Chapter 45

The Bloodsucking Grass was numerous, but it couldn’t withstand Tao Shushu switching screens and flattening patches of it in seconds.
After a brief period of chaos, Nan Yuan reorganized the formation, and they launched a coordinated attack on the Bloodsucking Grass with seamless teamwork.
This time, no one held back. No matter how formidable the Bloodsucking Grass was, they had Nan Yuan leading the charge!
Over ten minutes later, it had shrunk to the size of a small table, with only a little over a hundred stalks remaining.
Initially, the Bloodsucking Grass had been so dense it blotted out the sky, but now, its territory had drastically reduced, and it was the human survivors who had surrounded it instead.
Tao Shushu spent 2 gold coins to investigate and discovered that this one-square-meter patch of Bloodsucking Grass had an intelligence level equivalent to that of a 12-year-old human. It was almost exactly like a human, just lacking relevant common knowledge.
"Cub, try communicating with it. It’s quite clever now," Tao Shushu poked the cub.
Nan Yuan made a hand signal, and though the survivors were worried, they obeyed the command and halted in place, watching as Nan Yuan stepped closer to the Bloodsucking Grass.
Tao Shushu nodded inwardly, Nan Yuan was already carrying the aura of a leader.
Nan Yuan held a particle gun in one hand and unzipped their backpack with the other.
Inside the backpack were stacks of energy spheres and Health Potions, all valuable items.
"The energy on this barren planet is limited. If you come with us, I can provide you with energy," Nan Yuan said.
Seeing that the cub was attempting to bribe the grass, Tao Shushu quickly spent more gold to purchase over a dozen Health Potions and a pile of energy spheres, tossing them into the cub’s backpack.
She was determined to back the cub up properly!
Nan Yuan raised an eyebrow. "If you agree, shrink into a single stalk, and I’ll take you with me."
Nan Yuan signaled for Cheng Feimao to step forward.
Cheng Feimao immediately approached and began explaining the data about the barren planet.
The reason it was called a barren planet was due to its infertile land, which held no value aside from the underground ore deposits.
Unfortunately, the Bloodsucking Grass couldn’t absorb energy from the raw, unprocessed ore.
If they continued to expand on the barren planet, they would inevitably end up either being devoured by other mutated creatures or devouring them in turn.
Sooner or later, however, the energy on the barren planet would be completely depleted.
Tao Shushu kept a close watch on the movements of the Bloodsucking Grass.
Suddenly, she noticed unusual activity in the distant mother cluster of the Bloodsucking Grass, the grass blades were undulating as if concealing something.
Tao Shushu immediately took action and delivered a slap.
Then, she saw the ground beneath the mother cluster crack open.
A thick, root-like stem burst through the soil, attempting to extend toward them.
Tao Shushu found the root, which resembled an oversized earthworm, somewhat unsettling.
She took a deep breath and then pinched the root firmly.
Nan Yuan let out a cold laugh and waved a hand, directing thermal weapons to instantly aim at the mother cluster of the Bloodsucking Grass.
Now they had enough firepower to severely injure the mother colony.
Just then, a sharp, thin voice cried out, "Don't shoot, I'll go with you."
Over a hundred blood-drinking vines rapidly withered and decayed, leaving only the one in the center, which had grown as thick as a bucket.
A spatial ability user stepped forward and lifted the blood-drinking vine along with the soil it was rooted in.
Tao Shushu stared curiously at the blood-drinking vine, still unable to figure out how it had produced sound.
With one blood-drinking vine secured, the remaining work became much simpler.
The mother colony split into two halves, one continued to expand on the barren planet, while the other concentrated its energy into a single vine, willing to follow Nan Yuan.
However, Nan Yuan had to agree not to target the remaining blood-drinking vine mother colony and to leave behind books and recordings containing human wisdom.
Additionally, Nan Yuan could not enslave the two vines; they were to be allowed to choose a suitable planet to live on.
Nan Yuan agreed, "I will choose the planet, but it must not harm other life forms."
Ultimately, the two blood-drinking vines were willing to leave because the barren planet’s energy was insufficient to support the entire colony’s expansion.
After negotiations, terms were settled: the blood-drinking vines would not harm humans and would act according to Nan Yuan’s commands. In return, Nan Yuan agreed to leave behind some products of human wisdom for the vine colony to learn from.
Tao Shushu felt as though she had just watched a sci-fi movie. This time, she carefully studied the map of surviving humans.
If the vines on the barren planet had already gained intelligence, what had the outside world evolved into? Tao Shushu’s heart sank. It seemed she needed to work harder, earn more gold coins, and do her utmost to protect her cub, even on planets beyond the barren world.
The morning had been highly productive, and everyone was in high spirits on the way back to the base.
Tao Shushu was also delighted, she had received another reward.
[Congratulations on acquiring a pair of powerful combat partners. Reward obtained: 1,000 gold coins, C1 Star System Route Safety Predictor.]
She had spent over 200 gold coins earlier but now earned 1,000, making a net profit.
Adding up the rewards from various tasks, she now had a total of 4,582 gold coins. Tao Shushu calculated silently, midterm exams were approaching, and she could earn another wave of gold coins soon.
After checking her gold coins, Tao Shushu noticed that her cub’s influence value had increased significantly, now at 1,200.
Excitedly, she waved at the two blood-drinking vines. They were truly useful!
Cheng Feimao exclaimed happily, "This is great! From now on, they’ll be our secret weapon!"
