Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

Brandon lay on the snowy ground, gasping for breath. His entire body was numb, and cold sweat soaked his clothes. He looked up at Vikram with unconcealable fear.

"M-My Lord... W-What just happened?"

Vikram smiled calmly. "It’s called the Bracelet of Loyalty. As long as you remain loyal to me, it will be nothing more than an ordinary bracelet. It won’t interfere with your daily life."

His smile gradually turned cold. "But the moment you harbor thoughts of betraying me, the bracelet will immediately punish you. The more serious the betrayal... the harsher the punishment. It can release electric shocks strong enough to leave you paralyzed. And if you insist on betraying me... it can kill you."

The entire battlefield fell into complete silence.

Every Blue Frost member subconsciously stared at the bracelet on Brandon’s wrist with horror.

Brandon’s face froze. He finally understood why Vikram had been so unconcerned about his surrender. This man had never intended to trust him, he had simply made betrayal impossible.

After a long silence, Brandon slowly lowered his head once more.

"I understand, Boss. I will never betray you."

His tone remained respectful.

However, this time... it was no longer an act.

Deep inside, Brandon desperately suppressed every rebellious thought. He didn’t dare think about escaping. He didn’t even dare imagine betrayal.

Looking at the seemingly ordinary young man before him, Brandon couldn’t help but shiver inwardly.

Just what kind of monster have I encountered? This man... he’s not a shelter leader at all. He’s a demon.

Seeing Brandon’s obedient attitude, Vikram laughed lightly. "Good."

He didn’t say anything more.

Turning around, he waved his hand. "Let’s go."

With that, Vikram led Divya, Rocky, the other former Green Wind Shelter members, their reunited families, and the four captured Green Wind higher-ups away from Green Wind Shelter, heading back toward his own territory.

—

Inside the Territory, Vikram and his group returned with a full load.

Along with them came the four former high-ranking officials of Green Wind Shelter.

Vikram wasn’t in a hurry to deal with them.

After all, as former executives of Green Wind Shelter, they undoubtedly knew things that ordinary Survivors didn’t.

Looking at the four kneeling before him, Vikram asked calmly,

"You betrayed Green Wind Shelter and even prepared an escape tunnel in advance."

"Where were you originally planning to go?"

Now that both Green Wind Shelter and Blue Frost Shelter were already under his control, Vikram no longer cared about their previous conflicts.

Instead, he was more interested in the plans these four had made for themselves.

Judging from the existence of the secret tunnel, he didn’t believe they had only prepared to escape after Snape died.

More likely, they had already left themselves a way out long ago.

The four exchanged nervous glances.

One of them cautiously asked, "B-Boss... If we tell you the truth... Will you let us live?"

After witnessing Brandon’s complete submission earlier, none of them dared harbor any rebellious thoughts.

They only hoped Vikram would spare their lives.

Vikram smiled faintly, "Of course. If your information is valuable, I might even let you join my territory."

"With physiques like yours, killing you would indeed be a waste."

Hearing those words, the four immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Marcus was the first to speak.

"Our original plan was to seek refuge in Aurora Shelter."

"I’ve heard their treatment is excellent, and we also know several survivors there."

"With our physiques, we believed we could easily obtain high-ranking positions after joining."

He paused before quickly adding, "But since Boss has given us this opportunity... We’re naturally willing to stay and serve your territory."

The other three hurriedly nodded in agreement.

Vikram couldn’t help but curl his lips.

"So... It sounds like you all thought Aurora Shelter was a better choice than mine."

The four immediately smiled awkwardly, not daring to answer.

Vikram didn’t continue teasing them.

Instead, he asked directly, "Do any of you know where the Aurora Shelter is?"

"Uh... we don’t know."

"Even the people we know in Aurora Shelter refused to tell us its exact location."

Vikram frowned. "Then why were you planning to go there? Are you just making things up to fool me?"

Originally, Vikram had been quite interested when he heard the name Aurora Shelter.

It was rumored that Aurora Shelter was still recruiting Survivors whose physiques hadn’t even reached ten points.

