The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

"Gulp... Uh..."

Only a very short, muffled groan, squeezed by the liquid, came from underwater.

Then came a series of teeth-grinding, faint sounds, like bones being crushed.

Li Haotian leaned against the wall at the alley entrance, quietly smoking.

His eyes were closed, but the [Hive Mind] synchronized everything that happened at the bottom of the reservoir into his mind with the most real and direct sensory signals.

There were no screams.

There was no struggle.

There was only a dull operating sound, similar to that of a high-powered mixer starting up.

He "senses" how the Devourer's mouthparts, covered with layers of sharp teeth, precisely covered the "Water Ghost's" entire head.

Then, they come together and rotate.

Flesh and blood, bones, and even the B-grade talent core that the "Water Ghost" was so proud of were all instantly decomposed and ground into the purest energy.

A clear, warm current carrying a rich, extraordinary energy surged from the Devourer's digestive system, instantly flowing throughout its entire body.

"It tastes good."

"It's very nutritious."

In his mind, Li Haotian gave a fair assessment.

It felt like eating an extremely compressed energy bar, high in protein and tasting like chicken.

He could even sense that after absorbing this "nourishment," the Devourer's mutated body had become more resilient in its stratum corneum, and its original size of only one meter long had subtly grown larger.

"Done, job done."

Li Haotian issued the order.

At the bottom of the reservoir, the monster, which had just finished "feeding," arched its body slightly.

Its newly formed limbs gently pushed off the silt at the bottom of the pool, and its entire body shot out like an arrow, silently disappearing into the drainage pipe from which it had come, vanishing into the darkness in an instant.

The water surface returned to calm, with only faint ripples spreading outwards.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Li Haotian threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out with his toe.

He took out his phone, hailed a ride-hailing car, and set the location to Cloud Top Villa.

After doing all this, he acted as if nothing had happened, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly walked out of the alley.

……

at the same time.

An abandoned flood discharge outlet less than two kilometers from the No. 3 waterworks.

An outdoor streamer with the ID "Crazy Mouse" is holding a selfie stick, pointing it at his phone camera, and looking very enthusiastic.

"Family members! My friends! Look behind me!"

"This is the legendary 'Ghost Cry Mouth,' where many people are said to have drowned in the past!"

He turned the camera to the huge, dark concrete pipe behind him, which was constantly emitting a foul odor.

"The whole city is suffering from stomach problems today. The officials say it's due to water pollution, but do you believe that?"

"Today, I, the Mad Mouse, will take you to uncover the truth!"

"Let's see what kind of monsters and demons are hiding in this so-called source of pollution!"

His live stream chat was flooded with comments.

[Crazy Bro is awesome! This place looks terrifying!]

[Watch out, streamer! Don't fall! There's probably a ton of trash below.]

[It's scripted again. I bet five cents a 'mystery man' in a white coat will definitely jump out later.]

Crazy Mouse chuckled as he looked at the comments.

"Don't worry, everyone, I brought the full set of equipment. I'm a professional!"

As he spoke, he took out a probe with a wire attached from his backpack and slowly extended it into the murky water.

"Let's test the composition of this water first, and see if the data in the official report is accurate!"

He interacted with the viewers in the live stream while operating the device.

"Thanks to 'Uncle Wang next door' for the airplane! Uncle Wang is so generous!"

Follow us and you won't get lost! A small gift here, and you'll live to ninety-nine!

Just as he fully immersed the probe in the water, preparing to read the data.

In the live stream, sharp-eyed viewers suddenly noticed something.

[Holy crap! Did something just go through the water?]

[I saw it too! A dark shadow! So fast!]

What is that? Where is it? I can't see it.

Crazy Mouse was stunned for a moment; he hadn't even had time to read the comments.

He only felt the line in his hand being gently snagged by something underwater.

"Huh? It's stuck at the bottom?"

He muttered something to himself and instinctively tried to lift the probe up.

In that very instant.

Suddenly, a huge bubble rose from the water in front of him with a "glug".

Immediately afterwards, a bluish, gel-like contaminant rose from the depths of the pipe.

That was the residue of the "holy water" that the "water ghost" had poured out earlier.

"Family members! Look! This is the source of the pollution!"

Crazy Mouse got excited instantly and quickly pointed the camera at the glowing blue object.

"Exclusive scoop! This thing is definitely not from Earth!"

He was explaining with great enthusiasm, spittle flying everywhere.

Sudden.

A black afterimage shot out like lightning from the darkness of the pipe without warning.

It didn't even cause much of a ripple on the water.

It just flashed past that blob of blue pollutant.

Then, under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of viewers in the live stream.

The glowing blue pollutant disappeared into thin air, as if it had been erased by an eraser.

Immediately afterwards, the fleeting black shadow disappeared into the other end of the pipe without a trace.

The entire process was extremely fast, taking less than a second.

If the phone hadn't been recording, everyone would have thought they were seeing things.

The live stream fell into a deathly silence that lasted for three seconds.

Then, the comments section went crazy.

[! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 】

[What was that thing just now?! I screen-recorded it! I definitely screen-recorded it!]

[Water monkeys! Absolutely water monkeys! I knew water monkeys existed in this world!]

[That's not a water monkey! That's a scavenger! It swallows all the pollutants in one gulp?!]

Mad Mouse himself was dumbfounded.

He stared blankly at the empty water surface, then at the exploding barrage of comments on his phone, his mind completely blank.

"Huh...what is that?"

He stammered out a question.

The next second, he jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

He grabbed the selfie stick, pointed it at the camera, and screamed in a distorted voice, a mixture of extreme fear and ecstasy.

"Family members! Did you see that! Did you see that!"

"There's a monster in the water! There's a monster in the water!"

"There really is a ghost at Ghost Cry Mouth!"

His shout completely ignited the entire internet.

Less than ten minutes.

A blurry video titled "Anchor risked his life to film! Behind the water pollution in Donghai City, a mysterious creature was purifying it!" began to spread virally on various platforms.

In the video, only a long, dark shadow can be seen, rapidly engulfing the pollutants.

The image was shaky and blurry, filled with a sense of fear brought by the unknown.

Soon, various interpretations and derivative works emerged one after another.

Shocking! Water monkeys spotted in Donghai City's sewers; official denials follow!

A rational analysis suggests that it might be an unknown aquatic purification worm.

Stop guessing! My grandpa says that's a little deity sent by the Dragon King to clean the river!

A new urban legend, with a touch of absurdity, was born.

……

Inside a ride-hailing car heading to the Cloud Top Villas.

Li Haotian leaned back in the back seat, idly scrolling through his phone.

He looked at the trending topics on his phone about "sewer monkeys" and the video that was at the top of the list, with a picture quality so blurry it looked like a mosaic.

He couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"Water monkey?"

He shook his head.

"This generation of netizens still lacks imagination."

He casually locked his phone, tossed it aside, and closed his eyes, pretending to doze off.

To him, neither the "bishop's" conspiracy nor the city's panic was a game he could easily resolve.

And now, the game is over.

The rats are dead, and the sewers are clean.

perfect.

Just then, his old cell phone rang at an inopportune moment.

He glanced at the caller ID.

Qin Yue.

After thinking for a moment, Li Haotian pressed the answer button.

"Feed?"

There was no roaring or questioning on the other end of the phone, as I had imagined.

There was only a stifling silence.

Several seconds later, Qin Yue's voice, filled with intense fatigue and a hint of hoarseness, finally came through.

"You did it, didn't you?"