Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

"Why does it always happen like this?"

"Are you playing a ’stopwatch challenge’ with me?"

Divya’s urging voice came from outside the room, "What’s going on? Where did Vikram and Anjali go?"

"Why are you hiding at dinnertime?"

Divya scratched her head. She had asked Anjali to call Vikram down, but so much time had passed, and she still hadn’t come up.

Divya wasn’t as oblivious as Anjali. As soon as she arrived at the fourth floor, she noticed the changes.

From the several new pieces of furniture in the living room, everything indicated that the living area’s facilities were basically complete.

At least compared to the living conditions upstairs, this place was at least four or five times better.

As she searched through each bedroom, the empty yet already renovated rooms made Divya slightly surprised.

It wasn’t until Vikram and Anjali walked out of a smaller room, both blushing, that Divya finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She had thought something had happened, causing them to not even have time to reply to messages.

Just as she was about to ask what they were busy with downstairs, the light from the living room shone on their slightly red cheeks, immediately raising her suspicions.

Divya frowned and questioned, "What exactly were you two doing?"

"Don’t tell me that in just this short amount of time, you two..."

Mid-sentence, Divya closed her mouth and hummed softly, crossing her arms.

Fortunately, Anjali reacted quickly enough and, feeling guilty, immediately explained that they were renovating the entertainment room downstairs. After showing Divya the three newly finished rooms, her suspicions were finally dispelled.

Like Anjali, the surprise on Divya’s face didn’t stop for a moment when she first saw the facilities in these rooms.

She wasn’t particularly interested in video games, but the home theater that Vikram had spent a fortune on completely captivated her.

Especially when she used the remote to flip through several sources, and one after another, familiar and unfamiliar Earth movies appeared before her eyes, her eyes lit up even more.

Immediately, she looked at Vikram with pleasant surprise.

"These?"

"The entertainment room I promised you. Not bad, right?"

"More than not bad?"

"It’s fantastic! This is better than ninety percent of the cinemas on Earth."

Apparently, Divya was very interested in movies. Since she came in, her mouth hadn’t closed.

It was Vikram who pulled her back downstairs before they could all eat lunch.

After lunch, Vikram told them and also Sophia and Luna to go downstairs and experience the Shelter’s entertainment room for themselves, while he opened the chat.

There wasn’t anything noteworthy in the regional channel, but there were few messages.

One was from Radhika and her group, sent last night.

[Radhika: Big Boss Vikram, if possible, how about we trade the day after tomorrow? Our gasoline is ready. No problem, just let us know when you have time, Big Shot.]

"Oh, right, there was this."

Looking at the message, Vikram remembered his previous promise to trade food for gasoline and diesel.

"That does require a trip."

Vikram now had a total of twelve vehicles in his possession.

You heard that right, a full twelve vehicles.

This included his own van, RV, SUV, and a small motorcycle, which goes without saying.

Then there was Snape’s own hatchback and another sedan he bought at the auction.

Finally, the group from Ghost Shelter, whom he dealt with at the auction, contributed a total of seven vehicles, motorcycles and electric scooters, to Vikram. Although none of them were four-wheelers, they were valuable enough.

Safety aside, for simple travel, these vehicles had no problems at all.

As for why Lilith had no reaction when he killed those from Ghost Shelter at the auction...

He thought there were two explanations.

First, when Vikram took action, all the people were killed by Ron twisting their necks, and other Survivors didn’t notice at all, so it had no impact on Crimson Desire Shelter.

Second, Lilith probably didn’t think highly of those who had caused trouble before, so she just let Vikram do as he pleased, since she liked him.

Coming back to his senses, all these vehicles consumed a lot of fuel.

Thinking this, Vikram replied directly.

[Vikram: No problem. Send me a rough location, and I’ll see where we can meet then.]

Apparently, Radhika also took Vikram’s message very seriously; in the blink of an eye, she provided a coordinate.

Vikram compared the coordinates and frowned.

"It’s a bit far, and not on the way."

By not on the way, he meant it wasn’t on the way to Savage Wolf Shelter’s location.

In that case, the trading location could only be changed to an unfamiliar place.

It seemed the other party had also considered this point; before Vikram could speak, she replied again.

[Radhika: Big Boss Vikram, please see if you are free tomorrow. You can decide the time and coordinates.]

Hearing the other party’s sincerity, Vikram felt much more at ease.

Without rushing to give coordinates, he first set the trading time for 11 AM tomorrow, then Vikram closed the chat.

It would be safer to provide the coordinates when he departs tomorrow.

—

Leisure time always passes exceptionally fast; in the blink of an eye, it was the next day.

Vikram woke up clutching his head, but this time he wasn’t on a soft bed, but on the home theater’s sofa.

Because they finally had a way to unwind other than just chatting, the five of them had holed up in the newly completed home theater yesterday and watched movies all night.

He didn’t even know when he fell asleep, and the TV screen was still playing a movie that had been replayed several times.

Rubbing his eyes, Vikram sat up. Today was March 10th, and not counting today, the next natural disaster was only two days away.

It was six in the morning, and getting up so early was, of course, to keep an appointment.

He hadn’t forgotten that the diesel and gasoline he had been longing for were waiting for him to buy them.

**Here’s the updated version with "chipku" replaced by a natural English description:**

---

Vikram glanced at the four women still sleeping soundly beside him.

