Chapter 167

An interesting Props.

Similar to the Rat King Ring, it also has the effect of searching for 「treasure」.

「Rat King Token: Special Props」

「Props effect: After use, you can summon ordinary mice; the more mental power you inject, the more you summon。」

「The summoned mouse swarm is limited to ordinary creatures; the summoned mouse swarm will bring 'belongings' to seek refuge with you。」

「You can give them simple commands。」

「Props explanation: The hardworking mice will bring their families to seek refuge with you; please treat them kindly。」

「Note: The belongings the mice carry could be anything they can bring; perhaps there will be a surprise。」

Lin An hesitated for a moment but still chose to hang the token on his waist.

Although it seems somewhat unreliable?

But it is ultimately a summoning Props.

Fortunately, the token is just a piece of unknown metal, unlike the 【Cannibalize】 prop which is half a mouse head.

As for the 'surprise' mentioned in the description...

I didn't hold out much hope.

These summoned ordinary mice are probably just things like moldy dried fruit, smelly socks, nut shells, and the like.

After all, the treasure hoarded by their rat king is nothing more than some 'trash'.

However, the props dropped by the rat king mutant are quite interesting.

Most of them are related to treasure hunting and summoning.

It seems the dropped items are closely related to the monster's abilities while alive.

Lin An glanced at the black dragon on his wrist, a flicker of curiosity passing through his eyes.

I don't know if chopping off the black dragon...

Will it possibly drop an S-rank skill book along with equipment and props?

"I... am... poor..."

Seeming to sense danger, the little guy suddenly stammered in his sea of consciousness, then turned its direction, moving its head beneath his wrist to continue sleeping.

Lin An was speechless.

Does this thing even sense what he's thinking?

But it's just a thought.

As the black dragon is his greatest reliance against future Fourth Rank entities, he wouldn't go so far as to kill the goose for the eggs.

Moreover, he is quite interested in being a dragon rider, fighting while mounted on a dragon.

The vehicle shook, and the scenery outside the window flashed by.

Lin An spoke up to the meditating Mo Ling:

"How effective is the flesh puppet?"

After the granary let out a shrill cry three minutes ago, the little loli has been sitting blankly in her seat.

It seems she has been communicating something with her consciousness.

Indecisiveness and pity have never been Lin An's style.

Since that group harbors ulterior motives and poses a risk of exposing the base, he certainly couldn't let them live.

In the apocalypse, there shouldn't be too many people who can't see the situation clearly.

Those who don't die now will eventually die anyway.

Along the way, Liang Shaoguang also briefly introduced the situation of those survivors.

After the apocalypse broke out, he joined the military for protection, and after escaping he encountered Liang Shaoguang again.

Therefore, these people simply didn't realize what the apocalypse meant.

In their view, they are ordinary people who ought to be protected by the strong.

As for work?

Everyone present knows the style of the Hua Guo military; unless absolutely necessary, these young soldiers won't let them lift a finger.

And Liang Shaoguang is warm-hearted, with little scheming.

Thus, since the apocalypse began, they have never suffered hardship.

They never considered that in the apocalypse, people without value have no right to survive.

They still habitually take their so-called experience for granted when thinking about things.

I'm weak, so I'm right; you should give me what you have extra.

I can sweet‑talk you into giving me things with just a few nice words; even if discovered, it's no big deal.

So Lin An also couldn't be bothered to deal with these people.

Better to make use of waste, using them to test the effect of the flesh puppet.

He remains quite interested in the effect of the Cannibalize prop.

Before handing the Cannibalize prop to Mo Ling, he had already thought about what other uses the flesh puppet might have.

Thinking of Wang Teng, whom he met earlier at the mall—the Awakened One who self‑destructs like a cicada.

He then realized that perhaps such summon‑type props could serve as a mobile 'eye' to gather intelligence.

He just didn't know whether Mo Ling could communicate with it, or if it even had that capability.

Mo Ling heard the voice, slowly lifted his head, brows furrowed tightly:

"Flesh puppet..."

"Very weak."

It's probably a bit weaker than ordinary zombies.

Lin An wasn't surprised; the flesh-and-blood puppets transformed from ordinary people's roars naturally had little combat power.

Weak points don't matter; we can replace the flesh-and-blood puppets later.

Can you control them, or share their vision?

The little loli hesitated and shook her head:

No images are transmitted; only a vague perception.

I can give them simple commands; if there's something nearby, I can also vaguely sense it.

But the farther the distance, the worse the perception effect.

Perhaps if the flesh-and-blood puppets' strength increases, the effect will improve a bit.

Lin An lightly tapped his fingertip on the car window, lost in thought.

It's barely passable, although the effect is somewhat worse than imagined.

But it can barely serve as an "eye".

The flesh-and-blood puppets look like ordinary zombies; mixing into the corpse horde, their concealment is still strong.

If an outsider enters the granary, they will surely be sensed.

It's a pity that the Devouring Prop can control at most three flesh-and-blood puppets.

Otherwise, if we could control a few more and toss them into the zombies outside the base, they could still serve as a warning.

No one would notice that a flesh-and-blood puppet among a group of zombies is actually the base's "eye".

Lin An closed his eyes and sat resting in his seat; the people in the car chattered excitedly.

The reason is simple: the chat channel is about to open.

After all communication means were cut off following the apocalypse, a chat channel that could soon contact the entire Huaxia war zone was too important for them.

However, everyone had been issued a silence order by Lin An.

Anyone who had any intention of revealing Lin An's and the base's information

Execute on the spot!

Captain Lin!

You say with several billion people talking at once, the channel won't turn into a chaotic mess?

That would be tens of millions of messages flooding the screen every second!

It'll be incredibly lively in there from now on!

Zhang Tie looked curious, his eyes fixed on the chat channel countdown.

Lin An helplessly glanced at the chattering black bear.

The chat channel can support nearly tens of billions of people chatting simultaneously, but the problem is that aside from the initial surge of messages

Later, the number of messages won't be too large, and most people will be sparing with their words.

The reason is simple.

Speaking consumes physical and mental strength.

If not for the system giving a prompt before activation, many would even die from the sudden consumption.

Each character consumes a large amount of calories, physical strength.

Many people, in their initial excitement, sent messages searching for relatives; typing too much, they ended up being literally drained into corpses.

By the mid-stage, spiritual-energy food appeared, and major forces and Awakened Ones would use the channel to release and exchange some information.

Ordinary people can't even fill their stomachs; where would they get extra energy to expend?

There are pros and cons.

The advantage is that there's almost no junk in the chat channel; nobody would waste energy on non‑essential messages.

The disadvantage is that ordinary people hardly have a chance to speak; they can only watch silently.

It's open! It's open!

The convoy suddenly burst into excited shouts; everyone held their breath, watching the countdown hit zero.

At the same time, survivors worldwide, numbering over ten billion, simultaneously halted all unnecessary activities.

Nervous, uneasy.

Beep, global announcement:

The chat channel has been opened; each major war zone can send messages within its war‑zone communication channel.

Note: each message sent consumes energy; adults can send at most 10 bytes per message.

Currently, 36 major war zones have been opened, each divided into 10 minor war zones, for a total of 360 war zones.

Huaxia War Zone: 2102198716 people (East Huaxia War Zone, North Huaxia War Zone, South Huaxia War Zone...)

Brahma War Zone: 1789171819 people (Haryana War Zone, Changjadi'er War Zone...)

North America War Zone: 1019040001 people (Green Islands War Zone, Karnal War Zone, Merricken War Zone...)

In the Huaxia War Zone capital Meeting Room, Nie Ping slowly set down the report in his hand and let out a sigh.