In less than two hours, the sky would brighten. Tu Xiao'an contemplated his future life—or rather, his future snake-life.
He couldn't find the rats in the house for the time being, so Tu Xiao'an had planned to check the backyard for any animals he could Devour, such as frogs.
But in the dead of night, he couldn't see a thing. There was only his dumb dog, staring blankly back at him.
'If I could just Devour this dumb dog, I'd probably go up two Levels.' Of course, Tu Xiao'an wasn't that cruel—he wouldn't Devour his own pet. And most importantly, he wasn't capable of it anyway.
There was once a true story about a woman who kept a python. One day, she suddenly noticed her python hadn't eaten for several days. At night, when she slept, it would always slither up and coil around her body.
The woman felt her python's behavior was a bit strange, so she went to ask a veterinarian why her python wasn't eating and liked to wrap itself around her.
Upon hearing this, the veterinarian looked at her and said calmly, "You need to be careful. The python isn't eating because it's saving room in its stomach to swallow you. It's coiling around you to measure your size and see if it can swallow you whole."
As for a small snake like Tu Xiao'an, there was no need for measuring. He had a hard time swallowing even an egg.
As his mind wandered, a flurry of sounds suddenly came from the backyard.
SQUEAK... SQUEAK... SQUEAK...!
In the dim courtyard, countless tiny eyes emerged, and the squeaking was endless.
In an instant, an icy chill filled the air, making even the cold-blooded Tu Xiao'an shudder involuntarily.
He glanced over and felt as if he'd been struck by lightning, his whole body going numb.
Rats. More than a dozen rats had silently appeared from all directions. Though they weren't particularly fat or large, their small eyes all glinted with greed.
At that moment, Tu Xiao'an caught sight of the large rat in the lead and was stunned, unable to stop himself from cursing internally.
'Fuck, that's a huge rat.'
That's right, this rat was genuinely massive. It was walking on its hind legs, its forepaws clutching a rock.
It was actually gnawing on the rock as it advanced, leading the others to surround the snake, Tu Xiao'an.
'Fucking hell. I must be seeing things.'
'What's going on here? Is the rat clan out for revenge?'
'Revenge for Devouring those seven little mice earlier? Or has my appearance as a snake just made them feel threatened?'
'Insight.'
Tu Xiao'an's cold, glinting eyes immediately locked onto the large rat.
"DING... Level 3 Rat King. Vicious temperament, teeth as sharp as blades. If Devoured by the host, it will grant 100 Energy points."
'Damn, so it's actually a Rat King. No wonder it's so big.'
'One hundred Energy points!' Tu Xiao'an's eyes lit up. After several hours of hard work, he had only accumulated 130 points in his body.
'Did all these rats show up because I smell like the ones I ate, which drew this Rat King out for revenge?'
'Weird things happen every year, but this year's been especially weird.'
'For mere rats, they're so arrogant. It's true what they say: when the cat's away, the mice will play.'
'I never realized such a huge rat was hiding in my own house all this time.'
This Rat King was about the size of a newborn rabbit. If you didn't look closely, you might mistake it for a little bunny nibbling on a carrot.
In just a few moments, the little snake Tu Xiao'an was completely surrounded by the pack of rats. He couldn't help but smile bitterly. 'Did I really piss off the entire rat clan just by eating a few of them in my own home?'
'Are all rats this brazen nowadays?'
Outnumbered and outmatched, an idea suddenly flashed through Tu Xiao'an's mind, and he began to smile.
'I can subjugate mosquitoes, so I can subjugate rats, too.'
He locked onto one of the smaller rats, enveloping it with his will.
'Submit to me! Be subjugated!'
Instantly, the rat trembled all over. Fear filled its beady little eyes, and it began to shake uncontrollably before slowly prostrating itself on the ground.
"SCREEE..."
The nearby Rat King noticed something was wrong with its subordinate and let out a furious screech.
SNAP...!
The little rat's mind cleared, and Tu Xiao'an's attempt to envelop its consciousness and subjugate it instantly failed.
"DING... To forcibly subjugate creatures of a different species, the host must have a higher Level."
'Higher Level?' Aside from the Rat King, the other small rats were all Level 1, the same Level as him.
In other words, he would have to be Level 2 to have a chance of subjugating them.
So why could he subjugate the mosquitoes? Because they didn't have a Level.
Since he couldn't subjugate the rats and make them his own, things had just gotten complicated.
After all, Tu Xiao'an was only a 50-centimeter-long snake. He hadn't fully grown yet. And while snakes are the natural enemies of rats, nothing in this world is ever absolute.
Even the mightiest hero can't fend off a pack of wolves.
"Xiaobai, protect your master!"
Tu Xiao'an finally remembered his pet dog. He glanced over and was so angry he could have coughed up blood. He saw his dumb dog lying there, just watching the show, wearing an expression that said a good performance was about to begin.
'You useless mutt! What's the point of me raising you?!'
Tu Xiao'an was in despair. If that dumb dog would just charge at the rat pack and let out a few domineering barks, he was sure it would scare them all off.
But clearly, the dumb dog just wanted to watch the show. It couldn't care less.
'Dammit! Its job is to guard the house, and it let so many rats get in. That's a complete dereliction of duty!'
(Xiaobai: I'm a dog. Catching rats is a cat's job.)
SQUEAK... SQUEAK... SQUEAK...!
Eyes glinting with greed, the dozen or so rats closed in on the little silver-white snake, looking ready to attack.
'Aren't rats supposed to be afraid of snakes anymore? The hell?'
It seemed like nowadays, rats weren't even afraid of cats. Some cats would get so scared they'd turn and run at the sight of a rat. Sigh, the world had really changed.
Tu Xiao'an felt the Rat King's cold, sinister gaze on him. It was looking at him as if he were already its next meal.
'This is bad. What do I do now? Xiaobai won't help me, and there's no way I can take on a dozen rats by myself, especially with a Level 3 Rat King in the mix. I don't stand a chance.'
Then, Tu Xiao'an remembered the five hundred mosquitoes he had subjugated, and he suddenly cheered up.
'You think you have more underlings than me? My mosquitoes' combat power might be pathetic, but I've got you beat in sheer numbers.'
At this thought, Tu Xiao'an's eyes narrowed. A massive swarm of mosquitoes abruptly appeared above his head, hovering in the air with an incessant buzzing.
The appearance of these five hundred mosquitoes was truly a sight to behold. They formed a dense, black sphere in the air, a sight so packed it would make your skin crawl.
If you were to slap at this black sphere, you would definitely pull your hand back covered in mosquito corpses.
"Get 'em!"
At Tu Xiao'an's command, the black sphere dissolved into a shadowy cloud, sweeping mightily down toward the surrounding rats.
SQUEAK... SQUEAK...!
The rats were dumbfounded. What the hell was this?
Fifty to sixty mosquitoes swarmed each rat, blotting out their vision. The moment they found an opening, their long, sharp proboscises pierced through.
In an instant, the dozen or so small rats were thrown into a panic by the mosquitoes, scurrying about in chaos.
But it was useless. The mosquitoes stuck to them like shadows. No matter where they ran, the swarm was determined to bite them to death.
The Rat King, however, remained relatively calm, because no mosquitoes dared to approach it. Perhaps its Level was too high, and the faint aura it exuded kept the level-less mosquitoes from acting rashly. They were picking the softer targets.
In truth, the Rat King was also dumbfounded. How had it provoked the mosquitoes? And so many of them, at that.