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

The eight or nine planting slots that should have been above the submarine were now empty across wide stretches. Only a lone Oxygen Algae remained, its leaves withered and yellowed as it weakly released bubbles, struggling to hold on by itself.

But strangely enough, that submarine was moving—and moving quickly and erratically.

It suddenly darted left, then abruptly accelerated forward, slammed on the brakes, and turned again. Its movements were clumsy, but they really did leave the Zombie horde behind it with no way to deal with the submarine.

This was obviously... very wrong. Normal submarines... weren't they only supposed to be controlled by the event system?

"Their submarine!! Why does it have turbine propulsion in the back?"

Lin Yue narrowed his eyes and peered through the observation window into the opposing submarine.

The glass was smeared with something unclear, either oil stains or algae, but through the gaps, he could vaguely make out a man inside.

He sat in the submarine, looking anxious.

His face was unnaturally pale, his forehead drenched in sweat. His lips moved as though he were muttering curses under his breath.

Then his gaze swept over—he spotted Lin Yue's submarine.

At that instant, all the man's anxiety and panic vanished, replaced by an incredibly glaring, undisguised ecstasy.

It was the expression of prey spotting a lifeline. His eyes lit up, and his mouth split wide into a smile that made people deeply uncomfortable.

The next second, the other submarine sharply turned its bow and charged straight at Lin Yue.

Lin Yue froze for a moment, then understood.

"Damn... this guy's up to no good!!!"

Lin Yue was no idiot.

In this event, running into strangers was never a good thing. When people from different countries met fellow countrymen, they'd stab each other in the heart without hesitation.

The other side was clearly plotting something dirty...

The most vicious method was to lure Zombies toward someone else and force them to take the pressure. Once the Zombies had been drawn away, you could take the chance to escape.

That was obviously what this man had in mind—and judging by that ecstatic expression, he had probably made his decision the very instant he saw Lin Yue.

"Trying to use me as a scapegoat?" Lin Yue spoke softly, almost as if talking to himself, but his tone carried icy vigilance.

Without hesitation, he was ready almost the moment the other submarine turned around.

He gave the command at once. "Starfruit, spin up, spin up—"

Golden light suddenly blazed around Starfruit. Its five-pointed body began spinning faster and faster. At first, its points were still visible, but soon it became a blurry golden wheel of light, stirring rings of ripples through the water.

Golden star barrages began spraying in all directions at a higher frequency, their density visibly increasing.

At the same time, Lin Yue instructed Power Lily to be ready at any moment to provide Starfruit with freshly produced Energy Peas.

"Haha... I finally found myself a scapegoat..."

Wang Meng sat before the controls of his own submarine, laughing so hard that the flesh on his face trembled.

His fingers expertly worked the control lever. The submarine accelerated again, and the thruster at its rear spewed out a murky stream of water.

The Zombie horde clinging to the hull was shaken by the thrust. Three Zombies lost their grip and were flung away, but they quickly caught up again from behind, relentlessly pursuing it.

Wang Meng had spent many years clawing his way through the First Federation Guild. He was an old hand.

He was neither an elite nor part of the inner circle. He was simply old—old enough to have seen everything, experienced everything, fallen into every pit, and suffered every loss.

People like that might not be powerful, but they were certainly slippery and underhanded.

Wang Meng had prepared for this event as early as yesterday.

When choosing plants, he had selected almost nothing but Power Lilies and Oxygen Algae—not because he was stupid, but because from the very beginning, he had never intended to rely on plants to fight Zombies.

Wang Meng had long since purchased intelligence from an information broker through the Plant Garden System.

He knew that the number of Zombies in this event would grow exponentially over time, and that ordinary plants simply could not hold them back.

So before entering the event, he had spent a huge sum to buy a Submarine Thruster from the system—after all, real-world submarine thrusters could not be used in the game.

Wang Meng's plan was simple, so simple it was vile: lure every Zombie he encountered during the event toward other people's submarines.

Once the Zombies started biting someone else, he could escape safely and survive until the second day's settlement.

Don't Go Looking for Trouble... Time to Run

Wang Meng's plan was simple, so simple it was vile: lure all the Zombies in the event toward other people's submarines.

Yesterday, that was exactly what he had done, and he had almost succeeded.

But the target he picked had been tough—the moment that person realized he had been tricked, he flew into a rage and suddenly summoned a Wild Gatling Pea—

(Wang Mao: Dad's Wild one is so good... I have to join the army... The army has Wild Gatling Peas.)

He had even... attacked Wang Meng's submarine.

That strike had been vicious. The crack along the side of the hull had been left back then, and the thruster had also suffered some damage.

As a result, Wang Meng's submarine now could not shake off the Zombie horde behind it at all.

More than twenty Zombies were pursuing it closely. The Deep-Diving Zombies were especially fast, and several times they had nearly reached the hull.

Meanwhile, the plants in Wang Meng's planting slots had been devoured one by one by the Zombies since yesterday. Now, only a half-dead Oxygen Algae barely remained alive... providing oxygen.

Fortunately—when he saw Lin Yue's submarine, all those worries instantly disappeared.

A submarine, completely intact, packed with plants, brimming with energy, all of them in perfect condition.

At a glance, it was either a rookie or a lucky bastard who had yet to be surrounded by Zombies.

