Upon returning to the mountain base, Shen Feng and Yue Hengyi first needed to rest. They hadn't slept for two days, and their bodies couldn't take it any longer.
The mutated plant brought back by Shen Feng and Yue Hengyi was placed directly under a phoenix tree, a relatively shady spot. Once the surrounding sounds disappeared, the mutated plant specifically opened a slit to observe its surroundings.
Slot felt as if he had seen this plant somewhere before. Two leaves, capable of surviving in the desert. He began to think carefully, and suddenly, an answer came to him: "This is the Welwitschia mirabilis from Africa. I didn't expect it to gain intelligence after mutating!"
The Welwitschia mirabilis is originally from Africa and is a very drought-resistant plant in the desert. Another name, exaggerated as a result, is the Thousand-Year-Old Orchid. It is said to live for a thousand years, but this is just a legend. Many believe it can live for a hundred years, but a thousand years is an exaggeration.
The Welwitschia mirabilis has only two leaves, but they appear messy. The reason is simple: the leaves of the Welwitschia mirabilis continuously grow. Previously grown leaf segments split, making it look like many leaves piled together.
After mutation, the two large leaves of the Welwitschia mirabilis became protective layers enclosing the main fleshy bulb. As for the previously split smaller leaf segments, they transformed into vines, grabbing food everywhere.
Shen Feng and Yue Hengyi slept for six hours before waking up. For them, creating a major sensation was more important, so their actions had to continue.
"Recapturing a major city in seven days. A day and a half has already passed! Time waits for no one, let's go!" Shen Feng said urgently.
Yue Hengyi also nodded quickly. Glancing at his watch, it was already three in the afternoon. The two had rushed back from the desert overnight and slept for a while, not expecting it to be three o'clock already. Every minute and second was crucial!
"Photographers, photographers, hurry up!" Yue Hengyi found two photographers who were still sleeping, woke them up, and led them down the mountain.
The photographers felt they had encountered the worst luck in eight lifetimes. They wished they hadn't agreed to film. They had personally witnessed the appearance of a tornado in the desert and hadn't had a good rest yet. Now, they had to go to a place full of zombies to film. A million zombies! If they were surrounded, they would surely die!
Unfortunately, the photographers could not ignore Yue Hengyi's threats. Generally, no one could refuse the demands of ability users, and the price of refusal was very high. They could only reluctantly follow.
"Recapture this city within seven days, and then quickly upload the videos to generate buzz, letting as many people as possible see it. It's a shame there are no online marketing companies in the apocalypse, otherwise, this video would easily become a top trend!" Shen Feng said excitedly.
"Only what can make money can be called online marketing. If you can't make money now, who would do it?" Yue Hengyi shrugged.
What Yue Hengyi said made a lot of sense. Why was online marketing so prevalent before the apocalypse? Even the trivial matters of celebrities eating, drinking, and excreting could make it to the trending searches? It was all because there was money to be made. As long as you reposted or clicked, you could earn money. Who wouldn't want such a good job? As for what kind of reactions these trending topics would cause, the online marketers didn't care; making money was all that mattered.
Since there were no online marketers in the apocalypse, there was only one way to make a significant impact online: to become famous through one's own abilities.
The elites of the world were all paying attention to the international situation. If something that could change the global situation occurred, then more people would click. Shen Feng seized this psychology and prepared to do something big within a week. As long as a city was recaptured within seven days, many people would undoubtedly pay attention to it.
Shen Feng and Yue Hengyi prepared to set off with the mutated plant. The photographers followed behind them, as did Old Man Slot and Lu Zhengqi. These two also wanted to go and watch.
Slot's intention was simple: "I want to see firsthand how strong the mutated plant is! I have never witnessed the power of mutated plants."
Shen Feng directly replied, "I won't object if you want to follow, but if an accident occurs, I might not be able to protect you!"
"It's alright. This plant is Welwitschia mirabilis, suitable for growing in the desert. If it can indeed eliminate zombies, I hope to cultivate it on a large scale in Australia. With the protection of Welwitschia mirabilis, Australia will become the safest continent in the world!" Slot said quickly.
Shen Feng could only shrug at this idea, finding it too fanciful. If the mutated plant could eat zombies, it would have no problem eating humans. Once the zombies were gone, humans would become the food for Welwitschia mirabilis. The old man didn't even understand such a simple logic.
The group drove to the outskirts of Fremantle. Looking at the zombies constantly wandering in the city, many felt fear, especially the two photographers. The cameras they carried were already shaking, clearly having been scared witless by the million zombies.
"Look at you! Such cowards. Scared by so few zombies. Back then, we faced over a hundred million zombies and still won. What are you afraid of!" Yue Hengyi pointed at the two photographers and said.
The two photographers replied with crestfallen faces: "Two heroes, we have also seen your videos of battles in Yanjing, but you had an army of a million back then, and there were tall city walls, and fighter jet bombardments. We have nothing now except this plant. This is incomparable!"
"With this Welwitschia mirabilis here, it's enough!" Shen Feng patted the two-meter-plus sphere beside him and said, "Let's get to work, eat all the zombies in the city, and you need to grow quickly!"
Shen Feng placed his hope on the mutated Welwitschia mirabilis beside him. Whether the planned objective could be achieved depended entirely on this Welwitschia mirabilis!
