Plant Zombies

After leaving the dark, damp sewers, the group took a cable car to a white building brimming with futuristic technology.

The place was brightly lit, its walls spotless white. There was even a faint scent of disinfectant in the air. Compared to the hellish scene they had just endured, this place looked practically like heaven.

"Finally... somewhere decent." Wang Dong let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the pristine wall, feeling his taut nerves loosen a little. "There shouldn't be any of those filthy monsters here, right?"

"Don't let your guard down." Huo Yuhao walked at the front, carrying a new weapon he had scavenged from the nap room—a chemical flamethrower.

His brows remained tightly furrowed. "Places that are too clean often hide something even more dangerous."

The group passed through the cafeteria and arrived at a glass corridor leading to the main control room. Lush greenhouse plants grew on both sides of the corridor, vibrant and green, yet several swaying silhouettes seemed to stand amid the foliage.

"Are those... staff members?" Xiao Xiao asked quietly.

The figures turned around. They were neither zombies nor Lickers.

They looked like humanoid trees. Their skin was pale as paper, completely replaced by plant fibers. Their limbs were long and twisted in grotesque angles, while green vines wound around their bodies.

Most terrifying of all were their heads: enormous closed Venus flytraps, with yellow acid dripping through the gaps between their petals.

"More monsters!" Dai Huabin gritted his teeth and raised his pistol. "But these things look skinny as hell. They should be easy to handle!"

Bang! Bang! Two shots struck the Plant Zombie's body.

The bullets sank into it as though hitting rotten wood, kicking up only a few splinters. The monster did not so much as sway and continued advancing step by step with its bizarre gait.

"Shoot the yellow bulbs on their bodies! Those are their weak points!" Huo Yuhao sharply spotted the glowing bulbs on the monster.

"Got it!" Bei Bei fired with precision.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Three bulbs burst apart.

The Plant Zombie let out a dry screech and fell backward like a felled dead tree, lying motionless on the floor.

"Phew... that wasn't much." Xu Sanshi wiped away cold sweat and walked over, intending to give it a kick. "It looks scary, but it's actually fragile."

"Don't go near it!" Huo Yuhao suddenly shouted, but it was already too late.

The instant Xu Sanshi approached, the corpse on the ground began twitching violently. The burst bulbs regenerated at a visible speed, and the withered vines instantly swelled and turned red.

It did not get back up. Instead, it shot out a vine-like arm and grabbed Xu Sanshi's ankle!

"Holy shit?! It came back to life?!" Xu Sanshi's face drained of color as he tried to break free, but the monster's strength was astonishing.

Then the monster abruptly stood up. Its enormous Venus flytrap head snapped open, revealing a throat lined with barbs, and lunged straight for Xu Sanshi's head!

Once it bit down on his head, it would be an instant kill. Even immortals could not save him!

"I'm done for!!" Xu Sanshi stared at that bottomless maw and smelled the sour stench of death.

Whoosh—!!!

A blazing orange-red dragon of fire suddenly erupted from the side! Huo Yuhao rushed forward, clamped down on the trigger, and pressed the flamethrower's nozzle directly against the monster's face.

"Aoo—!!!" Plants feared fire; that was an iron law of nature. Even plants enhanced by the G Virus were no exception.

Scorched by the high-temperature flames, the Plant Zombie let out a miserable scream. Its regenerative ability was completely suppressed, and the branches all over its body twisted wildly in the fire.

A few seconds later, it turned into a pile of charred charcoal scattered across the floor, utterly motionless.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Xu Sanshi collapsed onto the floor, still trembling as he touched his neck. "What... what the hell was that thing? Bullets can't kill it? And it can revive?"

Huo Yuhao looked at the scorching-hot flamethrower in his hands, his expression grave as he looked at the display.

[Fuel Remaining: 280/400]

That brief burst of flame had consumed 120 units of fuel, and this weapon was the team's only means of killing these monsters permanently.

"Everyone, listen to me." Huo Yuhao raised his head, his stern gaze sweeping over the group.

"Bullets are useless against them. Only fire can kill them for good. But..." Huo Yuhao shook the fuel tank, "fuel is extremely limited. We can't burn every monster we encounter."

"Then what do we do?" Wang Dong looked at the greenhouse ahead, where at least seven or eight Plant Zombies wandered densely about, and felt his scalp prickle. "If we force our way through, we'll definitely get caught!"

Huo Yuhao drew a deep breath, his mind racing.

He pointed at the greenhouse blueprint. "We don't need to kill all of them. As long as we shoot the bulbs on their bodies, they'll go down temporarily. While they're down, we rush through!"

"But they'll revive!" Xiao Xiao said worriedly.

"Then don't look back." Huo Yuhao's voice was cold and resolute. "Remember, this flamethrower is for saving our lives. Unless it's absolutely necessary... we can't use fire."

For the next ten minutes, the Shrek Seven Monsters played a heart-stopping game of Red Light, Green Light in the greenhouse.

They had to accurately destroy the monsters' weak points and knock them down, then hold their breaths as they stepped over the corpses that still twitched faintly. The fear that a hand might reach out from beneath their feet at any moment and drag them into hell left everyone drenched in sweat.

Even Dai Huabin, the most impulsive of them all, was as obedient as a cat now. He followed behind Huo Yuhao without daring to even breathe loudly.

As they passed through a narrow ladderway, a Plant Zombie suddenly dropped down from above and blocked the path.

There was a monster ahead and pursuers behind. The ladderway was too narrow to go around it.

"Move!!" Huo Yuhao roared, no longer conserving fuel.

Whoosh—! The last of the reserve fuel surged out, burning the monster to ashes.

The group rushed through the ladderway and locked the electronic door behind them.

"Phew... phew..."

They were safe!

But Huo Yuhao's expression did not improve as he looked at the flamethrower, now much lighter in his hand.

[Fuel Remaining: 50/400]

This little fuel was not even enough to burn another one to death. According to the map, there was still a massive bioreactor on the route to the escape train.

"We're out of ammunition, out of fuel, and out of medicine."

Bei Bei leaned against the wall and gave a bitter laugh. "This is what it means to be truly out of supplies."

Huo Yuhao fell silent for a moment, then slung the flamethrower over his back. He drew the pistol at his waist, which had only half a magazine remaining, and racked the slide.

"It's not over yet." A flame called surviving against all odds burned in Huo Yuhao's eyes. "As long as we still have one breath left, we'll crawl if we have to."

In the real world, on the second floor of the internet café.

"Tsk." Xuan Lao looked at the completely empty resource bar on the screen, his teeth aching. "Isn't this too much to ask? How are they supposed to fight the final Boss with so little?"

Di Tian, however, shook his head. A hint of deeper meaning flashed through his golden eyes. "You're wrong, old man! A sharp blade is often forged in its final sharpening."