Nowadays, let alone recruiting ordinary members, even Shelters looking for laborers generally required at least fifteen points of physique.

That alone was enough to prove how unusual Aurora Shelter was.

The four former high-ranking officials immediately panicked.

Afraid that Vikram would shoot them on the spot, they hurriedly explained,

"Boss, we’re telling the truth."

"Although our friend in Aurora Shelter never revealed the Shelter’s location, he did give us another set of coordinates."

"He told us that as long as we reached those coordinates and passed a certain test, we would be qualified to enter Aurora Shelter."

Vikram frowned even more.

He vaguely remembered that Ron had once mentioned knowing someone from Aurora Shelter as well.

Unfortunately, until now, Vikram had never been able to establish contact with that person.

"A Shelter that requires a test before accepting new members? Isn’t having enough physique supposed to be enough?"

"Is Aurora Shelter really that mysterious?"

The four shook their heads.

"We don’t know the details either. We only heard that everyone who enters Aurora Shelter has to undergo the test."

"And once someone joins Aurora Shelter... Almost no one ever leaves."

"We only wanted to try our luck. If we passed, that would be great. If we failed, we wouldn’t lose anything anyway."

After listening to their explanation and obtaining the coordinates they mentioned, Vikram nodded slightly.

The next second, Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

After four gunshots, there were four more corpses in the shelter.

"It seems I can find time to go and see what this Aurora Shelter is all about."

Ever since visiting the Markets of Crimson Desire Shelter and White Fox Shelter, Vikram had become increasingly concerned about these Wasteland forces.

Except for the north, where White Fox Shelter and Crimson Desire Shelter were present, from the surrounding forces, Savage Wolf Shelter, Black Wood Shelter and currently the Green Wind and Blue Frost Shelter were now under his control.

Only a few other Shelters were left, which were not under his control, but he was confident, with his development, they would also come under his control.

Only the Aurora Shelter was mysterious till now, and he didn’t know anything about that.

Although these four higher-ups had good physiques, they possessed a twisted mentality. Knowing the heinous crimes they had committed, Ethan believed they didn’t deserve to live. That was why they were now nothing more than corpses.

He turned to organize today’s harvest.

This infiltration of Green Wind Shelter’s warehouse, naturally yielded an extremely rich harvest.

It could even be said to be Vikram’s largest haul of supplies ever.

Although, besides a large amount of ordinary food that Vikram didn’t care about at all, there were countless materials like various metals, plastics, cotton, fabrics, and rubber, with each item numbering in the thousands.

The total amount of metal even reached tens of thousands.

Although fuel wasn’t abundant, he still acquired over five hundred liters.

Divya and others were happy to see this.

"These bastards, how many nearby shelters did they control to have so many supplies?"

Not only Anjali, but even the others, including Vikram, were surprised by the amount of supplies.

Basically, except for food, which Vikram had more of, his own warehouse couldn’t compare to the quantity of other supplies.

"Over three hundred ordinary crystals and seventy mutated crystals."

"This time, we’ve really hit the jackpot."

Although Ron and the other two had long been nurtured by Vikram to no longer need mutated crystals, and their physiques had all reached sixty-seven or sixty-eight points, even Aunt Lily was almost at fifty points of physique, but Vikram still carefully put away the mutated crystals.

He didn’t care where these things came from; anyway, Vikram was just collecting supplies from his arch-nemesis, so why not take them?

"Vik, I have a bead here."

Just as he finished putting away the supplies, Anjali’s voice came from behind him.

Vikram’s gaze swept over, and his eyes narrowed.

"What the?"

"Snape’s warehouse actually had such a treasure."

Taking the bead, it was none other than the Lucky Jewel Vikram had been searching for a few days ago.

Based on the nature of the Legendary-level Orb he had used before, this Lucky Jewel was crucial for acquiring abilities.

Happily putting it into his pocket, Vikram announced a grand feast to celebrate tonight, and the few of them returned to their respective places.

"It’s all thanks to those Green Wind Shelter members, Rocky and others who joined us; otherwise, all these good things today would have gone to the people of Blue Frost Shelter."

