Among all the plants, the spider plant was the most flexible and the fastest. However, it was held back by who knew which plant and could not move. In the end, the pothos won through sheer strength, charging forward first before abruptly stopping and obediently placing one of its leaves into Fu Erdie’s palm.
Fu Erdie stroked the familiar texture. Before she could feel it for long, her hand grew heavier and heavier. More plants and roots rushed over, piling up on her palm like acrobats.
Fu Erdie: “…”
With a smiling face, she continued saying to everyone, “The individuals I produce using my plant ability can corrode rubbish, convert it into nutrients, absorb it, and grow. But I myself, including my home ability, need double or even triple the crystal core energy to level up.” One share for herself, one share for the house — two shares altogether. No problem there.
“And you all need crystal cores to level up too. So to maintain our advantage, we need to keep killing zombies, taking crystal cores, and keeping ourselves in a superior position.”
“C City isn’t small. It has one or two million people. Among them, there may only be a few thousand or tens of thousands of survivors scattered around. Excluding those who fled elsewhere or survived in different bases, maybe only one or two thousand survivors remain in the city. The remaining millions are all zombies.”
“According to the information given by the D City base, these zombies, whether gathered together or scattered, may sense the aura of a base or be summoned by intelligent ability zombies, causing them to gather toward bases and form zombie tides of various sizes. The reason we haven’t faced a zombie tide problem so far is, first, because we have few people, and second, because the plants’ aura is strong and masks our human scent. To passing zombies, this place is less like a base and more like a nest of mutated plants.”
Hearing this, Han Zhi could not help nodding.
As a psychic ability user, he felt this even more deeply. Whether when he had first arrived or after living here for almost a month, he was absolutely certain that the plants’ aura was extremely powerful. Added together, it truly screened out the scent of humans. To the zombies outside, this place had no attraction at all. It even gave off a mysterious sense of danger.
“Last time, the plants cleared around three thousand zombies inside the residential complex in one go. Later, I plan to lure zombies into the complex in batches of three thousand to six thousand. Han Zhi is a psychic ability user, so he’ll be responsible for finding any mutated zombies among them. After dealing with the troublesome ones, we’ll leave the rest to the plants.”
“If after several experiments we still have spare capacity, then the ability users among us will take turns going out, specifically targeting ability zombies. Once we clear out the ability zombies in the surrounding districts, we can feel more at ease luring zombies over batch by batch.”
Everyone listened and unconsciously imagined a scene of sweeping through enemies in all directions.
Those terrifying zombie hordes that once made people afraid had actually become something they could control.
Fu Erdie said, “To make better use of our abilities, I’ll come up with some practice and coordination plans. This includes my plant ability. I’ll need your cooperation. The plan isn’t complete yet. Tonight, I’ll write up a draft first. If you have any ideas, record them too, and we’ll discuss them together tomorrow.”
After Fu Erdie finished speaking, seeing that everyone looked eager and excited, she let them go back and organise their thoughts so they could discuss them together tomorrow.
He Xuan was the first to stand. She nodded at Fu Erdie and left. The others also left one after another.
Granny Zhang, Zhang Guya, and the others were responsible for clearing the bowls and chopsticks.
After Fu Erdie returned to 16-1, she began writing her plan.
Once she started writing, it took five or six hours. After finishing, she washed up, hugged Sang Wenhao, circulated her ability, and fell asleep under the quiet companionship of the dog and the plants.
The next day, all the ability users and plants became energetic early in the morning. Under Fu Erdie’s guidance, they entered the right state, and one by one, the more they listened, the more spirited they became.
So abilities could be this fun?!
There were six people in the ability-user team, but only three were truly damage dealers.
The first was Sang Wenhao. As a metal-type ability user, he could attack at close range or from a distance, but all his attacks were single-target, not area attacks.
