Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 197 The Mutant Rat King
There shouldn't be any large creatures in this ruined town, otherwise they would have emerged during the battle.

So despite the five of them being vigilant the whole way, nothing unexpected happened until they arrived at the five-story building.

This is probably a shopping mall or some kind of office building, both of which are solid reinforced concrete structures. However, the southeast corner of the third floor looks like it was punched by the Hulk, with a huge hole in it.

“There might be mutated creatures hiding in this building. Everyone be careful. Honey, you and Xiaowei stay outside and keep watch. Li Qiao and Xiaoyue, you two come in with me to search.”

Li Guilin whispered an instruction, "That makes sense. Archers aren't good at close combat."

At that moment, Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi each guarded one side of the building. Li Guilin and the other two entered from the first floor. Soon after, they heard squeaking of mice inside, but the mice were quickly dealt with.

In less than ten minutes, Li Guilin and his two companions searched from the first floor to the rooftop in one go. It went very smoothly, and apart from some mutated rats, there were no other creatures.

The family then met up on the first floor.

"I think this place can serve as our temporary camp."

Li Guilin emphasized again that a large gap needed to be blocked in the underground parking lot, but a lot of time was saved in this building.

“Yes, I just checked it too. The main structure of the building is fine. As long as we don’t encounter any particularly powerful mutated creatures, it won’t matter where we choose to build our camp. The most urgent thing is that if we want to stay here for a long time, we need to start some work. There’s a vacant lot to the west of this building, which we can use to clear land and farm!”

Li Qiao also spoke up, and after speaking, he deliberately glanced at Li Wei, saying, "I know your primary profession is farming. I'm doing this for your own good, so please agree quickly."

“I also think this is a suitable transitional camp; we can’t waste any more time,” Liang Yuzhi added.

Alright, three votes in favor, then there's nothing more to say.

"I agree. We can continue to search for usable supplies in other ruins, but everyone must be careful. Also, I think we need to carefully clarify the responsibilities of each person, such as daytime warnings and nighttime watch, as well as the storage and processing of food."

At this moment, Li Yue seized the opportunity to make a suggestion.

“Okay, I’ll take charge of daytime alerts and night watch.” Li Wei stopped hesitating at this point. He had already earned 135 contribution points in advance, so he was now looking to play it safe.

“Then I’ll be in charge of food storage and processing. I think we can set aside an area on the fourth floor as a storage room. Also, we should try to stay on the fourth floor at night. Let’s just block up the passage between the first and second floors. We can build a rope ladder at the opening on the third floor for easy access and also for guarding.”

“That’s right, let’s do it this way, but we can eat first.” Li Guilin made the final decision. Almost simultaneously, he also took out two units of food and two units of water and donated them to the family, successfully gaining 15 contribution points. His accumulated contribution points had reached 50 points. He had just killed a few more mutated rats.

However, each person can only donate 10 units of food and water. This means that, excluding Li Wei who does not intend to donate, the family's current food rations can only last for three or four days, making it imperative to find new food sources.

In addition, we must also consider farming.

But without a stable camp, farming is unrealistic.

Li Wei thought to himself, feeling that this start was a bit difficult, and for the time being, there didn't seem to be a better way.

After a fairly substantial lunch, the family of five tacitly went about their respective tasks.

Since it has been confirmed that there are no large mutated creatures in the ruined town, there is no need to adopt the strategy from this morning.

Liang Yuzhi went to the fourth floor to prepare the storage room. They also needed a processing room to handle the rat meat they had just obtained.

Li Qiao then began moving concrete blocks to build stone walls on the first floor to block the entrances and exits. Once the camp was completed, he would contribute to this effort.

As for Li Guilin and Li Yue, they each chose a building ruin to start digging. Their purpose, of course, was to hunt down those mutated rats. Now that they had a chef, ineffective donations could be avoided. Moreover, these mutated rats were very easy to kill; killing one would earn them a contribution.

Isn't that wonderful?

So what if Li Wei's contribution is leading?

It's just a hundred or so mutated rats! No problem, no problem!

Seeing everyone else engrossed in their activities, Li Wei remained unhurried. Instead, he carried the Bloodthirsty Spear and dagger and walked around the ruined town. He first figured out the town's layout, then carefully examined each collapsed building, attempting to reconstruct how they collapsed from a mechanical perspective.

I also took the opportunity to search the few buildings that had luckily not collapsed.

As expected, there was nothing else besides some mutated rats.

The mutated rats had devoured almost everything edible, even wooden planks and electrical wires. The only useful things to find in the ruins would probably be concrete blocks and bricks.

This town is a bit lacking in resources!

Of course, if it's purely farming, it should be alright?
Li Wei went to the fields outside the town and grabbed a handful of soil. Sure enough, the soil was incredibly fertile, almost like it was dripping with oil, even more fertile than the soil in the valley in the beginner's quest.

Could it be that the land absorbed some of the magical radiation?

