60: Chapter 60 Second Outpost

If you're going to hack at monsters, you've got to bring the momentum for it.

The red-and-white ambulance parked horizontally in front of the stronghold indeed resembled a van at first glance.

As anyone experienced in street fights knows, if you want to head out and hack people up, you need a van like this—at least seven seats, maximum unknown.

Hearing Wang Ting's instructions, Ren Chuan didn't dare slack off. He immediately notified Feng Bo's team, who were preparing to go out searching, and a total of ten people, including Wang Ting, followed him to Hall Hospital.

As for today's exploration mission, Ren Chuan swapped in another team led by Lin Dagui to continue the search.

The reason for swapping in a different team to search rather than halting gathering operations entirely wasn't Ren Chuan acting double-faced.

Rather, with the training of the Outpost militia, the combat unit's manpower was now sufficient to support small-scale squad operations.

Routine exploration and gathering could not only secure a certain amount of supplies, but also train squad members and yield extraordinary materials by killing Parasitic Fungus Vines, killing three birds with one stone.

As the logistics chief of the Outpost Camp, Ren Chuan naturally wouldn't easily pass up any opportunity for exploration and gathering.

Once Wang Ting's group of ten gathered, they boarded two vehicles, stepped on the gas, and headed straight for Hall Hospital.

The vehicles moved quickly, and the vines along the way had already spread onto the streets.

Compared to the streets cleared ten days ago, the vines now seemed even denser, re-covering the path previously cleared.

This time, the squad didn't get out to search slowly; instead, they drove quickly along the previously cleared path.

Awakened by the noise of the driving vehicles, the Parasitic Fungus Vines tried to rush out to attack, but before they could reach the road, the vehicles had already passed them.

They wanted to give chase from behind, but before they could make a move, the surrounding vines suddenly seemed to come alive, tangling around their bodies. By the time they broke free, the two vehicles had left them far behind.

With Wang Ting's help, the vehicles quickly reached Hall Hospital. They slammed through the iron gates with a loud crash and parked smoothly inside the parking lot.

"Roar—"

Low roars echoed as Parasitic Fungus Vines appeared one after another in the parking lot.

The crowd opened the car doors, with Wang Ting stepping out first. Although the concentration of Parasitic Fungus Vines in the parking lot was not as terrifying as last time, there were still ten to twenty of them.

As they all emerged, Feng Bo and a few others raised their rifles, ready to open fire.

Wang Ting stopped them, however. Looking at the horde of Parasitic Fungus Vines scrambling toward them less than ten meters away, he activated his new skill—Earth Vine Spike.

The bared-claw Parasitic Fungus Vines lunged forward with an intense oppressive aura, as if intending to tear Wang Ting's group of ten to shreds.

Yet right at that moment, several vines covered in sharp thorns coalesced from the ground, suddenly shooting up like spears sprouting from the earth.

With a series of whooshing sounds, the vines pierced through the bodies of the Parasitic Fungus Vines from below, splashing blood all over the ground.

The dark green vines stood like spears planted in the ground. None of the seventeen Parasitic Fungus Vines escaped, pierced through in an instant by these thorn spikes.

'How is that possible? Has the captain's strength reached such a level?'

The accompanying team members were all dumbfounded, shock written across their faces as they stared blankly at the Parasitic Fungus Vines impaled mid-air.

Wang Ting hadn't moved an inch, and all the Parasitic Fungus Vines in front of him had been utterly defeated. The thorn spikes left behind by Earth Vine Spike stood like nameless tombstones.

With a wave of Wang Ting's hand, his power dissipated, and the dark green thorn vines impaling the Parasitic Fungus Vines slowly vanished.

The seventeen corpses of the Parasitic Fungus Vines thudded to the ground, green blood leaking out to form a green puddle.

"Xiang Nan, stop dazing off and clean up these Parasitic Fungus Vine corpses. Old Feng, take five men and follow me. We're going to search over there."

Instead of heading directly to the main Hospital building, Wang Ting looked at the two-story building on the right—Hall Hospital's cafeteria building.

The building had only two floors. Part of the first floor served as the cafeteria's warehouse while the other part housed the Hospital's logistics equipment; the second floor was the Hospital's actual cafeteria.

"Alright."

Feng Bo immediately called Fu Xing, Huang Han, and three others, following closely behind Wang Ting.

Wang Ting strode toward the cafeteria building, carefully sensing any monsters that might be inside.

He kicked open the cafeteria building's door. The metal door clanged loudly, and the Parasitic Fungus Vines hidden inside emerged one by one.

"Attack!"

Wang Ting issued the command and dashed out first. This time, he didn't use the power of Earth Vine Spike; instead, a domineering green broadsword suddenly appeared in his right hand.

