The sudden launch of the dandelion threw everyone in the van into brief chaos.
But they’d all been in the instance for days. After a moment of confusion, seeing that Doctor Fu remained perfectly calm, no one treated it as a crisis.
Until they realized Dong Zi had very unceremoniously—uh—tossed the thing out.
Everyone: “…………”
Dong Zi couldn’t hear what the dandelion said, but from its behavior and Fu Changxun’s words, he gathered it had volunteered to go.
Naturally, he stepped up to send it on its way. And maybe, maybe, there was a twinge of jealousy in his throw—though not at a literal dandelion. It was just… something about that line Fu Changxun had said felt strangely familiar.
With the dandelion gone, the air in the van felt noticeably lighter.
Lulu craned her neck toward the front. “Doctor Fu, that plant just now—is it one of your items?”
Fu Changxun hesitated, then nodded slightly. “Something like that. Same as my black cat. Xiao Hei, come out and show them.”
The black cat leapt out gracefully and did a little circle.
Everyone was convinced. And besides—the dandelion had gone to battle the tomato, which meant the van was safe again. As relief flooded the cabin, Qiu Yi gunned the van toward S City proper.
They left the dandelion behind, but Fu Changxun double-checked through his inventory. He could still recall it at any time. That settled his nerves a bit, and he turned to speak to Dong Zi.
But the moment he looked over, he noticed something was off. Dong Zi’s expression was dark. Almost stormy.
“…Why the long face?” Fu Changxun asked, confused. “Is something wrong? Is there still danger, Ah Zi?”
Dong Zi stared at him for a while, silent. Then, finally, he muttered, “That line you said earlier—‘the intel doesn’t matter, you matter’… Have you said that to other people before?”
Fu Changxun blinked. Then it hit him—that was something Dong Zi had said to him. And now he’d accidentally… copied it.
Not only that—he hadn’t even said it to Dong Zi, but to a dandelion.
“…No!” he blurted. “That was the first time. And the dandelion doesn’t count as a person. So technically, I’ve never said it to anyone. You don’t have to worry.”
In his heart, Dong Zi was still number one.
Dong Zi still didn’t look pleased. But before he could press further, Xiao Xiao piped up from the back.
“Ge, what are you guys talking about?”
Fu Changxun turned around with a smile. “Nothing important, Xiao Xiao. We’re safe for now—you can put your prop away.”
The little girl was still clutching her pile of building blocks with both hands. At his words, she finally relaxed her grip.
Her palms were covered in deep red pressure marks. Lulu noticed immediately and used her healing ability to smooth them away.
Xiao Xiao lifted her chin and chirped, “Thank you, Lulu-jie!”
Sweetness level: one hundred out of ten.
Lulu beamed with joy. “You’re welcome, Xiao Xiao! We’ll still need your help later, okay?”
The girls’ cheerful chatter came to a halt as the van rolled into S City. The city, too, was nothing but crumbling ruins—broken walls and collapsed buildings everywhere. Saplings had burst through the asphalt roads, sprouting right from the middle of the street. Perhaps due to mutation, these trees had all grown unusually tall—some towering up to thirty meters, easily the height of a ten-story building.
The group stared in stunned silence at the devastation before them. It only slowly dawned on them that the number of survivors here was likely very, very small.
The plant mutations in S City were far worse than those in C City or Shangdu. The cityscape was barely recognizable, swallowed by a dense forest of mutated trees.
“From the looks of it, it’s going to be really hard to find any food or supplies in there.” Lin Ze sighed. “And on the way back, we’ve still got that tomato to deal with…”
Smack smack smack!
Before he could finish, something slapped against the van windows. On closer inspection, it wasn’t a person—it was the leaves and vines of a plant.
Everyone jumped. But Fu Changxun rolled the window down without hesitation.
A dandelion popped in through the open window, flailing its leaves and petals in a dramatic entrance—not so much dancing, as wildly flinging itself about.
Its sudden appearance jolted Lulu out of her doze. She instinctively grabbed the nearest object and almost hurled it.
“Whoa, hey—don’t panic! That’s one of Doctor Fu’s items! His item!”
Qiu Yi, still driving, barely managed to free one hand and stop her in time.
Lulu looked down at what she was holding. “…Oh. Uh.”
Only then did she realize she had yanked off the rearview mirror.
Qiu Yi chuckled awkwardly. “Haha… Still as strong as ever, Doctor Lulu. Hahaha…”
Under Lulu’s murderous glare, Director Qiu wisely shut his mouth.
Meanwhile, the dandelion had hopped into Fu Changxun’s palm and was now yelling excitedly, “That was so fun!”
Fu Changxun pinched one of its leaves. “Save the commentary. Did you win, or did you run away? What happened to that tomato? Is it still chasing us?”
“How could I possibly lose to that?” The dandelion flapped its leaves at him like clapping hands. “It only just started developing a bit of self-awareness—completely clueless. I’ve been sentient since the very first day of mutation! I’m amazing, thank you very much!”
Fu Changxun relaxed. “So where is it now?”
“Still over there, of course,” the dandelion said, swishing its leaves. “Oh, and that tomato said I’m its big sis now. It promised never to attack me again whenever I pass by.”
