The SUV also has a heavy machine gun mounted in the back, capable of firing 600 rounds per minute.
In their panic and helplessness, the residents' eyes lit up when they saw the garrison troops: "Quick, quick, the garrison troops are here to rescue us!"
As they spoke, everyone rushed toward the garrison troops.
But Qingchen had a bad feeling. These garrison troops seemed to have no idea what was happening in BC City. They didn't even realize that this rat infestation was not temporary, but a real disaster.
At this point, a dozen or so off-road vehicles are of no use. While machine guns can kill a lot of rats, it's far too conspicuous.
Most importantly, it's impossible for a high-profile force of a few dozen people to bring more than three hundred people to the garrison camp. These people only have eyes for that congressman, and once they pick him up, they will leave immediately!
The garrison troops are not here to rescue refugees; they will kill all the refugees who want help!
Moreover, the garrison troops came from the opposite direction to the Lower Three Districts.
Qingchen couldn't go to the garrison camp with them; he had to meet up with the parents' association and fight alongside his family!
At this moment, Qingchen shouted loudly, "Xiao Mengqian, let's take the elderly and children to the lower three districts, don't worry about them!"
But with boxers on one side and federal garrison troops on the other, what choice will the refugees make?
While they hesitated, Qing Chen had already broken through to the Lower Three Districts without any regard for the consequences.
But then, at the crossroads where the garrison was located, a swarm of rats suddenly appeared like a black tide. Even the rat swarm that was besieging Qing Chen and his group abandoned the more than three hundred refugees and rushed towards the garrison.
This garrison was too conspicuous; they shot and killed countless rats along the way, finally attracting the attention of the Rat King.
A vast swarm of rats, fearless of death, surged towards the garrison troops despite being mowed down by heavy machine gun fire.
In the blink of an eye, they surrounded the dozen or so SUVs!
The refugees who had just been hesitating about who to go with were now frozen in place. Even though they were just ordinary people who had never participated in combat, they knew that this garrison was doomed!
Gunfire roared, and the soldiers' weapons were equipped with only thirty-round magazines, while the heavy machine guns had only 1,200 rounds per magazine.
Suppressing firepower was satisfying, but the swarms of rats outnumbered them by tens or hundreds of times, making them impossible to kill.
When the soldiers changed magazines, their firepower paused for a moment before being completely overwhelmed by the swarm of rats.
Zhang Mengqian shouted, "Everyone be quiet! Take advantage of the rat swarm attacking the garrison troops and come with me immediately!"
He started running quickly, with more than three hundred refugees running wildly behind him.
Actress Wang Wenwen grabbed Chen Luwen's bodyguard and said, "Come carry me!"
As she spoke, she jumped onto the bodyguard's back, and even at this moment she was reluctant to take off her high heels!
Another female celebrity, Zhou Jieyi, was running when her high heels somehow came off, leaving her barefoot on the ground.
Seeing Wang Wenwen's actions, she followed suit and climbed onto another bodyguard's back: "Carry me on, and I'll give you two million if you survive!"
In the face of a recent disaster, power and money still hold sway.
However, Qingchen knew that it wouldn't be long before people's inherent worldviews, values, and philosophies of life were all overturned by the crisis between life and death.
Qing Chen urged in a cold voice, "Shut up and run silently. No one is allowed to make a sound. No one is allowed to stop until I say stop!"
At this point, Chen Luwen stopped talking and could only lower his head and run with the group. He finally realized the seriousness of the problem!
In the darkness, Qing Chen observed his surroundings while listening intently to the sounds coming from the streets: "Turn left!"
As he spoke, he led the refugees to turn left at the intersection.
"Turn right!"
"Stop! Shut up!"
Qing Chen's figure came to an abrupt halt, leaving everyone puzzled. The next moment, the dense footsteps of a rat swarm marching through the next block echoed.
The sound of those hard, sharp claws hitting the ground sent chills down everyone's spine.
Zhang Mengqian struggled to hold the four children in her arms and covered their mouths with her arm to prevent them from making a sound.
The refugees were so terrified that they even forgot to breathe.
"keep going!"
The team sprang into action again.
At this point, the refugees also discovered a problem: the boy leading the way seemed to have a precognitive ability, managing to avoid every rat swarm march.
Left turn, right turn, stop moving forward—these commands gradually became subconscious commands in the minds of the refugees.
That's how humans are. When they're panicked and helpless, if there's only one voice left in the group, they'll blindly follow it, regardless of whether that voice is right or wrong.
Qingchen calculated the distance; they still had more than 20 kilometers to go before reaching the Sixth District, and this part of the journey would be the most difficult.
As he ran, a middle-aged man suddenly saw an empty gold shop on the side of the street.
He paused for a moment, then tugged at his wife's arm, signaling her to look over as well.
There was no one in the dark jewelry store, and there shouldn't be any rats either. If there were, the boy leading the group would have warned them long ago.
Rats will eventually be wiped out by the Federation Army Group, but gold can't always be obtained for free!
Just as Qingchen paused to wait and avoid the rat swarm, the middle-aged couple quietly slipped away from the crowd in the darkness and ran into the jewelry store.
Upon entering the jewelry store, the man cautiously looked around to make sure he hadn't heard a single unusual sound before urging, "Hurry, hurry, load up the gold, and then catch up with the group!"
They wanted to open the counter, but it was locked.