—

Official Shelter.

Inside the meeting room, many straight-backed Survivors sat around an oval table.

Everyone’s face was solemn, and the atmosphere was exceptionally silent.

Because the Official Shelter had lost another group of members, no one had a good expression on their face.

After a long while.

An elderly person sitting in the front row sighed and slowly spoke, "Evan, do you have anything to say?"

Evan, who was sitting to the left of the speaker, nodded slightly, "Director, this operation was my dereliction of duty, and Evan accepts the Shelter’s punishment."

The person in charge shook his head upon hearing this, regretting, "You’ve always done well, and there were no mishaps before, so how could you make such a low-level mistake?"

"Hmph, no matter how well you did before, it’s useless. I said long ago that dealing with Legendary Zombies couldn’t be so reckless."

"Our Shelter has already lost so many members because of a few Epic-level Zombies. As the Team Leader, not only did you not learn from your lesson this time, but you even thought of asking outsiders for help?"

"Now look, we’ve lost so many more members. Where are you going to find people to replace these missing hands?"

"I think you should give up your position to someone more capable sooner rather than later."

Evan ignored the sarcasm from the old man sitting opposite him.

Although it was called official, in reality, due to the Wasteland, they were just an Official Shelter cobbled together.

Seemingly disciplined, in reality, everyone had their own ulterior motives.

Compared to the true Official Shelter headquarters, their Shelter was a world apart.

Furthermore, the Wasteland is not like Earth; this is a world with superhuman physiques and abilities that ordinary people cannot explain.

Positions certainly couldn’t be assigned according to Earth’s previous system.

So, he, who already had an official identity on Earth and the highest physique, became the second-in-command of the Official Shelter, second only to the Director, at a young age.

This naturally drew the jealousy of many, and the old man sitting opposite him was one such person.

However, the attack on the resource point was indeed his fault, and he accepted the deserved punishment.

The biggest demand was to have him give up his position to someone else.

Although there were some people in the meeting room who strongly opposed it, the number of opposing votes ultimately did not exceed the number of supporting votes.

He didn’t care at first; he was still the strongest in the Shelter.

Even if he was demoted, it would most likely only be temporary, as no one had the same strength as him.

No one could fill the position he vacated, and he could quickly be reinstated as long as he found an opportunity later.

He wouldn’t say he was exceptionally capable, but at least he was a good officer who genuinely wanted to lead the Official Shelter to develop.

There were problems with this operation, but it couldn’t erase the many contributions he had made to the Official Shelter before.

However, he had just been demoted, and the next second, the Director, who was still sitting beside him, spoke again:

"Abhi, you will temporarily take over the position of Deputy Director."

"Director, this... Abhi was only..."

Evan wanted to say that Abhi was merely his subordinate, at most a mid-level officer in the Shelter.

No matter how reckless things got, it shouldn’t have led to him suddenly becoming Deputy Director.

But the Director didn’t give him a chance to finish, waving his hand.

Although a hint of something flashed in his eyes, he still said, "Abhi has performed well recently, leading his team to acquire a large amount of supplies for the Shelter."

"Even people from the headquarters highly praised him. Since this position is vacant, it should rightfully be filled by him."

"Does anyone else have an objection?"

Hearing the Director bring up the headquarters, Evan’s pupils suddenly contracted, looking at Abhi in disbelief.

Abhi, however, showed no surprise at the news, instead smiling calmly and saying, "Team Leader Evan, since this is the Director’s order, then I won’t decline."

"But Team Leader Evan, you don’t need to worry too much. Perhaps I’m just going through the motions; I believe Team Leader Evan, you’ll be back in your seat very soon."

His words were all pleasant, but his heart was filled with smugness and disdain.

Although they were far from the Official Shelter, and getting to the headquarters was extremely troublesome.

However, even so, as a regional Official Shelter, they would occasionally receive material support from the headquarters and the latest news about Wasteland Survivors.

So, if it was a decision from the headquarters, no one would object.

How could a small Evan compare to the Official Headquarters?

Sure enough, almost instantly, the resolution was unanimously passed in the meeting room...

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