Chapter 21

Three zombies surged into the fifth lane at once... Two Roadblock Zombies led the way, with a Flag Zombie following behind. Their three silhouettes bunched into a gray line in the dusk. Their pace wasn't fast, but their imposing presence was enough to make one's scalp prickle.

Lin Yue grabbed the Wooden Mallet he'd bought from Dave's Shop at a steep price and charged over. Taking cover behind the Puff-shrooms, he swung it wildly.

(The Wooden Mallet from the Zombie-Smashing stage)

One had to know that every swing of the Wooden Mallet was comparable to an ordinary pea, relying purely on brute force to work miracles.

He smashed the heads of two zombies to pieces like watermelons.

Fortunately, the Puff-shrooms lived up to expectations. Another line had appeared in their passive ability column:

[Mutation Two: Strength in Numbers... Within the same lawn square, Puff-shrooms can reproduce up to five companions.]

There were already five Puff-shrooms in the fifth row, sixth column.

They crouched shoulder to shoulder on that narrow strip of lawn. Their gray-brown caps were packed tightly in a row, like a line of silent little sentries.

Ordinary zombies couldn't even reach the fourth square. The combined coverage of five Puff-shrooms spewing spore clouds at once was enough to make any zombie collapse within five seconds of entering the fifth row.

Lin Yue fertilized them once every morning, watering all five together. Their leaves had grown thicker and sturdier, and their caps fuller. They didn't have the satisfying instant-eating ability of Chomper, but their strength lay in the suppressive power created by sheer numbers.

He guessed that it was only after Lin Yue had helped it that the mushroom realized a single mushroom's strength was ultimately limited.

"Fifth-lane Puff-shrooms, complete."

Lin Yue withdrew his gaze, turned, walked into the house, and opened the system panel.

After this month, the money pouch he'd saved was already bulging to the point of overflowing, and his sun reserves had exceeded ten thousand. He had been wondering how to spend his savings until eight o'clock that morning, when the system popped up with a new message.

[Dave's Shop has been updated—Dave just returned from summer camp, bringing back some marvelous new items and plants.]

Chapter 33: Dave's Shop

[Dave's Shop has been updated—Dave just returned from summer camp, bringing back some marvelous new items and plants.]

The moment Lin Yue opened the shop interface, he froze in place.

In the first row of the plants for sale, a plant whose entire body resembled a wide-open mouth crouched at the top of the list. Beside it was a flashing rare tag.

The second row contained a golden mushroom-shaped plant. Its appearance fell somewhere between a toad and a poisonous umbrella mushroom, and its cap was dotted with fine golden particles.

Name: Snap Pea (Mature)

Level: Rare

Health: 200

Description: A member of the "Appease-mint" family. Its attack method is to burrow underground and chew on zombies in a straight line. It returns to its original position while digesting, then spits out the zombie's head to attack enemies behind it after finishing digestion. Bred by Dave.

Price: 15,000

Name: Toadstool (Mature)

Level: Rare

Health: 200

Description: Toadstool is a devouring plant. Its appearance combines a golden toad and a poisonous umbrella mushroom. Its role is "field clearing + sun production," offering excellent value for money. Its core mechanic is devouring zombies. A special mushroom variety accidentally discovered by Dave in the wild.

Price: 20,000

Lin Yue's gaze shifted back and forth between the two plants three times.

His finger hovered over the purchase button, and his heartbeat was half a beat faster than usual.

Snap Pea and Toadstool were both devouring plants, following the same combat logic as Chomper—eat zombies, digest them, and grow stronger.

That meant that as long as he planted them, they could also gain the same passive benefits as Chomper: increasing their maximum health by devouring zombies, speeding up digestion, and enlarging their bodies.

Three devouring plants laid out from front to back in the yard... Forget Football Zombies—even if a Gargantuar came, three mouths taking turns gnawing at it would be more than enough to make it suffer.

But the price was enough to make anyone think twice.

Snap Pea cost fifteen thousand, and Toadstool twenty thousand. Together, they cost thirty-five thousand—every last bit of his savings from the past month, leaving only a little loose change for fertilizer.

After buying them, the coins in his pocket would plunge from "abundant" to "just enough to get by."

But what if he didn't buy them?

No one could say whether he'd encounter such rare goods again in the future.

He closed his eyes.