Nan Yuan placed the two vines in a container made of hard ore, ensuring they were under control and absolutely unable to break free.
After finishing all this, his tense body finally relaxed slightly.
Cheng Feimao cheekily leaned in, "Hehehe, never would've thought, we actually managed to tame the Wasteland Killer."
The Bloodsucking Grass still remembered it was this extremely fast person who had cut through its outer defenses, so its two stalks drooped dejectedly, ignoring Cheng Feimao.
Nan Yuan chuckled, "They'll be part of our combat force from now on. Get along well."
"Will they really get along with us?" someone asked worriedly.
Nan Yuan lowered his gaze, "They will. I can always come blow up their mother colony anytime."
The two Bloodsucking Grass stalks shrank back even more.
Tao Shushu pinched the cub's ear, "Cub, stop scaring them."
Nan Yuan acknowledged with a sound.
Nan Yuan remembered the base preserved some books. Keeping his promise, he found the books and arranged for several people to take turns explaining them to the Bloodsucking Grass mother colony.
When no one else was around, Tao Shushu began lavishly praising the cub, encouraging him to boost his motivation.
"You're so amazing, cub! Your tactics were so practical, making the Bloodsucking Grass surrender so quickly."
"And I noticed you're even faster than Cheng Feimao."
"Your combat awareness is really strong too."
"And you're the best-looking of all!"
Nan Yuan's earlobes turned slightly red, "Shushu helped a lot."
Tao Shushu laughed softly, "I said I'd always be with you, so I'll always help and protect you."
"Mm, then it's settled."
After chatting casually for a while, Tao Shushu finally brought up the matter of the survivor map.
"Cub, I obtained a map of human survivors."
Tao Shushu softened her voice, in the face of the brutal apocalypse, humans seemed so insignificant. "There will be more dangers outside, but I'll always be here."
Tao Shushu presented the map to the cub, carefully observing his expression all along.
Nan Yuan was calmer than expected. When he came to the wasteland planet, he had already lost all his family.
There was nothing left to lose.
He suddenly felt grateful that Shushu wasn't in the same dimension as him, she must be in a peaceful world, spared from the apocalypse's horrors.
Nan Yuan ultimately chose their destination: a small planet with relatively few human survivors.
This planet was also called Trash Star, having been a famous electronic waste recycling center over a decade ago.
Later, due to severe pollution levels, the electronic waste recycling plants were shut down.
On Trash Star, human survivors and robots each occupied half the territory.
Tao Shushu fully supported the cub's decision.
Having played games all morning, Tao Shushu's eyes were getting tired.
Seeing the cub eating, Tao Shushu also went to the dining hall to have lunch.
In the physics competition group chat, Qin Rui sent a message: "I'm heading to the cafeteria for lunch first. The lab will open promptly at 2 PM."
The class monitor from Class One also messaged Tao Shushu: "Shushu, are you coming this afternoon? There are a few experiments I wanted to ask you about."
Tao Shushu looked at the series of "Thanks for your hard work, senior" messages in the group chat and replied to the monitor: "Qin Rui's competition results were quite good last year too."
The monitor showed "typing..." for a long time before finally responding: "He's a bit strange, I feel awkward asking him."
Seeing the word "strange," Tao Shushu replied, "Alright, I'll come this afternoon."
After finishing lunch, Tao Shushu completed most of her weekend homework and worked through another competition problem set before heading to school.
She arrived at the laboratory at 13:55.
At the lab entrance, Tao Shushu found the class representative, and the two of them held hands as they headed to the restroom together.
On their way back to the lab, the class representative hesitated before saying, "Shushu, I noticed that President Qin Rui doesn’t seem all that helpful."
"No worries, I’ll teach you," Tao Shushu replied.
As they reached the lab door, Qin Rui was about to close it from the inside, his expression dark.
The class representative was startled. "President Qin Rui."
Upon seeing the class representative and Tao Shushu, Qin Rui quickly adjusted his expression. "Ah, students from Class One. Come on in."
Tao Shushu took note of Qin Rui’s chameleon-like behavior.
After two hours of experiments, Tao Shushu had mastered the basics without any gaps. She stretched her neck and was about to take out her phone to check on her "cub."
After all, balancing work and rest was important.
But before she could pull out her phone, the class representative asked, "Shushu, have you finished reviewing? Can you teach me?"
"Of course," Tao Shushu said, walking over to the class representative and explaining things seriously.
"So you have to establish standard pressure first, I completely overlooked that," the class representative said, dismantling the incorrect setup and starting the experiment again.
Tao Shushu watched for a while before sensing someone’s gaze. She looked up and saw Qin Rui staring at her from the podium.
Tao Shushu averted her eyes and continued explaining.
Once the class representative had no more questions, Tao Shushu took out her phone. This time, she noticed the game icon had turned black again.
The last time this happened was when she encountered the female lead, Su Momo, back when Su Momo’s protagonist aura was still strong.
Was there another main character present?
Tao Shushu quickly turned off her phone. Though her heart was racing, she showed no outward reaction.
Only a few students remained in the classroom. Connecting this with Qin Rui’s recent unusual behavior, Tao Shushu concluded that the other main character must be Qin Rui.
She grabbed the class representative’s hand, intending to leave.
But just then, Qin Rui said, "Classmate Shushu, we’ve borrowed quite a lot of equipment today. Could you help me carry some?"


Author’s Note:
New map loading...
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I’m on time today!