“Getting underlings is so much fun! Call me out again next time, okay?” it added happily.
Fu Changxun smiled. “Count on it. Definitely calling you next time.”
Excellent. One more henchman recruited.
He set the dandelion down with a grin. “Our little dandelion won. Beat the tomato.”
The tense atmosphere among the players vanished like smoke. They erupted in cheers—“Wah!” “Yesss!”
Miss Dandelion basked in the attention, spinning her bright yellow petals in delight.
Victory had its perks.
“S City’s in this state… should we even bother going in?” Lulu said hesitantly. “I feel like it’s pointless. There’s no way the van can squeeze through all that.”
The roads were twisted and shattered, fragmented in all directions. If they wanted in, they’d have to go on foot.
Dong Zi was about to suggest, “Then let’s just head back,” when the dandelion smacked him twice.
“We have to go in!” it declared. “There’s good stuff inside! Humans, charge!”
It even knew how to say “charge” like a true internet denizen. Clearly, it had been corrupted by human lingo long before the apocalypse.
Fu Changxun relayed the message: “It says there’s something valuable in S City. Wants us to take a look.”
But… could a mutated plant really be trusted? That was the big question.
“Let’s go,” Fu Changxun said. “It’s my item. If I die, it’ll be left wandering who-knows-where. I trust it.”
The dandelion wiped away imaginary tears in a theatrical display. “Boohoo, so touching! I promise I’ll help you find something great. Trust me! Charge, charge, charge! Humans—it’s just a kilometer away, right on the edge of the city!”
With Doctor Fu vouching for it, the group finally got out of the van and followed the dandelion’s lead. The path was blocked by ruins and overgrown vegetation at every turn.
The other plants weren’t much trouble—Dandelion deliberately released an aura that scared them off—but broken bricks and chunks of concrete weren’t so easily intimidated.
They had to pick their way through the rubble, constantly tripping and stumbling.
And Dandelion? It kept causing trouble.
As they passed what looked like the remnants of an old flower shop, a little yellow bloom poked sneakily out of Fu Changxun’s coat, each petal pointing toward a specific flowerpot inside.
“I want that flowerpot! That one!!” it shouted. “I want it I want it I want it!”
No one else could hear it, but to Fu Changxun, it was like his eardrums were about to burst.
He clutched his head in pain. “Fine, fine, I’ll get it for you—just stop yelling. Seriously, I’m going deaf. Xiao Pu, you say you’re a girl, right? Can’t you be a little gentler?”
Dandelion replied righteously, “But she’s not gentle either—and she’s a girl too!”
It pointed directly at Lulu.
Lulu blinked. “What did I do?”
Fu Changxun sighed. “Nothing. Just babysitting. Don’t take it personally.”
He walked over to the flower shop and carefully wrestled the flowerpot free from a pile of collapsed wall.
Dong Zi held up the other side of the crumbling wall to keep it from falling. As soon as Fu Changxun pulled the pot out, Dong Zi let go—and the wall on the other side came crashing down.
Dandelion gleefully plopped itself into the pot—only to jump right back out in disgust. “There’s no soil.”
“Don’t rush,” Fu Changxun said, shifting unconsciously into the tone he used when coaxing Xiao Xiao. “Once we get back to C City, you’ll have soil and water. I’ll even put you out on the balcony so you get plenty of sunlight. How’s that sound?”
Dandelion shyly fluffed its petals. “Okay, okay! Then I also want…”
“What more could you possibly want—a bicycle?” Fu Changxun tossed the flowerpot into Dong Zi’s backpack. “Move it. We can’t afford to be stuck here after dark.”
Some plants got even more aggressive at night, and that tiny dandelion wouldn’t be enough to protect the whole group.
Not that he needed to remind them—everyone had already quickened their pace instinctively. The destination was now in sight—
They rounded a tree so massive it would take three people linking arms to encircle it, and spotted a hardware store right on the side of the road.
“That’s it!” Dandelion exclaimed. “Exactly what you humans are missing most right now!”
The shop was crammed full of parts, tools, and even a generator. When they pushed open the warehouse door in the back, they found rows of neatly lined-up fuel drums.
Dozens of them—completely full.
A thin layer of dust coated the shelves and components. It was clear no one had been here in a long time. The owner might’ve died, or perhaps fled to another city.
“This really is a jackpot,” Qiu Yi said. “The last gas station we passed had already been taken over by the higher-ups in C City, but this stash? All ours.”
Supplies found on missions belonged to the team and could be traded for points.
Everyone got to work immediately—sorting, cataloging, and hauling the goods outside. They marked the coordinates and made sure to remember the exact location of the hardware store.
Dandelion shook its little yellow bloom proudly. “Well? Told you I was right. Trust me now?”
“We do. You’re amazing.” Fu Changxun ruffled its petals and smiled. “We’ll be counting on you again. Ah Zi, looks like we’ve got ourselves another cheat code.”
Dong Zi nodded. “Yeah—Dandelion, the walking exploit.”
Xiao Xiao, still hugging Xiao Hei, reached curiously toward the little flower. “Hi there. Are you the same as Xiao Hei? Then you have to call us gege and jiejie, okay?”
