Chapter 13

Lin Tu was, in fact, grinding mobs at that moment—or more precisely, she was collecting supplies while grinding mobs.

She had returned to her safe house the night before and received a warning from the system. It told her she had to plant the [Angry Corn] within twenty-four hours, or it would wither.

But as Dong Huadan had said, plant-type items had overly strict growth requirements. Lin Tu tried digging up a pot of soil from outside and planting the corn in it, only to find it didn't meet the requirement of "unpolluted soil." In fact, it nearly accelerated the corn sprout's death.

After mulling it over, Lin Tu suddenly remembered there was a gardening shop in the Combatants' residential area that she hadn't searched yet. She decided to head there early the next morning to see if she could find anything useful.

That morning, Lin Tu cooked herself a pot of fragrant century egg congee. After downing two large bowls of congee and a slice of cheesecake, she mixed herself a cup of instant coffee and headed out for a day of work, holding the warm cup in her hands.

When she drove up to the gardening shop, Lin Tu was already familiar with the area.

Just as she was about to get out of the car, she noticed that a pot of dried grass by the door, which had been standing upright, had toppled over.

The problem was, Lin Tu vaguely remembered it had been standing the day before.

Lin Tu was always cautious and meticulous. The moment she noticed something off, she didn't even get out of the car. After carefully scanning the shop's entrance, she spotted a round gun barrel through a gap in the window—someone had seen her.

Bad luck on the first try. Lin Tu immediately turned the car around, ready to leave.

"Wait! Don't go!" Suddenly, the door of the gardening shop opened.

A local woman in her thirties rushed out, holding her gun high above her head like a surrender. "Hey! Miss! Can you help us!"

Lin Tu stopped the car but didn't turn off the engine. She said coldly, "Keep your hands up and don't come closer!"

"Don't worry, I mean no harm!" The woman's face lit up with joy. "My mother's arm—I had to saw it off. The bleeding's stopped, but it's badly inflamed. I really need some anti-inflammatory medicine!"

Lin Tu had stocked up on all sorts of medicine, including anti-inflammatories. But... she raised an eyebrow. "Why did you saw off your mother's arm?"

"To save her! After the disaster, I watched a neighbor get bitten by a zombie and turn into one too. So when my mother got bitten, I tried sawing off the bite. To my surprise, she didn't turn into a zombie—she just has a serious injury."

The woman didn't wait for Lin Tu to ask more and continued, "I heard from the radio that the government set up the North Falls Sea Safe Base. But on the way there, we ran into another zombie. It was different from any I'd seen before—like a skeleton, and incredibly fast. To avoid it, we had to veer off course, and before we knew it, we ended up near this town."

"Last night, I heard gunshots, so I knew someone was here. That's why I came to ask for help. My mother can't hold on much longer. Please, help us!"

A mutated zombie... Lin Tu keenly picked up on the key point. The rest of the woman's story might be true or false, but the mutated zombie part couldn't be fake—after all, Lin Tu had just encountered one last night.

And now a second one had appeared so soon. Clearly, mutated zombies were on the rise, and soon they might appear in groups. Thinking of the terrifying speed and lethal power of the mutated zombie, Lin Tu frowned.

She looked the woman up and down. If what she said was true, then her decisive and bold style made her a worthy partner.

"I have medicine," Lin Tu said. As soon as the words left her mouth, she could clearly see the woman involuntarily tighten her grip on the gun. Lin Tu immediately warned, "But if you make a move now, I'll drive away this instant."

"I won't!" the woman promised repeatedly.

"Throw the gun on the ground and kick it over." After Lin Tu spoke, the woman hesitated for a moment, then did as told. Lin Tu continued, "I'm going to point my gun at you. I want to see your mother inside for myself."

After the woman agreed, the two entered the gardening shop extremely slowly, in a tense, ready-to-pounce stance.

The shop was a mess, clearly the scene of a recent struggle. But in a corner away from the window, it was tidy. Two sofa chairs had been pushed together to form a small bed, where a woman in her fifties lay.

Beside the bed, in an iron flowerpot, a small fire burned. A wire mesh separated the flames, and on it, a pot of water was bubbling. There was also a bowl of what seemed to be oatmeal, cooked and giving off a faint wheaty aroma.

Lin Tu cast her eyes around. Two cups on the table, twin pillows made from bundled clothes on the bed, and other details suggested only the mother and daughter lived here.

"Don't hurt Karen..." the old woman struggled to sit up, but Karen quickly stopped her.

"Mom, don't worry. She's here to help. Show her your wound!"

The old woman smiled at Lin Tu, seemingly to reassure her. Then, using her uninjured left hand, she lifted the blanket, revealing an arm that was only half intact. It was tightly bound with clean cloth strips, so the details were hard to see, but above the binding, the exposed skin showed blackened and bruised veins and flesh—some necrosis was already setting in.

