Chapter 10: City Among the Sands

'There's something in the distance.'

Oakley remembered seeing pyramid-like structures far off into the horizon before, but this time he swore that he could see signs of a city.

A human city prior to the theme's initiation.

When he was unconscious, he had been in one of those cities, but the city was gone when he woke up.

What happened to it? He didn't know, maybe it submerged or buried in sand, never to see the light of day again.

He suddenly recalled the group that was led by Jack, wondering what happened to them. Did they die? Oakley and Jack's group were in the same general area, so where did they disappear to?

That wasn't important now, so he soon refocused.

'It's pretty far, but I should be able to make it before night if I run.' Oakley wanted to see to explore that area, perhaps he would once again gain access to his other plants.

The desert didn't only contain sand, after all.

Oakley darted in the direction of the city, the sand didn't hinder him too much, so he was moving relatively fast.

The pomegranates that Oakley had on each shoulder seemed like mounted guns or something to that effect, as any bandage-wrapped zombie they encountered along the way were dealt with swiftly.

The plants' accuracy in general could only defined as precise and accurate.

With that, Oakley's arrival to the city was only a matter of time.

…

'Finally…'

Before Oakley, was a ruined city that looked similar to the one he was in, only that the place was covered in a vast amount of sand.

The roads, walls, and building among a plethora of other things were all worn down or nearly unrecognizable, as if they've been through the tests of time.

'There's literally nothing here. I guess I wasted my time.' Oakley decided to cut his losses and just find one of the dilipated buildings that didn't look like it was on the brink of destruction, and rest there for the night.

[Conditions met, Wave 1 Initiated.]

Swish… swish…

When Oakley saw the tombstones rising from under the sand along with the prompt, he immediately knew what was going on here.

Without hesitation, he rushed to one of the nearest buildings, and started making pomegranates.

After making about 16 pomegranates, his chest was heaving, and too tired to continue.

If he made anymore, he wouldn't be able to defend himself in the event that one of the zombies came too close.

In the first wave, he saw many familiar zombies, with the majority being the normal mummified ones.

Thud! Thump!

The symphony of zombies falling over, dead for good this time, sounded out in the quiet city.

These types posed absolutely no problems for the pomegranates.

There was also the zombies holding the three slabs of stones with carvings on them, making up the shape of a camel.

Crack! Crumble!

Though these zombies in particular were annoying to deal with, the pomegranates were practically made for these types of situations. And, he still had the pumpkins which he had yet to bring out, as it wasn't needed for the first wave.

Armored zombies and such were relatively easy pickings for Oakley's plants, it was only a matter of how many shots were lobbed on them.

'Change of plans, this place is the perfect place to farm experience. I can't go on with just the pomegranate alone.' Oakley thought, remembering the situation with the gargantuars.

He was quite lucky that they hadn't fully risen to the surface when he was there, otherwise he might not even be here.

'The zombies will get stronger as the waves progress, and by the time I have to face gargantuars, I'll have hundreds of plants up.'

When his pomegranate was lobbing seeds at the gargantuar before, there was no indication of damage, but Oakley knew that that was only because he didn't have enough plants.

The answer to any problem was that simple, according to Oakley: more plants = problems solved.

So, Oakley decided to sit back, and enjoy the show.

…

"I've… surprise… for you! But first… need… clear th… Why? BECAUSE IM CRAAAZY!!"

Oakley was tossing and turning in his sleeping, his back was drenched in sweat, making the sand stick to it.

"F*ck!" Oakley was awoken from what seemed to be a nightmare, well, he didn't really wake up due to that, it was more about the yelling he could hear in his dreams.

And, not to mention that the yelling seemed to come from someone whom he was very familiar with, Crazy Dave, it had to be him. He could faintly make out a pan-wearing man in his dreams.

He couldn't quite make out what Crazy Dave was trying to say at the beginning, but Oakley could definitely understand the end.

It was the most recognizable dialogue that Crazy Dave could often be heard saying, so how could Oakley not recall?

'What did he want to tell me? He said something about a surprise, and mentioned clearing something, which might be the zombie waves.' Oakley refused to believe that it was a bad dream, especially with all he had seen and done this far.

