62: Chapter 62 The Strange Top Floor

Wang Ting dug a jade-green heart out of the Vine Skull's body.

The heart was only the size of a fist, much smaller than the Vine Skull's original coconut-sized heart. However, this smaller vine heart condensed an even richer concentration of extraordinary factors.

Sensing carefully, Wang Ting could vaguely feel these extraordinary factors forming many stable structures according to some unknown pattern.

Wang Ting felt a surge of joy: "This trip was worth it. But it's a pity—the Vine Skull from a few days ago was dragged away by something unknown."

The last time they came here, they had killed a group of Vine Parasite Corpses and Vine Skulls.

Although they took the extraordinary materials from the Vine Parasite Corpses, they left the corpses untouched. Now that they were all gone, they must have been dragged away and devoured by those monsters.

Wang Ting searched the Vine Skull's body again and found an extraordinary material—Vine Muscle Fiber.

Stashing the extraordinary core and material into his backpack, Wang Ting turned his gaze toward the other end of the atrium area.

That was where the staircase was located, deep down the corridor. Without hesitation, Wang Ting walked along the corridor toward it.

Going up via the atrium's escalator would have been a decent option as well.

Unfortunately, after the two Vine Skulls jumped down last time, they destroyed the stairs leading from the first floor to the second. A massive amount of vines wrapped around the escalators of the other floors, crisscrossing into a tangle with no room to step, making the path upward much more difficult.

After some consideration, Wang Ting naturally chose the traditional staircase that served as the emergency exit.

Faint footsteps echoed in the dim corridor. Every step he took brought an echo that sounded as if someone were following right behind him. It was a silence maddening enough to drive a person insane, yet Wang Ting remained calm, concentrating on sensing the vibrations throughout the entire floor.

"Is it because the difference between the building and the desert plateau structure affects Vibration Perception? I can still sense some sound on the second and third floors, but above that, I can't feel anything at all. This is a bit troublesome; I'll need to be extra cautious."

Vibration Perception was not omnipotent; it was an innate trait used by Sand Scorpions for hunting, best suited for desert and rocky plateau environments.

Vast, endless flat ground and continuous, dense gravel soil layers provided an excellent environment for Vibration Perception. But once transferred to a reinforced concrete building structure, the perception ability was greatly weakened.

Fortunately, Wang Ting had the Plant Control ability to complement it, allowing him to sense his surroundings through the plants within range, so his overall perception wasn't weakened too severely.

Wang Ting entered the stairwell and looked up.

The stairwell connecting the floors didn't have many windows, only small push-windows half a meter wide on the landings. Out the windows, one could vaguely see that they were covered in vines, letting in even less light and plunging the entire stairwell into an even dimmer environment.

The only redeeming factor was that because it was relatively enclosed, not many vines had spread into this area.

Wang Ting went up the stairs and reached the second floor.

The entrance was blocked by the emergency exit's iron door. Wang Ting didn't open it immediately; instead, he carefully sensed the situation outside the door.

Imperceptible vibrations emanated from the doorway. Sensing the situation outside through his plant supernatural ability, Wang Ting discovered two Vine Parasite Corpses in the corridor behind the fire door.

"I wonder if there's a supply point here," Wang Ting murmured, narrowing his eyes as he speculated about the second floor's environment. "I'll send you on your way first."

He immediately manipulated the vines to strike. The vines behind the fire door shot out like sudden green giant pythons, wrapping directly around the two Vine Parasite Corpses.

The Vine Parasite Corpses snapped awake and instinctively struggled, but in the next moment, rapidly growing vines wrapped around their necks. A flurry of vines surged into their mouths, choking off the growls they were about to let out.

After acquiring the Plant Growth trait, Wang Ting indeed controlled vines much more adeptly. The vines were spawned faster, grew more aggressively, and the originally slender stems became increasingly thick and strong.

Wang Ting pushed his ability further. Instantly, the vines acted like two giant hands tearing violently, snapping the necks of both Vine Parasite Corpses with a crisp crunch.

The vines slowly retracted, and those blocking the emergency exit door parted to the left and right.

With a creak, Wang Ting opened the fire door and quickly leaped out into the corridor.

He quickly scanned both sides of the hallway. The staircase was at the very end of the corridor, meaning there were no monsters behind him.

Looking down the entire vine-draped corridor toward the far end, however, he saw about eleven or twelve Vine Parasite Corpses standing there.

The noise Wang Ting made while killing the previous Vine Parasite Corpses had already alerted them.

At this moment, the dozen or so Vine Parasite Corpses in the hallway jerked their heads up, their blood-red eyes gleaming like stained glass. Growls echoed from their throats as they charged at Wang Ting.

Thump, thump!

Sounds of doors being slammed echoed continuously as numerous hideous Vine Parasite Corpses burst out from the examination rooms on the second floor.

"The umbilical vines aren't connected to the same place?"

Wang Ting's gaze sharpened as he swept his eyes over the thin umbilical vines attached to these Vine Parasite Corpses.

