Chapter 437: Put It Away First
Chapter 437: Put It Away First
Zhao Ru turns and gives An Ran a sidelong glance, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, right. Isn’t dying basically the same as going to heaven?”
An Ran chuckles. She turns to the jewelry counter, opens a small metal treasure box, and takes out a tiny metalen spoon. Carefully, she scoops the water zombie’s crystal core off the fat thorn ball.
The crystal core is slick, like jelly, sliding and wobbling in the spoon as she tilts it. An Ran gently deposits it into the little box, snaps it shut, and looks at Zhao Ru.
“If you’re not going to absorb it, let’s just put it away for now. We don’t know what it does yet—or whether it’s helpful or harmful to humans.”
“Then let’s put it away,” Zhao Ru agrees with a shrug.
She finally lets her mind relax and plops down on the ground. Fortunately, there aren’t any fat thorn balls nearby—otherwise she’d be thoroughly poked.
An Ran holds Doll in one arm, the small treasure box in the other, and reaches down to help Zhao Ru up. Then she presses a handful of regular crystal cores into her hand.
“These are ordinary ones. Go ahead and absorb them. You really worked hard today—thank you.”
Those few words, simple as they are, warm Zhao Ru’s heart.
She doesn’t respond right away, only looks silently at An Ran’s back as she carries Doll and directs the fat thorn balls to continue expanding toward the bus station.
Meanwhile, the little zombies still trickling in from the mall’s main entrance seem to be weakening. Compared to the seemingly endless tide of mutant mice, their numbers are far more manageable.
Before long, Zhan Lian and Luo Feifan catch up. They’re originally behind An Ran and Zhao Ru, but now they’re ahead, standing before a sea of fire. The crackling flames light up the sky, and the sharp squeaks of mice fill the air. The entire area reeks of roasted flesh.
Doll grows sleepy, so An Ran brings out the car they parked inside the mall and places her inside. Little Mint and Hengheng sit in the back seat. Zhao Ru takes the wheel, while An Ran sits in the passenger seat, ready to direct her fat thorn balls from there.
“So many rats...”
Black flames blaze into the sky. An Ran closes her eyes, extending her senses through the fat thorn balls rolling ahead. As they spread out through the firelit battlefield, she feels them feeding, chewing their way through the swarm. The feedback is overwhelming—rats everywhere, thick and dense as a black tide. A bottomless sea of vermin.
The sight, even sensed indirectly, is surreal.
Some fat thorn balls push forward too fast and are devoured by the rats, but plants have a unique resilience. As long as even a sliver of vitality remains, they can regrow.
An Ran sometimes wonders—does her rapid healing tie back to her being a wood-type ability user? Among all of them, her recovery speed is by far the fastest—even more so than Zhan Lian, Luo Feifan, or Zhao Ru.
But there’s no time to dwell on that now. Her fat thorn balls are still rolling into the bus station, ravenous and thrilled at the endless buffet of enemies.
Suddenly, An Ran’s eyes snap open. She turns to Zhao Ru, who’s driving slowly behind Zhan Lian and Luo Feifan.
“The rat army is coming.”
Perhaps the rats, with what little intelligence they have, realize their nest is under attack. And now, they’re going all out. A full-scale counterattack—an entire wave of elite rats surging out of the depths.
The massive ones have started to move.
And they’re heading straight for Zhan Lian and Luo Feifan.