Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System-Chapter 63: Conspiracy

However, this matter had only been imagined in her mind and never actually happened, so it didn’t exist. She wasn’t afraid of what Vikram said.

[Vikram: Heh heh, I’m telling you, your best friend just received my gift and trusts me a lot now.]

[Vikram: If I just add a little fuel to the fire, wouldn’t it be easy for her to teach you a lesson?]

After Vikram said that, she truly realized the seriousness of the situation. A bead of sweat ran down her forehead, and Anjali swallowed.

[Anjali: It’s not that serious, Brother Vikram. Last time I threatened you, wasn’t it easily resolved by your brilliant wisdom? You didn’t lose anything.]

[Anjali: I promise I won’t bother you again. Can you let a humble girl off this one time?]

Her fingers trembled as she typed the message, and she was already sweating profusely.

Mainly, this scoundrel had just given such a valuable cold-proof suit. Now, if he just made something up, Divya might actually believe it, and then she would be the one in trouble.

[Vikram: Let you off?]

[Vikram: It’s not impossible, but you have to agree to a condition.]

Inside the Shelter, Vikram sat leisurely, crossing his legs as he slowly sent the message.

[Anjali: Okay, okay, no problem at all, as long as you don’t talk nonsense.]

[Vikram: I haven’t even said what the condition is, and you agreed so quickly?]

[Anjali: As long as I can do it, I’ll help you with anything.]

[Vikram: You said it, don’t go back on your word.]

[Vikram: I haven’t thought of the specific condition yet, but don’t forget what you said today, or I’ll tell Divya again anytime, got it?]

[Anjali: Okay, okay, okay, remember to put in a good word for me with Divya.]

As she said this, Anjali also nodded vigorously in reality, like pounding garlic.

Divya, who was waiting for Vikram’s message, saw this scene and once again stared at Anjali with the look of someone watching an idiot.

"Crazy."

Just as she was mentally scolding Anjali for being crazy, Vikram’s message came through in the chat window.

[Vikram: You mean Anjali? She did come to ask me for the necklace, but she didn’t say anything out of line.]

Having received benefits, Vikram naturally wouldn’t make things difficult for Anjali and spoke directly.

[Divya: That’s not right? She didn’t threaten you with your Shelter’s secret to get the necklace back?]

This was somewhat different from what Anjali herself had said, and she couldn’t help but become suspicious.

[Vikram: Oh... was that a threat? I thought she was just playing around?]

Under suspicion, Vikram could only make up excuses, pretending to be ignorant of the threat.

"This blockhead, she wants me to put in a good word but doesn’t explain the message clearly to me, almost exposing us." He was already resigned to this fool internally.

[Vikram: Speaking of which, how did she know about my Shelter?]

[Divya: It was my fault. Our chat history was secretly seen by her last time, which gave her an opportunity.]

Divya, who had intended to keep it a secret, explained guiltily.

[Vikram: It’s okay, nothing came of it anyway. Not to mention her wanting the necklace back, I wouldn’t even give it to you.]

That precious pure gold necklace had already been stored safely in his Shelter’s warehouse.

[Divya: Are you really planning to never return my necklace?]

[Vikram: What do you mean ’not return’? When you have satisfactory supplies to exchange, I’ll naturally return it to you.]

Knowing that asking about the necklace would only lead to a dead end, Divya could only say helplessly:

[Divya: Alright, if she bothers you again, you don’t have to pay attention to her. She’s just a little brat, she speaks without thinking, there’s no malice.]

[Vikram: It’s fine, Anju is quite cute, I don’t mind her bothering me.]

Although she always felt that something was off, Divya could only give up questioning for now and said that if Anjali bothered Vikram again, he should tell her directly, and she would teach Anjali a good lesson.

In Anjali’s chat window:

[Vikram: Image.]

[Vikram: Don’t say I don’t keep my word. I’ve said everything I needed to, and I hope you’ll fulfill my request well when the time comes.]

[Anjali: Okay.]

"Tch, I sleep in the same bed with her every day, how could I lose to you? Just whisper a few words into her ear, and we’ll see who Divya believes." The seemingly obedient Anjali in the chat window was actually very disdainful inside.

Of course, Vikram couldn’t know these thoughts. He closed the chat window and cackled triumphantly.

"Heh heh, what should I make her do then?"

Don’t misunderstand, he certainly had no intentions towards this silly Anjali, but he did have quite a few intentions towards her best friend, Divya.

"Oh right, Divya still has the high-thigh stockings I gave her. Hahaha, as a best friend, wanting to see herself wear high-thigh stockings isn’t too much, is it?" Vikram’s smile grew even wider as he imagined the scene.

Vikram unconsciously kept touching his nose, grinning foolishly, completely unaware that danger was quietly approaching...

---

"Hey, do you guys think there are any other Survivors living here?" a moderately built Survivor asked, bored by the journey.

"Nonsense, of course not. Our Brown Wood Shelter is stationed nearby. Who would dare approach this area? Even if there were Survivors living here originally, they’d surely run away after hearing our name." The speaker was a scrawny Survivor with a missing right ear. His words at this moment revealed the power and dominance of their Brown Wood Shelter.

