Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 143: Chapter 140: Mutated Plant

’Isn’t this what you’d call an infestation?’

Behind them, more than ten teams had already entered. Not a single one had been spared; they had all turned into monsters.

Even the strongest team had only made it to the outside of the seed vault before being wiped out by the long-haired monsters.

By the time Chen Xing and the others opened the main gate of the seed vault, the outside was crawling with monsters, leaving almost no room to set foot.

”Close the gate!” Song Yiguo immediately ordered.

Going out in this situation, even if you didn’t turn into a monster, you’d be exhausted to death.

”Do you have another way out?” Chen Xing felt that facing the long-haired monsters was safer than the storeroom inside, which had been pierced through by plants.

’That place holds unknown monsters. All I saw was a giant python, but who knows what else is in there?’

’I was lucky that Meng Hu was there to take the blow for me.’

’Even luckier, I had my spring water, which was the only reason Meng Hu’s life was saved.’

’We haven’t even entered the botanical garden proper, and a single python nearly killed Meng Hu. It’ll probably be even more dangerous deeper inside.’

”I saw another door inside. We should go in and check it out. There might be another exit!” Song Yiguo had already gone in to observe before. At the time, he thought they had gathered enough supplies and didn’t consider exploring further, but now they had no other choice.

Chen Xing clearly refused.

Song Yiguo noticed Chen Xing’s strong reluctance and asked curiously, ”What’s in there?”

”I don’t know exactly what’s in there, but I ran into a mutated python over ten meters long with a head the size of a human’s. It nearly killed me!” Chen Xing didn’t mention Meng Hu.

Song Yiguo, Vice General Du: ”...”

”Is it really that formidable?”

He sounded a little disbelieving.

”Then you guys go first. I’m definitely not leading the way!” Seeing their expressions, Chen Xing knew they were determined to push forward.

’Fine, go ahead!’

’They won’t turn back until they’ve been knocked down a peg.’

Although they had decided to take the path deeper inside, seeing Chen Xing’s adamant refusal, Song Yiguo and the others didn’t dare to be careless.

Arriving before that door, they first regrouped and rested for a moment.

Calling it a rest was an overstatement; it was merely a chance to catch their breath.

When they opened the door, a wave of hot air enveloped them, and they instantly felt a sense of comfort.

The prolonged cold had left their faces blue and purple, but in the blink of an eye, their complexions returned to normal.

Chen Xing had to take off her down jacket.

”How did all these green plants grow? Is there soil in the metal boxes?” Wang San asked, following closely behind Song Yiguo.

He was genuinely curious.

These boxes were specifically for storing seeds. ’Could they grow without soil?’

Moreover, the temperature in this storeroom was absurdly high.

Vice General Du, who was at the very front, hacked away a few wildly overgrown plants and saw that the cooling unit above had been pierced by the plants and had stopped working.

Song Yiguo frowned, somewhat regretting his choice of this path.

From the plants Vice General Du had severed, a reddish-green liquid flowed out like blood.

”The plants up ahead are shaking!” the soldiers shouted, pointing forward in terror as they all noticed at almost the same time.

Chen Xing noticed it too.

Amidst the dense foliage, the branches were swaying strangely.

’But there’s no wind in here.’

”Watch out for the python!” Song Yiguo warned, apparently now believing Chen Xing’s words.

Vice General Du forcefully swung his blade, hacking at the plants without daring to relax for a second.

Just when everyone was certain it was the python, a long-haired monster appeared instead.

The long-haired monster was wrapped tightly in the plants, suspended in mid-air, and was so emaciated it was barely recognizable.

If not for its long white fur, it would have been hard to identify it as a long-haired monster at all.

”These plants are alive!” Chen Xing sensed something was wrong and immediately turned to retreat.

She didn’t care what treasures might be inside; she had no desire to explore any further.

She found the plants more terrifying than the long-haired monsters.

’A plant’s root system can spread far and wide beneath the ground, its reach far exceeding that of any monster.’

Sensing its prey was about to escape, the previously static plants suddenly began to grow wildly, their branches shooting out at extreme speed to block the humans’ retreat.

Chen Xing drew the knife from her waist and slashed at the plants.

A spray of liquid gushed out, and the branch recoiled slightly.

”Fall back!” Chen Xing shouted, then was the first to leap out of the room, dodging to the side to make way for the soldiers.

Not caring who gave the order, the Superpower Users scrambled to get out upon seeing that the plants had practically become sentient.

Vice General Du, who was bringing up the rear, was in trouble.

Before he could reach the doorway, his path was blocked by the plants, cutting him off from the exit.

Chen Xing reacted in a flash. At almost the exact moment he was cut off, her blade was already slashing through the air.

Fortunately, the plants hadn’t had time to entangle Vice General Du completely, and Chen Xing’s slash cleared a path for him.

Vice General Du ducked his head and darted out.

They didn’t have time to close the door before the overgrown plants were already lunging at them.

The cold temperature of the outer storeroom seemed to have no effect on the plants, as their rampant growth didn’t slow in the slightest.

With so many people ahead, they couldn’t pick up speed.

Besides, they still had to deal with all the long-haired monsters in front of them.

Wang Wu was slightly ahead of Vice General Du and Chen Xing.

Seeing the plants continuously extending, he stopped running after passing through a doorway. Instead, he reached back and slammed the door-close button, yelling anxiously to the two behind him, ”Hurry, get over here!”

The door closed slowly, just about to shut as Chen Xing and Vice General Du made it through.

But in that small gap, a plant tendril snaked through the closing door.

Chen Xing spun around and slashed with her knife. The tendril retracted, and the door clicked shut at the same moment.

Only then did everyone dare to take a breath.

”Even plants are becoming sentient now?” someone muttered between gasps.

”This is too weird. Don’t plants need soil to sprout?”

Even having lived a previous life, Chen Xing had never seen mutated plants.

In her past life, no news like this had ever appeared online.

’Either someone covered it up in my past life, preventing the incident from being made public...’

’...or my rebirth has caused changes, leading to the emergence of new types of mutants.’

Song Yiguo looked at the final line of defense, his brow furrowing slightly. ”It seems we have no choice but to force our way out!”

The group quickly devised a rough plan.

They couldn’t just rush out all at once. They would deal with as many monsters as they could from the doorway to avoid being surrounded in the middle.

Once the number of monsters dwindled, they would all charge out together.

Vice General Du immediately moved from the rear to the front. ”Wang San, Wang Wu, you two protect Young Master Song!”

After speaking, he took a deep breath and ordered someone to open the door.

The number of long-haired monsters outside seemed to have increased since they last looked.

’Time to kill!’

Two Water Ability Users stood on either side of the door, preventing a large horde of monsters from pouring in.

A group of people stood in the middle and began killing the monsters that got through.

Since only a few long-haired monsters could enter at a time, killing them wasn’t too difficult.

When this group got tired, the next would take their place.

After repeating this cycle several times, the number of long-haired monsters had clearly decreased.

Just as they were getting into the rhythm of the fight, the entire base suddenly began to tremble.

The sound that followed was as loud as a sky-shattering thunderclap.

The emotionless long-haired monsters were visibly showing signs of fear.