The mutated rat colony was far larger than Shen Cong had initially seen. And as more of the larger two-meter specimens appeared, they stopped hesitating — they started jumping.

Great Vajra's exterior wasn't smooth hull plating. The photovoltaic panels were protected by a perimeter bumper system, and those bumpers were exactly the kind of irregular grip surface a climbing creature needed. Within minutes, mutated rats were swarming up the sides. Once aboard, they swung their bone clubs against the hull — hammering and striking at anything they could reach.

In under five minutes, Great Vajra had become a writhing ball of fur. Every exterior surface was covered, except the front, where the dozer blade's constant motion left no foothold to occupy.

Shen Cong kept his expression neutral and ignored his new passengers entirely. He pressed the accelerator and kept driving.

First priority: distance from the main colony.

These creatures weren't powerful enough to threaten Great Vajra in any meaningful way. The Activity drain from their attacks was slower than Great Vajra's ambient absorption rate. He had options once he was clear. No need to waste them here.

The engines roared. Great Vajra thundered down the county road with a hundred uninvited passengers clinging to its exterior.

Past the initial shock, Shen Cong's mind had already moved to analysis.

"Mutated rats — more transformed than the Great-Fang Rats, and they're using weapons. Intelligence has clearly developed further. Bipedal posture, tool use, social coordination..." He thought of the games he'd downloaded before the apocalypse — the Warcraft-style RPGs, the ones with rat-men as a playable faction. In those settings, ratmen wore clothing, maintained strict tribal hierarchies, crafted weapons, had their own language.

These creatures were nowhere near that level. But the direction was unmistakable.

"Given time, actual ratmen might genuinely emerge." He'd already concluded through studying evolved beasts that Activity-driven mutation didn't only increase physical power — it accelerated neurological development as well. Larger bodies meant larger brain cavities. More brain volume meant more neural capacity. More neural capacity meant more cognition.

Intelligence development wasn't a joke. It was a trajectory.

Not…