Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 51 The Mystery of the Mouse's Time Travel (Please continue reading, thank you!)

Lu Ran woke up again when Bella, who couldn't wait any longer, licked him awake.

"I'm hungry, I'm hungry, don't sleep, don't sleep."

Lu Ran opened his eyes groggily. His once fluffy mouse fur had been licked so much that it looked like he had just given birth. He felt a sticky, heavy sensation all over his body, like he was being paralyzed by a ghost. When he realized what this was, he jumped up from the ground in a flash.

"Bella, you're doomed!"

With a dark expression, Lu Ran punched the stupid dog in the head with an uppercut. The dog was thick-skinned, just sticking out its tongue and grinning excitedly. Lu Ran could only look around to find a place to rinse off first. Soon his eyes locked onto a public well not far away.

Thick, slippery moss covered the stone bricks of the well wall, and rough hemp rope was wrapped around the creaking windlass. A woman wearing a patched, faded apron was hunched over, vigorously scrubbing the last few equally dusty clothes by the stone trough.

She twisted the fabric with her large, bony fingers, and the black water she wrung out dripped from the grooves of the stone trough into a small, dark ditch on the ground.

After the clothes were completely washed, the woman drew a bucket of clear well water and soaked them twice, until the water was still clear after soaking. Then she wrung them out and poured them out, looking somewhat tired, and left with her wicker basket.

Lu Ran waited until the other person left before darting to the sink.

Because the sewage in front had been washed away, there was still a small puddle of clear, clean well water at the bottom of the trough. He plunged in without hesitation and rolled around in it a few times until the sticky, slippery saliva was finally covered by the cold water. Then he suddenly shivered violently, braced himself on all fours, and tried to shake his wet fur.

Shaking off the water droplets, he turned his head to find Bella to settle the score, but saw a familiar figure first.

"Sheriff Edwin?"

Lu Ran looked at the slightly chubby figure with some surprise. It was a familiar face he hadn't seen for a while. Unlike the patrol officers he had encountered before, who were wearing dark blue uniforms and tearing down posters and roughly driving people away, Chief Edwin was wearing a more low-key casual uniform this time.

However, because his physical characteristics were quite obvious, Lu Ran could still recognize him at a glance, even though he had only seen him a few times before.

I wonder what case this guy has been busy with lately, and the hamster he kept by his side hasn't sent any messages either.

Oh, and the hamster that stayed by my side.

With this thought in mind, Lu Ran squinted and carefully observed several hidden spots behind Sheriff Edwin. He quickly spotted a sneaky-looking mouse, greeted Bella, and then pushed off with his hind legs to approach the mouse.

"Squeak...Who's there!"

The rat was unusually wary. Before Lu Ran could get close, it suddenly rolled away to create distance, its back arched and its claws pointed out menacingly, assuming a rather intimidating attack stance. Only after seeing that it was Lu Ran did it change to a look of surprise and delight.

"Lord Lord!"

"Talking as we walk."

Lu Ran made a downward pressing gesture and then asked.

"You're the mouse who's supposed to stay by Edwin's side? Do you even know why he's here?"

The tracking mouse scratched its chin, trying to recall, "Squeak, sir, the sheriff... um, seems to be investigating a very, very secret organization."

After pausing, he analyzed it according to his own understanding.

"Then this sheriff seems to be in trouble lately. I followed him and found out that he had also tried to find some detectives, but I don't know if it will be effective. I plan to observe for a few more days and report this information after I confirm it."

"Thanks a lot."

Lu Ran seemed to understand something upon hearing this; it was indeed a coincidence.

However, even from just this short clip, it's clear that the tracking mouse doesn't know much information.

After all, even among the mice that share inspiration and collective talent enhancement, there are vast differences in individual talents and professional skills, and not everyone can meet Lu Ran's ideal requirements.

Even with just fragmented information, Lu Ran could easily guess that this matter was probably related to the Abundance Sanctuary.

Want to try a divination?
Since learning divination magic, Lu Ran always felt that he might as well make use of it, so he closed his eyes, gradually sketched out the runes in his mind in order, and then began to ask questions.

"Is this related to abundance... Ah!"

Before Lu Ran could even finish uttering the word "abundance," his mind felt as if it had been struck by a cold, massive bronze hammer that hadn't moved for millions of years! "..."

It wasn't a loud bang, but a momentary loss of voice!
In that instant, all of Lu Ran's senses and consciousness were frozen by this silent, heavy blow from the spiritual level, and the runes that he had just sketched in his mind were instantly torn apart by this indescribable power.

"Yes."

A vague divination result suddenly appeared in my mind, but as that enormous force gradually crushed the ritual, the smell of death drew near.

Lu Ran has realized how stupid he has been.

Perhaps because American Iaijutsu easily resolved the extraordinary aspects of this world, he lost his awe of this power, and he actually chose the entire Church of Abundance, a complete church that is said to have a God, as the target of his divination.

Unable to utter a sound, they could only silently await the annihilation of their consciousness, essentially paying the price of their entire life for divination.

……

……

Approaching death didn't seem as terrifying or stressful as I'd imagined; after all, I'd already lived another life. It was just a bit of a regret that I hadn't witnessed the true wonder of this world's extraordinary beings.

The written description is a bit lengthy, more like bullet time, but in reality, all of this happens in the blink of an eye.

Just when Lu Ran thought his game as a lord in this life was over and was preparing to accept death calmly.

The next moment, a burst of green light suddenly appeared in my mind.

hum-

It was neither forceful nor domineering, but it protected Lu Ran's consciousness just right. The two forces competed, rubbed, and collided with each other, and for a moment they were deadlocked.

"Ok?"

Lu Ran looked completely bewildered.

"what's the situation."

He couldn't participate in the unexpected situation before him. Even in his own mind, he could only watch silently as an audience. The two forces confronted each other for a while before the terrifying force gradually weakened and dissipated.

"Did the system help me?"

Lu Ran was somewhat uncertain, but the next moment a memory fragment appeared—

Lu Ran saw Anthony, as well as other unfamiliar faces surrounding him. He seemed to be in a dimly lit secret room where the floor was chiseled with crisscrossing grooves, two fingers deep and wide, forming a matrix of runes that no one could decipher.

"Self" was seated on a stone pedestal in the very center, surrounded by a constellation of stars, with obscure and incomprehensible patterns carved on the ground around him. The people around him moved their lips, but it was impossible to hear what they were saying.

Then the scene flashed, and a huge energy explosion occurred, and "I" was blasted away as a green light.

A cat saw it and nudged it a couple of times, then a crow pecked at it, and then a dog saw it and chased after it relentlessly…

The green light shot through the sewer and finally burrowed into the body of a dying gray rat.

……

Lu Ran opened his eyes, his face blank.

"So that perspective we've always longed for is the Seed of Abundance?"

"What the hell."

"Then how did I come to be? I couldn't have just happened to choose a body with this seed, could I?"

(End of this chapter)