The Welwitschia mirabilis seemed to understand Shen Feng's words. Long roots suddenly grew from its base, anchoring into the soil and beginning to absorb moisture. As water was continuously absorbed, the main body of the Welwitschia mirabilis also rapidly expanded, eventually becoming a large specimen with a diameter of five meters.
Next, the two leaves of the Welwitschia mirabilis opened. These two leaves were the Welwitschia mirabilis's trump card for survival. A large amount of water and energy were stored in the leaves. In arid environments, the Welwitschia mirabilis relied entirely on its leaves to endure.
After absorbing enough moisture, the two leaves of the Welwitschia mirabilis began to extend, quickly growing over ten meters long. As they grew, the leaves started to split, transforming into vines. Dozens of vines grew from the leaves, waving around but unable to reach the distant zombies.
"Little Yue, give it a hand!" Shen Feng couldn't help but say when he saw that the Welwitschia mirabilis couldn't grab the zombies. It seemed that the growth of the Welwitschia mirabilis also had its limits; the vines couldn't reach beyond a few dozen meters.
Yue Hengyi thought for a moment, sat in the car, and honked the horn frantically: "Beep beep..."
If someone with road rage were present, hearing such frequent honking would surely enrage them. When driving on the road, the most annoying thing is hearing honking. As soon as you hear it, endless anger will arise in your heart, and your blood will surge.
The zombies in the city also heard the honking. Having not tasted fresh meat for almost two years, the zombies became excited upon hearing the honking from outside the city and rushed over.
As they charged, the zombies also let out roars, calling to each other and rushing towards the city's outskirts, instantly forming a small zombie horde.
Seeing this scene, the photographers' legs trembled uncontrollably. However, seeing that Shen Feng and Yue Hengyi on the side showed no reaction, they could only suppress their fear and aim their cameras at the mutated plant and the distant zombie horde respectively.
As the zombie horde charged, they entered the Welwitschia mirabilis's attack range. With a dozens-of-meters attack range, the ground was covered with waving vines. The charging zombies were directly caught by the vines and then brought to the vicinity of the Welwitschia mirabilis's main body.
Dozens of roots suddenly drilled out from the base of the Welwitschia mirabilis, entering the zombies through their mouths and noses. The roots wriggled within the skin, and in an instant, the zombies' blood was drained. The zombies died, and with sufficient fresh blood, the Welwitschia mirabilis's main body swelled further, and its vines grew longer.
Thousands of zombies formed a horde, charging towards the Welwitschia mirabilis and the six people around it. The zombies caught by the Welwitschia mirabilis were only a few dozen, which had almost no impact on the horde.
Shen Feng realized this wouldn't work. The Welwitschia mirabilis seemed to be struggling against the human wave tactic. He quickly said to Yue Hengyi, "Little Yue, control the speed, don't let the zombies rush too fast!"
Yue Hengyi had no other skills, only one move, and that move was enough to conquer the world! As long as this move worked, it would work everywhere. Yue Hengyi charged forward and unleashed his ability: "1.5x Gravity Field!"
Yue Hengyi's order was to prevent the zombies from approaching, not to kill them, which made things much simpler. All he needed to do was create a strong enough gravity field to stop the zombies' advance.
As the zombies entered Yue Hengyi's gravity field, they immediately felt heavy all over. Even lifting their feet became difficult, as if dozens of pounds were pressing down on them. To move was also arduous, and they could only shuffle forward step by step.
With Yue Hengyi controlling their speed, the Welwitschia mirabilis's subsequent attack method became simpler. Countless vines, as soon as they grabbed a zombie, would immediately drag it back. Then, roots would drill into the zombies' bodies to absorb blood. After a few minutes, hundreds of zombies formed a small mountain beneath the Welwitschia mirabilis's main body. The Welwitschia mirabilis now had a diameter of eight to nine meters, even larger than when they first saw it in the desert.
Shen Feng calculated the time and frowned, "This seems a bit slow. It can only consume fifty to sixty thousand zombies a day. The speed is not good!"
Just as Shen Feng finished speaking, the Welwitschia mirabilis underwent a change. The fleshy bulb in the center of its two leaves suddenly grew eyes. It was a single eye, observing its surroundings, with a look of curiosity in its gaze.
"Damn it, are all these plants mutating in the same way? Why did this thing also grow eyes?" Shen Feng saw an eye suddenly appear on the fleshy bulb and immediately thought of another mutated plant in the laboratory in Yuzhou. To this day, Shen Feng didn't know what plant it was that had mutated, possessing both the robust vitality of Selaginella and the ability to prey like a pitcher plant.
"After mutating, plants gain self-awareness and want to understand the world. Thus, they make choices similar to animals, growing eyes to observe and mouths to communicate. If I'm not mistaken, there's also a brain within this fleshy bulb! This is convergent evolution. To have consciousness, one must first have a brain," Slot explained to Shen Feng.
Lu Zhengqi quickly translated these contents, preparing to explain the current situation of the Welwitschia mirabilis.
Shen Feng looked at the old man with surprise and said, "I didn't expect you to know something about convergent evolution in biology."
If Professor Niu or Li Keyi had explained the situation of the Welwitschia mirabilis, Shen Feng wouldn't have been surprised. But now, a man who studied meteorology could discern that the Welwitschia mirabilis had chosen convergent evolution, which was quite remarkable.
"I've just read a few more books; it's nothing," the old man said, appearing somewhat embarrassed by Shen Feng's praise.