Chapter 4: The Strength Of Treasure Hunter Rat

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Treasure Hunter Rat leaped off Lin Ke’s palm. Although it was still young, it was of Green quality after all. Its speed and abilities were better than ordinary adult rats.

Although the description of Treasure Hunter Rat portrayed it as very powerful, Lin Ke still had his dagger in hand. He did not intend to place all his hopes on his pet. 1

If he was using a professional strategy-a set of effective solutions tested and verified by countless players-Lin Ke would naturally feel bold and confident. But Lin Ke’s current bangle, which had never been obtained by a player before, represented a new path for him to explore. As Lin Ke was a prudent person, he would not fully place his life on it. 1

Lin Ke followed Treasure Hunter Rat as it moved along the maze walls.

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After making a few turns, Lin Ke’s eyes brightened. Treasure Hunter Rat really is something! This little guy did not lead me on a detour. The route it is taking me on is the way to the maze’s exit.

Squeak, squeak…

Treasure Hunter Rat walked for a while before stopping suddenly. It looked up at Lin Ke, and then at the wall.

Lin Ke’s eyes widened, and he was shocked. He actually understood what Treasure Hunter Rat was trying to say! Not long after, Lin Ke heard the sound of army boots.

Lin Ke crouched at the corner of the wall with his sharp dagger. He was not a tall person. Now that he was in a crouching position, he was even more inconspicuous. Because of the Zerg’s Nest, Lin Ke and Treasure Hunter Rat had established a kind of spiritual connection. Lin Ke could give orders to it without saying a word.

Treasure Hunter Rat squatted at Lin Ke’s feet, imitating his actions. Its posture and movements made it look like a tiny Lin Ke. 4

Lin Ke had a helpless expression.

Children loved to imitate the actions of adults.

Treasure Hunter Rat imitated him for a short while before feeling a little sore. Perhaps it was because its bones were not fully developed as it was born only a while ago. The weight was too much for its spine and muscles to bear.

Treasure Hunter Rat pressed its two small paws on both sides of its waist and rhythmically moved back and forth, exercising those rigid muscles… 3

Lin Ke raised his hands and swore that this was definitely not taught by him. 3

The sound of rubber-soled army boots walking on the gravel became clearer, and Lin Ke was able to determine the enemy’s position. 1

Lin Ke reached out and patted Treasure Hunter Rat, who was rubbing the air with its waist.

Treasure Hunter Rat staggered and rubbed the back of its head with its little paws. It then got down into a fighting stance.

Carry out the plan! As soon as Lin Ke finished transmitting this thought, Treasure Hunter Rat received the order.

The short whiskers at the corner of its mouth and its extraordinary sense of smell accurately outlined the image of the mercenary.

The sounds and vibrations of the mercenary’s footsteps were received by Treasure Hunter Rat, allowing it to determine the mercenary’s specific location.

Treasure Hunter Rat remained motionless as if it had been frozen after a night in the wild. However, it stretched out its paws to scratch the wall and threw a pebble on the ground against it the next second, making all sorts of noises.

The mercenary was holding a pistol. Although he said he didn’t care, he was subconsciously cautious when making a turn inside the maze.

Traversing the maze was quite annoying. If he had a grappling hook on him, he would jump up onto the wall, hence removing the need to walk through the maze.

At this moment, the mercenary heard a noise coming from the corner just ahead and twitched his mouth slightly. Instead of running away, you want to raise the stakes by ambushing me in the corner? You make me laugh. Since you like to play, I shall entertain you a little before you die.

The mercenary even imagined that he would suddenly turn around and shoot the slave in the head in the next few seconds. The slave would have a stunned expression with his eyes wide open, not understanding how he was exposed…

The time it takes to have a sip of cappuccino is sufficient to get rid of this injured useless slave. The mercenary raised his pistol, not bothering to conceal his footsteps.

The noises behind the wall in the corner disappeared within a blink of an eye. The mercenary was sure that this little fellow was squatting behind the wall.

It was impossible to escape without making any noises.

The mercenary’s muzzle moved a few inches down. He remembered that the slave was not tall. When he turned the corner of the wall, his muzzle would be pointed toward, at just the right height, the slave’s forehead, giving him a surprise. 2

Treasure Hunter Rat felt that the mercenary was close by and began to carry out its orders.

It prostrated on the ground and raised its back slightly, as though it was giving itself a boost before sprinting.

“You can do it!”

When the mercenary lifted his foot and was about to walk over, Treasure Hunter Rat rushed out from the corner.

The mercenary was focusing his attention on the slave hiding in the corner. The rat’s sudden dash frightened him and caught him off-guard, causing him to tremble. 1

Treasure Hunter Rat climbed up the mercenary’s army boots and onto his camouflage pants. It then went around behind his butt.

The mercenary subconsciously turned and stretched out his hand to chase off the rat. His hand unknowingly raised the gun by a few inches.

