Chapter 41: Jumped by Rats!

He took one step, then another, but hadn’t even made it five feet when...

SCREEEEEECHHHHH!

An ear-piercing screech tore through the entire Wasteland, and Declan’s face instantly went pale.

He knew that sound.

Radiorats were feared for one particular reason, and that was that if you find one, then there’s probably a hundred nearby.

And just as Declan feared...

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

Every trash heap around him suddenly began shaking.

Declan didn’t waste a single second.

WHOOSH!

The air around his body violently shifted as he shot forward, his figure rapidly disappearing into the distance.

He had choosen to run!

[Should’ve left when your bag got filled. Tsk, greedy bastard!]

The system cursed, and Declan’s brow twitched.

WHIIIIISTLLLLEEE!

A sharp whistling sound suddenly came from behind him, and Declan instinctively tilted his head.

A spinning metal blade narrowly passed his skull.

"Hey! Watch it!"

He screamed while looking over his shoulder.

The sight behind him made his already pale face became even paler.

Countless crimson eyes filled the darkness behind him, forming a sea of glowing red.

"Wait, wait..."

Declan’s expression stiffened.

"What the hell are they looking at!?"

The rats weren’t actually aiming their glowing eyes at his face.

His gaze slowly dropped, and he froze.

The crimson illumination was focused directly on...

His butt!

[I think they want fair. An eye for an eye.]

The system teased.

Sweat immediately poured down Declan’s face.

He didn’t even realize when his body dropped lower, and his legs pushed faster against the ground.

BOOOOM!

Declan exploded forward, his speed doubling instantly as he tore through the Wasteland.

Scraps of metal and pieces of trash flew everywhere, yet Declan somehow seemed to possess a sixth sense.

He ducked.

Slid.

Jumped.

Twisted.

Every attack passed within inches of him.

A Radiorat suddenly caught up from the side, its razor-sharp claws reaching toward his face.

PUCCHIII!

Declan’s hand shot forward like a spear, his fingers piercing straight through the rat’s neck.

The force of the strike sent the creature flying away.

Declan didn’t stop, not even for a second as more rats leaped toward him from every direction, only to meet the same fate.

One after another, his precise strikes pierced their necks and sent them tumbling away.

But the real hell began when Declan finally reached the wall.

It was far too tall, and the rats were still swarming him.

There was no way he could simply run over it.

He had to climb. No, he had to jump.

And judging by the way the rats suddenly became more frantic, they knew it too.

Their attacks changed, now focused on slowing him down to stop him from reaching the top.

Rats swarmed him from every direction, turning the space around Declan into a storm of claws, teeth, and metal.

"Tsk! In y’ll fucking dreams I’m staying here!"

A rat slammed directly into his face, its claws ripping several strips of flesh from Declan’s cheek.

Declan retaliated immediately, his finger stabbing into the creature’s eye too.

The rat shrieked in pain and Declan flung it away, sending it crashing into another.

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

Three explosions of dirt erupted beneath Declan as he jumped forward, backward, then sideways, avoiding an entire group of rats that had coordinated their attacks.

Then he took one final step.

KABOOOM!

The ground exploded as Declan launched himself upward with everything he had.

Twenty-one meters.

That was how high pure adrenaline and desperation carried him.

His body slammed onto the wall, but he wasn’t safe.

The rats had claws, and they immediately began climbing after him.

One latched onto his leg, and Declan kicked downward.

BANG!

The rat’s head was crushed beneath his heel, and its body tumbled down into the swarm below.

Declan’s fingers dug into the wall as he pulled himself upward, his entire body screamed from the strain.

It was incredible what the human body could accomplish when death was directly behind it.

Several times, his grip nearly failed, and he almost slipped but he refused to fall.

The rats tore his jeans until they resembled shorts, while blood dripped from his fingers from how violently he had dug them into the wall.

Still, Declan kept climbing for 60 seconds.

A minute of fighting for his life on the side of the wall before his hand finally reached the top.

He pulled himself over the edge, and then immediately jumped down.

BANG!

His face slammed into the ground on the other side, and Declan remained there for a moment.

Then he slowly lifted his swollen face from the dirt, and looked up.

The rats were lined up along the top of the wall, every single one glaring down at him with furious crimson eyes.

Yet none crossed over.

For some reason, they refused to enter the academy grounds.

Declan stared at them, then grinned.

