"Damn it, what the hell is going on, why isn’t anyone coming?"
Li Ziran had been waiting for about a minute, when he realized no one was coming and was complaining when he suddenly slapped his forehead and said,
"Fuck, I’m so stupid, don’t I have a phone!"
With that, he quickly turned on his phone; fortunately, it was still working, unlike in some movies where all electronic devices would also become paralyzed.
He opened the social messaging app and first found his friend Zhang Cheng’s avatar and then sent out a voice call request.
"Beep beep beep beep..."
However, half a minute passed, and there was still no response on the other end.
"What’s going on, answer the voice call, quick!"
He anxiously checked his phone and switched to another colleague, getting ready to make another call.
Meanwhile, Guan Liang had once again gotten up, but this time he didn’t charge at him again; instead, he just stood there, silently staring at Li Ziran, making the latter’s scalp tingle, and he quickly readied himself for an attack.
What he didn’t know was that, behind him, the vines that were originally blocking the door suddenly moved and quietly approached the back of his head, followed by a sudden Burst, entangling him in their grasp.
Attacked, Li Ziran realized that things were bad, but it was already too late.
Compared to the weak puppet Guan Liang before, the strength of this vine was not something an ordinary person could contend with, and it firmly bound him on the spot.
Li Ziran used all his strength to struggle frantically, but it was no use, and the vines on his body just tightened even more, causing him immense pain.
When he finally stopped moving, a sharp spike from the head of the vine suddenly stretched over and burrowed into his ear, and a strange voice also began to echo in his mind.
At first, the voice was somewhat unclear, but as the vine burrowed deeper and some Poison Liquid was secreted, the voice became clearer and clearer.
Eventually, Li Ziran could completely hear what it was saying.
"Join me... join me... join me..."
The feeling was quite peculiar, not like words, it seemed like a direct spiritual guidance, allowing him to receive this information through the mental level.
Li Ziran just felt his mind grow hazy, and those three endlessly echoing words almost occupied his entire thoughts.
As if talking in his sleep, his mouth involuntarily began to mutter the same phrase.
"Join me... join me..."
In that moment, he seemed to see the true form of the creature that had attacked him.
It was a huge plant spread throughout the walls of the entire building, one that had been hiding here for who knows how long, its body now so massive that it occupied the entire Three Institutes, including a large area of the ground beneath it.
Li Ziran seemed to witness the current state inside the entire building through some unknown sense.
The two colleagues he had met chatting outside the bathroom before he went in were now in the same situation as him.
Not only that, but the entire floor, and almost the entire building, had already fallen completely.
Researchers, Azure Dragon Soldiers, and even the Alien Species housed on the sixth floor had all been controlled, and the environment inside the building had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Countless vines broke out from the walls, with flowers, green leaves, and thorns covering the entire space.
The perimeter of the Three Institutes was the same, with thick thorny vines emerging from the ground and walls, the area had become a world of plants.
Li Ziran finally understood everything at this moment.
Why he had been feeling that the institute’s greening was especially good lately, why a large number of animals kept appearing nearby, why Guan Liang mysteriously disappeared, why his cries for help were unanswered.
All this turned out to be the doing of a plant hidden within the Three Institutes!
It had been lurking beside them all along, and today, it finally began to Burst, almost instantly causing the entire Three Institutes to fall, turning this place into its own territory!
This scene, like an Illusion, flashed through Li Ziran’s mind in just a few breaths, as if it was the collective thinking of bees.
The next second, his eyes turned the same pale white as Guan Liang’s, completely losing consciousness.
Outside, the last scene seen by Li Ziran was the same.
The entire Three Institutes had become an ocean of plants, with the lobby, laboratories, rooftop, and underground parking lot all occupied by plants, and the staff had all become puppets under control.
However, there were exceptions. In a room on the third floor of this building, Mr. Wen and two Azure Dragon Soldiers were watching the situation outside through the monitors.
The room they were in was a sealed space, without windows or ventilation ducts, and its surrounding walls were lined with very thick steel plates, making it as indestructible as an iron bucket.
As an important research institute in Jiangnan Province, it certainly had some special safe rooms designed to deal with emergencies, and this room was one such place.
"We must contact the outside as soon as possible, inform them to come for rescue. The air here can only maintain our breathing for 30 minutes, with the additional oxygen supply, we can hold out for up to three hours at most. If we aren’t rescued within this period..."
Mr. Wen said to the few people around him while watching the images on the monitor.
A moment ago, the entire building had suddenly shaken. He initially thought it was an earthquake, only to find thick vines crazily spreading from the surrounding walls, this unexpected event had left him stunned on the spot.
Fortunately, the two Azure Dragon Soldiers with him had quick reflexes, immediately pulling him away from the attack in that instant, and while returning fire, led Mr. Wen into this safe room.
Before being dispatched here, these two soldiers had undergone training with the Abnormality Department for dealing with Alien Species.
Although the people from the Abnormality Department themselves did not understand much about it, the training had at least given them a sense of what they would be facing, so they were not clueless in the moment of crisis.
It was also lucky that the safe room was close; there was one on every floor, but only they managed to get in successfully, while almost everyone else was subdued by the plants in an instant.
Mr. Wen hurriedly picked up the desk phone at this moment and immediately dialed Hu Hu, intending to inform him of the situation here.
Hearing the waiting tone from the handset, Mr. Wen couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Thankfully, even though most of the building’s power was down, the phone here still worked, and he could successfully contact the outside.
After a short wait, the phone was connected, and Hu Hu’s voice came through.
"Mr. Wen, I heard that someone has gone missing from your location, and I have already dispatched someone there; they should arrive soon, please wait..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wen Songling on the other end quickly began to speak:
"Minister Hu, there’s been an incident, the Three Institutes has been attacked by a monster and has entirely fallen. I’m now hiding in a safe room with two young soldiers. I feel that the attacker is trying to get in here, and I’m not sure how long we can hold out. Please dispatch more people to rescue us urgently..."
PS: Thank you to the Holy One for the 100 coins reward.