50: Chapter 50 Devouring

The Wall of Thousand Vines did not appear as cold as a lifeless object.

Instead, the vines composing the city wall faintly showed traces of writhing, just like a living top predator waiting for prey to crash into it.

Dong Hu's eyes revealed a hint of eagerness, and he immediately agreed, nodding as he picked up his rifle.

With a bang.

That foremost zombie had its head directly pierced by a bullet, and pitch-black blood splashed out, scattering onto the ground.

The loud gunshot instantly shattered the tranquility of the wasteland.

The zombies that were previously just marching forward seemed to have received a calling; their eyes instantly turned fierce, their bloody mouths opened wide, and they let out deep and wild roars.

They suddenly seemed to launch an attack, pouncing fiercely toward the direction of the city wall one after another, over fifty zombies converging into a surging wave of beasts.

The Guard Team members on the city wall couldn't help tightening their grips on their guns, their fingertips turning white, and subconsciously wanted to open fire and knock down all these charging zombies.

But remembering that Wang Ting said he wanted to test the power of this vine city wall, they didn't dare to act rashly without Wang Ting's order.

Wang Ting and the others stared closely at the charging figures of the zombies, also revealing a hint of anticipation.

The seven or eight zombies rushing at the very front quickly reached a position less than 40 meters away from the city wall.

The extended vines had long since grown into this area, and one of the zombies stepped on a vine, instantly activating the countless vines of the Wall of Thousand Vines.

Without Wang Ting controlling them, the sparse vines on the ground began to move slowly.

With a swish, they trapped the zombies' ankles.

The bodies of the two zombies that rushed the fiercest tilted directly, and they instantly fell to the ground.

The zombies roared and began to struggle to get up.

However, the ground was covered everywhere with vines extending from the Wall of Thousand Vines. The moment they fell, the vines continuously wrapped around them like green arms, starting from their arms, waists, and necks, bit by bit winding them into a green cocoon and slowly devouring them.

Because the vines of the outermost Wall of Thousand Vines were too sparse, the entanglement force was not very strong.

Except for the two zombies that completely fell and were bound to the ground by the vines, the remaining zombies, although also staggered by the vines, did not completely stop their steps.

More zombies rushed into the vine area, and the sparse vines could not completely block them, so zombie after zombie rushed to the edge of the city wall.

They roared and slammed into the city wall, but this crash instead gave an opportunity to the vines on the city wall.

The vines stretched out fiercely, directly pulling these colliding zombies onto the city wall.

Snap!

That huge vine broke the zombies' spines like an iron cable, and roars continued to ring out, but soon, the roars of the zombies were completely submerged by the vines.

Countless vines drilled into the facial features of the zombies, and a sound like squeezing a ripe tomato rang out; the internal organs and brains of the zombies were directly crushed into pieces by the vines drilling into their bodies.

The roars still lingered in their ears, but the group of zombies under the city wall were now scattered and in disarray.

Some had their hands and feet bound, trapped a few meters away from the city wall, while others were directly bound on the city wall, their broken bones piercing pale flesh and exposing bone stubs stained with dirty blood.

A strange feeling surged into the hearts of all Guard Team members, as if the wall beneath their feet had now turned into a monster that devoured living beings.

A sense of security and worry unexpectedly intertwined, forming their complex feelings at this moment.

'What a terrifying city wall. Unless it is a large-yield bomb, no one can lightly breach this city wall.'

Dong Hu put himself in the perspective of a besieger, exhausting all methods and trying over and over in his heart: if he were outside the city wall, how should he breach this stronghold?

He racked his brains, and finally found in vain that if he just followed conventional tactics, having people make frontal assaults or forcefully climbing the city wall, then waiting for him would be a dead end.

Even if ordinary explosives like grenades were used, they would probably only blast some vines of the Wall of Thousand Vines into pieces, blowing a moderately-sized sunken pit out of this earthen wall; besides that, there was no other way.

The vines of the Wall of Thousand Vines seemed to take root and sprout, and those thin vines as thick as electric wires directly plunged into the bodies of the zombies.

