Plants vs. Zombies for All: I Can Grant Plants Passive Abilities - Chapter 22

When Lin Yue looked up, he saw the scattered white cloud on the horizon being swallowed inward from its edges by something. Gray-black clouds rolled in from the west, pressing down at more than twice the speed of ordinary rain clouds.

Faint lightning flickered along the edge of the clouds, as if something hidden deep within them were breathing slowly.

The system notification exploded beside his ear, crisp and efficient, carrying an impersonal chill.

[Ding—Dr. Zomboss has used the Weather Controller]

[Ding—Today's weather: clear skies turning to heavy rain]

Lin Yue stared open-mouthed as the roiling gray-black clouds spread across the entire sky at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The last few rays of sunlight barely squeezed through the gaps in the clouds before going out completely, as if someone had pinched out a lamp wick.

The first raindrop struck the tip of his nose. It was cold and carried the dusty scent of earth kicked up by the rain.

"No, bro..." He looked up at the sky, his voice full of disbelief and helpless amusement. "Dr. Zomboss... you had a divine artifact like this and saved it for the final day of the Beginner Trial? Did I eat your rice or something?"

"Boom..."

A muffled rumble of thunder rolled over from the horizon, making the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly.

The gray-black clouds seemed to have had a valve opened by the thunder. The fine drizzle instantly turned into bean-sized raindrops that came pouring down.

Rain beat against the eaves, leaves, and brick walls, blending into a dense wall of white noise. Visibility in the backyard began dropping at a visible rate.

Grayish-white mist rose from the ground and crept upward along the blades of grass. One tile, two tiles—it stopped when it reached the edge of the Wall-nut, but the entire rear half of the backyard had already been swallowed by wet gray-white fog.

Even if zombies appeared, he would have no way of getting their locations in advance.

He could barely make out the yellow-brown rounded outline of the Wall-nut.

Fortunately, the plants farther back were still clearly visible, and plant attacks did not rely on sight anyway.

The two newly arrived plants, Snap Pea and Toadstool, also braced themselves in the tense atmosphere.

"...This is really going to be trouble." Lin Yue swept his soaked bangs back over his head. Rainwater ran down his jaw and dripped onto the front of his school uniform, spreading into a dark wet stain.

He thought of the intelligence Bai Qingfeng had brought over that morning.

Bai Qingfeng had been inside the house, holding a steaming enamel cup as she lowered her voice and said, "...The first wave of Football Zombies won't attack your yard. Their targets are other people. But your place is the last stop—once the others are breached, all the remaining zombies will swarm toward you and me."

She had also said that by the time... the Football Zombies appeared in his yard, they would already be at the end of their rope.

As long as Lin Yue could hold the final wave, the defenses of the entire Happy Residential Community would be secured.

Lin Yue himself believed he had the strength to do that.

As the strong one, he had to step forward when it mattered.

Zombies Are Approaching Your Brain

As long as he could hold the final wave, the defenses of the entire Happy Residential Community would be secured.

After hearing that, he had relaxed, feeling that his preparations were more than sufficient.

Three devouring plants stood in a row, five Puff-shrooms lined up side by side, Torchwood provided firepower suppression, and one Cattail covered the entire field—no matter how he looked at it, it was a solid fortress.

But he had not expected it to rain today.

To rain this heavily.

Fortunately, his Torchwood had been enhanced in advance. Even in rainy weather, it could still barely enchant the Peashooters' peas with fire, though it needed to burn wood.

And right now, basic materials like wood were exactly what Lin Yue had the most of.

The fog had risen.

Although he did not know which lane zombies might suddenly appear in, his plants did not rely on their eyes. No matter which lane zombies emerged from, the most important thing now was to trust the plants.

Lin Yue opened the system panel, swiping twice across the soaked screen with his fingers before opening the chat group.

The Happy Residential Community channel had already exploded. Messages flooded upward one after another so quickly that he had to scan them twice to read them all.

[Happy Residential Community Channel (10)—Level 3 House Owners]

[Jiahao: Is it foggy over there for you guys?]

