Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

A special thank you to MoonLobster for the Golden Ticket! Your support truly means a lot and motivates me to keep writing and improving the story.

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Another day passed in the Wasteland.

Although he had obtained the coordinates of the new resource point yesterday, he couldn’t go out to explore that factory right now.

The toxicity of the Black Mist outside had reached an unavoidable level.

Vikram had been observing the several Survivors hanging on the trees outside these past few days.

After four or five days, as expected, all four of them were dead.

Vikram stood in the almost pitch-black Black Mist, observing the four corpses on the tree at close range.

The toxicity of the Black Mist had completely corroded every part of their bodies in just a few days.

Leaving festering, putrid wounds on all four of them.

Vikram was certain that these four people did not die from freezing, thirst, or hunger.

Vikram hadn’t given them food, but he had given them water to observe them.

A few days were clearly not enough to starve them to death.

There were barricades outside the territory to block some cold wind for them, plus a bonfire, so given the physique of these few people, freezing to death was also unlikely.

This meant that these four Survivors died from toxicity after staying in the Black Mist for about four days.

His gaze swept over the four recently deceased bodies on the tree, and Vikram untied the ropes from them.

He had a general understanding of how long an ordinary Survivor could last outside due to the Black Mist’s toxicity.

According to the third stage of toxic invasion, without any protective measures, a survivor would likely die within about four days due to the toxins entering their body.

These four bodies were no longer of any use to him, so he planned to burn them.

This was to prevent the corpses from making the air inside the wall smell foul.

But just then, looking at the bodies that had fallen limply to the ground, Vikram suddenly frowned.

As if he had thought of something, he immediately squatted down and carefully examined the injuries on these four people.

“These wounds… why do they look so familiar?”

Looking at the festering, pus-filled wounds on the bodies, a familiar creature inexplicably came to his mind.

“Zombies?”

Vikram immediately summoned the system, preparing to scan these bodies.

At this moment, the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow suddenly came from behind him.

Before he could turn around, a familiar male voice entered his ears.

“Brother Vikram, so it’s you! I thought someone was invading our Shelter!”

“Oh, right, Brother, what are you tinkering with here? Do you need a hand?”

Ron rubbed the back of his head and asked in a slightly rough voice.

Interrupted, Vikram turned around, his gaze shifting from the bodies to Ron.

“Nothing, just observing these four Survivors.”

“You don’t need to help, go do your own thing.”

Vikram waved his hand, preparing to observe the condition of these bodies by himself.

“Oh, alright.” Ron, who had been staring at the observation room screen, replied sheepishly and was about to leave.

But just then, the corner of his eye inadvertently caught sight of the bodies at Vikram’s feet.

That alone wasn’t much; a single corpse was common in the Wasteland.

What truly made his pupils constrict was that these four bodies actually started to move.

And their movements clearly indicated an attempt to bite Vikram’s thigh.

Seeing these monsters about to succeed, Ron exclaimed, “Brother Vikram, watch your feet!”

As Ron spoke, he moved forward to pull Vikram away.

However, the moment Vikram saw the strange look in Ron’s eyes, he had already moved a significant distance away.

In the blink of an eye, he was already behind Ron.

He even reached out and patted his shoulder, applying a slight pressure to stop his movement.

“Brother Vikram… your… your speed?”

Seeing Vikram instantly teleport behind him, Ron turned his head, looking at Vikram as if he had seen a ghost.

Seeing Ron’s surprised gaze, Vikram’s expression remained calm.

The moment he had summoned the system, he had already received information about these four bodies, so he had already been on guard.

But in Ron’s eyes, it was completely different.

He knew that besides his mutated purification ability, which he hadn’t used to its limit, he had maxed out all other items that increased his physique.

Yet, he still couldn’t clearly see Vikram’s movements just now.

This could only mean that Vikram’s physique was even higher than his.

And it wasn’t just a little higher; he estimated it was almost twice his own.

Thinking of this, Ron couldn’t help but swallow.

The last time they met at the villa, although he couldn’t beat Vikram, he hadn’t felt such a huge gap between them.

Now it seemed that if Vikram hadn’t held back then, he might not even have had a chance to escape.

However, he then remembered that Vikram was now the leader of their Shelter, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, a smile returning to his face.

