Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System - Chapter 227: Chaos At Group Chat

Instead of rushing back into the Shelter, he found an empty spot within the wall enclosure.

Then, he pulled out all the zombies he had hunted earlier with machine guns and pistols from his backpack and casually tossed them onto the ground.

Dozens, even hundreds, of corpses appearing on the ground was quite a spectacle.

Scanning his vision, Vikram picked out the zombies with crystals inside one by one.

He counted them on his fingers.

“Out of one hundred and four zombies, only forty-something have crystals inside?”

Rubbing his chin, Vikram thought to himself.

Thinking this, Vikram glanced at his physique.

[Host: Vikram

Strength: 58

Speed: 61

Stamina: 57

Reaction: 60]

Vikram had already used ten normal zombie crystals, and the increase in his physique had reached its limit.

His four-dimensional physique had also fully reached fifty points. While the numbers looked impressive, Vikram couldn’t be happy at all.

He hadn’t forgotten the physique of that super zombie from before.

His current physique might be something to be proud of in others’ eyes, but Vikram knew it was nothing compared to a super zombie with a four-dimensional physique over a hundred.

“Sigh~”

Sighing softly, Vikram came back to his senses and dug out all forty-something crystals one by one.

Fortunately, the zombies he had painstakingly killed were not entirely without reward for him.

He had also collected three Mutated Zombie crystals from them.

Among these zombies, the proportion of Mutated Zombies was small, with only twelve having been hunted.

Based on the previous drop rate, for so few Mutated Zombie corpses to yield three Mutated Zombie crystals, Vikram felt it was already quite a feat.

Without hesitation, he crushed the three Mutated Zombie crystals together.

“Crack!”

The familiar sound of glass breaking echoed, and a warm current invaded his body through his palm.

Vikram, who had been feeling a bit cold standing outdoors, instantly felt much more energized.

After the warm current subsided, Vikram smacked his lips, still wanting more.

The effect of the three crystals was also very significantly displayed on his physique panel.

[Host: Vikram

Strength: 64 (58+6)

Speed: 67 (61+6)

Stamina: 63 (57+6)

Reaction: 66 (60+6)]

“Hoo~” He let out a soft breath, and without hesitation even needed to shout, Fire Druid arrived and turned the useless zombie corpses into ash.

Vikram turned and returned to the interior of the Shelter.

As soon as he pushed open the Shelter door, Vikram saw Sophia, Divya and Anjali intently staring at the Survival Platform on their wrists.

Noticing the Shelter door being pushed open and Vikram returning from outside, the two only then turned their gaze to him.

“Why did you go out so early in the morning? What did you do? You didn’t secretly go out to explore for supplies again, did you?” Clearly, Anjali was a bit displeased that Vikram went out alone without taking her, and she said with puffed cheeks.

“Alright, since you’re so diligent, next time if there are still zombie crystals to dig up, I’ll leave that task to you.”

Vikram shook the forty crystals in his hand, a smile spreading across his face, and spoke in a relaxed tone.

Digging crystals was half a physical labor; it was not only tiring but also incredibly smelly. When he was doing it himself, not taking the help of his Druids and Sprouts.

Now that Anjali had spoken, Vikram was naturally happy to entrust this important task to her.

“Ah~ Then… then let’s forget about it.” Sure enough, upon hearing that Vikram had woken up early to do this, and that he planned to hand the job over to her in the future, she immediately wilted.

Seeing Anjali’s expression, Vikram scoffed, too lazy to argue with her.

He picked up a cup of water and took two sips, then remembering that the three had been staring at the Survival Platform, Vikram asked, “What were you two looking at just now, so intently? Did something happen in the channel again?”

Who knew that Anjali, who had just been sulking, immediately perked up at this.

“Oh right, I almost forgot about that, I was just about to tell you.”

“Stinky Vikram, do you know you’re famous in the group again?”

“I bet a lot of people are trying to add you as a friend right now.”

Vikram frowned and opened his friends list, only to find that, just as Anjali said, a large number of unfamiliar people had sent him requests.

“What’s going on? Out of nowhere?” Vikram scratched the back of his head; he couldn’t remember doing anything high-profile in the past two days.

“Besides taking a picture of the leftover corn this morning, what else could it be?” Unable to figure it out, Vikram didn’t rush to accept the various friend requests, instead opening the group chat.

Sure enough, he found the reason there…

What Vikram didn’t expect was that the reason he got so much attention from his group members was actually because of a random photo he took.

The photo was of a half-eaten corn.

Not long after the photo was sent, the group messages exploded.

Vikram scrolled on the screen for a long time before finding the picture he had sent that morning.

The first message below it was Radhika’s flattery.

[Radhika: Big Boss Vikram is indeed a Big Shot. He eats so well first thing in the morning, unlike me, whose breakfast is still bread from who knows when.]

Supply crates had been abolished since the Black Fog began.

So, the bread circulating on the market now was at least two weeks old.

But don’t let Radhika’s pitiful cries fool you; she was actually doing quite well.

Most Survivors during this period wouldn’t even choose to eat breakfast.

With no huntable creatures outside and the disappearance of supply crates, food sources were significantly scarcer than when survival first began.

