Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

Several red dots appeared on the bio-detector, not far from this water source.

Vikram first looked behind him, finding no other Survivors in sight.

It seemed their group of three had not yet been discovered.

After careful consideration, Vikram decided to ignore these red dots, which represented other Survivors.

As long as they didn’t seek him out, he couldn’t be bothered with them.

For now, it was more important to figure out how to catch some fish from this lake, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Searching for new resources these past few days had consumed a lot of time.

Vikram quickly calculated that only two days remained until the start of the new natural disaster.

If they didn’t take advantage of these remaining safe days to collect more supplies, there was no telling what kind of trouble would arise when the disaster struck.

Thinking this, he led the two of them to the lakeside.

But before he could clearly see the lake surface, he noticed that the land near the lake was littered with scattered corpses.

They weren’t the bodies of other Survivors, but rather the foul-smelling corpses of zombies.

Shriveled severed limbs, blown-out heads, and a ground covered in rotten flesh and mud.

From the state of these zombies, it was clear that other Survivors were responsible.

Seeing this, Vikram couldn’t help but frown.

He had previously thought that the absence of zombies nearby was due to the area being secluded, surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Now it seemed highly probable that the lack of zombies here was because of the group of Survivors behind them earlier.

Looking at the number of zombie corpses here, he could also largely confirm that those few Survivors must be quite strong.

However, he merely sighed and wasn’t afraid; if it came to a fight, he was confident he could defeat any Survivor who didn’t know their place.

Standing up, he kicked aside a few corpses blocking the small path by the lake.

“The lake is all frozen over, can there still be fish?” Anjali, following behind, asked doubtfully upon seeing the frozen water.

At minus twenty degrees Celsius, as expected, the water near the shore was covered with a sufficiently thick layer of ice.

Vikram reached out and tapped on it; only a slightly dull sound echoed back.

Divya and Sophia also picked up a stone from the lakeside and threw it onto the ice.

The result was also as expected; the ice surface only chipped off a small piece of ice.

Perhaps because the extreme cold had only recently passed, the ice on the lake was somewhat excessively thick.

“This ice layer is thick enough to stand on. Does that mean we have to dig through it now?” Divya asked, seeing the situation.

Vikram nodded, and he also missed that, why didn’t brought Fire Mage or Water Mage, or Ice Mage. If he had brought them here, they can easily have melted this.

“Judging by the size of this lake, there are definitely a lot of fish inside.”

“It seems today, in addition to the new supplies from the villa, we can add several new creatures to the territory.”

He stepped onto the ice, felt its thickness, and after confirming it wouldn’t collapse under a person’s weight, slowly walked towards the middle of the lake.

When they reached a distance of about twenty to thirty meters from the shore, he signaled the two to stop.

Although the ice near the shore was quite thick, with such a large lake, it shouldn’t freeze easily.

The further towards the center of the lake, the thinner the ice would surely be.

Vikram felt this distance was sufficient; after all, he didn’t know how deep the lake was, so it was better to be cautious.

The three of them simultaneously summoned their pickaxes and swung them together on the ice.

Under the effect of their physique, a hole was quickly dug into the ice.

Vikram looked at the cold lake water beneath his feet, unable to suppress his joy.

The new resources explored previously had yielded many unexpected supplies.

Now, the territory was about to add fish to its provisions, meaning the ecology and productivity within the territory were gradually developing and maturing.

He was naturally happy to see such changes.

However, things were not as smooth as he imagined, and this joy quickly vanished without a trace the moment the system provided its analysis.

[Cold Lake Water: A lake with a vast water storage, inhabited by a large number of fish, but because the water source is contaminated by zombie blood from the shore, it is not recommended for the host to use it.]

“Water source contaminated, then all the fish in here are useless?” Thinking this, he still wouldn’t give up and took out the fishing rod he had bought from the system’s shop.

This fishing rod was a high-grade one bought at a hefty price, intended to help him contribute to the territory, but he didn’t expect such a problem to arise first.

He first tried fishing with ordinary synthetic bait bought from the regular trading market.

The result was that he sat on the ice for nearly an hour, and no fish bit the hook.

Seeing this, his heart sank, and he then used a lump of pure raw meat as bait.

Unexpectedly, shortly after he lowered the hook into the water, ripples appeared on the water surface around the fishing rod.

Without thinking, he forcefully pulled up the fishing rod, and a fish slightly shorter than his forearm was reeled in.

Divya and Anjali, who still didn’t know what was happening, were delighted when they finally saw a fish caught.

Vikram, however, shook his head helplessly.

“What’s wrong, Vikram? You caught a fish, why aren’t you happy?” Divya noticed something was off and asked.

He didn’t explain, just sighed, then tossed the fish in front of them, “See for yourselves.”

Hearing this, they both looked at the ground simultaneously, but were startled by what they saw.

The fish, still on the hook, appeared to be completely rotten.

Its scales were already scattered, its belly showed its bones, and its internal organs were long gone.

Any normal fish in such a state would surely be beyond dead.

Yet, this fish was still thrashing about on the ice.

If not for the hook restraining it, it might have even tried to attack the three people standing on the ice.

“Holy moly, this fish turned into a zombie too?” Anjali first blurted out an expletive, then exclaimed in surprise.

She then spoke again: “Does that mean all the fish in this lake are like this?”

Vikram nodded, essentially agreeing with this statement.

Even if there were uninfected fish in the lake, the water itself was now problematic, and no matter what, he wouldn’t dare to eat fish living in such water.

“It’s fine, the Wasteland World is vast. If the fish in this water source are infected, we can just find another water source to fish from.”

Vikram quickly accepted this fact and, without a word, stood up, ready to lead the two away.

But just as the three of them returned to solid ground, a commotion came from the only entrance to the water source in the distance.

Conversations, clearly from Survivors, made them stop in their tracks.

Evidently, the time spent chiseling the ice and fishing was too long, attracting other Survivors closer.

Seeing that something was happening, the four decided to hide behind a nearby tree first.

But a slightly rough male voice caught them off guard.

“Hey, who are you guys, and what are you doing here?”