Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 100 The Horrifying Moss Factory

Meanwhile, the darkness of night enveloped the area surrounding the Morse factory.

A brown leather boot landed silently on the concrete ground outside the Moss factory. The owner of the boot moved lightly and nimbly, making almost no sound.

Immediately afterwards, the other foot lightly touched the ground, completing a perfect fall as it scaled the factory's high wall.

The newcomer was dressed in a dark hunting outfit that allowed for easy movement, with a bulky old-fashioned box camera hanging around his neck. As he landed, he quickly shrank into the shadows against the wall, cautiously looking around.

The air was thick with the usual smell of machine oil and coal smoke from the machine factory, and a low, rhythmic hum of machinery could be faintly heard from the direction of the main factory building in the distance. The eerie silence only made her heart pound.

Surprisingly, there were no patrolling security guards or night watch personnel in sight.

"Squeak..." A few faint, almost inaudible squeaking sounds drifted from afar. Janna's heart clenched suddenly; she held her breath and pressed her body against the cold wall.

A few gray figures scurried back.

The sentinel rats, having followed Lu Ran in and out, happened to return to the core area and inadvertently missed the opportunity to capture her scaling the wall.

Janna watched the little ones closely and took a deep breath.

"Just as rumored, the entire factory is infested with rats?"

She wasn't sure if these little guys were related to the rumored man-eating rats, but she didn't dare to disturb them. Instead, she carefully avoided them, crouching down and using the shadows of the large equipment and stacks of raw material boxes as cover, and quickly sneaked into the main plant.

"Is there really no one here?" Janna became more and more puzzled as she walked. This factory was so big, and it was brightly lit, but all she could hear was the sound of machines; she couldn't see a single person moving around.

She continued cautiously into the depths, still puzzled.

Just as she was a few steps away from the main factory’s huge iron gate, a dense, rustling sound, like a surging tide, came from the open space in front of her.

Jenna's heart skipped a beat. She held her breath, pressed herself against the cold metal equipment, and cautiously peered toward the source of the sound.

The next moment, the scene before her eyes struck her like a thunderbolt, and her blood seemed to freeze.

The empty field wasn't filled with machines or human night shift workers changing shifts; instead, it was teeming with a terrifying number of gray squirrels!

They are continuously emerging from multiple wellheads and ventilation openings on the ground, like well-trained soldiers, rushing quickly and orderly to their respective workstations.

With clear goals and mutual support, we are well-informed!
Jenna's heart pounded, and her hands trembled uncontrollably.

"There really are man-eating rats... Morse Factory, Sherlock... Big news!"

What surprised her even more was the rats' next action—several sturdy gray rats were working together to pedal the huge pedal of the steam press, accompanied by a muffled thud and a burst of sparks.

Several smaller groups of mice were operating the knobs of precision instruments by building mouse ladders, while others were pushing carts to move parts, or running to the supply point to eat corn kernels to replenish their energy...

"It's unbelievable... It's not just one or two, but a terrifying, growing civilization of cannibalistic rats!"

Janna murmured in a low voice, but the next moment her heart was instantly overwhelmed by an even stronger professional excitement.

Her palms were slippery from the sweat, but she still instinctively raised the heavy camera in front of her chest with an almost pious gesture, the cold metal frame pressed against the tip of her nose.

The camera trembled as it moved, locking onto the moment the massive rat stepped on the ramming pedal—the perfect composition!

"Jenna, you're a genius!"

A crisp "snap!"

A burst of white light suddenly erupted! The uncontrollable flash of the old camera shone like a miniature sun in the dimly lit factory!
"squeak--?!"

"Who's there?!"

The entire world, which had been immersed in work fervor, suddenly froze! Thousands upon thousands of pairs of dark, cold, beady eyes turned simultaneously toward the direction of the burst of intense light!
After a brief moment of deathly silence, the entire factory area erupted in chaos!

"Squeak squeak squeak—! There's an intruder!!"

"Grab her! Squeak—!" "Surround her! Don't let her get away!!!"

"Who was on duty? And how were they let in?"

The recent sharp alarm from the sentinel rats shattered the silence, and then the entire factory area was thrown into complete chaos!

The next moment, the gray-brown wave suddenly changed direction, no longer rushing towards the machine, but surging in from the center of Jenna's location!
The dense rustling sound of claws stomping across the cold cement floor and metal steps blended together into a frenzied, hair-raising surge!

"It can talk?!"

Jenna's face turned pale; nothing could evoke humanity's most primal fears more than this.

"run!"

The instinct for survival overwhelmed all thought; Janna disregarded everything else, turned around, and ran away!
She stumbled and knocked over an empty raw material bucket at her feet. The metal bucket rolled to the side with a clang, and she almost tripped over the parts scattered on the ground. Ignoring her sprained ankle, she gritted her teeth and ran towards the factory exit.

However, the suffocating "rustling...squeaking...roaring..." sound behind him was like a leech, not only not moving away, but becoming clearer and closer!
She could even feel the shadows swaying, and countless tiny eyes, gleaming with menacing light, seemed to be spying on her from every corner.

She stumbled around a corner piled high with raw materials, trying to find an exit or a gap to rush out. But the moment she stopped, she froze completely, overwhelmed by a profound despair that washed over her like icy seawater.

Ahead, behind, left, right, all passages, all gaps... within sight.

In front of me was a gray wall, and behind me was a gray sea.

Thousands of cold, black, beady eyes focused on her, staring at her silently.

Having already formed the preconceived notion that these were a group of man-eating rats, Jenna was now utterly despondent.

"It's over."

She closed her eyes in despair, already imagining the scene of the rats crawling all over her and frantically biting her.

An overwhelming sense of fear washed over her like icy seawater. Her mind was a mess, and her ears were filled with the pounding of her own heart.

"No...don't eat me..." An unconscious murmur escaped her throat, barely audible even to herself. Instinctively, she clutched the heavy, old-fashioned camera tightly to her chest and curled up on the ground.

Then, low sobs began. She tried desperately to hold them back, her body heaving violently from the suppressed emotions, her shoulders shaking helplessly. But fear had already shattered all her dignity and composure as a journalist and an adult.

The image of rats climbing onto her body, crawling into her collar, and gnawing at her flesh played repeatedly in her mind.

"Waaah..." The sobbing gradually grew louder.

"I'm sorry... let me go... I didn't mean to... I was just taking a picture..."

……

After crying for a long time, the expected swarm of rats crawling all over her body did not appear. Instead, there were rustling sounds of communication.

Jenna stopped sobbing, cautiously opened one eye, and froze.

The rats simply stood around without doing anything else, and even started whispering to each other.

"Why is she crying, squeak~"

"So noisy, so noisy, squeak, this person is so noisy."

"Squeak~ What should I do? Humans have seen me. Have they called for the boss?"

"They're shouting! They're shouting!"

"What is this person saying about eating her? Who wants to eat her?" A round, chubby mouse, holding a nut it hadn't finished eating, pointed at itself blankly.

"I?"

(End of this chapter)