Lin Yue had barely sent his message before someone replied. The resentment in the other person's words was practically palpable.

[Farmer: Screw this. Three tiles of fog. Time to write my will. I can't even see the Wall-nut planted at the very front of my backyard.]

He stared at the screen for a second.

Then replied:

[Jiahao: You've got it worse than me. I only have two tiles here.]

For some reason, the anxiety lodged in Lin Yue's throat suddenly eased a little.

Someone else having it worse than him sounded rather cruel, but it really did make his own situation seem less terrible.

[Farmer: What, this thing even targets people? What standard does it use to assign fog density? Face length?]

[Farmer: Watch me stab it to death with my shoehorn face.]

Sure enough, livening up the mood before the battle helped dispel some of the tension.

[Tyrannosaurus Warrior: Brothers, let's all make it back alive.]

After that message was sent, the channel fell silent for two seconds.

Then messages flooded in like water.

[Jiahao: Definitely.]

[Farmer: +1.]

[My Dad Is a Congressman: Zombies are already coming at me.]

The moment Zhao Lei's message appeared, the entire channel froze for a full two seconds.

The scrolling text seemed to have been paused in place, nailed to the screen. Then, in the next second, replies surged in like a floodgate had opened.

[Jiahao: You're the one who needs to survive most. Don't make me lose my bet.]

[Tyrannosaurus Warrior: You still owe me a plant. Don't you fucking die!]

[Farmer: You made a bet too?]

After Lin Yue watched that "You made a bet too?" appear on the screen, a crowd instantly followed suit.

Some sent laughing-and-crying emojis, some sent strings of ellipses, and then the final message came from an ID he was not very familiar with. It was brief and powerful, perfectly summing up the mood of the whole group.

[Passerby A: You all bet on it?? Damn gambling addicts, you deserve to die!!]

Lin Yue looked at the line on the screen and could not suppress the smile at the corner of his mouth. He laughed amid the drenched curtain of rain.

It seemed Zhao Lei had not only made a bet with him, but with everyone else as well.

He walked beneath the eaves, took off his soaked jacket, and draped it over the railing. Rainwater streamed down from the edge of the roof, hammering a row of tiny pits into the muddy ground at his feet.

Leaning against the doorframe, he looked at the blurry green outlines in the rain and calculated what he should do in the final few hours.

With fog around, all he could rely on was the plants' instincts... As long as the plants in the backyard sensed zombies approaching, they would attack on their own.

The rain grew heavier and heavier.

The entire backyard was shrouded in thick white fog. The plants' silhouettes swayed slowly within it, like a silent fortress that was breathing.

Standing beneath the eaves, Lin Yue picked up the Wooden Mallet he had bought from Dave at the base of the wall and gripped it in his hand. This was a divine artifact.

In desperate situations, it could even strike three times in a second and kill a Buckethead Zombie.

[Ding—In heavy rain, all plants have entered a weakened state. You may consume 25 sunlight per plant to restore them to normal.]

Lin Yue wiped the rain off his face and rapidly tapped through the system panel. His sunlight reserves dropped slightly from over two thousand, while leaves that had drooped under the fierce wind and rain straightened back up beneath a glow of pale golden particles. The Peashooters raised their barrels half an inch, a thin layer of frost formed again along Snow Pea's leaf edges, and Chomper's purple petals abruptly opened and shut in the rain, as though shaking off the water on its body.

"Alright." Lin Yue put away the panel, wiped his palm against his soaked pant leg, and gripped the wooden handle of the shovel again. "Now all that's left is for you to show up."

The instant he finished speaking, an incredibly faint, continuous tremor traveled through the brick ground beneath his feet.

It was not thunder. It was the rhythm of something heavy rolling across the ground, dull and muffled beneath the rain, yet crystal clear when it traveled through the soles of his shoes into his feet.

[Ding, a large number of zombies are approaching your brain. Please prepare yourself.]

"Since you're already here." Lin Yue murmured in reply, leaning forward slightly as he stared into the depths of the gray-white rain fog.

