I... I truly am just a little mouse...
“So many points at once!”
“Looks like twenty thousand won’t be that hard after all.” Chen Jue glanced at the new notification, then at the long progress bar for Hidden Weapon Throwing.
He’d thought he’d be stuck at Level 5, Master-tier, for at least a year or two, but unexpectedly, he’d stumbled upon a shortcut for improvement. This was a pleasant surprise.
However, after one of their companions was nailed to death, the rats had grown wary.
He waited nearly five minutes before he finally heard rustling from the garbage bin. Squinting, Chen Jue saw it was the same larger, bolder rat scout as before.
The rat crept up to the corpse of its tailless companion, scanning the area as it squeaked, as if calling for its dead comrade, while also covering for the “dining gang” still hiding in the shadow behind the trash bin.
But no sooner had two seconds passed when another lethal nail whistled through the air.
With a soft thud, the bold rat scout was nailed through the head, dying beside the bin.
Chen Jue, still in his throwing stance, received another +100 proficiency for Hidden Weapon Throwing.
“They probably won’t show themselves again, right?”
He continued to observe from his spot.
He’d expected to have to change locations or come back later, but to his surprise, another foolhardy rat emerged!
From behind the bin poked out another nosy, rat-faced scout, likely sent to reconnoiter.
Unfortunately, this second scout was ill-informed; it had only just slipped half its body into the alley’s dim light when—
Another nail shot through the air, pinning it to the ground. Its claws scratched frantically as it made a racket against the plastic bin, but after a few spasms, its health bar hit zero.
Hidden Weapon Throwing proficiency +100!
“Not bad, worth the trip,” Chen Jue grinned, deeply satisfied.
Compared to gaming, this real-life wild hunt was far more entertaining.
And he was ridding the community of pests—a sense of accomplishment in itself.
...
After waiting over five minutes without seeing any new rats, Chen Jue left the shadowy alley.
With three of their kind caught in succession, the dining gang was likely intimidated.
He wandered down Laxi Street, bought a lemon water from Mixue Ice City to quench his thirst—the street food here was heavy on seasoning, leaving his mouth dry. Mindful of his weight, he ordered it unsweetened.
“Not as calorie-dense as milk tea, but I still need to be careful,” he thought, considering buying a good thermos for himself.
A few sips of water now and then was good for his health.
He hadn’t cared much about his health before, usually grabbing bottled water or soft drinks from convenience stores, sometimes joining colleagues for afternoon tea.
But ever since awakening his panel, he’d started paying attention to these little daily habits.
With hemorrhoids, he’d cut out oily, spicy food, especially anything numbing or hot.
Gallstones meant keeping regular mealtimes, never skipping breakfast.
As for his ever-thinning hair, there was no fix yet; he just made sure to keep clean, washing his hair and changing his pillowcases frequently.
His oily skin meant that after a busy day, his whole body felt greasy, which made bedding prone to mites and bacteria.
...
After finishing his lemon water and watching a stage performance for a bit, about half an hour later, Chen Jue slipped back into the alley under cover of darkness.
A sanitation worker must have come by; the large kitchen waste bins were now empty, and even the previous “three rats” crime scene had been cleared.
Without leftovers, the remaining gang wasn’t going to risk showing themselves.
“There must be a large garbage transfer station nearby,” Chen Jue mused, stepping out to look around. Sure enough, he spotted the shadow of a green garbage truck.
It was a special vehicle for collecting kitchen waste, busy emptying the smaller bins outside the food plaza. Everything was automated—a mechanical arm locked onto the bin, lifted, and emptied it in one swift motion.
Seeing this, Chen Jue hurried to the parking lot to get his car, following the kitchen waste truck as it moved along.
After more than ten minutes, he still hadn’t reached the transfer station, but instead discovered several other filthy, shadowy corners—mini transfer points for the nearby university town’s restaurant district.
He marked them on his map and continued following the truck.
After about twenty more minutes, they finally arrived at the destination.
It was the Binjiang Industrial Park’s central waste processing plant, surrounded by fences and high walls.
Inside was a massive facility where kitchen waste, rich in fats and organics, was sorted and turned into fertilizer, animal feed, or even used for biogas power generation.
Unable to enter, Chen Jue realized that such a professionally maintained plant would be rodent- and cockroach-free.
He had no choice but to drive back to the smaller transfer points, sweeping through each one.
After all, this was a wild hunt—why focus on just one spot? The returns were meager, and monsters needed time to respawn anyway.
A true jungler must roam, lurking in different bushes—or, in this case, lying in wait for rats.
...
In two hours, Chen Jue cleared all the marked mini-transfer stations.
With his flying nails, he’d taken down twenty-four rats in total.
He earned 2,410 Hidden Weapon Throwing proficiency points in one night, using thirty nails with a remarkable 83% hit rate.
For his first rat-hunting expedition, it was extremely efficient.
