Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 23: Succeeded

Translator: Editor:

“Bang! Bang!”

Two gun shots rang out.

“Aaooo!”

Far in the distance, two burn marks suddenly appeared on the Rat King’s body. The creature howled loudly and swung its long tail violently until there was sonic boom!

“Bang!”

Another burn on its body. The Rat King squeaked and realized the disaster it was facing. Then, it no longer took care of the other normal mutated rats but tried to escape instead. The surrounding mutated rats quickly faded away too.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The heavy sound of sniper rifle rang out continuously but apparently it was difficult to target the nimble Rat King. All three shots missed the target. Soon, the Rat King ran further away while spattering its blood along the path.

“Good chance!” Luo Yuan thought, and immediately chased after it. The others were stunned but quickly, they followed. Yet, they were left behind in just a few seconds. Luo Yuan was very fast and could be compared to a champion of short-distance running. Yet, his speed was still slower than that of the Rat King.

Fortunately, the speed of the Rat King was reduced gradually. The heavy caliber sniper rifle had caused three bowl sized wounds on its body, and the wounds were still bleeding continuously. Thus, it might not live long. After a few minutes, the speed of the Rat King had slowed greatly. Losing large amounts of blood had also drained its energy rapidly, and its silver-white fur had darkened and lost its original glaze. It let out a howl and its body started to falter.

“Please don’t die now, at least not now!” Luo Yuan ran desperately while muttering to himself. If he did not kill the Rat King himself, he would fail the mission. And the punishment, which will deduct double experience points, might even drop him down a level. It was something he could not bear. He panted heavily as his lungs seemed to be overworking.

Finally, the distance between the two of them started getting smaller. Luo Yuan became excited. The Rat King seemed to have felt the coming danger, or perhaps it knew that he could no longer escape with its current condition, so after running for a moment longer he stopped abruptly.

It turned back to face Luo Yuan. Its crimson red eyes were bloodthirsty. The creature howled in a low voice and its muscles pulled up its lips, exposing the sharp teeth which were different from a normal mutated rat’s. The slender tail was swinging slightly at the back of the body while its blood-stained fur was standing up, revealing that the Rat King was ready to attack.

When Luo Yuan saw it, he reduced his speed and his face became grave. As the saying went, ‘Though the tiger has died, its authority toward the others is still around’. Though the Rat King was badly injured, it would never allow others to despise it.

And the atmosphere was filled with the depressing breath which stopped the chirping sounds in the surroundings. Luo Yuan held his knife tightly, focusing on the sanguine eyes of the Rat King. If it was a normal fight, he would drag out the time as long as possible. But time was what he lacked now, he had to act fast.

After staring at each others’ eyes for a while, Luo Yuan moved suddenly. He stepped heavily on the ground, bending his body to almost the same level as the land surface, so that when he dragged his knife through the floor, every step he took formed a shallow hole on the ground. He was like a ferocious tiger, speedily moving forward.

It was almost at the same time that there came a sonic boom. Though it did not come near Luo Yuan yet, his hair blew madly in the wind and his face was cut, which caused many narrow line wounds. While facing the fierce wind, Luo Yuan narrowed his eyes. Though his high agility was dragged down by other body qualities and he wasn’t able to unleash it completely, his eyesight was not affected. He could see a tail vaguely sweeping towards him. He knew that if he got hit by it, his body would definitely be cut in two.

His pupil contracted and he held up his Zhanmadao, hacking violently in the air. The moment he cut off the tail, a terribly strong energy was transmitted through the Zhanmadao. Before he was able to react, his body was thrown into the air.

“Aaaoo!”

The Rat King loudly cried out in pain and used its remaining strength to attack Luo Yuan who was still mid-air. Luo Yuan forcibly controlled his body and fell heavily to the floor. He looked at the Rat King, which was coming over, but did not try to avoid the oncoming attack. Instead, he scurried forward and the distance between them was shortened quickly.

