Each rat was as long as a human forearm—enormous, with long incisors that gnashed together like small knives.

Their eyes were blood-red, emitting a crimson glow in the darkness like small, red lanterns.

White bones were scattered all over the ground. Some belonged to humans, others to animals.

"SQUEAK—" A giant rat let out a piercing shriek, and the swarm immediately responded in unison, the shrill cries echoing through the dark, subterranean space.

They had discovered Shen Feng and Firefly!

The swarm of rats immediately pounced down from the vaulted ceiling like a black waterfall!

Shen Feng snorted, raised his shotgun, and instantly pulled the trigger.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" Deafening gunshots echoed through the underground space. A dense storm of steel pellets shredded the rats pouncing from midair, splattering bits of fur and flesh against the high ceiling. Rat blood rained down.

The blinding muzzle flash startled the rat swarm. They surged away like a tide, forming a black, rippling wave with Shen Feng and Firefly at its center.

But the tide of rats quickly surged back, closing in on them once more!

There were just too many of them!

Expressionless, Shen Feng pushed his night-vision goggles onto his forehead. He took a bottle of gasoline from his backpack, poured it in a circle on the ground, then struck a match and tossed it in.

The gasoline instantly ignited, forming a protective ring of fire around them.

A few giant rats that had just scrambled through the flames were instantly set alight, turning into fiery vermin that shrieked and scurried about in agony.

The ring of fire held back the swarm for the moment, but Shen Feng’s expression turned grim.

The number of rats was too great. One shot could kill a dozen at most, which was a drop in the ocean compared to the thousands upon thousands in the swarm.

What’s more, some rats were already scaling the vaulted ceiling again, preparing to pounce on their two prey from above.

Not only were these rats enormous, but they also had a frenzied look, as if rabid!

A single rat’s attack might be negligible, but an endless swarm could strip a person to the bone in an instant!

Shen Feng’s eyes narrowed as his skin began to rapidly petrify. He said in a low voice,

"Get on my back. We’re breaking out!"

Firefly raised a submachine gun and looked at the flames with concern.

"The flames will attract the Corpse Melting Monsters. We have to get out of here, fast! Close your eyes!"

Shen Feng froze. He saw Firefly had thrown off her jacket, revealing intricate patterns across her body. Suddenly, she released a blinding flash of light!

"SQUEAK—" The surrounding swarm reeled back from the searing light, retreating like a tide.

Firefly immediately grabbed Shen Feng’s hand and broke into a sprint.

"Hurry! The light can hold them back for a moment!"

Firefly was like a human flashbang. Every time the swarm tried to close in, another brilliant flash would erupt, carving a path through the horde.

"The Iron Country has almost no light. Here, light is a weapon!" Firefly shouted.

"But light also attracts predators from the darkness. We have to push through! My curse energy is almost gone!"

’So it’s light...’

Shen Feng nodded. He fished a large, high-intensity tactical flashlight out of his backpack and flicked the switch.

A brilliant beam of light shot out, illuminating the path ahead as if it were day!

Many of the rats were instantly blinded by the intense light. In their panic, they began to attack one another.

This thing was incredibly bright. It didn’t have the searing heat of Firefly’s power, but its advantage was that it was continuous!

Firefly stared, a bit stunned, at the tactical flashlight in Shen Feng’s hand.

She had seen electric lights at the farm in the Death Forest, but she’d never imagined one could be this bright!

"Don’t just stand there, lead the way," Shen Feng said, giving her cheek a quick pinch.

’Jeez, girl. You can’t even outlast a flashlight.’

They sprinted for two full station lengths before finally shaking off the rat swarm. Then they continued onward and downward.

Along the way, Shen Feng saw numerous desiccated skeletons, dilapidated billboards from a bygone civilization, and empty, cobweb-covered vending machines.

The walls and vaulted ceilings of some stations were covered in graffiti painted with a reddish-brown pigment.

Some of the graffiti depicted scenes of peace and beauty, while others were frenzied and chaotic. There were even scrawled phrases like "Help me" and "I don’t want to die."

One drawing, with the clumsy brushwork of a kindergartener, was particularly chilling:

A group of people were gathered around a bonfire next to an abandoned subway car. Roasting over the fire... was another person.

Judging by the faded colors of the graffiti, they had to be at least a hundred years old.

They might have even been left by the first wave of passengers trapped here after the nuclear war.

The artists behind the graffiti had surely long since turned to dust and bone, but perhaps their descendants had survived, multiplying in the sunless depths of the Iron Country.

In Shen Feng’s world, the Old Demon City subway was over 700 kilometers long.

In this world, however, it was bound to be even longer, the space far more vast.

Perhaps even thousands of kilometers.

The intricate web of original subway lines, combined with countless other tunnels and passages dug later, formed a colossal, maze-like subterranean world large enough to support hundreds of thousands of people.

What puzzled Shen Feng even more was that the tunnels here seemed to be in a state of constant expansion, a process that had never ceased.

He could see signs of collapse in many areas, but they had clearly been dug out again later.

A 1.5-meter-thick concrete wall could block gamma radiation, and the subway system was typically about thirty meters underground.

When the nuclear bombs fell on the city above, it was hard to say who was luckier: those on the surface, or those buried in the subway below.

The rats were gone, but Shen Feng could now hear other sounds echoing from down the tunnels—faint whispers and what sounded like the scuttling footsteps of worms. And they were growing more numerous.

Clearly, the gunshots, fire, and light had alerted many creatures deep within the Iron Country. Like sharks drawn to blood, they were now converging on their location.

"Careful. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back, but if I remember right, the territory of the Worm Tribe is just ahead. They’re skilled at herding worms... and just as skilled at cooking human flesh," Firefly whispered. "We’ll slip past along the edge..."

The words had barely left her mouth when four or five dark figures leaped from the vaulted ceiling, brandishing a large net woven from grass and tree roots. They cast it down, trapping Shen Feng and Firefly.

From the darkness on the ground, figures rose up—Worm Shepherds who had been lying in ambush. They held long spears tipped with steel and completely surrounded Shen Feng and Firefly.

They were short and hairless, with pale skin. Like a pack of beasts crawled up from Hell, their voices were raw and hoarse.

"Hehehe, outsiders! Food! Delicious!"

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"You’ve entered the Iron Country! You’re trapped in a cage now, our prey!"

The Worm Shepherds’ chatter was chaotic and noisy, yet every one of them was grinning from ear to ear as they thrust their spears toward Shen Feng and Firefly.

A complex stew is delicious, to be sure, but simple kebabs can be just as tasty.