Chapter 43: The Signal Base is a Tree
Driven by curiosity, Song Yuqing poured herself a wood-inspired cappuccino. It had a complex flavor—bitter yet sweet, with a distinct undertone of fresh grass and trees after a heavy rain. Emulating Nanjiao, she tried to manifest vines from her fingertips, but her efforts yielded only a few slender, delicate bamboo leaves. As they sprouted, her fingertips felt slightly itchy but remarkably refreshed.
Liu Xiaona, meanwhile, guzzled two glasses of the water-based Americano. Within minutes, her entire body looked hyper-hydrated, even a bit bloated. It was literal edema; her system was completely saturated with water-elemental energy.
“I—I can’t hold it in anymore!” Before she could even finish her sentence, a pressurized stream of water erupted straight from the top of her head like a fountain, evenly and impartially spraying everyone in the room. A stray droplet splashed onto Song Yuqing’s lips. She subconsciously wiped it away but still caught the taste—it was crisp, refreshing, and subtly sweet.
Song Yuqing made an executive decision on the spot: she would never waste precious capital buying water during her supply runs to the parallel world again! Her own head clerk was a fountain that would never dry up, a living, breathing pure water dispenser.
Acting on instinct, Song Yuqing fished an empty kettle out of her spatial vault, filled it to the brim with the fountain water, and snapped it back into storage. She then ordered Gaha and Little Meat Bun to carry the leaking driver downstairs to irrigate the bamboo grove. Having absolutely zero interest in coffee, the bear and the zombie girl grabbed Liu Xiaona without a word and lugged her down the spiral staircase. Little Meat Bun even tried clamping a heavy paw over her head to muzzle the geyser, but it was useless. The massive volume of water completely soaked them both. If they didn’t get Liu Xiaona out of the building immediately, Passing By Coffee House was going to be completely flooded.
Chen She’s temporal attributes were highly anomalous, meaning the standard elemental coffee offered no real evolutionary benefit to his system. He simply took a polite sip of his latte, played idly with a handful of mud for a few minutes, and then curled up on a beanbag lounger. He stared out the window at the phantom ocean view from afar, carrying himself with the quiet gravity of a miniature adult.
The Xie brothers each received two cups of their corresponding elemental brews. Recognizing the rare value of the perk, they focused entirely on expanding their core capacities. Sure enough, the moment the fluids hit their systems, a violent surge of elemental energy flooded their veins. It was so intense that they felt completely suffocated if they didn’t discharge the raw power immediately. Driven by the pressure, the Xie brothers and the low-tier psychics who had defected with Chen She bolted down the stairs. Since they were mandated to release their powers anyway, they decided they might as well go on a massive zombie-hunting spree! If they cleared enough walkers today, they could return for another premium caffeine fix tomorrow.
Unlike absorbing raw crystal cores, which merely replenished depleted energy reserves, the supernatural coffee allowed a user to spontaneously innovate entirely new combat techniques.
Nanjiao was a prime example. After finishing his cappuccino, a thumb-sized sapling unconsciously began to sprout directly from the center of his open palm.
If you focus your mind intensely enough on a single concept, the universe will eventually respond.
That specific sapling had been the subject of Nanjiao’s intense engineering dreams for weeks. The moment the high command at Base Zero resolved to construct a continent-wide digital network, their top scientific experts had drafted a blueprint centered entirely around his rare botanical manipulation. First, Nanjiao would need to use his flora-control traits to guide and interweave heavy vines along rigid, pre-mapped geographic paths, creating a biological fiber-optic cable network for regional data transmission. These vines would require massive energetic reinforcement to maximize the internal conductivity of their plant fibers. Second, he would need to genetically engineer a specialized tree whose dense canopy could serve as an organic cellular tower, actively transmitting and receiving data signals. However, cultivating such a mutation required an astronomical volume of raw energy to manually alter plant cells and imbue them with processing and amplification matrices—a feat that had previously sat lightyears beyond Nanjiao’s baseline capabilities. He hadn’t anticipated that a single cup of artisan cappuccino would effortlessly solve a bottleneck that had stumped Base Zero’s elite think tank.
Right before their eyes, the sapling in Nanjiao’s palm began to grow exponentially, a low electric current visibly hummed and crackled through its dense cluster of branches and leaves.
“It worked! The plant-based signal node is fully functional!”
Clutching the glowing sapling to his chest, Nanjiao sprinted down the stairs. Driven by pure curiosity, Song Yuqing and Chen She followed hot on his heels. Though Song Yuqing didn’t fully grasp the technical significance of the project, she eagerly helped him excavate a deep hole right beside the storefront bamboo grove. The absolute millisecond Nanjiao nestled the roots into the soil, the sapling violently exploded in size. It rapidly matured into a towering tree with a thick, milky-white trunk that would require three grown men linking arms to fully encircle, topped by a colossal, shimmering canopy. Every single leaf was formed into a pristine, flawless diamond shape with a sharp, pointed tip.
Liu Xiaona was still standing in the bamboo thicket, her arms crossed over her chest as she quietly allowed her head geyser to irrigate the shoots. Witnessing the new tree’s aggressive growth spurt, she tilted her upper body to direct a heavy stream of water over its roots to assist the process.