“Brother, your strength must be unique in the entire Wasteland World, right?”

“Your little brother is truly impressed.” Ron clenched his fist, his face full of admiration.

Vikram ignored Ron’s adoring gaze.

Instead, he stared gravely at the spot where he had just stood.

The four bodies there, oh no, the four zombies, after failing to strike, immediately got up from the ground.

Staring intently at them, they slowly walked towards them.

Remembering the corpses on the ground that had tried to bite Vikram earlier, Ron slapped his forehead and also turned around, “What’s going on with these zombies?”

“Weren’t these Survivors tied to the tree before? No zombies bit them, so how did they end up like this?”

Looking at the approaching zombies, Ron was first puzzled, then looked at Vikram.

After receiving Vikram’s nod of approval, he unhesitatingly rushed forward, pulled out his weapon, and began to slash.

Vikram had already scanned these four zombies with the system; they were just some rare-grade zombies.

Under Ron’s strength value of forty, they naturally couldn’t last more than a few seconds before being dismembered and falling silent.

“Tch, I thought they were more capable. They all died before I even warmed up?”

Ron clicked his tongue, kicking away the zombie lying at his feet and saying loudly.

Vikram, however, shook his head, “Ron, help me burn these bodies.”

Vikram’s expression was not good. After saying this, he turned and returned to the room.

This left Ron completely bewildered, thinking he had done something wrong to displease Vikram…

Back in the shelter, Vikram collapsed onto the sofa.

As for the reason his face looked grim, it was, of course, the influence of the Black Mist.

He reopened the system’s analysis interface from earlier.

[Normal Zombie: Rare grade, a zombie mutated from an ordinary survivor infected by the Black Mist’s toxicity.]

The system’s description was short but very direct.

The Black Mist’s toxicity could directly infect normal people and turn them into zombies.

But this alone was enough to make his expression darken.

Because he didn’t know if the prerequisite for this infection was simply inhaling the toxic Black Mist, meaning Survivors would sooner or later become infected and mutate.

Or if it required reaching the same level as those four Survivors outside to become zombies.

If it was the latter, it would still be acceptable. If it was the former, then things would be a big problem.

Perhaps he could escape this toxicity through the system, but what about others?

If this characteristic was true, he estimated that it wouldn’t be long before the Wasteland World would be left with only zombies.

By then, he would probably be the only one left alive in the entire Wasteland with his wives. Or the people living in his territory.

If it came to this situation, with only few living people left in the world, he felt there would be no meaning in living anymore…

But he then cleared his thoughts, and understand, this was not the time to think about all of these.

Speaking of which, since his last exploration of the Hospital, Vikram hadn’t ventured far again for a long time.

At most, he would just mess around near his home or within the walls.

It was precisely because the black mist’s toxicity was too outrageous, and he also found out that it can infect survivors.

But then he had the Storm Mage Sprout, Healer Druid, Light Mage Druid, so he didn’t need to worry about this.

Now, he indeed needed an outing to replenish the territory’s supplies.

He also needs to upgrade the walls of territory 2, since he knew the later most dangerous Zombies were going to appear.

First was the thickness, height, and counter-attack capabilities of the perimeter wall.

When there were too many Zombies, Mutated Zombies would climb over the wall and enter.

Not to mention Epic-level Zombies; he estimated that the current metal wall thickness definitely couldn’t withstand frequent attacks from Zombies of that level.

Next was the wall’s counter-attack capability, such as adding anti-climbing coatings to the outer wall, or adding electrified barbed wire.

Vikram would only be satisfied if Zombies below Epic-level were absolutely prevented from entering the walls.

Thinking of this, Vikram pondered for a moment, then sat on the sofa and sent a message to Abhishek.

[Vikram: How are you? Not dead, are you?”

]

Their last conversation was when Vikram was discussing how to help the other party get through the interrogation.

Now, with no reply, Vikram sent a message to confirm that his dishonest spy was alive.

However, after a long time, Vikram received no reply.

“No way, he really died?”

“Then who’s going to make up for my missing resource point?”

Muttering to himself, Vikram tried to activate his wristband’s ability.

Fortunately, after being stimulated by him, a sound came from his friend’s messages…