Before those rats could break through a hole large enough for them to escape, the metal beneath the iron bucket began to contract inwards, and the bottom also became metal, sealing off all their retreat paths.
The mutated rats became more agitated, constantly scrambling, trying to jump out.
But even though their bodies were much larger than before, the iron bucket was tall enough that they couldn't jump out from the top.
"Squeak squeak squeak" the sounds of rats were incessant.
The metal bucket had already trapped quite a few mutated rats, while Lu Heng killed all the remaining mutated rats outside the metal bucket.
The group of mutated rats just now was enough to show how strong their reproductive ability was.
After losing their natural predators, they rampaged through the apocalypse without restraint.
Therefore, these mutated rats could not be left alive.
Lu Heng extracted all the crystals from the brains of the mutated rats. The crystals in these rats' brains were indeed very small.
Although some crystals were of high grade, the size of the crystals also affected the amount of energy they contained.
However, a fly is still meat. Even if given to Sun Qiang to level up the zombies, it should not be wasted.
Lu Heng then buried all the mutated rat corpses, and then shrunk the metal bucket containing the live mutated rats into a small bucket.
These animals were not contracted by him, so they could not be put into his spatial storage. Lu Heng released a Fire Phoenix to carry this iron bucket back to Wuming City.
He even sprayed some words on the outside of the iron bucket with spray paint, briefly explaining the purpose of capturing these mutated rats.
Watching the Fire Phoenix gradually fly away, Lu Heng felt that the use of contracting these animals had increased.
This way, he wouldn't have to personally bring back any live creatures he caught every time.
The Fire Phoenix also had offensive capabilities. A level ten Fire ability user was almost unmatched in this apocalypse.
After eliminating these threats, Lu Heng headed towards the direction Sun Qiang and the others had left.
Fortunately, the zombies did not move fast, and they killed their way as they went.
So Lu Heng caught up with Sun Qiang after chasing for more than half a day.
Looking down from high above, the number of Sun Qiang's zombie army had not increased.
But even so, Lu Heng still felt a sense of shock looking at the neat ranks of level seven zombies below.
If this army encountered a human ability user team, the other party would likely be so terrified that they would commit suicide.
Hundreds of level seven zombies moved majestically across the wilderness, and from time to time, a few zombies would dart out from nearby, only to be quickly eliminated by the passing zombie horde.
As if sensing Lu Heng, Sun Qiang stopped and looked up at the sky.
After a few seconds, Sun Qiang lowered his head, roared a few times at the surrounding zombies, and the zombies quickened their pace.
Lu Heng continued to fly in the direction the zombies were moving. He needed to see if there were any human survivors ahead.
If there were, he needed to remind those people to quickly detour and avoid any interaction with these high-level zombies.
After Lu Heng flew past Sun Qiang's group, he gradually lowered his flying altitude.
Although there were quite a few zombies below at this time, their numbers were not as concentrated as in the towns.
These zombies were indeed strange, why did they only gather in towns?
Zombies were not incapable of moving. Especially now, after more than a year in the apocalypse, as zombies' levels increased, they gradually became less averse to sunlight.
So the moving zombies always gathered in towns, which was a bit strange.
Perhaps these people were all infected in the cities, and their subconscious minds still wanted to live in cities and were unwilling to leave?
Shaking his head, Lu Heng dismissed the strange thought and continued to carefully survey the situation below.
After a long period of observation, Lu Heng did not see any abnormal situations.
In fact, this was a place Lu Heng had specifically chosen. The number of zombies in the cities in this area was very dense, so ordinary survivors would not come here to search for supplies.
Those ability user teams would also not come here to fight zombies.
Humans would choose places that were easier to conquer for training, as they could not match the zombies in terms of consumption.
Picking the soft persimmon to squeeze was a common human trait, and it applied equally well to zombies.
Lu Heng flew for a while on the back of the moschops, and after checking the nearest city, he landed on the rooftop of the tallest building.
To avoid affecting Sun Qiang's battle here later, Lu Heng quickly returned to his spatial storage the moment he landed.
In fact, Lu Heng had another idea when he asked Sun Qiang to build this advanced zombie army.
After the number of high-level zombies created by Sun Qiang reached a certain point, he could also kill all the high-level zombies again to level himself up and open the last passage in his spatial storage.
...
Inside Wuming City.
Lin Yu had just woken up. Today, Wuming City was to host the leaders of several important bases across the country to discuss methods for dealing with zombies.
The most important point was that Wuming City had now become a learning model for all ability user bases in the country.
Whether it was in terms of combat strength, material reserves, or even in some aspects of technology and production, Wuming City had once again taken the lead among national bases.
After breakfast, Lin Yu quickly went to the office area in Wuming City.
"City Lord Lin, the arrangements for receiving the leaders of the various bases are all made. The teams going out have also been stopped today."
"Yes, arrange a few houses in the villa area. Perhaps some people will want to stay overnight, and they can be arranged there, with city administrators assigned to guard them."
"Understood."
"Also, send people to guard the瓮城 (Wengcheng - a type of ancient Chinese city defense) outside the city. Arrange parking spaces for the vehicles these people will arrive in..."
As Lin Yu continued to arrange work, the secretary opposite kept taking notes.
Some matters had already been planned in advance, but to prevent any accidents, Lin Yu still reiterated some important steps.
"Oh, and one more thing. Last night, City Lord Lu's pet flew back, bringing with it a metal bucket containing many mutated rats.
It was too late, so we didn't inform you. Those rats have been taken to the research center, but we haven't opened the metal bucket to check the situation inside yet."
"If you haven't opened it, how do you know they are rats?"
"Well, some words were sprayed on the outside of the bucket, stating the reason why these rats were sent."
"Heh heh, good. In that case, let Chen Dong handle it."
Matters within the research center were related to various research work, and Lin Yu was not very familiar with these specific matters, so he did not interfere too much.
However, the research topics, processes, and results of the research center still needed to be reported to Lin Yu for his review.
Speaking of the research center, Lin Yu thought of another issue.
"Also, seal off the research center. Before the leaders of other bases leave, the people in the research center cannot leave. Implement a principle of only entering and not exiting."