"Not necessarily. There are quite a few human traces here, enough to prove that Survivors were living here not long ago."

"Don’t underestimate some lone Wolf Survivors. The fact that they haven’t chosen to join another Shelter by this point is enough to prove their strength." The third Survivor’s words were more reasonable. He didn’t overly praise his own Shelter but greatly admired Survivors who were still surviving alone.

"Our boss even speculated that the real treasure in the ruins was already taken, and that wolf spirit orb is just some trash left behind by a Survivor." As he said this, a strong sense of admiration rose in his heart for that Survivor.

He remembered that he hadn’t initially planned to band together for warmth, but reality had hit him hard. He couldn’t even get enough to eat on his own, which was why he had no choice but to join the Brown Wood Shelter.

Unlike the glamorous descriptions on the chat channel, the Brown Wood Shelter was vastly different from what they had imagined.

Only the high-ranking members of the Brown Wood Shelter truly had no worries about food and drink. Only after the people at the top were full could these low-level members eat the leftovers and avoid starving.

Items like various crimson shards and physique fruits were also preferentially distributed to the already powerful high-ranking members. In a large Shelter of 30 people, over 20 were low-level members like them, with little strength.

Their main responsibility was to collect supplies and occasionally engage in burning, killing, and looting.

In the current Wasteland World, the first ruins in this area were occupied by their Shelter. They had thought there would be something good, but it was just a wolf spirit orb that could refresh one rare-grade creature per day.

It wasn’t trash, but the boss of the Shelter didn’t believe that the anomaly visible across the entire region was just because of this broken thing. Someone must have gotten there first.

That’s why he sent the three of them to search for traces of other Survivors in this vicinity.

The three unlucky fellows wandered around for several days in the freezing weather. They only recently discovered some traces on the ground and found a spot at the foot of a mountain.

"Bang!"

"Ouch, what the f*ck." As they walked, a wail came from behind the two low-level members.

Turning around, the Survivor with the missing ear, Abhishek, had disappeared at some point, replaced by a giant pit.

"What are you still standing there for? Hurry and help me up, you two idiots!!" The Survivor who had fallen into the pit, landing on his back, cursed loudly.

The two Survivors finally reacted, casually picked up a tree branch from the roadside, threw it to the Survivor in the pit, and slowly pulled him out.

"Damn it, which idiot dug a pit in a place like this? If I find him, I’ll make him pay." Abhishek, covered in dirt and dust, continuously cursed.

Observing the location of the pit closely, it wasn’t hard to realize that this was the pit Vikram had dug himself to get fertile soil. Since it wasn’t dug on his own Shelter’s mountain, he had just covered it with a few branches and leaves and left it.

With the snow covering the branches, it unexpectedly turned into a natural trap, catching this member of the Brown Wood Shelter.

His two companions reached out to pat the dirt and snow off him, advising, "Don’t be angry, brother. Our mission is almost complete, isn’t it?"

"Such obvious man-made traces mean our Shelter’s boss was right. There are indeed other Survivors nearby," the tall Survivor slowly said.

"That’s right, Abhishek, as long as we find him and bring him back, we’ll definitely get a lot of supplies. At least we won’t have to eat leftovers anymore," another Survivor chimed in.

"Go, go, go. With your small ambitions, you’ll be a low-level member your whole lives." The middle-aged man called Abhishek joked, but in his heart, he was thinking about how to secretly stash the Survivor’s supplies.

"Given the Brown Wood Shelter’s nature, if we really hand it over, what’s left would barely be enough for one full meal. Since I found him, why can’t I keep it myself?" The oppression from the Shelter made him think of keeping the supplies for himself.

"However, this Survivor has been able to live alone for so long, so he must have some skills. I need to make good use of these two." Thinking this, his gaze drifted to his two companions who had come with him.

"You two, come here." He waved at them, signaling them to come closer.

They scratched their heads in confusion, not thinking much of it, and approached.

"Hey, have you ever thought about keeping this Survivor’s supplies for yourselves?" He raised an eyebrow, the meaning clear.

The two exchanged glances, first surprised, then simultaneously swallowed, their eyes gradually changing from confusion to desire.

"Are you saying... we only report a little bit of the supplies and keep the rest for ourselves?" The Survivor on the left spoke first.

"Oh, come on," Abhishek reached out and tapped his head. "Can’t you have some ambition? I said keep it for ourselves, why would we report it? Since we found the Survivor, why don’t we just take all his supplies and claim this place for ourselves?"

"This... if we get caught, the Brown Wood Shelter will definitely hunt us down," the Survivor on the right said, a bit nervous after hearing his bold suggestion.

"What are you scared of, you fool? It’s at least an hour’s journey from the stronghold. We’ll loot everything and run. What can they do to us?"

"But the Territory Core is still in their hands. Where can we run?" He was still uneasy, hesitating as he spoke.

"You two are really making me lose my mind! You dare to kill people, what’s this little matter?"

"Consider the Territory Core a gift to them. We can just rob another one on the road."