“Before dark… Lin Shu-jie said she was taking Lin Ze-ge out to buy sanitary supplies.”
Lu Zhaodi wracked her brain. “There wasn’t any noise from the city wall at the time. No danger yet. They said they hadn’t been eating well the past couple days, and were planning to pick up some hot food while they were out.”
She sounded anxious.
Even though the mutant plants outside had retreated, plenty had still made it inside.
Staying out there now—especially with Lin Shu in a wheelchair—put them at extreme risk.
Fu Changxun glanced again at the window corroded by the man-eating plant’s saliva. Carefully avoiding the acidic fluid, he stepped closer and looked out.
Dong Zi was still shaken from what had just happened and stuck close to him, not daring to move even half a step away.
Several massive, alien-looking plants loomed in the distance, pacing restlessly. Shrill screams and sobbing filled the air. Once mutant plants gained intelligence, their retaliation against humanity—once the dominant species—became terrifying.
Retaliation, perhaps, wasn’t the right word. What they truly wanted was dominion over this world.
“We can’t wait any longer… We have to go find them.” Lulu, who had been shielded under a dandelion’s leaf and came through unscathed, immediately scrambled up, ready to rush out the door.
Qiu Yi grabbed her arm. “Calm down first. Zha—Xiao Lu, did they say where they were headed? Even a general direction would help—north, south, east, west?”
Lu Zhaodi was on the verge of tears. “I think… I think they said east. There’s some kind of food swap place there…”
“We’ll go now. Lulu, you’re with me,” Fu Changxun said immediately. “Director Qiu, stay here and keep everyone safe. Xiao Pu, you stay too. I’ve got an item on me.”
Qiu Yi nodded, staring for a moment at the bottle in Fu Changxun’s hand. “…Is that herbicide?”
Fu Changxun replied, “Might actually be. It’s sold in the Game Shop. No time to chat—let’s go.”
The longer they delayed, the more danger the Lin siblings could be in.
The three of them quickly agreed to communicate via personal game panel if needed and rushed toward East Street. But just as they reached the door, a voice called out behind them.
“Wait for me! I’m coming too!” Xiao Xiao ran up, item in hand. “I can help—I really can!”
She had only managed to help a little in her dad’s instance, and ever since, she’d felt like dead weight. But maybe now… maybe now she could actually do something.
Fu Changxun hesitated for a second, then reached out and gently ruffled her hair. “Alright.”
Kids needed to grow. Keeping her sheltered under their wings forever wouldn’t do her any favors.
The four-person team from the last instance reassembled and headed straight for East Street.
“Lin Shu-jiejie—!”
“Lin Ze!”
Their calls were scattered amidst the screams of NPCs. The place had already become a ruin. No flames, no smoke—but the devastation rivaled that of an earthquake or typhoon. Three or four mutant plants still wandered the area.
Most people had crammed themselves into corners, desperately trying to avoid detection.
But plants didn’t use eyes to see. They still sniffed out humans one by one, dragging them out, strangling them, draining them dry—feeding their own roots and stems with the corpses.
Fu Changxun had herbicide on him. He sprayed it continuously as they moved, and no plants dared come near.
But even after the four of them searched East Street top to bottom—meeting pair after pair of terrified, helpless eyes—they found no sign of the Lin siblings.
As their hopes began to sink…
“Hey… over here…”
A weak voice called out.
Lin Ze pushed off the board covering him and spoke with difficulty, “I think I passed out just now… My sister—wasn’t she with you guys?”
He had just been woken by their shouting. Still disoriented, he instinctively looked around for his sister—only to find, to his horror, that she wasn’t there.
Dong Zi rushed forward and pulled the heavy door panel aside. “Was she with you before you blacked out?”
“Yes!” Lin Ze stood up, coughing on dust. “A mutant plant smashed a building, and we got buried. I think she’s still in the wreckage. You guys—did you come all this way just to save us?”
Fu Changxun glanced at the massive debris pile in front of them, rolling up his sleeves. “Yeah. Let’s find her.”
“Thank you, thank you.” Lin Ze said, eyes earnest. “I know my sister’s still alive.”
Lulu looked even more anxious than him. She was already tearing up stone slabs bare-handed. “I believe that too.”
Xiao Xiao, bringing up the rear, had started rummaging through the debris as well.
The search stretched on for over thirty minutes. Just as Xiao Xiao pulled back a plastic sheet, a cough came from beneath.
“Cough… Little girl? You’re Xiao Xiao, right? Thank god you’re here… One more minute and I wouldn’t have made it.”
They’d found her.
Lin Shu had been tangled in the plastic sheet as the building collapsed, her wheelchair trapped underneath. A blow to the head and another to her legs had left her nearly immobile.
She was gravely injured—one more delay, and she might’ve gone into shock from blood loss.
Xiao Xiao shouted in delight, “Ge! I found her—Lin Shu-jiejie’s here!”
The others had spread far and wide during the search. Lin Ze immediately pushed past his coughing fit and sprinted over.
A massive weight lifted from everyone’s chest.
They’d found her. She was alive. That was all that mattered.
“Jie—!”
But just then, Lin Ze suddenly screamed.
He was running toward them, finger pointing frantically behind his sister. “Get away—get away from there!”
Lin Shu barely had time to turn her head before a sharp pain exploded in her chest.
