51: Chapter 51 Inward Exploration

Within the camp, there were only 20 mature Guard Team members.

They were all veteran members of the Scarecrow Town Guard Team, possessing good physical fitness, strong combat abilities, and relatively rich field exploration experience, making them veterans who could directly participate in combat.

Wang Ting organized his subordinates to build relatively complete fortifications for the camp and stronghold so that he could pull out more Guard Team personnel, but 20 people were still stretched thin compared to the operations he wanted to launch.

Fortunately, after getting his permission, Dong Hu immediately selected 20 strong men with a bit of courage from the camp to become the militia in the camp.

Although the combat effectiveness of the militia team could not compare to the Guard Team, it was more than enough for them to undertake some simple defensive tasks.

Wang Ting thus gained the opportunity to mobilize more manpower.

He immediately appointed Feng Bo and Xiang Nan as his deputies, and together with 7 Guard Team members including Xu Yan, formed a 10-person team, stepping out of the Vine Town stronghold.

Wang Ting was wearing sand scorpion armor, and his equipment was mainly rifles and pistols. Besides that, his main weapon was crossbow arrows.

The other members of the team were also wearing combat uniforms with serious expressions, following behind Wang Ting.

"These vines are growing way too fast. We haven't come out for just a few days, and the vines have already spread to the street."

Dark green vines spread out from the courtyards of the abandoned houses, extending all the way to the road surface.

The vine-covered scene exuded a kind of desolation, and the houses covered by them exuded even more loneliness and coldness, as if more monsters were hidden within them.

However, just a few days ago, they had just searched these houses and cleaned up many vines at that time, far from being as desolate as they looked now.

"The vines here are probably inexhaustible; only through our continuous suppression is it possible to suppress them."

Feng Bo had long seen through it; the rule of this Floor World was probably vines.

Just like the Scarecrow Farm floor, there would always be endless weeds and continuously popping up Scarecrows. All they could do was suppress, suppress again, and there was no other way besides that.

Wang Ting glanced around the houses, his gaze falling on the supply houses marked with black triangle symbols.

"Let's go check if those houses have refreshed supplies first."

"Understood."

The houses with black marks were all houses where refreshed supplies were found in the previous round of searches. The reason for making the mark was to see if they would respawn in the same place when searching again, to verify the rules of supply respawning.

There were a total of four houses with black marks, and their locations were not far apart.

The group quickly approached with cautious movements. Although it was a cleared area, after so many days, Parasitic Fungus Vines had already lurked nearby. If they lowered their guard, accidents might happen.

Wang Ting was right in the team with Vibration Perception fully activated, and the hiding places of the Parasitic Fungus Vines were all found out by him in advance.

The team members quickly struck and killed them according to his prompts, and then entered the houses one by one to search.

The team only took half an hour to finish searching several houses along the route.

Feng Bo brought things over to Wang Ting. With a somewhat poor expression, he handed Wang Ting a bag and a Black Star pistol.

"Only one of the four houses refreshed items, and the location was different from what was recorded last time. There was only a bag of bread and a pistol. Xiang Nan actually saw a case of beer in the courtyard of another house."

"Does that mean the supply respawn locations are not fixed? In such a large area, it seems we can only keep sending people in to search."

Wang Ting frowned slightly. Unfixed respawn locations meant that the difficulty of supply searching had increased by a large margin.

Feng Bo sighed, "It seems to be the case for now; we can only keep searching. But at least the respawn frequency and items are not too low."

Xiang Nan asked, "Captain, the surrounding houses, we..."

"There are quite a few surrounding houses, and we don't have time to search them one by one. There aren't many Parasitic Fungus Vines in this area. If we search for supplies later, we can regularly dispatch teams over."

Wang Ting's gaze crossed the block and landed on the center of Vine Town.

The white high-rise building stood tall like a clock tower, covered by vines, and a red cross mark was faintly visible printed on the white wall.

"Our target today is the Hospital, and we can't waste our energy here. Follow me closely and be careful on the way. There are more Parasitic Fungus Vines in the town center area, and there will definitely be Thorn Vine Beasts."

Everyone's expressions tightened as they nodded solemnly.

Wang Ting led the team across the empty horizontal street; the long road was the dividing line between the residential community and the town center.

The team gradually went deeper, parting the vines on the ground and inching their way along the street toward the town center.

The buildings on both sides got closer and uneven in height, and the shop windows and glass doors were also covered with dark green vines.

The houses here were no longer residential houses, but small shops on the street selling various goods.

Roughly 15 meters away from the team, Wang Ting could still faintly see a donut shop completely covered by vines. The huge donut decoration was already old and mottled, completely hollowed out by vines, exuding an aura of decay.

Rustling sounds rang out from time to time, as if gloomy gazes were watching them.

