Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

A huge thank you to Ron_Selby for the Golden Ticket! Your support truly means a lot and keeps me motivated to continue writing and improving the story.

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After discovering the first incomplete zombie inside Ashveil Stronghold, Vikram completely shifted his focus. From that moment onward, his investigations intensified dramatically.

At first, most hunters believed the zombie-like creature was merely another failed vampire experiment. However, Vikram knew better. Unlike everyone else, he understood exactly what those creatures eventually became.

Thus, during every mission, Vikram deliberately began targeting locations connected to suspicious vampire activity, hidden laboratories, abandoned facilities, underground sectors, blood transport networks, research centers, and anything remotely linked to biological experimentation.

These immediately became Team 11’s top priority.

As the investigations deepened, the situation grew far more terrifying. The scale of the research network was enormous, stretching well beyond what anyone had expected.

Secret facilities existed beneath ruined cities, abandoned hospitals, underground tunnels, military bunkers, and even seemingly ordinary vampire settlements.

Every discovered site contained traces of similar research: blood mutation, cellular adaptation, artificial evolution, human experimentation, and strange biological enhancement programs.

Many facilities also held incomplete mutated creatures resembling the one found beneath Ashveil. Some were dead, some were unstable, and some were horrifyingly close to becoming complete.

At the same time, another strange pattern became increasingly obvious. The vampires themselves seemed afraid of the project.

Captured researchers frequently committed suicide immediately after capture. Several tore out their own throats, others activated hidden poison mechanisms, and some even begged hunters to kill them before interrogation could begin.

Almost all repeated similar phrases before dying, "You don’t understand..." "It should never awaken..." "We went too far..."

Those words only deepened the mystery. Every time the hunters approached important information, the same events repeated: laboratories self-destructed, data systems erased themselves remotely, research records disappeared, important personnel vanished before arrival, and entire facilities were abandoned within hours.

Someone, or something, was desperately trying to erase all traces of the project.

At this point, even the Hunter Federation itself became alarmed. The scale of the conspiracy far exceeded ordinary vampire activity.

This wasn’t the work of isolated barons anymore. The operations stretched across multiple territories, which meant higher vampire nobility was involved, possibly even vampire royalty.

Throughout these investigations, Vikram gradually noticed something even more disturbing. The vampires conducting the experiments no longer behaved like confident rulers.

Instead, many acted like frightened people trying to stop a disaster they themselves had created, as though the experiments had already gone beyond their control.

One night, inside another destroyed underground laboratory, Vikram silently stood before rows of burned research chambers. The entire facility had self-destructed minutes before Team 11 arrived.

Bodies of dead vampire researchers lay scattered across the ground, most having clearly committed suicide.

—

For months, the investigations continued endlessly. One hidden laboratory after another was discovered, and one research center after another was destroyed. Yet the true core of the project always escaped their grasp.

At first, Vikram believed the vampires simply possessed excellent information networks. However, after repeated failures, he gradually realized the truth: someone on the hunter’s side was leaking information.

The pattern had become too precise. Every time large-scale hunter movements occurred, Federation resources were mobilized, or multiple teams prepared operations, important vampire personnel disappeared beforehand.

Researchers escaped, laboratories self-destructed, data vanished, and vital clues were erased completely.

Smaller accidental discoveries sometimes still yielded useful traces, proving one thing, the enemy was receiving advance information.

One night, inside his room, Vikram quietly spread dozens of mission reports, investigation records, and destroyed facility maps across the table.

The room remained completely silent except for the continuous turning of pages. As he connected the timelines together, his expression grew colder with every discovery. There was definitely a leak. Someone with access to hunter operations was secretly helping the vampires.

Vikram leaned backward slightly and stared at the ceiling in silence. His eyes slowly narrowed. If he continued operating with major hunter teams, the same failures would keep repeating.

The enemy would always escape before arrival, facilities would self-destruct, and the truth would remain hidden.

Eventually, he picked up another investigation file. This target was different from the previous ones, far more dangerous.

[Target Identified] [Crimson Eclipse Settlement] [Classification: Marquis Territory]

It was a vampire marquis territory, a place far beyond ordinary baron settlements. Normally, even entering such a territory required multiple hunter teams working together.

Yet after staring at the file for several moments, Vikram made his decision. He would go alone.

He would not notify the Federation, ask for headquarters approval, or register the mission. Only himself and his summoned plants, it would not be so difficult.

Compared to moving with an entire hunter team, a single person could infiltrate far more quietly. At the same time, if the information leak truly existed, nobody would know his real target.

He calmly reviewed the entire operation in his mind: no direct assault, no unnecessary battles. Priority: infiltration, investigation, and information retrieval.

At that moment, his gaze slowly moved toward the window. The night sky above Cameron City remained dark and silent. It was the perfect time.

---

Under the cover of night, Vikram finally infiltrated Crimson Eclipse Stronghold alone. Unlike previous operations, he moved with extreme caution.

Only Phanty accompanied him, remaining hidden in the shadows unless absolutely necessary.

The deeper Vikram ventured into the marquis territory, the more shocked he became. Compared to previous vampire settlements, Crimson Eclipse Stronghold was on an entirely different level.

