37: Chapter 37 The Diary of Vine Town

The closer one walked to the center of Vine Town, the denser the buildings became. Those tall buildings, such as supermarkets, shopping centers, churches, or the Hospital, were all located in the middle of the town.

Two days ago, Wang Ting had stood on a rooftop and caught a distant glimpse of these structures. However, the extent to which vines covered that area was unimaginable.

The dense vines had almost submerged those tall buildings, completely concealing them within their green shadows. With such horrifying vine coverage, who knew how many terrifying monsters were hidden inside, and Wang Ting certainly did not want to court disaster right now.

In contrast, the area covered by vines in the direction outside the city was relatively small, and the houses gradually became sparser. Often, there would be a distance of tens or over a hundred meters before the next house appeared. Searching toward the suburbs was naturally safer, and forests could only be found in the suburbs.

Wang Ting walked at the very front of the team, vigilantly scouting the surrounding situation.

In front of a house, the white picket fences of the front yard and back house had long been covered by vines, and the small courtyard was completely occupied.

With a swipe of the machete in his hand, he severed the vines on the gate, forcefully pulled off the vines covering it, and then pushed the door open to enter the house's courtyard.

A rustling sound echoed in the courtyard as a Parasitic Fungus Vine launched a surprise attack. Wang Ting directly swung his blade at it, and before the Parasitic Fungus Vine could react, it was sliced in half by his single strike.

"What a fast blade!"

Seeing Wang Ting make a move, Xiang Nan's face revealed a look of shock. The Parasitic Fungus Vine was hidden so covertly that he hadn't yet sensed its presence, but Wang Ting had already struck. His decisive and fierce attack speed was a few notches faster than his previous actions.

"Enter the rooms and search for items."

The team sneaked into the house and began rummaging through the entire rooms for useful supplies.

As soon as they opened the main door, what met their eyes were furniture and walls eroded and decayed by vines. A human skeleton, completely wrapped in vines with flesh and bones incomplete, lay despairingly on the floor, its hollow eye sockets staring fixedly at the crowd opening the door, sending chills down one's spine.

Team members began searching various parts of the house for useful supplies.

Wang Ting surveyed the condition of the room; this room was much more chaotic than the houses he had previously searched. The furniture was dilapidated, the walls mottled, and everything was scattered all over the floor, bearing massive traces of human habitation.

Carved onto the dilapidated walls was a full page of irregular handwriting, traces continuously etched by survivors using pens and knives. From being regular at the beginning, the strokes became increasingly chaotic towards the end.

"It's over, those monsters have occupied everywhere, and we are finished too."

This was the last message, filled with despairing strokes. Who knew what the people in this Floor World had experienced.

"Captain, come take a look at this."

Having searched the master bedroom, Xiang Nan took out a somewhat yellowed diary from inside.

The diary was already tattered, and most of its pages had disappeared. However, there were still many written records on this yellowed diary.

Wang Ting flipped through a few pages; the dark handwriting was crooked, as if every stroke carried a tremor born of anxiety.

"The seeds they brought back are problematic, and the town has been sealed off by the military. Everyone is forbidden from approaching the town center, which has already become a monster nest. Who the hell would want to go there, and I truly hope the military can annihilate these monsters. But I always have a bad premonition."

"September 23rd, my premonition came true. The military wanted to use fire attacks to kill those vine monsters. But the monsters had already spread into the sewers, and they were completely scattered by monsters rushing out from underground. There were not only tentacle vine monsters, but also even larger existences; they were like tanks, and rifles were useless against them. I feel like we are done for."

"September 24th, cannot go out, must not go out. As long as we don't go out, we can hold on a bit longer. The Li Wen family next door wanted to sneak across the military defense line to leave the town, but they failed. The light barrier isolates our town; there are no reinforcements left, and there is no way out. We are all doomed."

After Wang Ting skimmed through a few more diary entries, all the records abruptly stopped.

He could feel the fear and anxiety in the heart of the person who wrote this diary from this yellowed, tattered journal.

The person who wrote these words wanted to pour all their fear into this diary, thereby comforting their own extremely slim hope for survival.

"In this Floor World, there are many signs of human activity, and there are records of the accidents that occurred during the catastrophe. I suggest we be more thorough during our search. The more clues we find, the deeper our understanding of Vine Town will be, and perhaps we might even have a chance to figure out the rules of this Floor World."

For the exploration of the Infinite Building, collecting clue fragments was a very important link.

Because every Floor World of the Infinite Building was random—random environments, random monsters, random catastrophes, random rules.

Any oversight could potentially cause the exploration team to be completely wiped out. Therefore, in the process of exploration, no clues could be abandoned.

Wang Ting stuffed the diary into his pack and then said, "Let's continue searching; we need to collect more useful clues. Today, we must finish searching at least five houses in the suburban direction around the temporary stronghold."

"Hu Kang, you return to the temporary stronghold and have them notify the people outside to come in and start dismantling useful items."

"Understood, Boss."

Wang Ting was not a sentimental person. As to what spacetime the accident in Vine Town occurred in, or what the survivors went through, he didn't care. He only cared about how to survive himself and lead the people of the Outpost Camp to survive.

After sweeping clean everything in the entire house, their team immediately proceeded to search the two adjacent houses one after another.

Parasitic Fungus Vines hid in the dark to launch sneak attacks, but Wang Ting's Vibration Perception had long since captured their figures.

