Plants vs. Zombies for All: I Can Add Passives to Plants, Chapter 31

Besides that, in the third column of the fifth row, an Oxygen Algae was providing oxygen to the space above the submarine.

(Unlike in the game, one was enough to supply the entire submarine, though the oxygen would definitely be insufficient.)

The Oxygen Algae had naturally been a reward Lin Yue received for entering the event today.

[Outfit: Holographic Frenzy—Pulls enemies within a 5×5 range toward itself, stuns them for 1.5 seconds, then unleashes a burst attack on a 3×3 area.]

Lin Yue's heartbeat unconsciously skipped faster as he read the description.

A normal Bok Choy's ultimate only struck a 3×3 area, but this Bok Choy had the enemy-gathering effect of Holographic Frenzy. In underwater terrain where enemies could attack from both sides, the combination of pulling enemies together and bursting them down was practically cheat-level crowd control.

"Dave, you actually did something decent this time."

Outside the submarine.

Through the observation window, the submarine could be seen slowly descending along a passage enveloped in dark blue seawater.

The depth gauge kept changing, gradually sinking from several dozen meters down.

The light grew dimmer and dimmer. The inky blue outside the window gradually transitioned into an almost pure black, with only the two searchlights at the front of the submarine illuminating several meters ahead.

The beams carved two parallel paths of bright white through the water, lighting up tiny floating plankton and the occasional clump of gray-green seaweed drifting past.

In the third column of the sixth row, the Oxygen Algae swayed continuously with the current, looking just like a piece of seaweed!

Oxygen Algae: (o˙▽˙o)... Happy! Drifting with the waves!

The Oxygen Algae was a blue, rock-shaped plant. Three or four slender strands of seaweed grew across its surface, swaying lazily in the water with the faint vibrations caused by the submarine's movement.

Its expression was round and curved, eyes narrowed in a look that seemed to say, "I'm very relaxed."

???.

It continuously supplied oxygen to the entire space above the submarine, allowing those plants to survive on the seafloor.

Before entering the event, Lin Yue had considered Bok Choy, Starfruit, and Squash to be the plants best suited for the Underwater World.

Naturally, he had prepared their passives in advance...

Bok Choy's martial arts passive... The deeper its understanding of its own fighting style, the greater its attack power and attack speed.

Oxygen Algae's passive was "Accelerated Production," which greatly increased oxygen and sunlight production. It normally produced 50 sunlight in half a day, but now it produced 75 sunlight in half a day.

Power Lily: Accelerated Production... It gathered energy more quickly.

After briefly looking into it, Lin Yue planted the Power Lily in the safest position first—the third column of the fourth row, behind Bok Choy.

Bok Choy suddenly felt an inexplicable power surge through its body. It then looked toward Lin Yue inside the submarine, as though confirming something.

(Bok Choy: I feel like my punches are faster, steadier, and heavier.)

As for the other empty slots, Lin Yue first checked whether he could summon plants from the backyard. After a brief attempt, he found that he could summon almost all of them, except for Potato Mine.

But they consumed more sunlight than usual...

Still, there was no need to summon all the backyard plants for now. Bringing them all out would instead leave the space above the submarine short on oxygen.

More importantly, the sunlight in the Plant Garden System panel could not be used... For now, he could only rely on the sunlight provided by the Oxygen Algae.

(The sunlight produced by Oxygen Algae was the same as Sunflower's, naturally without any passive.)

On the other hand, Cattail and Lily Pad could be summoned at any time without any cost...

Because they were aquatic plants.

"Kitty, get over here quickly (づ￣ 3￣)づ"

Lin Yue struck an incredibly cringey pose, and a flash of brilliant light appeared outside the submarine.

Cattail: (? ? ?), reluctantly at your service.

The Cattail was summoned and immediately appeared in the water outside the submarine. Aquatic plants did not take up planting slots.

That was its only advantage!

Chapter 49: Deep-Sea Zombies

(???)

Through the glass, Lin Yue made a gesture that meant, "Patrol properly, and I'll buy you Dave's special fertilizer when we get back."

Cattail stared for two seconds, as though assessing the credibility of that promise, then temporarily chose to believe him.

The silver-white barb at the tip of its tail gave a slight twitch. The Cattail Cat turned around and began swimming slowly along the submarine's outer hull, circling the vessel to patrol its surroundings.

When it drifted past the observation window, it deliberately tapped the glass with its tail. A soft "tap" rang out, as though it were saying, "Remember what you promised."

[Ding—All players have entered. The event has begun.]

[Underwater World—Day One.]

The submarine's engine emitted a low hum. The entire cabin trembled slightly, then began descending slowly toward the depths of the ocean.

The depth display on the control panel began changing at a slow pace—until it stabilized at 100 meters.

Outside the window, the water changed from dark blue into an almost solid black. Only the searchlight beams cut two parallel corridors through the darkness, illuminating the outlines of the seafloor ahead.

Lin Yue stood before the observation window, watching the scene outside.

The seafloor terrain had been strangely quiet from the very beginning. He had not even spotted a single Zombie.

All he could hear was the submarine's rumble and the faint rustling of plants swaying.

The entire ocean was astonishingly quiet.

There were no schools of fish, no large marine creatures—only fine drifting particles slowly floating through the searchlight beams.

They must have been restricted by some rule—marine creatures could not be seen at all.

Just as Lin Yue was immersed in the unique silence of the deep sea, a gray-green shadow suddenly flashed through the dark water in the first row off the submarine's starboard side.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

Cattail's tail spikes reacted faster than he did.

Three silver-red needles shot out from beyond his line of sight, tracing three nearly invisible paths through the inky black water before accurately piercing the gray-green shadow's head.

