The Tree Was Talking

"Boss."

He called out, but there was no response.

He knocked on the door again. Half a minute later, it opened.

"What is it?"

Cow-Horse asked impatiently.

"Doesn't Restaurant provide transportation?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"No. We don't need it."

Cow-Horse shook his huge head.

After all, his lower body was that of a horse.

Judging by the length of his legs, his running speed was probably no worse than that of a real Akhal-Teke.

"What about the human employees?"

"You should get going. Any later, and you really won't make it."

Cow-Horse shut the door.

Liu Zheng curled his lip. It seemed he couldn't squeeze any more out of him.

He picked up the delivery bag and headed for the Delivery Passage.

The passage was pitch-black, without any light source whatsoever.

The floor seemed to be made of some special material as well. He made no sound at all as he walked over it.

In an environment like this, never mind figuring out his bearings—staying sane was already impressive enough.

Liu Zheng cautiously held his arms out to the sides and found that he could just touch both walls.

The texture was strange, somewhat like a Slime stress-relief toy, only much harder.

If he needed something to ground himself, bracing himself against the walls and moving forward would not have been a bad idea.

But he had no intention of walking like that.

Liu Zheng lowered his arms and let himself remain immersed in the boundless darkness.

While learning about ALS, he had also picked up plenty of other medical knowledge. One of them was called Desensitization Therapy.

Simply put, it involved repeatedly injecting an allergen into an allergy patient, gradually inducing tolerance so the patient no longer reacted to it.

Liu Zheng felt that Desensitization Therapy should work for psychological light and darkness as well.

Of course, if the system warned him that his "Sanity was decreasing," he would stop in time.

Fortunately, Liu Zheng's tolerance for simple darkness and silence was unexpectedly high.

Besides, the passage was not completely silent.

Every so often, he could not help coughing and gasping.

At the same time, powerful discomfort surged from his lungs and throat, announcing their existence.

The pain of his flesh became an anchor for his mind. What a dark joke.

After coughing for the seventh time, Liu Zheng finally walked out of the passage.

The not-too-harsh sunlight shone into his eyes, giving him the feeling that a lifetime had passed.

He felt a little sorry for those former coworkers. He only had to hold out for three days, while they had to work for months or even decades.

Though they might not live that long.

After observing one second of silence for those human compatriots he had never met, Liu Zheng set out on his delivery run.

Just like when he had arrived, the streets were still utterly deserted.

There were no pedestrians, no vehicles, not even traffic lights.

If he had an electric scooter, he could not even imagine how happy he would be riding it.

Sadly, he could not.

"Hee hee hee hee."

A strange tune began to play.

Liu Zheng took out his phone and saw that it was his ringtone.

"13871XXXXXX."

It matched his memory exactly. It was Cow-Horse's phone number.

"Boss, what is it?"

He pressed the answer button and asked.

"There's something I forgot to remind you about. If you need to use the toilet outside, you have to do it beside plants, preferably trees or a green belt."

Cow-Horse's booming voice came through the phone.

"I thought only dogs did that."

Liu Zheng quipped.

"They have separate rules. They can only do it against cylindrical objects."

Cow-Horse hung up.

Well, damn. That stereotype was authentic.

He had better not let dog lovers hear that, or they might piss on his leg.

Liu Zheng smiled and continued onward.

Cow-Horse had not needed to remind him in such a hurry. Before entering the instance, he had neither eaten nor drunk anything, and his stomach was empty.

Even if they forced him to metabolize, he still wouldn't metabol—

Huh, that was weird.

Liu Zheng stopped walking and clenched his corpora cavernosa.

He actually felt the urge.

He looked around and discovered that the instance world still had quite a few similarities to reality. For example, the street trees were the same species as in reality, mainly camphor trees and French Plane Trees.

He even spotted several Chinese photinias. Fortunately, it was not flowering season, or the entire street would have been filled with the scent of life.

Liu Zheng quickly walked over to a camphor tree and unzipped with one hand.

A faintly yellow arc fell, splashing several droplets against the bark.

"Your internal heat's been pretty bad lately."

"Yeah, I've eaten too much barbecue."

Liu Zheng replied casually, then turned his head.

Not far away, a French Plane Tree was staring fixedly at him—and at the tool of his crime.

"And it smells like alcohol. Is that Maotai?"

The French Plane Tree sniffed, and several flakes of bark fell off.

"Ascension Hair Moss 53°."

Liu Zheng silently pulled up his pants.

"Good stuff. Hurry up and pour it into my mouth."

The French Plane Tree eagerly opened its mouth.

"Answer one question first."

"Ask, ask."

"What exactly are you?"

"Isn't that obvious? I'm a tree."

The French Plane Tree looked at him strangely.

Were humans nowadays all this stupid?

"Then why can't that one talk?"

Liu Zheng pointed at the camphor tree beside him.

"Because it's Zhizhang."

The French Plane Tree replied.

"Zhizhang?"

"That's right. All the trees on this street are Zhizhangs. I'm the only one-of-a-kind genius."

The French Plane Tree said proudly.

"Even if they're Zhizhangs, why don't they have faces?"

He had noticed the key point.

"Zhizhangs can't talk anyway. What do they need faces for? It's a waste of nutrients."

The French Plane Tree said with complete confidence.

He had to admit, that made a certain amount of sense.

"Fine."

Liu Zheng shrugged, then turned to find somewhere else.

"Hey, didn't I tell you to pour it into my mouth?"

The French Plane Tree shouted.

"I don't have a fetish for pouring it into my own mouth."

He replied without looking back.

"I'm not a human."

"Other trees are out too."

"What a hassle. Tell me, what will it take for you to let me drink it?"

The French Plane Tree asked.

"I want a vehicle."

Liu Zheng stopped and said tentatively.

"No."

"An electric scooter."

"Still no."

"A bicycle, then?"

"No, no. I'm a tree, understand? A tree."

The French Plane Tree shook its branches hard, scattering leaves all over the ground.

"Then what can you give me? Hurry up, I need to deliver food."

Liu Zheng urged.

"I only have this."

A thick, long tree root drilled out of the soil and tossed a white crutch onto the ground.

Name: Human-Bone Crutch

Type: Equipment

Quality: Excellent

Effect: Increases movement speed by 10%.

Note: There was once a great swindler who always liked selling crutches to perfectly healthy people. Later, someone broke his legs.

Can it be taken out of the instance: Yes

One piss in exchange for an item—an incredibly worthwhile deal.

But Liu Zheng did not immediately go over to pick it up. Instead, he looked at the tree root that had yet to retract.

"Let me ask just in case—you're not planning to eat me, are you?"

His eyes flickered as he asked.

This Human-Bone Crutch could not possibly have grown from the ground.