Beneath the surface, the tree’s root system was expanding wildly through the dirt, aggressively displacing the established root networks of the supernatural bamboo. Infuriated by the territorial invasion, several thick bamboo stalks began to rustle and vibrate violently, fighting desperately to reclaim their soil.
“Can you hear that?” Nanjiao gasped, throwing himself flat onto the ground as he excitedly pressed his ear to the dirt, listening intently to the thunderous subterranean march of the expanding roots.
Song Yuqing could feel it too—the pavement beneath her boots was subtly vibrating, as if tens of thousands of thin, electrical serpents were rapidly winding their way through the earth.
Nanjiao closed his eyes, his consciousness fully connecting with the underground network as he mentally mapped and organized the sprawling grid of the roots.
“What classification of tree is this exactly?” Song Yuqing asked, gently stroking the heavy, smooth trunk. She was already harboring a slight sliver of regret for planting it so close to her grove; the colossal white canopy had completely blocked out the sunlight, casting a massive shadow over her beloved bamboo.
But Nanjiao was completely locked inside his own programming world, entirely failing to hear her question.
A short while later, Xie Hao, Chen She’s companions, and the rest of the hunters came rushing back toward Bell Street, each hauling a fresh stack of zombie carcasses. While clearing the nearby blocks, they had felt a massive wave of raw kinetic force ripple out from the direction of the shop. The continuous subterranean vibrations had led them to suspect that God’s Supermarket was executing another massive, reality-bending upgrade. When they finally rounded the corner, they were stunned to find a towering, mythological tree covering half the narrow alley. Only a small, isolated pocket of sky remained clear above the bamboo grove—a territory the stubborn shoots had aggressively fought to preserve for themselves.
After a few final structural shifts, the tree’s growth finally terminated. Its root network now stretched for thousands of miles through the deep subterranean crust, successfully forming a secure, organic data transmission channel across the region.
Little Meat Bun waddled circles around the massive trunk, spreading his heavy furry arms wide to comically measure its waist circumference.
“Gaha… Gaha?” Gaha, who had been silently monitoring the technical display, tilted her head and scratched her dreadlocks as she stared up into the white leaves.
“This is a mutated Chinese tallow tree, which functions as our primary signal base station,” Nanjiao explained to her with immense patience. “Once the seasonal cycles lock in, we can harvest its yields to manufacture clean soaps and wax candles for the shop.”
Gaha nodded blankly, her dead cells processing about half of the technical brief.
With the towering tallow tree safely anchored outside God’s Supermarket, Nanjiao excitedly rubbed his palms together, continuing to pace around the bark. Song Yuqing utilized the shift to slide the automated security gate directly beneath the shadow of the white canopy. The adjustment created a clean, organized outdoor processing lane, making the main storefront entrance feel significantly less cramped.
Xie Hao and the returning hunters formed a disciplined queue, systematically feeding their harvested carcasses through the security gate’s scanner field while anxiously checking the interface to see if their individual tier parameters had optimized after their coffee run.
“Ding~ High-tier earth-type psychic calibrated.”
“System Tracking: Exactly five intermediate-tier zombie carcasses logged. Internal database indicates your personal accounts possess an optimal surplus of food and hydration. Be advised: you are cleared to ascend to the second-tier Passing By Coffee House tomorrow to exchange your metrics for one cup of specialty supernatural brew.”
Xie Hao clapped his hands in thorough satisfaction, whistling as he stepped out of the lane. Chen She stepped up immediately behind him, lifting a fresh walker corpse whose tongue was comically lolling out of its jaws, and tossed the weight straight into the field.
“Ding~ Primary temporal psychic calibrated.”
“System Tracking: Four primary zombie carcasses and two intermediate-tier carcasses logged. Inbound resource analysis indicates an immediate deficit in basic rations and tactical defense apparel. Capital conversion finalized: your delivery has been exchanged for ten premium bento boxes, ten packs of instant noodles, and one reinforced tactical rucksack.”
Chen She pouted slightly as the crates materialized. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to go out and slaughter a bigger wave of walkers tomorrow if I want to unlock a cup of that coffee.”
Song Yuqing patted the metallic frame of the security gate with idle curiosity. Now that the terminal possessed an automated, highly articulate voice matrix that could independently quote values and process transactions, she could easily assign a single staff member to act as a dedicated floor manager, helping clients retrieve their corresponding supplies from the first-tier shelves. It would streamline their logistics beautifully.
Her eyes swept across Gaha, Little Meat Bun, and Liu Xiaona, calculating their assignments. Gaha, given her unique zombie status, was best suited for tasks that wouldn’t terrify a living customer base, so she was immediately scheduled to manage the operations up at Passing By Coffee House. Little Meat Bun was their prime marketing mascot, so he would remain anchored on the first floor alongside Liu Xiaona to oversee store security and inventory management. Once Nanjiao’s digital e-commerce network officially launched, Liu Xiaona would take full charge of the digital terminal.
Perfect! Song Yuqing immediately clapped her hands, gathering her crew to formally announce the updated corporate division of labor. But the moment she finished laying out the workflow, she was met by a row of deeply suspicious, intensely unamused stares from her employees.
Liu Xiaona raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms as she stared at her. “And what about you, our highly respected store manager? What exactly is your daily task list looking like?”
