Chapter 59 - Mutant Plant (Part 3-Last)
"Oh?" Wu Yijun looked somewhat surprised and asked curiously, "It seems that you guys aren't a very close group?"
"Well... It's not that we don't get along badly either." Chen He replied with a forced smile, "It's just that he's a bit... special. He usually stays alone in a corner and doesn't seem particularly willing to talk to anyone. Therefore, it's hard to get close to him..."
"Even with our Princess Bing Xue there that guy can stay away?" Wu Yijun joked as she looked at Shangguan Bing Xue.
They were both beautiful women in their own right. It was just that the beauty of both of them was different. If Shangguan Bing Xue was a beautiful ice goddess who seemed pure and remote, then Wu Yijun was more of a beautiful ardent goddess with a more playful and gentle attitude.
Shangguan Bing Xue had been ranked as the number one beauty in the entire university while Wu Yijun had been ranked second. However, this was because Shangguan Bing Xue had more suitors and admirers, but Wu Yijun was also courted by countless men who thought she was more beautiful.
"This..." Chen He looked at Shangguan Bing Xue for a moment before hesitantly responding, "Actually, he doesn't seem to look at Bing Xue in any particular way... Maybe he has a girlfriend? Or maybe he's just not attracted to her? After all, before the whole world changed he was an unknown person to us so we don't know much about him."
"Mmh... Who knows." Wu Yijun smiled mysteriously and did not pursue the matter further.
"We'd better go find that guy." Shangguan Bing Xue sighed exhaustedly before turning around and walking towards the exit without waiting for an answer.
She still remembered that Bai Zemin had said that he suspected that there might be something strange in this building; this was precisely the reason why they had all agreed to move together before he suddenly disappeared.
Chen He and the group of four friends quickly walked after her and so the group of six began to inspect the fourth floor, room by room.
* * *
On the other hand, in one of the rooms on the fourth floor, the person who Shangguan Bing Xue's group was looking for was currently looking at the scene in front of him with a curious look.
Earlier, the reason why Bai Zemin had suspected that there was something wrong with the blue-skinned evolved zombie's behavior was because the creature's behavior was too different from the rest of the zombies he had encountered so far.
Normal zombies had no vision, only instinct, sound and smell to find prey to devour. Whenever a living being appeared within their detection range, the zombies would definitely advance towards that place regardless of whether the other party was strong or weak and with the only thought of eating their flesh and drinking their blood.
However, the blue-skinned zombie had contradicted all of this almost completely.
Phase one of the plan was not only to make noise to attract normal zombies and other creatures from the surrounding area, it was also to lure the evolved zombie out of the building and attack it together. However, the evolved zombie did not come out no matter how many glass windows they broke.
In fact, even when Bai Zemin entered the female dormitory after kicking the front door loudly, the blue-skinned creature had not yet moved from the place where it was and only when Bai Zemin reached the fourth floor did it move.
Considering the speed of the evolved zombie, if Qiao Long wanted to run away then it would be difficult if he was chased by it. However, the evolved zombie had not hunted him down after expelling him and simply stayed inside the building.
Moreover, the zombie also seemed to want to return to the building before fleeing when it faced the attack of Bai Zemin and the rest after being forcibly dragged out by the ice stake binding created by Shangguan Bing Xue.
But Bai Zemin did not expect something like this....
"What is this supposed to be?" he asked in confusion with a frown as looked at the plant in front of his eyes in detail.
This was a small plant, small enough to be carried in his pants pocket as it barely reached the height of a palm. Its leaves were a natural green color but the strange thing was that there were tiny light green and red orbs hanging from some of the leaves.
The green orbs were small, only the size of half a fingernail at most and there were barely five of them. On the other hand, the red orbs were a bit bigger, about the size of a full fingernail and they were also scarcer as there were only two of them.
"That's a mutant plant." Llith approached him and touched the plant with the tip of her perfect finger as she patiently explained, "After the arrival of the Soul Record on different worlds and with the Mana movement or the appearance of said power source, different organisms will be pushed into evolution. This is something you already know, isn't it?"
"You had explained it to me before, yes." Bai Zemin nodded and stared into her eyes, seemingly lost in that red wine glowing like rubies.
Lilith continued, "Good. However, there are different forms of evolution and not all organisms are able to withstand the pressure of Mana entering their bodies... Let me explain it this way;
Those zombies that are rampant in the streets are organisms that did not manage to adapt and overcome the Mana that entered their bodies and the union of different viruses... These viruses, in order not to be killed by Mana, united to form a new infectious virus. As for how something like that happened, I don't know since each world is, precisely, a different world of possibilities and as I mentioned before, it is not known exactly what is the functioning or the reason of this existence called Soul Record... In fact, it is not known whether there is a purpose to begin with or not."
Bai Zemin lowered his head in contemplation and stood silently for a couple of minutes to digest and comprehend the new information before raising his head again to look her in the eye and nod gently.
Seeing him nod, Lilith finally got to the point for which this conversation had begun: "With plants something similar happens. Some plants manage to adapt to the Mana and can become terrifying monsters, and other plants, like this little one here, just mutate differently just like the zombies out there... Some of these plants can bear fruits that are beneficial to the body, and others can bear fruits that can make a living being's body blast into a thousand pieces after consuming it."
"I see." Bai Zemin finally understood and his gaze fell on the small plant, deep in thought.
Currently, he was 80% sure that this small, exotic-looking mutant plant was a good treasure. The reason for this thought arose from the fact that the evolved zombie definitely did not want to leave this place because of the existence of this plant and, since zombies had not yet acquired enough intelligence, the creature never thought of uprooting the plant and moving it to another place.