Divya looked dignified and virtuous even in her sleep, curled up peacefully like a docile kitten.

Anjali, who was using his arm as a pillow, was the complete opposite. She slept like a little kid, sprawled out in every direction with terrible posture. Her mouth was slightly open, and the drool was dangerously close to dripping onto his hand. Before it could, Vikram swiftly gave her upturned butt a light slap.

Sophia slept gracefully with a gentle smile on her face. She had nestled close to his side, one arm draped comfortably over his waist, radiating quiet warmth and affection.

Luna, true to her nature, remained calm and composed even in sleep. Yet she was the most clingy of them all, tightly wrapped around Vikram’s side, her face buried against his chest and her arms holding him firmly as if she never wanted to let go.

Vikram couldn’t help but smile softly at the sight of all four women attached to him in their own unique ways.

"Ah~!"

Anjali woke up with a start, quickly slurping up her drool. She let out a surprised cry, then puffed her cheeks and glared angrily at Vikram.

"Stinky Vikram! What are you doing? I was halfway through a beautiful dream. Why did you wake me up?!"

The commotion also woke Divya. She stretched lazily, her full figure shifting under the sheets in a way that made Vikram’s eyes blur for a moment.

"What’s wrong?" Divya asked, still half-asleep, her voice soft and slightly slurred in a charming way. "It’s only six o’clock. Why are you up so early?"

"Exactly! Stinky Vikram, if you don’t explain yourself today, I’m not done with you!" Anjali huffed.

Sophia stirred gracefully beside Vikram, opening her eyes with a gentle smile. She snuggled closer for a moment, pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder before speaking in a calm, affectionate tone. "Good morning... Is everything alright?"

Luna, still tightly clinging to his side, slowly lifted her head. Her expression remained calm, but she refused to loosen her hold on him. "Did something happen?" she asked quietly, her voice soft and slightly possessive as she nuzzled against his chest.

Vikram chuckled at their varied reactions and said directly, "Come with me today. I have something to do."

"Ah~"

"Can I take a day off? I slept too late last night; I want to catch up on sleep."

Vikram looked at the four women, "Today you two get to meet your best girlfriends, and you’re not happy, just sulking here?" Vikram said with a smile.

Hearing this, their eyes immediately lit up, and they leaned towards Vikram’s face, saying, "Are we going out to trade gasoline with Radhika and Geetanjali today?"

Seeing Vikram didn’t deny it, Anjali’s face immediately lit up with excitement.

"Yay, stinky Vikram, what are you still standing around for? Go change your clothes."

Don’t let it seem like the two women except for Sophia and Luna would sit and chat when they had free time; in reality, the only ones they were truly close to and who also had time to chat were basically Radhika and Geetanjali.

Plus, they had met not long after arriving in the Wasteland, so even though they had never met in person, they had long considered each other good friends.

After a simple wash-up, the five ate breakfast and with the Phantom, under the waving farewells of Ron and the others, left the Shelter.

In the car, Vikram randomly selected a location between Radhika’s given coordinates and his Shelter’s coordinates, then sent it to her.

He then drove straight to the destination.

He had initially thought the journey would be smooth, after all, it was just a regular, run-of-the-mill offline trade.

However, the vehicle had only traveled halfway to its destination when Vikram encountered uninvited guests.

It was a large group of Zombies that had been out of sight for a long time. Upon seeing the speeding off-road vehicle, they instantly locked onto Vikram and his companions.

They surged towards the vehicle in a mighty tide.

Just as Vikram had previously guessed, these Zombies, after being nourished by the strange egg-like structures in the underground lair, had undergone a qualitative improvement in both quality and physique.

Even though their numbers had significantly decreased, their actual destructive power was much stronger than before.

The current horde no longer had ordinary Rare-level Zombies; the lowest were Exquisite-grade Zombies.

The previously fewer Blue and Purple-grade Zombies had now become the most numerous type in the horde.

Looking ahead, Vikram estimated there were at least fifty Zombies, with more than half being Blue and Purple-grade Zombies on the verge of advancing to Epic-level.

Within this group of Zombies, Vikram could even spot two Epic-level Giant Zombies at the very front of the horde.

The moment they saw the Zombies, Divya, almost without hesitation, took out her machine gun and aimed it at the shooting port reserved in the off-road vehicle.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!"

Bullets poured out, each one precisely avoiding the Epic-level Zombies at the front and hitting the lesser Zombies behind.

Vikram himself wasn’t slow either. Seeing that they were about to crash into the horde, he didn’t ease up on the accelerator at all.

Instead, he pressed down harder, while simultaneously pressing a button on the modified center console of the car.

A huge and heavy metal spike instantly rose from the front of the car.

"Splat!" As it drove through, a dozen Zombies were without exception sent flying.

The remaining two Epic-level Zombies, due to their physique, couldn’t be knocked down, but the spikes on the bumper still pierced bloody holes in their legs.

They largely lost their mobility.

Vikram didn’t even think, pulling the handbrake and getting out of the car.

"Roar!" Seeing someone get out of the car, the two limping Epic-level Zombies roared, still trying to counterattack.

However, Vikram gave them no chance at all, swinging his hammer twice and exploding their heads, which were larger than watermelons.

He collected their bodies and continued driving toward the destination.

Meanwhile, Phantom simply remained seated and didn’t involve himself in anything, since Vikram had already told him not to interfere.