Eagle tried to get up and put some distance between himself and Black Rat, but the previous battle had exhausted all his strength. Before he could even stand, he collapsed back onto his knees.
Black Rat didn't hesitate for a second. With a twist of his body, the military bayonet in his hand flashed with a cold light, slicing across the throat of the kneeling, gasping Eagle.
Warm blood sprayed out. Eagle clutched his neck, making a gurgling sound in his throat. His eyes were filled with rage and disbelief before he finally slumped to the ground.
Finally, Black Rat walked over to the captain, Rock Wall, who was lying flat on his back.
At this moment, Rock Wall had only a sliver of consciousness left. Sensing the approach of death, he struggled to roll his eyes and look at Black Rat’s scar-covered face.
His gaze was somewhat vacant, as if he were looking through Black Rat at Su Wan, who stood not far away.
His lips moved, and black blood continued to pour out, but he let out a low, raspy, and eerie laugh.
“Hehehe... good kill... kill them all clean...”
His eyes were unfocused, yet they held a concentrated malice and an unspeakable mockery.
“You... commoners... cockroaches hiding in dark corners...”
“You think... it’s... over?”
He stared fixedly in Su Wan’s direction, using his last ounce of strength to spit out clear but venomous words.
“Hehehe... just wait... you will all... die... ten times... a hundred times worse than me...”
Before he could finish, the light in his eyes vanished completely, and the strange smile on his lips froze on his face.
Black Rat was unsettled by the man's final expression and words, feeling a faint sense of unease. Shaking off the strange feeling in his heart, he crouched down and began to skillfully loot everything from the three men.
Energy firearms, daggers, tactical backpacks, multi-purpose belts, and that damaged badge...
He specifically noticed a flat scar on the inside of each of their wrists, looking as if a chip had been injected. It was very inconspicuous.
Based on Black Rat's experience, he knew this was likely some kind of identification chip, which was common in large organizations, so he didn't pay it much mind.
Black Rat stripped everything off the three men that could potentially have identification or tracking functions, including their combat suits.
He strictly followed Su Wan’s instructions, striving to leave no obvious traces pointing back to the Terminal Station.
However, neither Black Rat nor Su Wan inside the gate knew that the Panshi Exploration Company had monitoring methods far beyond ordinary tracking for teams venturing deep into dangerous zones.
What was implanted under the skin was not a simple identity chip, but a recorder of life activity and environment that combined biological signals with faint energy sensing.
Its function was not just for positioning and identification.
While the team member was alive, it would continuously record and store encrypted basic physiological data, the intensity spectrum of energy reactions encountered, and the acoustic/vibrational characteristics of the surrounding environment at extremely low power consumption.
The moment the host’s life signs completely vanished, the device would activate its final emergency protocol.
It would take the encrypted data packet stored up until the final moment of death and send it via an extremely specialized energy pulse toward a preset company receiving node!
From the moment these three members encountered the Rock-Piercing Earth Dragon variant, to their flight to the gates of the Terminal Station, their negotiations with Su Wan, their battle with the monster, and finally being killed in a sneak attack by Black Rat...
The environmental energy characteristics, key audio clips—including their dialogue and gunshots—and the violent fluctuations of their final moments of life...
All this data had already transformed into three invisible streams of information at the moment of their deaths, silently crossing the ruins toward a distant and mysterious destination.
...
Black Rat nimbly dragged the three corpses to a nearby depression and pulled a half-bottle of pungent corrosive liquid from his backpack, carefully pouring it over the bodies and bloodstains.
The corpses immediately began to hiss and sizzle, eventually dissolving into a puddle of yellow liquid.
Having finished with the bodies of the exploration team, Black Rat’s gaze fell upon the massive corpse of the Rock-Piercing Earth Dragon variant not far away.
This Rock-Piercing Earth Dragon was a variant, barely qualifying as a Level 2 Aberrant.
A creature like this was a body full of treasures; it couldn't be wasted.
He once again showed his prowess as a seasoned hunter, enduring the pungent stench as he began a careful dissection.
First was the Crystal Core.
He carefully inserted his knife behind the monster’s relatively vulnerable skull, peeling back the thick muscle and fascia to pull out a fist-sized Crystal Core.
The Crystal Core was irregularly shaped, emitting a mixed glow of earth-yellow and dark gold. Energy flowed within the crystal, and it felt slightly warm to the touch.
This was clearly a high-quality Energy Crystal Core, far superior to the fragments found in the brains of ordinary Rot-Walkers.
Next were the pairs of incredibly sharp, pitch-black bone blades.
He labored to detach them from the monster's joints. Each one was over two meters long, exceptionally heavy, and the edges were so sharp they seemed to cut through the air.
These were top-tier materials for crafting high-grade melee weapons or specialized tools.
He also peeled off pieces of the monster’s relatively intact, metallic-lustered carapace one by one. This carapace had incredible defensive power and was excellent material for making armor or reinforcing facilities.
Black Rat didn't even pass up the spiral-shaped sharp teeth from the monster’s mouthparts or certain glandular tissues that might contain special biological enzymes or hormones, carefully wrapping them in the anti-corrosion oil paper he carried.
Black Rat piled all the items in categories on the open ground in front of Su Wan.
“Landlord, everything has been handled cleanly. These are all the valuable items,” Black Rat said with a bow, though his eyes couldn't help but linger on the three sets of dark gray combat suits, his throat bobbing involuntarily.
Su Wan glanced at the small mountain of loot, especially the energy-rich Crystal Core and the menacing bone blades, feeling satisfied. This wave of “unexpected harvest” was quite valuable.
Noticing Black Rat’s gaze, Su Wan also looked at the three sets of combat suits.
She had been wondering earlier: the Death Tide had just receded, yet these three had come running out from deep within the Non-Safe Zone, meaning they were likely in the Non-Safe Zone during the Death Tide.
How had they resisted the lethal erosion of the Death Tide in such a desperate environment?
Abilities alone probably weren't enough.
Reading her expression, Black Rat immediately seized the opportunity and said with ill-concealed longing, “Landlord, these three Panshi-III exploration suits... they are true treasures!”
“Look at this fabric. It’s woven by specialized factories in the Inner City using old-era polymer materials and corrosion-resistant alloy wire. It’s thin but incredibly tough, providing excellent isolation and protection against Death Tide mist, moderate radioactive dust, and even the acidic fluids of some Aberrants! And the breathability is great!”
Rate on N.U.
