Plants

Barbara was startled by Su Ming's description. If the White Light spread unchecked, it would truly be a terrifying thing.

All animals and plants would become impossible to kill, leaving people with nothing to eat. Yet they themselves would be unable to starve to death—wouldn't that mean living forever with an empty stomach? The thought alone was unbearably painful. It would be better to die.

Su Ming was still wondering why a Black Lantern Battery had appeared here and paid little attention to everyone else's expressions.

Vicki, meanwhile, had Pete photograph the densely packed zombie corpses on the floor from every angle, ignoring his repeated dry heaves. The burly man had long since emptied his stomach and had nothing left to throw up.

Cindy walked over to Su Ming and leaned against the wall beside him. The door to the next room was right next to them. She spun her pistol in her hand, running her fingers over the checkered grip.

"What about the Black Light? You put that container away just now. What can it do?"

"The Black Light that represents death is much simpler. It can turn every dead creature into a zombie and make it Nekron's slave." Su Ming patted Barbara to bring her back to herself, then went to open the door before continuing. "Even those who died before and were later resurrected would immediately be controlled by the Black Light and return to death. As for its other uses... I have a theory, but it still needs to be confirmed."

"But those zombies just now looked completely mindless. I don't know who this Nekron is, but they clearly weren't under anyone's control." Cindy kicked a headless corpse, black blood flowing from its chest cavity.

Su Ming had not seen the Black Lantern Corps emblem on the zombies' chests, which indeed proved that they were uncontrolled and acting only on instinct.

"I don't know. Even this battery shouldn't exist, but there are always secrets in the world." He looked over the corpses scattered across the room and returned his pistol to the holster on his thigh. "Now we've begun encountering creations of magic or exotic energy. Be careful."

"Heh. Let them come." Cindy sounded disdainful. She also wanted to see what formidable characters those useless scientists could create.

The door opened once more. This room was beautiful beyond compare. The various experimental instruments that had once filled it were gone, leaving behind only a green world of plants. Moss covered the floor and walls, vines and fallen leaves lay everywhere, and a massive tree grew in the center beneath a high-intensity lamp that simulated sunlight.

Before they entered, this place should have been dark. Plants could not grow without light, yet there was a tree here.

No animals were visible for the moment, but mushrooms and flowers grew together across the ground, creating an eerie sight.

"The humidity has risen. Is this a laboratory simulating a rainforest environment? Or a park for people to rest in?" As Cindy spoke, she reached back to stop the others from entering, telling them to wait at the doorway.

"Unlikely. Next door was a place for studying zombies, and this one suddenly turns into a park where scientists eat lunch and relax. Doesn't that seem a little appetite-killing? Black Light zombies eat meat too."

As Su Ming spoke to Cindy, he fired an exploratory shot at the tree.

Wood chips flew from the trunk as the bullet punched a hole through it. Yet the tree seemed to come alive, beginning to sway slightly. The surrounding vines retracted, then lashed at the two of them like whips.

A deep gouge appeared in the metal floor between them. The force was even greater than Bliss's dinosaur toys.

The vines were like tentacles extending from the lush canopy, constantly writhing through the air as they tried to claw at them.

"All right, is this Swamp Thing's brother? A forest monster?"

Cindy and Su Ming rolled in opposite directions to evade the attack. She still spoke to Su Ming while airborne, but as she had said before, she did not like dealing with plants because she had not brought weed killer today.

"Get under cover!" Su Ming first shouted to the three people outside, telling them to retreat into the previous room for the moment. Then he dodged another vine curling toward him. "It's a plant. Weed killer isn't its only weakness."

Cindy also drew a blade and cut through one vine, but an endless stream of vines surged toward her. She could only dodge while shouting to communicate with Su Ming.

"I know! All plants draw their energy from The Green. Plants need sunlight and water to grow. Destroy the roots, and the plant won't live long. The vines and the tree itself have a symbiotic relationship. Fire counters plants. The question is, what is this thing's weakness?"

"We don't have magic to summon Hellfire, and we don't have fire-based superpowers." Su Ming answered as the vines relentlessly pursued them both. "But plants shouldn't have eyes either! How does it know where we are? Think about Poison Ivy."

Cindy understood. Poison Ivy had heard their conversation through vibrations. This plant should likewise be using vibrations to determine its enemies' positions.

So long as they created vibrations much stronger than their footsteps or heartbeats at the same time, they could effectively interfere with the tree and vines' ability to distinguish them.

"I get it! I'll make the vibrations. You go deal with it!"

Cindy removed two grenades from her uniform and threw them into two unoccupied corners of the room. Two seconds later, a tremendous roar and violent vibrations erupted.

The vines chasing after them suddenly reared up like snakes, swayed slightly, and rushed toward the source of the explosions.

Su Ming's analysis was correct. Plants truly had no eyes.

He immediately changed direction, doing his best to avoid the vines on the ground as he headed for the tree itself. Cindy, meanwhile, created vibrations greater than those made by his movements from the perimeter, drawing all the vines' attention.

At the foot of the tree was a patch of soil. Mushrooms and small flowers grew there around the thick trunk, as though they had placed a garland around it.

The bark looked rough and uneven, with several metal instruments wrapped within it. Only their edges remained exposed—scientific wreckage overtaken by natural growth.

Its roots were extremely developed. No one knew how deep the dense roots extended underground, but every one exposed aboveground was thicker than Su Ming's thigh.

Su Ming had no time to consider a plant's age. He took explosives from his leg pouch and carefully secured them around the tree's roots.

Not far away, Cindy was still buying time.

After fitting the explosives with detonators, Su Ming swiftly moved away and signaled for Cindy to find cover.

Then came a deafening blast. The tree toppled in response, countless green leaves and branches falling as dirt and wood chips flew in every direction.

Green sap splattered across Su Ming's shoulder armor, carrying a strange grassy stench. He ignored it and stared closely at the movements of the vines in the smoke.

After twitching and flailing as though in a death struggle, every vine went limp and fell back to the floor.

The two walked toward the center of the room and reunited beside the tree's remains.

The explosives had shattered the area, leaving a large hole in the ground. Yet beneath it was still bottomless soil, not a passage to a lower level.

The upper half of the tree had been blasted some distance away. Its cross-section now revealed countless maggot-like vines packed within. These vines had actually parasitized the inside of the plant, and the blast had severed them, causing them to lose control.

"It looks like a cable wrapped in a wooden sheath, full of copper wires inside." Like him, Cindy first inspected the ground before looking at the broken tree.

Su Ming sighed. This thing could not be considered strong, but neither was it weak. It was indeed a good choice against enemies using cold weapons. Without speed like Deathstroke's, anyone struck or entangled by it would definitely meet no good end.

He said to Cindy, who stood at the side, "The tree isn't a problem anymore, but we made a lot of noise. Falcone is somewhere below us, and he'll definitely notice."

Cindy sorted through the remaining explosives on her person. She still had quite a few grenades left. Though most of their firepower had been blown up with the jeep, what she carried was enough. Even a knife alone would do, though it would take more effort.

"We would've been discovered sooner or later. I'm more curious what he'll do if he knows we're here."