'Wait, if Crazy Dave exists then wouldn't Dr. Zomboss be 'alive' as well? What about the rest of the family?' Oakley remembered himself cursing at Dr. Zomboss, shuddering at what may have come, had Oakley's wish of encountering and killing Zomboss ever happened. Well, who could blame Oakley? He had been pursued relentlessly awhile back by the zombies, they just refused to let him go, and if not for his plants and intuition he would not have survived for as long as he has.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that the possibility of such was very high. Especially if he took into account the nature of his power and all that it entailed, as well as the similarity of the zombies to the game, not to mention the weird dream he had earlier.

'Even if all of these conjectures were real, I can't do anything even with that knowledge. I'll just focus on increasing my power for now.' Oakley knew it was pointless to ponder for too long about the theories he had yet to confirm, and he didn't want to overthink things too much, 'I'll just check on my interface. The experience shouldn't be too high.'

=============

[Interface]

Name: Oakley

Class: Lifeweaver 5★

Power: 33

Abilities: Pea Shooter 1★, Pumpkin 1★, Small Flower Pot 1★, Sunflower 1★, Magnet Shroom 2★, Pomegranate-Pult 3★, Witch Hazel 4★

=============

'One more wave and I should be able to select a new skill.' Oakley hoped that it would be with high damage, which was something he would need for the gargantuars, 'If only I could just use my witch hazels…'

The witch hazels would just transform the gargantuars into tiny mushrooms, the only drawback was the attack speed and that it was single target.

'Wait a minute, shouldn't these pomegranates have started withering or weakening?' Oakley remembered that he didn't have the sunflower out, and yet the pomegranates around him look just fine. He figured that it had to do with the mana, and that the change in the world must be the cause, but he decided to ignore the matter for now as it didn't really harm him.

Oakley had nothing to do, aside from planting more pomegranates.

He could also use the pumpkins, but he would hold off on that until he had a sizable amount of pomegranates.

…

[Wave 2 Initiated.]

Then the second wave came.

The only difference with this one was that there were more zombies, and now there were zombies that had armor on them.

Though, that didn't really pose much of an issue for Oakleys 32 pomegranates.

"Hey bro, could you hand me a pomegranate?" Oakley asked one of the pomegranates near him, to which it responded by lobbing one gently at him, lest it killed him by accident. Oakley hasn't really interacted with any humans for a while, and as such he tried communicating with the seemingly intelligent plants. Heck, these pomegranates even had beady, black eyes, which probably helped them identity and aim at enemies.

Oakley ate and went to sleep, amidst the symphony of giant pomegranate seeds making contact with the zombies.

"…trapped so… clea… Why? BECAUSE IM CRAAAZY!!"

'F*ck, just let me rest.' Oakley woke up again due to the loud sound he swore he heard resounding in his head, and this time he could make out even less of what it was trying to say.

This time it was about being trapped, and he thought he knew what it was. Crazy Dave was mostly captured or something, which is strange because Oakley was sure that Crazy Dave should be extremely powerful or hard to capture, especially with his RV that could seemingly travel anywhere.

Oakley checked his stats,brushing aside the thought, and found that he could choose a new skill.

[Select Skill.]

{Laser Bean 2★}

{Potato Mine 1★}

{Parsnip 3★}

The beans don't do much damage and had a slow rate of fire, but they can pierce through multiple enemies in a straight line.

'Ugh, why is it always potato mine?' Oakley knew that it was good, but he had better plants at the moment.

Ultimately, Oakley decided on the parsnip, it was just that powerful. It had a fast rate of attack speed and had high damage, though it's range was short due to it being a close ranged fighter. But, Oakley knew that these weren't the most important points…

'It can move around the dirt and sand!' Oakley remembered that in the game the parsnips would only move when for a while before disappearing, but he thought that it couldn't possible do so in real life. While the parsnip could move through the ground, it's damage essentially tripled, but it was still susceptible.

Oakley noticed that the zombies seemed to know of the plants' presence, and they no longer forwent them in an attempt to go at Oakley anymore.

He immediately activated {Parsnip} and in moments, a large parsnip plant with scissor-like claws made of parsnip as well, were before him.

"Could you move over there?" Oakley pointed somewhere, and moved there quickly, leaving a trail of disturbed sand in its wake.

Swish! Swish!

It was loud, but quick. Nevertheless, this confirmed his conjecture about the matter and he would have a very powerful plant at his disposal now.