Now is the time! Lin Ke rushed out of the corner and immediately saw the black pistol.

Lin Ke’s sharp knife gave off a flash of cold light as it plunged directly into the mercenary’s dark-green T-shirt, piercing his heart!

[You struck the enemy’s heart! Causing five times the damage!]

At the same time, Lin Ke saw the words ‘120 critical strike damage’ popping out from the mercenary.

“Ah!” The mercenary was careless. He left himself exposed and was critically struck by Lin Ke.

By the time the mercenary reacted and wanted to fire his pistol, Lin Ke had already pulled out the dagger and returned to his hiding corner.

From start to finish, the mercenary did not get to see Lin Ke’s face. He only saw the corner of Lin Ke’s clothes when Lin Ke turned and made his graceful escape.

After the dagger was pulled from his chest, his punctured heart immediately released the pressure outwards. With a hissing sound, the mercenary’s T-shirt turned red as blood spluttered out of his wound.

The mercenary in the second half of the maze heard the screams of his partner and was startled. He hurriedly shouted, “What’s wrong with you, brother? Say something!”

Treasure Hunter Rat appeared on the mercenary’s wrist in a flash and began to gnaw at his hand that was holding the gun.

The mercenary fell to the ground. He used one of his hands to cover his bleeding heart while trying to use the other to raise his pistol to protect himself. But Treasure Hunter Rat remained stubbornly attached to his hand. It allowed the mercenary to shake it around as it relentlessly held on and put all its effort into gnawing his hand. 2

-1!

-2!

-2!

…

Light blue numbers constantly popped up from the mercenary.

Treasure Hunter Rat had fused with metal, strengthening its teeth. Its gnawing power was higher than that of ordinary rats.

In the blink of an eye, the mercenary’s hand was already drenched in blood.

“I am here! Quick, save me!” The mercenary endured the pain and tried his best to make one last cry for help. 3

Right after he finished talking, several of his fingers were bitten off. He could no longer hold the pistol.

Clatter!

The pistol dropped onto the ground.

Lin Ke’s eyes brightened. He had been waiting for this opportunity.

Coming out of the corner again, the sharp dagger’s cold light in his hand was gone. Instead, it was stained with red blood.

“Don’t come over!” The mercenary panicked and stepped back. With every movement, a large amount of blood gushed out from his fingers. 6

With Treasure Hunter Rat taking care of him, Lin Ke ignored the mercenary and directly went to pick up the pistol on the ground.

[You obtained a Glock 17 pistol.]

Lin Ke glanced at the system panel. The magazine was full; the gun hadn’t fired off a shot before.

It was named Glock 17 since the magazine contained 17 rounds. 5

With the pistol in one hand and the dagger in the other, Lin Ke walked to the mercenary with no expression as blood dripped from his right arm.

In the mercenary’s eyes, this slave had become a grim reaper that was going to take his life.

Sputter!

The dagger fell. It directly pierced through the mercenary’s throat, ending his life.

[You’ve killed a Wastelands Gang mercenary and gained 200 EXP]

Treasure Hunter Rat stopped gnawing and leaped around the mercenary’s trouser pockets, reminding Lin Ke that there was still something valuable on the mercenary’s body.

As a veteran player with six years of experience, Lin Ke would not forget to search the corpse. With both hands proficiently moving across the body, Lin Ke obtained quite a number of good items. 2

[You’ve obtained multi-function ammunition belt x1, magazine x2]

Treasure Hunter Rat stood on the mercenary’s corpse, upright and alert.

Lin Ke tied the ammunition belt around his waist and pulled down his flax shirt. From the outside, one could not tell that he had a pistol on him.

“There’s no need to use my crotch to hide the dagger anymore.” The multi-function ammunition belt had a place to hold the dagger. Both Lin Ke and his ‘little brother’ heaved a sigh of relief. 1

With two full magazines and 17 rounds of 9mm bullets in the Glock 17 pistol, Lin Ke now had 51 bullets in total. 1

Lin Ke glanced at Treasure Hunter Rat. He didn’t expect this little fellow to be proficient in both attacking and searching. Although it only dealt one or two points of damage every bite, it had a high attack rate!

Earlier, when Lin Ke fled and returned to his hiding spot, Treasure Hunter Rat had already caused a dozen points of damage!

Small rats were especially difficult to shake off.

“There is one remaining. Lead the way!” Now armed with a pistol, Lin Ke was pretty calm.

With this pistol, and being in a maze where he had the advantage, his actions had turned from defensive to offensive.

Treasure Hunter Rat jumped down from the corpse. It appeared unaffected by the strong stench of blood as it ran ahead of Lin Ke to lead the way.

On the other side, the other mercenary madly dashed through the maze when he heard the screams of his teammate. However, he could not hear anything in the huge maze after a short while, just terrifying silence!