Thought.

Opened them.

His finger fell, confirming the purchases of Snap Pea and Toadstool one after the other.

[Purchase successful]

[Deducted: 35,000 coins]

[Remaining coins: 870]

The icons of the two plants in the shop interface changed from green to gray.

At the same time, in another courtyard far across the Federation's airspace, the atmosphere was nowhere near as bright.

In the underground conference hall of the Ninth Federation Command Center, the windows had been sealed with three layers. Only the cold white light from the ceiling lamps fell across the dark-brown conference table.

An unfolded document lay spread across the table. Its corners were curled, and several gray smudges had been rubbed onto the paper by passing sleeves.

Two people stood by the table, one sitting and one standing. The old man sitting down wore a dark-gray Zhongshan suit, its collar buttoned to the very top. His hair was white, neatly combed without a strand out of place, and the wrinkles above his brows ran deep like grooves carved by a knife.

He held a white porcelain teacup in his hand. The rim touched his lips, but the tea never entered his mouth. He merely held it there, as though the action itself had become a habit whenever he thought.

The middle-aged man standing wore a military uniform, his shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows and his tie half undone. His voice was low, but his clenched fists betrayed his emotions. "Old Xia, Dave has suspended sales of two rare plants. But the most crucial Electric Peashooter has already been secured. It cost five million, but it's worth it."

The old man called Old Xia set the teacup back on the table. The bottom tapped against the wood with an extremely soft click.

He raised his eyes and looked at the young man standing before him. The fatigue on his face could no longer be hidden. The bloodshot corners of his eyes and the cracks in his lips were both obvious, but his posture remained straight, his legs together and shoulders level, without the slightest slackness.

"The Upper Three Federations weren't interested in this batch, were they?" Old Xia's voice was unhurried, like a stone that had soaked in warm water for a long time. Every word was heavy, but never scalding.

The man in uniform unclenched and clenched his fist again, more suppressed resentment entering his voice.

"They don't dare to gamble. Who knows what junk Dave has come up with this time? They still remember the lesson from Magic-shroom last time. But we dare to gamble."

He paused there, his nostrils flaring slightly as though he were swallowing back some emotion that had surged up. His voice dropped lower.

"A huge breach has opened in our Ninth Federation's second-tier battlefield. The defensive line has retreated three kilometers, and several hundred homeowners have died. The Upper Three know about all of this. They're just pretending not to. They're waiting for us to completely collapse so they can divide up the last of our resources."

Old Xia lifted the teacup and took a sip. The tea had already gone cold, but he didn't care.

He turned the cup around in his hand, his gaze falling on the unfolded map on the table. Along the edge of the Ninth Federation's territory was a thick red dashed line... Compared with three months ago, that line had contracted inward by an entire ring.

"Have all the children been sent into the courtyards?" he asked.

"This batch has all gone in. I estimate that not many will survive."

"What percentage?"

After two or three seconds of silence, the man in uniform lowered his eyelids. His voice was even softer than before. "According to the current statistics, the survival rate is approximately... thirty percent."

Old Xia put down the teacup and placed both hands on the table. His knuckles were thick, and his hands were covered with pale-brown age spots.

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his gaze remained steady, like a wooden beam that had been pressed down for a long time without breaking.

"Raise the Electric Peashooter, then prepare to cultivate its seeds?"

"With our current equipment, we should be able to produce around seventy mature plants. They won't be as strong as the original, but they should at least stabilize the front line."

"Send fifty to the front line. The remaining twenty... keep them. Set them aside for the children carrying those seeds in the next batch."

The man in uniform opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something. In the end, he merely clenched the hand hanging beside his leg and nodded. "All right."

The conference hall fell silent for a long while.

Only the faint electrical hum of the cold white ceiling lamp overhead remained, along with the occasional tremor in the throat of the man in uniform as he suppressed his breathing.

"...Life has to go on." Old Xia spoke toward the sealed window, his voice quiet, as though he were talking to himself. "Even if only one patch of land remains, we can still stand firm as long as we fill it with crops. Once it's full, we'll be able to see the light of the next season."

No one answered behind him.

Only the ceiling lamp's white light shone silently, illuminating the spread-out map, the red dashed line that had contracted inward once more, and the two words hastily written in the corner of a document, the ink already completely dry—"Stay alive."

