Planting Plants and Zombies for All: I Can Add Passives to Plants

Zhao Lei cherished life more than anything now...

"By the way." Lin Yue's gaze fixed firmly on Zhao Lei. "You still mean what you said, right?"

The sudden question made Zhao Lei pause. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly before he relaxed. "Bro Hao... don't worry. I won't go back on my word. Once you're discharged, you can pick anything you want from the First Research Department."

"The First Research Department of the Plant Research Institute?"

"Yeah. It's the most important plant cultivation department in the Ninth Federation. The mutant and improved varieties you can't find on the market all come from there. My dad controls access to that floor."

My dad's share... no, my share... Pick whatever you want... But you can't choose Ash Plants.

Lin Yue leaned back against the pillow and began thinking.

He remembered Zhao Lei crouching in front of his stall a few days ago, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion as he said, "Bet that I can get out alive, and I'll get you a Rare Plant." Compared to the steady composure he displayed while speaking in the hospital now, he had really changed a lot!

Bai Qingfeng crouched beside the bed, opened the bag of sugar tangerines, peeled one segment, and brought it to Lin Yue's lips...

Way too affectionate... completely ignoring the two people beside them...

(Luo Chen: ?)

Chapter 44: The Plant Research Institute

"Bro Hao, this way..."

Zhao Lei walked ahead while Lin Yue followed him around the research institute. The other people inside looked at Zhao Lei with puzzled expressions.

(Didn't the director say he was going out to play with his son today? How did they end up at the company?)

Zhao Lei looked much more relaxed than he had in the hospital, but every time he passed through a security door, he would instinctively turn slightly sideways, as if confirming something...

Lin Yue followed two steps behind him, his gaze sliding from the row of cold white lights overhead to the walls on either side.

The inside of the Plant Research Institute was more than twice as large as he had imagined. The corridors were as wide as a highway, and the walls were made of light-gray metal panels. Every few meters, a semitransparent observation window was embedded in the wall. Behind each window was a cultivation room with different temperatures and humidity levels. Through the glass, Lin Yue could see rows of orderly planting racks, circulating drip-irrigation systems, and plant seedlings stretching their leaves beneath warm lights.

"What level are the researchers here?" Lin Yue asked in a lowered voice.

The moment he finished asking, he realized he had said something pointless.

This was, after all, the most powerful plant research center in the Ninth Federation.

"Even the worst of them are veterans who've spent ten years studying plant gene sequences." Zhao Lei didn't look back as he led him around a bend.

"Among the people of my dad's generation, everyone who could enter this building was a top cultivator selected by the Nine Federations back then. Even the old man guarding the entrance retired from a Tier-Four battlefield. He has the original cultivation records for seven plant variants in his hands."

"You know Little Cherry Bomb? That old man developed it."

(Half a Cherry Bomb.)

Lin Yue said, "Mm," and didn't ask anything else.

Mostly because asking too many questions would make me look stupid!!!

As they passed an observation window, his gaze unintentionally swept over a fused plant inside... a Sunflower Peashooter, also known as Carry the Girl to Rank Up.

The plant slowly rotated its flower disk toward the warm light overhead, as if chasing the light source to replenish its energy.

"They have this here too?" Lin Yue slowed down.

"Pea Sunflower... you've never seen one?" Zhao Lei glanced over in the direction of his gaze, his tone carrying a hint of pride that said, My dad invented this thing.

My dad crossbred it back then.

"My old man, Bro Hao... You should've heard of Zhao Xu at school. He's the youngest researcher."

"They say my dad even had close contact with Crazy Dave back then..."

(A middle-aged man not far behind them was covered in black lines. What did he mean by close contact?!)

"It's a variety fused from Sunflowers and Peashooters. It can produce sunlight and fight Zombies, so it serves two purposes.

"All Nine Federations are mass-producing it now. It's the most practical plant on the front lines, and it sells for a fortune."

Lin Yue stared at the golden flower disk and silently underlined the words crossbreeding technology in his mind.

Looks like I'll get to see other hybrid plants in the future too.

He continued forward, following Zhao Lei.

When they passed the third security door, a deep middle-aged voice suddenly came from behind them. It was hoarse, with the graininess left behind by years of smoking, as if it were speaking through a layer of old sandpaper:

"How many debts is this now, you little bastard?"