"The trash can 3 meters to the front left, the streetlight on the right, take them out. Everyone walk along the middle of the road, watch out for the Parasitic Fungus Vines in the shops nearby, and don't wake them up, otherwise we'll all have to retreat."

Not all Parasitic Fungus Vines in Vine Town were in a state of awakening.

With Wang Ting's reminder, those Parasitic Fungus Vines blocking the path of necessity were quickly locked onto their positions by Feng Bo and Xu Yan using crossbow arrows.

With a soft swoosh, the crossbow arrow pierced through the air and instantly hit the core. The sleeping Parasitic Fungus Vine fell to the ground with a thump and immediately lost all breath.

The two walked up quickly, neatly slicing open the corpse of the Parasitic Fungus Vine with a knife, and began searching for its bodily materials.

Their luck seemed to be not so good, as they didn't find any supernatural materials on the Parasitic Fungus Vine.

They could only pull out the arrows, casually wipe off the blood on them, and then quietly return to the team.

Wang Ting waved his hand and led the team forward.

He did not deliberately control the vines spreading to his side to make way for the team, but rather preserved his strength as much as possible.

Good steel should be used on the cutting edge; just traveling didn't require controlling plants to clear the way.

However, even without controlling plants, relying on the traits of Primary Plant Control, he could still perceive the Parasitic Fungus Vines hidden among the vines.

Coupled with Vibration Perception's ability to capture vibrations, the surrounding Parasitic Fungus Vines were almost inescapable, and the team could always find the safest path to advance toward the town center.

The whole team marched quickly, and before long they had arrived at the area in the town center.

Wang Ting's gaze swept across the surrounding buildings. That sense of suffocation became more and more real; the further they went toward the town center, the heavier the vine coverage became, as if shrouded in a thick shadow.

The street was already full of vines, and there was hardly any place to set foot.

The vines were intertwined, forming a large net that blocked the path forward. It was a very difficult task to simply push them aside.

Because hidden among these vines were at least seven or eight Parasitic Fungus Vines.

Although they were sleeping, as long as someone moved the vines, that movement would definitely wake them up, and by then, the Parasitic Fungus Vines hidden in the surrounding houses would also be attracted.

Feng Bo lowered his voice, "Captain, are we going to take a detour or...?"

The Hospital not far away was already clearly visible. As long as they crossed this intersection and walked another one or two hundred meters, they could reach the Hospital.

But if they had to take a detour, they would have to squeeze into another alley, walking a much longer distance, and the environment in the alley might not be better than here.

"I'll do it."

Wang Ting hadn't done it himself all the way. Now that the vines and Parasitic Fungus Vines were blocking the front of the team, since they couldn't bypass them, they might as well just start fighting directly.

He immediately activated the traits of his Primary Plant Control, and the surrounding plants seemed to become soldiers under his command.

The vines moved instantly, fiercely wrapping around the Parasitic Fungus Vines.

The unawakened Parasitic Fungus Vines were directly bound by the vines, intertwining with their bodies like a green fishing net, directly enwrapping them.

The Parasitic Fungus Vines woke up abruptly, but it was already too late. Before they even had time to let out a roar, their blood-stained mouths were already stuffed with a large amount of vines, blocking their roars.

"Shoot."

Xiang Nan lowered his voice and directly fired a crossbow arrow. Those Parasitic Fungus Vines were being pulled apart by the vines and had no way to dodge at all.

Swooshing piercing sounds rang out, and the Parasitic Fungus Vines were directly pierced by the crossbow arrows.

Three or four of the seven or eight Parasitic Fungus Vines were shot and killed instantly. The remaining ones were hidden deeper, covered by vines, and the crossbow arrows missed their mark on the first strike, failing to kill them.

Wang Ting did not give these surviving Parasitic Fungus Vines a second chance. The vines attacked with full force, and every single vine burst out with terrifying power, directly tearing them to pieces, scattering dismembered limbs all over the ground.

Once the Parasitic Fungus Vines were completely wiped out, the vines controlled by Wang Ting retreated to the sides, instantly yielding a path on the old street like a curtain being uncurled.

"Keep moving forward."

Wang Ting called out to the team to keep moving forward. Their actions were faster and more decisive.

The team's coordination became increasingly tacit. When Parasitic Fungus Vines suddenly attacked along the way, Wang Ting didn't even need to give verbal instructions; he only needed to signal with his fingers, and the people behind immediately fired crossbow arrows to kill the Parasitic Fungus Vines.

They bypassed a small intersection and finally arrived in front of the dilapidated Hospital.

The heavy iron gate was completely covered by vines. The white Hospital building exuded a sense of mottled decay. Vines were everywhere on the outer perimeter of the Hospital, and the thickest vines were as thick as a forearm, much thicker than the surrounding vines.

"Look quickly in the courtyard, that car seems to be new."