Chapter 34: Overcast, Foggy, Torrential Rain

"All right. From now on, you two will be living here. Please take care of me."

Snap Pea, a green plant, had a slightly curved stem, like a new recruit observing its surroundings.

Toadstool's golden cap was dotted with fine particles resembling scattered gold. Bathed in the morning sunlight, it reflected a warm halo.

Lin Yue squatted before them and gently touched the edge of Snap Pea's flower plate. Its petals were half open, revealing a row of fine, toothlike structures. They felt cool, soft, and yielding.

Toadstool seemed to respond to his touch. Its cap trembled lightly, producing a faint sound, as if something were rolling in its throat.

"Ribbit—"

It tilted its cap toward Lin Yue and called out. The sound was short, carrying a hint of shyness and curiosity from a newcomer. Then it turned and shuffled a little toward Chomper before calling out again. "Ribbit~"

Chomper lowered its head to look at the new neighbor, the small golden creature glittering all over. Its purple leaves lightly slapped the ground twice, as though saying, "Hello. We're coworkers from now on."

He placed Snap Pea in the sixth row, first column. The moment it was planted, its roots burrowed deep into the soft soil. Its purple stem swayed slightly, as if it had found a firm foothold.

He planted Toadstool in the same row behind Chomper... the sixth row, sixth column, with only Chomper's stem, already grown much thicker, between them.

The moment it was planted, Toadstool's cap unfurled.

"Ribbit~"

Toadstool called toward Chomper again.

This time, its voice was somewhat louder, as though it had grown bolder after confirming that "this is my big brother."

Lin Yue took two steps back and stood at the entrance to the rear courtyard, taking the entire defensive formation in at a glance.

In the first row, Peashooter and Torchwood formed a line of firepower. Torchwood's faintly purple flames swayed in the morning breeze, occasionally sending sparks flying that landed on the half-damp soil with a hiss;

In the second row, second column, Snow Pea and Potato Mine stood side by side, thin frost covering the ice-blue leaves;

In the third row, first column, Cattail was basking in the sun and snoring;

In the fourth row, first column, a Lily Pad lay flat on the water, several round droplets rolling along the edges of its leaves;

In the fifth row, sixth column, five Puff-shrooms crouched packed together, their gray-brown caps all facing outward;

In the sixth row, Snap Pea, Chomper, and Toadstool stood in a line from front to back, three devouring plants forming something like a tightened digestive tract.

This was the defensive arrangement of Lin Yue's entire rear courtyard. It could basically be called impregnable. Ironically, the lane most likely to develop problems was now the second row, where Snow Pea stood.

Fortunately, Potato Mine was no longer like it was in the game, exploding automatically as soon as a zombie passed by.

Instead, it looked for the right moment itself. For example, when a large wave of zombies appeared at once, Potato Mine would suddenly emerge from the lawn and detonate.

As for the fifth lane, which only had a Lily Pad, Lin Yue wasn't worried. After all, the fourth lane had a Cattail. The longer the battle dragged on, the more terrifying the cat's attack speed became.

It was practically an uncapped attack-speed blade.

Well, actually, Lin Yue's luck was simply too poor. He hadn't encountered any other aquatic plants during this period. As for planting an ordinary Peashooter on the Lily Pad, Lin Yue had never even considered it.

One had to know that once a plant was planted in the rear courtyard, it couldn't be removed unless zombies chewed it apart.

It was practically bound in place, and Lin Yue couldn't bring himself to deliberately let his plants die.

Otherwise, the plants would cry.

(Cattail: At least you have some humanity.)

In Lin Yue's plans, the first lane would rely on firepower suppression in the future, the second lane would follow a slowing strategy, and ideally, the pool would be filled with Cattails. But this wasn't a game, after all, so he could only take things one step at a time.

The fifth lane would rely on the Puff-shrooms in the future, unless the opponent's talent underwent some fundamental change.

As for the sixth lane, it had already begun to take shape. A row of devouring plants could handle ninety percent of situations, especially since his own plants could continue growing stronger.

Thinking...

Just as he was thinking, the daylight overhead suddenly dimmed.

It was as though someone had drawn a thin veil over the sun. The warm golden light slowly receded from the lawn of the rear courtyard, and the shadows of the leaves grew blurry and limp.