Tang Xiao quietly met those orange-yellow vertical pupils. He had so much he wanted to say, but in the end, he merely smiled faintly. “I won the bet.”
He might die, but this time, as long as 428 displayed its evolved abilities while being pursued by the armed forces, the Third Eye would take notice—unless they were idiots.
So, in the end, he had won that bet.
The moment the young man closed his eyes, 428 felt as though something inside it had suddenly gone hollow.
As though something of utmost importance were about to leave it.
Yet it had never possessed that thing in the first place.
[428 Affection: 50]
The armed forces and more masked men finally arrived. When they reached the scene, all they saw was 428’s tall, strange figure and the infected people bound throughout the hall. Instinctively, they aimed their guns at 428.
“Open fire!”
The hyphae covering 428’s body instantly spread outward, forming a circle that tightly shielded Tang Xiao. Bullets struck the seemingly fragile fungus with metallic clangs, while the eerie blood-red hyphae blocked every danger behind them, forcibly creating a safe zone.
428 lowered its head and looked at the wound on the young man’s arm. The gash had healed under the effects of some substance it had secreted, but it had failed to wake him.
“Xiao Xiao...” 428 had no idea what to do. In a daze, it leaned closer to the young man’s face and tried to wake him, just as it had back in the dormitory.
But no matter how it touched him this time, the young man beneath it did not wake. There were still so many things it wanted to ask him, so many things it wanted to do with him, and so many things it wanted to say to him.
But the young man would never respond to it again.
Its body hurt. The attacks continued, with high temperatures, electric shocks, and all manner of assaults crashing down on 428. Hyphae snapped and regenerated. The unfamiliar humans were shouting about something, but 428 paid them no attention. It only fiercely shielded the young man, calling “Xiao Xiao” into his ear again and again.
Strange blue veins had already begun creeping across Tang Xiao’s fair skin. Something seemed to be writhing beneath it.
This was a sign that he was about to enter the second stage.
428 had never seen zombie fungus before, yet at that moment, as though struck by sudden inspiration, it somehow knew that when the young man opened his eyes again, the person it had been waiting for would no longer be the one controlling this body.
At the thought of that possibility, a vast fury powerful enough to nearly consume it threatened to destroy 428’s reason.
The blood-red monster slowly lowered its head, burying its face against the still-warm side of the young man’s neck. As dark green veins began to emerge beneath Tang Xiao’s chin, it sent its hyphae into his skin.
It couldn’t bear the thought of the young man opening his eyes and becoming someone it no longer recognized. Nor could it stand the thought of him becoming completely infected and controlled by other fungi.
But 428 didn’t know what to do. It didn’t want to hurt Tang Xiao. Even though he was like a peerless delicacy laid out before it, even though it had practically tasted him already, it still forcibly suppressed its urge to feed, unwilling to harm him in the slightest.
The hyphae penetrated his muscles, his bones, and even his cells. The two different fungi fought over territory, turning everything around them into a battlefield.
They devoured and merged with one another. In the process, 428’s hyphae unconsciously burrowed deeper and deeper, all the way into the depths of Tang Xiao’s cells. The instant they touched some kind of boundary, 428 suddenly felt as though something inside it had been unlocked. The fierce battle immediately shifted. The zombie fungus recoiled as though it had encountered its natural enemy—or an emperor traveling incognito—and its hyphae rapidly retreated.
Meanwhile, in reality.
Every armed person present stopped attacking at the same time and clutched their head.
Like rabbits on the grasslands confronted by a furious lion.
From the deepest level of their genes, they were inevitably assailed by the absolute oppression of something higher on the food chain. Terror consumed them, leaving them desperate to flee the area at once and escape the overwhelming fury of the predator before them.
“Grit—” The masked man clenched his teeth so hard they trembled with a faint clicking sound. Steeling himself, he grabbed a handful of flesh on his thigh and twisted hard, only then managing to break free of the paralysis brought on by fear.
“What is that thing...? I didn’t know the organization had a monster like this.”
A faint crackle came through his earpiece, followed by Feng Shuyun’s composed voice. “Did something happen?”
