America: Starting from collecting corpses, leveling up to godhood

That was indeed a deformed child.

A few sparse yellow hairs hung on his rugby ball-shaped head, his skin was so pale it was almost transparent, and you could even see the blue veins under his skin. His deformed fingers were gripping a sharpened steel bar tightly...

"Rat, don't do anything, it's me!" Marcus exclaimed.

The deformed child ignored him, continuing to make threatening noises from his throat, and pointing the steel bar in his hand firmly at Chen Ming.

"Click".

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Ming drew his Glock pistol from his waist, locked it onto the massive, deformed head above him, and released the safety.

"No, don't shoot!!"

Marcus was terrified.

"Rat, put down your weapon, you'll die!!"

"Please! He's here...he's a doctor, come down!"

The air was almost frozen.

"Clang—"

The steel bars were slammed heavily into the sewage.

Immediately afterwards, the pale, thin figure loosened its grip on the pipe, slowly sliding down the pipe wall like a spider, and finally curled up on the platform, coughing incessantly.

Chen Ming was somewhat surprised.

Then, out of curiosity about the rare pathological samples and a bit of professional ethics as a medical student, he squatted down and put on gloves.

"Don't...don't touch him!"

Marcus tried to stop him, but Chen Ming glared at him and stopped him.

Chen Ming stepped forward and reached out to probe the "rat's" enormous head.

The body temperature is at least 40 degrees Celsius, and the blood vessels under the skin are throbbing rapidly.

"Signs of sepsis, tachycardia, respiratory failure..."

Chen Ming quickly made a judgment in his mind, then his gaze moved down and landed on the "rat's" stinking left leg.

The trouser legs were stuck together with pus, blood, and rotting flesh, giving them a nauseating blackish-green color.

"Rip—"

Chen Ming expressionlessly took out scissors and cut the fabric.

The stench exploded instantly, causing Marcus, who was standing nearby, to gag.

The wound was exposed in the beam of the flashlight—there was a circular gash the size of a coin on the outside of the thigh, the surrounding tissue was severely necrotic and blackened, and you could even see the pale white bone inside.

"Take a look for yourself."

Chen Ming pointed to the wound, his brows furrowed.

"Is this the scratch you were talking about?"

"Yes...yes." Marcus covered his nose, not daring to look closely.

"These tubes down here are very sharp; someone must have accidentally scratched something and gotten an infection..."

"The tube won't cause a penetrating wound, nor will it leave gunpowder burn marks on the edge of the wound."

Chen Ming gently parted the rotten flesh with tweezers and pointed to the charred marks around the edge of the wound.

"This is not a scratch at all, it's a gunshot wound."

"It must have been a close-range shot; he was hit directly through the thigh by a 9mm pistol bullet."

"Gun...gunshot wound?" Marcus was stunned.

"Who would shoot him? And why?!"

"The rat only has a few tattered clothes and scavenged garbage! He never causes trouble, he's even afraid of the light, and he hides from strangers... Who would waste a bullet to kill a freak who lives in the sewers?"

"Kill him? No, if I wanted to kill him, I would have shot him in the head, not in the thigh."

Chen Ming stood up and explained slowly and deliberately.

"This is to leave them alive, just like a hunter breaks the leg of his prey to prevent it from escaping."

"prey?"

"That's right, to some people, he's worth much more than the few bills in your pocket."

"It can be sold to private museums as live specimens, to laboratories as research material, or even to underground circuses catering to the curiosity of the wealthy..."

"Obviously, someone was already watching him, but they didn't expect the terrain down there to be so complicated, which allowed him to escape back to his lair by sheer luck."

"Then... what should we do?"

Marcus turned pale upon hearing this.

He looked at the "rat" who was still coughing up blood. Although he was scared, his eyes were filled with more fear and sympathy.

"Sir, can...can you save him? Or...or can you take him away?"

"Take him away?"

Chen Ming raised an eyebrow, as if he had heard a funny joke.

"I collect corpses, I don't run a charity hospital. If I bring a living person back, not only will I not get paid, but I'll also have to pay for their medical expenses and food, and I might even attract the attention of the gunmen who are after them..."

"Also, don't forget why you brought me here in the first place."

Marcus opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound, and he didn't even dare to look at his friend who was huddled on the ground.

Just then.

"Aaaaaah—Get away from me!!"

"Fxxk!! Fxxk you all!!"

A shrill soprano voice, accompanied by a string of extremely loud curses, exploded from inside the pipe.

Chen Ming paused for a moment, then placed his hand on the gun handle.

The next second, a stumbling figure rushed out of the pipe.

"Damn it, this damn sewer system, damn Los Angeles!!"

It's Sofia.

At this moment, she bore no resemblance to a sophisticated urban woman—her trench coat was covered in mud, her wavy hair was a mess, and her boots were stained with black mud, making her look like an old witch who had crawled out of a swamp.

"Ugh...this place is hell!"

Sofia rushed onto the platform, holding her knees and dry heaving.

"Didn't I tell you to wait outside?" Chen Ming frowned.

"Waiting to feed the rats... Damn, I need to soak my feet for an hour tonight!"

Sofia slammed her boots on the ground.

"I was smoking when two men in tactical vests suddenly came up and asked me what I was doing there."

"I thought they looked like they were up to no good, so I was about to take out my phone to tell you. But the leader got really agitated and yelled at me to put my hands up so he could search me..."

"He's dreaming!"

Sofia gave a cold laugh.

"So I struck first and let them try the Alaskan bear spray in my bag... One of them rolled around with his eyes covered, and the other started blindly shooting at me, so I had no choice but to run into this damn hole."

"I understand... I think they've come looking for it."

Chen Ming pointed to the "rat" huddled in the corner.

"It seems our 'rare sample' has gotten into more trouble than I imagined..."

"What do we do now? Call the police?"

Sofia spoke while patting the mud off her pants.

"Call the police? And then tell 911 we're having a party in the sewers with two hitmen and a half-dead, deformed kid, and then they leisurely collect our bodies a few hours later?"

Chen Ming removed the magazine and glanced at the remaining ammunition.

"Their first reaction after being sprayed with pepper spray was not to cover their eyes and scream, but to instinctively fire at the source of the sound. This shows that they were trained and were real desperados, not thugs."

"For this kind of person, killing three more witnesses is no different than stepping on three cockroaches to avoid future trouble. At this point, there's not much else they can do..."