The Terror Rat — a Featherweight-tier evolved beast in individual form, presumably mutated from field mice. Colony creatures. Once a group exceeded a hundred individuals, the collective crossed into Lightweight territory.

Not far from Yingshan Forest Farm in Feixi County, Tanchong Reservoir sat amid the terrain, and a Terror Rat colony had established itself along its banks. Any large evolved beast that passed through their range got swarmed.

Shen Cong had come to hunt them.

Unlike the White Bone Beetles, which were mostly shell with almost no usable meat, Terror Rats were substantial — bodies the size of domestic pigs, several grades larger than the Great-Fang Rats he'd encountered earlier. Their teeth could gnaw through metal, though they'd lost the burrowing ability their ancestors had — they operated entirely on the surface.

He didn't need to go looking for them.

The moment Great Vajra rolled into Terror Rat territory, over a thousand of them came flooding in from every direction, treating the vehicle as prey.

Thud.

Great Vajra stopped. The exterior armor extended immediately — a net-like mesh skirting that dropped around the vehicle's undercarriage and wheels, enclosing both within a protective barrier. The roof-mounted radar and other external equipment retracted into their housings. From the outside, Great Vajra now looked like an oversized iron knuckle.

The rear cargo door opened. Shen Cong stepped out in his Half-Activated Armor, pushing a custom-built iron frame ahead of him.

The frame was purpose-designed — braced against both sides of the door frame, leaving a controlled opening only at the front. He locked it into position.

This gave him a choke point. One controlled angle of engagement, with Blackhead behind him to handle logistics — picking up the kills and carrying them into the cargo hold. Blackhead's tremendous strength proportional to size had diminished as she'd grown, but she could still lift ten times her own body weight without effort.

Solo hunting required the right tools. Shen Cong had designed the right tools.

The Terror Rat tide couldn't breach Great Vajra's defenses. At best they chewed at its Activity coating — but Shen…