were two hunters less than half a meter above him.

He did not return to the room where the two robbers who had locating chips and tapping devices in them were.

Instead, he went to the first basement floor and entered the winding corridor that looked like a maze. He walked past a few homeless people who were in rags and curled up by the corridor before he went into another room.

Meng Chao and Zhou Chong appeared behind him. They snuck over and hid in the darkness of the corner.

They looked at each other with some hesitation.

“If I were the mastermind, I’d have a few hidden sentries. They’d pretend to be homeless people curled up near my lair,” Meng Chao whispered.

Praise shone in Zhou Chong’s eyes. He nodded and said, “That’s right. The homeless man by the left looks to have sores all over his body, so he’s quite disgusting at first glance. But his vitality magnetic field is strong and stable. His limbs also look really built. He should be a man with a built body.

“This sort of person can survive no matter what he does in the lair. How could he end up in the streets and in such a pathetic state?”

They did not dare to go near the room that Big Brother Knife entered.

Fortunately, they had powerful spatial modeling abilities.

By exploring and scanning the area, they could form the structure of a few floors in their heads.

They went to the door of a room on the second basement floor, which was right under the room with Big Brother Knife.

When they stuck their ears against the door to listen, they heard people moving inside. There was laughter and cusses. It seemed like they were all men with a lot of energy, and there was a large number of them.

The hunters did not want any accidents so they went to the room right above the room where Big Brother Knife was next.

This place was silent, and they could hear no breathing nor heartbeats inside.

Regardless of whether it was a normal lock or reinforced, special password-coded lock, it could not stop Heaven Realm superhumans, who were skilled in using their magnetic fields to obtain objects remotely.

Zhou Chong placed his hand gently over the keyhole, and his spirit energy flowed inside like water to suck in the lock cylinders. After searching around for a while, there was a click.

The door opened. The moment Meng Chao shot in, his senses filled the entire room like a flood; there was indeed no living being inside.

It was a small apartment.

Aside from the tiny kitchen and toilet, there were only two other rooms.

The apartment stank. Its corners were filled with household waste, and the blanket was crumpled up.

The master had to have gone off in a hurry to earn their living. They were still alive, but they would not return for the time being.

Meng Chao lay down on the floor and poured his spirit energy into his optical nerves and eardrums. Through the reinforced concrete, he could hear Big Brother Knife’s hoarse voice coming from the room below.

He was talking to someone, and there was not just one of them.

There was a lot of noise in the room. It came from weapons clashing, guns being disassembled and reassembled before being loaded.

Zhou Chong knelt on one knee and widened his eyes while he stared at the floor.

His eyes slowly turned crystalline, like two super high-power searchlights, but they shone with more than seven colors.

Five-star superhumans were known to have reached the Spirit Gaze Realm. They could stimulate the mysterious functions that had been sleeping for ten thousand years in their cells, which allowed them to see invisible lights of different wavelengths and temporarily gain X-ray vision.

Zhou Chong was a six-star superhumans, so his X-ray vision was naturally much better than that of five-star superhumans.

He narrowed his eyes, and they sparkled like crackling flames. After a while, he said, “Aside from Big Brother Knife, there are twenty-seven people inside. Six of them are badly injured, eight are lightly injured, but they have been treated, so it won’t be of any consequence for the time being.

“Their vitality magnetic fields are very active, to the point that it’s abnormal. They seem to have taken in a large amount of drugs that will drain their lives but forcibly increase their fighting strength.

“Also, they’re carrying a lot of guns, along with dangerous objects like crystal bombs and explosives.”

“They’re the robbers who committed major crimes over the past few days outside and have fled into the lair,” Meng Chao whispered.

The robbers were all goons, so they were not that valuable.

Both of them then placed their hopes on the veteran hunters who were chasing the nine rollerbladers and might still bring good news.

They wondered what Big Brother Knife told the nine rollerbladers, because they did not seem to be in a hurry to look for the person in charge of receiving the package. They just kept strolling around the streets of the lair and intentionally often went to the narrow, cramped streets or those with a lot of people.

The veteran hunters had to keep an eye out on the rollerbladers and the person who might receive the package from them.

But they also had to be on guard of hidden sentries who might have taken the guise of homeless people, drunkards, or prostitutes.

This high-intensity lurking and tracking wasted quite a lot of mental stamina and patience. Even Heaven Realm superhumans found it exhausting.

At that moment, the veteran hunters received news from the outside world.

Nie Chenglong, vice director of the abnormal beast research department, said in a grave voice, “Let me update you on something.

“Ten minutes ago, the southern part’s New South Orchard Village, the northern part’s North Sea Home, and the western part’s Golden Eagle Apartment, which are all large residential areas with more than ten thousand people, were overrun by a rat horde.

“While fighting against the rats, many of the citizens noticed quite a number of rat-type monsters having red tentacles growing out of their bodies after being resurrected in an even more terrifying state. They had turned into undead.

“We highly suspect that the three rat hordes were intentionally released by the abnormal beasts, and aside from being infected with Blood Flower spores, the rat-type monsters might also be carrying an even newer mutated zombie virus.

“Many of the citizens have been scratched or bitten during the fight.

“A large number of rat-type monsters have also fled outside the residential areas. The worst case scenario would be that in less than half an hour, a new zombie crisis will explode.

“So, much of our manpower has been mobilized to New South Orchard Village, North Sea Home, and Golden Eagle Apartment.

“Look at the map. The three large residential areas are located in the western, southern, and northern parts of Dragon City. They’re all very far away from the lair. In other words, the enemy is intentionally dispersing our forces, but we have no other choice. For the citizens’ safety and their wealth, we can only be led around the nose.

“Since they’ve decided to lure us away, something is definitely going to happen in the lair, you must be careful!”

Before Nie Chenglong’s voice faded away, Meng Chao saw something shocking through the eighteen veteran hunters’ sights!