Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 59 The Melancholy of Afra

With the mission accomplished, Lu Ran had managed to salvage the friendship.

Besides, he had a ton of things to deal with—especially the Luddite organization that Sheriff Edwin had mentioned. If it grew in size and started causing trouble, his factory would inevitably be caught in the crossfire. So, he grabbed the documents and hurriedly slipped out.

Back to the stone house.

He had already skimmed through the document while Afra was writing it; many parts even contained annotations and his own analysis. Therefore, now that he was back in his territory, he could immediately begin assigning tasks.

……

Beneath the stone house, above the main passageway that has already been excavated, tungsten filament bulbs strung on exposed electrical wires flickered with a steady yellow light, illuminating the busy scene.

After searching briefly inside without finding One-Ear, Lu Ran figured it wasn't a big deal and decided to handle it himself.

So he stood at the entrance to the first floor of the territory, gathered his strength, and shouted loudly.

"All scout rats, stand at my command!"

The next moment, the entire bustling territory fell into a brief silence.

As soon as the first scout mouse noticed that it was the lord speaking, a slightly shrill voice immediately shouted: "Squeak—Attention, all of you, listen to the lord's command!!"

The sound, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, reverberated through the network of underground passages.

The second mouse, munching on nuts, jumped at the sound, immediately turning its furry head and, its chest heaving, shouting even louder towards the deeper fork in the road behind it: "Squeak—Attention, everyone!! Follow orders!!"

The sound collided, bounced, converged, and then dispersed between the stone walls.

The third, the fourth... countless fluffy gray figures in the passage were instantly activated! They either looked up from their digging work or put down the fruits they were carrying, nimbly searching for the source of the sound and becoming new megaphones.

One sound followed another, rising and falling, growing louder and more urgent:

"Squeak squeak squeak—Everyone assemble!!"

"Squeak—!! Command!!"

"Squeak—Hurry! Hurry!!"

The initial clear instructions gradually became blurred in the relay of countless mouths. Lu Ran watched helplessly as what he had only intended to call for a group of scout rats turned into an entire horde of rats from the territory rushing over.

"I rely on!"

Lu Ran squeezed in with difficulty, shouting loudly as he went.

"Just focus on detecting the mice, everything else is normal!"

"Squeak! Normal work!" The mice have started making noises again recently, one after another, creating quite a commotion, but it's finally quiet now.

"It seems like their IQ isn't quite there yet."

Lu Ran was helpless.

Perhaps the commotion was too loud, because One-Eared came rushing over soon, carrying a crossbow on his back. Judging from his appearance, he must have just returned from hunting.

"What's wrong, boss?"

Lu Ran beckoned a group of scout rats over, his gaze fixed on One-Ear.

"You've come at the right time. In a moment, select fifty clever and skilled scout mice and set off for Baker City immediately. Once there, use any mice in the vicinity to help me monitor these areas..."

Lu Ran pulled out the list he had prepared beforehand.

These are the infirmary of the Black Gold Factory, the factory manager Dane of the Black Gold Factory, the home of the Wright brothers on Copper Wire Street, and the three people from the family who tried to capture Bella.

Because so many people were involved, requiring multiple shifts of monitoring, Lu Ran repeatedly reminded each of their assigned tasks to prevent the mice from making mistakes, and to avoid overstepping their boundaries.

Those monitoring the medical clinic are tasked with confirming the people entering and leaving and the source of the medicines.

Following Factory Manager Dane was rather dangerous. Because of concerns about the involvement of supernatural beings, even though the mice's overall abilities had improved considerably, Lu Ran only informed them of his approximate route and home address, without conducting any further investigation to avoid alerting him.

Regarding the Wright brothers, Lu Ran, seeing their father's condition and hatred of industrialization, suspected they might have been contacted by the so-called General Lud's group. As for that last group, Lu Ran felt they had already made contact with the so-called Lud organization and needed to closely monitor their every move and contact, especially during the high-probability nighttime operations, where they could be doubled in their surveillance.

"Squeak! Understood!"

Because space is limited within the main territory, most of the mice have also built branch territories in several locations within Baker City.

Once these fifty elite rats are dispatched, they will then mobilize local rats in Baker City to act in small teams. At that time, the total number of mission units will reach 500, which can be said to be the largest operation scale in the territory so far.

If this were a territory that hadn't previously increased its rat population cap, it might not have been able to afford it.

"I should arrive tomorrow. Those of you who arrive first and confirm the task can start. If there are still any details you don't understand, please wait until I arrive and ask me. Don't be presumptuous."

After explaining the arrangements for the rat, Lu Ran first sent a message to Sheriff Edwin, asking him to use his police status to help look up some relevant personnel information. Then he began to meditate and cultivate, planning to rest well today and ride Bella to Baker City tomorrow.

The investigators inevitably used aliases to extract information, but with his current mental strength, he could only maintain that for a short time.

……

The next day.

Having recovered his strength, Lu Ran clearly felt a slight change in his mental power. However, he couldn't expect any explosive growth in just one night, so he could only pack up and prepare to go out.

As soon as Lu Ran stood up from the blanket, he stretched and yawned. Before he had taken two steps, he spotted Afra, who had dark circles under her eyes and was full of resentment.

Didn't sleep all night?

Lu Ran meditated for the first half of the night, and then fell asleep due to exhaustion in the second half, without paying attention to these things.

It probably isn't because of what happened yesterday.

Lu Ran scratched his head, thought for a moment, and decided to just smile and say hello.

The result is the next moment.

"Traitorous Rat! Did you call people over while I was taking a shower?!"

Lu Ran's eyes widened as he saw Afra charging menacingly towards him, which startled him so much that he darted out of the house.

Upon spotting Bella, he hurriedly approached her.

"Run! That two-legged creature is coming to beat you up!"

Bella was startled and instinctively turned around to look. Seeing Afra's appearance, she was so frightened that she dropped the bone she was gnawing on and ran outside as fast as she could: "Woof? Why did you hit me! I've been super well-behaved lately!"

"How am I supposed to know? You can't just beat me up, can you?" Lu Ran pounced and grabbed the guy's tail, then climbed onto its back by the fur on its body, asking indignantly.

"Think about it! She's never hit me! How could someone as small as me make her angry? So, by process of elimination, it must be your problem."

Bella started to get anxious as she ran, and began to sob and whimper.

"I'm innocent... All I did recently was damage a flower bed, steal some smoked meat from the drying rack, and leak a little urine on the new blanket... How did she find out all of that?!"

Lu Ran was startled, and his pair of dark eyes gradually widened.

"You mean... you peed on the blanket?"

Bella nodded smugly: "Of course."

"No wonder I smelled like this when I slept on it!" Lu Ran was furious and reached out to grab the stupid dog by the neck.

"Die to me!"

ooh ooh-

Bella screamed and ran for her life, arriving in Baker City much faster than before.

　Thank you Zhou Xi for the 500 coins!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)