Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

Now, a pale blue light swirled rapidly deep within Wayne's pupils.

As an information node in the [Hive] network, the fleas monitored the activity trajectories and images of hundreds of mice. Under Wayne's control, the resulting ocean of data began to surge, separate, and settle... Scenes and images flashed before Wayne's eyes.

......

In a damp, dark street, several dirty-looking rats hurried across the street.

Occasionally, upon hearing a strange noise not far away, it would suddenly stop, raise its head, twitch its ears, and look around warily.

Once they were sure it was safe, they hurriedly left with their heads down.

They darted into another dark street, moving like a few black dots in the night.

......

In the northeast direction, the "flea" with the code "007" can be seen moving a group of rats in the city's sewers.

Dirty sewage flowed slowly in the adjacent wastewater pool, bubbling with white foam and emitting a rotten smell.

Several emaciated rats moved quickly along the slippery pipe wall, their bodies trembling slightly from the cold and tension, searching for food with empty stomachs.

......

Elsewhere, the streets were deserted, and the moonlight was pale.

A mother mouse, covered in dirt and grime, poked her head out from a hole in the collapsed wall of a house.

Once outside on the street, the mother mouse straightened her upper body, her furry paws dangling, and her nose twitching, as if searching for the scent of food.

Its black bean-like eyes warily scanned each house, whose doors and windows were tightly shut, resembling tombstones.

Finally, after determining the general direction, it crouched down and led the few young mice behind it forward.

......

In the dead of night, on a deserted, plague-stricken street, next to a pile of garbage filled with rotting vegetable leaves.

Rats, seemingly appearing from some unknown corner, scurried towards the garbage heap.

There were also some food scraps around the garbage heap.

Finally, food was found!

So the group of mice twitched their noses excitedly, their eyes gleaming with hunger, and they were about to run over with their paws down.

But, tap tap tap...

A series of dull, heavy footsteps echoed nearby.

Hearing the footsteps, the rats, who were about to scurry out for a feast, quickly hid back in the corner.

Trembling in the dark corner, his eyes filled with fear.

In their field of vision, they saw a group of cold-looking men dressed in heavy, coarse linen clothes walking from the other end of the street.

Their clothes were badly worn and covered with tiny scratches and bite marks.

He carried a mace, a net covered with thorns, a torch, and a sharp, spear-like bamboo pole with an iron end covered in blood.

A mousetrap hangs from his waist, and a large basket is carried on his back.

It contained many dead rats.

It seems that this group of guys must be the rat extermination team that Senior Holman assembled in the city.

They are constantly patrolling the city.

Furthermore, judging from the baskets they were carrying on their backs, which were filled with dead rats, they had already caught and killed many rats.

From the rats' low-angle perspective, you can see the rat exterminator's boots, covered in mud and blood, passing by.

Then, the footsteps gradually faded away, and in the pale moonlight, the shadows they cast in the street stretched longer and longer, like those of a hanged ghost.

......

"Hmm...it seems these rats are starving, and they've all come out to forage for food after nightfall..."

Now, observing the scenes unfolding before him, Wayne frowned.

These rats seem to be starving and emaciated, searching for food throughout the city.

"But... so far we haven't seen any scenes of them eating or biting people or spreading the plague."

Wayne's eyes flickered.

What I felt from these rats was a deep sense of fear.

It's quite obvious from the perspective of the [Flea].

These rats, hiding in the dark corners of the city and venturing out at night, are very anxious and fearful.

Furthermore, many of the rats trembled as they crawled.

The slightest unusual noise or commotion would startle them so much that they would stop in their tracks and dare not move forward.

It seems that it has been terrified by the "high-pressure" rat extermination team members patrolling the city, and it is extremely cautious and fearful when it comes out to forage for food.

At this moment, suddenly.

In the view transmitted by one of the fleas, several unlucky rats were seen being caught by a rat extermination team that was hiding nearby as they passed through the city streets.

boom--!

The hammer came crashing down, smashing the heads of two rats that hadn't had time to escape, splattering foul-smelling blood everywhere.

There was also a pool of yellowish brain matter on the ground.

And one of them threw out a... thorny rope net.

Covered in iron spikes and barbs, it caught all the rats that hadn't had a chance to escape.

Then, pull it back forcefully.

Sizzle—!

The barbs and spikes on the rope net tore the rats' skin open, leaving them bleeding profusely, screaming and struggling inside the net.

Next, the two men held onto the rope nets to prevent the rats from struggling and pulling them apart, while several other men stepped forward, carrying bamboo poles with spikes.

They poked the rats one by one, like toothpicks, until their bellies were so pierced their intestines spilling out.

Soon, after killing all the rats, they collected their bodies and threw them into the basket on their backs.

Furthermore, it seems to be to prevent pollution and its spread.

When putting the lid on, they would sprinkle some powder resembling sulfur and lime into the basket before closing the lid and heading to the other side of the street.

Under the pale moonlight of the dark night, the rat-eliminating team resembled a grim reaper's party, ready to claim lives.

However, the targets of their vengeance are... the gray rats that roam the city.

Not long after the rat exterminator left, two rats that had just escaped from the corner and were not trapped by the thorny net cautiously scurried out of the corner.

Smelling the blood of their kind on the ground, the strong stench of blood filled their dark eyes with panic and fear, and they hurriedly fled in the distance.

"Was the plague really caused by rats...?"

Now, look at the scene before you.

Wayne expressed deep skepticism.

These rats look so scared; they hardly look like they'd bite people and spread the plague.

Furthermore, even now, from the perspective of the hundreds of rats on the [Hive] network, there has never been any footage of them tearing apart humans.

Next, Wayne switched perspectives and continued to observe the rats in other areas.

A few minutes later, Wayne suddenly saw a scene that caught his attention.

These were a few emaciated rats, shivering with hunger, who had wandered into the districts most severely affected by the plague.

From their perspective, after passing through a hole in the broken wall and entering a room in the city, they find a corpse on the ground.

It appears that he also died from the plague; his body was already turning bluish and rotting.

But it hasn't had time to become a zombie yet.

At this moment, the rats stopped as they passed the corpse.

Although the smell of the corpse was very unhealthy.

However, for these extremely hungry rats...

One of them pounced on it and began to gnaw at it.

However, the taste seemed really bad.

So he only took a few bites before turning around and leaving, ignoring the corpse he had left on the ground.

After they left, Wayne looked at the corpses on the ground, his eyes fixed on the parts where the rats had just gnawed.

Those bite marks, and the claw marks left from the biting... were exactly the same as when I was examining those corpses with my senior brother Holman.

Next, a thought flashed through his mind, and Wayne's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something.

"Could it be...?"

Next, it seems, was to confirm one of his guesses.

So Wayne pulled up visual images of other mice and kept filtering and observing them.

as predicted.

Next, several other similar scene clips were found.

Some extremely hungry rats were caught in the constant "high-pressure patrols" by rat extermination teams on the streets outside.

They dare not roam outside the streets and can only hide inside the houses.

When they couldn't find any food, several extremely hungry rats began to gnaw on the carcass.

It leaves bite marks and claw marks on it.

"So, is it possible that Holman's initial guess was completely wrong?"

Wayne muttered to himself, a guess forming in his mind.

Holman said it was the spread of the plague caused by rats biting and tearing.

However, could it be due to the outbreak of plague that led to a reduction in food production?

These rats couldn't find anything to eat, so they could only gnaw on corpses.

It was not, as some believe, that rats biting people caused the spread of the plague.

It was completely the opposite of what Holman had initially guessed.

Are these rats from Greyhawk Fortress being wronged?