Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

The wheat that had just disappeared was now huddling near the fence, shivering, its leaves hugging one another tightly, almost as if it wanted to curl into a ball. If it had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, it would practically look like a person.

The wheat had mutated without anyone realizing it!

"Holy—!" Kim Haru swore in surprise, unable to hold back.

Go Okrim who is standing beside him, was also stunned by the sight. "When did this thing mutated? It was so quiet, not a single movement. If it hadn't feared you were really about to cut it down, it might never have shown its true form, huh?"

"This thing sure knows how to play dead."

Kim Haru had the same thought.

"Quick, go find some rope," he instructed Go Okrim immediately.

For now, he figured it was best to just tie up the mutated wheat; who knew if it could be dangerous? While Go Okrim went to get the rope, Kim Haru held his sickle and kept a close watch on the mutated wheat, his eyes unblinking, afraid that if he looked away for even a second, the thing would run away.

Fortunately, the mutated wheat didn't make any attempt to flee; it just huddled against the fence, trembling.

Soon enough, the green, mutated wheat was tightly bound with a thick hemp rope. To ensure it couldn't burrow or escape in any other way, Kim Haru and Go Okrim moved a glass coffee table from the living room and placed the wheat on top, then covered it with an overturned basket.

This way, there was no chance for the mutated wheat to escape, no matter where it tried to go.

Both Kim Haru and Go Okrim pulled up stools and sat around the basket, watching. Little Nugget and Sir Peckington, curiously jumped onto the coffee table, their tiny eyes trying to peer through the basket's gaps. Kim Haru gently nudged them back, warning, "Be careful, you two, or it might wrap you up with one of its leaves and gobble you up."

"Kim Haru-hyung, plants don't eat meat…right?" Go Okrim said, slightly unsure.

"Who knows? It's mutated, after all." Kim Haru shrugged, keeping his sickle firmly in hand. Since he'd learned the wheat feared the sickle, he wasn't going to miss the chance to use it as a threat.

"Can you speak? If you can, nod; if you can't, shake your head," he said, poking the tip of the sickle through a gap in the basket.

The next moment, the mutated wheat inside the basket began shaking its head frantically.

Go Okrim couldn't help but laugh, "Hyung, if it could actually talk, it wouldn't need to nod or shake its head, would it? It would just…speak."

Kim Haru paused, feeling a bit flustered from the shock. Shooting Go Okrim a look, he continued interrogating the mutated wheat. "When did you mutate?"

Oh, right—since it couldn't speak, it could only respond with a nod or a shake, so that question was unanswerable.

Just as he was about to rephrase his question, the mutated wheat inside the basket twisted one of its leaves into a small, round shape, forming it into a little ball.

"A ball? Zero? What does that mean?" Kim Haru muttered, confused.

"I have no idea either," Go Okrim said, shrugging.

The two of them frowned, thinking hard, but no matter how long they pondered, they couldn't figure it out.

Seeing this, the mutated wheat inside the basket grew worried that if the two humans couldn't guess correctly, they might decide to kill it. In a panic, it waved a few of its leaves frantically, gesturing with urgency.

Finally, when Kim Haru noticed two of the wheat's leaves pressed together, forming a pointed shape like a young sprout, a light bulb went off in his mind.

"A seedling?" he asked. "Are you saying you mutated as soon as you sprouted?"

The mutated wheat nodded enthusiastically.

Kim Haru finally understood.

No wonder this wheat plant had been larger than the others from the very beginning, and no wonder using the system to check its growth cycle had shown nothing; mutated plants didn't grow on a normal schedule. It turned out that from the start, his sample field had been harboring a mutated plant. It had been slyly pretending to be a regular wheat stalk, blending in to soak up nutrients, without showing any sign of its true nature. If its life hadn't been in danger this time, who knows how much longer it would have kept up the disguise.

Thinking back, Kim Haru realized that he'd been walking back and forth beside this mutated plant every day, even touching it from time to time. Not only him—Go Okrim had watered it, and even the two chickens had been scratching the soil around it, hunting for food.

Yet, they'd all coexisted peacefully this whole time.
Discover more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Kim Haru couldn't help but find it fascinating.

What exactly was this mutated wheat trying to accomplish?

At least now he was certain it wasn't going to harm anyone on his side.

Satisfied with that, Kim Haru withdrew the sickle and lifted the basket off the wheat.

Before he could even decide what to do with the mutated wheat, it seized its freedom and, in an instant, launched itself at him!

"Be careful, hyung…huh?" Go Okrim exclaimed in shock as she watched the scene unfold before her.

Kim Haru was equally bewildered.

The mutated wheat didn't attack him as they'd anticipated. Instead, it latched onto his arm, wrapping two of its leaves—one on each side—around his arm. It wriggled slightly, looking for all the world like a pitiful child seeking comfort.

Kim Haru used his other hand to gently peel it off, but as soon as he released it, the wheat clung back to him.

"What are you doing?" Kim Haru asked, unable to pull the mutated wheat off his arm, no matter how hard he tried or shook it off.

Hearing the question, the mutated wheat didn't loosen its grip on his arm, instead using two more leaves to form a heart shape.

Kim Haru: "..."