The blade was about 70 centimeters long and 15 centimeters wide, dark green all over. Though held single-handedly by Wang Ting, numerous green vines sprouted from the hilt, growing upward and clasping Wang Ting's hand tightly like arms, binding so closely that it seemed to fuse with his right hand as a single part—this was the vine skull tyrant blade.

Facing the ambush of the Parasitic Fungus Vines, Wang Ting swung the vine skull tyrant blade in his hand. A green blade arc flashed, cleaving a Parasitic Fungus Vine in two before it could react.

When a slightly further Parasitic Fungus Vine tried to attack, Wang Ting slashed out. The blade, originally only sixty or seventy centimeters long, suddenly transformed into vines, extending to about three meters with a swoosh. Thin and sharp, glowing faintly with green light, the blade looked as if carved from vines. With a whirring sound, the blade rotated, slaughtering the Parasitic Fungus Vine.

Wang Ting's gaze swept over the empty shelves that had once held food. The shelves lay overturned, pots and pans littered the ground, and vines infested every corner, having slithered in through unknown cracks.

The power-cut freezer had yellowed with the passage of time, invaded by vines. The contents inside had gone bad long ago, rotting, evaporating completely, and drying into a shriveled, pitch-black mass, in which a few bone-shaped black lumps were faintly visible.

Wang Ting sensed the condition inside the warehouse; apart from the Parasitic Fungus Vines from earlier, there were no other monsters.

"Fu Xing, check the left. Huang Han, search the right. Everyone be careful."

Feng Bo ordered the squad members to conduct a quick search of the warehouse. After looking around, the team members only found a single unopened pack of instant noodles in a corner.

"Captain, no other supplies."

"Search the other supply warehouse. Once you're done, head up to the second floor. There shouldn't be many monsters in this cafeteria building."

"Understood."

Feng Bo nodded and led the rest of the squad toward the adjacent warehouse immediately.

Because it was sealed, the other warehouse didn't have many Parasitic Fungus Vines either. It seemed these Parasitic Fungus Vines hadn't entered from outside, but were self-spawned after the vines spread indoors.

This warehouse was even more barren, filled haphazardly with tools like brooms and shovels that Hospital logistics might use, with no refreshed supplies either.

While Feng Bo and the others were searching the first floor, Wang Ting headed up to the second floor ahead of them.

The door on the second floor stood wide open, with vines creeping up from the edges of the walls and extending inside through the windows and doorway.

Wang Ting pushed open the cafeteria door. A clattering noise echoed instantly as Parasitic Fungus Vines knocked over tables and chairs inside, rapidly approaching Wang Ting.

Calm-faced, Wang Ting walked toward them step by step.

As a Parasitic Fungus Vine lunged at him, Wang Ting grabbed it with his large hand and tore its tentacle vines apart. A Parasitic Fungus Vine on his left tried to wrap around his arm, but he smashed forward with a punch, shattering its body directly.

With his current strength, the Parasitic Fungus Vines couldn't withstand even a single punch and were beaten to death outright.

There were quite a few Parasitic Fungus Vines on the second-floor cafeteria—seven or eight in total. They all swarmed to surround Wang Ting, but half of them were killed in an instant.

The remaining few tried to confront and maneuver around him, but with a thought from Wang Ting, vine nets instantly ensnared them, and he stepped forward with the vine skull tyrant blade, killing them one by one.

The wanton slaughter and thrilling combat brought Wang Ting a sense of exhilaration—a thrill of controlling his own strength.

Enhanced by the triple buffs of Scarecrow Physique, virus potion, and Vine Beast Body, Wang Ting truly realized the terrifying power contained within his physical body.

The entire cafeteria building was now dead silent; all the monsters had been slain by him.

He looked around. Vines were faintly visible reaching every corner inside and outside the building, resembling a green cage.

"This place is actually suitable to serve as a temporary stronghold."

Wang Ting smiled, then began to fully activate the trait of his Primary Plant Control.

The vines covering the entire building began to grow frantically. Constantly shifting positions, intertwining and climbing like sea waves across the walls, they sealed off every door, window, crack, and hole that led into the cafeteria building, leaving only the staircase to the second floor and the entrance door on the first floor.

The vines in Vine Town seemed to contain more extraordinary factors than ordinary plants.

Even with Wang Ting urging them so intensely, the vitality of the vines wasn't exhausted; instead, they appeared an even deeper, lush green.

In just ten-odd minutes, the entire cafeteria building was transformed by Wang Ting into a plant bunker completely enclosed by vines.

And such a vine fortress was a transfer station specifically built by Wang Ting for Abnormal Entity corpses.