An ordinary survivor was lucky to get one full meal a day; they certainly couldn’t afford to be picky.

Up to this point, Vikram hadn’t found anything unusual; this was, at most, just casual conversation between group members.

But as he continued to scroll down, he quickly discovered the problem.

[Lucas: Brother Vikram, I want to ask, is the corn in your photo self-grown?]

[Lucas: If you bought it from the market, then never mind, but if you grew it yourself, could you share your method for growing corn?]

[Lucas: I won’t ask you to share for free, brother. I can trade supplies for it.]

This ID named Lucas sounded very sincere and was the first person on Vikram’s list to send a friend request.

However, at the time, he was still collecting crystals from zombie bodies, so he naturally didn’t reply.

Vikram stared at the ID for a moment, then reached out and clicked on his avatar.

He found that Lucas was also the leader of a thirty-person Shelter.

The Shelter’s name was quite grand, called Oasis Shelter.

Looking at the other party’s identity, Vikram pondered for a moment, a hint of doubt appearing on his face.

“That’s not right. He’s already a leader of a thirty-person Shelter; he shouldn’t be unable to even grow corn, right?”

“Even if he doesn’t understand, do the thirty or so people under him not understand either?”

“Or is it that the Shelter has no electricity?”

Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed this idea.

If the Shelter didn’t even have electricity, they wouldn’t consider growing crops.

He continued to scroll through the chat.

He wanted to see the specific reason, but Lucas didn’t send any more messages afterward.

Instead, another Survivor in the group answered his doubt.

[Cole: Big Boss Vikram is indeed a Big Shot. Even the crops he grows are so different.]

[Cole: I also grew corn, and the ripening speed is decent, but why are all of them so deformed?]

As Cole spoke, he also sent a picture.

Clicking on the picture, the photo clearly showed tiny corn cobs, not only dull in color but also looking shriveled.

If Cole hadn’t said it was sweet corn, he would have thought he had planted waxy corn with that color.

He also noticed that it wasn’t just these two group members who had such problems; the group members who noticed the message later all posted pictures of their own grown crops.

Although they were no longer corn, their appearance was no different from the corn above.

He finally saw a somewhat decent-looking green pepper, but the person who posted the picture said it was a spoiled cucumber.

In short, it was as absurd as it got; none of them looked normal.

Not to mention these new group members, among the old group members, there were also many who noticed the pictures and asked questions.

“So, it’s because of this?”

Looking at a group of Survivors asking questions in the chat, Vikram suddenly understood.

It wasn’t because the other party couldn’t grow crops, but because they were surprised by the quality of the crops he grew.

Understanding the reason, Vikram now realised the benefits of his treehouse and other Sprouts. Especially the Treehouse. Because from the time he was growing the vegetable, all have superior quality.

But he didn’t realise it benefits till he finally found that many others have not even grown a single decent vegetable.

He really wanted to give the other party some advice, but when it came to growing crops, now it depended on the Treehouse, so he couldn’t help these group members.

Just as he was about to refuse these people, a new message popped up in the group.

[Sunny Dalal: Your Big Boss Vikram is online! Let’s see what Big Boss Vikram thinks of your crops, hahaha.]

The person speaking was Sunny Dalal, who had just been unblocked not long ago, and anyone could hear the sarcasm in his words.

That’s right, as Sunny Dalal’s number one enemy, he certainly didn’t believe that Vikram could figure out how to grow crops that everyone else couldn’t.

In his mind, the corn in Vikram’s hand must have been bought from the market.

After all, when supply crates still existed, there was a chance to get vegetables of this quality.

He said this deliberately to incite these new members to make things difficult for Vikram.

However, many newcomers didn’t know about the conflict between the two, so when they saw Vikram come online, they still swarmed him.

[Lucas: Brother, you’re finally online! I was about to give up, but seeing the quality of the crops in your hand, I really don’t want to miss out.]

[Lucas: Name your price. As long as it’s not too outrageous, I’ll try my best to meet it, as long as you can tell me the planting method.]

[Cole: Big Boss Vikram, if it’s really inconvenient to tell me the method, it’s fine if you can just help me see what’s wrong with the crops I’ve planted. I can also give you compensation.]

As the two of them started, a swarm of members followed, asking Vikram for planting methods.

Vikram didn’t react much, but Sunny Dalal was overjoyed.

He let out a sinister laugh, his fingers rapidly tapping on the screen, and two messages were sended out.

[Sunny Dalal: Hey, do you know that our Big Boss Vikram has always been very kind-hearted?]

[Sunny Dalal: Big Boss Vikram will solve all your problems, but to try and bribe Vikram with compensation, that would be too disrespectful to our Big Boss Vikram.]

[Sunny Dalal: Am I right, Vikram, Big Boss Vikram?]

It seemed he even specifically @-ed Vikram’s ID to prevent Vikram from running away.

Vikram, who had originally planned to refuse these people and leave the group chat, frowned when he saw Sunny Dalal’s words.

Sunny Dalal had made the boast, but he wanted Vikram to play along. These words were putting him on the spot.

Vikram himself didn’t care about face; it was the apocalypse, after all, what was face worth?

But if he just let the other party manipulate him like this, wouldn’t it be exactly what that fool wanted?

In that case, he certainly couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened.