Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 4 Why did this woman kill someone?
The faint light from the window vaguely illuminated the outlines of two figures. The blonde woman had somehow removed her cheap necklace, which was now tightly gripping Langdon's neck while she continued to curse.

"You've had such good luck that you've lost your mind. You have so much money, how many days can you squander it like this? And you want to sleep with someone? Sleep with your mother my ass. You might as well give it to me and do something good."

The blonde woman cursed and slammed her knee into Langdon's lower back with all her might.

Although Langdon was a strong dockworker, he was drunk and attacked, so he could only flail his limbs wildly. His joints collided with the floor and cabinets, making loud noises, which were especially noticeable in the hotel at night. As his struggles weakened, he was caught off guard by the blonde woman's sudden outburst.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The wooden door was smashed with a deafening sound, and wood chips fell to the ground.

"What the hell is going on in there?!" The hotel owner's gruff voice echoed through the hallway like a broken gong.

"It's alright, it's alright." The blonde woman's fingers tightened around the necklace, and Langdon's breath turned into a gurgling sound like a broken bellows. Realizing that the thing in her hand had completely stopped breathing, she quickly and carefully dragged it to the floor inside the room, then returned to the doorway to compose herself and apologize with an embarrassed look on her face.

"That bastard drank too much and made a lot of noise. I'll tell him to be careful."

Lu Ran remained under the bed, blinking his beady black eyes, his heart pounding as he looked at the corpse so close to him.

"You really killed him?"

His mind raced, and he stole a glance at the blonde woman still crouching behind the door. Using the corner of the wall as cover, he quickly climbed onto Langdon and began searching.

Lu Ran needed to confirm the coin matter first before he could submit the commission. His goal was to get the final payment to unlock the new system function. As for whether other people died or not, it didn't matter to him much.

He searched through his chest, shirt, pants... one by one.

"If you fucking mess around again, I'll throw you both into the Manchester River to feed the fish!" The door knocker rattled loudly, and the iron chain on the inside of the door panel trembled like a silver thread. The shop owner peeked out from the crack to warn them.

"Yes, yes, definitely."

The blonde woman apologized in a coquettish manner. After closing the door, she pressed her ear against the door panel and heard the sound of her boss shuffling away in his slippers down the corridor. Only then did she slump to the ground with a sigh of relief.

"I'm exhausted."

"found it!"

Lu Ran searched his entire body before finally finding the coin in the inside pocket of Langdon's shirt. It looked quite precious. Examining the coin's design, which was exactly the same as the sketch, Lu Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief and was about to put everything back the way it was when a murmur suddenly sounded in his ear.

"Try making a wish."

"What the hell!"

Lu Ran was so startled that her hand trembled and she almost threw the coin away. The moment she looked at it again, she repeated the murmur in her ear.

"Try making a wish."

Lu Ran's heart pounded wildly, and when he heard the woman get up from the ground again, he had no time to think.

"Damn it, take it with you first."

The blonde woman killed someone tonight and will definitely run away with the money. If Lu Ran waits until tomorrow to tell her that the coin toss is on the blonde woman, it might not be enough time.

Lu Ran comforted himself with an excuse, stuffing the coins into his mouth and hiding them in his cheeks. He then turned around, took half of the thick stack of gold pounds from Langdon's wallet, rolled it up, and hugged it to his chest. He put the rest back in its original place to avoid arousing the blonde woman's suspicion. Under the cover of darkness, he quickly ran back to the corner under the bed and hid there.

The next moment, a pair of feet stepped in, one after the other.

The blonde woman seemed to have excellent composure, showing no sign of fear after killing someone. Instead, she calmly sat down next to Langdon's body and took out a cigarette to smoke.

A flicker of light appeared in the dark room, then quickly went out. After a few seconds of pause, a sigh of relief escaped.

"It's a pity that the fat sheep delivered itself to our door has to be moved to another place."

Another change of location?

Lu Ran raised an eyebrow. Why did this guy look like a serial killer who had escaped from somewhere else?
As he was pondering, the air suddenly became quiet. The next moment, the blonde woman suddenly leaned down and approached the bed. The cheap jasmine scent from her hair wafted onto Lu Ran's face. All he could see were a pair of eyes heavily made up with smoky eye makeup, scanning the area under the bed.

"Is it just my imagination?" The blonde woman's fierce expression softened, replaced by suspicion. "Why does it feel like there's someone else in the room?"

Lu Ran huddled in the shadows under the bed, concealing himself with his gray fur and small figure, which blended seamlessly with the darkness, no longer daring to observe the other person.

This intuition was a bit alarming. Perhaps feeling uneasy, the blonde woman quickly began searching for Langdon's money, muttering under her breath, "How come there's so little?" "What a loss." Then, seemingly still not satisfied, she kicked Langdon's corpse a few times before packing her things and running away. Instead of using the front door, she jumped out of the second-floor window and left.

"gone?"

The open window swayed slightly in the wind. Lu Ran hesitated for a moment, and some movie clips he had seen in his previous life inexplicably flashed through his mind. He couldn't help but imagine a blonde woman hiding outside the window, waiting for him.

Are you trying to scam me?

"Never mind, let's wait a bit longer."

Lu Ran patiently observed that the other party was clearly not a novice who acted on impulse. Facing such an experienced murderer, he might have left many flaws in his hasty actions. It was only because a normal person would not think of the enemy as a gray rat that he was safe. He dared not gamble on whether the other party had any hidden tricks, and he did not even dare to make any unnecessary movements to leave the bed to observe.

Lu Ran remained hidden in the corner under the bed until dawn. When the hotel owner knocked on the door to ask if he could extend his stay but received no response, and then forced the door open, saw the body, rushed out, and called the police, Lu Ran quickly slipped out from under the bed and climbed out the window.

If this woman really waits until the body is discovered before leaving, Lu Ran will accept it.

Claws gripped the rough wall as he descended, landing quickly. He found the nearest sewer and crawled inside. After a short rest, he continued his relentless run until he successfully returned to the office. Only then did he collapse to the ground, panting heavily. He was then jolted awake by his enormous haul and sat up abruptly.

"Get rich!"

Lu Ran was in high spirits. He first spat out the balance coin from his mouth, then unfolded the rolled-up gold pound banknotes. There were three denominations: 10, 5, and 1. He counted and found a total of eighty-seven gold pounds. Just as Lu Ran was about to examine the coins, his eyes suddenly began to search for the glutton's whereabouts in the room—this guy hadn't come over immediately after he returned for so long, which was unusual.

"Foodie, foodie?"

Lu Ran called out several times before finally managing to wake the glutton who was sleeping behind the machine. However, the guy's expression was somewhat different from usual, especially when he looked up at Lu Ran, which clearly had a different look in his eyes.

Lu Ran was taken aback and quickly opened the system, only to find that it had changed drastically.

——System Panel——

Lord: Lu Ran

Race: Rat
People: 356/500
Happiness level: Good
领地天赋：群体智慧lv3（智力+3）、群体体质lv1（力量+1、敏捷+1）

Inspiration: Not yet set (estimated cost: 0)

Faith: Not unlocked (can be unlocked by interacting with miracles)

Wealth: £107 (excluding units below the gold pound)
"I really leveled up!" Lu Ran excitedly pumped his fist, then checked the requirements for the next level up.

The next upgrade of Collective Intelligence to level 4 requires a contaminated relic. Lu Ran doesn't know what it is, so he'll skip it for now. Collective Physique level 2 requires a cumulative wealth of 200 gold pounds.

"However, what does 'not yet set' mean?"

Lu Ran paused, examining the new function from all sides. He discovered that it seemed possible to enter text. In a flash of inspiration, he tentatively entered "gunpowder".

Inspiration: Gunpowder (Whether gunpowder is determined as the direction of inspiration requires Collective Wisdom level 3, and a total cost of 100 gold pounds. If the wealth is insufficient, the inspiration will stop automatically.)

[Note: Information on relevant items can be provided to accelerate the enlightenment process and reduce gold pound consumption.]

Lu Ran's eyes lit up: "No."

The number is less than expected, possibly because this is only the most basic introduction to gunpowder, and it is far from the development of subsequent firearms.

Inspiration: Nuclear Weapons (Whether nuclear weapons are determined as the direction of inspiration requires Collective Intelligence level 7 and a total cost of 9999999999 gold pounds. If the conditions are not met, inspiration cannot be initiated.)

"It really works?" Lu Ran swallowed hard. Although the conditions were not ideal, it wasn't a complete loss of hope. "No."

Does that mean anything is acceptable?
A strange and audacious idea popped into my mind.

Enlightenment: Magic (Whether magic is the direction of enlightenment requires Collective Wisdom level 4 and a total cost of 500 gold pounds. If the conditions are not met, enlightenment cannot be achieved.)

Lu Ran paused, his eyes widening, and after a long pause, he finally managed to utter a sentence.

"Grass!"

(End of this chapter)