“Mr. Dagong, you guys…” Fu Changxun couldn’t help his admiration. Even in the middle of total chaos, Dagong remained utterly composed, calm as a mountain—as if this had all been meticulously planned.
But Fu Changxun knew it hadn’t been.
Dagong’s expression didn’t change. “It’s fine. We’re used to this. This kind of brute-force tactic burns through items and abilities, sure—but it works. We can bulldoze straight through.”
Dong Zi raised a sharp point: “Burns through a lot of items… so you’re the one supplying them?”
Zhang Feifei wasn’t even on the individual Points Leaderboard—which meant most of their team’s points had to be stored on Dagong.
Wouldn’t that kind of massive point disparity stir up resentment? Or worse—paranoia, betrayal, complete collapse?
Unless the two had a bond like his and Fu Changxun’s…
But those two didn’t seem that close. Not a hint of romantic tension between them.
Dagong nodded. “Yeah.” He sighed. “Honestly, we’re pretty broke in real life. We don’t have money, we don’t have people, and we don’t have many items. So I’ve always been focused on fast clears. This is our tenth instance. Before we came in, someone tricked us—swapped out the specific items we’d prepared, and we ended up in the wrong instance.”
That explained a lot. But Fu Changxun still grew wary. “You trust me that easily?”
This was only their second time meeting. Yet the guy had just dumped a huge pile of intel on him.
That level of trust had to be either naive—or calculated. And no one who’d cleared ten instances was naive.
So why the sudden openness?
Maybe their mutual suspicion was too obvious, because Dagong finally smiled.
“You’re with the Special Affairs Office. We don’t see the official teams as enemies.”
You could call it… a friendly exchange between unofficial and official forces.
Fu Changxun still wasn’t entirely convinced.
But he knew this was probably the most goodwill the other man could show.
So he smiled back. “Alright. Looking forward to working together.”
It was the second time he’d said that. The first had been formal, a scripted courtesy. This time, it was more casual—yet far more sincere.
“Looking forward to it,” Dagong echoed. Then, “I saw you used a unique item. Mind if I take a look?”
Fu Changxun didn’t sense any malice and handed over the herbicide.
Dagong examined it for a moment before his eyes lit up.
“Ohh. When sprayed on plants, it kills them,” he said. “But this one’s delayed—it takes time to take effect. That’s why it’s expensive. But definitely worth the points.”
Clearly, he’d used his ability.
Fu Changxun had suspected before that Dagong’s power had something to do with observation—but he hadn’t expected this.
Not only could Dagong see the attributes of people and plants—he could even read the effects of items sold in the Game Shop.
Now that they were allies, Fu Changxun decided to ask—
“You can…”
“Shhh.”
Dagong raised a finger to his lips. “Turn off the livestream first. What comes next is private.”
He noticed Xiao Xiao still clutching Fu Changxun’s sleeve, her wide eyes locked onto Dagong. With a smile, Dagong gave her the same “pause” gesture.
Dong Zi and Xiao Xiao both turned instinctively to Fu Changxun. Once he nodded, all three of them turned off their livestreams.
Dagong found the exchange amusing—he’d clearly already guessed that Fu Changxun was the core of their group. It was a bit unexpected: a support-type ability user with low stamina acting as the core.
He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. After all, his own stamina stat was over eighty.
He studied the trio carefully.
Dong Zi hadn’t said much from the beginning, but the moment he stood still, he became impossible to ignore. The air around him practically radiated presence.
“All right, we’re off the air. What did you want to say?” Dong Zi stepped forward, blocking Dagong’s gaze and meeting it head-on. “Don’t tell me you just wanted to check us out.”
Dagong chuckled. “Of course not. I just figured your abilities weren’t the kind you’d want to reveal openly.”
He looked at Fu Changxun. “Your power leans toward mental manipulation—my guess is hypnosis. Most abilities are shaped by desire or past professions. I’d wager you’re a psychologist or therapist.”
Then he turned to Dong Zi. “Yours is more physical—like object manipulation or telekinesis. Maybe you used to be a pickpocket. Or maybe there’s something you really treasure.…Pickpocket doesn’t track. No way that guy’s friends with a psychologist. Must be the second one.”
Finally, he looked down at Xiao Xiao. “You… easy—area-of-effect burst type.”
Kids were bad at hiding secrets.
In just a few minutes, Dagong’s own ability had revealed itself to them too.
Fu Changxun took a deep breath. “So your power… is being able to see other people’s abilities?”
Dong Zi added, “And the effects of items?”
Dagong nodded. “More or less. I’m telling you this because if we ever meet again in another instance, we can sit down and talk things out.”
His tone turned faintly wistful. “A few instances ago, I ran into a group. They had two options: partner with us and split the rewards… or go head-to-head and try to take everything for themselves.”
Predictably, they chose battle—and got completely wiped.
