Bai Xun was the last mushroom in the apocalypse. After dying, he was pulled into a survival game.
The wasteland world's pollution levels were off the charts, and mutated monsters were everywhere. He started with nothing but a tattered tent, which a single step from one of the monsters outside could crush flat.
[New player supplies have been delivered. Please work hard to upgrade your safe house.]
The conditions were a bit rough, but this still seemed better than the apocalypse he'd been living in?
Bai Xun: Why think about it? Time to grind!
Then, before he knew it, he made the entire server's announcement.
[Congratulations to player “Little Mushroom” for unlocking the “Botanist” profession. Loading exclusive talent tech tree... “Plant Research Station” blueprint unlocked.]
World chat: What kind of useless profession is this? We're surviving in a wasteland and you're doing research?
Bai Xun said nothing. He just kept grinding resources, filling out the plant catalog, and researching. He dismantled what needed dismantling and planted what needed planting.
Thorn grass that can stab monsters as a trap?
Great stuff. Dig some up and plant a ring around the cabin.
Mutated Venus flytraps that can gobble up little monsters in one bite?
Great stuff. Dig some up and bring them back to guard the cabin.
Tech points +1 +1 +1!
[Congratulations to player “Little Mushroom” for unlocking the “Mushroom Hat” crafting recipe.]
[Mushroom Hat: Once worn, monsters will mistake the wearer for a harmless mushroom. There is a 70% chance they will not attack.]
[Congratulations to player “Little Mushroom” for unlocking plant armor technology. Would you like to equip the mutated Venus flytrap with an electromagnetic mortar?]
Monster hordes, airdrop attacks, psychic shock waves, cold snaps, thunderstorms, solar flares... All kinds of disasters took turns ravaging the already ruined wasteland.
Bai Xun turned back into a mushroom, switched on his special mushroom humidifier, and fell sound asleep in a super-soft bed.
The area around the safe house he built with his own hands was planted with countless well-equipped mutated plants.
Venus flytraps fitted with electromagnetic mortars, hard-shelled pumpkins wearing ultra-high-defense plant armor, mutated cornstalks equipped with radar and tracking missiles...
Their combined firepower covered melee, ranged, and aerial combat.
The plants in the garden, laden with huge fruit, provided all the food he could eat.
With a setup like this, it made sense to be number one on the rankings, right?
Later, Bai Xun planted these plants around the defensive walls of the natives' city, so those struggling to survive no longer had to fear the monster hordes.
The plants began undergoing beneficial mutations one after another, and even the land's pollution levels started to fall.
The natives, barely clinging to life, watched the plague disappear, the spring water regain its sweetness, and the Tree of Life put out new shoots...
They had never believed in ghosts or gods.
Not until they saw with their own eyes a being who, with nothing but his own hands, stood shoulder to shoulder with the gods.
Theme: All fear comes from not having enough firepower
