Chapter 28: Simulated Minions
Enhanced macromolecular biocatalyst, accelerated reproduction, enhanced biological toxin secretion, algae symbiosis… All sorts of reinforcement components, completely different from those of most other races, were bestowed upon Xiao Guang's fungal colony. As the fungal colony gradually developed by eroding sponges and coral, it also began to spray spores, scattering its offspring in the ocean currents, allowing them to drift and spread with the seawater… Gradually, as time passed, Xiao Guang, having completely replaced the sponges and coral in one sea area, re-established a colossal super-sized seabed lichen composed entirely of fungal bodies and algae there. Meanwhile, a large number of drifting fungi, symbiotic with the algae, gradually formed a climate on the sea surface.
Perhaps it was a bug, or perhaps it was a problem Joshua hadn't considered. The first stage of the Continent of Strife required the player-controlled cell to become a proper, complete organism. It wasn't simply a multicellular creature, but a step further—at least an arthropod of the level of a lobster or crab. Only by meeting this standard could one be considered to have passed the stage.
And when passing the stage, the player-controlled biological prototype would, at most, have a small tribe. The vast majority of people, when advancing to the second stage, would only have a few dozen of their kind.
But… what if a player-controlled cell simply didn't develop in this direction? What if it didn't develop towards being a 'creature,' but simply 'reproduced'? What if a player, before their controlled cell formally became a creature, had the potential to spread their colony across the entire world?
Just like Xiao Guang, through a long time, collecting a large number of optimized genetic components, strengthening its foundation, while spreading its colony across the entire world. It didn't rely on a large number of mycelial clusters to gather, attracting transcendent power to converge, thereby giving its creatures souls and wisdom, transforming into the most basic transcendent creatures. It also didn't deliberately sense magic and water elements, attempting to evolve itself into a special form of magical elemental life… Xiao Guang simply did this, obediently controlling the fungi, being an ordinary fungus.
And then, just like that, it covered most of the world.
Joshua thus noticed the loophole in the rules he had set.
Finally, when the fungi controlled by Xiao Guang, due to their sheer volume, instinctively gathered a large amount of magic, giving birth to souls and wisdom, and reached the second stage, the time acceleration flowed. The creature named 'Mobian Giant Fungal Aggregate' appeared in the world.
Moist air, vast rainforests, mild ocean environments… This was paradise for any creature, and it was also hell for any creature. In this rainforest covering the entire continent, predators were everywhere. For intelligent life to reproduce and survive here was a difficult test. Moreover, besides the simplest predators, there were also dangers in this world like climate change, ice ages, natural disasters, and earth movements. Even living in the safest area, one might encounter epic giant beasts roaming around.
For the vast majority of players, their first failure came from the extremely harsh living environment of the second stage.
But for Xiao Guang, it was different.
Because the 'Mobian Giant Fungal Aggregate' (abbreviated as Mobian Giant Fungus) was merely a part of the Mobian Super Giant Fungal Bed that had gained a soul. They were only intelligent compared to their kind; in essence, they were still that terrifying creature that had occupied most of the world, completely replaced the local ecosystem, and was self-sufficient.
Dangerous? Could it be more dangerous than the high-temperature volcanic vents on the seabed? Could it be more dangerous than the carcasses of abyssal giant beasts at depths of several thousand meters? Could it be more dangerous than the turbulent ocean currents everywhere in the polar storms? The alienated forms of Mobian fungi existed everywhere and thrived.
For this world, the Mobian Giant Fungus was the creature other life forms should be most wary of.
Joshua couldn't bear to watch. The Mobian Giant Fungus's erosion of the land world was even faster than in the sea. Of course, this was because Xiao Guang had mastered too many genetic components. It always had parts that could appropriately transform the colony. Windborne spore dispersal was also more convenient than ocean currents… In short, not long after, all the plants, animals, and even other fungi in the world were eroded and parasitized by Mobian fungi, assimilated and symbiotic, or simply absorbed as nutrients… The second stage thus ended with a global mass extinction.
To be honest, Joshua really couldn't be bothered to watch the third stage. The third stage, the tribal stage, most importantly tested the player's knowledge richness, their thinking on social systems, and their ability to lead a tribe and deal with various abnormal situations. It also included elements of trade, combat, and conquest with other tribes. Some players could even enslave other races and transform them into components for handling low-level production work in their society.
But for the Mobian Giant Fungus, the entire world was just one big fungal bed. Although the giant fungi had souls and wisdom, they had no 'desire' to conflict with each other. Everywhere was a paradise, everywhere was home. All their wisdom and instincts were used for planting, spreading, and transforming their own fungal bodies… Actually, as the Mobian Giant Fungus increased and died more and more, countless souls converged, and countless transcendent powers flowed. In the depths of the ocean of this planet, in the largest nest of countless Mobian fungal aggregates, a river called the 'Cycle of Souls' had begun to gradually appear.
And this was the Cycle of Souls of only one race, one will—the Mobian Giant Fungus. An unprecedentedly huge soul body began to gestate and awaken in the depths of the planet.
And the moment it truly gave birth to self-awareness was the end of the third stage for the giant fungi and the arrival of the fourth stage.
