Chapter 58
Qian Hui was thrilled and was about to choose "yes".
But he tried to calm himself down and turned around: "Xiao Jin!"
Nan Tingjin was not far away, and reached out to catch Qian Hui, who almost fell into his arms.
“Xiao Jin,” Qian Hui’s eyes lit up as she hugged Nan Tingjin, “I want to…”
Nan Tingjin lowered his eyes: "What?"
The back hill is a perfect habitat for exotic plants, no matter how you look at it.
However, even though the location was selected on the game map, this area was not unclaimed.
Choosing this location is tantamount to directly seizing a portion of the Blackridge Mountain base.
Qian Hui naturally wanted to ask Nan Tingjin first. He was uneasy, wondering if Nan Tingjin would be unhappy.
“I think…” Qian Hui said nervously, “we should build a base here, a base for plants.”
His eyes were filled with anticipation as he asked softly, "Is it okay?"
"here?"
Nan Tingjin looked around and replied, "Yes."
He agreed too quickly, as if he didn't need to think about the issue at all.
"Really?" Qian Hui's eyes widened slightly. "No, we don't need to ask anyone else? I can pay some commission..."
“No need,” Nan Tingjin lowered his head and kissed Qian Hui on the cheek. “It’s for you.”
When the Blackridge Mountain base was first built, this entire area of forest behind it was fenced off due to the terrain and the nuts.
Now that Nuts has left, the base still has no use for this place, and there's no need to ask anyone else.
Qian Hui was overjoyed, hugged Nan Tingjin tightly, and kissed him haphazardly several times.
"Thank you, Xiao Jin..." he mumbled, reopening the game interface.
[Should we establish a base immediately?]
Qian Hui held her breath and chose "Yes".
[Map being confirmed—]
[Resident verification in progress]
[Base established successfully! Reward: 1000 Faction Points, 500 Prestige Points]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Base Encyclopedia!]
[A large number of non-friendly forces have been detected near the base. Should we form an alliance with them?]
(Note: After forming a bond, you will become an independent friendly faction.)
There was so much information popping up at once that Qian Hui stared blankly at it all, and hesitantly selected "Yes" for the last one.
"Not on our side" likely refers to the human superhumans at the Blackridge Mountain base.
The two sides are not in the same camp, but the Blackridge Mountain base was besieged last night, and the Plant Squad came to help. The game must have found out about this as well.
The site selection can only be approved if nearby human superhumans do not pose a threat to the supernatural plants.
[I've already partnered with "Black Ridge Mountain Base," you can check it out in the map guide~]
[Blackridge Mountain Base becomes your independent friendly faction, rewarding you with 3000 Faction Points and 1000 Prestige Points~]
Qianhui opened the encyclopedia and found a new section with only one highlighted: "Blackridge Mountain Base".
[Friendly Faction Base]
[Base Leader]: Nan Tingjin (Affinity 80%)
[Base Size]: Medium
[Overall Combat Strength]: High
The game does not provide specific information about all the base members; the overall combat strength is described in general terms, without specific numerical values.
But what exactly is intimacy level?
The two have now confirmed their relationship; Nan Tingjin is his boyfriend, but their intimacy level is not 100%.
Qian Hui was puzzled and didn't pay attention for the time being.
Behind "Blackridge Mountain Base" are many gray icons labeled "Enemy Faction Base," with Sky Base being the first one listed.
[Opponent Faction]
[Base Leader]: Wen Jue
[Base Size]: Large
[Overall Combat Strength]: High
Qian Hui stared at it for a while, then opened the details of her base.
[Base Name]: None available
[Base Leader]: Qian Hui
[Base Size]: Small
[Number of members]: 33 / Maximum capacity: 1000
[Overall Combat Strength]: 33000 / High
[Objectives to be developed/optimized]: Reinforce outer perimeter defenses/Increase the number of new members/Purchase base-specific weapons
Although the base is small and some of its members do not participate in combat, its overall combat strength is still quite high.
Qianhui opened the faction panel again, and in the faction rankings above, the plant faction was still third.
[Faction Value]: 15000
[Prestige Value]: 6500
Aside from quests and some special rewards, my faction value and prestige value increased slightly on their own.
Comparing their combat power values... these two do seem a bit low.
Regardless, the base has been successfully completed and can now receive more new plants.
