61: Chapter 61 Retaking the Main Building

The changes to the cafeteria building startled Feng Bo and the others once again.

Wang Ting called them all inside and said, "I've sealed off the building with vines, leaving only the main entrance accessible. Keep a good watch on the main door, and those Parasitic Fungus Vines won't be able to get in. This will serve nicely as our second temporary foothold to help us explore the town center."

"Do we need to leave someone stationed here permanently?"

"The conditions here aren't suitable for long-term residence."

Wang Ting shook his head. "It's just a temporary foothold, meant as a transit point. The Hospital has supply points, and quite a few supplies refresh around here. Once things stabilize, the town center will become a crucial area for hunting anomalous entities, so we need a place to rest."

He paused briefly. "I'll take the lead in clearing the monsters in the Hospital's main building. Any monster remains or supply materials you don't have time to handle right away can be stored here, and you can process them at your own pace."

If this were near the Vine Town foothold, doing short-term exploration around the area wouldn't require a staging point like this.

But they were currently in the town center, which wasn't close to the Vine Town foothold. Plus, Hall Hospital was very likely to have multiple supply points, meaning there should be plenty of materials to collect. Running back and forth repeatedly would not only hinder gathering supplies, but it would also make it inconvenient for Wang Ting to clear the entire Hospital.

Hall Hospital consisted of three main structures—the main building, the administrative building, and the cafeteria building—plus several surrounding structures. Even going at full tilt, clearing it all would probably take a day or two.

Xiang Nan finished cleaning up the remains of those Parasitic Fungus Vines, digging out four extraordinary materials in total.

Seeing the cafeteria building transformed into something resembling a fortress, he marvelled in astonishment, thinking to himself: If we had had this capability earlier, setting up the foothold back then wouldn't have been so grueling.

"Captain, clearing the main building all by yourself is way too dangerous."

Hearing that Wang Ting intended to tear through Hall Hospital's main building alone, Feng Bo immediately spoke up to stop him.

He knew Wang Ting was powerful, but the sight of the violent Vine Skull from that day was still fresh in his memory. No matter how strong Wang Ting was, fighting outnumbered would likely still be dangerous.

"That's right, Captain. Out of everyone in the camp, you're the one person who can't afford to have anything happen to you. Those monsters are tough, but we can exchange our resources for a batch of heavy weaponry. Once we're fully prepared, we can kill them all."

From their continuous clearing efforts, Outpost Camp had actually accumulated quite a surplus of supplies like medications and extraordinary materials. Even after splitting the extraordinary materials fifty-fifty with Scarecrow Town, a significant amount remained.

"Heavy weapons have to be bought on the Black Market, and we don't have that much time. Once we deal with Hall Hospital, we'll go take a look at the Black Market."

Visiting the Black Market was inevitable sooner or later. It had things Wang Ting wanted: more information about Infinite Building, more monsters, and possibly extraordinary potions.

Having the entire combat squad continuously gather supply drops and stockpile extraordinary materials was actually Wang Ting's way of preparing for the Black Market. Of course, most important of all was his own physical prowess; he kept enhancing his individual strength so he would have more leverage and confidence when going there.

"Don't worry, if there's danger, I'll retreat. I'll clear one floor, and you guys follow up on that floor; that'll be the fastest way. After completing the initial suppression, the rest can be left to you to handle at your own pace."

At present, Vine Town was completely unexplored, with a massive number of monsters gathered inside—practically a monster amusement park.

If Wang Ting could lead the team to complete the first round of clearing, things would be much better.

Although monsters would still continuously spawn on the floors, their numbers, density, and threat level would decrease significantly.

When that time came, everything would be within a controllable range for Outpost Camp, just like the residential area next to the current foothold, which could be searched and cleared periodically.

Only if an abnormal rampage occurred and the monster population surged dramatically would further suppression be necessary.

Seeing how resolute Wang Ting was, everyone realized this was indeed the best approach, and Feng Bo could only nod in agreement.

He said gravely, "When you're on the second floor, we'll search the first floor. Half the squad will be on guard while the other half searches, making sure we can support you at any moment. We'll park the ambulance and the car outside, ready to evacuate at any time."

Wearing his sand scorpion armor and gripping the vine skull tyrant blade in his right hand, Wang Ting strode into the Hospital's main building, his gaze sharp as a blade.

Watching Wang Ting's departing back, Xiang Nan and the others immediately grabbed their rifles, the squad following closely behind. Although they kept some distance, the worry etched between their brows could not be hidden.

"Xiang Nan, we'd better not follow too closely,"

Xu Yan quietly reminded Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan frowned. "If we don't follow closely, what happens if the boss can't beat them in a bit? You saw those two monsters yourself—each of them can flip a car."

Xu Yan took a deep breath, equal concern showing in his eyes. "But if a fight starts and spills over to us, the boss will have to split his focus."

Xiang Nan froze for a moment, then cursed, "Fuck, if I'd known, I would've brought grenades along too."

Xiang Nan also knew that ordinary rifles couldn't stop a behemoth like a Vine Skull, aside from drawing a bit of attention.

So the squad slowed their pace, following Wang Ting into the main Hospital building from a distance. As they watched him march into the depths of the corridor holding his massive blade, they couldn't help but sweat for him.

Meanwhile, Wang Ting felt out the sources of vibration on the main building's first floor. There weren't many tremor sources, and their layout wasn't complex; he wondered if those monsters were sleeping.

