Chapter 134: Hello, Hello?
“Is this it?”
Lin Xiwan leaned closer, confirming the inscription on the stone stele.
This was where the seed bank was located? It looked just like any other vine-covered area.
“I don’t think so. It should be further inside,” Lin Jiayao said, her memory of the aerial view not matching their current surroundings.
This was just a botanical research institute, not the seed bank itself.
Nearing their destination, they slowed their pace.
After Lin Jiayao created another vine wheelchair, Lin Xiwan pushed her towards the institute, Huayibai trailing behind them, its eyes wide with curiosity, looking at the surrounding buildings.
Through the grimy windows, they could see scientific equipment inside, and even a large library.
But the equipment was either covered in moss and fungus, or pierced by vines, clearly unusable without extensive repairs.
They continued further into the institute and reached the entrance to a botanical garden.
Peering through the ticket booth, they saw the garden’s interior.
The familiar sight of overgrown building-trees and vines, and on the ground, the withered remains of other plants.
Walking along the perimeter, Lin Xiwan sighed softly.
“It seems… all the plants in the botanical garden are dead.”
“Mm…” Lin Jiayao nodded. “They probably couldn’t compete with the mutated building-trees and vines.”
Except for the building-trees, the vines, and a few types of fungus, most of the other plants had been eliminated.
This disheartened them slightly.
It suggested that the seed bank might also have been destroyed.
But they couldn’t blame the building-trees and vines; it was just a matter of survival, of competing for resources, a natural instinct.
They continued walking, crossing a street, and then they saw it: a university.
They didn’t even need to read the name – Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences – the vibrant pink blossoms at the entrance confirmed its location.
“It’s inside there,” Lin Jiayao said, pointing towards the flower-covered entrance.
“This…?” Lin Xiwan slowed down, looking at her sister. “Can we even go in?”
“It’s fine, let’s go,” Lin Jiayao said. She could sense the familiar flow of energy from the Vascular Network; it was safe.
And even with Bone Spike Lurker activated, she hadn’t detected any movement within.
Lin Xiwan pushed the wheelchair towards the entrance.
To their surprise, perhaps because it was on the outskirts of Kun City, the building-trees and vines here were less dense, giving other plants a chance to thrive.
Although she didn’t recognize most of the flowers, perhaps even new, mutated species, the vibrant colors were a welcome sight.
They explored the vine-covered university, searching for the seed bank.
They knew it was somewhere within the university grounds, but not the exact location.
Nearing their destination, their pace slowed, a comfortable silence between them, neither mentioning their purpose.
Then they saw it, a building that stood out among the others.
Although it covered a large area, it was only four stories tall, seemingly unremarkable.
But it was covered in various plants, some even bearing fruit, the bunches of orange grapes hanging from the vines covering the glass doors particularly noticeable.
“Are those… grapes?” Lin Xiwan murmured, her gaze fixed on the strange fruit.
“Maybe…?” Lin Jiayao wasn’t sure either. “Let’s go inside and check. These mutated fruits… we don’t know if they’re poisonous.”
“Okay.” Even if her sister hadn’t suggested it, Lin Xiwan wouldn’t have eaten anything from outside, no matter how tempting.
Any fruit that survived in the apocalypse was suspect.
Carefully avoiding the thorny vines, Lin Xiwan pushed her sister through the entrance.
Inside, rows of toppled display cases, their glass shattered long ago, the contents scattered and decayed.
“Are these… it?” Lin Xiwan asked, looking at the small bottles and jars filled with withered seeds, a pang of disappointment.
Almost all kinds of seeds had been stored here, only a few, nourished by the vines, had sprouted; the rest were dead.
Shattered glass everywhere, as if the seed bank had been ransacked, not just by nature, but also by humans.
It was a well-known location; it would have been looted countless times in the past five years.
She looked up, took a deep breath, and then looked down at her sister.
Several desiccated corpses in lab coats hung from the vines above, along with others in different attire.
Many of them clutched intact glass vials, but the seeds inside were blackened, lifeless.
Lin Xiwan had lost hope; finding edible seeds in this ransacked seed bank seemed impossible.
But then she noticed her sister’s fingernail tapping rhythmically on the vine armrest of the wheelchair.
She knew her sister was using her ability and didn’t interrupt.
Perhaps… her sister could find something the others had missed?
There were four floors; even if it had been looted before the building-trees and vines took over, there might still be something left.
Lin Jiayao was using the vibrations from Bone Spike Lurker to map the building’s interior.
The complex environment and the sound-dampening vines made it difficult; after several attempts, she finally had a rough layout in her mind.
This is…
She opened her eyes and looked down at the floor.
