Chapter 551: The Fungus Waves at You
"Are we going back again?" The female player rubbed her arms, walked to the edge of the floating stone, glanced down, and quickly pulled back. "I think it's still very deep."
"But it doesn't seem like there's another way up there either." Zhuo Wangsun looked back and forth.
The place they were in was actually a giant elliptical cavity, with narrow gaps at both the front and back, but they were mostly blocked by fungal hyphae. They had probed it earlier—at least several meters thick, sticky, and impossible for a person to pass through.
"Am I seeing things?" Siming suddenly pointed to a spot above. "There seems to be someone up there waving at us."
"There's a figure!" The female player cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Who are you? Did you find a way?"
The figure didn't respond, maintaining its original posture, waving unhurriedly, then turned and disappeared behind the stone wall.
"That shouldn't be a person, right?" Zhuo Wangsun instinctively looked at Xu Huo. This was different from the figures they had seen in the fog forest earlier—this one was much more agile, and it could even wave!
The distance was too far, and the light was too dim for them to see clearly, but Xu Huo could see it perfectly. It really wasn't a person—just a humanoid model constructed from fungal hyphae. The details weren't realistic, but the ability to make waving and walking movements was truly astonishing. Mutating to this extent was indeed impressive.
"Hostile intentions. Should we follow it?" The female player asked for their opinion. Neither she nor Siming took Zhuo Wangsun's words seriously.
"Four against one. We have the advantage." Xu Huo said this and accelerated back the way they came.
The four of them ran all the way to where the figure had just stood. Looking around, they found it standing slightly above them again, waving in the same posture.
The four exchanged glances and chased after it once more, only for the figure to appear a third time even higher up.
Finally, when they were about ten meters from the ground, the figure plunged headfirst into a narrow gap ahead.
Xu Huo walked over and lifted the hyphae with his sword to look. Inside the fungal cocoon, there was a passage about a meter high—a person could pass through by bending over. Although they couldn't see deep inside, there was airflow, so it should be open.
Without waiting for the other three, he stepped inside first.
This tunnel was only about ten meters long. After passing through, another giant circular cavity appeared ahead, nearly identical to the one before. The figure that had been waving at them was still gesturing.
Zhuo Wangsun and the female player came out one after another. Seeing the figure, they were furious. The latter said, "What exactly does it want?"
Zhuo Wangsun said, "I think it's deliberately luring us into a trap. Maybe we should retreat first?"
"Pull me out!" Siming, still in the tunnel, exclaimed in surprise. Zhuo Wangsun instinctively grabbed his outstretched hand but was nearly pulled back in. It wasn't until Xu Huo reached out and pressed him down that he managed to haul Siming out.
Siming, once pulled out, was covered in white fungal hyphae. His back was even trailing sticky, candy-thread-like substances, and the tunnel behind him was clearly blocked—by these very hyphae on him!
Zhuo Wangsun tried to cut them with his knife, but the blade got stuck. He had to tell Siming to take off his protective suit. But to their surprise, the outside of his suit was also stuck, and he couldn't remove it. Moreover, the hyphae on his feet, touching the ground, seemed to trigger their growth instinct and began spreading along the floor!
Siming couldn't move from where he stood, let alone lie down. He said urgently, "I have cleaning agent. Let's see if it works!"
Using his hand that wasn't covered in hyphae, he pulled out the cleaning agent. Zhuo Wangsun quickly opened it and poured it over him. The hyphae fell off in large patches like fur.
Unfortunately, one bottle wasn't enough—only half the hyphae came off.
Siming looked at the three around him. "I can buy more. I have white notes."
The female player gave him a bottle, and Zhuo Wangsun also handed one over. Only then did they wash off all the hyphae. But the fallen hyphae didn't die; they started growing from the ground and quickly connected to the thick fungal wall behind them.
The group stepped back. Zhuo Wangsun said uneasily, "If we had been one step slower, that person would have grown into the fungus and never come out!"
Siming was equally shaken. Looking at the figure still waving in the distance, he raised his gun and fired a burst at it. All they heard was bullets hitting stone and dirt. Then the figure fell, and the hyphae behind it surged like a flood, quickly covering it and dragging it inside.
By the time the four of them chased over, the figure had been completely swallowed by the hyphae.
Siming, still furious, swung his knife and slashed wildly at it, but in the end, he only lost a knife without seeing the real person.
As his anger lingered, the female player patted his shoulder and pointed below the floating stone. "Look."
They looked down—another figure was standing there, still waving at them.
The female player rubbed her face. "It seems a bit closer this time."
Siming and Zhuo Wangsun's expressions turned grim.
Just then, Xu Huo took two steps forward, drew his long sword, and swung it through the air. The cutting surface of the sword energy crossed space and pierced through the figure's body. The figure was instantly split in two, but then it was swallowed by the hyphae again.
"I saw it clearly this time! That's not a person at all!" the female player said. "It's hollow inside!"
"Then what the hell is it?" Zhuo Wangsun had been wanting to ask. "It lures us into traps, cuts off our escape routes, and covers its tracks. Can fungi really do that?"
"Could someone be hiding in the shadows, targeting us?" Siming also suggested.
"Probably not." Xu Huo looked around. "The hyphae are very active. If they wanted to swallow a few people, it wouldn't be hard. If another player wanted to kill us, they wouldn't use such a roundabout method."
"So what, the fungus has become sentient?" the female player scoffed.
"It's imitating us." Xu Huo's voice turned serious. They had only encountered the "figure" twice, but its imitation ability had improved by leaps and bounds. Whether it was Zhuo Wangsun falling into the pit earlier or it repeatedly luring them deeper, the purpose was to mimic and learn.
He poured alcohol on the gap ahead and set it on fire. After the tunnel burned through, he walked over and saw that inside, the hyphae on the stone wall were wrapped around a person. Through the thin fungal membrane on the head and face, they could barely make out the features:
"Siming!" the female player exclaimed in shock. She turned to look at the Siming standing behind them. "Are you real or fake?!"
Siming was stunned, but before he could argue, Xu Huo swung his sword and cut off the head wrapped in hyphae.
The empty head, no longer supported by the neck, deflated like a balloon, turning into a soft mass hanging inside, before being swallowed and covered by the contracting fungus.
Zhuo Wangsun swallowed hard. "They're imitating real people more and more closely."
"Do you think they deliberately lured us down here to eat us, then pretend to be us and go back up?" the female player speculated wildly.
Xu Huo was speechless.
(Chapter End)