Plants vs. Zombies for All: I Can Add Passives to Plants

"Pretty good." Bai Qingfeng answered briefly, without any unnecessary words.

Her tone was still soft and adorable.

Luo Chen nodded, then glanced at Lin Yue again. This time, there was a trace of contemplation in his gaze, as though he were examining some object he did not quite understand.

But he said nothing and turned back toward the crowd. As the neighborhood supervisor, he was now busy to the point of being overwhelmed.

Later, he still had to distribute the Peashooter seedlings he had purchased, one by one.

(Everyone knew the standard price supervisors paid for seedlings, and each person would hand over 1% of their profits.)

(With a major enemy at hand, the country offered credit arrangements, but each person could only buy one plant and had to repay the debt after returning to reality.)

By the time Lin Yue led Bai Qingfeng back to the entrance of her garden, more than half the people on the street had already dispersed. A few remained gathered around Luo Chen.

When he let go of her hand, a faint warmth lingered on his fingertips.

"Be careful after you go back." Bai Qingfeng stood at the garden gate with both hands resting on the fence, her chin propped on the backs of her hands. Her almond-shaped eyes behind her glasses lifted toward him. "My talent told me... our neighborhood will be attacked by a large number of zombies within this week. A small vanguard force will break into the gardens this afternoon."

Lin Yue froze for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I'll go back and get ready."

As he turned and hurried across the street, Bai Qingfeng's voice chased after him, drifting into his ears from across the road, soft and delicate. "I have food here. Remember to come over if you're hungry!"

Lin Yue did not turn back, but he raised a hand and waved it, signaling that he had heard.

The moment he pushed open his own fence gate, he quickened his pace and rushed around the wooden house toward the backyard.

Bai Qingfeng stared blankly after him. Why was that bastard living across from my house?

Oh no, my meals!

They're going to get torn apart by a wild dog...

The fence was still holding firm. Patches woven from dead branches and vines completely blocked the gap that had been smashed open yesterday.

Chomper squatted in the sixth row, its leaves spread wide and its mouth half-open in the middle of a yawn. When it saw its owner return, it swallowed the yawn and replaced it with a lazy smack of its lips.

Wall-nut was still faithfully guarding its position, its round head facing outward and its leaves slightly spread, looking as if it were saying, "Don't worry, I haven't been slacking off."

The plants in the Zen Garden all had a "Thirsty" marker over their heads... Sunflower's flower disk drooped slightly, Marigold's petal edges had curled up, and even Peashooter's upright stalk had gone limp halfway down. Even the snail that was always sleeping poked two feelers out of its shell and wiggled them, as if silently reminding him, "You need to water us."

That snail was really lazy. Looks like I'll have to find some chocolate later.

Lin Yue picked up the watering can and watered them one by one.

Water droplets rolled across the leaves, carrying the scent of soil as they trickled into the bottoms of the flowerpots.

After one round of watering, those drooping heads all lifted again. Their leaves became moist and bright once more, gleaming with an oily sheen beneath the sunlight.

They had even grown another round, already as large as the Wall-nut in the backyard. Just one more round of watering and fertilizer, and they would mature.

Compared to everyone else, this was already practically cheating.

He crouched down to inspect everything, then casually picked up the coins scattered across the Zen Garden's ground... six silver coins. Beside the snail shell, three gold coins had been neatly stacked together, as if someone had deliberately sorted them.

Marigold's smiling little face still wore that composed expression of, "I'm worth the price." Its leaves trembled slightly, as though indicating that those three gold coins were all the fruits of its own hard work.

Lin Yue deposited the coins into the Plant Garden system.

Added to last night's savings, the total had already surpassed yesterday's by a wide margin.

Just as he was about to stand, his peripheral vision caught the little seedling that had dropped from killing a zombie in the corner of the garden... it had grown up.

A round, earthy-yellow little head held up two plump white eyes. It grinned, revealing two neat front teeth, and stared blankly at him.

Potato Mine.

An Ash Plant, and one of the few types of military-controlled plants that civilians could legally own.

Although it was not as powerful as Cherry Bomb or Jalapeno, its advantage was that it could be buried in advance. Its blast radius was small, and after exploding, it left behind seeds. In about a week, new Potato Mines could grow again, with an 80% survival rate.

Its only drawback was that it could only be buried in fixed positions, requiring its owner to predict the zombies' route.

Lin Yue crouched in front of Potato Mine and gently touched its two round white eyes.

