Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 197: The Mutant Rat King

There probably weren't any large creatures in this ruined town. If there were, they would have come out during the fight earlier.

So even though all five of them stayed on high alert the whole way, nothing unexpected happened by the time they reached the five-story building.

It appeared to be a shopping center, or possibly some kind of office building — solid reinforced concrete construction throughout. The southeast corner of the third floor, however, looked as though the Hulk had punched straight through it, leaving a massive hole.

"There might be mutated creatures hiding in this building. Everyone stay sharp. Honey, you and Little Wei keep watch outside. Li Jiao, Little Yue — come inside with me and sweep it."

Li Guilin gave the order in a low voice. It made sense — archers weren't suited for close-quarters fighting.

Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi took up positions on either side of the building while Li Guilin and the other two entered from the ground floor. Before long, the sounds of squeaking rats drifted out — quickly silenced.

In under ten minutes, the three of them had swept through from the ground floor all the way to the rooftop without incident. Aside from a few mutated rats, there was nothing else.

The family regrouped on the ground floor.

"I think this place will work as our temporary camp."

Li Guilin made a point of saying it explicitly. Compared to the underground parking lot, which would have required sealing a large number of gaps, this building saved them a great deal of time."Agreed. I had a look around just now — the main structure is sound. As long as we don't run into an especially powerful mutated creature — though if we did, it wouldn't matter where we built our camp anyway — the immediate priority is that if we're going to stay here long-term, we need to get certain things started. There's an open lot to the west of this building. Perfect for clearing and farming!"

Li Jiao spoke up, and deliberately glanced at Li Wei as he finished. 'I know your primary profession is Farmer. I'm doing you a favor here — just agree.'

"I also think this works as a transitional camp. We can't keep wasting time." Liang Yuzhi added.

Three votes. Nothing more to discuss.

"I agree too. We can keep searching the other ruins for usable supplies, but everyone needs to stay safe. I also think we should clearly divide up everyone's responsibilities — things like daytime lookout and night watch, and who handles food storage and processing."

Li Yue seized the opportunity to make her proposal.

"Fine. I'll handle daytime lookout and night watch." Li Wei stopped pushing back. He already had 135 Contribution points in the bank — from here on, playing it steady was the smarter move.

"Then I'll handle food storage and processing. I think we should section off part of the fourth floor as a storage room. We should also sleep on the fourth floor at night as much as possible — seal off the ground and second floor passages, and rig a rope ladder at the third-floor gap for getting up and down. Easier to defend too."

"Sounds right. Let's do that — but let's eat first." Li Guilin settled it with a word. Almost simultaneously, he produced two units of food and two units of water and donated them to the family, earning 15 Contribution points and bringing his total to 50. He'd also killed a few more mutated rats along the way.

Each person could only donate a maximum of 10 units of food and water. Setting aside Li Wei, who had no intention of donating, the family's current rations could only last three or four days at most. Finding a new food source was unavoidable.

Farming also needed to be considered seriously.

But without a stable camp, farming wasn't realistic.

Li Wei turned it over in his mind. The start of this mission felt genuinely difficult, and for the moment he couldn't see a better solution.

After a reasonably decent lunch, the family of five tacitly split up and got to work.

With it now confirmed that there were no large mutated creatures in the ruined town, the cautious strategy from the morning was no longer necessary.

Liang Yuzhi went up to the fourth floor to prepare the storage room, and to set up a workspace for processing the rat meat they'd collected.

Li Jiao began hauling concrete blocks to the ground floor to build stone walls, sealing off the entrances. Once the camp was established, there would be Contribution to earn from that work.

Li Guilin and Li Yue each picked a ruined building and started digging through it — hunting mutated rats. With a cook now available to receive and process the meat, invalid donations were no longer a concern. And mutated rats were easy kills: one rat, one Contribution point.

What wasn't to like?

So what if Li Wei had a Contribution lead?

It was just over a hundred mutated rats. Easy enough to close that gap!

While the others worked with obvious enthusiasm, Li Wei felt no urgency. Instead, he took his Bloodthirsty Spear and dagger and walked a full circuit around the ruined town — first mapping out the layout in his mind, then carefully examining each collapsed building, trying to reconstruct from a structural standpoint how each one had fallen.

He also searched through each of the buildings that had survived intact.

As expected, there was nothing beyond a few mutated rats. The rats had gnawed through everything edible — even wooden boards and electrical wiring hadn't been spared. If you wanted to find anything useful in the ruins, you'd be limited to concrete chunks and bricks.

The town's resources were pretty thin.

Though purely for farming, it might be workable.

Li Wei deliberately went to the fields outside the town and grabbed a handful of soil. Sure enough, it was extraordinarily rich — practically dripping with fertility, even more so than the soil in the valley from the Rookie Mission.

Perhaps the land had absorbed some of the magical radiation.

'In any case, farming should be fine. Keeping everyone fed won't be a problem. The real issue is that this town has no natural defenses. Turning it into a pioneer territory down the line is going to be a challenge.'

