Chapter 35

The mandrakes and Venus flytraps relied primarily on illusions to hunt. Once deprived of that weapon, they were like crabs with their claws snipped off—utterly harmless.

After the enhanced group quickly cleared the mutated plants from the ground-floor lobby and took a brief rest to recover from the side effects of the [Disaster Halo], they entered the basement passage of the Plant Research Institute together.

As Lin Tu had predicted, a backup generator was still running here. However, only a few emergency lights were lit, leaving the basement corridor quite dim.

What made the hairs on the back of one's neck stand up even more was the silence. There were no human voices, yet faint rustling sounds occasionally drifted from every corner. Who knew what those could be?

The corridor led to the archive room on the left, while laboratories lay straight ahead and to the right.

As Lin Tu leaned against the wall, trying to make out the small text on the directional sign, she suddenly felt her phone vibrate slightly in her pocket. Puzzled, she took it out—

[From Anju: Congratulations on discovering the new material "Malleable Clay"; you have unlocked the new Anju function "Form Switching".]

Lin Tu: "?" How had she discovered a new material without knowing it?

Somewhat surprised, she was about to tap into the details when she noticed a fine white particle stuck to her hand. She carefully rubbed the tiny particle under the light of her phone screen. It was something with a rough surface, like a shard of flawed pottery.

She shone her phone's flashlight onto the wall and found a sparse scattering of similar particles there.

She gently wiped her hand across the surface, scraping off about seven or eight white fragments.

[From Anju: Congratulations on obtaining "Malleable Clay" ×6.5 g. The housing area currently capable of unlocking the "Form Switching" function is 0.014 square meters.

Note: Every 455 g of "Malleable Clay" unlocks 1 square meter of "Form Switching" function. Housing areas that do not meet the 1-square-meter threshold will not be counted when in use.]

"Mutated plant!"

Just as Lin Tu was shining her phone light along the wall, Luo Yongzhi suddenly shouted. Pointing in horror at a dark, insect-like plant clinging to the wall, he raised his rod to strike it.

"Wait!"

Lin Tu's sharp eyes caught a string of white particles sticking to the rear of that insect-like plant, and she quickly called out to stop Luo Yongzhi.

She cautiously reached her hand toward the creature's hindquarters, and everyone held their breath. She then pinched off several white particles and held them in her palm. Throughout the process, the creature didn't show much aggression toward Lin Tu, so she didn't attack it either, letting it continue gnawing on the wall.

"What's wrong, Sister Lin?" Luo Yongzhi asked, confused.

Feeling her phone vibrate again, Lin Tu pondered as she looked at the white particles in her hand, then at the mutated crawler on the wall.

She was now quite certain that these white particles were what the mutated crawler produced after chewing through the wall.

"Do you think there are cages in the lab?" Lin Tu asked.

Luo Yongzhi: "?"

"This thing is kind of cute. I want to raise a few."

The comment startled Luo Yongzhi and Yi Ying, who both looked up. The dark crawler on the wall was wrinkled yet greasy-looking—cute? Where did that even come close to cute?

But they had no way to argue with Lin Tu's unconventional taste in aesthetics, so during the subsequent search, they helped her collect cages that seemed suitable for housing mutated plants.

After fully exploring the basement, they had lined up a row of forty to fifty cages of various sizes in the corridor.

These crawlers appeared to be mutations of water hyacinths, a fact documented in one of the laboratories dedicated to studying water hyacinths.

They were also among the earliest mutants. These heavy-metal hyperaccumulator plants had originally been able to absorb large amounts of zinc, lead, mercury, nickel, cadmium, and other heavy metals, purifying the natural environment. However, human industry had produced too much heavy-metal pollution, causing them to absorb excessive amounts and mutate into plants overly dependent on heavy metals.

Normally, such mutations would only occur on a small scale. But atmospheric pollution had also led to prolonged heat and drought worldwide, and under some circumstances, plants that couldn't absorb heavy metals began to rely on iron for growth—and became extremely aggressive.

These original heavy-metal hyperaccumulator mutants, however, had always been able to accumulate and tolerate heavy metals in their bodies, so they didn't show much aggression. They even produced things beneficial to humans.

For instance, the "Malleable Clay" Lin Tu had discovered was recorded in the Plant Research Institute as "cage-building material." As its name suggested, this material contained not a single trace of iron, and even possessed properties that mutated plants detested, effectively blocking them.

The shelter players longed for were built from this cage-building material.

Vetiver roots emitted an aroma that repelled mutated plants. The crushed juices of plants like brake ferns and pennycress could remove heavy metals from plant seeds, rendering them edible once more. Plants like black nightshade and heartleaf houttuynia could be eaten directly, as they showed almost no signs of mutation.

Beyond these, there were many other useful heavy-metal hyperaccumulator mutants, their information recorded in detail in the institute. The records were almost all dated within half a month before the disaster, a testament to how much effort the scientists had poured into compiling this much data in such a short time.

Lin Tu photographed and documented all of this. The mission she'd accepted from a player who specialized in cultivating plant props had merely asked her to find research materials if possible. Now she had over-delivered, and she hoped that client would pay her a little extra.

"What about the scientists?" Luo Yongzhi asked.

"That's a question for the mandrakes and Venus flytraps outside," Lin Tu said, connecting her phone to the computer and transmitting the surveillance data to the Butler. The other end immediately sent back the analyzed information—

"The network was disconnected, and they were desperate to get these materials out. After copying the data onto USB drives, they entered the mandrakes' and Venus flytraps' illusions one after another, and not a single one managed to get a USB drive out. Such a pity..."

Lin Tu sighed. "What they didn't know was that even if they'd gotten the drives out, it would've been useless. The government had already collapsed. They should've just stayed here. At least there was heartleaf houttuynia to eat."