Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System

For Vikram, however, repairing an appliance required almost no cost.

As long as the damage wasn’t too severe, the Repair Room could restore it almost instantly.

Even for heavily damaged appliances, only a small amount of Plant Essence or replacement materials was required.

More importantly... At this stage of the Wasteland, he was probably the only person capable of repairing electrical appliances on such a large scale.

If he could establish a dedicated trading channel... Wouldn’t this become a monopoly business?

By then, perhaps he could simply lie in the Treehouse while an endless stream of supplies was delivered right to his doorstep.

Thinking of that scene, even Vikram couldn’t help smiling.

However, he quickly shook his head. He was getting a little ahead of himself.

How many truly wealthy people could there be in the Wasteland right now?

A few hundred at most.

Compared to personally clearing resource points, this kind of small-scale business simply couldn’t generate resources quickly enough.

If he really wanted to develop this industry, he would first need a sufficiently large market.

Only a gigantic Shelter, one large enough to truly be called a city, could continuously support such demand.

For now... There was no rush.

Shrugging, Vikram temporarily pushed those thoughts aside.

He was just about to head to the e-sports room, play a few games, and then return to his bedroom to enjoy the rest of the night.

Just then... A friend request suddenly popped up in the Survival Platform’s chat interface.

[Lucas: Big Boss Vikram, let’s talk.]

Seeing that it was Lucas again, Vikram scoffed disdainfully.

Over the past two days, he had received quite a few friend requests from unknown Survivors, all wanting to trade with him.

Vikram knew with certainty that these people were definitely Lucas’s subordinates.

That kid had tried every possible means to gather information about him a couple of days ago.

Naturally, Vikram had ignored every one of those friend requests.

[Vikram: Talk about what? What do I have to talk about with you?]

[Lucas: What happened before was indeed my fault, but I never intended to harm you, Big Shot.]

[Lucas: I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been attacked by an insect plague, and I’m almost unable to hold on anymore.]

[Lucas: The reason I inquired about your situation before was because I wanted to ask you, Big Shot, how you survived the insect swarm.]

[Vikram: Heh, after all that, you’re still trying to get something for free, aren’t you?]

[Lucas: I’m sorry, Big Shot. I really lost my mind at that time.]

[Lucas: But not this time. I came with sincerity. I want to make a trade with you, Big Shot.]

[Lucas: Besides wanting to buy a way to resist the insect plague from you, Big Shot, I also want to trade for some food.]

[Lucas: As for the price, you can set it yourself. As long as I have it, I definitely won’t haggle.]

Vikram smiled. The other party’s intentions were far too obvious. Before, he had been reluctant to trade anything.

Now, all of a sudden, he was willing to pay any price?

Wasn’t this obviously an attempt to lure him into an offline trade, then kill him and seize all his supplies?

This trick had already been used countless times by Survivors in the Wasteland.

Did Lucas really think he was that foolish?

Seeing through Lucas’s intentions, Vikram wasn’t in a hurry to reject him. Instead, he slowly typed out a few lines.

[Vikram: Alright then. I want gasoline. Give me as much as you have.]

On the other side, Lucas’s pale face immediately lit up with joy when he saw Vikram’s reply.

’He’s finally taken the bait.’ He wasn’t afraid of Vikram asking for too much.

The only thing he feared was Vikram refusing to negotiate altogether.

After being tormented by the insect plague for the past two days, he had long since reached his limit.

Seeing that Vikram had seemingly fallen for his plan, he immediately agreed.

[Lucas: No problem, Big Shot. As long as you’re willing to trade with me, I still have several tons of gasoline here. It’ll all be yours.]

[Vikram: No. I don’t trust you. If you want to trade, you first need to show some sincerity.]

[Vikram: I’ll have my subordinates add you as a friend one by one. Trade every bit of gasoline you can put up for trade to them first. Otherwise, there’s no deal.]

[Lucas: Big Shot, this is just...]

[Vikram: If you’re not willing, then forget it. I only have twenty subordinates adding you as friends. One hundred kilograms only converts to about one hundred and forty liters of gasoline. If you don’t even dare to trade that much, then why should I believe you’re sincere enough to trade with me?]

---

Oasis Shelter.

"Damn it! That kid actually wants us to give him the gasoline first. What do we do, Boss? Do we really hand it over?"

Lucas hesitated for a moment.

However, the unassuming Survivor standing behind him suddenly gripped his shoulder and spoke in an almost commanding tone.

"Give it to him. After that, I’ll help you kill him and raid his Shelter. When that happens, won’t everything he owns become yours anyway?"

"Y-Yes... yes... yes! I’ll give it to him! Big Brother, please let go first!"

Feeling the terrifying force on his shoulder, Lucas didn’t dare entertain any other thoughts.

He immediately had his subordinates trade the gasoline over one transaction after another.

After everything had been traded, he hurriedly sent another message.

[Lucas: Big Boss Vikram, is this enough now?]

[You are not yet friends with the other party. Please add them as a friend before sending messages.]

"Damn it! I’ve been played!"

Realizing that Vikram had blacklisted him immediately after receiving the gasoline, Lucas’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

He subconsciously turned to look at the Survivor behind him.

To his surprise, however, the other party wasn’t angry at all.

Instead, he seemed to have remembered something amusing.

The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward into a strange smile.