The familiar beige tiles, some cracked and broken, pushed aside by vines and other plants.
The floor looked normal, but beneath it…
“Over there, Sister,” she said, pointing.
“What is it? Did you find something?” Lin Xiwan asked as she pushed the wheelchair in the direction her sister indicated.
“Yes,” Lin Jiayao nodded. “And it seems… intact.”
Intact?
An underground storage area?
Lin Xiwan quickened her pace, Huayibai hurrying to keep up.
Following her sister’s directions, she reached an elevator lobby.
But the elevator was long out of service, its entrance covered in moss. They had to take the stairs.
The stairwell door was gone, the entire space filled with dangling vines.
And hanging from the vines… countless desiccated corpses, almost filling the stairwell.
“Ugh…”
Even Lin Xiwan, used to the horrors of the apocalypse, found the sight unsettling.
They would have to crawl over the bodies to descend.
But the vines… they were connected to the Vascular Network.
Lin Jiayao touched one of the vines, and the others, as if coming alive, shifted, carrying the corpses upwards and sideways, clearing a path.
The stairs weren’t wheelchair-accessible, so Lin Xiwan lifted her sister.
This time, not a princess carry, but facing her, her left arm supporting Lin Jiayao’s bottom, her head resting against Lin Xiwan’s chest.
“Don’t look if you’re scared,” she said softly, stroking her sister’s head.
No matter how powerful her sister’s abilities, to Lin Xiwan, she was still her frail little sister, in need of protection.
Then, she took Huayibai’s hand with her right hand. “Hold onto Sister’s hand if you’re scared.”
Even she found this corpse-filled stairwell creepy.
Holding her sister and Huayibai’s hand, Lin Xiwan carefully descended the stairs to the basement level.
As they descended, the darkness deepened, and Lin Xiwan’s steps faltered.
The basement below was pitch black. Even her enhanced vision couldn’t penetrate the darkness.
But before she could ask her sister, she saw the vines below begin to glow, a faint, eerie green light, as if infused with energy.
Lin Jiayao, using Vascular Network, was channeling energy into the vines.
Although the green light was unsettling, it illuminated the way.
Reaching the basement level, they left the stairwell, and the space opened up.
A large, open area with various rooms: sorting rooms, counting rooms, even an x-ray inspection room. Many doors had their nameplates missing; their original purpose unknown.
And even more corpses than in the stairwell, the green light making the scene even more gruesome.
But at the edge of the corridor was a large, open space, a massive, broken wooden door.
And behind the broken wooden door was a large metal door, a metal plate welded onto it with the words “Main Drying Room.”
The highest concentration of corpses was here, piled up in front of the metal door. Lin Xiwan had to carefully step over them to reach it.
The scene unnerved her.
It seemed they had been fleeing from something, trapped at this last door, unable to open it even in their final moments.
She tried the handle; the door wouldn’t budge.
But she knew she could break it down.
“What’s inside, Yao?” she asked softly, her voice barely a whisper in the green light.
“A large drying room… and four massive cold storage units, larger than my detection range… each about thirteen meters high,” Lin Jiayao said, lifting her head from her sister’s chest.
“Four… such large cold storage units?” Lin Xiwan was surprised. She hadn’t expected such a large space down here.
Although the cold storage units, without power, would no longer be cold, such a large, dry, undisturbed seed vault… there had to be viable seeds remaining.
Even the vines hadn’t been able to penetrate the sealed doors. Even in their final moments, the researchers hadn’t opened this last door.
If they could get inside… they could survive on the edible seeds, at least for a while.
But why hadn’t they opened it? Even outsiders had reached this point; those inside would have had ample opportunity to access the vault.
They knew better than anyone the purpose of a seed bank.
It wasn’t for short-term survival, but for the long-term preservation of species, a backup for when plants or animals went extinct, a chance for those genes to flourish again.
And now… she was about to open this door.
“Hoo…” Lin Xiwan felt the weight of the moment, the potential within. She took a deep breath and clenched her right fist. “Yao, Yibai, cover your ears.”
She took a glowing vine, wrapped it around her fist, a makeshift green gauntlet.
Then, holding her breath, she felt her heart pound, blood crystal tendrils extending from her heart and into her right fist.
“Break!”
“Thump, thump, thump—”
She punched the metal door repeatedly, the vines shattering, sap spraying, reabsorbed by the other vines, each blow leaving a blood-red, glowing dent.
And a second later, the dents exploded outwards, like precisely placed charges, ripping the door from its hinges, taking a chunk of the wall with it.
Beyond the dust cloud, a vast, open space, free of vines, like a warehouse.
Several large doors in the corners, four leading to cold storage units, one to a drying room.