The second was the short-haired woman, Ye Jia. Her wind blades made up for the lack of area attacks, and they were extremely aggressive. This was even before she had broken through to third rank. Once she ate a few wind-type crystal cores and reached third rank, her attack power would only become stronger.
The third was Cen Xiyang. Her attack was very special. Through direct or indirect contact, she could select a point and turn it into a vacuum, causing inward compression and explosion damage.
If Sang Wenhao had to fight someone at close range, Fu Erdie could not help much. But for Ye Jia’s ranged attacks, Fu Erdie could act as her endurance support.
The training method for these two was relatively crude and simple: coordinate with Han Zhi’s shared vision, reduce meaningless ability consumption as much as possible, and make every bullet and every wind blade aim at the target, rather than becoming human-shaped outline art.
As for Cen Xiyang, she needed to adapt to shared vision and, through the branches, leaves, and roots of the plants, distribute her ability to as many plant ends as possible without harming the plants.
They were currently discussing tactics in 8-8, where there were many plants. Fu Erdie immediately asked Han Zhi to share his vision, then had Cen Xiyang learn to control her ability and extend it along the fleshy leaves and roots of the thickest-blooded succulent toward the furthest distance.
Cen Xiyang tried little by little, while the others also adapted to the see-through vision Han Zhi provided.
The entire world turned into monotonous colours made up of black, white, and green. Some translucent lines crisscrossed everywhere. If they did not judge spatial positions properly, it felt extremely disorienting.
Cen Xiyang and Han Zhi had coordinated many times before, so she had no problem adapting to the vision. However, controlling her ability was extremely strenuous.
Previously, her tool had been an iron rod. Now, her tool had become a forty- to fifty-metre-long plant with a twisted shape that could constantly stretch and contract.
She practised and practised. Just as she controlled her ability down to the first floor, cold sweat appeared on her forehead. She had reached her limit.
Fu Erdie placed her hand on Cen Xiyang’s shoulder and input her ability.
In an instant, Cen Xiyang felt refreshed. Her ability broke past the limit of stretching from the eighth floor to the first floor and extended another ten metres outside the first floor.
Then it stopped.
Fu Erdie said in time, “Don’t force it. For now, it’s enough to have a rough idea of your limit. First, maintain it.”
Hearing this, Cen Xiyang had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, in the next second, Fu Erdie slowly withdrew the hand that had been inputting ability and asked Han Zhi to switch the shared vision mode.
If the previous shared vision had centred on Han Zhi’s psychic ability extending human vision outward, then after switching, it now centred on the “vision” of the pothos, which had the furthest distribution range, creating a 360-degree, three-dimensional, all-around perspective.
The moment this view appeared, everyone immediately felt the world spin.
It was as if the sky was no longer the sky, the ground was no longer the ground, the plants were no longer green, and the residential buildings were no longer grey…
That dizzy, inverted, uncontrollable feeling made the relatively weaker He Xuan almost vomit.
Seeing this, Fu Erdie hurriedly asked Han Zhi to cancel the synchronisation with He Xuan.
“Sorry.” He Xuan felt very guilty.
But Fu Erdie shook her head. “It’s fine. Right now, we’re only testing it out to get a rough understanding. There’s no rush.”
The others were dizzy too. When the pothos leaves were blown by the wind and the vision shook, some supported themselves against the wall, while others collapsed to the floor. Even Cen Xiyang, who was most familiar with shared vision, could not bear it.
Of course, the one who could bear it least was Han Zhi, the person using the ability. His head spun, and his whole body seemed to sway along with the vision, but he still had to maintain such a large visual range. The mental field supported by his ability began to totter.
“Stop.” After Han Zhi ended his ability, Fu Erdie immediately stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder, subconsciously using her ability to regulate him.
But the moment her ability surfaced, she felt a very strong resistance.
