Three people were covered with a large net and lay on the ground in a mess, trying to break free. A strange and sharp laugh was heard, which scared the three people.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp! I caught three more small fish. What a great catch today! My kids will have something to eat!"

The three of them looked through the mesh in the direction of the sound and saw a little old man, just over four feet tall, standing at the entrance of the cave with his hands behind his back. His gray cotton jacket was old and dirty. Bright light shone in from behind him, casting a shadow on his face, making his features unclear.

Ma Ben originally thought that the person who ambushed them was an orc warrior, but when he saw that it was an old Chinese man, dressed like a nearby villager, he was not as panicked as he was at the beginning.

"Happy New Year, fellow countryman! We are Chinese soldiers, conducting exercises nearby and looking for our lost companions. We have no ill intentions!"

The old man didn't respond, but blew a whistle. More than a hundred big rats rushed out of the air-raid shelter, picked up the big net on the ground, and dragged the three people out of the air-raid shelter.

Jiang Ling fell to the ground. When she looked up, she saw a big rat with two-inch-long front teeth biting the net rope, almost touching her face. She screamed in fright and fainted.

Ma Ben was startled when he saw the group of large rats. He shouted, "Are you a beast tamer?"

The old man laughed strangely a few times, without answering, and commanded the mice to drag the three people like dead dogs and run towards a small village not far away.

The little old man sat on a simple sled made of a tree trunk. A group of mice took the rope in front of the sled and pulled the little old man across the snow.

Ma Ben was no longer optimistic at this time. Although the old man was not a Russian orc, he seemed to have no intention of letting them go. Ma Ben secretly raised the gun in his hand, intending to fire a burst of bullets at the old man. Blank bullets could not kill people, but they could injure him, so that he could take the opportunity to escape.

"ah--!"

Before Ma Ben's finger touched the trigger, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his hand and the gun fell out of his hand. He looked down and saw several big rats lying on his body, staring at him with red eyes. One of them had blood on its teeth. It was the rat that had just bitten Ma Ben's back of the hand.

Several rats were also lying on He Youfang and Jiang Ling's necks, ready to rip open their carotid arteries if they moved. Jiang Ling had already fainted from fear, and He Youfang was no better, staring at the rats on top of him, as if he had been immobilized by a spell, powerless to resist.

The old man seemed to have eyes on the back of his head. He knew what Ma Ben was going to do and had already ordered the mice to crawl into the mesh to control them.

"Jijijiji, you little brat, you're still trying to play tricks in front of me, an old immortal. It's so funny!"

Ma Ben covered his bleeding right hand and muttered in his heart: What kind of rat is this? It can bite my hand and make it bleed even through the tactical gloves!

Ma Ben gritted his teeth and asked angrily, "Who are you? Where are you taking us?"

"Jijijiji, didn't you say you wanted to find your companions? They're staying in the village ahead. I'm helping you reunite! As for my name, the old immortal, you're not worthy of knowing it, little kid—!"

No one knew what kind of mice the old man had tamed, but they were incredibly strong. They were dragging three fully armed adults with large and small bags across the snow at a speed comparable to a dog sled. However, the three people in the net bag were bruised and battered by tree stumps and stones, and were in great pain.

After a while, the group of people and a group of big rats entered Wujia Village, a small village with only a dozen households. The houses were all made of earthen bricks, and the windows were sealed with kraft paper and plastic sheets, many of which were blown to pieces by the north wind.

Ma Ben looked out through the net bag and found that there was not a single villager in the village. Most of the houses were abandoned. Only the largest courtyard in the middle had white smoke coming out of the chimney of the earthen house, which showed signs of human habitation. They were moving towards the big house.