Chapter 36

Outside the window, the face of the first Deep-Diving Zombie was already pressed against the observation window. Its rotten features had been flattened by the glass, and its empty eye sockets stared straight at him.

"It's all that... damn information broker's fault..." Its voice squeezed out of its throat, filled with the unwillingness and resentment of someone on the verge of death.

Elsewhere, somewhere in the deep sea...

(Bai Qingfeng: Ah-choo... Who's thinking about me?)

Bai Qingfeng was working hard to find wild plants. The submarine was packed with plants, leaving almost no empty planting slots.

Two turbine thrusters were installed at the rear of the submarine. Along with the two or three spare thrusters tied beside them, they showed just how composed the submarine's owner was.

(Bai Qingfeng: Information is precisely the reason one becomes king...)

Beside it, a Cattail Cat swam leisurely alongside the submarine. It was even twice the size of an ordinary Cat.

"The First Federation really is rich. They paid this many system points for a single piece of information."

Bai Qingfeng... leisurely piloted the submarine, calculating where to pick up a few more plants next.

(Wild ones--they're mine.)

That was the benefit of the system contract. After signing a contract with the Plant Garden System and then selling information, no one in the real world could look up the seller's information.

Bai Qingfeng had naturally sold the information to Wang Meng. Besides Wang Meng... she had even sold it to other people.

Of course, before selling it... she had used the information to investigate whether the other party would affect anyone else.

[Information: Other people will ignore them; no effect]

She sold Wang Meng the information about the submarine's thrusters, charging ten times the original price, and he was still endlessly grateful.

After all, cheap goods were never good... and the Plant Garden System had certified it... guaranteeing that Bai Qingfeng's information was accurate.

Chapter 56: Picked Up an... Oxygen Algae

"Boom--"

The sound came from far away, muffled, like someone had set off a bomb deep beneath the sea.

Lin Yue turned toward the thick darkness behind him, but he could not see a thing.

That direction... all he could say was that they had brought it upon themselves. If the other person had been a normal human, Lin Yue could have lent him a hand.

He withdrew his gaze and slightly pursed his lips.

(After all, it counted as indirectly killing... someone. It was at least a little unpleasant.)

That bastard who had driven a broken submarine over, trying to lure more than twenty Zombies here!

"Serves him right."

Lin Yue's voice was not loud, but it rang clearly through the quiet submarine.

His tone was flat. There was no gloating and no deliberately magnanimous attitude. It was simply a judgment--a fair verdict on the result of malice.

The Cattail Cat's ears twitched, and the tip of its tail lightly slapped the deck, as if in approval.

Time passed very slowly in the deep sea.

Lin Yue closed his eyes for a while. He woke once in the middle and discovered that two straggling ordinary Zombies had crept over from behind. The Cat had dispatched them cleanly with two bursts.

He closed his eyes again.

When the system notification sounded, Lin Yue was instead quite at ease. After all... he still had not encountered any particularly powerful Zombies.

[Underwater World: Day Two Settlement]

[You have successfully survived for 48 hours]

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

[Warning: Continuing to explore will lead to encounters with neutral marine creatures--please choose carefully]

Lin Yue's fingers paused.

Neutral marine creatures!!!

Lin Yue first brought up the event panel. The event page was projected onto his face, and several lines of numbers flickered in his pupils.

Current sunlight reserves: 275

Underwater event dumplings: 82

Two hundred and seventy-five sunlight was neither too much nor too little.

The primary source of sunlight was Oxygen Algae--the Oxygen Algae worked day and night without pause.

The Toadstool occasionally burst out fifty sunlight as well, but its income these past few days had mainly come from swallowing Zombies. Its sunlight production could only be considered an extra bonus. After all, there were simply too few Zombies on the Toadstool's side.

The eighty-two dumplings had, of course, been delivered by enthusiastic Zombies using their heads.

Lin Yue was calculating the plants' positions when he subconsciously glanced over the planting slots on the submarine.

There were already two Oxygen Algae.

More precisely, one of them was not in a planting slot. It was a wild Oxygen Algae.

It floated near the submarine, its roots drifting normally in the deep water while its emerald leaves swayed leisurely in the seawater.

It looked a little thinner and smaller than the one Lin Yue had planted, and its color was also paler, like a malnourished stray child.

Lin Yue stared at it for two seconds...

He looked at the Oxygen Algae and wore a smug smile. "I picked up an Oxygen Algae. It wants to come home with me."

The Oxygen Algae was concentrating on... swaying with the waves. It seemed to hear Lin Yue's words, and even its leaves stiffened for an instant.

If algae had mouths, its words at this moment would certainly have been colorful.

Oxygen Algae: "Where's your shame?"

(He clearly kidnapped the algae, yet he made it sound as if the algae had begged him.)

(Didn't algae have any dignity?)

Lin Yue... naturally could not understand its grumbling. Instead, he moved the newcomer... and planted it in the second slot of the fifth row.

The Oxygen Algae's roots were drawn along by a gentle force, moving from the corner to the planting slot in the second position of the fifth row.

The moment its roots took hold, the entire algae plant stretched out.

(Oxygen Algae: Algae... accepts its fate...)

