Chapter 1 The Demise of the Melon

Bang!

The dilapidated flatbed truck burst out of the billowing smoke and dust, executing an extreme drift to negotiate the curve. The front of the truck swayed, shedding its inertia, before returning to normal.

"That is..."

The racers' expressions turned grave as they stared intently at the roof of the flatbed truck.

There, atop the truck, grew a peculiar plant. It resembled a human-sized giant cabbage, green in color, with a pair of menacing eyes and a mouth revealing a prominent upper tooth.

A cabbage leaf extended from each side of its body.

The tips of the leaves curled inward, floating up and down as the cabbage swayed, like a boxer in a ring, shifting its weight, trying to find an opening in its opponent's defense.

Many perceptive racers understood in their hearts that,

it was this cabbage plant that had stepped forward in the nick of time during the previous watermelon explosion,

its entire body flashing green light, suddenly extending its cabbage leaf fists,

using punches too fast to see, individually shattering the watermelons closest to the vehicles,

and with incredible, precise control, transforming the explosive shockwave that should have destroyed the vehicles into a propulsive force, accelerating them forward,

successfully helping the Crazy Dave team escape the crisis.

"Cai Wen."

Li Ang solemnly spoke the name of the plant, explaining to the somewhat bewildered witch, "This is a new plant from the mobile game *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. It specializes in close combat and can use high-frequency, strong attacks to damage zombies within 1.5 squares in front and behind.

The green light that Cai Wen emitted just now should be a new setting in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*: the energy bean, or chlorophyll. As long as you use it on a plant,

it can overdrive the plant for a short time, unleashing powerful skills."

He paused, staring at Cai Wen atop the truck behind them, and quickly said, "*Plants vs. Zombies 2* is a garbage mobile game produced by PopCap Games after being acquired by the infamous American company, Electronic Arts (EA).

This game is price-discriminatory, treats players differently, and is full of in-app purchases.

It completely abandons the excellent traditions of its predecessor, prioritizing players spending money above all else.

It uses ever-increasing stats to replace the positive feedback of the predecessor, where players could strategically arrange defenses against cleverly designed levels and continuously learn to become stronger,

making the benefits of spending money far outweigh perfecting strategies, clever layouts, and meticulous calculations,

completely turning into a pile of smelly garbage.

Of course, no matter how awful this game is,

some of the settings in it are still quite powerful in this world, such as the new plants, and the energy beans that can make plants suddenly go berserk..."

Before he finished speaking, another change occurred.

Dave, wearing a pot on his head, popped out from behind Cai Wen (the plant's background is that it is a kung fu master from Guangdong, proficient in Eastern and Western boxing techniques, and has taught many disciples around the world, so the name is a pun on 'Ip Man'),

babbling nonsense, he rummaged behind him, took out two glowing green beans, and placed them on top of a Gatling Pea's (an upgraded Peashooter) head, which had a machine gun barrel in its mouth.

The glowing green beans melted away, and the Gatling Pea's size suddenly swelled, its eyes emitting a ghastly green light.

"Not good!"

Sunset Melted Gold shouted, a strong sense of foreboding filling his heart, every hair on his body standing on end.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The Gatling Pea suddenly rotated its neck,

and the machine gun barrel in its mouth fired super-sized peas the size of cannon shells, in various colors, at a rate comparable to a heavy machine gun.

The dense rain of peas filled the track like a scattering of flowers, with all vehicles within a thousand meters in front and behind covered by the bombardment.

"Damn it!"

Nero from Devil May Cry, sitting in a red convertible, cursed, and with a grimace, looking at the pea shells falling rapidly above him,

gripped the sword named Red Queen, jumped out of the car, and leaped into the air.

A blue, spectral figure suddenly appeared behind him.

Devil Trigger, activated!

Including Red Queen, Nero's whole body was enveloped in ghostly blue flames. He hung suspended in the air, facing the rain of peas, his greatsword rapidly swinging, creating afterimages.

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Like a ninja cutting fruit, Nero sliced all the incoming pea shells in half.

A smile gradually crept onto his face, and the ahoge on his head swayed from side to side, as if sensing his joy.

The next second, the colorful, shattered peas, still propelled forward by inertia, suddenly exploded.

The massive explosion was even more exaggerated than the previous watermelon rain.

The scarred Nero flew out like a withered leaf in the wind, caught in mid-air by Saber in a lion costume, who had jumped up, and fell back into the vehicle.

But the other racers were not so lucky.

The vehicles closest to Dave suffered heavy losses immediately.

Link tried his best to use Flurry Rush, flawlessly deflecting the pea shells, but the opponent's firepower covered too wide an area. He could protect himself, but not the entire mechanical horse.

The vehicle beneath him was blasted into rubble, and he himself, along with his Undead teammate, was blown off the track and onto a distant Ferris wheel.

The massive commotion at the tail end of the first echelon attracted Aya Shameimaru, who was doing a live broadcast from the second echelon.

The reporter girl had abandoned her colleague and was piloting a floating motorcycle alone, with a camera mounted on the tail, broadcasting solo.

She turned her face sideways, enthusiastically explaining the situation, while her colleague controlled the floating motorcycle, weaving through the dense barrage, miraculously avoiding being hit or even grazed by any of the shells.

This was a major characteristic of the Touhou Project series, from which Aya Shameimaru originated. The girls of Gensokyo fought with spell cards and were long accustomed to extremely dense energy attacks.

Grazing without damage was basically a common operation for everyone.

Li Ang and the others' Stryker armored vehicle was a distance away from Crazy Dave's trailer truck.

Taking advantage of the time it took for the pea shells to fly over and carpet the area, Dusk Knight floored the accelerator, constantly charging forward, using Sunset Melted Gold's trajectory prediction vision to barely find a path with the least explosions.

Meanwhile, the witch on the roof, enduring the discomfort of her mana being drained, released several fire tornadoes to block the rear of the track, intercepting and detonating some of the pea shells in advance.

Amidst the chaos, Li Ang calmly took a beehive from his inventory and released several worker bees,

then flipped into the cargo hold and loaded six high-explosive shells into the gun's magazine.

"What are you doing?"

The witch on the roof, feeling increasingly overwhelmed, couldn't help but ask.

"Destroying him."

Li Ang said simply, jumped back onto the roof, pressed his palm against the barrel, activated his alchemy, and adjusted the direction of the gun.

"There's no way these high-explosive shells can break through the barrage, you..."

The witch was about to remind him, but seeing the calm expression on Li Ang's face, she suppressed her question and silently adjusted the position of the fire tornadoes, creating a gap leading to Crazy Dave's vehicle.