Chapter 6: Pain Tolerance
While his consciousness was slowly fading, Shi Tian felt his body become lighter in seconds.
Despite his body still being gnawed by the Armored Rats, the pain that he was feeling was starting to minimize.
Slowly, Shi Tian grasped onto some dirt as he struggled to lift himself up, pushing some of the Armored Rats away that were on top of him.
He didn't know why, but there was a surge of incoming power that allowed him to resist the pain that was inflicted upon him.
"Could it be that transparent screen I saw again?' Shi Tian thought to himself.
While being swarmed, he noticed a flashing light previously but it was gone now.
Nevertheless, Shi Tian didn't bother to idle around as he took this opportunity to stomp at one of the Armored Rats.
Splash!
Shi Tian targeted one of the weak-looking areas of the Armored Rat's body and was able to penetrate into its flesh directly, causing some blood to splatter around.
However, this action was tantamount to provoking the rest of the Armored Rats as their ferociousness increased twofold.
"Fucking come at me, you rat bitches!" Shi Tian roared angrily in response.
He then increased his leg strength and gave another hard stomp at the injured Armored Rat beneath him, effectively killing one.
With blood still trickling down from his forehead, Shi Tian's face was drenched in blood and with that shouting, he looked like a madman, ready to brute force anything in his path.
Kicking the dead Armored Rat to the side, Shi Tian used his hand to wipe off some blood near his eyes as he glared menacingly at the rest of the Armored Rats. "You love gnawing at me, right? Now come and get it!" He spread his left arm wide and shouted.
Shi Tian knew his newfound knowledge of not feeling pain was an advantage to his current demise.
However, that doesn't mean he was still capable of going after these many Armored Rats at once.
Not to mention, his pathetic speed could not be compared to their swiftness considering how easily he was caught by them.
Therefore, utilizing the nature of the Armored Rat's personality and his madman-like behavior, he had successfully created a scenario in which he was the one controlling it, and not these Armored Rats.
His eyes glared at each and every single one of the Armored Rats.
Seeing how they showed no movement, Shi Tian decided to take a step forward and slowly approached them.
With each step he took, the Armored Rats would retreat by a tiny bit, seemingly afraid of him.
Shi Tian was still injured as blood kept trickling down from his body, but that was what made the Armored Rats frightened.
They had not met a human that could continue to resist and showed such fervor despite being injured to such a point.
"What are you rats afraid of? I have no power, no ability, no strength. I'm all alone and injured. Just come at me!"
Shi Tian shouted loudly, making a 360-degree turn at the same time to demonstrate his willingness to be swarmed again.
The collective Armored Rats could only make some chirping sounds before they all retreated swiftly, seemingly afraid of confronting Shi Tian again.
Shi Tian laughed maniacally when he watched them all run away as typical sewage rats would do.
"That's right… how dare some rats try to overtake humans," he muttered scoffingly before collapsing to the ground.
That one bit of exertion of force had used up his entire stamina and he could no longer remain conscious.
During the time he was knocked out, Shi Tian's injured body gradually started recovering, but his right arm was still amputated.
It would have been surreal if his right arm would magically regenerate like some slimes could do in a video game or movie. The bleeding of the flesh that the Armored Rat had bitten was recovering fast at an alarming rate.
Soon, all the bite marks were gone and besides the residual blood that remained on his body and face, everything else was back to normal.
Time slowly passed by, and Shi Tian regained consciousness as he stood up.
Although initially confused by the hologram interface screen, after this incident, Shi Tian was sure of one thing.
The status shown on the interface screen was his current body stats, just like the video games.
Glancing at the part that revealed his stamina bar, Shi Tian saw the value of 5 labeled next to it.
If he had recalled previously, it was originally 25 which meant that the fight with the Armored Rats had decreased his stamina rapidly, causing him to run out of it and fainted from exhaustion.
'What a terrible joke this is?' Shi Tian smiled bitterly.
He was like a clueless lamb being thrown into this world with zero knowledge of what was going on.
The world he remembered was no longer what it was.
Monsters roamed around the streets and the location he was in had zero life of any human being.
While he was in deep thought, Shi Tian heard a loud growling sound.
It wasn't the growling sound of some monster, but it was his stomach that was growling.
He had not eaten for a long time and with this much action, it was obvious that he would be starving.
Rubbing his stomach with his left hand, Shi Tian started to look around, until his vision paused at the deceased Armored Rat that he had just killed.
Gritting his teeth, Shi Tian knew what he had to do even if it was disgusting.
To survive in this harsh environment, no method should be considered gross or brazen.
Shi Tian gradually walked toward the corpse and dragged the Armored Rat by its feet to go somewhere shady.
Sometime later, he found another abandoned place, and this time, the roof was gone so there was no chance of monsters hiding in the ceiling.
Taking a few minutes to settle down in this new place, Shi Tian stared at the Armored Rat with a resolute expression.
"Don't blame me, rat!"