This was the first time Joshua had observed the origin and birth of the existence form of the 'Mobian Fungus Total Consciousness Entity,' or it could be called the 'Overlord.'
It was a super psychic aggregate born from gathering all the life and souls of the entire planet. Comparable to it were only the Star Sea World and the Mother Tree of the Midgardians. The two were so similar, the only difference being that one was born from fungal aggregation, and the other from plant aggregation. But compared to the latter, which had many intelligent life sub-entities like the Midgardians, for the Overlord, the Mobian Giant Fungus was just a part of its huge self.
At this time, the Mobian Giant Fungus, having devoured all life on the planet, also began to consciously arm itself due to Xiao Guang's foresight… Because there were too many biological components, even in Joshua's view, Xiao Guang's equipment level was just a random patchwork, but the individual strength of the Mobian Giant Fungus was already terrifying.
Invisible Erosion, Rooted Parasitism, Ultimate Dissolving Fluid, High Elemental Resistance, High Psychic Resistance, Scattered Form (Medium Physical Immunity), Hyper-Speed Reproduction, Plunder Evolution, Psychic Pierce… When other players had at most seven or eight enhanced specialties, the reinforcement components equipped by the Mobian fungus controlled by Xiao Guang had to be counted in 'rows.'
It had seven or eight rows of special biological specialties. This didn't even count the Overlord, the ultimate combat power in Xiao Guang's hands. It had standard legendary-level psychic power. With a single thought, it could stop a tsunami, halt an earthquake, or even tear the crust and draw heat from the mantle to sustain itself… Unlike before, when it parasitized the sea surface, coral, other coral, other plants, and creatures, the current Mobian Giant Fungus was a legendary-level creature parasitizing the 'planet' and the 'world'!
"Sigh…"
Joshua simply couldn't bear to watch. In the fourth stage, the first alien Chaos minion legion arrived. Within a week, it was wiped out by the giant fungus, which also sent a gift package of a large amount of alien life information. The second alien Chaos legion faced the giant fungus, which had added Chaos resistance and more targeted biological components… The third, and strongest, Chaos legion didn't last three seconds after appearing before being blown back to the other end of the space-time channel by a single psychic planet-shattering roar cannon from the Overlord. The strongest individual didn't even survive ten seconds after appearing.
It was impossible to fight. The Overlord had already covered the entire planet and even extended its fungal cap out of the atmosphere to absorb richer solar energy. Under Xiao Guang's control, the Overlord had begun to evolve specialized space colonies, preparing to use biological cannons to directly blast psychic spore cysts into outer space orbit, sending them to the moon for expansion and reproduction.
It had already started building biological space elevators and tearing space-time channels with psychic power… This was no longer something the alien Chaos legions could face. This ultimate creature already had a trace of the Plague Evil God's form. Joshua felt that if it developed for a while longer, even the Atmospheric Evil God might not be its match.
After passing the fourth stage, Xiao Guang's mental frequency was particularly excited and happy. This was the first time it had cultivated minions. Yes, Xiao Guang regarded the game process of the Continent of Strife as a simple simulation of cultivating minions. It had successfully defeated the Chaos legions, so in its extreme joy, it entered the fifth stage.
And this fifth stage, which no one except Xiao Guang had reached, was called 'Stellaris.'
In this stage, players didn't just need to consider survival, reproduction, social forms, and combat. They needed to decide the direction of their civilization's technological progress, avoid going down the wrong path. They also needed to think about exploration decisions, avoid wasting energy and resources on meaningless things. They had to try to colonize alien worlds, build void fleets. They might even encounter other worlds, creatures that had reached the fifth stage, and might discover the ruins and remnants of ancient civilizations… In this stage, what players needed to do was to coordinate their race and civilization, to establish a colony on a habitable alien planet.
And the test they faced was another alien race that had its eye on this planet.
They could avoid combat and resolve the conflict through diplomatic means. They could also use powerful technology to make the alien race feel fear. They could also send spies to create disasters and chaos in the enemy's lair, making them unable to compete… There were many ways to pass the stage, but the simplest was, indeed, just like Xiao Guang.
Densely packed, covering half the starry sky, biological warships surrounded the alien race's main fleet of less than a thousand ships. The Mobian Giant Fungus, having hollowed out half the mantle and turned the moon into an industrial production base… passed the fifth stage.
A fantastical game process.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong!"
Joshua heard Xiao Guang's excited cheers left in the Magic Net, proving it had passed the stage.
The warrior rubbed his eyes, then whispered to Number 3 beside him: "I probably need to go to the Bloodmoon Abyss."
"What's wrong, Joshua?"
Sensitively noticing that Joshua's tone was a bit off, Number 3 stood up, ready to leave with the warrior. She seemed to think of something and asked somewhat doubtfully: "Is it related to Xiao Guang?"
"Yes."
Joshua nodded heavily: "I have to watch it and tell it that the game is different from reality… The game simplified many things, it's just a very simple simulation… Tsk, anyway, that's the idea."
"I can't let Xiao Guang really turn its minions into that kind of fungal form!"