“It’s hard to describe.” The masked man stared intently at the bizarre scene before him.
The monster looked so ominous that merely seeing it made one uneasy. It was fiercely protecting something, like a dragon guarding its treasure, possessively refusing to let even a sliver of light reach what lay within.
Everyone around him was clutching their heads. Many of the armed personnel could barely raise their weapons, while the masked men could hardly remain standing.
Why? How was it doing this?
And why had it appeared here?
The effect persisted. Even though the masked man temporarily suppressed it with pain, his ears continued ringing, as though his survival instincts were warning him over and over again what kind of existence he had provoked.
Suddenly, they saw the monster move.
The blood-red hyphae abruptly burst outward, stretching farther and farther. In an instant, they swept over the nearby infected, linking together like a spiderweb ensnaring prey, then surged toward the masked men like a tidal wave.
The hyphae spread far too quickly. The armed forces instinctively opened fire, but the bullets that had worked before now struck as though hitting a metal barrier, producing sharp metallic clangs. Still stunned, the men had no time to escape before they were swallowed by the crimson flood.
The masked man immediately tried to pull them back with telekinesis, but against the hyphae, his once-invincible superpower was like a stone sinking into the sea. He froze, thinking they were simply too heavy to move, and increased his output. A sharp pain throbbed through his brain. His vision went black, and he instinctively raised a hand beneath his nose. Sure enough, dark red blood was flowing from it.
This was a sign that he had overused his superpower. Seeing how bad the situation had become, the masked man snarled, “Everyone, get out!”
The armed personnel, already on the verge of breaking down, immediately ran for the rear exit. Even so, only some of them managed to escape the hall.
“Help me!” The man at the back stretched out his hand in despair. His ankle had already been caught by the hyphae behind him. Before he could say another word, the surging red tide swallowed him whole.
The masked men didn’t dare look back. Their hearts pounded violently in their chests.
Fortunately, the hyphae showed no sign of spreading any farther. After taking over the vast hall, they stopped at the exits.
Once he was certain it was safe, the masked man stopped and immediately called for help over his radio.
“Requesting assistance at Hall 22. A suspected escaped experimental subject has appeared here. Bullets have no effect on it. I repeat, requesting assistance at Hall 22...”
“Understood. Stay where you are, provided you can do so safely.”
After receiving the response, the masked man let out a small sigh of relief. The fact that reinforcements could be dispatched so quickly meant the situation elsewhere couldn’t be too dire. Looking on the bright side, perhaps the Third Eye had already brought the chaos under control.
“S-Sir, there’s still someone inside.”
“Hm?” The masked man turned around in surprise and saw the other man pointing toward the hall. What did he mean? Had that person not died? Had the monster actually spared them?
He took the binoculars someone beside him handed over and looked into the hall. The sight inside made his mouth fall open in astonishment.
The rescue team arrived shortly afterward. The man leading them wore a black trench coat. “Are you the ones who called for help?”
Before anyone else could answer, his gaze swept through the narrow gap left at the entrance. He could see that the entire hall was filled with blood-red hyphae.
“At this scale... we’ll have to request a firepower strike. This is beyond our capabilities.”
“No, wait!” The masked man grabbed him and handed over the binoculars. “Look inside!”
The man took them in confusion and peered through. To his surprise, there were still survivors inside, wrapped in hyphae and struggling to wave toward the entrance.
“There are actually survivors... But rescuing them would be too difficult, and they’re already trapped in there. They’ll die sooner or later. You should give up on them.”
“That’s not what we mean.” The masked man took a deep breath, as though the motion alone would allow him to calmly force out the rest of his words. “The person waving at us is one of the infected!”
At those words, the man in the black trench coat looked astonished. He frowned and stared at him. “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“I know. I’m certain I’m not seeing things.” The masked man drew another deep breath. “I think the situation is beyond our control.”
There had never—never—been a case of someone infected with zombie fungus regaining their reason.
Even if someone in the early stages of infection used medication to forcibly suppress the fungus spreading through their body, it would only delay the process. In the end, they would still slowly descend into the abyss of the living dead.
