Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System-Chapter 25: Betrayed

After planting the Spikevines, Vikram mentally calculated his Plant Essence income again.

With the newly planted plants, his daily production had increased further, and he had already accumulated quite a large reserve of Plant Essence.

"Looks like it’s time..."

He turned his gaze toward the Aquaheart Root. "Let’s upgrade you again."

He had just opened the system interface and was about to start the upgrade when, "AAAAAHHH!!"

A sudden scream echoed from the direction of the entrance.

Vikram’s expression instantly sharpened, "What happened?"

Without hesitation, he activated the biological detection function.

The radar-like interface appeared before his eyes. Several dots appeared on the map.

Then Vikram noticed something strange. Near the entrance of his Territory... there was a red dot.

At first, he assumed it was some kind of creature wandering close to the Thornvine barrier.

But after focusing carefully, his eyes narrowed slightly, "That’s strange... Detected creatures should appear as flashing green dots... But this one is red."

A possibility suddenly crossed his mind, "This... is another Survivor."

Without wasting another second, Vikram immediately headed toward the entrance.

---

When he arrived, the scene in front of him was rather miserable.

A man was entangled tightly within the Thornvine barrier.

Thick thorn-covered vines had wrapped around his legs and waist, pinning him firmly to the ground.

Sharp thorns had pierced into his clothes and skin, leaving several bleeding wounds across his arms and shoulders.

The more he struggled, the deeper the thorns dug in. Blood slowly dripped down from the vines.

The man could barely move even a single step.

Vikram stood a few meters away and looked down at him calmly. Then he spoke deliberately, loud enough for the trapped man to hear, "Did this person accidentally discover my Territory... Or did he follow me all the way here?"

The man tied up in the vines immediately panicked. It was Amit.

Sweat appeared on his forehead as he hurriedly shouted, "Brother! Brother! I didn’t follow you! I just happened to discover your Shelter and came to say hello! Please save me from this plant!"

But Vikram didn’t react. Or perhaps he simply didn’t care.

Instead, he continued speaking calmly, as if thinking aloud. "If he didn’t discover my Territory by accident... Then he must have followed me back here."

"The last time I went out was today. So the only possibility is that I was tracked from the ruins."

Vikram’s eyes slowly narrowed. "And coming here at night, he must have had ulterior motives. He might have been planning to attack me when he reached the entrance."

"But unfortunately... The Thornvine caught him first."

Hearing this analysis, Amit’s face began turning pale. Cold sweat ran down his back.

"Brother! Brother, please believe me! It’s just a misunderstanding! I didn’t come here to cause trouble!"

But Vikram remained expressionless. "It doesn’t matter whether this is a misunderstanding... or whether you came here to rob me. Soon enough, the truth will reveal itself."

Then Vikram said calmly, "Show me your chat history."

Amit froze. His eyes flickered nervously.

"This... the Survival Platform protects every Survivor’s privacy... I can’t..."

"Ahhh—!!"

A heart-wrenching scream suddenly tore through the quiet entrance of the Territory.

Amit hadn’t expected Vikram to act so decisively. The moment he hesitated and refused the order, the Thornvine tightened violently.

A thick thorned vine suddenly pierced straight through Amit’s left forearm, the sharp spikes digging deep into flesh and muscle.

Blood instantly splattered across the ground. Amit’s body convulsed in pain as he screamed.

Vikram looked down at him calmly, his expression unchanged.

"It seems you still haven’t figured out your current situation. I’m not asking you. I’m ordering you." Unfortunately, you didn’t understand. So don’t blame me."

The Thornvines moved again.

Several vines tightened around Amit’s arm, and with a horrifying tearing sound, his left hand was severed from his arm.

The vines lifted the severed hand and slowly placed it in front of Vikram like an offering.

Amit’s eyes widened in shock and terror.

Only now did he fully realize something. These vines...

They were not acting randomly. They were being controlled.

Just like the three strange plant creatures he had seen following Vikram earlier that day.

Amit’s mind trembled. So all of these... are controlled by him...

How could someone control so many plant monsters already...

We only arrived in this world a few weeks ago...

Amit’s face turned pale.

Vikram, meanwhile, looked at Amit’s miserable expression and frowned slightly.

"Why do I suddenly feel like I’m the villain here?"

"You know it too...?" Amit muttered weakly through clenched teeth.

Ignoring his grumbling, Vikram casually picked up the severed hand. Using the wrist device still attached to it, he opened the Survival Platform chat interface.

Soon, the conversation records appeared before his eyes.

As he scrolled through them, Vikram’s expression gradually turned colder.

"This beast..."

"’Cooperate to stay warm’?"

The phrase appeared repeatedly throughout Amit’s chat history.

It was clearly a trap.

Amit had lured multiple Survivors under the excuse of forming alliances to survive the cold, only to rob or kill them once they arrived.

There were already six or seven victims in the chat list alone.

And that didn’t even include his accomplices.

Pinned at the top of the chat list was his group chat with his two accomplices, and the latest message was a pinpoint of Vikram’s current location.

