68: The Silly Rat King

【Parasitic organism detected — Advanced Beast Soldier Level Rat King. Proceed with parasitism?】

'A Rat King? Is it a Rat King that can cook?'

'Parasitize!'

Qiao Yu heard the System's prompt about the Rat King and scoffed.

It seems those Rat Monsters from earlier had brought the flesh and blood mycelium that was parasitizing the Tiger Mastiff back to their nest.

Perhaps because the Rat King was relatively small in size, the entire process took only a few minutes, and the Rat King was successfully parasitized by Qiao Yu's fungal swarm.

【Parasitism complete, gene bank updated.】

【Fungal Squad member count (1/10)】

Qiao Yu attempted to communicate with the parasitized Rat Monster within his mind and quickly established a connection.

After mentally commanding the Rat King to appear before him, it took only a few dozen seconds before Qiao Yu felt the ground beneath his feet begin to rustle.

With a pfft sound, the layer of soil on the surface was overturned by the Rat King, and a massive rat head poked out from the dirt.

Qiao Yu waved at the Rat King, and the Rat King immediately crawled entirely out of the ground and ran toward where Qiao Yu was standing.

Looking at the sturdy, plump rat in front of him that was the size of a medium-sized dog, Qiao Yu clicked his tongue in wonder.

'Seeing that scene, I had originally thought I would at least be able to parasitize a few Tiger Mastiffs, but I didn't expect to parasitize a thing like you.'

"Squeak! Squeak!"

That dog-sized Rat King appeared very unconvinced, squeaking non-stop as if it wanted to show off its abilities.

'Look at you being so cocky. Whether you're a mule or a horse, won't we know once we take you out for a walk?'

Qiao Yu raised an eyebrow and responded to the Rat King in his mind.

He had thought that after being parasitized, the creature would lose its own consciousness, but he hadn't expected this Rat King to still retain its self-awareness.

Rather than parasitism, it was more like a form of enslavement of the Soul.

It was just that Qiao Yu couldn't quite explain the mystery behind it.

The Rat King squeaked a few times and hopped onto the ground.

It squeaked a few more times; these subsequent sounds were exceptionally sharp and had great penetrating power, even making Qiao Yu feel like his eardrums were about to burst.

Just as Qiao Yu was wondering what this Rat King wanted to do, the ground within a radius of several hundred meters began to tremble, as if a minor earthquake were occurring.

As several gaps were dug into the ground, Rat Monsters continuously crawled out from the holes.

In just a minute, the ground was densely packed with nearly a thousand Rat Monsters, and Rat Monsters kept running out from the holes.

Watching the Rat Monsters, which were as dense as ants, made Qiao Yu's scalp tingle.

Moreover, every single Rat Monster stared at him as if he were prey; it seemed that if the Rat King gave the order, Qiao Yu wouldn't be able to escape even if he wanted to.

After all, only one Rat King had been parasitized; the other Rat Monsters still only took orders from the Rat King and did not take orders from Qiao Yu. Of course, given Qiao Yu's strength, a mere few thousand Rat Monsters could still be easily dealt with.

The Rat King sensed the shock in Qiao Yu's heart, lifted its body in a human-like manner, and with the air of a marshal or general, kept squeaking and calling out at Qiao Yu.

'What? What do I think you look like?'

'Did I just encounter a rat spirit asking for a title?'

Qiao Yu felt the Rat King's smug response and couldn't help but find it amusing; the tension he felt earlier dissipated quite a bit. After a moment of thought, he responded.

'I think you have quite the Aura of a Beast General. Even though you are just an Advanced Beast Soldier Level Rat Monster, you are able to command tens of thousands of monsters.'

Just as Qiao Yu's words fell.

【Ding! Do you wish to consume 100 cubic meters of flesh and blood mycelium to upgrade the Rat King to Beast General Level?】

'Hm? It only takes 100 cubic meters to upgrade the Rat King to Beast General Level? The cost-performance ratio is very high. Upgrade!'

Qiao Yu guessed that it might be because the Rat King was relatively small in size and was a monster that relied on numbers to win. Even if its intelligence was high, its talent likely peaked at the Elementary Beast General Level.

As everyone knows, the more powerful a creature is, the lower its reproductive success rate.

Upon receiving Qiao Yu's approval, the Rat King immediately displayed an expression of joy, as if receiving praise from Qiao Yu was its highest honor.

Just as the Rat King was rejoicing, a blood-red phantom suddenly appeared around its body, firmly covering the Rat King within it.

Before long, the Rat King emerged from its promotion state. The entire Rat King's Aura was even more domineering than before, and the fur on the Rat King's head even stood up to form a sharp tuft of hair.

"Hahaha, this look is too funny. From now on, I'll call you Damao."

Qiao Yu slapped his thigh and laughed, but this Rat King was now a bona fide Beast General Level monster.

"Squeak!"

The Dai Mao Rat King did not express dissatisfaction with Qiao Yu's name for it; on the contrary, it was quite satisfied.

It stretched out its arms toward the thousands of Rat Monsters, just like a human, pacing back and forth, squeaking and chattering continuously, as if it were a marshal giving a speech.

The previously restless rat swarm was now completely quiet, quietly listening to the Dai Mao Rat King squeaking away above.

Qiao Yu didn't know what it was saying. After it spoke for about two or three minutes, the Rat King let out a huge squeak, and thousands of Rat Monsters echoed in unison.

That scene was exactly the same as the era where one could buy a loaf of bread for 500,000.

"It's about time to continue on our way."

Qiao Yu looked at the sky and then at his communication watch; it was already approaching two o'clock in the morning.

He had originally planned to rest for a while at this farmhouse, but knowing that he had so many densely packed "rat brothers" for company, he had no desire to rest at all.

Fortunately, he had rested well at the supply base during the day, so there was no need to rush to rest again; he could set off right now.

Qiao Yu stood up, brushed the dust off his body, pulled up his off-road motorcycle, and straddled it.

"Squeak!"

The Dai Mao Rat King leaped directly onto the dashboard of Qiao Yu's motorcycle.

Qiao Yu didn't delay any longer. He looked at the navigation on his communication watch, rushed back onto the highway, and continued driving toward County City No. 0201.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

And with the Rat King's order, thousands of Rat Monsters closely followed behind Qiao Yu's motorcycle, eating dust.

If there were any Martial Artist Squads nearby at this time, they would be able to see that under the night sky with the bright moon hanging high,

a Martial Artist dressed in a dark combat uniform was riding a cool off-road motorcycle, speeding along the highway, with thousands of Rat Monsters behind him.

Qiao Yu had originally thought that this group of Rat Monsters might not be able to keep up with the speed of his motorcycle.

But the facts proved that he had underestimated this group of monsters too much. Monsters were monsters after all; let alone not being able to keep up, they were even deliberately slowing down to match the speed of the motorcycle.

Seeing this, Qiao Yu could only keep accelerating. Relying on his current High-level Wargod level Psychic Power, micro-managing a motorcycle to avoid various obstacles wasn't particularly difficult.

After driving another twenty-plus kilometers, Qiao Yu entered the ring road of County City No. 0201 and began to drive into the county city.