The space required for the mutant plants is flexible, and the entire base can accommodate up to 1,000 of them!
Qianhui was very happy and wrote the four characters "Plant Courtyard" in the name of the base.
At this moment, the plants noticed that Qianhui had been lost in thought for a long time, and they gradually gathered around.
Cabbage and peas tugged at his clothes, while a little mushroom climbed onto his shoulder and hugged a strand of hair: "Hmm?"
Qianhui picked up the little mushroom and touched its cap: "We have a base now!"
Upon hearing this, all the plants around them widened their eyes.
Carrot was the smartest; it immediately realized what was happening and looked at Nan Tingjin.
Apart from a few carnivorous plants that had stayed in the courtyard, the other plants were still somewhat clueless.
Mutant plants are different from zombies and also different from humans. The plants didn't have bases before and didn't know the purpose of bases.
If they hadn't stayed by Qianhui's side, they might never have experienced the joy of cooperating and helping each other to defeat enemies.
Mango, curious, made a "woo-woo" sound and asked what a base was.
Big Pea, with a blade of grass between his teeth, swung his fist and yelled, "Woo!"
With a base, we'll become much stronger! We won't be easily bullied!
Its explanation was easy to understand, and the plants immediately became excited.
Especially after learning that the entire forest in front of them was their new base, the nuts grew several times larger and excitedly rolled around in the wide grassland.
The plants began exploring the ground beneath their feet once more. Corn and potatoes sat atop the big cherry's head, and the cherry carried them around, yelling, "Aww!"
Little Mushroom was equally happy, spinning around in Qian Hui's palm and then hugging his fingers tightly: "Mmm..."
Its eyes were slightly disappointed. It drew a mini bell pepper on Qian Hui's fingertip, then a mini grapefruit... and lettuce and cat's tail grass.
The pattern was too small for Qianhui to make out what the little mushroom was drawing, but she guessed it from the number of mushrooms.
“Don’t worry,” he reassured her, “we will find them.”
The little mushroom nodded and nuzzled against Qianhui affectionately.
The base has been built, but it is only preliminary; it is just a small area marked on a map. There is still much to be improved.
Fortunately, the game provides hints. Qianhui browsed the reputation shop and found two weapons.
One is an energy network, a defensive shield similar to a money tree, and the other is a detector that can detect enemy forces outside the base over a very wide range and issue an alarm immediately.
The two weapons together only cost 400 prestige points, but using them requires spending 100 prestige points from your daily balance, totaling 200.
Qian Hui thought about it and bought them all. For the time being, she only planned to use the detector, and the energy network could be used as a backup, to be turned on when needed.
In the short time that followed, Carrot had already circled the new base on its radish thorns, memorizing the approximate terrain.
After it returned, following Qianhui's instructions, it took two weapons and flew to the center of the base, burying them somewhere halfway up the mountain.
After the weapons are buried, one of the optimization suggestions for the outer protection is "physical protection".
The outer half is surrounded by the Blackridge Mountain base's perimeter wall, while the remaining half is separated only by wire mesh. For added security, a separate fence needs to be built around the entire perimeter.
Qianhui opened the regular online store and, following the prompts, bought a lot of bricks and cement, and also picked out a nice wooden door.
With a defensive shield, the walls don't need to be built too high. However, looking at the pile of building materials in her game inventory, Qianhui was still at a loss.
There are no instructions... How are these things supposed to be used? Is it just a matter of piling up bricks?
Plants certainly don't know how to build walls; that's something humans are much better at.
Qianhui was afraid that she would mess it up and waste the building materials she had bought, so she asked Nantingjin for help.
He pulled Nan Tingjin aside, and said nervously and mysteriously, "Little Jin, I bought some things..."
Qian Hui possesses a "space" invisible to outsiders, from which she obtains her usual food and water, various pills and weapons, and even the resurrection beans that bring the little mushroom back to life. Nan Tingjin is aware of this.
He asked in a low voice, "What did you buy?"
“It’s…” Qian Hui took out a brick, “This is for building walls.”
The bricks are special; they are made of wood.
Nan Tingjin took it in his hand and looked at it, guessing Qian Hui's intention: "A wall?"
Qian Hui nodded: "Mm."
With the base established, a wall is essential, signifying that the place already has an owner.
“Alright,” Nan Tingjin said, “I’ll call some men to help.”
Qian Hui was overjoyed and nodded again: "Yes!"