A vine had pierced clean through her.
Behind her, a creeping ivy had emerged. It hadn’t been sprayed. Seeing Lin Shu was the closest target, it wasted no time driving a vine straight into her heart.
“Cough…”
She looked at her brother, as if trying to speak—but all that came out was blood.
Her body slid down from her chair.
Xiao Xiao watched, eyes wide, as Lin Shu—soaked in blood—collapsed right in front of her.
It was like reliving that moment ten days ago—when her father died right before her eyes.
Her mind went completely blank.
Lin Ze was still shouting, “Jie—!”
But all Xiao Xiao could see was red. Blood-red.
She groped on the ground, found Lin Shu’s hand, and clutched it tightly.
“Don’t… don’t die. Please—please…”
Lin Shu didn’t respond.
That broke Xiao Xiao. Tears poured down her cheeks in heavy drops as she stared unblinking at the still-trembling creeping ivy. Only one thought surged through her mind—
She had to kill it. Kill this creeping ivy. Kill every creeping ivy in range!
The ivy had just “killed” a human and hadn’t even finished savoring the victory of acquiring fresh nutrients when it suddenly spasmed, twisting in agony as it thrashed on the ground.
Erasure… Erasure…
Xiao Xiao never looked away.
The plant’s frantic movements grew weaker and weaker. Its leaves withered in large swathes and began to fall. Moments later, after one last twitch, it went still.
And that still wasn’t the end.
Under Xiao Xiao’s gaze, its form began to roughen, dry out.
Then, like it had been crushed to dust, it vanished entirely.
But even though the ivy was dead, Lin Shu wasn’t coming back…
Xiao Xiao looked on as Lin Ze threw himself over his sister’s body, weeping uncontrollably. There wasn’t even a flicker of satisfaction in her heart. No joy in revenge.
The other three rushed over. Fu Changxun had seen what Xiao Xiao just did—had watched her unleash her ability—but didn’t say a word. He just gestured for Lulu to hurry forward.
“Move!” Lulu shoved Lin Ze aside and lunged for Lin Shu, ripping open her collar and pressing both hands to the gaping wound in her chest.
Hope sparked in Xiao Xiao’s eyes again.
Of course! Lulu-jie had healing!
Lin Ze didn’t even register the shove. His whole face was pleading.
Lin Shu’s injury slowly began to mend. The torn flesh stitched itself back together at a visible pace. The skin regrew, smoothing over… But her face was still deathly pale.
Finally, after three minutes, her heart began to beat again.
“Whew—” Lulu wiped the sweat from her brow and collapsed on the ground. “I patched the major wounds, but she lost a lot of blood. I overexerted my ability too much to regenerate it. She’ll need another round of treatment tomorrow, but… she’ll make it.”
As she spoke, Lin Shu—lying beside her—opened her eyes.
“Jie! Jie, you’re alive!”
Lin Ze was laughing and crying at once. “Thank you, Doctor Lulu. Really, thank you so much.”
Lulu was too exhausted to respond. She just managed to wave a hand to show she was okay.
Lin Shu still looked dazed. Her brother was practically hysterical, saying things she couldn’t follow. Xiao Xiao was clinging to her and crying. Lulu had collapsed from energy drain.
Which meant the job of explaining what had happened fell to Fu Changxun.
He gave her a quick summary. “You were seriously injured by a mutant plant. Fortunately, Lulu’s ability is healing-based. She saved your life. But you’re still extremely weak and need rest. And she’s burned out her ability for now—she needs to recover too.”
Which left them with three injured people, one child, and two adult men.
The wheelchair was completely wrecked—twisted beyond use. Getting everyone back to safety would be… difficult.
But they didn’t have time to worry about that.
Because once again, survival was the only thing that mattered.
More plants were coming.
“Another few just showed up,” Dong Zi warned, still on high alert. “I think I see a sunflower… and a banyan tree. Hey, come to think of it—does herbicide even work on trees?”
Fu Changxun had the same realization and quickly checked the item’s description again.
[Most feared by plants.] Did that count for trees?
“We’ll try it first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll find something else,” he said.
They still had over a thousand points. Worst case, he could just buy a load of mercury and flood them with it.
Attacking trees using real-world killer methods—something had to work eventually.
As they spoke, the sunflower and the banyan had already arrived.
But unlike the man-eating plant or the creeping ivy, they didn’t attack immediately. Instead, the two just… faced each other and froze.
Dong Zi carefully carried the injured to the corner formed by a collapsed building. He and Fu Changxun crouched there in silence, watching the strange standoff.
“What are they doing?” Dong Zi muttered after a while. The two plants looked… agitated. Their branches and leaves were rustling furiously—like they were about to fight.
Fu Changxun was just as baffled. He guessed, “They’re… talking, I think. Maybe it’s like with Xiao Pu. Normal people can’t hear them. I only heard Xiao Pu because I stored him in my item inventory. But these two… yeah, no thanks. If I add them to my inventory and they immediately try to kill me, that’d be a nightmare.”
The dandelion had shown no killing intent. But these two clearly didn’t give a damn about human lives.
The two plants communicated again—without reaching any agreement—and the next moment, they launched into an all-out brawl.
Bricks and debris flew in every direction. The last few buildings still standing on East Street finally crumbled into rubble.
