Investment

Making friends and letting down one's guard was always the first step, and the most important one.

Ye Zhongming glanced at Wang Changle, who stood not far away. He didn't remember anyone like him from his previous life, and the man was a little strange.

But from the fight just now, Ye Zhongming could tell that Wang Changle meant no harm and had even helped him. He might as well get to know him a little.

Ye Zhongming still preferred to judge things by the standards of the apocalypse. Wang Changle seemed rather odd, but he meant no harm and was strong in a fight, so he was worth befriending.

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

"Could we make a deal? I'll trade this white crystal for the three lizards' bodies. Of course, you can keep the tongues."

As he took out the white crystal he'd just obtained, he watched Ye Zhongming carefully, then set the 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'd thought he'd lost to come back to him.

What he couldn't understand was why this strange young man wanted to trade such a precious Level 2 Magic Power Crystal for some corpses. Didn't he know how valuable it was?

No, that couldn't be it. Judging by his equipment and the aura of a 1-star Evolver, he definitely knew how to spin the roulette.

And yet he was offering a crystal for three corpses. The meat of these mutated beasts did contain a little energy, but it took a long time of eating it before that energy had any effect.

Unless he was with the military!

That had to be it. Only the military would need large quantities of mutated beast meat, either for research or to train new soldiers.

That would also explain how this man had grown so strong in such a short time, even though he'd never killed anyone before.

Ye Zhongming knew that the city had lost its electricity, communications, and gas supply.

But modern firearms still had terrifying power.

Especially in the early days of the apocalypse, when mutated life forms were still low-level. Modern firearms could still inflict devastating damage.

In an instant, Ye Zhongming felt as if he'd figured out a lot of things.

He stepped forward, picked up the Level 2 Magic Power Crystal, cut off two tongues with his combat knife, then hurried away with Mo Ye and Dihuang Wan.

Watching the two Blood-tongue Lizard corpses left behind and the direction Ye Zhongming had gone, Wang Changle thought, Not a bad start!

For two strangers to become friends quickly, letting down their guard wasn't enough. They also had to offer each other enough value, whether emotional or material.

Doomsday Roulette World wasn't just an apocalypse novel. It was also a harem novel. Emotional value was something he couldn't offer, so he chose to offer material value.

"Bang!"

A piercing gunshot burst through the silent night, like a thunderclap out of a clear sky. Shrieks and howls rose all around.

A surging tide of corpses rushed toward the school, while screams, curses, and sobs rang out without end.

He stood at the entrance to an old-fashioned courtyard, listening to the commotion in the distance.

Rose bushes covered the courtyard walls, the front door, and the eaves of the old buildings. Beneath the tranquil moonlight, they gave off a rich, sweet fragrance.

A breeze stirred the leaves with a soft rustle. The white roses swayed gently, painting a beautiful picture of peace and serenity.

But when they sensed someone approaching, the roses throughout the courtyard turned blood-red in an instant. Thorn-covered vines slithered toward Wang Changle like countless snakes.

Suddenly, he dropped to one knee and pressed a hand to the ground. An invisible wave spread out in every direction.

The countless snake-like vines instantly shrank back. A wooden door amid the blood-red roses creaked open, as if inviting him inside.

Wang Changle looked at the slowly opening door and walked straight in without hesitation.

The reason for all this was his Passive Skill LVMAX Level: Heart of Nature.

In this Doomsday Roulette World, it wasn't only humans who had mutated. Plants and animals had changed even more.

In an apocalypse filled with mutated plants, the ability to communicate with them had become extraordinarily valuable.

With Heart of Nature, he could clearly sense the emotions of ordinary plants nearby and obtain simple information from them.

Most importantly, there was no cost and no cooldown!

After using it many times, he discovered that he could not only use ordinary plants to locate nearby moving creatures, but also communicate with mutated plants on a mental level.

This ability had saved him a great deal of time on his way from Pearl Lake in the south of the city to the tennis hall, and had helped him avoid many potential dangers.

Of course, not all mutated plants were willing to communicate peacefully. He'd already collected several Level 1 Magic Power Crystals, and had marked out several areas he absolutely couldn't enter.

This was one of the few beings he'd found that could communicate with him to some extent and was willing to make a deal.

It had evolved to a high level. To Wang Changle, it felt only slightly weaker than the great willow tree at the hospital. It was at least a Level 2 Mutant (Elite).

Beneath the blood-red hue, roses bloomed in clusters, and vines from every cluster were wrapped tightly around prey.

There were zombies, cats and dogs, and humans. More than anything else, there were countless Red Beetles.

The vines slowly tightened like a venomous snake winding around its prey, while the thorns drew the prey's bodily fluids.

At a glance, there were at least a hundred corpses in the small courtyard. A large number of bones filled the pond.

"Food. Gift!"

The moment he stopped, he received a pulse of consciousness. At the words, Wang Changle took three Blood-tongue Lizard corpses out of his Mark Space, one after another.

Though he'd lost the Level 2 Magic Power Crystal, the freshly killed Level 2 Mutated Beasts still contained plenty of energy in their flesh and blood.

Snake-like vines shot out, then wrapped around the corpses and engulfed them in one fluid motion!

They quickly dragged the bodies deeper into the flower beds. Blood seeping onto the ground was absorbed by tiny roots in the blink of an eye.

After the three Blood-tongue Lizard corpses had been dragged away, a blood-red rose drifted down from the flower-covered courtyard wall and landed right in front of Wang Changle.

"Gift."

[You obtained Blood Rose*1]

[Blood Rose]

[Type: Recovery Item]

[White: 8]

[Effect: Place the petals over a wound to stop the bleeding quickly. 18/18 uses. Can be used in combat.]

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

The rose was about the size of a bowl, but it felt like flesh in his hand. Blood-red sap flowed through its petals, and eighteen layers of petals nestled together, beautiful and eerie.

Each petal was about the size of a palm. It couldn't restore health, but it could stop bleeding quite well, and it could be used eighteen times. It was a pretty good recovery item.

After putting the rose in his Mark Space, he returned to the tennis hall.

The area had already been cleared out by the Blood-tongue Lizards. And now that the nearby zombies had been drawn to the school, it had become a safe zone.

Thinking about what would happen the next day, Wang Changle found a fairly clean lounge and soon fell asleep.