Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System - Chapter 206: Search The Rat

The sticky, slippery tentacles shot straight at Vikram’s face; speed-type zombies were always harder to deal with than strength-type ones.

But before the tentacles reached to him, Phantom Druid appeared for a second, and directly slashed it.

Half of the tentacle fell to the ground, and the zombie let out a scream.

Vikram was about to rush up the stairs to cut down this blind obstacle, but he suddenly tripped.

Looking down, the severed half of the tentacle was still moving.

It was currently wrapped around his shoe, wriggling.

“This damn thing can still do this?” He looked at the tentacle on his foot with disdain, and with a slight exertion of his leg, he shook it off.

At the same time, he didn’t stop moving, taking three steps at a time up the stairs, while the Phantom Druid tried to cut many tentacles.

But the zombie seemed to have anticipated Vikram’s movements; its two tentacles were already hanging from the ceiling, and the moment he slashed, the tentacles exerted force, and its entire body hung upside down in mid-air.

This made Phanty’s strike miss.

“You,” Phanty looked angrily at Tentacle Zombie, how it dared to miss his strike.

He was just going to kill him, but Vikram stopped him.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t deal with this zombie, but rather that dense footsteps were already coming from behind him.

Wasting more time fighting this zombie would be somewhat pointless.

“There are still a lot of good things waiting for me upstairs. Since this zombie is so disgusting, I’ll leave it for the people from Brown Wood Shelter to play with.”

He said, and once again put on his cloak and rushed up to the second floor without looking back.

Phantom Druid also disappeared and followed him.

As soon as they left, the Brown Wood Shelter arrived at the stairwell.

Looking at the zombie on the ceiling by the light of their torches, the group, though not as strong as Vikram, had the advantage of numbers.

Several crossbows fired in turns, shooting it dead in ten minutes.

“Didn’t you just say there was another member here? Where is he?”

In the narrow stairwell, Andres looked at the corpse of the Mutated Zombie, a hint of suspicion flashing in his eyes.

“Andres bro, I didn’t lie to you. All three of us saw him just now; there was a somewhat unfamiliar brother right here.”

“That’s right, a brother was killed, and we immediately ran out, but that other brother seemed not to have run.”

“Maybe he was lucky and ran upstairs?” The three Survivors spoke one after another, all saying they had seen Vikram just now.

“Lucky? This zombie was difficult for even us, who are at the peak of our physical condition, to kill. Are you telling me he slipped away from this zombie just by luck?”

“When did we have such a formidable person in our team?”

Andres clearly sensed something was wrong and shouted loudly.

At this shout, the younger brothers immediately realized the seriousness of the matter and all shut their mouths, no longer speaking.

Most of the other team members, seeing this situation, looked bewildered.

In the past, when a brother died, at most they would dig a pit and bury him on the spot; sometimes they wouldn’t even glance at him.

Now, Andres was suddenly losing his temper so much over a member, which truly puzzled them.

Compared to the team members’ confusion, Abhishek, at the very back of the team, broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.

He didn’t know when Vikram had disappeared; he had been right beside him when they entered the Hospital. But in the blink of an eye, he was gone without a trace.

This made him instantly realize who Andres was referring to, and his heart leaped into his throat.

Just then, footsteps came from behind again; it was a group of people who had been exploring downstairs, arriving late.

The leader, panting, said, “Andres bro, we’ve searched the Western Pharmacy little by little; it’s all empty, only a few broken wooden shelves.”

“And…”

“And what? Speak quickly!” Hearing the news, Andres took another deep breath, clearly very angry.

“There are obvious traces of moved cabinets on the floor of the pharmacy, and the traces are very fresh.”

“We were the first to enter the Western Pharmacy as soon as we split up, so it definitely wasn’t moved by other brothers.”

Hearing this, Andres waved his hand, signaling him not to say any more.

The pharmacy downstairs, combined with the situation just now, had 100% confirmed his suspicion.

“A rat has snuck in!”

“Andres bro, are you saying… There’s a survivor who isn’t one of us also in the Hospital, and he’s the one who just went upstairs?”

Andres didn’t answer but widened his eyes and punched the side wall of the stairwell, “Damn it, daring to steal things right under my nose?”

“You stinking rat, you’d better not let me catch you, or I’ll make you die worse than this damn thing!”

Saying that, he lifted his right foot and stomped hard on the head of the defeated Mutated Zombie.

“Puff~” Blood splattered, and the zombie’s entire head was completely turned into a puddle of mush.

“Alright, Andres, just calm down. Now, the most important thing is to find that kid quickly before he takes away other good stuff.” Abel, who was similar in strength to Andres and also a leader, advised.

“Exactly, catch that kid first, then we can skin him alive, torture him thoroughly, and then kill him. Won’t the supplies still be ours?” A slightly effeminate voice echoed, the speaker being Alonzo, also one of the higher-ups.

Hearing this, Andres nodded, leading an entire team of 30 men, and without bothering whether there were any remaining supplies downstairs, he rushed straight up to the second floor.

