Chapter 78: The Battle to Defend the City 1

Chapter 78: The Battle to Defend the City 1

"Is Xiaopu willing to do this?" was the first question from Lulu.

"If it's unwilling, this entire premise of cooperation falls apart," she added.

Fu Changxun loosened his tightened sleeve cuff, and Xiaopu, the dandelion, immediately sprang out, rapidly expanding in size.

In the blink of an eye, it transformed into the giant dandelion they had first encountered — a towering plant over one person tall.

Due to its immense size, it squeezed all the players into the corners of the room.

Fu Changxu sighed, "Shrink, make yourself smaller."

The dandelion's leaves fluttered as if aggrieved, waving vigorously.

In fact, it was chattering away, "I heard everything! I heard it all! How dare you, human, use me as a bargaining chip in negotiations with other humans. Dandelion curses your alliance to fail! Did you hear that?"

Fu Changxu selectively ignored its voice, "It's fine, it's willing. It says it has no problem."

"I am not willing! Ahhh, can't you listen to me? It's so infuriating that only you can hear me!" the dandelion raged.

Its leaves grew even larger, as if wanting to shove Fu Changxu out the door.

"Okay, stop talking, or I'll put you back in the item bar if you grow any bigger," Fu Changxu calmly warned, grabbing it.

Dandelion: "Ah! Once you get something, you don't cherish it anymore. Humans are all like this, wuwuwu!"

Despite its complaints, it didn't want to return to the item bar and reluctantly shrank back, but continued to grumble and complain.

After the dandelion shrank, the players squeezed into various corners of the room had witnessed its threatening nature and noticed it was more obedient to Fu Changxu.

"If it agrees, that's good."

Qiu Yi, unable to hear the dandelion's ranting, breathed a sigh of relief and said seriously, "But since we're cooperating with Dagongren, we must clearly understand the pros and cons. With so many points, the opponent's overall strength must be very high. Doctor Fu, are you sure..."

Fu Changxu promptly replied, "No, my points were earned by me and Ah Zi working together on tasks."

Dong Zi added, "If it's just Dagongren alone, maybe we'd have a chance two against one, but there's another person with him whose depth we don't know."

Qiu Yi pondered, "Right, otherwise how could he dominate C City? So can you two manage without losing out?"

"This should be doable," Fu Changxun stated, "He's not too keen on cooperating with the Special Office, but he seems quite interested in me personally, so he probably won't want to offend me too much."

Their cooperation was primarily aimed at the information relayed by the dandelion about the tomato.

Future mutations in plants are expected to be even more extensive.

Not even halfway through the 30-day period, and already there are plants with abilities like the tomato.

Given the game's nature of challenging players, the biggest difficulties in the copy are likely still to come.

Although it's unclear why Dagongren chose such a lengthy survival copy this time, he clearly never underestimated the severity of the copy.

"For now, let's focus on maintaining our health and keeping an eye on news from all sides."

Dong Zi concluded, "Ah Xun, come with me."

Fu Changxun: "Ah..."

Before he could respond, Dong Zi had already grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

The players left in the room stared blankly at the dandelion.

Dandelion: "*&%$#..."

Players: "We, we don't understand..." Isn't this like playing the lute to a cow?

Dandelion: "Hurry up and let me follow them out! Why are you blocking and closing the door?!"

— Everyone just wanted to give the two some private space, but it seems the little dandelion misunderstood!

Meanwhile, outside the door, Dong Zi earnestly said, "You've just acknowledged in front of so many people that I'm your boyfriend. You can't go back on your word now, can you?"

His eyes held a stubbornness, as if he wouldn't rest until he got an answer that day.

Fu Changxun met his gaze briefly, only to quickly avert his eyes.

“If, and I mean if, we both survive these thirty days and complete the instance, then let's be together,” Fu Changxun slowly said. “I don't know if this counts as setting a flag, but once a flag is raised, it's meant to be knocked down.”

As he spoke, his usually calm demeanor in front of patients was unexpectedly tinged with an unmistakable hint of anxiety.

Dong Zi watched him for a long time before responding, “It's okay, I'll wait for you.”

The silence in between had made Fu Changxun think he was going to say 'this is the last time' or 'I give up'.

But he didn’t.

“This is the last time,” Fu Changxun whispered as he was about to turn back.

It was his final rejection of Dong Zi; next time, he would let Dong Zi confess first.

Dong Zi suddenly turned back and hugged him tightly, “Okay, you promised me this!”

Fu Changxun was tightly enveloped in his embrace but did not resist.

