Bai Zhi Stays True to His Original Aspiration

Not only had Crazy Dave turned into the corpse lying in the living room with its brain exposed, even those Chibi Zombies had all become realistically rendered.

Bai Zhi had only just managed to plant two Sunflowers when Zombies appeared at the intersection blocked off by The Mist.

Some had an eyeball dangling from their chests, some were missing half their heads, and white maggots kept spilling from their wounds as they walked... Compared to the corpse in the hall, they were countless times more disgusting.

More importantly, they could move.

Fortunately, Beard Guy and Nine-Tailed Fox had already Vomited everything they could in the hall earlier. Otherwise, just looking at those Zombies slowly shuffling toward them would have made it hard enough to fight, let alone plant plants and set up defenses.

As for Night Owl, aware of her Personality Flaw, she had obediently put on those Glasses long ago.

"So that guy had already guessed this would happen, which was why he deliberately said that in the living room..."

As he timed things according to Bai Zhi's instructions and planted a [Starfruit] on the lawn, Beard Guy covered his slightly queasy stomach with one hand and could not help turning to glance at Bai Zhi.

If not for what had happened in the living room earlier, just watching those Zombies slowly close in on them would probably have sent him somewhere to cover his mouth and Vomit.

"Fall back to the Swimming Pool. If Zombies show up there, remember to tell me."

Not knowing what Beard Guy was thinking, Bai Zhi waved a hand and directly told him to retreat to the Backyard and the Library Swimming Pool.

The First Stage was still easy to clear. As long as the Initial Plants chosen by the Four Players were not ridiculously terrible, they could basically pass it.

But Bai Zhi's goal was not simply to clear the First Stage. If this Game were not only open for Three Hours, he would have wanted to clear the entire Walkthrough in one go.

The marker for fully clearing the Game was collecting every plant. There were forty-nine plants in the First Generation of Plants vs. Zombies. Whoever collected all forty-nine first would gain the Usage Right to this Game.

At present, he had only unlocked the first plant, [Sunflower]. According to the rules of this Game, one slot would automatically unlock with every stage cleared.

In other words, clearing Nine Stages would fully unlock all Ten Slots. Players could obtain a total of Ten Plants, while the remaining plants could only be acquired either by buying them with money earned in the stages or by challenging specific stages to unlock them.

Even though this was a Game derived from a Mini-game like Plants vs. Zombies, fully clearing it was still extremely difficult.

At the very least, it was absolutely impossible within Three Hours.

Just as Bai Zhi had expected, the First Stage was cleared with ease and without incident. No Zombies appeared on the Rooftop or by the Swimming Pool, but that did not rule out the possibility of Zombies appearing there in later stages.

And as if venting her frustration, Night Owl planted every [Spitting Mushroom] she could as soon as its Cooldown Time ended, without a care for anything else.

So, by the end of the First Stage, aside from the few [Starfruit] and [Peashooter] planted by Beard Guy and Nine-Tailed Fox at Bai Zhi's request, the lawn by the Swimming Pool and the Flower Pots on the Rooftop were almost entirely filled with [Spitting Mushroom]...

At the end of every stage, Players could choose whether to leave the Game. Continuing would stack the rewards, but failing a later stage would naturally reset everything to zero.

Having easily cleared the First Stage, Bai Zhi and the others naturally chose to continue.

However, starting from the Second Stage, the Game's difficulty began to rise. In the First Stage, only a few Conehead Zombies had appeared at most, but by the Second Stage, Conehead Zombies had become the most common kind, and Buckethead Zombies began appearing alongside them.

The [Spitting Mushroom], which had originally been able to hold out for several seconds, could not last even one second against a Buckethead Zombie. Still, with the Ember Plant [Cherry Bomb] they had rolled and the help of [Walnut], the Second Stage was cleared just as easily.

Yet as Bai Zhi looked at the plants that remained on the lawn even after the stage ended, his expression grew increasingly grave.

Then, the Third Stage began.

No new kinds of Zombies appeared this time, but Zombies also began showing up by the Swimming Pool and on the Rooftop. However, as more and more plants became available for them to unlock and use, holding back the Zombie assault was not a problem. It was just that each person unlocked different plants, so the four of them constantly had to run everywhere to fill in gaps in the defenses.

They ran from the first floor to the third, then climbed onto the Rooftop; ran down from the Rooftop to the Swimming Pool; then crossed the huge living room and Corridor from the Swimming Pool to return to the Front Yard... Fortunately, all four had completed the Novice Quest and become Official Players. They could use Game Coins in the Store to temporarily increase their Attribute Values. Otherwise, they would have collapsed from all that running around.

And so, under Bai Zhi's command and arrangements, while defending three lines at once, they steadily cleared their way to the Sixth Stage.

"Alright, let's stop here for now."

Rubbing his head, which was faintly aching from prolonged thought, Bai Zhi spoke.

The further they progressed, the more the Zombies surged in like a tide, with all kinds mixed together. Miner Zombies and Balloon Zombies, for example, would appear at the same time. Defending one area was manageable, but defending three areas at once placed far too great a strain on their minds.

They had currently cleared the Sixth Stage and unlocked twenty-one plants in total. The reason it was not twenty-eight was naturally because some of the plants they had unlocked overlapped.

"Yeah, I can barely keep going too."

Practically collapsing onto the threshold, Beard Guy let out a long breath.

"Flying ones, swimming ones, burrowing ones, running across the grass ones, and fucking ones riding sharks... This is the first time in my life I've seen so many Zombies charging at me all at once. I almost thought we wouldn't be able to hold them off."

"Don't worry. You'll get used to it eventually. This is just a small scene."

Curling his lip, Bai Zhi summoned the System Interface.

But just as he was about to press the Settlement Button, he seemed to remember something. He stretched out a hand toward Night Owl and spoke with a serious expression.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Give me back the Radio you swiped during the Novice Quest. It cost several hundred yuan."

Night Owl: "???"