He hugged Nan Tingjin tightly, nuzzling his cheek against her neck, and said dependently, "Thank you..."
Nan Tingjin remained silent and led Qian Hui outside the iron gate.
Before anyone else could see them, they took out all the wood, bricks, and several bags of green cement and placed them on the roadside outside the iron gate.
Qianhui bought enough spare materials to ensure that there would be no shortage of building materials along the way.
He then summoned carrots and carnivorous plants, and arranged for a few plants to learn how to build walls from humans, so that they could work together faster.
Meanwhile, Yuanji received a message from Nantingjin, instructing him to select a group of people with suitable supernatural abilities and prepare to head to the back mountain.
Someone asked, "What are you going there for?"
“Help us repair the wall,” Yuan Ji paused slightly. “Oh, by the way, the alien plants have their eyes on our back mountain and want to build a base there.”
"What?! This..."
"What, you have a problem with that?" Yuan Ji gestured for him to go ahead. "Go and reclaim the back mountain that's been empty for years?"
The man gave an awkward laugh and fell silent.
Putting aside whether they could win or not, the mountain behind the base has been abandoned for years and is indeed useless.
The alien plants helped protect the base last night, and now they're helping to repair the wall... It makes perfect sense, no problem.
But... a base for heterologous plants?
That sounds very special.
Soon after, Yuanji led his men to the iron gate and saw neatly stacked building materials, with several plants waiting nearby.
He took out the prepared map and came to Qian Hui and Nan Tingjin's side.
From today onwards, this area no longer belongs to Blackridge Mountain. Yuanji's considerations are more comprehensive, and they want to completely separate the two bases, keeping them merely adjacent to each other.
“Move this side back a bit more,” Yuanji showed the map, “our wall can be moved directly over here.”
Several of the superhumans in the base can manipulate inanimate objects like rocks, so moving the walls and watchtowers is no problem. It is estimated that the reinforcements can be completed in a day.
We successfully repelled the attackers last night, and today we're busy dividing up the base. Time is a bit tight, but those teams definitely need to rest and recuperate, so we might as well do it now.
After they were completely separated, in addition to their respective walls, there was a wide road in the middle between the two bases.
Although it appears that the Black Ridge Mountain base lost most of its area, in reality, it was all unusable.
Nan Tingjin agreed to Yuan Ji's arrangement, and Qian Hui looked at the map carefully and nodded, "Okay."
Carrots and peppers listened from the sidelines. It has to be said, when it comes to building bases, humans are definitely more adept…
After confirming the zoning, Yuanji put away the map and ordered his subordinates to begin operations.
Applying cement and laying bricks are not difficult tasks. The plants watched for a while and then learned how to do them.
The carnivorous plant went outside to help mix cement, while the cabbage, though not tall, had long arms and laid bricks quickly and well.
The soft vines and morning glories joined in, and the rest of the plants came to help. Those who weren't very good at building walls were responsible for applying cement.
Humans with superpowers are even faster; one person controls the cement while another controls the wooden bricks, and an entire wall is built in just over ten minutes.
The walls of the Black Ridge Mountain base were also being cut and moved. Qian Hui turned on the buried detector, set it to the maximum range, and kept an eye on any situation.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the base.
The bell pepper walked around and found itself back in the same place.
Its expression was ferocious as it slammed its fist into the roadside railing.
This place is so big! There are roads everywhere! Everywhere!
Like peas, bell peppers are terrible at directions, but even worse than peas.
After infiltrating the base, it slept for a while at night, and spent the rest of the time searching everywhere, but never found a single plant.
I could smell some carrots, carnivorous plants, and nuts, but there were too many directions. The bell peppers were wandering around the base, making it feel like I was playing in a maze.
It tried to calm itself down, pulled up its mask, and prepared to simply take a human hostage.
The plants were nowhere to be seen, but there were quite a few human superhumans throughout the base. Sweet Pepper picked a lone one and quietly followed it.
It followed for a while, then seized the opportunity to slip close.
Sensing something amiss, the human with superpowers instinctively raised his hand and was immediately stunned to find it was a strange plant.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Bell Pepper effortlessly knocked down the human superhuman and held a dagger made of chili seed darts to his throat.
"Waaah," Bell Pepper said fiercely, "Waaah?"
It wore a black mask and carried a small bundle on its back, but you could still tell it was a red bell pepper.
