Chapter 351 - Commander (1/2)

In the blink of an eye, around 80% of the one thousand or so Flame Rats were killed.

Only a small number of rats avoid death. They were not shot through by bullets, and the unique fat that had an incredibly low ignition point in their bodies did not come into contact with air, so it did not end up burning. They were still scurrying about in confusion.

Meng Chao threw his chains forward and bound two Flame Rats. He dragged them over. During the process, they did not lose even a single strand of hair.

He first bound one Flame Rat tightly with a chain.

Then, he brought out a full set of harvesting tools and blasted the other Flame Rat with a liquified condenser that was at more than negative ten degrees Celsius.

When the Flame Rat was frozen to the point that it could not move and even had a thin layer of ice outside its eyeball, Meng Chao calmly cut into the back of its neck. He peeled open its scalp and removed its entire cranial bone.

Meng Chao’s vision had not been trained to the point where it could replace microscopes.

He had a spirit energy microscope made specifically for dissections fixed around his eyes, and he focused it while he investigated the Flame Rat’s brain.

After admiring it for a while, he used a long needle that was finer than hair to extract the Flame Rat’s central nervous system.

Once he was done, he used a scalpel that was as thin as a cicada’s wing to dissect the brain until it was divided into thin slices that were less than 1mm thick.

When he was done investigating the rat’s brain, he started dissecting its organs to investigate the flammable substance.

Ten minutes later, Meng Chao obtained his answer.

“These creatures should have been lurking around the place for some time. Their stomachs are filled with fermented refuse derived fuel. It shows that they have been hiding in the fuel warehouse of the power plant and eating the fuel. They stuffed their stomachs full of these things.

“But I feel like they’re just mooks. There must be a ‘commander’ hiding behind them.”

“Why?” Lu Siya asked.

“First, don’t you think that it’s too easy to kill these Flame Rats? The scale and length of the fog this time is something we haven’t seen over the past half a year. If I were an abnormal beast with superior intellect, I would not ignore this God-given chance. There’s no way I’d just send a few measly rats to cause trouble.

“Second, their intestines are clearly unable to completely digest the refuse derived fuel. Even if they weren’t shot or burnt to death, before long, their stomachs would burst and they would die. This means that they didn’t do this due to their instincts or to fill their stomachs. Instead… they were ordered to by something with greater intelligence.

“Third, their brains are too small and simple. It’s hard to imagine just how these Flame Rats could gain real intelligence and carry out such a complicated task as performing a coordinated attack with the monsters who invaded Dragon City.

“Big Sis Ya, look here. Do you see a small hole on this Flame Rat’s forehead?”

Lu Siya observed the rat carefully and nodded before she said, “I saw it. There’s a ball of…”

“Parietal Eye. Its scientific name is parietal eye,” Meng Chao said. “In ancient times, many of the vertebrates didn’t have just one pair of eyes. Aside from the normal pair of eyes, they had another eye at the top of their head. But it’s hard to say just what function it had.

“Some biologists say that the parietal eye was used to sense light and regulate a living being’s sleeping time. Some believe that the parietal eye was used to help living beings sense the changes of the planet’s magnetic field, so they could locate things very accurately. They might have been just like the magnets in a pigeon’s brain. Some experts also believe that humans’ epithalamus is the evolved form of the parietal eye.

“Most of the mammals are like us. Over the course of a long evolution, they have long closed their parietal eye.

“But through simple gene editing, it’s not hard to make rat-type monsters show signs of atavism and grow their parietal eyes once again.

“As for their function… If my guess is correct, they should be used to sense the changes of spirit energy magnetic fields and receive information.”

Lu Siya frowned. “Receive information.”

“You can think of it as a biological chip that receives information. The ‘commander’ hiding in the dark uses some sort of method to enlarge its brainwaves. The slight changes caused by the spirit energy ripples it creates can be sensed by these mutated Flame Rats through their parietal eyes.

“It’s just like how a commander gives orders to his or her soldiers, and because of it, the Flame Rats launched their suicidal attack. Perhaps the goal of this attack is just to confuse us and make us think that the invaders have all been destroyed.”

Lu Siya cast a deep glance at Meng Chao. She had personally seen him performing outstandingly in many of the training courses.

She had also heard many of his analysis and remarks of some of the training courses in private. They were all things that she had never heard before.

So, she trusted his judgment a lot.

She immediately said, “Is there a way to find the ‘commander’?”

“I can try and find the general location of the commander. As for the precise location, I’m going to have to rely on your sharp spirit energy perception.”

As Meng Chao spoke, he stabbed the other Flame Rat’s ear canal with a few long needles that were finer and softer than hair.

He closed his eyes slightly and focused. A drop of sweat appeared on his forehead. It was as if he was performing an incredibly difficult microscopic surgery.

The Flame Rat was just bound by a chain. Its central nervous system was not frozen, so it should feel pain.

But even after Meng Chao stabbed four long needles into its ear canal, and those needles that were finer than hair and longer than fingers sank into its brain, it did not let out a single screech. It was still looking around as if it could not sense the slightest bit of discomfort.

“What are you doing?” Lu Siya asked.

“I’m cutting the connection of nerves between the parietal eye and the brain,” Meng Chao said. “This way, the parietal eye might turn into… an organ that is a pure magnet, just like the magnet in a pigeon’s brain.”

“And then?”