And it wasn’t only zombie fungus. Many fungal diseases were also difficult to cure. Fungal ribosomes contained elongation factor proteins, and the amino acid sequences of many of those proteins were highly similar to those found in animals.
Fungi were more closely related to humans than most people imagined. That was precisely why it was so difficult to develop antibiotics capable of targeting pathogenic fungi without harming the human body.
That was also why the Third Eye had placed its hopes on cultivating a “replica” of the King of Fungi. They hoped to use it to interfere with the King of Fungi’s control over other fungi, while also regarding 428 as a key to understanding the fungal world.
So when they saw the infected person inside waving at them, shock alone wasn’t enough to describe what they felt.
The masked man and the man in black quickly realized that the situation had gone beyond their authority and immediately reported it to their superiors.
The Third Eye responded very quickly. Because Tang Xiao had disrupted the Returnist Church’s plan, no large-scale infections had broken out elsewhere. The Third Eye had contained the situation before the infection could spread. Most of the superpowered individuals were now free, and after receiving orders from above, they soon arrived near the hall.
“Phew. What’s the situation now?”
Feng Shuyun rushed over with his detector. When he arrived, he found the hall’s entrances surrounded by layer upon layer of security. The moment he heard that an infected person inside might have regained their reason, he had hurried over without stopping. But just as he tried to rush inside, the staff around him grabbed him. “You need to put on protective gear first!”
“I know.” Feng Shuyun managed to calm himself and put on a protective suit before entering. But then he saw someone he hadn’t expected. “Oh? You came too.”
A young scholar who looked no older than thirty-five stood behind a group of bodyguards. Like Feng Shuyun, he wore a protective suit and was closely guarded by armed personnel. Only after hearing Feng Shuyun call to him did he reluctantly look up from the paper in his hands.
“What are you reading?”
“Nothing. I picked up this paper nearby.”
“You picked it up?”
The young scholar looked toward the hall. “Mm. There are a lot of them on the floor. You can take a look.”
“Let me see it too.” Feng Shuyun’s interest was piqued. He took the paper from the young scholar and rapidly skimmed through it, his expression shifting slightly.
“It’s very interesting, isn’t it? If what it says is true, that is.” Xiao Bai looked toward the hall. “And we’ll know the results soon enough. I’d really like to meet the person who wrote it.”
“I expect you’ll meet him soon...” Feng Shuyun recognized the author of the familiar paper and couldn’t help looking toward the hall. “If he’s still alive.”
No, he had to be alive...
The young scholar gazed thoughtfully into the hall. The armed forces were now trying to enter and rescue the researchers trapped in the hyphae. But whenever they approached the trapped people, the previously quiet and docile blood-red hyphae immediately went berserk, lashing out indiscriminately in every direction. The man in black clicked his tongue and shouted, “Bring me the inactivating agent!”
“Coming!”
The masked man stretched out his arm. Several bottles of yellow reagent behind him flew into the air, then burst over the hyphae. The liquid splashed across the floor and the fungal strands, releasing an odor that smelled strange to humans.
“Is this your invention? This is my first time seeing it up close.” Feng Shuyun covered his nose and watched in amazement. The fungal hyphae visibly weakened when they came into contact with the liquid or even its vapor, and their attacks became less frequent.
This was a special reagent designed specifically for fungi, capable of slowing them down and rendering them inactive. It was standard equipment for wilderness explorers. Although it couldn’t cure fungal diseases, placing a patient in an environment filled with the gas could slow the progression of the infection. Xiao Bai, the inventor behind this breakthrough, had become a Level Five Scholar at a young age because of it.
Once the gas had spread throughout the area, the hyphae had nearly stopped moving. The armed forces immediately seized the opportunity and charged into the hall to rescue the hostages.
At first, everyone remained cautious. Those entering the hall wore protective suits, afraid of becoming infected. From a distance, the masked man used telekinesis to lower one of the survivors—the one who had first waved to them—and called out, “Hey, are you still conscious? Prove it to us!”
The man nodded with difficulty. He looked as though he had just recovered from a serious illness, his face deathly pale, but the bluish marks on his skin had indeed faded.
