From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!

Chapter 253 - 244: Beware of a Trap

The scene was utterly breathtaking.

It wasn’t until another aftershock hit and the ground began to shake violently again that everyone snapped back to their senses.

Just now... Gu Xi had been so powerful!

Meanwhile, Gu Xi had already started walking toward the fissure that had split open in the ruins. The zombies had crawled out of that fissure earlier. The earthquake must have collapsed an underground structure, causing some Hibernation Chambers to open by accident...

In other words, a batch of Hibernation Chambers was somewhere nearby.

But that last wave of zombies was only a few dozen... It wasn’t a huge number, but it wasn’t small either. Gu Xi couldn’t be sure if there were more deep underground.

’I’ll have to go down and see for myself.’

On his end, Yang Liu was already calmly piloting a drone to follow her.

The fissure was deep. Gu Xi didn’t jump in rashly. After giving her a heads-up via the drone, Yang Liu piloted it in first.

But the feed soon started to lag, and a moment later, it went completely dark.

"Captain, there’s a signal jammer down there!" Yang Liu said, turning to look at Ye Junhan.

Ye Junhan stood beside him and glanced at the time.

There was still over an hour until dawn.

The rain was too heavy and the aftershocks were constant. Ye Junhan decided to wait until dawn to take his team down to investigate.

Although the area was open, the continuous aftershocks made the ground shake violently. Everyone quickly got back in their vehicles to be ready for any unexpected situations.

But Gu Xi hadn’t returned. After issuing a series of orders, Ye Junhan strode off in her direction.

Meanwhile, Yang Liu strapped signal boosters to a few more drones and sent them flying toward the fissure.

This time, the drones didn’t risk diving into the chasm. Instead, they flew along its edge, splitting off to either side to monitor the entire area above it in real-time.

In the black, rainy night, countless roots from mutant plants were emerging from the open fissure. Viewed from above, it looked as if a monster had silently crawled out from the depths of the earth, extending innumerable tentacles as it lay in wait for its prey.

At this moment, amidst the downpour, the terrifying growth of the plants revealed its most savage face.

Beside the fissure, Gu Xi carefully released her ability, trying to use these plants to locate the Hibernation Chambers hidden deep underground.

Ye Junhan walked over to her side and activated his personal terminal.

Soon, the Light Screen in front of them displayed several split-screen feeds from the drones. Gu Xi used her perception to compare the locations and circled an area on the magnified Light Screen.

"Here," she said.

’Perhaps when these Hibernation Chambers were built, someone had anticipated the horror of mutant plants and taken special defensive measures...’

In a certain section of the fissure, when Gu Xi’s perception reached a depth of over two hundred meters, it abruptly vanished.

’The area isn’t large, but it’s hard to tell just how deep it goes right now.’

Ye Junhan glanced at her, then pressed his walkie-talkie. "Everyone, follow the lower end of the fissure and head northeast as much as possible."

He shared his location with everyone.

But in the midst of the intense earthquake, many areas had already cracked open. Ravines crisscrossed the landscape, bottomless and deep. Even with a clear destination, getting close wouldn’t be easy.

After giving the order, Ye Junhan released the walkie-talkie button. He looked at Gu Xi, then quickly averted his gaze. "You..."

The heavy rain had soaked her clothes, revealing her delicate figure in the rainy night.

Gu Xi glanced down, then quickly used her ability to dry the rainwater from her clothes, creating a dry space around herself.

"I’m going to check ahead."

Before her voice had even faded, Gu Xi had already vanished into the rainy night.

...

Amidst the earthquake’s aftershocks, the convoy started moving again, struggling to take a winding path toward the spot Gu Xi had circled.

In the rainy night, the ground trembled from time to time. Although the tremors weren’t as severe as before, the road conditions were terrible. The heavy armored vehicles fared slightly better, but the few off-road pickup trucks were being violently tossed about.

Liu Jia and the other members of the research team were just ordinary people. The constant jolting was unbearable, and they had already thrown up until they were spitting bile.

Even the Special Service Team members were having a hard time. In the command vehicle, Yang Liu’s entire body was being shaken violently with the truck, but his eyes remained locked on the Light Screen before him.

He was piloting several drones, having them circle the convoy and trying his best to find a barely passable route.

Suddenly, the Light Screen in front of him flickered with static.

’The rain’s too heavy, the signal is having issues!’

Yang Liu quickly bent down to grab his toolbox from the floor, intending to switch the drones’ signal frequency. Just then, Ye Junhan’s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie: "Stop the vehicles."

Yang Liu and the other comrades in the vehicle were stunned. They were in an area of rolling hills. With the constant downpour, this type of terrain was prone to mudslides and landslides at any moment. It was clearly not a suitable place to stop.

But no one questioned their captain’s decision.

The entire convoy quickly came to a shaky halt. While piloting the drones, Yang Liu raced against time to switch the signal frequency. At that moment, the person in the driver’s seat next to him suddenly gasped.

"Yang Liu!"

Yang Liu looked up and saw a massive plant root, thick as a python, suddenly burst from the ground a few hundred meters ahead. It whipped toward the convoy.

A drone in front was instantly shattered and fell to the ground.

’It’s a malignant mutant plant!’

The Special Service Team members in the front vehicle had already charged out. But, as if to make a bad situation worse, the ground began to shake again.

Another aftershock had started.

Amidst the violent shaking of the ground, one thick root after another whipped out from the convoy’s flank.

"Son of a bitch, is this thing a plant or an octopus?" Liu Hao instantly released dozens of metal blades, which circled the convoy’s flanks to protect the research team’s vehicles.

The screen on the control console Yang Liu had just switched went dark for a moment. When it rebooted, only a few small panes remained of the dozen or so split-screen feeds.

In that last wave of attacks, several more drones had been shot down by the malignant mutant plant.

’If this keeps up, we’ll run out of drones before we even reach the destination.’

As he was jostled up and down, Yang Liu’s forehead was beaded with cold sweat. He struggled to pilot the few remaining drones, making them fly and spin at high speed—ascending, strafing—trying to evade the mutant plant’s dense attack range and break out.

But there was no telling what species this malignant mutant plant was. Its roots were as numerous as hairs on an ox, long and thick. Its attacks on the convoy were relentless and chaotic, making it impossible to defend against.

This was the first time Yang Liu had encountered a situation like this, and evading the attacks was exhausting.

Just then, Ye Junhan’s voice came through the walkie-talkie again. "Everyone, on alert!"

’On alert for what?’

Before anyone could react, the malignant mutant plant that had just been attacking the convoy suddenly burrowed back underground and vanished!

The ground trembled intermittently. The team waited warily for a while, but when nothing else happened, they couldn’t help but exchange confused glances.

"What the hell?" In the heavy rain, Li Shen was kneeling on one knee, having just stabilized himself during the violent tremor. He wiped the muddy water from his face. "Why did that thing suddenly disappear?"

"Careful, it could be a trick." On the roof of a nearby vehicle, Qian Shan held on to the sides with one hand while struggling to aim his rifle with the other. He warned Li Shen, "Watch your feet."

No sooner had he spoken than the ground, which had just finished trembling from the last tremor, suddenly began to sink.

BOOM—

Accompanied by a sky full of purple lightning and a deafening clap of thunder, Ye Junhan, scimitar in hand, swung down with all his might.

A dazzling white light slashed through the pitch-black, rainy night just before the dawn.