"In short, farming is definitely not a problem, and it's not difficult to have enough to eat. The key is that this town has no natural defenses, so it will be a bit difficult to develop it into an expanded territory in the future." At this moment, Li Wei thought of the limestone mine he found in the beginner mission world. Did he have to burn limestone, mine stones, and build city walls?

But could those city walls be stronger than buildings made of reinforced concrete?
"Also, what happened to this town in the first place? Where did the survivors go? It's only early spring here now, and you can see traces of melting snow, but there are no traces of human footprints or other mechanical vehicles."

"There wasn't even a trace of a giant mutated creature."

Li Wei frowned slightly, feeling as if she had overlooked something.
In the circle he just walked around, he found a total of twelve butterflies, thirty-seven spiders, nine small birds, several ant nests, and at least a hundred beetles of various kinds. They all looked normal, and although there might be subtle radiation mutations in their bodies, they were not obvious and might need time to gradually change.

However, the rats under the town ruins mutated much faster than those around the town. Of course, this may be because the surface and underground are two different ecosystems, and there may be some irradiated groundwater passing through.
"Furthermore, based on the current situation, can we draw a preliminary conclusion that the pollution and erosion caused by the source of magic on this planet can be divided into severely affected areas, lightly affected areas, or even areas without any disasters?"

"In this way, those mutated creatures will instinctively head to the disaster area, and those powerful superhumans will also follow their instincts to the disaster area."

"And where we are is a light disaster zone. No wonder Hathaway said the first six months would be relatively safe."

"But a magical zombie siege is bound to break out in the future. What could be the reason for this? Is it due to intermittent bursts of magical energy within the hardest-hit areas, or something else?"

"Those superhumans can maintain their rationality under normal circumstances, but they lose control when their magical energy fluctuates and erupts?"

Li Wei walked around the town, looking around and thinking. He thought a lot and finally determined a few key points.

First, their location is in a lightweight disaster area, so the chance of encountering a BOSS is almost zero. However, there might be some elite monsters or mini-BOSSes caused by random variables, such as the mutated vulture.

Secondly, the current stage is a period of stable radiation from the source of magic, and there is no need to worry about the magic zombies going out of control within the next six months.

Third, the patterns of the magical source radiation fluctuations may be orderly or artificially controlled, but in any case, the pioneering camp must reach a certain defense standard before the end of the three years.

Fourth, unlike the beginner missions, where you only need to build a temple and gain the gods' approval to complete the mission, here you need to gain the special 'approval' of the magical zombies—simply by killing them all.

Fifth, in the beginner missions, you can achieve victory once and for all by defeating the final boss, but there is no such thing as a final boss in this chaotic killing world. There may be countless bosses; kill one and a group will appear, kill a group and a whole bunch will appear.

"Therefore, the role of the Expansion Card becomes apparent. It is a hidden reward that may be related to the survival of the expanded territory in the later stages."

About an hour later, Li Wei returned to the temporary camp with five mutated rats. Killing one of these rats would give you one contribution point, but donating ten would only give you one contribution point.

I feel that the donation rewards are somewhat disproportionate to the kill rewards.

Is it because rat meat doesn't taste good?
Even so, Li Wei still chose to donate, because food would run out in a few days, and this time her father wouldn't be able to bring them supplies and tools with a horse-drawn cart to help them get started.

Now that chefs are in charge of receiving and processing the food, it's impossible for donations to be invalidated.

In fact, Li Guilin, Li Qiao, and Li Yue have almost become rat-catching masters, constantly finding mutated rats one after another. It's truly a great harvest.

It's expected that by evening, all three of them will be able to reach around 80 contribution points, which is too easy.

Even Liang Yuzhi reaped considerable rewards.

"The closer we get to the town center, the more mutated rats there are. Could there be a mini-boss lurking over there?"

Li Wei frowned, his unease growing stronger. He wanted to step forward and offer some advice, but what could he say?
What do you think? What do you think?!

You're talking nonsense without any evidence.

Maybe Li Guilin, Li Qiao, and Li Yue think the same way: if a minor boss dares to show up, just kill him.

And so, around 4 p.m., Li Guilin's contribution had already taken a commanding lead, breaking the 100-point mark first. Seriously, it was so satisfying to rack up these contributions; it was incomparable to any other task. The five of them had only spent half a day to quickly reach a total contribution of 500 points.

"what……"

A shrill scream suddenly rang out, startling Li Wei, who was patrolling the outskirts of the town. Then he saw smoke and dust billowing and the ground shaking in the ruins in the center of the town, as if something huge was about to be born.

Oops!

The thought had barely crossed my mind when lines of bloody information appeared on my screen!
A four-star mutated rat king caused the landslide.

[Family member Li Guilin was trapped in the mud and unable to move, then was ambushed and killed by a four-star mutated rat king!]

[Family member Li Qiao was ambushed and killed by a four-star mutated rat king!]

Because of the Explorer Card you possess, they only lost one three-star profession card each and have safely returned to base. You have obtained their legacy, and you can randomly draw one type of resource or equipment from their legacy.

Since the mutated rat king launched its attack from underground, you are not responsible and will not be punished.

(End of this chapter)