"Yeah, yeah. Y’all scared, like the pussies ya all are, ain’t ya?"

The rats continued glaring.

Declan tilted his head.

"No?"

His middle finger slowly rose.

"Well then, come over to this side and suck my dick, you rats!"

All of sudden,

VROOOOOOM!

Declan’s head snapped sideways.

The edge of a sword-like weapon tore through the air where his skull had been a moment earlier.

"What the!?"

He spun toward the rats, and his expression froze.

Among the sea of Radiorats stood one particularly intelligent-looking bastard.

It was holding a basket filled with metallic weapons, and calmly handing them out to the others.

"SCREECHAAAA!!!"

Instantly, Declan turned and ran.

Behind him, heaps of metal, broken gadgets, and other pieces of trash came flying through the air as the enraged rats hurled whatever they could get their paws on.

Declan covered the back of his head with both arms while sprinting at full speed, then took a sharp turn into another path, finally managing to shake his pursuers.

He didn’t stop until the system panel blinked before him.

[Okay, slow down. I think you’ve lost them already.]

Only then did Declan gradually come to a halt.

At this point, he looked less like a student and more like some cursed child who had crawled out of the aftermath of a junkyard war.

His skin was covered in dirt, scratches, and hundreds of claw marks, with blood running down his body in several places while his clothes had been shredded almost beyond recognition.

His trousers had been reduced to little more than torn shorts, and even his boxers were barely holding together.

His cap was gone to God knew where, while the hoodie barely reached above his navel.

His face was so swollen that he was almost unrecognizable.

Honestly, that was probably a good thing.

The students passing by on hoverboards couldn’t recognize him at all, and a few even laughed at his miserable appearance as they sped past.

Declan silently cursed them under his breath.

"Damn Radio Rats..."

Eventually, he made his way back to the elevator and returned to his dormitory corridor.

The moment the elevator doors opened, however, the last bit of color drained from his face.

Someone was leaning against the railing, her arms crossed beneath her chin as she silently gazed into the night sky.

DIIIING!

The elevator chimed.

The sound pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned around.

Her jaw immediately dropped.

"E...Declan!?"

’Talk about bad timing.’

Declan silently stepped out of the elevator, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t say anything.

He should have known better.

HAAHAHAHA!

Evie’s laughter exploded across the balcony, and it sounded almost demonic.

She nearly toppled over from laughing so hard before quickly scrambling toward him, pointing at his swollen face as another wave of laughter escaped her.

"Can you move out of the way, please?"

Declan asked flatly.

Evie took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and when she finally looked at him again, her expression became strangely tender.

"Oh no."

"You got jumped?"

Declan’s eyebrow twitched.

"Does it hurt?"

That was the final straw.

"Bitch, what part of me right now looks unhurt?"

Declan snapped.

"Oh no, you got jumped? The fuck kind of question is that?"

He gestured toward his battered body.

"Does it look like I got thrown into the air and caught by some tender arms or some shit?"

Instead of anger, Evie burst into another fit of laughter.

Then she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes moved over the numerous lacerations covering Declan’s body, and something about them seemed unusual.

Her expression changed.

"Waiiiit..."

She leaned closer.

"This... this isn’t a human attack."

Her eyes widened.

"These are...Rats!?"

Evie stared at him in disbelief.

"Waiiiit! You got jumped by rats!?"

[He did. Pathetic, ey?]

The system panel flashed, snickering at his expense.

Declan’s brow quivered, and Evie’s laughter returned with even greater intensity, echoing through the night as she laughed so hard that her legs finally gave out, causing her to collapse onto her butt.

At least she was finally off his door.

Declan silently pulled out his green card and opened the door.

"Hey, Declan, wait, I..."

BAAANG!

He stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

The moment he was out of sight, his teeth clenched as pain surged through his body.

He had been holding himself together the entire time, and now his consciousness was struggling to remain intact.

’Just make it to the bathroom.’

That was all he needed.

He stumbled toward the shower and switched it on.

Water began pouring down, but Declan didn’t even have the strength to remove the rags that remained of his clothes.

His legs gave out.

He slid down the wall and collapsed onto his back, his eyes slowly rolling shut.

Darkness swallowed his consciousness.

But immediately after...

The golden system panel flashed.

[Alert: The Host has been attacked by rats.]

[Status: Poisoned.]

[Rejuvenation Card will now be used to heal Host injuries and remove the poison.]