After the unanimous agreement of all team members, the team charted their course, packed up all their things and climbed into their sleds.
The snow in front of them was mostly flat, but it was higher and lower in some places. While they driving forward, Zhang Yi spoke through the walkie-talkie, "There seems to be movement in front."
"Movement? What kind?"
"Not sure, but it's something alive."
"Alive!?"
Although Zhang Yi used his ability since leaving base to get feedback about the road ahead, to tell the truth – there was little use in the current frozen world.
There were indeed zombies in the wild, but they were mostly hiding under the ice and snow. Often waiting for nearby vibrations before climbing out of the snow. Zhang Yi's wind could only scan the wilderness, there was no way to detect things under the snow, unless it melted…Otherwise his ability was only useful to find things above the ground.
Fortunately Luo Xun had insisted for Zhang Yi to monitor the situation and be ready to report at a moment's notice even though it was not suitable for the situation.
"Yes, about seven-eight hundred meters away behind that snowy slope."
Luo Xun slowed down their car and frowned – it was in the direction of the destination…after a quick calculation, it was pretty much at their goal!
What could it be? "Can you find out size and number?" Luo Xun was somewhat worried.
Zhang Yi closed his eyes as a gust of wind flew forward. He opened them after five or six minutes. "It's not small…it's not a zombie and there is only one but it seems to be attacking with something that I don't recognize."
After pondering, the team set off again with their destination not far from the snow mound.
Luo Xun and company were not prepared to rush into a battle, but there should be no problem with sneaking around to check the situation.
After the cars drove to the snow mound, Luo Xun checked first and confirmed that it was a bungalow before parking the car and quietly climbing onto the roof.
As they climbed the roof, they saw the 'battlefield'. An unknown mutant seemed to be fighting something. It was not small but they could only see it's back asit thrashed on the ground. The snow was disturbed, revealing something but the team could not see exactly what it was.
Luo Xun help up his telescope and looked carefully in surprise, "Mutant plant! Offensive devil vine!"
"What is that?"
"Mutant plants?"
"Plant? Are there any plants that could survive such cold weather?"
The team had not focused on the same point but had discovered likely upcoming problems – these were test fields and there were mutant plants…what about the other farmland?!
Luo Xun quickly pulled out their hand-drawn map, which clearly marked their target – the building was sandwiched between eight fields! There were mutant plants, the fields were close together, where did they go to avoid the plants?!
"Very difficult?" Yan Fei quietly asked while looking at Luo Xun's solemn expression.
Luo Xun nodded, "…This plant will not stop until the target is dead…and not afraid of fire." This thing was one of the most dangerous mutant plants of the apocalypse, even worse, they were relatively common.
The devil vine had some bizarre hand like appendages but they were much more dangerous that other plants with special effects. It was brown-black with spikes and multi-sized suckers – designed to suck blood! Those things were all over the spiked vines, once a prey was caught, there was no chance to escape.
What was even scarier that with the plant's water content, it was not afraid of fire! Even if there was a flame that could burn the vines, because of all the water, it would not fully ignite. It also had basic survival instinct fighting back in retaliation.
Of course, it would have been fine if there were only a few plants, but this kind of thing grew in bunches. Any who carelessly entered…never came back alive.
"Luo Xun, what did this thing grow from?" He Qiankun asked since his captain recognized the plant.
Luo Xun's face was ugly he pointed towards the paralyzed animal on the ground. "That is farmland."
"Ah?!"
Zhang Yi laughed, "Isn't it obvious? What is in a field? Crops!" So the devil vines are variations of grain!
Luo Xun was able to recognize at a glance because it was mutated from grains such as rice and wheat. In his last life, the base fields had not allowed this kind of things to grow to avoid damage. Fortunately they were not dense so there was little impact on base, they were often cleared up before the vines could develop suckers, so the danger was limited. Luo Xun had seen if himself before.
But it was different for the fields outside, some places had planted crops before the apocalypse. After the end, there was no one to care for the fields and in these large patches of farmland…
"Then…can we still go in?" Their goal was the experimental lab but now that the buildings were guarded by those plants…
Luo Xun tried to measure the approximate size of the farmland as the vines separated the meat from bone like a professional doctor. Finally even the skeleton disappeared, the whole process only took half an hour.
Then the area that had been disturbed by the animal was covered with snow. In the end, the place looked the same as its surroundings.
The team was stunned and gulped before exchanging glances.
"…Do we still want to go?"
"Oh hell, who knows what is down under the flat snow!"
Luo Xun also nodded, every time they went out they would follow the main road because he knew there were scary traps in the wilderness. But he could not always tell if they were off the road. But now…
"Let's head to the factory, but we should measure the mutant plant area to avoid tripping any attacks as we pass by." Luo Xun took a deep breath and solemnly spoke.
"How can we measure it? It's not marked on the map?" Everyone was curious.
Luo Xun pointed, "There is more than one field since there is a lot of farmland nearby."
The so called test fields were also placed where plants could grow. The land must be suitable for crop growth, so it was often built on village land with space carved out for school with students.
So in truth, the field only had eight pieces of land and it did not equal an entire acre. But the other places were more standard and on either side of the road. All Luo Xun had to do was tally how many pieces of farmland had mutated plants. After all, the snow had not melted yet, if they stepped on something in this vast expanse of white…how would they survive?
They said is was measuring, but in fact the only cost was physical exertion instead of mental. Luo Xun a detailed map of the area – which they had taken from the computer. While it might be a little inaccurate, it was enough for now.
They used long range weapons such as crossbows, small stones and ranged ability attacks at the fields. Although the devil vine was very dangerous it captured, one they knew the range as long as they were out of range, they were safe. After all, the plant was rooted in place with its waving branches. As long as they were out of the attack range, the plant could only swing its vines through the air.
But this plant was very belligerent, the slightest sound would trigger an attack. Therefore, as long as stones were thrown, they could determine the vine's range. This was much safer than getting attacked due to accidentally entering the plant's range. It had obvious weaknesses such as fire and cutting attacks. On the whole, although humans were dwindling after the apocalypse, as long as they were careful, one would always be able to find a way to survive.