In the instance, when near death, hormones and adrenaline magnify immensely.

Fu Changxun felt he was in such a state.

Fortunately, the feeling wasn’t too bad.

In the following five days, everything was calm, so calm that the player team started to think they had guessed wrong, until suddenly a message spread rapidly—

**

On the seventeenth day of the instance, at dusk.

A group of people returning from outside the city tumbled in, scrambling to the inside of the city walls, then frantically urging the sentries to close the main gate, breathlessly telling them—

"This is bad, there are loads of mutated plants! Tons of them, all heading towards our city!"

"Quick, go inform Da Gong!!"

"Hurry!"

"Or it'll be too late, go now!"

These people are all players, and so are the sentries; they all know how dangerous mutated plants can be. Plants that can leave players in such disarray...

The sentry players exchange glances and swiftly rush into the city to report to Da Gong.

The other players, having narrowly escaped, show no signs of relief but instead look fearfully at the steel city walls: "Can these walls hold them back? They're so huge, and they have all sorts of terrifying abilities. If we hadn't run so fast..."

Before they finish speaking, they hear the city walls being hammered with "bang bang bang" sounds, accompanied by the "rustle" of countless branches and leaves.

The monsters are right there!

Just on the other side of the wall from them!

Realizing this, the players dare not stop to rest and desperately run towards the city center.

Along the way, out of a sense of compensation, they keep stopping to shout to everyone: "Mutated plants are coming! Hide quickly, get inside buildings!"

It's these frantic shouts that draw Fu Changxun from the hotel to investigate.

"A lot of mutated plants? Could it be that they really learned to group up before we left?"

Individually, they might end up like that tomato plant, getting beaten up by stronger plants, but even so, many choose to develop on their own.

Thus, this spontaneous group attack behavior is extremely rare among plants; almost no plant actively forms alliances, let alone cooperates.

This means that the plants coming this time are all likely to have gained intelligence.

The same type as the dandelion.

But it wasn't going to be any easier than talking to the dandelion.

The news spread, and most NPCs chose not to believe it, as the players, although looking disheveled, were at least alive upon returning.

Truly dangerous plants wouldn't allow any survivors to return; they needed to lure more people into their territory for sustainable development. But the players knew that their survival was entirely due to cheating.

Without these tools or abilities, they most likely would have died there.

But just at that moment, they had no choice but to believe what they saw: a section of the steel city wall was suddenly smashed open, then it collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Several odd-looking “monsters” staggered in.

One of the “monsters” was a giant man-eating plant, standing six to seven meters tall, its grotesque appearance and enormous gaping mouth left everyone stunned.

But it showed no mercy, immediately swallowing the petrified NPCs one by one.

“Run—”

“Ah! Help—”

The NPCs scattered in all directions to escape, but the players had to face the challenge head-on.

The defenses of City C are top-notch; if even this city falls, wouldn't it mean they have no more safe havens left?

Then it would be impossible to survive until the 30th day in this game!

In the blink of an eye, the man-eating plant had already swayed near the inn, with survivors hiding indoors, praying not to be discovered.

At this moment, Fu Changshu was standing by the window, quietly observing it through the crack.

He instructed Dandelion to protect everyone, gathering them under its leaves and roots, but his own position had already been detected, as the plant slowly lowered its head towards him.

The gigantic man-eating flower opened its mouth, dripping with slime and corrosive liquid.

“The mutated plant is coming!” Xiao Xiao shouted, “Brother, come back quickly!”

Fu Changshu’s ability was ineffective against plants; his only reliance now were Dong Yi and Dandelion, with the latter busy protecting others as instructed.

In a panic, Dong Yi thrust his knife deep into the plant’s roots, but it seemed unfazed and continued descending, about to bite down.

Just as Dong Yi was about to rush forward, Fu Changshu swiftly opened the store and, with a heavy heart, purchased an item worth a thousand points—dropping his ranking from second to fourth.

But all that mattered less as he suddenly held a spray bottle in his hand.

[Herbicide, the plant’s greatest fear, effective even against mutated or ghostly variants.]

This item was extremely expensive, usually unaffordable for ordinary players, and even Fu Changshu felt the pinch buying it.

But its high cost implied significant effectiveness, far superior to cheaper options.

In desperate times, he quickly sprayed the herbicide on the man-eating plant, which suddenly froze with its mouth wide open, convulsing as if nauseated, spewing corrosive liquid all over, and frantically waving its leaves to distance itself from the area.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But their relief came a bit too soon—

When they regrouped, they realized Lin Shu and Lin Ze, the sibling duo, had gone out earlier.