Chapter 63 Symbiosis
In the evening, after ten o’clock.

At this point, Hogan City had already fallen into a deep sleep.

Except for a few drunkards and some special professionals who only go out at night, most people are already fast asleep at home and will not wander around outside.

The night was very quiet, with only the occasional sound of birds chirping, insects buzzing, or noise made by drunkards.

Gao De quietly left the medicine garden from the backyard, walking very lightly and very quickly towards the city center.

We passed through the dirty and chaotic slums, occasionally seeing a few human figures.

There are many restless people in the slums at night.

Soon, Gaode arrived at the civilian living area which was relatively safer and cleaner.

After each of his previous drug sales, he would hang out in Hogan City.

Therefore, compared to when he first came to this world, Gaode is now quite familiar with Hogan City.

So, Gaode quickly found the purpose of this trip.

A sewer entrance in a civilian area.

Gao De looked around and quickly found a suitable position.

Opposite the sewer entrance, there is a roadside tree with lush branches and leaves.

He quickly approached the roadside tree, used his childhood experience of climbing trees, climbed up the tree in a few steps, and hid his figure in the shadow of the tree.

After making sure that the branches and leaves of the roadside trees completely concealed his figure, leaving no trace, not even a shadow, Gao De carefully pulled aside the branches and stared at the sewer entrance.

The purpose of his visit is obvious:
Make a final verification of your guesses and try to find out the true identity of the “murderer behind the scenes” of the strange events in the city.

There aren’t a lot of sewer entrances in the city, but there aren’t a few either.

Therefore, “sitting back and waiting for something to happen” still involves some element of luck.

But Gaode couldn’t think of any better way.

I squatted on the tree like this for more than an hour.

Willow branches on the moon.

Just when Gao De was beginning to feel sleepy, a faint rustling sound reached his ears.

This cheered him up and all his sleepiness disappeared without a trace.

He widened his eyes and looked in the direction where the sound came from – the entrance to the sewer.

Under God’s horrified gaze, a group of black rats poured out from the dark entrance that was only wide enough for one person to pass through.

These rats were of normal size and were by no means as terrifying as the wolf rats that had previously attacked the medicine garden at night. They looked no different from the most common rats.

But the appearance of so many rats in groups in the dark is itself an extremely strange thing.

Since leaving the sewer entrance, these rats have been rushing in one direction like a tide.

In just a short while, this large group of rats disappeared from Gaode’s sight and disappeared into the night.

Gao De, who witnessed this horrifying scene, waited silently.

About half an hour later.

Under the moonlight, dense black spots appeared again and rushed towards the sewer entrance here.

When the black spot became bigger and bigger in Gaode’s sight, until he could see the shapes of the mice clearly.

“Hiss!” Gao De couldn’t help but take a breath.

The moonlight penetrated the sparse clouds, illuminating the strange scene before our eyes.

These rats lined up in a row, moving in unison, and actually worked together to lift several humans who seemed to be unconscious or sleeping.

“One, two, three.” Goder took a quick look and figured out the number of humans carried by this strange group of rats.

The three men showed no signs of waking up despite such violent movement.

The rats had a clear goal and carried the three people to the entrance of the sewer.

“And then?” Goder couldn’t imagine what these mice would do next.

Taking these three people into the sewer? What was the purpose of doing this?
The next moment, Gao De’s doubts were answered.

A hissing sound.

A beam of blood shot out from the dark sewer entrance.

With the help of moonlight, Gao De saw the true face of the bloody light.

It was a blood-red vine.

Blood-red vines stretched out from the sewer and rolled towards one of the three humans carried by the rats.

The vines had sharp thorns that pierced into the human’s skin like teeth. Then, the blood in the human’s body flowed out like a stream and was quickly absorbed by the vines.

Correspondingly, the man’s body was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A cool feeling quickly flowed from the soles of Gaode’s feet to his entire body.

His breathing became heavier.

In just a few minutes, a living person turned into a pale, shriveled corpse right under Gao De’s nose.

And the vine stretched out its branches and leaves after drinking the blood.

It was clearly a vine, but Gao De seemed to sense that it was releasing a joyful and comfortable emotion.

At the same time, a faint red mist rose from the branches of the vines, spread out, and poured into the bodies of the rats.

The next moment, a familiar and terrifying scene happened before Gaode’s eyes.

Under the nourishment of the red mist, the rats’ eyes turned into a strange crimson, like burning rubies, flashing an ominous light in the night.

It was exactly the same as the two spots of deep red that Gao De caught a glimpse of when he left the sewer last time.

In the dark night, so many crimson eyes flashing dimly are enough to make one’s scalp tighten.

“Symbiosis.” Gao De said to himself in his heart.

Apparently, the rats and this strange plant have a classic symbiotic relationship.

Strange plants should have the characteristics of plants, unable to move, and need rats to hunt for them.

The rats need the strange red mist released by this strange plant after enjoying its food.

Although I don’t know what its specific effects are, it is definitely beneficial to them.

Seeing that the vines were temporarily “full and satisfied” and the red-eyed monster rats had finished enjoying the red mist, a small number of members of the rat group bit the clothes of the mummy and dragged it into the sewer.

Soon, the mummy fell straight into the sewer through the entrance and disappeared.

Gao De now knew the truth about the murderer, the murder process, the whereabouts of the body, and everything else related to this strange case of missing persons.

He even corrected his previous judgment.

Why have the bigwigs in the city failed to solve the problem of missing people?

It doesn’t necessarily mean that the possibility of the sewer has not been considered at all.

Unless you happen to see the rats in their red-eyed form.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, even if the city guards checked the sewers and saw these rats with their own eyes, how could they associate such non-threatening and normal-looking rats with the murderer?
It is normal for rats to exist in sewers.

This disguise is too natural.

And on the field, this “eating” is not over yet.

After a short pause, the vine began to move again as if it had finished digesting the food.

The target was undoubtedly one of the remaining two people.

call out!
At the moment the vines moved.

A blazing light burst out in the night, cutting through the dull air and plunging into the group of rats gathered by the vines.

It was an arrow-shaped flame.

The moment the flaming arrow hit the target rat, there was an explosion and a dazzling light. The flames quickly spread, covering a small group of red-eyed monster rats at the center of the explosion.

The red-eyed rats fled in all directions under the sudden flame attack.

Screams mingled with the crackling of flames.

The acrid smell of burning fur filled the air.

“what sound!”

“It came from over there, go check it out!”

Da da da!
There were hurried, messy but powerful footsteps.

The explosion and light, which seemed extremely abrupt and shocking in the silent night, quickly attracted the attention of a team of city guards who were patrolling just a street away.

As if they had heard the noise from the city guards, the red-eyed rats no longer cared about anything else. With a panicked squeaking sound, they quickly dived into the sewer entrance and disappeared.

The dead rat bodies that were burnt by the flames were picked up by the living red-eyed monster rats and taken back to the sewer.

The strange vines moved even faster. With a whoosh, they went back along the entrance of the sewer.

At the same time, a figure quickly jumped down from the roadside tree opposite the entrance and quickly disappeared into the night.

The birds and beasts dispersed.

(End of this chapter)