Hunter saw the large rat conveying some sort of information to the smaller rats with great expression and feeling. He immediately aimed his audio receiver at the large rat.
A series of distorted sounds came from the large rat's mouth. Hunter could not understand them, but the computer carried inside his machine could.
As the large rat spoke, the mech's onboard computer deciphered the language in real time.
A decryption progress bar appeared in Hunter's eyepiece, reaching 100% two minutes later.
After that, every sentence the large rat spoke was simultaneously translated into Gothic and transmitted to Hunter's ears.
The large rat said:
"Listen up, you filthy, treacherous, bloodthirsty little brats.
You energetic little rats love burrowing everywhere. Give you a crack, and you'll want to squeeze your whole body into it.
A spirit of exploration is a good thing, but remember this: you must be careful when you encounter a skull wall.
The air outside the skull walls will bite your lungs. Without armor, your lungs will be chewed to pieces by the evil air!"
Listening from a distance, Hunter thought, Just as I suspected. The skull wall he had encountered earlier when entering the underground nest was indeed the boundary of the rats' artificial atmosphere.
Judging from those words, these rats had no idea how an artificial atmosphere generator worked, nor did they understand the concepts of air and vacuum.
They interpreted the stabbing pain in their lungs from being unable to breathe oxygen in a vacuum as air biting them.
One little rat chittered a question at the large rat:
"Venerable, Venerable, how do we get our own armor?"
The question made every little rat's eyes light up. Clearly, they all wanted armor of their own. Wearing those crude spacesuits seemed to represent a rise in status.