Chapter 48 - Similar Ability (2)

"I have an agreement with Kobra, that's why," the old woman said.

Yang Zhang frowned, "What kind of agreement did you have with Boss Kobra? I thought she is a—"

"Normal human with immunity?"

"… yes."

"She is, but that doesn't mean that she hates the ability users," the old woman replied. She chuckled lightly, "Her late mother was an ability user in our previous shelter, just like me."

"We escaped only a month after that shelter was erected. Because Kobra was the finest human with immunity specimen, the government wanted to use as their first test subject."

"They started injecting so many variations of the Z-20 virus, hoping that one could result to mutation inside Kobra's bloodstream, and would give them any lead to the vaccine of the virus. But what they created was just a lady with superhuman strength."

"I was one of her caretakers, alongside her own mother," the old woman's eyes looked up, reminiscing of the situation back there. "She was in so much pain that her mother and I decided to rescue her. We let her escape, but in exchange, her mother was killed by an ability user when we three ran away from those group of ability user soldiers."

"In the end, only the two of us survived the escape and settled deep into the forest until she decided to retaliate."

Yang Zhang didn't expect the old woman to be closely related to Miss Kobra. He thought this old woman infiltrated this human with an immunity-only settlement.

"So, you're the only ability user in this settlement?" Yang Zhang asked.

"Indeed, I am. Kobra only allowed me because she saw me as her new mother. She protected my identity as an ability user as well," the old woman said. "Do you want to know my ability?"

…

Yang Zhang said nothing, but from his gaze, he was actually waiting for her to show her ability.

"Mine is quite similar to yours. At least, that's what I thought first," the old woman said. She got up and took something from a room.

She returned with a pot with a cactus with two small beads as eyes. The cactus looked at Little Ivy, Chestnut, and Lt. Spicy Wing and waved its body greeting.

"Vii!" Little Ivy waved back, happy to find a friendly mutated plant like her.

The old woman sat in front of Yang Zhang again and then put the pot of cactus in front of her.

"This is one of my naturally mutated plants. It should be hostile to anyone, had it not because of my ability to speak to any mutated plants or animals. So this plant is at least not hostile to me."

"So, your ability is communicating with those animals and plants?" Yang Zhang asked. He glanced at his pets and thought…

'Isn't that exactly what I'm doing? I mean, you don't need any ability to talk with them. They are naturally intelligent after mutated. Of course, they will understand what you're saying, right?'

"Oh-ho, that's not my true ability. That's just an added bonus of what I could do with my ability," the old woman said. "This is what I can do."

The old woman touched the thorn with her finger and pricked herself in the process. The blood started dripping from her finger and was absorbed by the soil in the pot.

Yang Zhang and his pets saw the grade change on the small cactus.

The seemingly timid mutated plant suddenly grew bigger. Its thorns also got bigger and could kill anyone with only one stab.

Crack!

The cactus grew bigger and bigger until the pot was split into two, and the cactus got as big as a regular adult.

Yang Zhang and his pets backed off instantly because the cactus was staring at them with hostility. He suspected this one would be even harder to tackle than that mutated big Ivy before.

"Ho-ho, don't be scared, young man. This creature won't attack unless I tell it to. It is now in an idle state and will listen to my order only once. That's why I told you to kill that big Ivy before because there is no way to stop it from rampaging the room."

The old woman got up and commanded the big cactus, "Stand near the door, wait until I finished talking to my guest, and you will follow me to my greenhouse."

"Hrrrr…"

The big cactus grunted the same thing as what Vinocious, the Big Ivy, did. As if they were the same soul, just different bodies.

"Did you notice it?" The old woman asked. "All of the plants that I controlled is basically one entity, just in a different body. I think it's because of my blood."

"Now, you see, my power is called the Blood fertilizer. With the drop of my blood, I quicken the growth of a mutated creature, and they will listen to my order only once. They will either go hostile to anyone except me or stood idle like that for an indefinite amount of time."

"Unlike your pets, my mutated plant doesn't have consciousness. Maybe because the blood corrupted them."

"So, you enslaved them?" Yang Zhang asked bluntly.

The old woman smiled and nodded, "More or less, they are my mutated plant slave now. Unfortunately, I can only control one until it got destroyed, then I can make a new one just like this."

Yang Zhang watched the big cactus in horror. This old woman basically used these mutated creatures as a private guard without a brain, just a shell of a powerful, enraged creature.

"Vii…"

Little Ivy got scared and hid inside Yang Zhang's sleeve again. Meanwhile, Chestnut and Spicy Wing were staring at the big idle cactus for a while.

"Your pet plant must've been scared because of this, but well, this is the apocalypse. I think you understand there is no such thing as a moral compass in here, right?"

…

"Right," Yang Zhang nodded lightly. He wouldn't lie that he had experienced the harsh situation outside, and something like this wasn't morally wrong.

"Well, how about you, young man. I've shown you my ability.. I think you should show me as well."