He first passed by the location of the pharmacy and glanced over. Although vines were growing, only a single day had passed, so no refreshed supplies were found, nor were any new Parasitic Fungus Vines or Vine Parasite Corpses in sight.

"It seems that even supply points need time to gestate and refresh," Wang Ting mused. "I just don't know whether it starts refreshing only after clearing all the monsters on the floor, or if killing the Vine Parasite Corpse is enough."

Pondering the rules of supply respawning, Wang Ting didn't pause his steps, continuing toward the atrium area.

His footsteps echoed through the empty Hospital corridor, each step resounding loudly.

In the atrium, two Vine Skulls sensing the footsteps abruptly raised their heads, letting out low growls from deep in their throats.

Fully alerted, they snapped their gazes toward the deep end of the corridor, where Wang Ting's figure emerged.

At that moment, the two behemoths let out fierce roars and charged toward Wang Ting, their heavy footsteps thundering thud-thud-thud.

The Vine Skulls were like two runaway dump trucks, their lunging forms looking ready to crush Wang Ting's tiny silhouette against the hallway.

Wang Ting let out a cold sneer, his gaze sharpening.

Facing two behemoths vying to crush him, the stifling pressure rushing over didn't frighten him in the least; instead, he felt eager to test his mettle.

With a wave of his massive hand, dark green thorny vines abruptly shot up from the floor, piercing into the body of the lead Vine Skull with a sharp swish.

Its massive body jolted to a halt and crashed heavily onto the ground.

Wang Ting activated his Plant Control ability. The vines grew frantically, swarming over the Vine Skull in an instant.

The Vine Skull struggled to get up, but the soles of its feet had been impaled by Earth Vine Spikes, and several dark green thorny spikes were impaling its abdomen as well.

While that Vine Skull struggled helplessly on the floor, the other Vine Skull lunged forward with wide strides, reaching out its massive hand to grab Wang Ting.

Wang Ting crouched low and sprung off his feet like a compressed spring, kicking directly into the Vine Skull.

Wang Ting's kick was immensely heavy; with his strength reaching around two to three tons now, he could flip a small sedan, let alone a single Vine Skull.

The kick blasted the creature backward through the air. With a booming crash, it slammed hard into the floor, fracturing the ground beneath it.

Wang Ting didn't pause. The Vine Skull pierced by the thorny spikes was barely two meters away; he swung the vine skull tyrant blade directly, its terrifying edge plunging straight through the creature's body and slaying it instantly.

As the kicked Vine Skull struggled to stand back up, Wang Ting willed another Earth Vine Spike into action.

A dense cluster of thorny vine spikes burst up from the floor, driving straight through the Vine Skull's head in an instant. The massive body twitched briefly before going completely still.

"If I hadn't exchanged for the Vine Beast Body, I really couldn't use this Earth Vine Spike too many times. The energy consumption is no joke."

Wang Ting could feel the strain on his extraordinary energy and mental power. In a continuous battle, given his current level of extraordinary energy, he could probably only use Earth Vine Spike three or four more times. And that was only because he had obtained the Vine Beast Body to give him this level of endurance.

Having recovered a bit of stamina, he dispersed the thorny spikes of the Earth Vine Spike and walked over to the first Vine Skull closest to him.

The vine skull tyrant blade attached to his right arm sliced open the Vine Skull's body. Under his control, vines acted like dozens of hands rummaging through the creature's corpse, quickly pulling out three sets of extraordinary materials.

"Active Vine, Ironwood Spine, Vine Muscle Fiber..."

The names were naturally given by Wang Ting.

This actually had nothing to do with his "Collector" golden finger trait; in this post-apocalyptic setting, extraordinary materials dropped by monsters were named in a straightforward, brute-force manner: combining the material's traits with its category formed its name.

The amount and quality of extraordinary factors contained in a material, as well as whether it possessed a sufficiently active and intact Extraordinary Core structure, determined whether it was classified as ordinary monster material, extraordinary material, or an Extraordinary Core.

Naming them was simple enough, but knowing how to use extraordinary materials and understanding their specific traits required professional personnel.

Even Scarecrow Town couldn't possibly possess researchers to study extraordinary materials. Only shelter cities like Jumu City could afford to maintain large numbers of researchers.

However, Wang Ting had heard from Feng Bo and the others that the Black Market and some larger shelter towns maintained a few researchers. Although their technology couldn't match Jumu City's, they were still capable of concocting potions. The extraordinary potions circulating on the Black Market were very likely created by their hands.

Wang Ting stashed the extraordinary materials and walked toward the second Vine Skull.

"Anyone who can put these extraordinary materials to use is a real talent. Whether it's extraordinary potions or extraordinary items, none of them are simple. I wonder how effective they are."

He wouldn't look down on this extraordinary power, which human civilization had relied upon for survival across centuries from the old civilization to the wasteland apocalypse.

In such a harsh environment, for those shelter cities to stand tall on the wasteland and resist Infinite Building, their extraordinary power could not be understated.

He believed in his Collector System, but he also knew he had to actively master the extraordinary powers of the wasteland—knowing both himself and his enemy was the key to remaining undefeated.

Thinking this through, Wang Ting swung his vine skull tyrant blade and dissected the corpse of the second Vine Skull.

As the blade sliced down, he suddenly felt a slight resistance. Digging out the object, his eyes instantly lit up, and a smile broke across his face.

"Another Extraordinary Core."