Investment

Becoming friends and lowering one's guard is always the first step, and the most important part.

Ye Zhongming looked at Wang Changle not far away. Although he didn't remember such a person in his memories, and this man was a bit strange, he could tell from the recent battle that the other party held no malice and had even helped him. He decided to make contact and see.

Ye Zhongming still preferred to measure things by the standards of the apocalypse. In his view, although Wang Changle seemed quite eccentric, he lacked malice and possessed formidable combat power, so he was naturally worth befriending.

"Go collect the crystal from the lizard's forehead, and while you're at it, gather the tongues and claws from the other one. Then we'll leave."

"Can I make a trade with you? I'll exchange this white crystal for the corpses of these three lizards. I don't need the tongues, of course."

As he took out the white crystal he had just harvested, he observed Ye Zhongming and placed the white crystal on the ground.

Ye Zhongming stared at the Level 2 Magic Power Crystal on the ground and frowned. He hadn't expected the Level 2 crystal he thought he'd lost to return so soon.

What he couldn't understand was why this strange youth would use such a precious Level 2 Magic Power Crystal to trade for corpses. Did this person not know the value of a Level 2 Magic Power Crystal?

No, that was impossible. Judging by his equipment and the aura of a 1-star Evolver, he definitely knew how the roulette worked.

Now, this person was actually using a crystal to trade for three corpses. Although the meat of these mutated beasts contained some faint energy, it required long-term consumption to be effective.

Unless, he was with the military!

That was it. Only the military would have a massive need for the meat of mutated beasts for research or to cultivate new soldiers.

This explained why, despite never having killed anyone, this person could possess such terrifying strength in such a short time.

Ye Zhongming knew that although the city no longer had electricity, communications, or natural gas, modern firearms still possessed terrifying power.

Especially in the early stages of the apocalypse, when the levels of mutated life weren't high, modern firearms could still effectively inflict devastating damage.

In an instant, Ye Zhongming seemed to have figured many things out.

He stepped forward, picked up the Level 2 Magic Power Crystal, used his combat knife to remove the two tongues, and left quickly with Mo Ye and Dihuang Wan.

Looking at the two Blood-tongue Lizard corpses in the arena and the direction in which Ye Zhongming had departed, he smiled.

"That counts as a pretty good start!"

For two strangers to quickly become friends, besides lowering their guard, they needed to provide sufficient value—whether emotional value or interest-based value.

The Doomsday Roulette World wasn't just a doomsday novel; it was also a harem novel. He was destined to be unable to provide emotional value, so he chose interest-based value.

"Bang!"

A piercing gunshot exploded in the silent, late night. The sound of the shot was like a thunderclap on flat ground, instantly startling a chorus of roars and screams.

A surging tide of zombies swarmed crazily toward the school. Screams, curses, and cries filled the air.

He, however, stopped at the gate of an old-fashioned courtyard, listening to the commotion in the distance.

In the old courtyard, large patches of roses grew on the courtyard walls, the doors, and the eaves. Under the tranquil moonlight, they emitted a faint, exotic fragrance.

A breeze blew, stirring the rustling of green leaves. The pure white roses swayed with the wind, possessing a beauty of peaceful, bygone days.

However, upon sensing someone approaching, the roses filling the garden instantly turned blood-red. Thorny vines spread toward Wang Changle like thousands of slithering snakes.

Suddenly, he pressed one hand to the ground, and an invisible ripple spread outward.

The thousands of snake-like vines retracted instantly. The wooden door amidst the blood-colored roses opened slowly, as if welcoming a guest.

Looking at the slowly opening wooden door, Wang Changle stepped inside without hesitation.

The reason for this situation lay in his Passive Skill LVMAX Level: Heart of Nature.

In this Doomsday Roulette World, it wasn't just humans that mutated; it was even more so for plants and animals.

In this apocalypse filled with mutated plants, the ability to communicate with them became incredibly precious.

Relying on Heart of Nature, he could clearly sense the emotions of ordinary plants in the vicinity and obtain simple information.

The key was that it had no consumption and no cooldown!

Through multiple uses, he discovered that he could not only locate nearby moving individuals through ordinary plants but also engage in mental-level communication with mutated plants.

This ability saved him a lot of time from Pearl Lake in the south of the city to the tennis court and helped him avoid many potential dangers.

Of course, not all mutated plants were friendly, so his space also contained several Level 1 Magic Power Crystals, and he had mapped out several areas that were absolutely off-limits.

This current entity was one of the very few he had discovered that could communicate simply and reach a trade agreement.

Its level of evolution was very high. To Wang Changle, it felt slightly weaker than the large willow tree in the hospital, but it was at least a Level 2 Mutant (Elite) existence.

Beneath the blood-colored hue were clusters of roses, and the vines of each cluster were tightly wrapped around prey.

Among them were zombies, cats, dogs, humans, and, most numerously, countless Red Beetles.

The vines contracted bit by bit, like a venomous snake constantly constricting, while the thorns on the vines continuously drained the body fluids from the prey.

In the small courtyard, one could see no fewer than a hundred pieces of prey at a glance, and a large pile of white bones had accumulated in the courtyard's pond.

"Food, gift!"

As soon as he stood still, he received a wave of consciousness. Hearing this, Wang Changle took out the three Blood-tongue Lizard corpses from his Mark Space one by one.

Although he had lost the Level 2 Magic Power Crystal, these freshly slaughtered Level 2 mutated beasts still contained plenty of energy in their flesh and blood.

The snake-like vines darted out rapidly, then climbed, wrapped, and enveloped them in one smooth motion!

They were quickly dragged into the depths of the flower clusters, and the blood seeping onto the ground was absorbed by the tiny roots in the blink of an eye.

After dragging away the three Blood-tongue Lizards, a blood-colored rose drifted down from the flower-covered wall, landing right in front of Wang Changle.

"Gift."

[You have obtained Flesh Rose *1]

[Flesh Rose]

[Type: Recovery Item]

[White: 8]

[Usage Effect: Apply the petals to a wound to stop bleeding quickly. 18/18, can be used in combat.]

[Value: 500 Paradise Coins. Can be taken out of the 'Derivative World'.]

The rose, the size of a bowl, had a fleshy texture to the touch. Blood-colored sap flowed through the petals, and eighteen petals were layered and clustered together, beautiful yet eerie.

Each petal was the size of a palm. Although it couldn't restore life, it possessed decent hemostatic capabilities and could be used 18 times, making it a fairly good recovery item.

After putting the rose into his Mark Space, he returned to the tennis court.

This place had been cleared by the Blood-tongue Lizards earlier, and now, because the nearby zombies had been attracted to the school, it had become a safe zone.

Thinking about the plot that would unfold tomorrow, Wang Changle found a relatively clean lounge and fell asleep before long.

Author's Note