“I... still... conscious. Help me.”
They had tentatively confirmed that he was still conscious, but the masked man didn’t rescue him directly. Instead, he used telekinesis to move the detector beside the injured man.
Whether he had truly recovered would become clear after the test.
Everyone present couldn’t help staring at the machine, their eyes filled with hope and anxiety.
The test finished, and the indicator lit up...
It was green!
That meant he wasn’t infected!
In an instant, the man in black shouted, “Rescue everyone! Remember, don’t damage the hyphae!”
Everyone knew what this meant. They struggled to contain their excitement, and each of them became a little more careful in their movements.
Under the effects of the fungus-specific inactivating agent, the blood-red hyphae no longer displayed any aggression. They had all become sluggish, readily releasing the hostages wrapped within them until, from the looks of things, everyone had been rescued.
“Hey, come look over here!”
Someone waved to the rescue team. “There’s another person here, wrapped up really tightly!”
At those words, everyone looked over curiously. The rescue team went over to help and found that the person really was wrapped extremely tightly. If not for a corner of his clothing sticking out, they would hardly have noticed anyone was inside.
“Give me a hand. It’s wrapped too tightly.”
They couldn’t pull him out by brute force, so the rescue team brought over saws and knives. But just as one of the man’s arms was exposed, the previously docile hyphae suddenly went berserk. The rescuers had no time to react before the weapons in their hands were knocked away and crushed.
“This is bad, it’s going berserk again!” The masked man immediately warned them, using telekinesis to pull away several people who couldn’t escape in time.
A scar-faced man was badly frightened. He cursed, “Shit, bring the inactivating agent!”
A large amount of the reagent was applied to the hyphae at the very center. 428’s movements visibly slowed, and everyone hurried to pull out the trapped person while they still had the chance. They were in such a rush that their movements inevitably became rough. As they cut through the hyphae with small knives, they accidentally sliced the person’s skin several times, leaving behind several bloody gashes.
“Hey, hey, take it easy! Don’t hurt him!” Feng Shuyun had been watching from a distance, but the moment the face of the person inside came into view, he hurried forward. Seeing how roughly the others were handling him, he quickly called out, “He’s the author of that paper. Be careful!”
Hearing Feng Shuyun’s words, the others instinctively gentled their movements. Xiao Bai also walked over with interest.
The young man wrapped in hyphae was even younger than they had imagined. He looked to be in his early twenties, barely out of his teens. His eyes were closed, and his face was pale.
The detector showed that he was safe too—not infected.
Yet for some reason, separating the young man from the hyphae was far more difficult than it had been with the others.
The hyphae clung stubbornly to his body like a membrane, pressed tightly against every inch of him. Any attempt to separate them provoked an attack.
The armed personnel were already drenched in sweat. They had applied the inactivating agent two or three more times, yet still struggled to pull the young man free. It was as though the hyphae had grown directly onto him.
At last, the blade cut through the hyphae, and the outline of most of the young man’s body came into view.
When the last strands of hyphae peeled away from Tang Xiao, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wait.”
Feng Shuyun stared at the hyphae, which had suddenly begun writhing again, and shouted, “Watch out!”
The masked man and the man in black immediately tensed. The armed personnel shielded the wounded who couldn’t fight and the two scholars behind them. Everyone thought the hyphae were about to attack again, but instead, they were retreating?
Protected by their respective bodyguards, Feng Shuyun and Xiao Bai peered out to observe. They saw that the hyphae, which had filled the entire room, were now slowly contracting. They brushed against Tang Xiao’s feet, lingering there for a moment, before gradually gathering together into one enormous cocoon.
Once the cocoon had formed, the entire hall fell silent.
“Is it... over?” someone asked hesitantly.
The armed forces exchanged glances and looked toward the two experts with the sharpest minds in the room, only to find that they appeared just as confused.
At the very least, nothing like this had ever appeared in their previous observations of fungi.
A faint stirring rose in their hearts. Was it anticipation, unease, or perhaps... hope—hope that could change the despairing state of the world today?!