As long as he led the more than twenty Zombies behind him over there, the Zombies would prioritize attacking the nearest submarine, and most of the pressure on him would vanish in an instant.

"Damn it! I'm a citizen of the First Federation—being able to die for me is an honor for a low-class Federation!"

Wang Meng naturally put on the lofty superiority of a First Federation citizen.

(First Federation—equally looks down on every Federation.)

(Ninth Federation—the lowest-ranking one.)

He shoved the control lever all the way forward.

The Submarine Thruster let out a dull roar. The hull shook violently as it began charging toward Lin Yue's submarine at maximum speed.

The sudden acceleration opened several meters of distance from the Zombie horde behind it, but they continued chasing without mercy. The sound of churning water was like a broken drum, pounding against the hull again and again with dull thuds.

Lin Yue watched that submarine charge toward him. Its bow was aimed directly at him, and it was getting faster and faster, as though it intended to ram him head-on.

The more than twenty Zombies behind it stirred up a murky wake, surging over alongside it like a black tide.

"Splash... splash..."

Starfruit spun at high speed. The golden wheel of light turned faster and faster, its five points stirring a small whirlpool in the water.

The whirlpool was initially only the size of a fist. As its rotational speed increased, it gradually expanded into a half-meter-wide vortex, pulling the entire submarine slightly to one side.

???

"Evil Zombies, you actually dared disguise yourselves as humans... I'm out of here..."

Lin Yue stared fixedly at the distance between him and the opposing submarine, silently calculating the timing. Closer... closer still... Wang Meng's wildly ecstatic, twisted face became clearer and clearer behind the observation window—

Now.

Plant Food injected.

The emerald-green Energy Pea flew out of Power Lily's pistil, trailing a comet-like tail of light as it precisely entered Starfruit's body.

The instant Starfruit received the Plant Food, its entire body erupted with blinding golden light, and its spinning speed rose dramatically.

Its five points simultaneously fired five streams of golden stars. Each stream held more than a dozen linked stars, tumbling, spinning, and sweeping through the water.

At the same time, the submarine moved.

The high-speed rotation of Starfruit in its ultimate state generated enormous thrust, pushing the entire submarine forward.

It was not the clumsy, slow sort of movement, but genuine accelerated forward motion.

The hull sliced through the seawater. Within mere seconds, its speed surged to a shocking level, overtaking Wang Meng's submarine despite its thruster.

(Lin Yue: I just love it... when bad guys... go from hope to despair.)

"No... stop! Stop right now!"

Accompanied by... an enraged roar.

Lin Yue's submarine shot out of Wang Meng's sight with a whoosh.

Before it disappeared...

Wang Meng could even see Lin Yue's face clearly through the observation window. There was not a trace of panic on it. Instead, he looked calm, composed, and even wore an expression that said, See you later, sucker.

(Lin Yue: I'm out of here... I don't associate with bad guys...)

Wang Meng's smile froze on his face.

He watched Lin Yue's submarine speed farther and farther away, its golden star barrage trailing a dazzling band of light behind it and illuminating a vast stretch of sea.

And what about him?

Behind him were more than twenty relentlessly pursuing Zombies. His thruster was belching black smoke, all his planting slots were empty, and even his only Oxygen Algae had suffered some damage.

"No... no... come back! Come back!!"

Wang Meng abruptly rose from the control console and roared himself hoarse.

As though doing so could make Lin Yue stop in the distance.

(Lin Yue: Who's dreaming now?)

His voice echoed through the cramped submarine, but no one answered.

Lin Yue's submarine grew smaller and smaller, finally becoming a golden speck in the distance before disappearing into the endless darkness.

Wang Meng stared blankly into that darkness, his chest heaving violently.

Why?

Why were they all like this?

That guy yesterday had been the same, and today this one had run even faster than his thruster.

(Wang Mao yesterday: Fuck your mother! Don't let me catch you... Once I catch you, I'll let you see what "mm~ ah~" really means!)

Why?

"I'm a citizen of the First Federation—I refuse to die here!"

Wang Meng gritted his teeth and sat back down at the controls, his trembling fingers gripping the thruster's ignition lever.

The howls of the Zombies behind him drew closer and closer. The nearest Deep-Diving Zombie had already reached the edge of the hull, its nails scraping against the metal shell with a teeth-grating shriek.

He yanked the ignition lever back, preparing to start the thruster again and shake off the Zombies.

The thruster gave a dull roar. The hull shook once, then—

"Clack... clack... clack—"

A series of metallic clattering sounds came from inside the thruster, slowing in rhythm as the noise grew duller and duller.

Then, a cloud of thick black smoke poured from the rear of the thruster, rolling through the seawater into a murky mass.

The smoke gradually thinned until only a few weak bubbles remained, leaking from the thruster's cracks with soft gurgles.

The thruster had completely died.

Wang Meng's hand froze on the control lever.

"No! I want to quit—"

He frantically tapped the quit button, his finger pounding the event screen with thuds.

[6 hours remain until the second day's settlement... Exit denied.]

The system's icy prompt box appeared, black text on a white background, devoid of all emotion.

That line hovered quietly in the center of the screen like a verdict.

Wang Meng's hand slid off the screen and hung limply at his side.

He sat blankly at the controls, listening as the sound of Zombies scratching at the hull grew denser and closer.