"Very good... After all this time... You’re still as shameless as ever. I was worried you’d changed. If that happened... torturing you wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable."

Listening to the person’s quiet murmur, Lucas and the others subconsciously swallowed.

An inexplicable chill ran down their spines.

They couldn’t understand who this mysterious man was.

Yet, every word he spoke made them instinctively afraid.

"Big Brother... What should we do now?"

The unassuming Survivor merely smiled.

"Have your subordinates add him as friends again."

"Tell him you’re still willing to trade. And this time... Say you have a Lucky Jewel."

After saying that, he casually lay down on the only somewhat comfortable bed inside the Shelter.

He closed his eyes and began resting, as though he wasn’t worried about anything going wrong.

---

On the other side.

Vikram happily put away the gasoline he had tricked out of Lucas. Looking at the steadily increasing fuel reserves in his backpack, he couldn’t help smiling.

"This guy really is generous."

Without spending a single kilogram of food, he had obtained several tons of gasoline.

In such a good mood, Vikram stretched lazily before looking toward the four women, he was just about to play a five-person ranked match with the four girls.

Just then, another friend request appeared.

At first, he didn’t intend to pay any attention to it.

However, when his eyes casually swept over the attached message, his expression subtly changed.

"Lucky Jewel?"

"How could a half-baked guy like Lucas possibly have something that valuable?"

Vikram narrowed his eyes.

After thinking for a long while, he quickly sensed that something was wrong.

"There must be someone else behind him."

"But who? Jade... Or someone else?"

Apart from White Fox Shelter, he couldn’t think of any other force that had recently developed such hostility toward him.

Vikram carefully looked over the location and meeting time mentioned in the message.

His fingers lightly tapped the table a few times.

After remaining silent for nearly a minute, he suddenly smiled.

"Interesting... I’d like to see who’s trying to lure me out this time."

Without replying, he simply closed the Survival Platform.

The next morning.

Before dawn had fully broken, Vikram quietly left the Treehouse.

This time, he didn’t bring many people.

Apart from himself, only Divya, Sophia, and Phanty accompanied him.

After all, if the other party truly had some hidden trump card, bringing too many people would only become a burden.

The vehicle slowly drove out of the Territory and headed toward the agreed location.

Leaning back in his seat, Vikram looked through the windshield at the endless wasteland ahead.

The corners of his mouth slowly curled into a faint smile.

"I want to see... What kind of monster you really are."

Noon.

A heavy-duty vehicle sped across the snowy wasteland, piercing through the faint black mist.

"Where do you think all these bugs are hiding during the day? Why are there only two or three of them left wandering around?" Sophia asked curiously as she poked her head out of the car window.

Vikram and Divya both shook their heads.

"They’ve probably burrowed underground to rest. Unlike zombies, these bugs are still living creatures, so they need to sleep."

Ever since the insect plague began, the Wasteland World had been experiencing an insect tide every single night.

It would have been fine if the Survivors had been able to gradually eliminate the insect tide through constant resistance.

Unfortunately, reality was completely different.

Not only did the number of insects fail to decrease, but their population continued to grow, and many of the bugs that had hatched earlier were gradually becoming larger and stronger.

From last night’s insect tide alone, Vikram had already noticed that one or two of the insects were no longer afraid of ordinary pistol bullets.

Although rifles and shotguns could still kill them with ease, Vikram’s expression remained somewhat grim.

The insects were evolving far too quickly.

Just as he had predicted before, once these creatures reached adulthood, they would very likely possess the strength of Epic-grade monsters.

Fortunately... That was a problem for everyone else, not for him.

Recently, Vikram had been keeping a close eye on every resource point related to firearms.

Unfortunately, according to the resource point catalog, there was only one remaining small firearm resource point nearby.

Two hours later, at around two o’clock in the afternoon, the heavy-duty vehicle slowly came to a stop beside a resource point that resembled a building materials factory.

"Hmm?"

"This resource point is full of wood and building materials. Did we really come all this way just for this?"

Ignoring Sophia’s confusion, Vikram stepped forward and shouted toward the factory.

"Hey, Lucas! Aren’t you going to come out and greet your Big Boss Vikram?"

The main purpose of this trip was never the resource point.

He wanted to find out who was standing behind Lucas. Of course, obtaining the Lucky Jewel was also one of his objectives.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Only a few seconds after Vikram finished speaking, hurried footsteps echoed from deep inside the factory.

Soon afterward, a group of Survivors walked out of the building.

There were roughly ten of them.

Lucas stood in the center, surrounded by the others like stars surrounding the moon.

Looking at Vikram standing alone with only two women beside him, Lucas couldn’t help revealing a mocking smile.

"Vikram. I really didn’t expect you to actually dare to come. You’re even more foolish than I imagined."

Vikram’s gaze landed on Lucas, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.

"Oh? It’s really you."

"Heh....What’s wrong?"

"In the chat, you called me ’Big Boss’ more enthusiastically than anyone else..But now that we’re meeting face-to-face... this is your attitude?"

As he spoke, Vikram casually smiled, as though he wasn’t bothered by Lucas’s arrogance at all.

However, beneath that relaxed expression, his eyes quietly swept across every corner of the factory.

His attention wasn’t on Lucas in the slightest.

Instead... He was searching for the real mastermind hiding behind him.

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