The Growth of the Ratmen

Two weeks later, the baby mice that had been bred earlier had all grown up.

They begin a new round of large-scale reproduction, overlapping with the previous mice.

The rat population has officially begun to grow exponentially.

Among the offspring born from rats, the mutation prevalence rate increased but remained around 80%.

The degree of mutation not only did not increase, but it also showed signs of decreasing.

Or rather... it's being restrained, a change occurring within, a build-up of potential.

At least for now, those rats don't look much different from normal rats.

This is why their numbers have surged, with rats roaming city corners, garbage dumps, and filthy places.

Once again, this failed to attract the attention of most people.

Another reason is that the city's high-ranking officials simply don't come to these places.

The only ones who are truly concerned about the increasing rat population are the homeless living at the very bottom of society.

Rats have become their formidable enemy for survival, and the food discarded in the trash cans is becoming increasingly scarce.

It's not that no one threw them away, but that they disappeared and were eaten by rats.

Their reactions and demands yielded absolutely no effective results.

A few taverns have begun eliminating the rats.

A month later, the Steam City was plunged into winter.

The weather is gradually getting colder.

The reproductive capacity of rats has decreased significantly, but based on their previous numbers, they are still terrifying.

The number of rats is increasing, but the degree of mutation remains the same as before.

In a corner of the city, homeless people huddled together near heating pipes to keep warm.

Many rats ignored it and kept passing by, scurrying between the sewer and the ground.

Over the course of the month, their initial surprise had turned into acceptance.

Although the food available for searching is dwindling, many homeless people have turned their hungry gazes to these rats.

As for those shady and unsanitary pubs and restaurants, the rat infestation is becoming increasingly serious.

In some cases, even fresh food was directly stolen by rats.

But those taverns and restaurants that had previously eliminated rats saw a significant reduction in their numbers, and their business gradually improved.

Driven by intense competition, more and more pubs and restaurants are starting to exterminate rats.

Two more months have passed.

The city was officially hit by a cold wave, and large, fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky.

Everything was dyed a lifeless white.

Food harvests began to decline, and humans not only had to prepare for winter, but also for the impending Great Ruin.

The number of rats is increasing, and their tracks can be found in any dark corner.

Moreover, in areas where comprehensive rodent control measures have been implemented, there has been a rebound; the number of rats has not decreased but rather increased.

Rats could be seen scurrying through the gaps in the crowd every now and then in the tavern.

Inside the restaurant, large quantities of food were being Gnaw.

Rats have also begun to proliferate in residents' homes.

Meanwhile, the homeless who used to eat rats have been living a good life lately.

However, while processing the rats, they also discovered strange mutations in the rats' internal organs.

Such a widespread rat infestation finally attracted human attention.

However, they only paid attention, not took it seriously, since no one could have imagined that these rats would start to develop in such an extreme direction.

All cities and towns will undergo a unified rat extermination campaign organized by the authorities.

Two months later, a unified rat extermination campaign was organized throughout the city.

The number of rats decreased during this period, or rather, the amount of time and frequency of their activity on the ground decreased.

Therefore, from a human perspective, the number of mice appears to have decreased.

However, the reason why rats are less active is not solely due to human efforts to eradicate them.

Another major reason is the weather; all the rats hid underground.

Humanity had no time to attend to anything else; they began preparing for the impending Great Ruin.

Then, at this stage, the rats in the "underground world" began to spread outwards due to an internal mutation.

The rat population began to exhibit large-scale mutations, with their bodies breaking apart and growing various organs and limbs, or their body shape beginning to change.

These aberrations were mostly undesirable, and some mice died as a result of them.

The remaining rats, due to their large numbers, consumed all the food they had previously stored.

Unable to bear the hunger, all the rats went out to forage for food.

A swarm of rats broke out in the city.

Such a massive rat infestation, coupled with the deformed appearance of these rats.

This finally caused panic among humans.

Diseases caused by rats may arouse Abomination.

The cause of these deformities in the mice is also unclear.

Perhaps some Eldritch Beings and fantastical creature will be born again.

Humans have officially begun a focused effort to eradicate these rats.

However, these rats have also become much more aggressive, causing injuries to many people, and even eating some homeless people.

This was the first direct confrontation between humans and a swarm of rats.

The rat eradication operation was short-lived, Great Ruin ensued.

After the Great Ruin, while dealing with the Great Ruin, humanity also began the extermination of the rats.

But after the Great Ruin, these rats became even more mutated.

Some of the rats were so twisted they didn't resemble rats at all, but rather moved lumps of rotten flesh.

Huge swarms of rats began to perish in the mutation.

In the following months, the rat population began to decline drastically.

Humans also attributed the deformities in rats to the Great Ruin.

Without the need for further human eradication, the rats once again disappeared from human sight.

But disappearing from human sight does not mean that rats no longer exist.

Although the rat population dwindled to a far smaller size after the mutation and subsequent deaths, it is still far smaller than its initial size.

However, the deformities of these remaining mice were all benign.

Some mice even developed more intelligent minds.

Shen Hui Shen Hui his move at this moment, and began to guide the remaining benign and mutated mice.

Let the beneficial abnormalities among them be passed down, especially in terms of wisdom.

The rat population was also under the guidance of human rat extermination programs and subsequent introduction of rats with a certain level of intelligence.

They migrated their nests to caves, tunnels, and mines.

The city returned to its former tranquility, and the occasional appearance of a few large, deformed rats no longer attracted human attention.

In the wild, rats began to reproduce on a large scale.

Once a certain number are reached, the mutated rats that are eliminated will become a rat swarm that breaks out in the city and is then eliminated by humans.

Because the rat infestation was only a small-scale outbreak in a scattered area, it did not receive much attention after it subsided.

And so it went, and time flew by quickly, until five years later.

Small-scale outbreaks of rat swarms gradually ceased during this period.

During this period, humans gradually stopped paying attention to the existence of rats.

During this period, the benign mutations in the mice were rapidly reproduced generation after generation.

Under Shen Hui's directional choice and witnessing.

It has reached a very high level, which can be described as evolution.

In an abandoned mine in a small town, the rats grew to enormous sizes, some as big as half a person.

Their eyes gleamed with a cunning and intelligent light.

Some can even walk upright.

Their intelligence is increasing, and they can communicate effectively with each other.

Under their guidance, the rat population has begun a Temperance and benign mutation breeding program.

Compared to Common mutated mice, they can now be classified as two separate species.

They were aware of the threat posed by humanity and had been secretly growing stronger.

Meanwhile, underground in the city, the ground had long been riddled with holes by rats, and there were countless underground passages everywhere.

Until this day, a group of people came to the abandoned underground mine in the town.