It used to be a museum that housed ancient artifacts for the public before the cataclysm...

Lei Qi listened nearby and nodded. "Good to be cautious. You're the only spatial Evolved Human our base has right now. Having you makes our missions much easier. You'd better not let anything happen to you."

Everyone continued forward. As the eight of them passed, the mutated plants around them began attacking, their enormous flowers suddenly lunging at them.

This was a new variety of mutated man-eating flower. Its entire stem could move freely and was extremely flexible. Not even other mutated animals could be seen in this area.

Seeing an enormous flower coming at her, Sang Luoluo threw out a large chunk of wood.

She watched it swallow the wood, then spit it out when it sensed something was wrong.

The other seven attacked with laser guns and electromagnetic cannons. Before the enormous flowers could get close, their stems were blasted apart.

Every so often, Sang Luoluo threw stones and chunks of wood to draw their attention.

Remembering the mutated ant's corpse in her space, Sang Luoluo threw that out too. It was swallowed instantly.

Whatever the case, these things could block some of the attacks for her.

Seeing that Sang Luoluo wasn't holding them back much, the others' expressions eased a little.

After that, they were less opposed to Sang Luoluo frequently collecting all kinds of random things along the way.

They cleared all the flowers along their route and reached an area covered in vines. The vines here were particularly aggressive, with needle-long thorns covering the undersides of their leaves. The moment the eight entered the area, flying needles attacked them.

Sang Luoluo pulled out the vine she had extracted earlier and held it in front of herself, blocking most of the flying needles.

Wei Xing and Hu Tian weren't so lucky. One on the left and one on the right, they were dragged away by vines and suspended upside down in midair.

Fatty had barely gone to help when vines wrapped around him too. But his armor was heavy enough that, finding they couldn't lift him, the vines had no choice but to send out several more tendrils.

The more Sang Luoluo looked at these vines, the more familiar they seemed. Wasn't this the Lapi Grass from before? This entire area was already its territory. Its vines and leaves stretched as far as the eye could see. Even the trees growing here weren't doing so well because of the Lapi Grass.

"Sang Luoluo, the armor!"

At that, Sang Luoluo immediately took out the remaining six suits of armor, including her own.

Sang Luoluo hurriedly climbed up and got inside.

Captain Qi had already freed Wei Xing and Hu Tian with his electromagnetic cannon. Everyone climbed into their giant suits of armor.

"Fuck, why is it Lapi Grass again?!" Wei Xing sounded irritated. He hated Lapi Grass more than anything.

Even three hundred years ago, Lapi Grass had been impossible to eradicate completely. Most of it had been killed with chemicals. It reproduced extremely quickly and caused considerable harm and destruction, making it a real nuisance.

Sang Luoluo stayed behind them and watched them deal with the Lapi Grass. This was her first time wearing the armor, and she was still getting used to it. She could barely even walk in it and didn't really know how to use it. At least she wouldn't get hit while hiding inside.

Bulky, but safe.

Fatty activated his armor's attack mode. The scorching heat radiating from it kept the surrounding Lapi Grass vines from approaching, but the vines ahead were still attacking the others.

Fatty ran forward to help. Unfortunately, after a dozen or so steps, just as he was about to reach Captain Qi and the others, he stepped through something and fell into a huge pit, taking Captain Qi and the other five with him.

Sang Luoluo only had time to see several figures suddenly plunge downward. The next moment, Lapi Grass vines covered the opening again.

Sang Luoluo: "..."

I'm the only one left up here?

Sang Luoluo awkwardly moved one foot of her heavy armor. Seeing vines spreading toward her, she immediately stopped daring to move.

She didn't dare move carelessly either, afraid of falling into the pit. Inside the armor, she switched on the radio. "Are you... still alive?"

Fatty grunted. "Not dead yet."

Wei Xing said, "It hurts... I think my wrist's broken... Wait, where are we? Why is it so dark?"

Captain Qi's icy voice rang out. "Nobody move. We're inside an ancient building. The armor's too heavy. We don't want to fall any farther."

Sang Luoluo waited above and asked, "Can you get back up?"

Captain Qi instructed her, "Sang Luoluo, don't move around up there. Stand by to support us."

Sang Luoluo said, "Roger."

Suddenly left with nothing to do, she turned off her microphone and took pieces of apple out of her space to munch on. With the helmet on, eating wasn't very convenient, so she could only eat small pieces at a time.

Now she only needed to wait here for them to come back up.

After gnawing on two pieces of ribs as well, her stomach felt better. Only then did Sang Luoluo begin directing a chainsaw with her consciousness to cut open the body of the vine from earlier.

Following her senses as she cut, she found an elongated Crystal Core the size of a finger inside. She immediately tossed it into her space, where it was absorbed.

That single Crystal Core actually unlocked an entire warehouse in the Stasis Zone.

It contained everyday supplies: the cooking oil, salt, sauces, and vinegar she regularly used, along with snacks and treats she had stocked up on. She had also put food she couldn't finish in there before. The warehouse was packed.

Sang Luoluo suddenly cried tears of happiness. She had long since grown tired of these things before, but now the sight of the snacks made her mouth water. These were the last of her spirit food. Once she finished them, she wouldn't be able to buy any more in this world.

Those butterflies had also contained a few rice-grain-sized Crystal Cores, but nothing much had happened when she tossed them into her space. Perhaps they contained too little energy.

While her consciousness was immersed in her space, she suddenly heard Captain Qi's voice through her earpiece.

"Sang Luoluo, try to find a rope. Tie it to a nearby tree and throw it down."

Chapter 19: It used to be a museum that housed ancient artifacts for the public before the cataclysm...

Huh? A rope!

She had ropes in her space, plenty of them, but they were in a part of the Stasis Zone that hadn't been unlocked yet. She couldn't use them.

She could only answer into the microphone, "Don't rush. I'll find a rope."

The vine she had used to block the flying needles was covered in needles. Now that Sang Luoluo had it in her hands, she couldn't even find a place to grip it.

She tried gripping the vine with the armor's fingers, but it was difficult. She had finally dragged it beside a tree when Qi Feng's voice came through her earpiece. "There's a specially made rope in crate number three. Be careful not to get attacked by the vines."

Crate number three!

When Sang Luoluo had put the crates into her space earlier, she hadn't known what was inside. She couldn't open them without the passwords either.

Finding crate number three, she immersed her consciousness in her space and discovered that she couldn't open it. Sang Luoluo spoke into the microphone. "It needs a password."

Qi Feng sent over a password: [********]

Sang Luoluo took a look. Huh, it was encrypted too. She copied it through her wristwatch and scanned it onto the crate.

"Oh, it's open. Give me a moment!"

Sang Luoluo took the rope out of her space and somewhat clumsily tied it around a thick tree nearby. She tied a fist-sized stone to the other end and threw it down.

She said, "I've thrown the rope down. Can you see it?"

Lei Qi caught the rope. "Got it."

The next moment, a startled cry came from below, a rough male voice screaming as though his soul were about to leave his body.

"Aaaah!!!!"

Sang Luoluo stared nervously at the area covered in green vines, her voice tinged with lingering fear. "Wh-what happened?"

Hu Tian's trembling voice came through the radio microphone. "C-Captain, there's a snake nest down here~"

The other six below instantly felt their scalps prickle.

Sang Luoluo felt the same up above.

Captain Qi's voice came through her earpiece. "Sang Luoluo, hold your position up there. If none of us has come up in an hour, send a distress signal to the base."

"Yes." Although Sang Luoluo didn't know what was happening below, there wasn't much she could do now. She just needed to follow orders.

Gunfire suddenly rang out below. Whatever it hit even made the ground tremble slightly.

By chance, Sang Luoluo spotted the exposed base of a Lapi Grass plant beneath a large tree. It was as thick as a tree trunk that would take a person's arms to encircle.

No matter how powerful Lapi Grass is, once its roots are severed, the rest shouldn't be able to move, right?

Why not try clearing some away? I have the armor to keep me alive anyway.

Sang Luoluo tried aiming the laser cannon in the armor's right hand at the base of one Lapi Grass plant. Two booming shots blasted it clean in half, catching the nearby weeds in the blasts too.

Sang Luoluo walked forward and reached out with the armor's hand to tug at the Lapi Grass's base, pulling it out section by section. The armor made it especially effortless. For a moment, Sang Luoluo recaptured the feeling of doing farmwork in the past. She tugged along the Lapi Grass vines, exposing the bases of other plants.

The vines lashed about, trying to attack Sang Luoluo. Some had already wrapped around her armor. Sang Luoluo aimed her right hand at the four plant bases she could see and fired several booming shots, blasting through them.

Sang Luoluo stepped forward, grabbed the roots, and pulled hard. To her surprise, the surrounding Lapi Grass came up along with them.

She flung it into the distance, lifting away the entire mass of vines.

A huge hole lay in the ground. Looking down, she could just make out part of a building's roof protruding above ground. Below it was pitch-black, the bottom out of sight. Sang Luoluo glanced across the portion reached by natural light and saw several enormous pythons crawling around.

Her scalp immediately prickled. Still haunted by being chased by a snake last time, she couldn't help taking two steps back.

He Fei's voice sounded through her earpiece, with gunfire faintly audible on his end. "Sang Luoluo, what did you do? Why is light suddenly coming in from above?"

Hearing him, Sang Luoluo hurriedly replied, "I cleared away a few Lapi Grass plants around the opening."

Even He Fei's field of vision had brightened, making his sniper rifle easier to use. "Nicely done, Sang Luoluo. None of us is there. Keep yourself safe out there."

Sang Luoluo quickly answered, "Okay, don't worry about me. Be careful."

Sang Luoluo saw that the surrounding Lapi Grass was a little farther away and wasn't attacking her for the moment.