komorebi

Last chapter of the bulk update, topped off with return of the shameless white Tuanzi in some classic 🪴 vs. 🥟 action. 

We're now done 1/3 of the way into the novel. Thanks for sticking with this so far!

"Why come out?" Fang Hao stretched out his hand to touch it, but Tuanzi immediately ran towards the car window. Its entire body was pressed against the window, almost squishing itself into a flat piece. If someone looked at the car window, they would see a big white face on the window, with a pair of big watery eyes.

"It wants to go out?" Stunned, He Zizhong asked Fang Hao. "Open the window." Both of them could feel its anxiety and excitement. Although they didn't know what it was going to do, they both subconsciously treated Tuanzi as a both a pet and son. Generally, they will try their best to satisfy it as long as it is not excessively demanding.

"Go out in stealth!" Fang Hao demanded anxiously before opening the car window.

As soon as the window lowered an inch, Tuanzi squeezed itself out, its body immediately becoming transparent. Puffing, it bounced a few towards a narrow intersection.

He Zizhong hurriedly turned the steering wheel to follow.

Tuanzi bounced in front, and the two followed it along the narrow road. It didn't take long before they drove the street in front. The field of view widened to see a large group full of branches in front. Extremely ferocious mutant plant!!

He Zizhong took a breath, and quickly stopped the car. Quietly switching to the reverse gear, he quickly retreated from the small intersection.

"What's the situation? What is Tuanzi doing?!" Fang Hao was also taken aback, and before he could see the situation clearly, they retreated.

"That mutant plant is catching zombies, it's going to... rob crystal cores." He Zizhong could see clearly. There are six or seven zombies wrapped by the plant and looked half dead. Some were clearly mutant zombies, and the remaining few were unable to tell since they were too small.

Fang Hao was stunned, his expression tangled: "It's not addicted to robbery, is it?"

Last time Tuanzi snatched two crystal nuclei from the "mouth" of that cheap plant. Now it encounters a mutant plant, instead of being afraid, it rushed over. Really... addicted.

"...Very possible." He Zizhong was also speechless for a while. The car had already reached the original street, hitting two zombies who had heard the sound, and turned to continue driving towards the base.

"Should we... care about it?" Fang Hao was a little worried about Tuanzi.

"It's okay. It will know after we're a certain distance away, and will return to the space... When it grabs enough, it will come back." There are too many zombies here, and there are many mutant zombies in the city. Even if they have second-level abilities, they cannot deal with so many zombies completely unharmed, so it is wiser to withdraw temporarily. What's more, judging from the situation of the dumpling versus mutant plant last time, its like ground meat¹As in plastic/flexible and can change it's shape! No matter how it attacks, it hards to get hurt.

About a quarter of an hour later, He Zizhong and Fang Hao felt that Tuanzi had returned to the space, and "seeing" it floating in the air with squinted eyes, they were relieved. But they seemed to hear a desperate scream from the building complex much further away...

"What is that sound?" The voice was a little small, and it sounded like an animal's wailing.

He Zizhong frowned: "It doesn't sound like a zombie..."

"Is it that mutant plant?" Fang Hao asked whimsically.

"It was bullied by Tuanzi and cried?" He Zizhong shook his head in amusement. "Should be coincidence?"

"You say, is this mutant plant the one we met last time?" Fang Hao continued to explore the brain hole.

He Zizhong laughed again: "It's far from where we saw the mutant plant last time. How could it be possible? It just looks a bit like it."

The mutated plant with its branches all entangled in a ball rolled around on the ground, knocked down countless houses, and watched the lively zombies after hearing the noise. It made bursts of angry hissing—it's that thing again! Again! I'm so far away from there, why did that ball come to snatch my prey?! Showing invulnerability to bully a multi-legged plant is too shameless!!

When the two arrived back at the base, the lights were already on. This time they passed the gate inspection much quicker. After checking for wounds on one's body, they only need to poke a fingertip with a hand-held instrument similar to a blood glucose meter, to detect whether one is infected with the zombie virus in a few seconds.

Fang Hao pressed the small wound with a cotton swab and waited for the staff to leave before healing the small wound with his ability. He raised his hand and healed He Zizhong too. "Do you think next time we come back they will have a device to check for infection without breaking human skin?"

He Zizhong smiled and shook his head. "It is very difficult in a short period of time. After all, this virus seems to be mainly transmitted through blood."

