Chapter 53

Back to Lin Tu. The moment she heard the dam had broken, she contacted the butler to check on the situation.

The floodwaters from the breach hadn't reached her home yet, but the water level around the house was already rising. This ominous sign sent everyone into a panic—there was a commotion around the house, people moving their belongings trying to flee, and some had already climbed to the top floor, knocking on Lin Tu's door and even trying to get in through the windows.

But obviously, they all failed.

Lin Tu, who had deliberately spent 300 points reinforcing her doors and windows, was quite confident about this. After their failed attempts, they would naturally give up. She told the butler to watch over Xiao Huang and use [Form Switching] immediately if there was any danger—

Though she wasn't worried about someone breaking in, she was deeply concerned about the house being destroyed by the disaster, like a flood washing away the building.

All she could do was find the location of Noah's Ark as soon as possible and head home, hoping that everything would be safe.

After confirming with the staff that there was no one named "Yu Liu" here, Lin Tu recalled his route on foot from the northern Gular Mountains to Sa City, guessed that he was probably at another shelter further north, and prepared to leave on her own.

She found a secluded corner, took out a rubber motorboat with a motor and paddles, and after assembling it, put on a new wetsuit—according to the staff, the street where the Noah's Ark branch was located had already been flooded, and to enter, one had to wear a wetsuit. The previous one had been soaked in dirty water and hadn't been washed yet—then she got into the boat and headed in the direction the staff had pointed out.

On both sides, the signs of daily life were thick. Clothes hung from the windows of buildings that weren't flooded, and people had set up temporary shelters on the rooftops. Noisy voices drifted over, but Lin Tu paid them no mind, staying alert for any movement beneath the water. Fortunately, in areas where people gathered, giant leeches seemed rare, though black thread worms were common.

But as she gradually left the center of the crowd, things started to get worse. Especially when she approached the sunken square where the Noah's Ark branch was located, she could clearly sense dark shapes swimming around.

"Hey! Hey! Save me! Save me!" Not far away, someone was calling for help.

He stood on the roof of a small kiosk. These kiosks were arranged around the sunken square, and on a normal day, they went unnoticed. But as the water rose, they became ring-shaped islands, with a deeper cliff inside and greenery and an elevated highway outside, making them far from other buildings. So the man was like a fish stranded in the desert, and seeing Lin Tu, he seemed to have found a source of pure water.

Lin Tu ignored him. She carefully docked her boat at an "island" a little away from the man, stood on it, and surveyed the area.

"Are you from the rescue team? Take me with you! There's no one else alive around here; they were all eaten by that thing in the water!" The man grew more agitated as he spoke, waving his arms and gesturing wildly. "The whole place is full of monsters, all of them!"

She didn't need him to tell her—she could already see several dark shapes underwater.

She pulled out the blue fish she'd caught yesterday from her backpack, drew her iron knife, and cut a thin strip of meat. Then, like baiting a hook, she gently placed the fishy-smelling strip on the water's surface.

In an instant, the water churned as if boiling.

"Are you crazy?!" the man shouted. "Do you know how terrifying those monsters are? They suck blood and eat flesh! A person is gone in no time. If you want to die, don't drag me down with you!"

While he was yelling, Lin Tu had already lowered her head to count the giant leeches—about ten to thirteen. A lot, but not enough to make her back down.

"Do me a favor!" Lin Tu looked up. "If it works, I'll take you with me!"

"What favor?" The man stopped mid-sentence, looking confused. What did she mean by "if it works"? Did she even consider not taking him?

Lin Tu stabbed a small knife into the fish's flesh and lightly tossed it, knife and all, sending the whole twenty or thirty-pound fish onto the roof of the kiosk where the man stood. "Cut the meat and throw it into the water, draw as many monsters' attention as you can."

"You're insane..." The man was about to shriek in a high-pitched voice when he saw Lin Tu crouch at the edge of the kiosk roof, holding a long blade, with half her leg already in the water. She really was insane! He cursed inwardly. Did she intend to fight those monsters with a knife?

Seeing the man's disapproving look, Lin Tu unzipped the waterproof bag at her waist, took out a gleaming golden key, and said, "Make sure to draw plenty of them, or else this motorboat key will end up in the water with me."

With that, she smiled at the dumbfounded man, tossed the key back into the waterproof pouch, pulled down her mask, and dove underwater.

"Damn it!" The man cursed loudly. Seeing the monsters crowding in that direction, he hastily pounced on the fish, pulled out the knife, and started cutting meat. In his rush, he accidentally sliced his own finger.

He used his own blood, eagerly scattering strips of fish into the water, even hoping his blood would attract more giant leeches. "Please don't die! Please don't die!" he kept muttering, his hands moving nonstop.

Underwater, Lin Tu held a bottle of insect repellent in one hand and a knife in the other. Four or five large leeches were already eyeing her greedily.

It seemed the man was working hard; otherwise, the number would have been at least higher, she thought.

Lin Tu wasn't a reckless person. She'd prepared before going in. Even if the man hadn't drawn enough leeches away, she could still fight back against a few and escape unscathed. She reached into her bag, touched the [Zombie's Nightmare] and [Emergency Ambulance], and felt a sense of reassurance.

Now the situation was even better than she'd expected. Maybe this was a golden opportunity.

Without hesitation, Lin Tu raised the insect repellent and lunged at the nearest leech.

About two minutes passed. Back on the surface.

The blue fish meat in the man's hands was almost gone. Blood and human remains were gradually floating to the surface. He couldn't help but tremble all over, lying at the water's edge and shouting, "Hey! Are you dead or not? Don't die!"

He was close to breaking down, because the silent water surface was only answered by the leeches feeding nonstop.

"Damn it!" He was about to throw his head back and cry when he suddenly noticed that the leeches, their feeding stopped, had turned and swam toward deeper waters. The man quickly wiped away the tears that had just spilled, squinted hard into the water, and vaguely saw a dark shape very different from the monsters.

The fish was gone. The man squeezed two more drops of blood from his finger into the water, drawing two monsters, but then his finger ran dry.

"I've gone crazy too!" Seeing the monsters linger for a moment and then start to dive again, the man simply picked up the knife and slashed his own arm. He hadn't eaten in two or three days, and now he was dizzy and light-headed. He lay on the kiosk roof, letting his blood flow freely down the drainage slope into the water.

"You have to make it out alive..." He stared intently at the water, watching the chaos and debris multiply, until he passed out.