The thing staggered sharply in the water, as if something had yanked it, veering half a meter to the side—allowing Lin Yue to finally see it clearly.

It was a Zombie in crude armor, gripping a rusted harpoon. The skin on its face had swollen from soaking in seawater, glowing an unhealthy green beneath the edge of the searchlight.

"...They're here?" Lin Yue straightened up and carefully scanned the area for any other Zombies.

Cattail's second round of attacks had already been fired.

Another three tail spikes, this time even more precise—two struck its temples, while the third pierced straight through its neck.

After the Harpoon Zombie took two consecutive volleys, its head broke off from its neck like a loosened valve. Its gray-green body tilted backward and was swept by the current into the depths, quickly vanishing from sight.

[Rice Dumpling+1]

The number on the system panel jumped from zero to "1."

"Looks like the first two days are all regular Zombies."

After Cattail dealt with the Zombie, Lin Yue became even more alert... He was ready at any moment to summon other plants into the space above the submarine.

Because more Zombies had appeared—

Before Lin Yue could shift his eyes away from the Plant Garden panel, Cattail's tail spikes began moving again—

This time, they came from the left. They were already faster than before, and even the intervals between attacks had shortened.

The sound of "whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh" rose and fell in the seawater to the submarine's left, like a rapid-fire machine gun pushed beyond its limit.

Lin Yue pressed himself against the observation window and looked in that direction. From the depths of the seafloor, one Underwater Zombie after another, clad in crude armor, emerged from the darkness—each carrying a rusted spear.

They slowly approached the submarine. The only fortunate thing was that they were all ordinary Zombies.

They posed little difficulty for the kitty...

Cattail Cat's tail spikes never stopped again.

After speeding up during the first wave, its attack frequency never dropped. Red-and-white spikes wove a flowing fishing line through the dark blue water. The Zombies attempting to approach the submarine were pierced through the skull or shoulder blades the instant they touched that net, then carried away by the current.

Lin Yue stood by the observation window and counted for nearly ten minutes. He did not see a single Zombie cross Cattail's defensive perimeter—all the bodies were eliminated roughly four tiles away from the submarine.

A red line spun madly around the submarine. The instant a Zombie touched it, its head and body were separated.

Half an hour later...

The deep sea was silent.

Only the engine's hum, the faint electronic sounds of data changing on the control panel, and the occasional dull thud of tail spikes piercing flesh from outside, muffled by seawater, remained.

(Bok Choy: My hands are so itchy!)

Lin Yue crouched beneath the window ledge, his right hand resting on his knee as he watched the darkness outside split open and close again beneath the searchlights.

Cattail's figure appeared at the upper left of the observation window one moment and the lower right the next. The silver glow at the tip of its tail traced one flowing path after another around the submarine.

Lin Yue glanced at the number of Rice Dumplings on the system panel.

86.

He was still 14 short of the threshold needed to exchange for a plant.

And the zombie-clearing outside the submarine had already reached its end. After Cattail retracted its tail spikes, the final Zombie, its ribs pierced through, slowly fell backward and sank into the deeper darkness, never surfacing again.

The inky blue water ahead of the submarine fell completely silent.

No Zombies, no schools of fish—only tiny floating particles continuing to drift slowly through the searchlight beams.

It looked like he would not encounter Zombies for the rest of the first day—for what it was worth, Lin Yue hoped he would run into a few more.

Lin Yue leaned against the submarine's metal bulkhead and let out a long breath.

Turning his head toward the window, he saw Cattail floating lazily in the current beside the submarine, its tail spikes already retracted.

The whole plant looked like an overtime-working cat that had finally gotten off work. It drifted slowly with the current created by the submarine's movement, its pinkish-purple little head tilted to one side as though it were about to fall asleep.

"I'll treat you to something good when we get back," Lin Yue said through the glass. His voice was quiet, but it was enough to create a faint echo in the silent cabin.

Cattail's eye spots opened into narrow slits. It glanced at him, then closed them again.

Lin Yue said nothing more.

He rested the back of his head against the bulkhead, listening to the submarine engine's steady low hum and the fine, continuous bubbling sound of Oxygen Algae slowly releasing oxygen.

(The submarine cabin also relied on oxygen supplied by Oxygen Algae.)

He had gained 86 Rice Dumplings on the first day.

The Power Lily and Bok Choy had also been placed in suitable positions. While clearing the Zombies just now, the Power Lily had even accumulated a green Energy Pea.

"This little pea... I'll see who to use it on later."

Cattail had almost single-handedly covered the entire defensive line. Bok Choy had not even attacked once.

Six days remained.

Chapter 50: Deep-Diving Zombies... Appear

Late at night, before dawn...

The scenery on the seafloor changed. Lin Yue pressed his palm against the observation window, feeling an incredibly faint pressure from outside the submarine against his hand.

"The deep sea... is more unsettling than I imagined."

[Underwater World Day One Settlement]

[You may choose to continue exploring or leave the event.]

Lin Yue glanced at the sunlight reserves on the event panel.

"Oxygen Algae has produced 200 sunlight too. Who should I summon first?"

(From 2 p.m. to 5 a.m., it produced 200 sunlight.)

Not too much, not too little—just enough to do one thing.

Standing before the empty planting slot in the center of the submarine, Lin Yue seriously considered the icons of summonable plants—Chomper, Peashooter, Snow Pea, Toadstool, Wall-nut... In the end, his gaze stopped on "Toadstool."

After thinking it over... mainly because he could not use the sunlight in the Plant Garden System during the event. Producing sunlight was the most important thing right now.