How to Raise a Baby in an Apocalypse - Chapter 401
An Ran’s heart suddenly pounds. She’s gotten used to avoiding danger with the help of plant warnings, so when she loses that ability, she feels completely blind to the world.
The sensation is deeply unsettling—like there’s a zombie standing right behind her—an intense lack of security.
Before anyone can react, a man suddenly screams and rushes out of a tent on the national highway under the moonlight. As he screams, he grabs at a black shadow on his body, stumbles, and falls to the ground.
As he falls, the black shadow—over a meter long—curls up and burrows into his body without making a sound.
The punk’s car is already speeding off toward Xiangcheng. The others haven’t reacted yet. A few brave souls cautiously approach the fallen man. The surroundings are eerily silent, with only a cool breeze blowing through.
Suddenly—
The man’s chest bulges grotesquely, and his shirt rips open from the inside. A small, crocodile-like mouth bursts out, hissing in the air. It flicks out a scarlet snake tongue, bites the face of someone leaning in, then slithers quickly into the new host through the wound.
“Ah!!!” The other men scatter in terror, leaving behind the headless body in the moonlight—its limbs twitching in place, blood spurting hot from the severed neck.
An Ran, witnessing the scene from a distance, turns sharply, pulls the saber from her waist, and swings hard—severing a snake that’s lunging at her. The snake is sliced in two, but the head half still thrashes, jumping twice before trying to bite her foot.
Zhan Lian throws a flying knife, pinning the snake’s head to the ground. Carrying Doll, he pulls An Ran over and hands Doll to her.
“Get in the car!” he shouts.
The moment he speaks, more snakes close in around them.
Luo Feifan hurls a large fireball, burning the man who was just bitten. But the snake inside him isn’t dead—it bursts out of the corpse and immediately targets Luo Feifan with intense aggression.
An Ran climbs into the car and quickly tries to urge the plants underground to devour the snakes. But she makes a terrifying discovery: apart from the thorny plant, none of the other plant roots respond to her at all.
What’s going on? What’s wrong with you all?
Panic rises in her chest. Holding the sleeping baby, she watches through the window as Zhan Lian flings his spinning knives, striking down one mutant snake after another.
She’s furious. How could the plants that were so powerful at the beginning become so unreliable at such a critical moment?
That anger fuels her power. An Ran carefully places Doll on the back seat, turns, rummages through the car, and finds a large bag of crystal cores—Zhan Lian’s spoils from earlier.
She grabs a handful with one hand and unleashes all her ability. The surrounding trees begin to creak and scream. Thick tree roots rip themselves out of the ground and begin to “walk” toward An Ran with swaying treetops.
The people still surrounded by snakes are completely dumbfounded.
What kind of monster is this?!
Inside the car, An Ran stares out at the towering trees in shock.
Where did this tree come from?
Where did these trees come from? What kind of weird scene just invaded?