Dagong himself didn’t enjoy that kind of confrontation. He preferred win-win outcomes.
“Don’t worry. We’re not like that.” Fu Changxun rubbed his nose. “We’re pacifists. We only do cooperation.”
Dagong smiled. “I believe you are.”
***
Roughly a dozen highly evolved mutant plants had invaded the city.
Each one was dangerous.
But the man-eating plant had been sprayed with herbicide. According to Dagong, it was definitely dead by now.
The creeping ivy had been obliterated into dust by Xiao Xiao’s ability.
The sunflower had also been sprayed.
And the banyan tree? It had been absolutely shredded by a barrage of abilities and tools. The trunk had snapped in several places—basically a write-off.
With the strongest ones gone, the remaining mutant plants no longer posed a major threat. Dagong called out to everyone and rallied the group.
“This was probably the most dangerous stage of the 30-day elimination instance,” he said.
Zhang Feifei, exhausted, flopped onto the ground. “Yeah… survivors from earlier instances… said—”
“Yeah, yeah, shut it and stop wheezing,” Dagong said bluntly, not cutting him any slack. “I’ll explain. We interviewed survivors before. Longer instances like this usually include at least one extremely difficult stage. If you get through it, your odds of survival increase by fifty percent. This felt like that checkpoint.”
He glanced sidelong at Fu Changxun’s group, who had reunited with Lin Shu, Lin Ze, and Lulu.
“So,” he continued, “this challenge—we have to make it through.”
At the same time, Fu Changxun murmured, “They’ll need Dandelion.”
Dong Zi nodded. “Yeah.”
Hearing that, Dagong turned to them immediately. “All right. Who’s the player with a steel-based ability?”
A dusty-faced player raised his hand. “That’s me!”
Dagong nodded and turned to Dong Zi. “Mr. Dong, would you be willing to help?”
Dong Zi: “?”
“I heard you say earlier that you wanted to push through this checkpoint. So I’d like to ask you to help with rebuilding the city wall. It’s crucial. Would you be willing to take it on?” Dagong asked sincerely.
Fu Changxun burst into laughter. “He thought your ‘mm’ was agreement. But it’s fine—go help out.”
Most of the high-level plants were now inside the city. Rebuilding the walls was actually one of the safest jobs—they’d be stationed in the area with the fewest threats.
“I’m not going. I need to stay with you,” Dong Zi said without thinking, ready to refuse.
But Fu Changxun grabbed his wrist. “Wait.”
He tapped through his personal game panel, typed a few things, then looked up. “I’m coming too. Just hold on—if a giant dandelion shows up soon, please don’t attack it. That’s… my item.”
No one had seen what the dandelion item looked like yet. But this was a game instance—nothing was too strange. A dandelion wasn’t exactly shocking.
Especially not in a plant-based instance. Walk through the wilderness, and there were mutant dandelions everywhere.
And sure enough, as if to confirm his words, a massive dandelion—at least four or five meters tall—came bouncing toward them and plopped down nearby.
Its roots skillfully avoided every obstacle, bounding over wrecked cars and rubble.
It actually looked like it was doing ballet.
It seemed quiet and obedient. Cute, even. But only Fu Changxun knew the truth.
Xiao Pu was swearing its head off.
A non-stop stream of profanity that rivaled the stuff Zhang Feifei had been bombarded with earlier.
It shouted: “****! **!”
So many asterisks. Dr. Fu had zero desire to translate. He pretended not to hear a thing.
“Alright, you’re here? Is Director Qiu safe? Is everyone safe? Are you safe?”
The Dandelion protested, “They’re safe as hell. Me? Not so much! The second your Director Qiu saw your name pop up, he kicked me right out!”
Fu Changxun patted its big leafy head. “Alright, alright. Over here, you’ve gotta listen to Da-ge. If you find any other mutated plants, notify us first.”
The dandelion glanced at its new boss, Dagong. Not bad. At least he wasn’t ugly.
Dagong gave it a nod of understanding.
With the dandelion joining their ranks, the rest of the mutated plants were completely overpowered.
Gone was the earlier arrogance about using humans as fertilizer. The ones capable of speech begged for mercy, while the ones that couldn’t were dealt with physically.
If they refused to obey? Beaten to death with a flurry of punches.
The dandelion, having developed self-awareness on the very first day, was leaps and bounds ahead of the other mutated flora in terms of power, intelligence, and rationality.
It was pure luck that Fu Changxun had taken it with him. Had it been left wandering the wilderness, it might’ve banded together with these invasive mutants and broken into the city, posing a real threat to humans.
If that had happened, the plants’ overall strength would’ve skyrocketed—meaning far more players and NPCs would’ve died.
Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.
The dandelion rubbed affectionately against Fu Changxun, then tiptoed—well, tip-rooted—its way over to Dagong.
“Alright,” it said. “Let’s move out together.”