Little did they know that while they were slowly killing the Mutated Zombie, Vikram had already left the second floor and moved to the third floor.

Previously on the second floor, most of the rooms were examination rooms, nothing particularly worth noting, but he still followed the good habit of not wasting anything.

Things like surgical lights, operating tables, anesthesia machines, ventilators, defibrillators, infusion pumps, injection pumps, and such, everything he saw was thoroughly scavenged.

He might not use these things, but even keeping them allowed him to exchange them for Plant Essence through item recycling; why not take them if they were free?

Except for areas occupied by zombies, the second floor could be said to have been completely cleared by him.

If it weren’t for the time crunch, he would have killed these small-fry zombies one by one.

On the stairs to the third floor, feeling the commotion below, Vikram realized that time was running out and immediately quickened his pace.

His mind was now entirely focused on quickly taking away the supplies inside, just like on the second floor, and then making a swift escape.

As for provoking the Brown Wood Shelter again?

“If I provoke them, I provoke them. It was their good luck that I am taking the materials from here, they can’t even use this, so they should just donate to me.”

—

On the second floor of the Hospital, a group of people swarmed in.

Every accessible room was thoroughly searched by the Brown Wood Shelter.

But as one empty room after another appeared before them, their faces grew increasingly grim.

“Andres bro, it seems everything has been taken, only some worthless materials are left.”

The crowd looked over. In this cardiopulmonary function examination area, apart from a floor covered in waste paper, dust, and debris, the only thing that could be considered supplies was a single metal door.

If there had been nothing valuable to begin with, that would be one thing, but the footprints on the floor, coupled with the traces of moved supplies, clearly indicated that this was not the case at all.

In the pitch-black Hospital, a large group of people gathered, holding torches, but at this moment, no one dared to speak.

Through the torchlight, everyone could see Andres’s pale, almost greenish face.

The second floor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, only his heavy breathing remained, accompanied by his chest heaving violently up and down. Andres’s eyes were filled with ruthlessness.

If the perpetrator, Vikram, were to appear before him now, he would surely tear him to shreds on the spot.

“Alright, Andres, calm down. There are still quite a few rooms on the second floor with remaining supplies, but they just have zombies inside.”

Seeing that Andres’s condition was not right, Abel spoke up to remind him.

“Exactly, what’s the use of being anxious? If you keep throwing a tantrum, that little scoundrel will have already escaped.”

Alonzo first gave Andres a look of disdain before saying sarcastically.

Actually, it wasn’t surprising that he was so irritable. This plan was originally a task given to him by the territory’s boss because he trusted him.

Now that such a big problem had occurred, and Vikram was as slippery as an eel, he hadn’t even met him yet, but Vikram had taken so many supplies that rightfully belonged to him.

How could this allow him to act calmly?

Fortunately, Andres, realizing that standing still was indeed a waste of time, immediately adjusted. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

Then, his eyes snapped open in anger, and he pointed at the other three high-ranking members whose physiques were similar to his, saying, “The four of us will go straight upstairs to catch him. As for the remaining brothers, stay here and collect the remaining supplies.”

“Abhishek, I’ll leave the second floor to you to lead. Don’t mess up such a simple task for me. If anything happens, contact us in the group.”

With that, he didn’t wait for Abhishek’s reply and immediately dragged the other three high ranking members upstairs.

Only a bewildered Abhishek and a group of at a loss members were left behind.

“You little rascal, don’t let me catch you, or your head will be my urinal.”

A cold glint flashed in Andres’s eyes, as if he wanted to devour someone.

There was a reason he only brought three people to catch Vikram this time.

A team of thirty people moving together underground would inevitably create noticeable noise.

But the four of them, whose physiques were nearly thirty, could easily move without making a sound.

And in fact, his approach actually worked.

Although Vikram had biological detection, the detection only displayed the x and y coordinates of the creatures; the height of the creatures could not be reflected by the detection.

In the dental department on the third floor, Vikram was still rummaging for anything he could take, but he did not notice the danger quietly approaching.

“No good, these instruments are too badly damaged, completely useless. It’s even difficult to recycle them into metal.”

Looking at the precise instruments in the dental department, Vikram couldn’t help but frown.

However, realizing that this was just a resource point and not some ruin, he sighed again.

Like the villa last time, the supplies at resource points, most of the electronic items, were in a state of disrepair. Only a few still had some use, while others weren’t even worth calling scrap metal.

Just like the X-ray machine for teeth in front of Vikram, the entire machine looked as if it had been corroded by sulfuric acid.

Apart from rust, there was only a bit of sheet metal left. If it weren’t for the system scan, he wouldn’t even recognize what this thing was.

Seeing that there were no other useful supplies here, Vikram left without looking back, preparing to go upstairs and take the opportunity to check again.

But as luck would have it, just as he pushed open the heavy iron door of the stairwell, he was astonished to find that a long blade aimed directly at his heart was waiting for him outside the door.