Chapter 74: Rodent-Type Evolved Rats

Xia Qing said softly, "The most dangerous red Harmful Rain is falling, so plants may undergo aggressive Harmful Evolution. We can't take off our protective masks. Let's eat after the rain stops, okay?"

After saying that, Xia Qing pulled out a small piece of compressed ration to distract Sheep Boss.

Sheep Boss immediately abandoned the evolved perilla and trotted over to Xia Qing. "Baa—"

Sheep Boss's annoyingly cutesy bleat came through the earpiece into Xia Qing's brain. Xia Qing forcibly suppressed the urge to turn it into sliced lamb, stuffed the compressed biscuit into Sheep Boss's protective suit pocket, and continued upward with it.

Passing the alfalfa, Sheep Boss wanted to stop again. Xia Qing lost patience, grabbed its horns and forcibly dragged it upward, entering the green-light pumpkin terraces.

Fortunately, these five pumpkins had not undergone Harmful Evolution; continuing upward were scallion, ginger, garlic, and chive fields, also no Harmful Evolution—fortunate again; further up were three peanut terraces, still no Harmful Evolution—most fortunate.

Then Xia Qing returned to the terrace of another hundred cutting-propagated sweet potato vines below the three peanut fields, and removed twelve Harmful-Evolved sweet potato seedlings—still the ones near the left and right edges of the shed that had undergone Harmful Evolution.

After exiting the shed to reinforce the drainage ditch, Xia Qing took Sheep Boss back to the cabin.

After sealing the doors and windows tightly and pulling out an air detector to confirm there were no toxic gases indoors, Xia Qing finally removed her own and Sheep Boss's protective masks, gave Sheep Boss a hearty round of praise, then took out the small ration from its protective suit pocket, crumbled it, and mixed it into its feed.

While Sheep Boss ate its feed, Xia Qing munched on compressed rations to stave off hunger and replied to messages from Luo Pei, Beard Feng, and Sun Zhe, reporting that she was safe. It was now past three in the afternoon, and the red-level Harmful Rain had stopped.

Xia Qing set an alarm for half an hour, hurrying to rest and conserve energy for the Harmful Rain to come.

The walkie-talkie was silent; Lords Three, Four, and Five, like her, were also hurrying to rest.

Xia Qing instructed Sheep Boss, "Boss, I'm tired and need to nap for a bit. You watch the window. If you spot anything off, wake me up."

Based on Sheep Boss's performance when facing the Harmful-Evolved pumpkin vines, Xia Qing was certain this gluttonous sheep had a way to judge the danger level of Harmful-Evolved plants.

No wonder a single sheep could survive in the Evolution Forest.

After Sheep Boss finished its feed with its head buried, it clip-clopped to the bedside, watched Xia Qing for a while, then turned to stare out the window while chewing cud.

When the alarm woke Xia Qing, Sheep Boss was still maintaining its window-watching posture. Xia Qing rubbed its head. "Thanks, Boss. I'm rested. Let's continue patrolling the rain sheds. Coming with me?"

Sheep Boss could detect the danger of Harmful-Evolved plants; bringing it along was like carrying a danger early-warning device.

Sheep Boss's head turned toward the protective mask—its meaning obvious: it wanted to go too. Because patrolling the rain sheds meant getting tasty treats.

One person and one sheep, properly geared up, cleared over twenty Harmful-Evolved crops during the second patrol lap.

Then came the third lap, the fourth lap.

The rain stopped in the evening. A streak of light appeared in the west, and the sun, which had hidden all day, briefly showed its face before clocking off on time.

The sun was out; it shouldn't rain for the next two hours.

Xia Qing took advantage of this last light to climb onto the cabin roof, opening her sight and hearing fully to scan the buffer forest within Territory Three. Finding no obviously Harmful-Evolved large trees, she took Sheep Boss and headed home.

The path home was covered in knee-high Harmful grass, but it was much sparser than the Harmful grass that had sprouted during the first Harmful Rain two months ago. This was normal, because the residual Harmful grass roots and seeds in the soil had already been cleared once by Xia Qing, reducing their numbers.

Xia Qing put on thick gloves made from rainproof cloth, pulling Harmful grass as she walked and stuffing it into the two large baskets strapped to Sheep Boss. She didn't stop until she reached the two small rain sheds.

