After he left the area where the creeper vines were growing, he immediately found a public telephone and called the Public Order Division. “There’s something weird going on with that creeper vine. It can even eat people! For now, quickly try to contact the residents where the creeper vines are growing and see if there’s any survivors in the apartments overgrown with the vines. If there are, tell them to leave quickly! Also, tell the Wang Consortium’s higher-ups to send troops over. We’ll need flamethrowers to deal with this problem!”
Wang Zhongrui was still thinking logically. He was a very rational and decisive person. Otherwise, he would not have escaped from the apartment complex earlier.
He passed on that message to the Public Order Division so they could verify if there were any survivors left and tell them how to deal with the creeper vines. The creeper vines were not afraid of bullets and qwew extremely aggressive, so Wang Zhongrui thought it would be more appropriate to use flamethrowers to deal with them.
However, Wang Zhongrui was still a little hesitant. The creeper vines had already covered one-fifth of the stronghold. In other words, the death toll of the residents in the stronghold would have already reached an unimaginable level.
Wang Zhongrui assumed the creeper vines had only started devouring humans during the past couple days. If not, there would already be loads of people lodging reports about people who had gone missing in the stronghold.
Furthermore, the creeper vines had probably become more ferocious after getting a taste of human flesh. He recalled that the garment factory’s manager had said that one of the apartment blocks was not yet overgrown with green vines as of yesterday. However, that building was fully covered by the vines today.
The creeper vines had not been spreading so quickly!
The Public Order Division did not feel that Wang Zhongrui was trying to frighten them, because Wang Zhongrui was a senior employee and was usually very reliable in his day-to-day work.
As such, everyone in the Public Order Division immediately got down to work. A large number of the Public Order Division’s staff rushed to where Wang Zhongrui was, while the staff at the headquarters began calling up residents living in the apartment complexes overgrown with the creeper vines.
However, the more calls they made, the heavier their moods became, because no one was answering their calls. They always ended up getting greeted by an answering machine on the other end of the line.
It might be a coincidence if it were just one or two calls, but for a few hundred calls to all be the same, it could only mean that something bad must have happened!
The stronghold’s garrison’s advance guard had already arrived on the scene with their flamethrowers.
The company commander of the advance guard found Wang Zhongrui to learn about the situation, but Wang Zhongrui looked at the two sets of flamethrowers that they were holding and asked, “How many flamethrowers do we have in our stronghold?”
“We only have these two. Usually, there’s no need for this kind of weapon. So our stronghold has never really equipped the troops with such things,” the company commander replied. “Also, these two flamethrowers have not been used in a very long time, so I don’t know if they’re still working or not.”
At that, Wang Zhongrui turned around and looked at the creeper vines again. The creeper vines looked like a boundless green sea in front of them, so how could two sets of flamethrowers possibly be enough to kill it?
The company commander said, “Let’s just try it out first. Our men are still transporting fuel over from the rear. If this doesn’t work, we can set fire to the plant bit by bit.”
“Alright, let’s give it a try first!” Wang Zhongrui replied.
A soldier carried a flamethrower and fuel pack on his back and walked towards the apartment building. When he was about five meters away, he fired a tongue of flame right at the creeper vines. The creeper vines on the wall immediately writhed in pain, moving like how a human would thrash their limbs in pain from fire.
Initially, the advance guard was skeptical of what Wang Zhongrui had told them. But they were shocked when they saw this sight.
Normal creeper vines would definitely not react like this when burned by flame!
But before they could give it any further thought, a manhole cover behind the soldier was suddenly pushed up and out by countless vines. Then those vines shot out at the soldier and stabbed him with their sharp spikes before harshly dragging him into the sewers.
The soldier did not even have time to cry out in pain. Although the other troops wanted to charge forward and try to rescue him, there were no signs of him in the sewers anymore. All they could see was a dark manhole that looked horrifying and frightening.
The company commander of the advance guard yelled at the radioman, “Keep your guard up! Tell headquarters ASAP and call for reinforcements. We’ll need a huge amount of fuel!”
But he did not know it was already a little too late to deal with the creeper vines. After that soldier was pulled down into the sewers, the creeper vines that had been angered by the flames started spreading further at an incredible speed.
That flame was like a prelude to the calamity in Stronghold 61. Previously, the creeper vine would “eat” its food secretly. But now, it had gone totally crazy!
Before the reinforcements could arrive, Wang Zhongrui and the others could already see the vines spreading towards them at a very fast speed. Before this, the surface of the streets was at least clear of vines. But just a minute later, even the roads in the area got covered by the creeper vines and turned green!
Wang Zhongrui could feel his scalp going numb when he saw the leaves on the creeper vines swaying like multiple pairs of hands.
The advance guard was still thinking of using the other flamethrower to stop the creeper vines from advancing. However, Wang Zhongrui took a look at the side and realized they were about to get surrounded by the creeper vines!
He pulled the company commander away with him and started to run. “Run! It’ll be too late if we don’t leave now!”
“We can’t leave!” The company commander shouted angrily, “As soldiers, if we run away, what’re the civilians going to do?!”
Wang Zhongrui was helpless. He did not want to stand around and wait for death here. Even if the troops did not want to leave, he would still leave nonetheless. Even if he might lose his job at the Public Order Division, he did not want to die here.
Wang Zhongrui ignored the advance guard. He turned and ran off. He had just made it a few hundred meters away when he turned around and saw the creeper vines swallow up the entire advance company. He paled with fright!
At this moment, Luo Lan was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and wondering, “What’s going on? The people from the Public Order Division have all been pulled back and the military vehicles have driven off as well. What’s happening? We didn’t do anything!”
It was already afternoon, and the protesters sitting outside the hotel had been there for an entire day and night. Luo Lan really did not have any idea of what was going on. At this moment, the creeper vines were spreading out along the walls of the stronghold at an alarming rate. If anyone took a bird’s eye view, the stronghold would look like it was getting surrounded by a strange, unknown green layer.
Ren Xiaosu could hear cries from the inside of the stronghold while he was standing outside of it. He muttered in a daze, “It’s not me, I didn’t do anything this time….”
The stronghold gate flew open, and several soldiers ran out in a pathetic state. Someone went forward and asked, “What’s going on?”
Those soldiers had no time for niceties and bluntly shouted, “The stronghold has been taken over by maneater vines! Stronghold 61 is in grave danger!”
These few soldiers had escaped from the stronghold in the final moments and were feeling fortunate to have survived the disaster. Ren Xiaosu looked towards the gate that used to be wide open and saw it had been completely sealed by a dense growth of green vines.
Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard the sound of crying next to him. He turned around and looked at Zhou Yingxue. “What are you crying for?”
Aggrieved, Zhou Yingxue sobbed out, “I can’t sell my houses anymore!”
Her dream of becoming a real estate mogul was shattered before it even began.
Ren Xiaosu’s face darkened. Was this the fucking time to be thinking about that? They had to escape!
But wait! Luo Lan was still in there!