“Bang! Bang!”

Luo Yuan’s heart gave a throb and he felt a pricking sensation at his back. He wasn’t able to react and felt a throbbing pain in his back. He hissed softly, moved his body slightly, and another intense pain followed. Then, he realized what had happened. He was both shocked and angry, and could no longer maintain his fighting mood. As he saw the Rat King rush toward him, he flipped and evaded to the side.

“What are you doing?” a shocked and angry voice came from afar. It was Huang Yaoguang’s voice.

“I wanted to save him but I missed. How can I fire if I am timid and hesitant?” Boss Zhou said indifferently and continued to fire. But he was shooting the Rat King already as he thought that Luo Yuan would definitely die after getting hit twice.

Luo Yuan was furious when he heard the conversation. Everyone would certainly know what boss Zhou was thinking even if he was retarded. He shot his partner in order to get two portions of the Rat King. If Luo Yuan wasn’t wearing the bulletproof vest, he would have already died.

Such man as Zhou was not fit to live.

Fortunately, the Rat King was distracted or Luo Yuan would have been in real danger. He tried to feel his body again and it seemed to be alright. Then he jumped up, caught up with the Rat King in a few steps and cut off its thin short leg with a swing of his knife. The running Rat King lost its balance and slumped to the floor.

But it wasn’t over yet. Luo Yuan walked quickly toward it, dragging his long knife through the soft part of the stomach to cut it open. The inner organs spilled onto the floor. The Rat King painfully raised up its head, showed its ferocious teeth and tried to bite him.

However, a bright cold light flashed through its throat and the blood oozed out like spring water. Luo Yuan feared that it was not dead yet, so he obliquely cut through its throat until the tip of the knife touched its skull. Only then he pulled out his knife. The head of the Rat King slumped to the floor. The creature was no longer breathing.

After a few seconds, the notification of the system finally appeared:

“Optional Mission, E-level Mission: Hunt down and kill the Rat King is completed. Mission completion time: 2 hours 5 min.

Evaluation of the mission: Average”

“Reward: Basic experience value 800”

“Average evaluation: Experience value +0”

“Whuu, we’re finally done.”

Luo Yuan was relieved. Though he only got an average evaluation and received no extra reward, he was still satisfied with managing to finish the mission. He turned to look at the people who were coming over. Their footsteps stopped eventually. The face of boss Zhou was uncertain while his right handwas tightly holding the handgun.

His face was stern. In a low voice he asked, “Can somebody explain to me what just happened?”

Huang Yaoguang wanted to say something but he was stopped by Luo Yuan. “Chen Haiyan, this boss Zhou was called by you right. I respect you, so what do you think? For firing at partner, how should he be punished?”

Everyone’s eyes quickly moved to boss Zhou and Chen Haiyan.

Chen Haiyan looked sour and said, “Luo Yuan, it was just an accident, and it may happen during a fight. Fortunately you’re alright, so why don’t we let boss Zhou apologize and then compensate? What do you say?” He hadn’t seen clearly what had happened and thought it was just an accident. Furthermore, he had called boss Zhou to join in this movement and their relationship was quite good, so he had to keep boss Zhou safe.

Luo Yuan pointed at Chen Haiyan with his forefinger and laughed. Then he glowered. “Accident? What accident! I have never heard that two continuous shots were because of an accident. If it wasn’t for wearing a bulletproof vest, how would I have survived that?” Luo Yuan walked towards them while talking.

There was an uproar. The faces of Qian Dakui and the others turned darker as they felt disappointment. After all, nobody wished to have such a person in their team. It was always a taboo to attack in a sly way.

They stepped back to make room for boss Zhou and his subordinate, and even estranged from Chen Haiyan.

The face of Chen Haiyan was grim, cursing boss Zhou for being so obsessed that he even wanted to kill a teammate. It would have been alright if the teammate had really died, nobody would fight for a dead person and there would be less people to divide the trophy between. However, he was still alive and Chean Haiyan himself was implicated in the conspiracy.