Zhao Lei stopped walking.

His entire body froze as if someone had pressed a pause button. His right shoulder stiffened slightly, and only after two seconds did he slowly turn half his body, moving as sluggishly as if he had rusted.

A middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood at the corner of the corridor.

The collar of his lab coat was open, revealing an old dark-gray shirt beneath it. His sleeves were rolled above his forearms, exposing two sturdy arms covered in fine old scars.

His hair was streaked with gray and white and had not been deliberately styled. His bangs hung loosely over his temples, and an old pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested on his nose. The instant his gaze behind the lenses landed on Lin Yue's face, his originally relaxed eyes seemed to be pinned in place by something and focused slightly.

Zhao Lei gave a dry laugh. "Uh... Dad, aren't you off today?"

Zhao Xu approached unhurriedly, the hem of his lab coat stirring a small breeze as he walked.

He stopped in front of Zhao Lei and swept his son from head to toe. Then his gaze passed over Zhao Lei's shoulder and landed on Lin Yue. After lingering for two seconds, it returned to Zhao Lei. "You said last night that you were bringing a classmate to visit today... I remember that, right?"

"I said it!!!"

"Then did you think your old man wouldn't be working overtime tonight?"

"I didn't."

"Then what do you call sneaking someone in here?"

Zhao Lei's Adam's apple bobbed. His entire body shrank by half a shoulder's width, like a house cat grabbed by the scruff. "I... mainly because I was afraid you'd be busy and wouldn't have time to receive us... Yeah..."

Zhao Xu raised one hand, and Zhao Lei's words stopped on their own.

Zhao Xu did not look at his son again. Instead, he walked around him and stopped in front of Lin Yue.

His gaze traveled down Lin Yue's face from his forehead to his jaw, as if piecing together a blurry old photograph from memory.

On the face that had been bathed in laboratory lights for years, the initial scrutiny slowly sank into an expression etched with nostalgia and some even more complicated emotion—something he rarely allowed to show.

Lin Yue's back tensed slightly under his stare, but he did not look away.

The energetic young man straightened and spoke. "Hello, Uncle."

Zhao Xu did not respond immediately.

After looking at Lin Yue for a long while, the corner of his mouth moved. It formed a slight curve that did not quite resemble a smile, marked by traces of old emotions. "You look... very much like someone I know."

His voice was a little softer than before, as if he were talking to himself.

"You make me nostalgic... and you make my hands itch."

Lin Yue froze.

That second half doesn't sound right.

"Quick, tell me. What are your parents' names?"

Lin Yue's thoughts raced.

Lin Xiaotian and Li Xue. In all these years, they haven't encountered any enemies coming to settle old scores!

They were both honest ordinary owners of Tier-One Plant Gardens. When did they get involved with an influential figure from the Ninth Federation's Plant Research Institute?

Lin Yue finally hardened his resolve and said, "My mother is Li Xue, and my father is Lin Xiaotian. Uncle, do you know my parents?"

The instant he said the name "Li Xue," Zhao Xu's expression loosened for an extremely brief moment.

The slight curve at the corner of his mouth deepened a little, and the lines at the corners of his eyes softened by half a degree, as if those old scenes buried deep in his memories had been summoned by the name for a brief instant.

(So he's Li Xue's son... Not bad... He certainly turned out better than my son.)

But immediately afterward, when the three syllables "Lin Xiaotian" landed, the two lines above his brows tightened at once. His expression switched from nostalgia to concern, as if someone had twisted an old key in a lock.

(Damn, how did a fresh flower end up stuck in cow dung?)

"More than know him."

Zhao Xu enunciated the words "life-and-death" slowly and heavily, lowering the end of his voice as if emphasizing a page in an old ledger that had yet to be turned.

"It was a—life-and-death, friendship."

Looking at his expression, Lin Yue understood everything.

My old man's behavior when he was young... After awakening a Plant Garden, his shamelessness must've reached the heavens.

For Zhao Xu to remember him for so many years and even stress his name like that, he must've really screwed him over back then.

Zhao Lei had already sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. He moved half a step forward to stand between them and awkwardly interjected, "Um... Old Eight, my friend came today to choose a Rare Plant. Look—"

Zhao Xu withdrew his gaze from Lin Yue's face and landed it on his son's slightly tense face. He watched him for two seconds.

