Chapter 1586: The Price of Symbiosis
The spot where they got off the train was right in the middle of a dense forest. Overly lush vegetation and fungi of every kind occupied most of the field of vision. From any angle, it was impossible to tell if anyone had ever been active here, though there were some traces left by wild beasts.
Looking up from the ground, trees over a hundred meters tall were everywhere. Besides the thick branches and hanging vines, there were also some floating things that looked like insect eggs drifting in the air. They seemed to be some kind of fungus, but it was hard to tell which specific type.
In just that short time, when Xu Huo looked down again, he found a layer of greenish stuff attached to his protective suit. At first glance, it looked like a layer of fuzz, but upon closer inspection, those "fuzz" were alive, wriggling like insects, only attached to the clothing at one end.
"This is a type of seed fungus. Don't worry about it," Chi Xian reminded him from the side, simultaneously brushing away the green fuzz on his own face shield. "Just clean it off every now and then. If it grows too much, it'll block your view."
The other seven had already gone ahead. The woods were eerily quiet. Xu Huo asked Chi Xian, "Any ideas?"
"My goal is to find fungi, so of course I'm heading to the place with the richest variety." Chi Xian took out his tool—a transparent glass box with a jellyfish-like creature floating inside. "This is a fungus-eating organism. It can detect the concentration of living fungi. I'll just follow it."
As he spoke, he pointed the glass box forward, and the floating jellyfish began to move gently inside.
"Want to come along?" he invited Xu Huo. "Anyway, I doubt there's going to be any instance dungeon in a place like this. Might as well give me a hand. We'll split any good finds fifty-fifty."
Xu Huo didn't refuse. As he followed the direction the jellyfish was drifting, he said, "What good stuff could be here? It's all fungi, and half of it is poisonous."
"You're out of your depth there," Chi Xian said. "We don't use poisons much in daily life, but plenty of districts have people who specialize in collecting this stuff. The prices aren't low either. The weirder and more unusual something is, the higher its value."
"Aren't these fungi hard to breed in other districts?" Xu Huo pushed aside the leaves in front of him.
"Poisons don't necessarily need to be mass-produced and stored in bulk," Chi Xian wiped his face shield again. "Some people just want an undetectable poison. One dose is enough."
"Specially evolved fungi are especially troublesome because they can reproduce inside the human body. Completely eradicating them is difficult."
"Many famous assassination cases involve mutant fungi."
"So that means highly toxic mutant fungi are practically incurable." Xu Huo followed his line of thought.
"Just luck of the draw." Chi Xian paused for a moment, confirmed his direction, and continued, "But as long as it's not an environment like District 013, even if someone brings mutant fungi outside, dealing with it isn't hard. Just sacrifice a few people and cut off the source of infection."
Faced with hundreds of thousands of types of fungi, it was impossible to create corresponding antidotes for each one's characteristics. The most cost-effective method was to keep them contained in their original area and prevent them from spreading to other districts.
"Everything in nature has its counterpart. Maybe around the highly toxic fungi, we can find usable fungi or other species," Xu Huo said.
"Many people have tried that method you mentioned," Chi Xian stopped in front of a tree covered in yellow fuzz. He reached out and broke off a branch, shook it to dislodge the fungi that came loose, then poked a small hole in the trunk. "Look inside."
"Another type of fungus." Xu Huo looked. The tree's bark was completely corroded. Beneath the yellow fuzz was a layer of blue sludge.
"The yellow one is poisonous. The blue one isn't. Logically, if the two can coexist, the blue fungus must be able to suppress the yellow one. But when this blue fungus grows inside a human body, it blocks the airways and esophagus. By the time it fully covers the yellow fungus, the person is already dead." Chi Xian turned back to look at him. "The prerequisite for using fungi to counter fungi is that the person can withstand that fungus. Since many mutant fungi can reproduce inside the human body, no amount of antidote extracted from fungi is enough."
"Even if a targeted antidote works, no one knows where the critical point is."
"As far as I know, there isn't a single detoxifying fungus in the game that can reproduce inside the human body without causing harm."
"People from District 013 might evolve the ability to coexist with fungi, but the side effects are obvious. Whether ordinary people or players, they don't live long."
"Evolvers who become players have such long lifespans. Barring accidents, they can easily live over a hundred years."
What Chi Xian said was consistent with the information Xu Huo had looked up. However, Xu Huo's information channels were at the E-level and D-level wormhole points. He wasn't sure if B-level or A-level wormhole points had fungi like the King Fungus. Even if they did, he figured it wouldn't be made public.
"Trading fungi... the risk doesn't match the reward." Xu Huo gave this conclusion.
Chi Xian just smiled. "I told you, it's a hobby. Can't just level up and do nothing else, right? It's good to relieve some stress."
Xu Huo had to agree with that.
After walking for about another three minutes, the two found a corpse.
It was a person. They had been dead for a little while. Their body was already covered in various fungi, their face completely unrecognizable.
Xu Huo pulled out a dagger and cut open the corpse's chest. The fungi on the surface had just pierced through the skin but hadn't fully penetrated the internal organs. However, the internal organs themselves had been parasitized by fungi. After the person died, these fungi were also gradually dying.
After the dust-like floating fungi dispersed, he said, "This should be a local."
"Died not long ago either," Chi Xian looked around. "Could ordinary people still be living in a place like this?"
The two had also climbed high to observe the situation. The visible range wasn't very far, but at least everything within sight was the same humid rainforest. There were no settlements. It was hard to imagine ordinary people venturing in here with only simple protection.
"Let's speed up a bit." Xu Huo stood up.
After that, the two used tools to move along the direction the jellyfish was drifting. After half an hour of travel, they actually discovered a small village built along the water in the forest.
Calling it a village was generous. There were only six scattered wooden cabins that hadn't been lived in for a long time.
What was surprising was that the seven people who had left earlier were also here. And they had caught a poisonous person covered in various fungi.
The person was trapped by tools, separated by a barrier. The scar-faced man with glasses was interrogating him.
"Where are the others? Tell me, and I'll give you a quick death."
The poisonous person kneeling on the ground pointed to his mouth, which had completely lost its tongue, then waved his hands and shook his head to indicate he couldn't speak.
The scar-faced man slapped him through the barrier. "No tongue, but you have hands! Point!"