The two drove into the base. Instead of deciding to go to sleep first, they thought about going to the Samsara team to check the situation first. Instead, they first bumped into the team members outside.

In fact, it's because the car is too noisy. The Samsara members recognized the vehicle as the one He Zizhong selected at the beginning. The group of people shopping on the street ran out and stopped the car. It looked like a robbery at first glance.

"Huh, are you going to switch to robbery?" He Zizhong rolled down the window and looked amusedly at Guo Bing who ran over and Shen Haiping who was not far behind.

"Oh, it's fine if one has nothing to do." Guo Bing wanted to pat the car, but suddenly remembered that the car had just entered from the outside. Although it was sterilized at the gate, it might not be clean, so he took his hand back. "Today we were still saying to wait two days for you. If you didn't come back by then, we will hand in the task first. Is this car okay? Like I said, as long as there is enough fuel, you can drive through a pile of zombies directly!"

Now that they met, He Zizhong simply drove to the Samsara team.

After the mutual back and forth, it seemed the Samsara team was pretty lucky. At that time, most of the zombies followed Allen, He Zizhong, and the others. Half of the remaining zombies followed the convoy on the main road. Most of the Samsara cars detoured from the road to the south, and because the car was powerful and fast, the zombies chasing them were left in the dust. Except for a few unlucky ones, who were attacked by zombies and bumped their cars or suffered some injuries, the rest of them all returned intact.

"Originally, we wanted to exchange more than half of the cars for things. After encountering so many zombies, everyone felt that the benefits of a good car in this world were better, and everyone was reluctant to sell it." Arriving at the Samsara team's room, Guo Bing explained with a smile.

He Zizhong nodded in agreement. "Yes, everything else is secondary. The most important thing is to escape from the zombie group alive."

"How did you come back? Mengzi said that he saw your car and the Overlord cars together. Did you abduct them together?"

He Zizhong briefly talked about the past two days. "They said they would go to the underground parking lot to find a car. I discussed with Fang Hao, the car might not be as good as the original one. Our car is resistant to crashes, so I just risked going back, then got in the car and broke out. I didn't escape upstairs with them and just drove back."

"Isn't it? That Overlord group... …Humph." Liu Zhi sneered, "If you hadn’t seen and taken down the bloody cloth, we would have been overrun by zombies at that time. It's hard to say if you can escape or not."

Guo Bing also sneered. "Sooner or later, I want them to look good. Calculating me? Do you really think that we are soft persimmons?" Now the base does not check what each team brings back after a mission. Therefore, Samsara brought many lethal weapons back this trip, but no one knew or detained them!

If this were before, all their guns would be confiscated, and maybe all the members would be arrested.

Of course, this is also the result of the base's relaxed management. The upper level of the base did not expect anyone to retrieve so many firearms.

But after a month or two, inspections of convoys entering and leaving the city will resume.

Chen Ning who was sitting on the side quietly suddenly asked: "Last time I heard that your cousin seems to be an Overlord member?"

He Zizhong nodded. "Yes, we just learned that she's the new plant ability member of their team. But my family and I have not been in contact with her family since the end of the world."

This is the meaning of having no relationship. If Samsara is ready to deal with Overlord, He Zizhong will not stand with the Overlord team due to this relationship.

Guo Bing previously saw He Zizhong ignoring Xu Lili with his own eyes, and nodded slightly to Chen Ning. Chen Ning laughed upon seeing this: "Since they gave us such a gift last time, we have to return it. But these are all for their captain. Plant abilities... Since she's a female, I'm afraid she will be mainly in the base." Although the plant ability users can also participate in battles, it is difficult to play a big role outside without the assistance of special plants.

Nowadays, the base has also begun to recruit those with plant abilities for a single purpose-farming.

"To be honest, you just returned and might not know, these days the base reclaimed a lot of land to plant many things."

"What side?"

"The west."

After a short chat, He Zizhong and the members of the Samsara team agreed to meet at nine tomorrow morning to bring the medicines and hand in the task. The two of them left the Samsara residence and drove back to the villa area.

"Finally back." After returning to the villa and checking the mail, the two went into the bedroom and entered into the space, collapsing on the sofa.

"The fog is heavier again. How many crystal nuclei did Tuanzi eat today?" He Zizhong put one hand on Fang Hao's shoulder, grabbed the dumpling with the other, raised it in front of him, and looked at puffing in his palm.