Then he snorted, his voice returning to its unhurried tone. "It's fine. Matters between old men won't affect you youngsters. I'm not that petty."

Zhao Xu turned sideways and jerked his chin toward the depths of the corridor. "Take him there. You can't take Ash Plants. Everything else is fair game."

Zhao Lei looked as if he had been granted a pardon and pulled Lin Yue forward.

After walking three or four steps, Lin Yue turned back and added, speaking toward Zhao Xu in a voice that was not loud but clear, "Uncle, if my dad did anything wrong by you when he was young, tell me. I'll go back and chew him out for you."

Zhao Xu stood in the middle of the corridor with both hands in his lab coat pockets. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he snorted. "You brat... Ah... The two of us have really been taken for a ride by you father-and-son pair!"

(Setting: Lin Xiaotian and Zhao Xu were one a scholar and one a warrior. They enlisted at the same time, but Lin Xiaotian ran away in the end...)

Chapter 45: The Magic-shroom Everyone Looked Down On

Following Zhao Lei, Lin Yue reached the security door at the end of the corridor marked "Tier-One Rare Plant Exhibition Hall." A warm, humid current of air rushed toward him, carrying the scent of damp soil and plant respiration.

(The oxygen level was actually excessive.)

Rows of transparent cultivation pods lined the walls. Each pod had its own temperature, humidity, lighting cycle, and water-circulation system set according to the growth habits of the plant inside.

The moment Lin Yue walked in, his field of vision was filled.

The Peashooter family occupied nearly a third of the exhibition hall... From the most basic Peashooter to Repeaters, Threepeaters, and Gatling Peas, there were even several fan-made shooters that only appeared in other versions of the game.

When he passed the Gatling Peas, his steps slowed for half a beat. This seemed to be the big brother.

"Gatling Peas aren't considered rare here."

Zhao Lei explained in a low voice, "There are over a hundred of them piled up in my dad's laboratory building. They're rare elsewhere, but they're mass-produced here."

Lin Yue nodded and continued forward.

(It was like the Raiden Shogun entering the city—in short, a country bumpkin.)

He stopped to look at an area marked "Sealed by the Military"... Several Electric Peashooters, silver-white from head to toe, crouched quietly in individual cultivation pods. Fine blue arcs of electricity occasionally leaped from the edges of their leaves, bursting with a small halo of light in the air before dissipating.

The pods beside them held a row of dark-purple Doom-shrooms. Deep cracks covered their caps, as if they were charging up. No one approached the entire area.

"Those can't be moved," Zhao Lei said, following his gaze. "Military-controlled supplies. They don't belong to the research institute."

Lin Yue did not linger and walked in another direction.

The Mushroom Garden was in the deepest part of the exhibition hall. The lighting there was several shades dimmer than in the other areas. The bright warm-white lights overhead shifted to a soft, dark blue, and the air was filled with the damp, pungent odor of rotting wood.

Rows of mushroom-shaped plants squatted quietly on low cultivation platforms. Their caps varied in size, their colors transitioning from pale gray to deep purple, like a still night sky that breathed ever so slightly.

Lin Yue's gaze stopped at one of the cultivation platforms.

Magic-shroom!!!

That Magic-shroom was moving... Not swaying in the wind—it was moving on its own.

Its gray-black cap resembled a black top hat. The entire mushroom slowly moved from one end of the cultivation platform to the other at a measured pace, as if taking a purposeless stroll.

Several identical Magic-shrooms sat on the cultivation platform beside it, but all of them had drawn in their caps and crouched quietly in place. Some were sleeping, some were daydreaming, and only this one kept moving without pause, as if it had attention-deficit disorder.

The sign outside the exhibition hall bore a concise inscription:

Name: Magic-shroom

Quality: Gold

Description: Moderate attack power, autonomous movement, weak defense. Gold quality, with a combat rating between Ordinary Plants and Rare Plants. Note: Eliminated after mass testing by the First Federation.

"Bro Hao." Zhao Lei frowned when he saw Lin Yue stop in front of the Magic-shroom's cultivation platform. "Why are you looking at this lousy mushroom?"