The mercenary soon realized that his teammate should have been killed. However, the eerie atmosphere caused him to lose the courage to move forward.

They were obviously dealing with a wounded slave. Why did his teammate make such a terrible cry?

The mysterious unknown was the most terrifying thing.

The mercenary did not move forward any longer. Instead, he turned and retreated. However, the maze was too complicated. Given his panicked state, there was no way he could find a way out. He ended up getting stuck in an endless loop.

The mercenary gave up. He found a blind spot, took out his satellite phone while trembling, and dialed the number of the Wastelands Gang’s headquarters.

Beep… beep… beep…

The mercenary was holding a Bezos T1 tactical machine pistol. The muzzle was facing the corner of the wall in front of him. 1

Every sound made by the satellite phone connection felt infinitely long.

“This is the Wastelands Gang’s headquarters. What’s the matter at Camp 52?”

“The camp was destroyed by quicksand, and the ruins have sunk. Everyone died!” The mercenary grabbed onto his last lifeline. Before something strange happened to him, he reported everything he knew and asked for help.

“The camp was destroyed, and the ruins have sunk? Slow down…” The operator was shocked by the huge amount of information that was contained in those few words. He hurriedly began to record the details.

“There is no time for idle talk! My teammate and I chased the fugitive slave and came to the abandoned city north of the Machinery Holy Cult’s territories. A stray bullet hit the slave, and we pursued him to a maze-like place. We were going to trap him inside the maze, b-but… a short while later, my teammate screamed, and I lost contact with him. I don’t know if there is something else in the maze, but I’m sure my teammate is dead! I will send the location coordinates now. Hurry, send someone to rescue me!”

Towards the end, the mercenary no longer knew what he was rambling about. His sentences were breaking up and did not make any sense.

“I’ve received the coordinates. I have also uploaded the coordinate information and your response. I need access to your video camera. Connect us through. We need real-time images of the site!”

Soon, there was a request for access to the satellite phone. The mercenary hurriedly turned on the camera and placed the satellite phone in his chest pocket, aligning it with his line of sight.

When Lin Ke heard the mercenary requesting for help, he no longer needed Treasure Hunter Rat to lead the way. Using the mercenary’s voice to determine his position, Lin Ke already knew where the mercenary was.

Lin Ke did not expect that this mercenary even had a satellite phone!

This was indeed… a surprise!

Satellite phones had two main functions. One was to determine your location. The other was to make calls.

Lin Ke only had ‘Zaun1 Language Level 1 Certificate’ and was unable to communicate with the Wastelands Gang. 2

However, real-time positioning was essential if one wanted to leave the city ruins for somewhere safe. In the boundless Gobi Desert, it was simply too easy to kill someone.

As long as one didn’t provide others with coordinates or information about their position, they would definitely become a skeleton in a few days.

Lin Ke soon came close to where the mercenary was, separated by a wall.

The mercenary was engrossed in reporting the situation to the Wasteland Gang’s headquarters. In addition, Lin Ke did not wear shoes and moved around very quietly. Hence, the mercenary did not notice that the ‘grim reaper’ was approaching quietly.

“Treasure Hunter Rat, time for you to shine!”

Treasure Hunter Rat sensed its master’s thoughts and shook its limbs a little beside the wall.

Whiz!

Treasure Hunter Rat quickly ran through the opening. It was closely followed by a burst of flames from a tactical machine pistol.

The corners of Lin Ke’s mouth curled. Sure enough, my guess is correct. This guy is hiding in a blind spot. His muzzle is pointed toward the outside; he subconsciously reacted as soon as there was trouble.

The stress response just now wasted at least a dozen bullets.

The Wasteland Gang had only three types of weapons for ordinary mercenaries. One was the Glock 17 pistol, which had a magazine capacity of 17 rounds. The second was the Bezos T1 tactical machine pistol, with a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. The third was the tactical dagger, the one in Lin Ke’s multi-function ammunition belt.

For convenience, the Glock 17 pistol and the tactical machine pistol used the same 9mm bullets.

Finally, coupled with the BLN50 heavy machine gun on the modified desert jeep, they could basically cope with all kinds of conventional battles.

The mercenary’s face was pale, and he frowned with indescribable regret because he actually wasted more than a dozen bullets on a rat.

Since he was in a rush, he did not place additional supplies in the jeep. His tactical machine pistol originally only had 30 bullets. He only had slightly over a dozen bullets now.

“Don’t worry now. We have already received approval from the higher-ups. Our helicopter is already on the way. It will arrive at the coordinates in an hour and a half! You must do your best to survive.”

“Okay, I’ll do my best!” The mercenary gulped. The news of incoming rescue dispelled a little bit of his fear.

Lin Ke, who was hiding behind the wall, frowned slightly. If this is the case, I only have one and a half hours to escape. Time is running out! I need a quick battle! 3

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