The human with superpowers sensed the threat in its words and hesitated.
Is this... also one of the alien plants that entered the base last night?
There were so many plants that they had no idea what they were.
He hesitated before speaking, "What...what do you need?"
Bell pepper frowned, somewhat puzzled by the man's attitude.
However, it would be much more convenient if the other party were willing to cooperate.
So he pulled the dagger back and drew a nut pattern on the ground with his other hand.
The human with superpowers guessed, "Nuts? Did you get separated from them?"
Everyone at the base was impressed by the giant nut from last night, and he was no exception; he recognized it immediately.
As for why the bell pepper was looking for nuts, he had no idea that the base would be secretly infiltrated by another top-tier alien plant.
Bell Pepper nodded readily, and the human with superpowers breathed a sigh of relief: "I can take you there, it's over there..."
He pointed in the direction of the back mountain, and the low building where Nan Tingjin lived was at the end of this road.
Bell pepper turned her head and caught a glimpse of a familiar orange hue in mid-air.
It sheathed its dagger, quickly slipped away, and disappeared from the spot in the blink of an eye.
The human with superpowers stood up, only to find that the sweet pepper was gone. He looked around in confusion.
He thought for a moment, then took out his communicator, reported the matter, and turned to leave.
At this moment, the bell pepper concealed its presence and hid near the low building.
It saw a carrot glide down on its thorns, with a durian hanging from its left foot and a chili pepper hanging from its right.
A chili pepper... a thin, green chili pepper.
The three plants traveled together and entered the low building.
Sweet Pepper sneered and followed him inside.
—
On the other side, Qian Hui led Nan Tingjin around and chose a location for the base gate.
The heavy wooden door was moved over by the carnivorous plant, and a sign was attached to the top of the door, which should be used to write the name of the base.
"I've made up my mind," Qianhui said, her excitement undiminished, "I'll also call it the Plant Garden!"
Nan Tingjin responded with an "okay," and manipulated a sharp stone to carve words on the plaque.
After the four characters "Plant Courtyard" were carved, Qian Hui was slightly stunned.
There used to be a similar sign at the entrance of the old botanical garden, with words that are very similar to the current one...
He looked at it carefully for a while, then was pulled into Nan Tingjin's arms by his side.
Nan Tingjin looked down at him: "Happy now?"
Qian Hui snapped out of her daze and nodded obediently, "Mm."
He tilted his head back, resting his chin on Nan Tingjin's chest, and said, "I also want a small house, made of stone, the one where you used to live..."
Nan Tingjin listened quietly, then lowered his head to kiss her: "Okay."
Further to the side, Yuanji sat cross-legged on the ground.
He pressed his temples, took out the energy-boosting pills he always carried, and swallowed them.
After last night, his physical condition was somewhat different; he was more easily fatigued and felt inexplicably irritable.
I dare not take other medicines indiscriminately. At most, I use stimulants to calm myself down, which can have some effect.
He closed his eyes to rest, and only opened them again when he felt the strange sensation disappear.
Not far away, the giant peas and cacti were busy applying cement when the grass next to them suddenly rustled.
Yuanji turned his head and saw a small pink mushroom and a small pink succulent.
Two plants walked hand in hand, followed by a small bamboo shoot responsible for protecting them.
The little mushroom looked up at Yuanji, seemingly very curious.
Yuanji tried to give a friendly smile: "Hello?"
The little mushroom made a "hmm" sound, as if responding to him, and slowly moved closer, sniffing the scent of Yuanji.
It let go of the little succulent's hand, came to Yuanji's side, and walked around him a few steps.
Seeing how cute the little mushroom was, Yuanji couldn't resist touching it. Just as he reached out his hand, the little bamboo shoot behind him coughed lightly and looked at him.
Yuanji put his hand back down.
The little mushroom, however, paid no attention. It stood in front of Yuanji and looked over again.
"Hmm..." It reached into its umbrella cap and rummaged around inside for a long time, as if it had taken something out, held it in its hands, and blew it towards the direction of the Yuanji.
After doing all this, the little mushroom turned and ran away.
The succulent and the bamboo shoot returned to each other's side.
The little mushroom hugged the little bamboo shoot and made a soft "woof woof" sound. The little bamboo shoot took out a small packet of shredded meat from its shell and fed it to the mushroom.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