Fu Erdie froze slightly, then quickly reacted…
Her ability only worked on people who trusted her wholeheartedly. Whether it was Sang Wenhao, Cen Xiyang, the house, or the plants, she could use her ability very freely. But for Han Zhi, as well as newly joined ability users like He Xuan and Ye Jia, she could not use her ability without restraint.
The fact that her ability could enter the other party’s energy space even slightly already meant that Han Zhi, who was in some sense still an outsider, had accepted her.
Because Han Zhi had come to the complex with Cen Xiyang, he knew a little about the true nature of Fu Erdie’s ability. At this moment, feeling Fu Erdie’s ability enter him, he realised she was probably trying to help him regulate his ability.
However, Han Zhi did not feel that his depleted ability had been replenished. Instead, he had the illusion of standing in front of a fan on a scorching day — “it’s a little better, but the wind is still hot, so there isn’t much difference.”
Fu Erdie sighed and withdrew her hand.
It seemed that, for now, when it came to vision, this tactic could only rely on Han Zhi himself. The only person she could help was Cen Xiyang.
After He Xuan recovered for a while, she suddenly realised something. “Can this shared vision interfere with the enemy?”
“No,” Han Zhi said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “If I could invade and control the enemy’s vision, then directly destroying their brain would be more straightforward.”
That was true.
Fu Erdie looked at the plant babies and pondered.
The vision from leaves was very far-reaching and comprehensive, but because the leaves would sway with the wind or other movements, it truly made people uncomfortable. Then what if it was attached to a tree trunk, or to vines fixed on buildings?
At present, there were no trees among the intelligently mutated plants. Even if trees grew out, it would be their roots spreading out, not their trunks, so they would still sway with the wind.
Then rely on the vines of the tomatoes and cucumbers?
They were main attackers. Once they became excited, they would even hit their own people. They probably would not care whether the vision was stable or not.
Fu Erdie felt somewhat troubled. If there were no suitable plants, they could only temporarily use Han Zhi’s vision.
It was just that changing from the plants’ several-hundred-metre, blind-spot-free extended vision to Han Zhi’s tens-of-metres vision was truly a bit of a pity.
But for now, it was enough for the current stage.
With Fu Erdie starting things off, everyone sat together and discussed more coordination methods they could try. For example, if Cen Xiyang’s ability could be sent out through plants as a medium, what about the others’ abilities? Could Sang Wenhao control the ends of the plants, harden them into steel leaves, and smack enemies flying with them?
And could Ye Jia’s wind blades be launched from the tips of the plants? That would make for a surprise attack.
In addition, Fu Erdie’s plant ability seemed to require planting in advance and making the plants mutate before she could use them. So when they went out, she would need to bring portable plants like the potato seedling. Besides the potato seedling, were there other plants that were easy to carry around?
Everyone’s thinking spread outward. Whether it would work or not, they came up with ideas first.
After the discussion, everyone began testing them one by one.
At this point, there was not much Fu Erdie could help with, so she left. After walking away, she instructed the plant babies to cooperate with their teammates’ experiments, and if they felt pain or discomfort, to tell her.
Of course, the plants’ cooperation with the ability-user teammates only required a little attention, such as keeping certain leaves, roots, or stems still when asked, or extending when needed.
Most of their attention still had to be placed on Fu Erdie’s side.
Because from now on, Fu Erdie was going to give them specialised differentiation training.
During previous battles, the plants had, consciously or unconsciously, developed different roles.
Aside from the all-purpose pothos boss, the other plants — such as the strength-focused succulent, the binding-focused tomatoes and cucumbers, the speed-focused spider plant, the scent-focused gardenia, and the spike-focused millet — had begun to differentiate according to some of their own plant traits.
But many more plants still had not differentiated. They were all just messing around blindly, following the pothos boss to beat up ordinary zombies. Even then, several of them had to work together to deal with one zombie, and during cooperation, they would often trip each other up and tangle together like knotted rope.
Compared with the ability users, the plant babies needed even more practice, and they needed their attack directions refined according to their own habits.
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