Visibly to the naked eye, the flesh and blood of the zombies slowly shriveled up, being gradually absorbed as nutrients by the Wall of Thousand Vines.

The vines that were snapped due to the zombies' struggles and biting were now slowly healing, and in places where they grew relatively thinly, vines were also slowly growing out.

Wang Ting was very satisfied with the performance of the Wall of Thousand Vines, revealing a happy smile.

With such a city wall, even if wasteland bandits brought a large force to attack, the Outpost Camp could hold out for a long time.

Wang Ting also wanted to try letting the Wall of Thousand Vines extend all the way through the stair passageway to become the perimeter wall of the stronghold.

But he only thought about it and quickly dismissed the idea.

The wall range that the Wall of Thousand Vines could cover was only a few hundred meters. Even if he controlled the Wall of Thousand Vines to extend into Vine Town, the perimeter area it could cover was actually only a short portion.

If the stronghold occupied the usable area, it would end up affecting the use of the outpost's perimeter wall in the real world, so he simply focused on the Outpost Camp.

As for the Vine Town stronghold perimeter wall, although he couldn't get a new Wall of Thousand Vines, he himself had means to control vines.

After entering the stronghold, Wang Ting immediately used his primary plant control ability to manipulate the vines around the perimeter wall, making them spread bit by bit toward the already constructed perimeter wall.

They intertwined with each other, tying the perimeter wall even more tightly like ropes.

The perimeter wall, which was already solid enough, became even more impregnable at this moment.

The clearing of the suburban woods had entered its final stage. In the subsequent extermination, a total of 134 Parasitic Fungus Vines were killed, and the number of extraordinary materials harvested was not high, only 18 portions.

According to the fifty-fifty split, 9 portions of this batch of 18 portions had to be given to the Shelter side, and the extraordinary materials belonging to the Outpost Camp's disposal were only 9 portions. Converted into bullets, it was about 2,700 rounds; if it were energy blocks, then it would be at most 5,400 energy blocks.

Counting ordinary laborers, residents, Guard Team members, and members of the medical group and Supplies Group, the entire camp had a total of 239 people.

The energy blocks needed to be expended daily were at least 880 blocks, nearly 900 blocks.

Although a large part of these energy blocks was borne by the Shelter—this was part of the transaction between Wang Ting and Zhao Kun and the others—there were still 50 people among them, and the 150 energy blocks they expended daily needed to be borne by the Outpost Camp itself.

The consumption of 50 people amounted to 4,500 energy blocks a month, which was just about equal to the resource value corresponding to 9 portions of extraordinary materials.

Wang Ting looked at the data reported by Ren Chuan, and for a moment his heart became even more urgent.

"We still have to constantly open up and explore. Just grinding it out like this, when on earth can we save up more extraordinary materials?"

Extraordinary materials were of great use to him. Their use was not necessarily entirely in advancing to extraordinary, but rather in their exchange value.

More trucks, weapons, bullets, medicine, population, food... these all required extraordinary materials to exchange.

With extraordinary materials, one could possess most things in the apocalypse, even—monsters.

As long as there were enough extraordinary materials, it was not impossible to trade with other Shelters for living monsters.

Monsters were the foundation of all his power.

Now only a dozen or so monster points could be settled a day. Although it was not a few, compared to his demand, it was far from enough.

Thinking of this, Wang Ting's heart became somewhat unable to hold back. One more kind of monster meant one more batch of monster points.

"There are also the supplies that can refresh in Vine Town, which are also the major bulk of exchange."

Wang Ting narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the crude map of Vine Town in front of him, and his gaze instantly locked onto the Hospital.

The straight-line distance from the Hospital to them was less than two kilometers, and the vines covering it were slightly fewer than those at the outpost.

"The Hospital is a good place. If supplies really refresh there and a large amount of medical supplies can be obtained, then there will be countless things that can be exchanged."

Wang Ting muttered a sentence, his gaze already burning with expression. It was also time to go out and move around.