Scrolling further up, Vikram saw messages sent just a few minutes earlier.

[Amit: I have arrived near his location. There are a few plants and trees, but there is no sign of a Shelter.]

[Dushyant: So where does that guy live?]

[Amit: Maybe he lost his Territory Core and now lives on the mountain.]

[Tej Pratap: No. I think his Shelter is inside the mountain.]

[Tej Pratap: Follow him and give me his approximate location. We’ll head over now.]

Vikram’s eyes narrowed slightly.

So these people had already been watching him for a while.

They only decided to truly make their move after confirming that he was a lone-wolf Survivor.

The chat continued.

[Amit: I just saw the guy come back and then go inside. What should we do now? Should I stake out here and wait for him to come out so we can ambush him?]

[Tej Pratap: Don’t rush. First find out how many people are in his Shelter before deciding how to act.]

[Tej Pratap: You keep watching him. Message us when he comes out, and we’ll rush over and defeat them one by one.]

[Dushyant: He’s so strong. Can we really handle him?]

[Tej Pratap: Hmph. I suspect his physique isn’t that strong. It should just be a temporary boost from a Crimson Shard.]

[Tej Pratap: And we have Crimson Shards too.]

[Dushyant: Hahaha! That’s great! This kid definitely has a lot of good stuff on him. If we kill him, my strength will increase a lot.]

Vikram slowly closed the chat window.

For a moment, the entrance of the Territory fell silent.

The Thornvines still held Amit firmly in place, the sharp thorns pressing deeper into his flesh every time he moved.

Watching Vikram operate the Survival Platform without even needing the severed hand, Amit’s face turned pale.

Cold sweat poured down his back.

He had originally thought that taking the hand away would at least stop Vikram from accessing the system.

But clearly... That assumption had been completely wrong.

"Do you have anything else you want to explain?" Vikram asked calmly, raising his sword.

"Don’t kill me! Let me explain!" Amit cried out, raising his arms defensively in front of him.

"I was forced into this! At the beginning, the three of us agreed to form an alliance just to survive."

"But when we met up, I discovered they were cousins. They tricked me into their Shelter, and they even took my Treehouse Core."

"I had no choice but to work for them like a servant. Otherwise, who would willingly do such a thankless job?"

"Please don’t kill me. I’ll do anything you ask!"

Amit spoke rapidly, his tone extremely sincere, as if he were telling the complete truth.

However, Vikram quickly noticed the flaws in the story. If his Territory Core had truly been taken away, he wouldn’t have been able to survive this long.

And earlier, when he was deceiving other Survivors, I clearly saw him shamelessly begging to join their Shelters...

But Vikram didn’t expose the lie. Instead, he remained calm.

"Since you say that... I’ll give you a chance to prove it."

Vikram spoke indifferently. "Send a message to your two accomplices. Lure them here."

Although Vikram could open the Survival Platform using Amit’s severed hand, he couldn’t operate it himself.

For now, Amit still had some use.

Soon, with a slight gesture from Vikram, the Thornvines loosened and withdrew, releasing Amit from their grip.

As soon as the vines retreated, Amit finally felt the crushing pressure on his body disappear.

He secretly let out a breath of relief, "No problem, Boss."

He quickly picked up his severed left hand with his right hand.

Enduring the pain and the strange sensation, he activated the Survival Platform and began typing.

Soon, a message appeared in the group chat.

[Amit: Haven’t you arrived yet? He’s fighting a Crimson Creature. His left arm is injured and hasn’t healed. He’s clearly struggling. Now is the best opportunity.]

A moment later, a reply came.

Footsteps soon followed from the forest path.

Two men walked side by side toward the entrance.

[Dushyant: We’re here. Where are you?]

Amit quickly sent another message.

[Amit: Behind you.]

The tall middle-aged man instantly turned his head.

But what greeted him was an arrow. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Whoosh!"

The arrow arrived almost instantly.

"What?!" Dushyant’s eyes widened in shock.

However, he was indeed a powerful fighter who had consumed three Physique Fruits. His reaction speed far exceeded that of ordinary Survivors.

At the last moment, he forcefully twisted his body sideways.

The arrow that was originally aimed at his heart missed the fatal spot. But it still pierced deeply into his right shoulder.

"Pff!"

Blood immediately burst from the wound. Dushyant staggered back several steps, clutching his shoulder as his clothes quickly soaked red.

"Amit!!"

"You bastard!"

"You actually dared to betray us?!"

Dushyant gritted his teeth and violently pulled the arrow out of his shoulder.

Blood continued to flow down his arm.

At that moment, Amit slowly walked out from behind a nearby tree.

His injured arm had already been roughly bandaged.

"You two dogs! I’ve been fed up with you for a long time!"

"Now I’m Boss Vikram’s man. What’s wrong with helping him deal with you?"

As he spoke, Amit secretly glanced toward Vikram.

Only when he saw that Vikram’s expression remained calm did he quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

Clearly, every word he said just now was a performance for survival.