Before they launched their assault, Wang Ting either took action himself or signaled team members to be careful, directly disrupting their attacks and completely killing them.

The coordination in the search gradually became tacit, and the team's search speed began to increase. After searching two houses, just over half an hour had passed.

It could also be considered that their team was lucky; inside the bedroom of the second house, they actually discovered a brand-new medical box. Its brand-new appearance formed a sharp contrast with the dilapidated room around it, making it obviously a refreshed supply item.

The team members marked the two houses and continued exploring toward the suburbs.

After searching the fourth and fifth houses, the number of Parasitic Fungus Vines in these two houses was negligible, which also made Xiang Nan breathe a sigh of relief.

However, Wang Ting, who possessed Vibration Perception, felt a trace of imperceptible vibration.

He immediately crossed through the fifth house. Xiang Nan trotted closely behind and asked, "Did you find something?"

Wang Ting stopped in his tracks, his gaze falling upon the sixth house, and said, "Look at that."

Following Wang Ting's gaze, the sixth house was about thirty meters away from the fifth house.

This was a slightly larger house, but it had collapsed by almost half. The entire courtyard was completely covered by vines, climbing all the way from the yard to the roof. The green vines were as thick and heavy as a heavy cotton quilt, crushing the fragile fence and roof.

The vines wrapped around massive piles of skeletal remains. Among these vines, a few vines occasionally swayed slightly, posing like a snake dance—that was clearly sleeping Parasitic Fungus Vines.

Xiang Nan's pupils contracted slightly: "One, two, three..."

He gasped a breath of cold air, lowering his voice for fear of alarming these Parasitic Fungus Vines: "Just the ones we can count are eight. If there are more in other corners, it'll easily reach over a dozen. Boss, let's go back and call for backup."

Although every member of the security team had a rifle and they were all veterans who had experienced a certain amount of combat, a dozen Parasitic Fungus Vines were not impossible to deal with.

But they feared the unexpected; a sudden charge or improper containment could lead to accidents. Therefore, Xiang Nan naturally wanted to be safer and more prudent.

"You guys split left and right, aim at those exposed Parasitic Fungus Vines and start shooting to draw them all out. I can handle the rest; they won't be able to rush over."

Wang Ting rejected Xiang Nan's proposal, his knife-cut face exuding confidence.

Although there were quite a few Parasitic Fungus Vines, he was confident he could slay them all.

Xiang Nan was slightly stunned. He still had misgivings in his heart, but seeing Wang Ting's confidence, he nodded without hesitation.

"Understood."

The primary tenet of combat team members was to trust their teammates while executing orders.

The team quickly assembled. They were about thirty meters away from the opposite house, each finding cover, setting up their rifles, and staring unblinkingly at the Parasitic Fungus Vines.

With a bang, Wang Ting pulled the trigger of his rifle, and a bullet instantly flew out, piercing through the body of a Parasitic Fungus Vine.

The loud gunshot awakened all the sleeping Parasitic Fungus Vines. Rustling sounds continuously came from the cluster of vines, and that heavy layer of vines swayed like rolling waves.

"They're coming!"

Dense Parasitic Fungus Vines rushed out from among the vines—one, two, three, four... As many as a dozen Parasitic Fungus Vines rapidly charged toward them.

Team members continuously fired, quickly knocking down several Parasitic Fungus Vines rushing in the front. However, the number of a dozen-plus Parasitic Fungus Vines was simply too large, and their distance from the team was way too close.

Just a few breaths after the two sides engaged, seven or eight Parasitic Fungus Vines had already crawled to a distance two-thirds of the way towards them.

Xiang Nan and the others' expressions changed slightly. There was no longer time to finish off those Parasitic Fungus Vines with rifles, so several of them prepared to draw their machetes for close combat.

Wang Ting's figure was like a black panther, sweeping past them, raising his rifle, and pouncing right in front of the Parasitic Fungus Vines.

The oncoming Parasitic Fungus Vine was directly pierced through the body with a bang from the rifle in his hand. Four Parasitic Fungus Vines on the left wanted to pounce onto his feet, but the foremost one was kicked away by Wang Ting and then stomped on, directly crushing the core of the Parasitic Fungus Vine.

Wang Ting's movements became even fiercer. He drew a pistol from his waist, and utilizing the advantages of a short firearm, fired three or four shots in rapid succession, instantly killing the surrounding Parasitic Fungus Vines.

The remaining three slightly farther Parasitic Fungus Vines sensed that something was wrong and directly turned around to flee.

Wang Ting picked up his rifle again, continuously firing at those Parasitic Fungus Vines, one shot per kill. The steady gunfire seemed to pierce straight through everyone's hearts.

In just a few breaths of time, all the remaining Parasitic Fungus Vines were killed by his single-handed effort.

"Continue searching the houses, and watch out for the corners of the houses."

Wang Ting slowly put the pistol back into his waist holster, picked up his rifle again, and reminded everyone in the team.

Wang Ting's Vibration Perception could cover a range of 500 meters; the closer the distance, the clearer the perception.

But if the hidden monsters didn't make any other sounds or larger movements, he similarly wouldn't be able to detect them.

"Boss is awesome!"

The neat and clean killing movements and decisive reaction speed left Xiang Nan and the others dumbfounded. They couldn't help thinking in their hearts: "Could he have broken through again? Even Brother Hu's speed couldn't achieve this."