[Scientific Name: Ghost Mineral Vein]
[Common Name: Ghost Mushroom]
[Analysis Results:]
[The mushroom you see is actually a massive colony of mutated fungi, named as such simply because it resembles a mushroom.]
[It is formed from a fusion of numerous mutated fungi, artificial food waste, and indescribable human essence.]
[Its hallucinogenic effects originate from psionic energy. Yes, you read that right—this entity involves the dangerous Warp. Approaching it, touching it, or even merely being illuminated by its glow will induce hallucinations.]
[Those who lose their sanity within these hallucinations will have their souls devoured by the Warp, leaving behind nothing but an empty, soulless husk.]
Ghost Mushrooms were actually connected to the Warp!
And souls could be devoured by the Warp!
Could it be that the Kram Family knew nothing about the relationship between Ghost Mushrooms and the Warp?
Lino's heart pounded wildly.
A faint, ethereal whisper drifted into his ears, its volume infinitely close to zero.
Lino's body stiffened. He forced himself not to focus on the contents of the murmurs.
After he stood frozen in place for a moment, his heart rate steadied and the whispers did not grow any louder.
Lino tentatively took a few steps forward.
The volume of the murmuring whispers remained unchanged.
It seemed the supervisor had been right: as long as one did not listen to the whispers or damage the root system, the intensity of the hallucinations would be kept to a mild level, preventing them from losing their minds.
Lino steadied his mind and fixed his gaze on the Ghost Mushroom.
The notification bubbles filling his vision were dizzying in number.
[Kabadin Toadstool: Contact causes diarrhea.]
[Toxic Spore Fungus: Inhaling spores causes severe asthma.]
[Toxic Mold Slime: Has a pH value of 3. Highly acidic and will corrode protective gear.]
He shifted his gaze downward to the exposed roots of the Ghost Mushroom protruding from the soil.
The text box that appeared this time was completely different from the rest.
[Ghost Fungus: An ancient fungus surviving from the Dark Age of Technology. It possesses peculiar psionic effects and emits a blinding hallucinogenic glow when damaged. This fungus is the core of the Ghost Mushroom, and all the bizarre anomalies of the Ghost Mushroom originate from it.]
So the Ghost Fungus was actually an ancient fungal species—no wonder it was so unique.
An ancient fungus should be storable in the Fungal Storage too, right?
Lino suppressed the impulse to store it and focused intently on observing the Ghost Fungus.
In his vision, the system traced the outline of the Ghost Fungus with translucent white lines.
Its appearance resembled tree roots, which explained why the supervisor referred to it as a root system.
Lino realized he possessed a massive advantage when it came to excavating the roots.
Others constantly needed to reference the X-ray imaging provided by their scanners to determine the angle of their drill and the depth of their boreholes.
The slightest carelessness would cause the drill bit to pierce the root system, triggering the intense hallucinogenic light.
But he was different.
The system clearly outlined the contours of the root system.
He only needed to control the drill like a sculptor to excavate the rough outline of the roots, then use a small hammer and brush to clear away the remaining soil.
The difference in difficulty was like night and day.
With his margin for error drastically increased, Lino felt much more relaxed.
Right, what was today's training objective again?
It seemed the supervisor hadn't mentioned it.
In that case, digging out the entire root system should be enough to complete the task, right?
Lino nodded and used his right mechanical arm to grab the scanner.
The temporary enhancement effect from analyzing the fungus had not yet disappeared.
That made things easy.
The drill on his left mechanical arm would break through the rocks in the soil, his right mechanical arm would hold the scanner for him, and his biological hands would be used to clear away the dirt.
With a clear division of labor between all four hands, nothing should go wrong.
...
Meanwhile, inside the monitoring room.
Dozens of monitoring screens floated before Robnos, each corresponding to an apprentice currently excavating a root system.
The top right corner of each screen displayed a real-time graph monitoring the apprentice's heart rate.
Anyone on the verge of succumbing to hallucinations would experience a significant spike in heart rate and rapid, shallow breathing.
Therefore, a steady curve on the monitor meant the apprentice was not in any immediate vital danger.
Those stable monitoring screens automatically shifted to the corners of the display grid.
Meanwhile, the screens exhibiting violently fluctuating curves moved directly to the center in front of Robnos, receiving his undivided attention.