Nearly twenty Vine Parasite Corpses were charging down the corridor, but their long umbilical vines extended outwards to connect to vine branches in various areas, completely unlike the pharmacy where they were connected to a central vine tree.

Wang Ting didn't have time to dwell on the reason. The Vine Parasite Corpses had already rushed to less than five meters in front of him, their growls ringing right in his ears.

A cold sneer touched his lips, killing intent flashing in his eyes as he sprang into action.

The vines throughout the entire hallway went wild, shooting out one after another to trip the charging Vine Parasite Corpses to the ground.

Earth Vine Spike!

Wang Ting activated his skill, and thorned spikes erupted from the floor one after another, piercing right through the bodies of the Vine Parasite Corpses and impaling them in midair like dried meat.

A single strike skewered half of the Vine Parasite Corpses charging in front. Low, agonizing roars echoed—though they weren't dead yet, their vitality was like a candle in the wind, slowly fading away.

The remaining Vine Parasite Corpses rushed forward madly, their umbilical vines now snapped. The eyes of seven or eight Vine Parasite Corpses grew even more blood-red, becoming increasingly terrifying as their bodies swelled slightly thicker.

Seeing their transformation, Wang Ting's face turned stern. He actively charged forward as the vine skull tyrant blade transformed into vine blades and shot out, instantly piercing through the heads of three Vine Parasite Corpses.

Retracting the vine skull tyrant blade and converting it into short daggers, Wang Ting strode forward in huge bounds for close-quarters combat. The Vine Parasite Corpses were already immobilized by his manipulated vines; swinging his blades in crescent arcs, the blade lights cleaved their bodies in two, wiping them out in no time.

The corridor was left littered with severed limbs and thick, blood-like fluid after all the Vine Parasite Corpses were slain, returning the dim hallway to a dead silence.

Wang Ting walked past the bodies of the Vine Parasite Corpses. Without stopping to harvest extraordinary materials, he checked the departments one by one.

The second floor mainly consisted of triage and examination rooms. Its layout was somewhat more complex, but there were relatively fewer rooms and simpler equipment inside.

Wang Ting quickly glanced through them, unable to hide a hint of disappointment.

There were indeed sparse refreshed items in the rooms—he even spotted a brand-new Niebuhr Machete stuck in a desk—but there were no vine trees or large stashes of supplies like in the pharmacy.

"As expected, not every floor has a supply point, though the item refresh rate here is higher than in ordinary residential buildings."

Wang Ting looked across the atrium toward the third-floor corridor diagonally above. He could already see Vine Parasite Corpses waking up and beginning to move along the corridor.

"Time to head up."

He quickly located the stairwell and strode upstairs.

The battle on the second floor had given him a general understanding of the main Hospital building. Although there were many monsters upstairs, elite individuals like the Vine Skull were not present on every floor.

As for Vine Parasite Corpses and scattered Parasitic Fungus Vines, with his current overall strength, he could kill as many as came.

Wang Ting picked up his pace of slaughter. The third floor was mainly the radiology department, which had even fewer rooms; only about twenty to thirty wandering Vine Parasite Corpses and Parasitic Fungus Vines were present.

Stepping onto the third floor, Wang Ting showed no mercy. Vines formed a giant web blocking the entire corridor. As the monsters gathered and were about to break through the web, dozens of thorned spikes erupted from the ground, instantly impaling all the monsters.

Before the monsters were fully dead, the surrounding vines exerted force together like green pythons, strangling them to death.

In less than ten minutes, all anomalous monsters on the third floor were wiped out, their corpses piling up in the hallway and almost blocking the path.

Wang Ting searched the rooms on the third floor while recovering his stamina. After about ten minutes, he continued upward.

On the fourth floor, Wang Ting killed 24 Vine Parasite Corpses and 11 Parasitic Fungus Vines. Several thick vine trees grew around the inpatient department's nurse station, with vines extending outward into the patient rooms on both sides. Numerous supply items hung from this net-like vine structure.

Wang Ting was overjoyed; he had finally found another supply point.

The fifth floor was similar to the fourth—also an inpatient area. The patient rooms were crammed with vines, and Vine Parasite Corpses roamed the corridor, waiting for prey to walk right in.

Little did they know that what came was a god of death like Wang Ting.

After a spree of slaughter, Wang Ting cleared out the fifth floor monsters as well, leaving nothing behind but corpses across the floor.

"Something seems off about the sixth floor..."

Passing by the corpses of the Vine Parasite Corpses, under his Vibration Perception, he realized there wasn't the slightest movement on the sixth and seventh floors.

This was completely different from before. On the lower floors, his sounds of combat would usually awaken the monsters above.

The activity of the monsters would generate shock sources strong enough for him to pick up.

But now, it was dead silent upstairs.

Tightly gripping the vine skull tyrant blade, his eyes fell upon the stairs leading to the sixth floor as he walked up step by step.

Footsteps echoed in the stairwell. As he reached the entrance to the sixth floor and stepped inside, a sticky sensation suddenly came from underfoot, as if he had stepped on rotting leaves soaked in slime.

A foul stench drifted over as a terrifying vine lashed straight at Wang Ting.