The fifth row now had two Oxygen Algae planted in it--in the second and third slots, right next to each other.

With the boost from his talent, the oxygen production of these two Oxygen Algae was already more than enough to cover the oxygen needs of all the plants in the submarine, with some left over.

The air inside the submarine became exceptionally fresh, and every breath carried a trace of plant fragrance.

With the oxygen supply problem solved, some matters could finally be put on the agenda.

Lin Yue opened the plant summoning interface and pointed without hesitation at the plant he had... kept there all along but had never dared to use.

Puff-shroom.

This decision was not something Lin Yue had made on a whim.

Puff-shroom was now one of Lin Yue's trump cards. Summoning Puff-shrooms did not produce a single mushroom but a group of them. Five appeared at once, and their firepower coverage was comparable to that of a small mushroom army.

Lin Yue had never dared to summon them for one simple reason: oxygen.

The oxygen consumption of five Puff-shrooms was more than the submarine's previous oxygen supply could support. The result of forcing the summon would be every plant collectively suffering from oxygen deprivation. At best, their attack power would decline; at worst, they would drown outright.

But there was no need to worry now.

The oxygen production of the two Oxygen Algae was more than sufficient.

The planting slot in the first position of the second row lit up, and then--five Puff-shrooms appeared at the same time.

They were not large, each only about the size of a fist. Their grayish-purple caps were round and plump, dotted with natural dark-purple spots like five tiny berets.

Under each Puff-shroom's cap grew a pair of little eyes. They were black and shiny, radiating a mischievous, clever cunning.

The moment the five Puff-shrooms landed, they needed no time to adapt and immediately entered battle readiness.

Their gazes swept across the submarine in perfect unison--the Toadstool was dozing, the Chomper was pretending to sleep, the Starfruit was rotating at a steady speed, and the Power Lily was quietly gathering points of light.

Then the gazes of all five Puff-shrooms locked onto a figure in the corner.

The Cattail Cat was curled up beside the Starfruit, coiled into a fluffy pink ball.

Its tail covered its nose, all four paws were tucked beneath its belly, and its entire body rose and fell faintly with each breath. It was sleeping soundly.

Ever since the Starfruit had joined the team and shared the burden of firepower, the Cat had finally had a chance to get some proper sleep. It was sleeping so deeply that drool was almost dripping from the corner of its mouth.

The little eyes of the five Puff-shrooms narrowed at the same time. They exchanged a glance--the classic look of office workers spotting a coworker slacking off, precise and sharp, carrying undisguised condemnation.

Puff-shroom: ?(^. .^?)??... It's slacking off!!!

(We should work extra hard for the Master...)

The Cat's ears twitched.

It did not open its eyes, but its tail slid down from its nose and lazily swayed through the air. The meaning was perfectly clear--meow heard you, but meow doesn't care.

(The Cat isn't paying attention... the Cat needs to rest... the Cat has been fighting for two whole days straight. The Cat has every right to sleep. You five newcomers just got here... what gives you the right to criticize the Cat...)

The Puff-shrooms... thought it over for a moment... and prepared to work extra hard on the Cat's behalf as well.

The Cat covered its nose with its tail again and even deliberately let out a loud snore.

Lin Yue stood before the control panel and watched this group of newly acquainted oddballs. The corners of his mouth could not help but curl upward.

Although each of these little fellows had more personality than the last, it was precisely because they were here that he did not feel so lonely.

The Cat really should rest, and the Puff-shrooms really should work. It was best for everyone to mind their own duties.

There were still 275 sunlight. While he still had plenty, he prepared to summon the Peashooter and Magic-shroom.

Chapter 57: Magic-shroom... the Trump Card!!!

Especially... a certain mushroom wearing a top hat.

What Lin Yue had in mind was naturally--Magic-shroom.

He had been paying attention to Magic-shroom for more than a day or two.

Over the past few days, Lin Yue had repeatedly studied Magic-shroom's skill mechanics and Passive Scripting space. He already had a fairly complete plan in mind.

The only issue was that this plan involved an element of luck... and he did not yet know whether it would succeed.

Most importantly, the submarine's greatest defensive pressure currently came from Zombies appearing on both sides at once.

Magic-shroom had a natural advantage--it could attack in two directions simultaneously.

One mushroom, doing two jobs.

On a submarine where planting slots were limited and every slot had to be carefully planned, this kind of "good mushroom" was practically the best employee.

(Magic-shroom: Have a conscience... have a conscience... this is exploitation, blatant exploitation.)

"Sunlight! The sunlight's gone again!"

Lin Yue had not even had time to... imagine Magic-shroom's working conditions before the sunlight number on the panel had already dropped from 275 to 0.

As the sunlight was consumed--

The first slot of the third row.

A Peashooter appeared in the planting slot.

The Peashooter... was clearly dazed when it first landed--the bottom of the sea?

This was the bottom of the sea?

Its verdant body swayed left and right in the planting slot, and several little bubbles rose from its green skin.

But this discomfort lasted only about three seconds.

Very soon, the Peashooter discovered that it could breathe normally, and the submarine's protective force field canceled out the surrounding water pressure. It was no different from being on land.