Lin Tu lowered her gun.

"Would cefalexin and penicillin work?" she asked. "I also have iodine and alcohol to disinfect the wound."

"Yes, yes!" Karen nodded gratefully.

Lin Tu prepared to go back to the safe house to get the medicine, and she also called Karen outside.

"I'm not giving you the medicine for free. I need you to do me a favor," Lin Tu said, handing the gun back to Karen.

"What favor?" Karen said. "I'll give you anything."

"I need you to help me kill zombies."

"I..." Karen instinctively tightened her grip on the gun, wanting to refuse at first, but didn't know how to say it.

"Let me finish..."

Lin Tu adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses and rattled off her requirements in one go.

Karen's expression shifted from reluctance to surprise, and finally to utter bafflement.

"Alright, I accept."

Lin Tu drove back to the safe house to get the medicine. Karen returned inside with that strange, incomprehensible look on her face and found her mother had gotten up and was standing by the window.

"Mom! Lie down!" Karen said, half-annoyed, as she rushed over.

"What does she want, Karen?" her mother asked worriedly.

"She wants me to help her kill zombies," Karen said, her expression turning strange again.

"Don't go!" Her mother hastily patted Karen's arm. "Is she going somewhere and wants you to be the vanguard? It's too dangerous, Karen! You can't go! Don't worry about me—this wound will heal on its own. I just need a few more days of rest!"

"No, Mom, don't get excited." Karen firmly helped her mother back into bed before explaining, "I'm not the vanguard."

"She is."

"She even specifically told me, unless we run into mutated zombies, not to do anything—just help keep watch. Especially..." Karen paused, trying to find the words to describe what Lin Tu had said, but she couldn't. Finally, she just repeated it word for word, "She said, don't steal any zombie heads."

Who would steal zombie heads? Were zombie heads something worth fighting over?

The mother and daughter looked at each other in confusion, wondering if Lin Tu was crazy or if they were.

Fortunately, Lin Tu soon returned with the medicine.

In addition to cefalexin, penicillin, iodine, and alcohol, she brought two boxes of ibuprofen, two tubes of erythromycin ointment, and two big packs of medical bandages. Altogether, she carried a whole bag full of various medicines—more than you'd get from a pharmacy. It would last the old woman a long time.

"Thank you so much!" Karen said delightedly, while inwardly thinking that maybe Lin Tu's weirdness wasn't so bad after all. She immediately added, "Whenever you need me, I'm available."

It wasn't just a sudden change of heart—it was that Lin Tu had given too much.

"Take care of your mother's wound first."

Lin Tu wasn't in a hurry. She still needed to search the gardening shop for supplies.

Corn sprouts need unpolluted soil, sunlight, and water. Lin Tu had stocked up on plenty of bottled water, so she didn't have to worry about that for now. Her main needs were "soil" and "sunlight."

After searching the gardening shop for a while, Lin Tu finally found a sealed bag of horticultural nutrient soil, a medium-sized flowerpot, a bag of nutrient solution, and a few portable plant grow lights.

Lin Tu cleaned the flowerpot with mineral water, then scooped some nutrient soil into it and mixed in some general compound fertilizer.

She dug a hole in the center of the soil, then carefully tore open the packet. A finger-sized corn sprout appeared in her palm.

Lin Tu had never farmed before, but she'd seen it done—she'd grown up in the countryside. Following her memory of how her grandfather used to plant, she buried the roots of the corn sprout in the soil, packed the dirt tightly, and then used the cap of a water bottle to sprinkle some water around it.

Finally, she took out the grow light, connected it to a power bank, and clipped it onto the flowerpot, pointing it directly at the corn sprout.

["Angry Corn" planted successfully;

Planting satisfaction: 33.3% (You don't seem to understand the meaning of pure natural soil, sunlight, and water);

Time to grow: 60 days;

Withering probability: 65.9% (Your planting technique is a bit rough, but it seems you had some guidance, so the withering probability is slightly reduced);]

Lin Tu looked at the 65.9% death probability, then thought about her own 33.3% satisfaction rating, and oddly felt a sense of relief. It could be worse, she thought.

Meanwhile, Karen had finished changing her mother's dressing. Lin Tu carefully placed the corn in Karen's palm—

"Hold on to this for me. Don't let anything touch it, and if you see any signs of withering, let me know immediately."

"Oh," Karen, having gotten what she wanted, now felt that any instruction from Lin Tu was perfectly normal. She solemnly took the flowerpot and agreed, "No problem."

"Then we'll start grinding from this area," Lin Tu declared grandly, pulling out her gun. "After this area, we'll clean out the whole town, and finally, we'll go after the big city next door!"

Karen didn't quite understand, but she nodded. "Alright, no problem."