Potato Mine's grin widened, its two front teeth gleaming white in the sunlight as though it were foolishly smiling at him.

He closed his eyes and conceived a passive.

[Passive: After Potato Mine explodes, it will definitely regrow rapidly. With each rebirth, its explosion power and blast radius will increase slightly.]

[Evaluation passed... Actual effect standardized.]

He opened his eyes, looked at the new passive description on the panel—"Rebirth + Increased Power"—and nodded in satisfaction.

That way, he would not have to worry about his plants becoming unfamiliar strangers after they grew up.

Potato Mine: Am I going to work myself to death?

Then he stood up, rubbed his hands together, and decided to handle the most important matter of the day... Operation Lure the Cat.

He opened Dave's shop interface in the garden system, where all kinds of items were densely displayed:

Basic plant seeds, flowerpots, fertilizer, purple upgrade cards, and even several mutant plant seedlings Lin Yue had never seen before.

Lin Yue's gaze passed over those beautiful purple cards—Gatling Pea, Gloom-shroom, Twin Sunflower... Every one of them was painfully expensive. The price of 5,000 was beyond his reach for now.

Then his eyes settled precisely on the entry labeled "Fertilizer." Three bags for 200 coins—small, cheap, and practical. His current savings were just enough.

He tapped Purchase.

The next second, the air before him suddenly split open with a narrow spatial rift, and three yellowish-brown bags of fertilizer were tossed onto the ground by his feet.

Lin Yue looked down at the three bags of fertilizer at his feet.

A crooked burrito image was printed on the bags, along with a line of messy handwritten text: "Specially supplied for neighbors... personally tested by Dave."

The seal of one bag even had a little piece of golden corn crumb stuck to it, as if Dave had been eating breakfast when he tossed it through.

He bent down, pinched up the corn crumb for a look, then tossed it aside. Picking up a bag of fertilizer, he walked toward the pinkish-purple little head curled up and dozing on the Zen Garden shelf.

Cattail seemed to sense something. Its cat-ear leaves twitched upright slightly, then drooped again.

Its nose wriggled softly, as though it had caught a certain scent. Those round dots for eyes slowly opened, staring unblinkingly at the bag of fertilizer in Lin Yue's hand.

The other plants nearby also stared over.

Lin Yue crouched down, set the fertilizer bag beside the flowerpot, and met Cattail's eyes.

"Want to eat it?"

Cattail opened its mouth, and the longing in its eyes was impossible to hide.

"Puff~"

Its tone had softened considerably, its final note carrying a hint of hesitant probing.

Its cat-ear leaves no longer drooped, instead tilting forward slightly. It really wanted to eat it.

Lin Yue did not hurry to open the bag. He simply placed it on the edge of the flowerpot, clapped his hands, and stood up.

"No rush. Think it over first." He tilted his head toward Cattail. "You can eat this every day. Once you're full, you just need to do a little work."

"Pop some balloons, poke some zombies. Easy for you~"

Cattail's pinkish-purple little head slowly turned toward the fertilizer bag, then slowly turned back toward Lin Yue.

The expression on its round face looked like it was going through an extremely difficult inner struggle—on one side was "I don't want to work," and on the other was "That thing smells pretty good."

Lin Yue did not rush it.

But after the little cat hesitated again and again, it seemed to make up its mind. The tip of its tail gently touched Lin Yue.

It seemed to agree.

[Editable... Passive]

[Passive: Attack speed will gradually increase.]

The Third Wave of Zombies

By the time the sun climbed to the middle of the sky, Lin Yue was crouched in front of the Zen Garden shelf, loosening the soil for Marigold and Sunflower while collecting the gold coins and sunlight that had fallen to the ground.

In the backyard.

Something heavy seemed to be slowly rolling over from the distance.

Dull thuds traveled along the ground, one after another, slow and steady in rhythm.

Lin Yue's movements paused. He set the watering can on the shelf, stood up, and listened for two seconds.

"Again?"

Chomper, in the sixth row of the backyard, had already straightened up. Its purple leaves spread slightly, and that enormous mouth was no longer yawning. Its tooth-like petals drew together into a narrow seam, as though silently confirming the scent in the air.

Wall-nut beside it still faced outside the yard, but a few scratch marks had appeared on its body. They were shallow, though.

Beyond the yard wall, the row of fences that had been smashed into disorder by the first two zombie waves had long been reduced to half-ruined remnants. Several crooked wooden strips stuck out of the muddy ground, vines hung loosely down, and the open space exposed by the breach had become the zombies' neat and orderly "entrance."

Since he had returned, this was already the third wave.

Lin Yue quickly crossed the backyard and stopped at the boundary between the fifth and sixth rows.

He swept his eyes over the formation...

First row, second column: Peashooter sat in its flowerpot with soil clinging to its base. Its green stalk stood straight, its barrel raised slightly and aimed directly at the breach in the yard wall.

He had not planted it in the first column because the first column was too dangerous. If a Digger Zombie burrowed in underground, plants in the first column could easily be eaten from behind.

The second column preserved firing distance while also giving him time to react.

Second row, eighth column: Potato Mine was still squatting foolishly in the soil with its two front teeth exposed. Its grayish-green round head stuck halfway out of the ground, its white eyes staring straight ahead.

Thankfully, Potato Mine had not exploded even once so far.

Mainly because of the ninth column ahead of it.

In the ninth column, a brand-new bamboo rake was planted diagonally in the mud, its teeth facing outward. Bits of the last zombie it had flung away still clung to the tips... It had cost him a full 200 from Dave's shop, but the results were obvious. The instant a zombie stepped on it, it triggered a "code-level instant kill." Whether it was an ordinary zombie, a Conehead, or a Buckethead, it could basically deal with them all.

Third row, pool, first column: Cattail squatted at the edge of the pool, its pinkish-purple little head drooping over the flowerpot's rim. Its cat-ear leaves stood slightly upright, while the thin spike at the tip of its tail was already exposed, suspended in midair with a flash of silvery-white sharpness.

It had originally been curled up in its flowerpot dozing. The moment vibrations from the ground reached the pool's surface, it snapped its eyes open, looking ready to strike. During the first two waves, it had completely shed that lazy appearance.

After seeing its plant companions resist the zombies, Cattail had also decided to work hard to help them, preventing the plant friends it had only just gotten to know from being hurt.

Fifth row, seventh column: Puff-shroom sat there in its flowerpot, but it was daytime. Its purple-brown cap had shrunk into a tight ball, and the entire plant curled up in the pot, sleeping deeply. The edge of its gills moved faintly and evenly, like the rise and fall of a small animal's belly.

"Looks like I'll have to trade with someone for coffee beans."

Sixth row: Chomper and Wall-nut, one in front of the other—one attacking, one defending.

Chomper had already eaten three zombies. Its purple stalk had thickened another round since morning, and when its leaves spread, they could block the entire width of the lane. The "200" on its health panel had already jumped to "300."

As for Wall-nut in front of it, its body was covered in the scratches and bite marks left by the first two waves of zombies. White marks of varying depths were embedded in its yellowish-brown shell, and some had even sunk in slightly, yet the entire plant still stood firm and unmoving.

A heavy number flashed on its health panel... 6020, far beyond the limit of an ordinary first-stage Wall-nut. (20, because a day had passed.)

As long as he cultivated it a little more, using Dave's fertilizer, it could mature easily and gain more than 8,000 health.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

The trembling of the ground drew nearer.

The sound was no longer vague. It became clear and distinct—the heavy scraping of dragging feet crushing across the lawn in short steps, stopping after each pace, mixed with the creaking of stiff bone joints.

Lin Yue raised a hand and pressed his palm downward, a silent signal that they were ready.

"Why is my luck so terrible?" he muttered under his breath. He wiped his palm on his pant leg and tightened his grip on the shovel handle. "How long has it even been today? This is already the third wave.

Looks like this defeat on the second-stage battlefield has been way too unfriendly to the people in the next stage."

Chomper seemed to understand his complaint. Its leaves lightly patted the ground, as though saying, "If they come, eat them. What's there to fear?"

The first zombie appeared at the breach in the yard wall.

It was an ordinary zombie holding a flag. The dirty red flag was raised over its head, its gait slow and stiff. Its grayish-green face tilted toward the backyard, the corner of its mouth curled back to reveal half a row of yellowed black teeth. A dry growl rolled from its throat. "Hrr..."

It took its first step into the yard.

Bang!

The bamboo rake sprang out of the mud so quickly that the naked eye could barely follow it. Its teeth swept precisely across the zombie's lower legs, launching its whole body into the air with brutal force. It flipped halfway around in midair, while that ugly head and its flagpole fell onto the grass with a dull thud.

The connection between the body and head was as smooth as if it had been sliced apart with a blade.

"Nice one."