Luo Yuan walked toward boss Zhou with a grim face, releasing the breath which caused others’ hearts to throb.

“What do you want?” Boss Zhou asked stubbornly but his tone showed he was kind of admitting his mistake. He stepped slightly backward and his right hand which was holding gun was sweating as he saw Luo Yuan slowly come over.

“I am a person who clearly distinguished between kindness and hatred. Since you fired at me twice, then I will return with two strikes with my knife. Isn’t that fair?” Luo Yuan said. The others moved to the sides. The subordinate of boss Zhou was sweating abnormally. He looked both right and left and moved away hesitantly. Chen Haiyan seemed to want to say something, opening his mouth but remaining quiet in the end.

“Son of the b*tch!” Boss Zhou scolded his subordinate. He swallowed and moved slowly backward and said to Luo Yuan, “Are you not afraid of losing your life?”

“I am more afraid of someone attacking me from behind again!” Luo Yuan gazed at him.

“Then f*ck you!” Boss Zhou knew he could not avoid it anymore. So he suddenly raised his right hand and pulled the trigger to shoot at Luo Yuan. As soon as he shot, he felt cold in his hand and then an intense pain.

He held his broken hand and let out an agonized cry. He kept moving backward, sweat streaming down his face. He was finally frightened. “Oh please, I beg you, Boss Luo! My bad! I won’t do it again. I still have wife and kids, please don’t kill me!”

“If your wife isn’t good looking, you don’t have to worry. If your wife is beautiful, then you have even less to worry about. That was just one strike, you still owe me one more!” Luo Yuan said coldly.

He moved forward, quickly put his Zhanmadao into Boss Zhou’s stomach and twisted it forcefully until the intestines were cut off. Then, he quickly pulled out the knife and fresh blood flowed out slowly. Boss Zhou pressed on his stomach and fell to the floor with an agonized expression. His body twitched, blood oozing out from his mouth as he stared up and said with difficulty, “You…you are so cruel!”

The others looked at Boss Zhou, who was gasping for his last breath, and then the Rat King with its stomach cut open and the knife cut which went through its throat to the skull. The people felt like they agreed with boss Zhou. However, in that world, if you weren’t cruel to others, they were cruel to you.

“Since it’s done, shall we start to divide the spoils?” Chen Haiyan said. He didn’t seem to be too affected by what had just happened. “We don’t have much time already, those soldiers may soon find us.” Because of the limited time, they started to divide the Rat King.

Luo Yuan stabbed into its neck with his knife’s tip, pulled horizontally with great force and cut off the head. He then chopped off a hind leg and stopped. Though he could get more, it will give a greedy impression to others. Furthermore, he had already gotten the best part.

His knife was so sharp that it was not excessive to say that it could easily peel metal. Though the skin and flesh of the Rat King was tough, it didn’t hinder the light blue level Zhanmadao much. When Luo Yuan took out a sack to put his trophy in, the others were still cutting the meat with difficulty.

Luo Yuan took a look at the time, greeted Huang Yaoguang and some others, then chose a road and quickly left. He didn’t dare to stay there for long since the army was looking around. As long as they followed the blood stains, they would be there in no time. If he stayed longer, it would be more dangerous.

There were still some mutated rats at the landfill. With the sudden escape of their king, they were lost and roamed freely. Luo Yuan killed some of them along his way and put them into his sack so that he could exchange them for gas with fatty Xie and also to cover what was inside.

When Luo Yuan blended into the crowd, he felt relieved. As he followed the crowd to the shack area, he saw some army jeeps at the junction. There were some fully equipped policemen too. As they still looked relax, apparently, they hadn’t received any messages yet. Luo Yuan just took a look and averted his eyes. Soon, he found fatty Xie. His grain had already sold out. As it had been a large group of mutated rats, it would not be enough to trade even if he had had more grain.