After clearing one last rodent gang hideout, his panel rewarded him with new notifications:
———
[Ding~]
[You have completed a perfect night’s hidden weapon combat. Your hand muscles and joints have been effectively exercised. Instantaneous hand strength has slightly increased.]
[Strength +0.01]
———
[Ding~]
[After long hours searching for targets in darkness, you are becoming accustomed to dimly lit environments. Your night vision has slightly improved, your hearing has sharpened, and your concentration is increasing.]
[Constitution +0.01]
[Mentality +0.01]
———
[Ding~]
[By observing rats for extended periods, you’ve gained deeper understanding of these small rodents’ anatomy and habits. When using hidden weapons against them again, you will more easily spot their weak points.]
[Title acquired: Rat Hunter]
[Title effect: More easily detect the movements and weaknesses of small rodents, and capture them.]
[Title description: Poor, pitiful mice…]
———
“A critical hit again!”
“Not bad at all!”
Pocketing his nails, Chen Jue glanced excitedly at his panel.
Nighttime target practice was a strain on the eyes, especially with frequent use of tricks like adjusting the angle of his glasses for better correction. This helped, but staring into the distance for too long easily tired his eyes and could worsen his nearsightedness.
Still, the results were outstanding.
Staring at moving rats not only helped Chen Jue adapt to the dark alleys but also conditioned his body for repeated, high-intensity throws.
Most importantly, it was the first time he’d seen a notification about improved hearing.
“Is it because I’ve been listening to the faint squeaks of rats?”
“With all the noise and traffic nearby, being able to hear rats really isn’t easy,” he thought.
Previously, he’d accidentally discovered ways to train his eyes with eye exercises and red light therapy, and his vision had improved day by day.
Now, with hearing also enhanced, Chen Jue grew more intrigued and expectant about the panel’s notifications.
...
Glancing at the time—it was already 10 p.m.—Chen Jue drove back to his talent apartment.
He stashed the remaining nails in the trunk for future rat-hunting expeditions.
He planned to keep his camera equipment and mask in the car too, ready to film when the opportunity arose.
He’d have to build up his “Ace Operator” account slowly; it could become a nice side income.
Back in his room, after washing up and going to bed, he reviewed the day’s gains and logged the key stats and notifications into the app.
To an outsider, or the app’s operators, it would look like Chen Jue was just playing some MUD text game, scheduling his daily activities.
Only Chen Jue himself knew how much he’d changed, thanks to this panel.
“Night vision… and hearing…”
After recording, he searched online for related information.
Night vision was classified under visual abilities, but he found no concrete methods for improvement. For eyesight, he already practiced eye exercises and three-minute red light therapy.
But when he read about night blindness, his eyes lit up.
There were three known types of night blindness: temporary, acquired, and congenital.
The root causes related to the retina’s rod cells lacking the materials to synthesize rhodopsin or the rod cells themselves being diseased.
As for treatment, the internet offered several ways.
“Eat more vitamin A and beta-carotene?”
“Animal liver, carrots, cod liver oil…” Chen Jue didn’t have night blindness, but knowing these could improve vision, he didn’t hesitate.
He went on Taobao and ordered a bottle of trending imported cod liver oil for a little over 160 yuan.
He planned to try it out—if the panel gave him a notification after a while, he’d know if dietary supplements truly worked.
As for training adult hearing, there weren’t any comprehensive programs—just simple ones for infants.
“Looks like I’ll have to keep practicing, or find a master who knows eye and ear training,” Chen Jue thought.
It was nearly 10:30 p.m. He needed to get up early for sunrise training, and after an exhausting night, he put his phone away and went to bed.
But less than an hour after he’d fallen sound asleep, the night-shift sanitation workers at the Binjiang Waste Treatment Plant were huddled together, puzzled by the evening’s strange events.
“Old Wu, did you find dead rats too?”
“Sure did! My route tonight was haunted—caught seven or eight dead rats just by the bins, all nailed to death! It’s bizarre!”
“What?”
“You all found rats killed by nails? I found a few myself!”
Dead rats weren’t usually a big deal for workers handling kitchen garbage; they’d seen every kind of animal corpse, and sometimes even stray cats or dogs drowned in bins.
They were used to it.
But rats killed by nails—this was a first!
After tallying up, they’d found over twenty rats killed the same way in one night. Something wasn’t right.
They immediately reported it to the plant manager on duty.
The balding, sleep-deprived manager came over and, seeing all the rats lined up, each impaled by a nail, was stunned.
Unlike other animal carcasses, rat corpses had to be incinerated; improper handling could lead to plague outbreaks.
“Could someone be deliberately dumping dead rats?”
His mind racing, the manager realized the seriousness of the matter. He quickly called the district Center for Disease Control, asking them to collect the rats for testing, and notified the local police as well.
After all, plague wasn’t a joke—it’s a Category A infectious disease in China, on par with cholera. Once discovered, it had to be reported to the epidemic prevention station immediately, no matter what.