Rat Poison?

"What information is it? Why didn't you tell me about that before?"

[I had to see how good you decide on how to teach you and the game manager only allows me to teach you if you survive the first three rounds.]

"So, you mean every one of the players will be getting this information now?"

[No, everyone's information will be different. I am a man who lived most of my life in a village. So, the information you get will be based on my take on how to deal with these things. If the mentor of some other guy is a soldier, then he would give out the soldier's approach on these things.]

"I don't know how to feel about it. Anyway, give me that information. I need to prepare for the next round. I got battered this time around."

[I will give you, but before that go and check your rewards for this round and then we will talk.]

Aditya went to the washroom and looked through the rewards.

This time the rewards are a bit different.

He got one Physical AIP which didn't surprise him much and then he got something called a Healing potion. Along with that, his wisdom attribute increased by two points.

It is a large glass bottle filled with some green liquid. When he was about to claim the reward, a prompt came at his face.

[Insufficient Inventory space.]

[Go to Shop.] Ram suggested from the side and Aditya did as he was told.

There he saw a new option and an old option that reappeared.

[STRENGTH ATTRIBUTE IMPROVEMENT PACKAGE: 10 Points

AGILITY ATTRIBUTE IMPROVEMENT PACKAGE: 10 Points

ENDURANCE ATTRIBUTE IMPROVEMENT PACKAGE: 10 Points

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES IMPROVEMENT PACKAGE: 40 Points

INVENTORY SLOT: 30 Points

HEALING POTION: 60 Points.]

"Thirty points? I remember it being ten."

[Well, your memory is right. But the price increases as the number of slots increase.]

"Thanks for that."

Aditya grudgingly bought the Inventory slot and then claimed the reward. The AIP went into the empty slot and the healing potion went into another one.

"All my slots are full. I need to use the AIP as fast as I can. This time, I need to prepare properly. Anyway, you said you have some information, so quickly tell me."

[Okay, okay. Don't be too anxious. The thing is, the creatures that are coming at you are genetically modified by the game system to increase their size and also keep their abilities proportionate to that size.

They also forcefully make them act against their fears making them come at you like that even though, they are extremely afraid of fire and impact.

But some of their basic instincts and biological defects are still the same. In fact, they became worse with the size.

Their metabolism increases a lot and it makes everything they take in to be digested faster than normal. Do you understand what I am saying?]

Aditya thought for a moment and said.

"No, I don't get it. What has their eating habits and metabolism got anything to do with this?"

[I knew you wouldn't get it. I will give you an example. Rats and mice and all kinds of other rodents don't react well to caffeine and baking soda.

Baking soda in particular reacts with the acids inside and creates a lot of gas making it die slowly. Now, for an enlarged rat, the stomach acids are a hundred times more acidic and the reaction time would be faster than ever. So, if you manage to throw a large enough-sized baking soda inside, it would definitely die.]

"Rats will die if they ate baking soda?" This is the first question Aditya asked.

He never knew that was possible. After all, if they had a rat problem at home, all they do is buy rat poison. In fact, he is actually thinking of buying large quantities of poison to kill these things, but he realized that he wouldn't be able to afford it and with the unpredictability related to what kind of creatures will come in each round, there is no way he would be able to cover his losses.

[Yes, they would die.]

"How come no one knows about it?"

[You are the one who doesn't know about it. It is not even some secret. I am pretty sure you can find it on that thing called the internet.]

Aditya nodded and immediately searched and he was surprised. Baking Soda is indeed a great way to make poison bait for rats and it is a lot less toxic to humans than rat poison.

[Now, this poison works on rabbits, mice, and bandicoots too. Do you understand?]

"Yes. I understand."

[In the same way…]

"No, stop." Aditya cut him off immediately.

[What?]

"I don't need any more information now. Even if I prepare for too many things, it wouldn't be beneficial for me.

For the next round, I want to be prepared on all fronts. First, I am going to select a place with rats as my next round spot. I will try to use your trick and see how well it works. Along with that, I will have my preparation with the petrol I bought.

I don't need too much information for now. It would only confuse me more."

[You are more self-aware than before. Seems like the Wisdom attribute is working there.]

"Yeah, but I am doubting the intelligence attribute. Why couldn't I understand what you are hinting at when you spoke about their metabolism and digestion?"

[I don't know. You think about it yourself.]

Aditya didn't talk with me any further and went back to the room. He slept early and woke up early.

He exercised a lot that day. With the attribute increase, the regular jogging really didn't do much for him. So, he ran double the amount in half the time and went on with doing some body-weight exercises.

He felt refreshed and relaxed with the sweat for some reason. Halfway through he actually met Sanjay who joined for exercise.

"What are you doing here?" Aditya asked in confusion.

"I work out regularly. It is just that I couldn't get into routine because of the new place."

"Why do you even need to work out? You are going to exercise for volleyball practice right?"

"Yeah, I would. But I like working out."