He stood on a giant stone and was looking around. He wanted to leave as he had already gotten more than enough mutated rat meat because the value of it had quickly plummeted. Furthermore, the meat could not last long like grain. And processed meat wasn’t as profitable as fresh meat. But after thinking for a bit, he resolved to stay. Since he had decided to get to know Luo Yuan, he should not give up. Though the gas was precious, it meant nothing to him as he had connections.

“Brother Luo, you are finally here. I have been waiting for some time.” Fatty Xie jumped off the stone when he saw Luo Yuan and his belly fat flopped.

“I have been delayed by an incident,” Luo Yuan said briefly and switched the topic. “Have you brought the gas?”

“Already brought it here, just waiting for you,” Fatty Xie said brightly. “I have a total of 30 liters, how much do you want?”

“Let’s deal at some place with lesser people!” Luo Yuan looked at the nearby policemen and said to fatty Xie.

“Okay, let’s go to the junction then,” Fatty Xie agreed, also glancing at where Luo Yuan was looking at. He waved his hand and his two subordinates carried the two plastic tanks, each filled with gas.

They left the landfill and chose a remote corner. Luo Yuan threw all the mutated rats on the floor; there were seven of them. Fatty Xie did not mind the bloody smell at all. He squatted and checked the rats carefully. Apparently every mutated rat had just died as they were still warm. Their wounds were located on the head. The cuts were smooth and went directly into the brain. Every would was also of the same size, like they had been done measuring with a ruler.

Fatty Xie was amazed and he put a higher value on Luo Yuan. He smiled brightly and said, “On a quick estimation, these mutated rats are about six catties each, five catties once the blood is drained. So, you can get 2.5 liter of gas. Anyway, you can have this tank of 30 liters and pay me the rest later.”

Luo Yuan knew Fatty Xie was trying to be good. According to today’s rate, every catty of mutated rats would not even enough for three catties of grain, so Fatty Xie was suffering losses. But that was the way to network. You had to pay the price before you could earn. Give and take, that’s how a relationship would be formed. When Luo Yuan thought of it, it wasn’t too bad — he may need his help in the future, so he said understandingly, “Let’s work cordially together next time.”

When the deal was done, their relationship suddenly became closer. Fatty Xie said mysteriously, “I heard there was a Rat King today. Did you see it?”

Luo Yuan was shocked but soon he realized that it was alright. He unwillingly said, “Don’t mention it. I feel angry just thinking about what happened. I was about to get it but it was then grabbed by the policemen. I had no choice but to retreat. Or else I wouldn’t have killed even these few rats.”

Fatty Xie didn’t doubt him. He sighed and said softly, “As soon as there’s a leader-leveled organism in Donghu City, the army and the policemen will take it. Now, the price of each catty of that meat is very expensive. If brother Luo can get it, please, do contact me. Price will definitely not be a problem.”

“If I can get some, I will definitely not forget you, Boss Xie. But to meet one of these animals is not only very difficult, but they are also very dangerous too. Thus, even if I can meet one, I may not able to kill it.” Luo Yuan was suddenly had a thought and said, “If you can get a heavy caliber sniper rifle, we may have hope.” He had a deep impression of the sniper rifles the policemen used. It were just a few shots but the light-blue level animal was already badly wounded. And that was only because they did not hit its vital spots. If the shots had directly hit the Rat King’s head or heart, it would have definitely died instantly.

If he could get one of those, his next mission would be easy.

Fatty Xie was shocked. “Brother Luo, you’re too brave. For handguns, government can just omit it because the world has changed. As for sniper rifles, they’re definitely illegal. Even the whole Donghu City doesn’t have that many of them.”

“I thought so too,” Luo Yuan said. He didn’t have high hopes, after all. Unless one had connections with the army or high status people, it was impossible to get one of those. Luo Yuan didn’t want to talk anymore so as not to get in trouble and soon left.