There were two small patches of red-light peanuts here. Although red-light plant fruits were inedible, Xia Qing still wanted to see if they would flower and bear fruit, so she had built two small five- or six-square-meter sheds for them too.

Xia Qing lifted the shed cloth and found that nearly a quarter of the red-light peanuts had undergone Harmful Evolution. Unfortunately, the Harmful Evolution in the peanuts only caused leaves to grow wildly—no flowering. After carefully touching them and confirming the Harmful-Evolved peanuts posed no danger, Xia Qing cleared them directly, stuffed them into the basket on Sheep Boss, and continued toward home.

By the time she and Sheep Boss returned to the home overgrown with Harmful grass in the yard, her mood immediately relaxed.

"Damn!"

Before Xia Qing could finish being moved, she cursed out loud. Because she spotted four evolved rats on the roof, gnawing at the rainproof cloth covering her solar panels!

Upon spotting the human appear, the evolved rats didn't just fail to flee—they bared their gleaming white incisors and issued a challenge.

Dare to tear apart my home, and I'll take your lives!

Xia Qing nimbly drew her handgun, aiming at the biggest, most arrogantly postured evolved rat—bigger than a goose—standing highest up.

"Pfft!"

The sound of the handgun fitted with a suppressor wasn't loud, but it was enough to blow apart the evolved rat's head!

Before the thoroughly dead giant evolved rat had even rolled off the solar panel, Xia Qing's second and third shots rang out. Each shot felled another rat.

At close range against the massive evolved rats, Xia Qing, with her ninefold visual evolution, didn't waste a single bullet. The last evolved rat, seeing its companions dead, immediately fled northward at top speed.

North lay the direction of the farmland!

"Boss, hold down the fort. I'm going rat-hunting." Xia Qing immediately gave chase to the rapidly fleeing rat. Her speed admittedly wasn't as fast as the rat's, but no matter how fast the rat was, it couldn't escape Xia Qing's line of sight within a few seconds. If she couldn't catch up, she'd use her gun.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

After five shots from the unsuppressed submachine pistol, Xia Qing, murderous aura blazing, stuffed the last evolved rat—which had taken four wasted bullets to kill—into a sealed bag, masked the bloody scent on the ground, and hurried back home.

Without pausing to check the solar panels, Xia Qing immediately cleaned the battlefield and sprayed odor neutralizer, to prevent the blood scent from attracting other evolved creatures.

After cleaning up, Xia Qing finally checked her solar panels. Four panels, half of one chewed to bits by the rats, and the wires sheathed in steel pipes beneath were exposed.

Fortunately she'd returned in time; otherwise these rats would have entered the room through the wire holes. Xia Qing went inside and carefully inspected the whole room.

The house had been renovated and was very clean and tidy. After confirming there were no signs of rat entry, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Attention, everyone. Four rodent-type evolved rats have entered Territory Three. They're the size of adult geese and chewed through half a solar panel."

Xia Qing had just finished speaking when a burst of static came through the walkie-talkie. Tang Huai of Territory Two cursed, "Similar evolved rats have appeared in Territory Two—no fewer than fifty."

Zhao Ze panicked upon hearing this. "Xia Qing, where exactly did you spot your evolved rats? Are they close to Territory Four?"

Xia Qing pressed the button. "In the village, one kilometer from Territory Four."

One kilometer was already very close. Zhao Ze flustered, "I'll send people to patrol immediately."

Tan Junjie also spoke up. "Rodent-type evolved rats are extremely dangerous and must be eliminated as soon as possible. The inspection team requests entry into Territories Two and Three to clear the evolved rats."

Tang Huai objected. "Territory Two can handle the clearing. No help needed."

Xia Qing granted permission. "Territory Three approved."

Zhao Ze followed up. "Please have Captain Tan check whether evolved rats have entered Territory Four as well."

"Copy. We'll head to Territory Three, where the evolved rats have already been spotted, then go to Territory Four. If Territory Two can't fully eliminate the evolved rats within half an hour, the inspection team will, in accordance with Article Thirteen of the Territory Law, apply to the territory management department for forced entry to eliminate the danger." After Tan Junjie's calm reply, the lord channel fell deathly silent.

Beard Feng of Territory One spoke up. "A large number of rats have run from Territory Two into Territory One. Territory One is currently exterminating them. Tang Huai, don't let me catch sight of you!"