The mist did not disperse in the downpour. Instead, it grew even denser.

Something seemed to have appeared in the previously murky fog. Heavy footsteps came with the sound of splashing water.

By the pool.

The pool's surface had originally been covered in countless ripples from the rain, but now the patterns of those ripples had been disrupted. Something had appeared, disturbing the stillness of the entire surface.

"Whoosh—"

The little cat's tail spikes were faster than Lin Yue's gaze.

The first small red spike shot from the tip of the Cattail's tail, pierced through the rain curtain, and vanished into the fog. A faint pfft followed, like it had pierced something.

Then came the second, third, and fourth—the firing rate doubled within the first three seconds. The needle-like trajectories flashed through the gray-white rain like blurred silver streaks.

A dense series of tap tap tap tap sounds rang out from the depths of the fog, like hail striking a wooden board, mixed with one or two wet, muffled impacts.

That zombie wearing a swim ring never managed to swim out of the fog-covered area.

Its outline swayed twice in the mist. Its swimming motions went from smooth to sluggish, then finally stopped. The ripples on the water expanded and contracted layer by layer before gradually returning to the fine circles created by the rain.

The gray-green arm floating on the water slowly sank. The orange life vest drifted twice across the surface before a trailing spike pierced it, deflating it and leaving it limp as it floated into the depths of the rain.

"That's it?" Lin Yue blurted out, but the moment he spoke, the little cat's tail spikes suddenly shifted forty degrees to the right and shot toward the second lane.

The second lane.

Snow Pea's direction.

Lin Yue's neck stiffened slightly as he quickly turned his gaze. At the boundary between the dense fog and the rain curtain, three blurry figures were slowly advancing.

Their shoulder outlines were a full circle wider than ordinary zombies, and there was a faintly reflective curved edge above their heads—a bucket.

Buckethead Zombies.

And there was more than one. Two Conehead Zombies followed behind it. The three heavy bodies trudged forward through the mud, each footprint instantly filling with rainwater.

Ice fired its first ice-blue pea, wrapped in cold air as it tore through the rain curtain and struck the Buckethead Zombie squarely on its left shoulder.

Pale blue frost patterns spread from the Buckethead Zombie's shoulder blade across its body, and its pace visibly slowed by a beat.

The second shot struck its right knee, the third its chest. The slowing effects stacked layer upon layer, reducing the Buckethead Zombie's speed to half its normal pace. Every step looked as if it were pulling its legs out of mud.

The two Conehead Zombies soon passed the Buckethead Zombie, but Snow Pea's slowing peas still greeted them.

Before long, the Buckethead Zombie passed them again.

The little cat's spikes followed from the flank, raining down a dense series of sharp impacts atop the Buckethead Zombie's head.

A row of tiny white marks appeared across the surface of the bucket, but it did not break. The sound was clear yet dull.

"Thump—"

The firepower of the two plants temporarily held back the bucket's advance.

The two Conehead Zombies behind it fell slightly behind. One had an arm hanging limply at its side, half the joint shattered by Snow Pea and swaying there.

But the other Conehead was completely unharmed. It was circling around its companion ahead of it, preparing to slip through from the edge.

And directly in front of them, at the seventh tile of the second lane, Potato Mine sat quietly in the soil. Its two big front teeth showed in the rain, and the smile on its face had never changed.

It did not explode.

Its decision-making logic differed from the mines in the game. It would not detonate the instant the first zombie stepped on it. Instead, it waited until every threat had entered the optimal blast radius before unleashing a single sweeping cleanup.

Lin Yue watched the three zombies slowly approach Potato Mine's position. His hand tightened around the shovel handle, then relaxed again.

He trusted Potato Mine's judgment.

Over the past month, this little fellow had proven itself countless times through precise choices of timing.

When Snow Pea and the little cat could handle the zombies, Potato Mine was like a dud.

But when there were too many zombies and a threat emerged, Potato Mine would ignite on its own.

The Sixth Lane Was Still Greedy