The couple found the key in the pocket of the teller's body on the ground. They opened the counter and stuffed strings of gold necklaces into their own pockets until they were full.
The woman's neck and wrists were covered in gold jewelry, making her look like a nouveau riche.
The satisfied man gradually regained his senses and said, "Alright, stop pretending and get back to the group. You need to be alive to spend money."
However, when the two quietly left the jewelry store, they found that the streets outside had become deserted.
The marching column that should have been hiding in the streets from the rat swarm had long since disappeared!
"What do we do! Where did they go?" The wife began to feel real fear.
"Quick, quick, run a couple of steps forward, they shouldn't be far!" the man said.
The two ran toward the crossroads, but as soon as they got there, they heard a dense, screeching sound as if something was gripping the ground.
The couple slowly turned around and were shocked to see the swarm of rats rolling and churning like black water.
They ran back frantically, but they couldn't outrun the swarm of rats.
The next moment, the black tide engulfed the two of them along with the gold.
Just 10 seconds later, the rat swarm continued to advance, revealing two white skeletons on the ground, as well as gold ornaments on the skeletons' wrists and necks.
Chapter 682, The Calm Before the Storm
"Stop."
Qing Chen stopped in the shadow of a building, and everyone behind him stopped as well.
After several experiments, everyone began to learn to follow his instructions.
During the break, Qing Chen turned around and asked, "Are there any people among you named Yang Naixin and Yuan Gong?"
The refugees looked at each other, wondering what he wanted to see these two people for.
This is the widow of Yuan Yang, a neurotoxin expert. Qing Chen originally returned to City 10 to find them, but the area where they were located had been swallowed up by the rat swarm.
Qing Chen asked again, "If anyone calls out Yang Naixin or Yuan Gong, please step forward with your ID card. I guarantee I'll keep you alive until the Federation Army arrives to provide support."
Still no one came out.
Zhang Mengqian asked, "Could they be dead?"
Qing Chen shook his head: "Uncertain, but there's still a glimmer of hope."
At this moment, the refugees hid in the shadows of the building, all panting, a rare moment of peace amidst the disaster.
At this moment, Chen Luwen slowly walked up to Qing Chen in the darkness and said politely, "Hello, I would like to discuss something with you."
Qingchen gave a noncommittal "hmm".
Chen Luwen said in a low voice, "Given your and your men's skills, I'm sure you belong to some kind of conglomerate. Since you fled, your group has grown from over three hundred to over four hundred, and the number might continue to increase. You know how difficult it is to survive with so many people. I'd like to make a deal with you. How about you take just a few of us with you, and I, on behalf of the Chen family, am willing to exchange interests with the forces behind you..."
Chen Luwen adopted a very humble attitude.
Qing Chen leaned against the wall, circulating the first section of the Zhunti Breathing Technique, quickly recovering the knight's true energy he had consumed while infusing the marionette. He said casually, "You mean you want me to abandon everyone and take you and your female celebrity away? As far as I know, you're just someone the Chen family uses to make appearances. What right do you have to make such a promise? You don't actually think I'm just an ordinary intelligence officer who doesn't understand the ways of your conglomerate, do you?"
At this moment, Qing Chen pointed at Chen Luwen and said to the refugees, "This man wants to make a deal with me, asking me to take only him with me. I wonder what you all think?"
The refugees were shocked; they never imagined that this seemingly glamorous congressman on television would do such a despicable thing.
The crowd was indignant; they were genuinely afraid that Qingchen would abandon them.
"Keep your voice down," Qing Chen said expressionlessly, "Want to attract a swarm of rats?"
The refugees quickly lowered their voices again.
Seeing Qing Chen's actions, Chen Luwen said somewhat hastily, "If the conglomerate behind you knew that you, as a group of ordinary people, had given up the opportunity to trade with the Chen family, how would you explain that?"
Qingchen looked at him, puzzled, and said, "Have you never seen my face clearly? Then take a good look at me now and see who I really am."
Chen Luwen was stunned. The city lights had been off earlier, and Qingchen had been facing away from everyone, so he hadn't had a chance to see Qingchen's face clearly.
Now, the sky is gray and about to break through the dawn, and a faint white light shines from the east, falling right on the boy's face.
Chen Luwen finally saw the boy's face clearly... Qing Chen!
As one of the Chen family's spokespeople on the political stage, although not the most important one, how could Chen Luwen not know who Qing Chen was?
Being a member of Congress is the most glamorous profession in the federal government. They frequent high-society places and represent conglomerates. Female celebrities, unable to get close to the real bigwigs of these conglomerates, can only try to get close to them.
However, such a 'big shot' is nothing in front of the leader of the Qing Clan's secret intelligence agency. A puppet is just a puppet after all. If they appeared at the same banquet, Chen Luwen would not even be worthy to speak to Qing Chen at this moment. Only a real big shot of the Chen Clan would be able to speak to Qing Chen!
If Chen Luwen were to approach Qing Chen at the banquet, it would be seen as a lack of manners within the conglomerate.
Qing Chen is no longer the ordinary time traveler he once was, but a truly important figure whose very identity can intimidate a large number of people.
“Go back to the crowd,” Qing Chen said with a sneer. “You should be grateful that I didn’t kill you outright. I still have a use for you. I’ll find you when we’re in a safe place.”
Chen Luwen's face was deathly pale. The two female celebrities asked in low voices, "What's wrong? Did he refuse the deal?"
Chen Luwen whispered, "Shut up!"