If there were a concept for this level of danger,
Then Brian hoped that in due time, he’d be known by similar titles such as "Walking Human-shaped Nuclear Bomb," "Nation-destroying Natural Disaster," "Empire’s Hand of Justice"...
Just as Brian got more and more absorbed in his teenage fantasies, his dog Shi San was skillfully avoiding surveillance in public spaces, jumping agilely from building to building like a parkour runner.
Shi San constantly searched the streets for vehicles.
Finally, its doggy eyes lit up, and with several leaps, it traced a yellow arc in the night sky and silently landed on the back of a truck, settling down.
This truck was heading in the direction of the commercial street where the poisoning incident had occurred earlier.
Lying on the truck’s roof, Shi San gazed at the moon overhead, its doggy eyes showing a human-like longing.
It had been several days since it left the big dog, and it missed him.
If the big dog were here, he surely wouldn’t despise Shi San for eating rats like the mother dog did.
Even cats can eat rats.
Shi San was no longer the two-month-old baby it once was.
Had it not been for the mother dog’s impulsive feeding, would Shi San, a nearly three-month-old pup about to enter a rapid growth spurt, have to suffer such discomfort under others’ roof?
After several transfers,
Shi San smoothly arrived at the commercial street from earlier.
At this time, there were still customers around, but perhaps due to the influence of the poisoning case at the Japanese restaurant, it wasn’t yet eight o’clock, and the street, aside from some shops habitually not yet closed, seemed very empty.
This wasn’t Shi San’s destination.
It quickly weaved through alley after alley, pausing occasionally to sniff around, until it arrived at a garbage disposal company located more than two kilometers away.
To say it was a company was really just a large factory compound.
A huge amount of unprocessed garbage was piled high into mountains.
This waste was mostly metal, wood, and even included a few discarded vehicles.
Under normal circumstances, places like these were favorite haunts for stray cats, but Shi San, atop a discarded children’s toy car, found a piece of cat fur.
On this piece of fur, Shi San smelled the scent of that savory mouse.
Shi San swallowed and stealthily weaved through the paths between the garbage mounds.
This was its first action, and it failed to notice that some small mice, startled by its scent, were touching each other and passing on information after it left...
The garbage hills were truly massive, one after another.
It was hard to imagine how many garbage disposal companies a city inhabited by millions required, but without them, this modern metropolis would soon become a city amid heaps of rubbish.
The deeper Shi San went, the more it felt something was off.
Its doggy brain couldn’t quite make the connection.
When it accompanied Brian in the past, if it wasn’t sleeping, it was bullying the weak while backed by its human, baring its teeth and positioning itself, or acting cute for some beef jerky.
This was the first real hunt it was on.
Shi San couldn’t pinpoint what was amiss, but driven by instinct, the closer it got to the area with the stronger scent of the big rat, the slower its steps became.
Finally, it halted its paws without hesitation and took off running in the opposite direction.
Though it couldn’t understand what was wrong, running was the right choice.
Shi San planned to find the big dog for some pampering and have him accompany it back here.
With the big dog so fierce, nothing else would matter!
Watching the little dog suddenly turn tail and run, a pair of dark red eyes flickered with confusion.
Had it discovered the ambush?
No time to think further.
Its small brain couldn’t support much contemplation.
The owner of these blood-red eyes saw its prey dart away and, dispensing with ambush tactics, turned into a black blur darting through the piles of trash, like a ninja adept in the art of teleportation, flickering in and out of sight under the moonlight.
In two breaths or around three to four seconds, it had covered nearly a hundred meters and now stood in front of Shi San.
Shi San’s legs braked sharply, and it was about to leap to the side.
A sharp cracking sound burst forth.
The old tire in front of Shi San emitted a violent thud.
Its doggy eyes widened with fear as it saw, to its astonishment, a long, black, hairy tail on the tire.
The tail, likely over two meters long with the thickest part as wide as a baby’s wrist, lay atop the tire like a writhing python.
Following the tail, Shi San also got a clear view of its owner.
It was actually a black-haired giant rat, almost humanoid in stance!
The rat stood on its hind legs, about twice Shi San’s size, almost a meter tall, and it was even wearing what looked like a taekwondo uniform, albeit one that had blackened.
Shi San simply had never seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; otherwise, it would definitely have asked where the four little turtles were.
Feeling the strong biological signals emanating from the creature,
Shi San realized through eye contact that it was no match.
It felt its hunt tonight might have been a bit too rash.
A rat is about to eat a dog!
Shi San inwardly cried out in fear, but its expression remained composed, and it didn’t show any aggressive posturing, imitating Brian with a bluff, its not-so-smart brain rapidly searching for ways to escape.
Seeing this little prey appraise itself yet not wet itself in fear, the black-haired giant rat’s small dark eyes flickered with confusion.