Players, Please Board the Train

Brother Tie grabbed Wei Bin, ”Why didn’t you say that earlier!”

”I didn’t have time to speak before you all went crazy with excitement.” Wei Bin said innocently, ”Besides, would you have stopped eating even if I told you?”

”This can be considered emergency rations. If there’s no food in the next ten floors, these mushrooms could sustain us for a while.”

”But these mushrooms grew by absorbing nutrients from corpses!” Brother Tie said with a disgusted expression, ”Can we really eat them?!”

Wei Bin pried his hand off, ”I’m telling you now, whether you eat them or not is your decision.”

The entire floor fell silent for a few seconds, then Kang Hong threw down his mushroom and said, ”I think I can manage with just water.”

Some people abandoned the mushrooms in their hands, but others actively picked up a few more.

”Let’s look around first.” Xu Huo said to Jiang Yihua and the other person.

The mushrooms, including the silken threads, showed no aggression. Though freshly broken silken threads had strong stickiness, they would detach on their own within about ten minutes. The detached threads would gradually dissolve into the ”nutrient jelly,” transforming into nourishment for other mushrooms.

”Since these mushrooms can’t kill people, then how did the ones below... come into existence?” Jiang Yihua thought of one possibility and couldn’t help gagging.”There’s something down here.” Da Zhi, who was squatting nearby clearing mushrooms, suddenly turned back and shouted.

Xu Huo walked over quickly and saw him cutting through the jelly to retrieve a notebook.

The corpse beside the notebook had already dissolved. Besides this book, a pen and some fragments of white fabric floated nearby.

”Quick, see what’s written inside.” Jiang Yihua urged.

Xu Huo opened the notebook. The writing on the first few pages had blurred, but the middle section appeared to be research notes:

”...The underground world of Clown City is forbidden territory for humans, but it’s paradise for fungi. According to statistics from researchers who have come here, this underground world naturally generates up to 371 species of fungi—and that’s only the count supported by current data.”

”However, to this day, no researcher has found the fungi that created this underground world—this underground world must have been created by fungi, because we’ve found nutrient transport channels in rock pores that are more complex than honeycombs and more varied than ant colonies.”

”Evolution in the natural world is truly marvelous.”

”I speculate that this underground world was first occupied by a mutated fungus species. After long-term environmental modification, the conditions became suitable for fungal survival, subsequently giving rise to countless different fungi species that are difficult to fully document.”

”Although most are ordinary fungi, their growth cycles are longer than those of similar species, making them more valuable for research. Moreover, there’s an extremely rare mycelium that can defend against sharp weapons.”

”Unfortunately, despite multiple expeditions into the underground world, our research team hasn’t been able to locate the growth site of this fungus again.”

”...Currently, human exploration has penetrated less than a kilometer into this underground world. I believe there are many more fungi like this that can produce mycelium capable of defending against sharp weapons.”

”As long as Little Flower Red Red Research Base secures funding from Stellar Pharmaceutical Group, we can purchase enough equipment to enter the underground world, extract new species that have never appeared at any wormhole point, and rewrite the history of evolutionary plants!”

This wasn’t the first time Xu Huo had seen the name Stellar Pharmaceutical Group. Back in Decibel Town, this company appeared frequently in Master Nise’s investigation materials. Judging by Master Nise’s hostile attitude toward the company, he likely suspected that his son and daughter-in-law’s deaths were related to this company.

Now, this company had appeared again in the notebook.

Picking up the pen nearby, he rotated it and saw a carved character ”Hao” on one side.

”This couldn’t be Professor Hao mentioned in the game introduction, could it?” Jiang Yihua said, ”Wasn’t he supposed to be seeking investments? How did he end up dead here?”

”Maybe it was a conflict of interests.” the Tall Woman said, ”They might have been competing for business.”

Xu Huo glanced at her and continued flipping through the notebook. There was no written content in the later pages, but a dried purple petal was tucked inside the last page.

”I saw this kind of flower on the thirteenth floor earlier.” Jiang Yihua said, ”It was in the glass room next to the Buzzing Flowers—a very small one hidden beneath other flowers.”

”That glass room was full of purple flowers.” Xu Huo said.

”I’m not mistaken, it was a completely different flower.” Jiang Yihua recalled, ”The others had energy values around twenty-something, but this one only had about one.”

Xu Huo quietly stored the petal and said indifferently, ”It might have been poorly cultivated.”

Jiang Yihua nodded.

”What did you find?” Gu Yu approached at that moment, pointing toward the back and saying, ”We also found some researchers over there who haven’t completely dissolved yet. Most of the staff from Little Flower Red Red Building are probably here.”

”I wonder what Professor Hao actually discovered.”

The greatest secret of evolution—this was too tempting for players.

The greatest secret of evolution... Xu Huo instinctively felt it was related to the perfect evolution potion. But given Stellar Pharmaceutical Group’s actions of silencing witnesses, even if they had mastered the production method of the S-version potion, they probably wouldn’t share it with all players in the game.

From the release of Mutants and the existence of the Breeding Zone, it appeared that the Dimensional Rift game was intentionally dividing the world. The inability to achieve perfect evolution and perpetual dependence on potions were players’ weaknesses, but also an effective means of controlling players.

He handed the notebook to Gu Yu, who took it and went to read it with Dai Wenqian and the others.

After a while, Xu Huo checked the time and felt it was about right, so he went to the elevator and pulled back the phone that had been lowered deep into the elevator shaft.

Except for one elevator that had faint sounds, the other three were completely quiet.

Xu Huo chose the one that had clamped Brother Tie’s head and signaled Jiang Yihua and Da Zhi to support him.

”I’m going up for a moment. After I enter the elevator shaft, close the doors.”

The two looked at him in surprise, but seeing his complete lack of hesitation as he pushed the door open, they had no choice but to step forward to help.

As soon as the elevator door opened, several Man-eating Flowers lunged forward. Xu Huo raised his sword to cut them down, using piano wire to pull them into the elevator shaft, then swung his sword at the flower pots where the roots of the Man-eating Flowers hung down!

The Man-eating Flowers occupying the floor of the elevator shaft shook violently. Over a dozen Man-eating Flowers instantly sprayed out from the ruptured flower pots, bouncing around like tethered balls in the narrow elevator shaft, colliding left and right as they charged toward the person above!

”Hurry up and close the door!” Da Zhi blocked one Man-eating Flower and shouted to Kang Hong and others who were nearby.

However, Kang Hong was so startled he kept retreating. Instead, the Tall Woman and Gu Yu from not far away rushed over first. As they pushed the elevator doors together, they said, ”What about Xu Huo?”

At that moment, urged by Jiang Yihua, Da Zhi threw out a card. A nimble black panther leaped out from it, carrying both of them as they jumped through the narrow elevator door opening!