"Bekemson, don't be nervous. Today's training objective isn't to excavate an entire root system. You only need to dig out one-tenth of the roots to complete the task."
The man on the screen replied, "Yes, Supervisor. I'm fine; it's just that the whispers in my ears are annoying."
Robnos shifted his gaze to another screen.
"Did you hear what I just said? Moramos, your training assignment is the exact same. Dig out one-tenth of the root system and you'll complete today's task."
"Understood, Supervisor. My feet feel weak, like I'm stepping on cotton. I might need to rest for a little while before I can keep working."
"Suit yourself. Just manage your own time."
Robnos scanned the room, confirming that the heart rate and respiratory frequency data on the remaining screens were within controllable ranges, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
With a hiss, the airlock door behind him slid open.
A woman with long flaxen hair walked into the monitoring room.
Robnos glanced back and pointed to a nearby chair. "Have a seat. How is the situation on your end?"
The long-haired woman, wearing a white lab coat, smoothed the back of her clothes and sat down.
"I just finished lecturing the apprentices in the Experimental Department. Things went pretty well; no one asked to leave. What about here?"
"Things didn't go nearly as smoothly over here. The moment I mentioned that employees of the Collection Department would need to enter the Underhive, half of them chose to walk out."
The woman paused, taken aback.
"Half of them quit? That's a bit unexpected. It seems the allure of a Midhive status and job is much lower for people from the Lower Hive than we anticipated."
Robnos's expression remained unchanged.
"Indeed. Lord Vugas is simply too merciful. If he were like rulers of other hive worlds and required every Lower Hive resident to work fifteen hours just to earn their rations and water, far more people would have chosen to stay in the Collection Department."
The woman nodded and was just about to say something when a piercing alarm blared.
A sharp electronic tone rang out.
One of the monitoring screens shifted directly in front of the two of them, its edges flashing with crimson light, signaling an emergency.
On the monitor, the drill mounted on the right shoulder armor of an apprentice had accidentally severed a mushroom root, causing a blinding hallucinogenic radiance to flash repeatedly.
The apprentice's eyes lost focus, turning vacant and dull in the intense glare.
The extraction winch activated, its tether pulling the apprentice backward and away from the mushroom.
The drill plunged downward toward his own tether.
After an ear-grating screech of grinding metal, the chain hooked to his waist belt snapped clean off.
Step by step, the apprentice walked back toward the mushroom, opening his arms as if to embrace a lover.
Robnos reacted quickly.
The moment he noticed the anomaly, he slammed a button on his desk.
A thick white fog poured down from above, rapidly engulfing the Ghost Mushroom and turning the monitoring screen completely white.
A moment later, the white fog dissipated.
The surface of the Ghost Mushroom was coated in a thick layer of white gel, resembling an outer shell sculpted from ice and snow, and its blue-purple glow dimmed.
The apprentice collapsed to the ground, motionless. His eyes were hollow and lifeless, like an empty shell devoid of a soul.
Robnos switched on his communicator.
"Borg, the apprentice in burrow A-9 has been eliminated. Go pull him out and transport him to the recycling department."
"Understood."
The woman sighed. "It's impressive enough that these Lower Hive people managed to last this long."
"Yes, indeed." Robnos crossed his arms and massaged his brow.
"If Ghost Mushrooms didn't cause servitors to go out of control, I wouldn't have had to recruit a bunch of Lower Hive residents to do this job in the first place."
Robnos slapped his forehead, remembering something.
He pressed the comms button and said, "Lino, I forgot to tell you—digging out one-tenth of the root system is enough to complete today's training."
"Received, Supervisor," Lino acknowledged over the comms channel.
The woman looked at the screen displaying Lino, her gaze somewhat complex.
"Robnos, why don't you just hand Lino over to me right now? His linguistic and mathematical talents are exceptional. It would be a real pity if he died here just like that."
Robnos took out his pipe and packed it with tobacco.
"I know you're short on hands, but so am I. Lino's excellence is obvious to everyone; his compatibility with bionic prosthetics surpasses the vast majority of my apprentices. So, let's wait until the Collection Department's training phase is over. If he fails to become a full employee, I'll send him to you."
"Fine."