Security was terrifying, with hidden patrols moving continuously throughout the fortress, blood detection barriers covering multiple hallways, and numerous sealed underground sectors beneath the stronghold.

Using Phanty’s illusion assistance and his own careful movements, Vikram quietly bypassed every checkpoint.

After several hours, he finally reached the hidden underground research sector. Yet the moment he entered, his expression changed slightly.

The facility was empty. It had not been destroyed like the previous ones, nor evacuated in panic. It was simply empty, as though the occupants had just stepped away.

The machines still hummed, the lights remained active, and research terminals still held files, but no researchers were present anywhere. The silence felt deeply unnatural.

Vikram carefully moved deeper into the laboratory until he finally found what he had been searching for: the complete research archives.

Unlike previous facilities, this laboratory still contained intact records. As he began reading them, his expression gradually changed. Then, slowly, the horrifying truth revealed itself.

The vampires were not actually trying to create zombies. The zombies were accidents, failed experimental products.

At first, Vikram found it difficult to believe, but the more records he read, the clearer the truth became. The experiments involved a special biological serum injected into human subjects.

The serum aggressively altered blood production, regeneration, cellular adaptation, and biological evolution.

The original goal had never been monster creation. Instead, the vampires had been desperately trying to solve a crisis threatening their entire civilization.

Humanity itself was disappearing. For centuries, vampires had treated humans as endless livestock, but war, massacres, awakeners, and uncontrolled feeding had reduced humanity’s population catastrophically.

Human civilization was collapsing, and with it, the vampire food supply.

The research records explained the situation clearly. Without humans, vampires would weaken, blood shortages would worsen, and entire noble houses would eventually collapse.

Thus, the higher vampire nobility had begun searching for a permanent solution: an artificial biological lifeform capable of endlessly regenerating blood, surviving indefinitely, and serving as a stable food source forever.

The ideal subject would possess limitless regeneration, infinite blood production, controlled mutation, and stable biological evolution.

In simple terms, the vampires wanted to create living eternal blood sources.

However, the experiments had failed catastrophically. Instead of perfect regenerative humans, most subjects transformed into something else entirely, zombies.

The serum destroyed higher brain functions, blood rapidly decayed, and cells mutated uncontrollably.

Subjects became violent, flesh-consuming monsters driven only by instinctive hunger. Worst of all, the zombies themselves contained almost no usable blood, meaning the experiments had completely failed their original purpose.

Vikram slowly leaned backward, staring silently at the research records. This revelation changed everything.

The zombies were never intended to become biological weapons, nor were they created intentionally as monsters. They were failed attempts at creating artificial blood-producing humans.

The research logs continued further. Although the experiments had failed, the vampires could not destroy the zombies entirely.

Over the years, the failed experiments had already produced enormous numbers of infected subjects. Unlike ordinary failed creations, zombies spread uncontrollably once released. Even the vampires themselves were threatened by them.

Then Vikram found another classified report, and his eyes widened slightly. The vampires had frozen the zombies, tens of thousands of them, using cryogenic stasis systems hidden across multiple underground facilities throughout the world.

It was temporary containment while they either perfected the serum or permanently solved the zombie problem.

The atmosphere around Vikram grew colder. He finally understood something terrifying. The zombie apocalypse had not started yet, but the world already stood on the edge of it.

Somewhere beneath countless hidden facilities, thousands of frozen zombies silently waited in darkness. One mistake, one accident, or one facility failure, and the entire world could collapse.

—

After discovering the complete research archives, Vikram immediately opened his System interface again. According to the information he had uncovered, the truth behind the zombies should finally be complete.

[Main Mission] [Discover the Origin of Zombies]

The interface flickered for several moments before new information appeared.

[Mission Progress Updated]

[You have discovered the purpose behind the Zombie research project.]

[Current Objective Updated: Discover the origin of the biological serum responsible for Zombie creation.]

[Mission Status: Incomplete]

Vikram quietly stared at the updated details. This time he wasn’t surprised. After learning everything, he had already realized something important: the vampires themselves didn’t create the serum originally.

They had merely discovered it or inherited it from somewhere else. Even according to the research files, the higher vampire nobility still didn’t fully understand the serum.

They were only experimenting with it, studying it, and trying to control it. That meant the true origin of the serum remained hidden.

While Vikram continued thinking deeply, a sudden "CRACK—!" echoed through the chamber as one of the large cryogenic stasis chambers nearby violently shattered apart.

The loud explosion rang throughout the underground laboratory. Vikram’s expression changed immediately as he turned toward the pod.

Cold mist spread across the room while a figure slowly emerged from inside the broken stasis chamber.

At first, Vikram instinctively prepared for battle, thinking another zombie had awakened. However, the moment he clearly saw the figure, even he became stunned.

Stepping out from the shattered chamber was an unbelievably beautiful girl. Long golden hair flowed down to her waist like liquid sunlight. Her pale skin looked flawless and almost unreal beneath the laboratory lights.

Bright golden eyes slowly opened, carrying both confusion and emptiness. Her body appeared delicate and perfect, without the slightest visible mutation.

Unlike the incomplete zombies, her movements were completely natural, no stiffness, no decay, and no madness. Every motion felt strangely graceful, almost too perfect. The broken experimental tubes and wires slowly detached from her body one after another.