Lin Xiwan, still carrying her sister, took Huayibai’s hand, and walked towards the nearest cold storage door.
The door, seemingly unlocked due to the power outage, swung open easily with a gentle push.
Stepping inside, she saw a sight that made her gasp.
Even Lin Jiayao, who had seen the layout through Bone Spike Lurker, was impressed by the scale of it.
Rows upon rows of fifteen-meter-tall blue storage shelves, filled with glass jars and stoppered bottles of seeds.
The vibrant colors within the jars suggested they were still viable.
And below, on the floor, tracks for robotic arms – before the apocalypse, this place had been fully automated.
“So… so many…”
Lin Xiwan whispered, awestruck.
This was, after all, Asia’s largest seed bank, funded by a major nation. This scale… wasn’t surprising.
Huayibai also stared, its eyes wide.
So… much… yummy food…
To Huayibai, these were just jars of different flavored snacks. It could almost taste them, its mouth watering.
“Slurp—”
It looked at Mommy, who was pointing towards a section filled with jars of rice, wheat, and fruit tree seeds.
Quite high up. After confirming the location with her sister, Lin Xiwan put her down, jumped, and carefully climbed the sturdy shelves.
Reaching the designated shelves, she carefully retrieved a few jars and then returned to the entrance.
Since she was carrying her sister, she handed the jars to Huayibai.
“Xiao Yibai, can you hold these? Let’s find a place to stay for the night.”
Having found the seeds, the location now marked, they could return anytime; Lin Xiwan felt a surge of hope, already imagining their future.
The only problem was that neither she nor her sister knew how to farm. They would need to find food before they could grow their own.
And she was hungry now. After finding a place to sleep and storing their belongings, she would take her sister to find something to eat.
Water was plentiful here, but food… they might have to try their luck inside the building-trees.
Before leaving, Lin Jiayao had Lin Xiwan stop at the broken entrance.
After her sister used her vines to carry the corpses and debris, concealing the doorway, making it look like there had never been an entrance there, they left the basement and returned to the ground floor.
Leaving the seed bank, they walked towards a nearby dormitory building they had seen earlier. They could probably find a clean room to rest there.
And luckily, since the building-trees and vines here had established themselves early, most of the building’s contents hadn’t been looted.
Inside the dormitory, however, Lin Xiwan found something unexpected.
A whole, unopened ham.
Still in its plastic packaging, seemingly forgotten.
Although covered in mold, after peeling away the hardened outer layer, the savory scent of the meat filled the air.
The large ham provided a much-needed, and delicious, meal. After eating their fill, they looked at the seeds, a new worry surfacing.
Although Lin Jiayao had access to countless memories, none of them had any knowledge of farming.
She’d even asked Huayibai, but it had also shaken its head; the memories absorbed by the Blood Orb Fungus were fragmented; unless she consumed a large number of people with specific expertise, it was unlikely to be helpful.
Then, Lin Xiwan had an idea.
“Should we… ask someone on the radio?” she asked, looking at her sister.
“The radio?” Lin Jiayao blinked.
“Yes,” Lin Xiwan nodded. “If the broadcasting station in Kun City is still intact, we can contact someone, maybe even Sister Wanzi in Guangdong. They would definitely know how to farm… oh, wait, no electricity… sigh…”
Her plan had been simple: announce the Voodoo Cult’s demise and contact Sister Wanzi’s camp.
If they were still alive, they would surely be willing to share their knowledge of farming. But without electricity…
“Ask on the radio…” Lin Jiayao murmured, then, “Okay, I’ll try.”
“Huh?” Lin Xiwan looked at her sister in surprise. “You… have access to a radio station?”
“Yes, one of Huayibai’s clones is at the Voodoo Cult’s headquarters, it can use their radio.”
“Oh… wait… the headquarters? It’s… gone? Already?”
“There are no more B-ranks there. Huayibai could easily take it,” Lin Jiayao said casually.
“Wow… Xiao Yibai is so powerful,” Lin Xiwan said, glancing at Huayibai, impressed.
A B-rank’s power was beyond her comprehension. Although not offensively oriented, Huayibai’s ability to create clones and deploy them anywhere was incredibly useful.
“Then I’ll have Huayibai contact the Qingzhou University camp and see if they’re still there. If they are, we can ask them about farming,” Lin Jiayao said.
“Okay,” Lin Xiwan nodded.
They both looked at Huayibai.
“Yibai, try broadcasting a general call, see if anyone responds.”
“Okay!” Huayibai nodded and closed its eyes.
…
Somewhere, a little girl, kneeling on a chair in a radio station, spoke into a microphone.
And across southern China, from Donghai City to Guangdong Province, a childish voice echoed from countless radios.
“Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?”
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