#38 - Chapter 38: Rat

Shen Xingyan's home was relatively close to the base's border, and due to his family's circumstances, he lived in a rather desolate area. It wasn't exactly uninhabited, but it was sparsely populated, and at this moment, there were no other figures around.

In this environment, the strange movement coming from the grass couldn't help but make Shen Xingyan pay attention. His heart instinctively clenched, and his body shifted into a fighting stance.

As the disturbance approached, Shen Xingyan cautiously and slowly retreated. Empty-handed, he grabbed a stone from the ground beside him to increase his fighting power.

Just as Shen Xingyan was prepared, the area of disturbance in his sight suddenly fell silent. As soon as his thought of confusion appeared, he suddenly saw a black shadow dart out, pouncing directly towards him.

Its speed was so fast that even the top humans before the Origin Energy outbreak wouldn't have been able to react. However, Shen Xingyan was a fully awakened individual with maximum attributes, and he had been focused on that direction. The moment he saw the black shadow, his body instinctively made a dodging movement, and the shadow's attack missed.

After Shen Xingyan steadied himself and saw the appearance of the culprit, the unease he felt earlier was alleviated, replaced by a tightening grip on the stone in his hand.

Standing before him was the lowest level of Calamity, more precisely, a Calamity mutated from a rat: a Giant Rat.

Over a hundred years ago, the outbreak of Origin Energy caused all living things on Blue Star to evolve to some extent. Creatures like rats were no exception, and their threat to humans increased exponentially.

In that era, due to the different focuses of growth, the growth rate of these creatures seemed even more astonishing.

Their cultivation mode differed from humans in that, although the various attributes of the human body would also improve with time, they needed to undergo various exercises to achieve rapid improvement. Natural growth mainly focused on Origin Energy, and other attributes were completely inferior to other creatures.

Moreover, without the help of the Star Origin's light pillar to awaken, it would be very difficult to use that naturally increased Origin Energy.

In the previous defense battles, due to their astonishing reproduction rate, these rats, although not very lethal, caused no small trouble for newly awakened professionals.

Besides, even the weakest Calamity was still a Calamity, and its aggressiveness towards humans was innate.

"How could such a weak Giant Rat break through the border and come here?" Shen Xingyan wondered to himself as he observed.

Before, at school, Shen Xingyan had learned about the characteristics of Calamities. The Giant Rat in front of him was only famous for its speed, but its lethality was not great.

Not to mention that he had already completed his awakening, and his speed had completely surpassed the opponent's. Even before the awakening, as long as he seized the opportunity, solving the opponent would not be difficult.

The Giant Rat opposite him was also staring at Shen Xingyan, its eyes, the size of fingernails, darting around as if analyzing the difference in strength between the two sides. Two sharp incisors were exposed, flaunting its threat.

However, Shen Xingyan didn't wait for the opponent to attack first. He directly raised the stone and rushed forward. With his current defense of 12 points, it wouldn't be easy for the opponent to break through this defense. Shen Xingyan was confident in this regard.

Seeing that the small human opposite him showed no fear of himself and even took the initiative to attack, the Giant Rat was immediately frightened by this momentum and hurriedly jumped, turned around, and scurried away with its head in its hands, without the ferocity it had shown when it ambushed Shen Xingyan earlier.

But how could Shen Xingyan let it have its way? His speed of 10 points was fully utilized, taking two steps at a time, quickly arriving behind the Giant Rat.

With a "smack" sound, Shen Xingyan's right hand holding the stone directly hit the Giant Rat's body, causing it to squeal in pain, and its fleeing speed was momentarily滞.

Ignoring the Giant Rat's reaction, Shen Xingyan swung the stone in his hand again towards the opponent's head, but this time he didn't hit it solid. The Giant Rat suddenly disappeared from the spot, which made him stunned.

When Shen Xingyan saw the opponent again, the Giant Rat was already dozens of meters away.

However, because it had been hit solidly by Shen Xingyan just now, its moving speed was more than a little slower.

Shen Xingyan didn't think much and stepped forward to chase again.

Although the Giant Rat tried its best to escape, it was quickly caught up by Shen Xingyan, who repeatedly smashed it on the head until the opponent was dying, no longer moving, and then stopped.

Looking at the Giant Rat that still showed no signs of life, Shen Xingyan stood up and exhaled a long breath.

At this time, his physical strength, which had been consumed by training in the training hall, was almost exhausted after the tense battle just now.

Although it was only a short time, the consumption was huge. Sweat couldn't help but overflow from his forehead, which made him realize that there was an essential difference between actual combat and daily training.

Shen Xingyan was also experiencing this kind of head-on confrontation with a Calamity for the first time. The composure he had pretended to show earlier had vanished at this moment, replaced by a burst of fear.

What if what appeared this time wasn't the lowest level Giant Rat, but a higher level Calamity? Could he still kill it so easily? After all, the battlefield was a duel where it was either you die or I die.

The uncertain answer in his heart made him nervous. He had two powerful skills. If something unexpected happened during the early stages of development, he felt that he would die too unjustly!

For the past ten years, he had been hearing professionals say that the closer you get to the border, the more dangerous it is. Although he had thought so before, he didn't have a very intuitive feeling. Now, the appearance of this small Calamity made Shen Xingyan's feelings even deeper.

"Now that Calamities are starting to appear, it may become even more chaotic here in the future. It seems that I have to rent a house near the school as soon as possible, so that my sister will be much safer." The current situation forced Shen Xingyan to think more, and he made up his mind.

It wasn't until this time that he thought of checking the condition of the Giant Rat under his feet.

Shen Xingyan squatted down and looked at the prey that he had beaten beyond recognition. It was the first time he had watched a Calamity from such a close distance, and he didn't know how to describe this feeling for a while.

There was novelty, excitement, and more hatred. After all, his originally happy family was destroyed by these Calamities, and he couldn't help but hate them. Now he had taken the first step in revenge.

While checking, Shen Xingyan found that the Giant Rat's belly seemed to be much larger than what he had learned from the information, with a kind of indescribable abnormality.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any tools to dissect it at this time, so he could only take the Giant Rat home first, dissect it to see what was going on, and the Giant Rat's meat could also be separated and taken to the free market to sell for money.