Li Wei found himself thinking back to the limestone deposits he'd discovered in the Rookie Mission world. Would they have to burn lime again, quarry stone, and build walls?

But could any stone wall be more solid than a reinforced concrete building?

'And another thing — what happened to this town originally? Where did the survivors go? It's early spring now, and you can see traces of melting snow, but there are no human footprints, no tracks from any kind of vehicle.'

'Not even any traces of large mutated creatures.'

Li Wei frowned slightly. He had the nagging feeling he was overlooking something.

In his circuit of the town, he'd spotted twelve butterflies, thirty-seven spiders, nine birds, several ant colonies, and at least a hundred various beetles. They all appeared normal on the surface — perhaps with minor internal radiation mutations, but nothing obvious. Maybe they just needed more time to mutate.

The rats in the ruins, however, had clearly mutated far faster than the creatures on the town's outskirts. Perhaps it was because the surface and underground represented two distinct ecosystems — maybe there was a contaminated underground water source running beneath the town.

'Also, based on the current situation, can we draw a preliminary conclusion? The magical contamination from the out-of-control source seems to be divided into heavily affected zones, lightly affected zones, and possibly unaffected zones on this planet.'

'If so, mutated creatures would instinctively migrate toward the heavily affected zones. And the powerful Ability Users would follow the same instinct.'

'Which means we're in a lightly affected zone. No wonder Hathaway said the first six months would be relatively safe.'

'But a Magic Zombie siege event will definitely happen eventually. What triggers it? Intermittent surges in the magical source within the heavily affected zones?'

'Ability Users who normally maintain their sanity lose control when the magical source spikes?'

Li Wei walked and thought, circling the town while scanning his surroundings. He considered many angles and eventually settled on a few key points.

First: their location was in a lightly affected zone. The probability of encountering a boss-level creature was nearly zero, but random variables might still produce elite enemies or minor bosses — like the mutated vultures.

Second: the current phase was a stable period for magical radiation. There was no need to worry about a Magic Zombie rampage event within the next six months.

Third: the pattern of magical radiation surges might be cyclical, or it might be artificially controlled. Either way, before the three-year mission ended, the pioneer camp would need to reach some minimum defensive standard.

Fourth: unlike the Rookie Mission, where building a Temple and earning divine recognition counted as clearing the mission, here they needed to earn a different kind of "recognition" from the Magic Zombies — by killing all of them.

Fifth: in the Rookie Mission, killing the final boss could end everything in one stroke. But in this Chaotic Killing World, there was no such thing as a final boss. They might come in endless waves — kill one, a group arrives; kill a group, a horde follows.

'That's where the Pioneering Card's value becomes clear — it's a hidden reward that could determine the pioneer territory's survival in the later stages.'

About an hour later, Li Wei returned to the temporary camp carrying five mutated rats. Killing one earned one Contribution point, but donating ten only earned one point.

The donation return felt disproportionately low compared to the kill reward.

Was it because rat meat tasted bad?

Even so, Li Wei chose to donate them. In a few days their food would run out, and this time there was no convenient "father" showing up with a cart full of starting supplies and tools.

Especially now that they had a cook to receive and process the food — invalid donations were no longer a risk.

In fact, Li Guilin, Li Jiao, and Li Yue had practically become champion rat-catchers by this point, steadily turning up mutated rats one after another. It was a genuine windfall.

By evening, the three of them would likely have farmed their Contribution up to around 80 points each. Almost too easy.

Even Liang Yuzhi was racking up a solid haul.

'The closer you get to the town center, the more mutated rats there are. Could there be a minor boss hiding in there?'

Li Wei frowned. The uneasy feeling in his gut was growing stronger. He wanted to say something, but what could he say?

A feeling? Just a feeling?

Without evidence, he had nothing.

And Li Guilin, Li Jiao, and Li Yue probably figured that if a minor boss did show up, they'd just kill it.

Time passed. Around four in the afternoon, Li Guilin's Contribution had surged far ahead of the others — he was the first to break the 100-point mark. Honestly, the farming was absurdly satisfying. Nothing from any other mission compared. In less than a full day, the five of them had collectively pushed their total Contribution close to 500 points.

"Ahhh—"

A piercing, agonized scream suddenly rang out. Li Wei, patrolling the town's outskirts, was startled. He snapped his gaze toward the ruins at the center of town — dust and debris were billowing up in massive clouds, the ground trembling, as though something enormous was about to claw its way out.

This was bad.

The thought had barely formed when a cascade of grim notifications flooded his vision.

[A Four-Star Mutant Rat King has triggered a collapse.]

[Family member Li Guilin has been buried in rubble and is unable to move. He has been ambushed and killed by the Four-Star Mutant Rat King!]

[Family member Li Jiao has been ambushed and killed by the Four-Star Mutant Rat King!]

[Because you are holding the Pioneering Card, they have each lost only one Three-Star Profession Card. They have safely returned to the main base. You have received their inheritance — you may randomly draw one item of supplies or equipment from their estate.]

[Since the Mutant Rat King attacked from underground, you bear no responsibility. You will not be penalized.]