MASG chapter 55

 

This is not good.

But it’s not a bad thing, either.

At least Lao Gui can confirm that there are probably no normal people left on this ship. They have all become mushroom puppets. This explains why no one has attacked them; they lost their own consciousness long ago.

“Why did you shoot so quickly?” He still warned Mo An, though: “If he wasn’t contaminated, you…”

“Impossible, I saw it.” Mo An pointed to his right eye, though it wasn’t red yet. “They’re all definitely contaminated, and that monster is hiding inside one of them.”

“Even if you saw it, you need to learn to think rationally before you shoot.” Lao Gui sounded like he was scolding Mo An, but his tone carried a hint of praise. “Nice shot.”

The rest of the team breathed a sigh of relief. This mission was fraught with danger. From a mission perspective, bringing a child along would definitely be a hindrance. However, they had now reversed their stance. Regardless of age, as long as they could serve as a combat unit, they were worthy of the position.

The group first went to the VIP room upstairs, encountering about a dozen more people along the way. They were all dazed and incapacitated, seemingly transformed into mushrooms; their reactions to the outside world were extremely slow. Several others stood motionless at the very top of the ship, basking in the sun like fungi absorbing solar energy. Unsurprisingly, they all had fungal hyphae on their bodies to varying degrees.

The hyphae burrowed under their skin and sometimes emerged from their eyes and ears.

This gave Mo An a strange feeling about their “interaction.” He had participated in hundreds of missions, big and small. He had heard from adults that people in centers of corruption or contaminated areas were extremely strange, with the vast majority exhibiting violent tendencies. No matter how you looked at it, a normal person would feel uncomfortable.

But not now. It was incredibly quiet here. It was as if they had unwittingly stepped onto a large ship belonging to fungi that grew aimlessly without destroying or killing anything. If someone came, they weren’t rejected, each one passed through quietly, living in their own world. Was this their true nature? Undisturbed by each other?

When the sea breeze blew, everything was harmonious. The Black Sea was not under Nuwa’s control; it was naturally peaceful, welcoming any creature to claim a corner of it. Here, living things are simply living things. There are no hierarchical distinctions, no rich or poor. The earth has reverted to its most primitive state: You eat me; I eat you. There’s no right or wrong, only the struggle for survival.

The mushrooms didn’t harm them.

If Mo An didn’t still need to find someone, he really wanted to just disembark. However, the thought of these people kidnapping Xia Yu made him want to slaughter everyone on the ship.

“There’s no Xiangxing on this level either. We need to search below.” After searching the top deck, Lao Gui decided to look below. “Kid, how many dangers did you foresee in your premonition?”

Mo An skillfully reloaded his gun. “One.”

“One…that means there’s only one monster. I’m worried that thing might split and multiply. That would be troublesome.” Lao Gui muttered to himself. With all signals cut off, he couldn’t inform Talos about the situation on the ship.

Talos’s ship remained parallel to this one, gliding as if on a mirror.

“By the way, there’s something I don’t understand.” Mo An walked down the stairs. “Why were you able to tell at a glance that those people weren’t…Xiang Xing? Did Xia Yu describe what he looks like? What if you mistook him?”

Lao Gui couldn’t help but smile. “You couldn’t be wrong.”

“Why?” Mo An was confused.

“Because they must be Xia Yu’s relatives. He said that Xiang Xing looks almost exactly like him.” Lao Gui then looked at someone leaning against the wall as if he had turned into a patch of moss.

This statement was incredibly significant. Mo An stopped abruptly. His sudden stop nearly knocked over the team members behind him. A chain reaction occurred: one person bumped into another. But Mo An remained unaffected, his mind preoccupied with one thought:

Two Xia Yus?

How could they be exactly the same?

“But back at the research institute, there was only one Xia Yu,” Mo An said as he caught up with the group. “The X series only has the two of us. There’s no second little jellyfish. The X-Series refers to biological subjects that temporarily have no developmental value—just the two of us.”

“The X series? Sounds pretty cool. But remember, kid, there are plenty of things in the world you can’t understand. Even Xia Yu suspects they’re clones. The people at the research institute are pretty crazy.” Lao Gui gave him a heads-up.

“I don’t believe it. It’s impossible. The X series only has us: just him and me,” Mo An emphasized again.

Lao Gui didn’t say anything more. It was pointless to explain it to a little brat; he’d understand everything after one look. But the name “X series”… it’s really ridiculous. Why would someone name it that for no reason?

X… could it have some other meaning?

Hopefully, I’m just overthinking it. Lao Gui focused his attention back on the horizon, no longer distracted. He and his team had anticipated a perilous rescue operation and had prepared for injuries and even casualties. However, reality had reversed their predictions, and they hadn’t encountered any attacks along the way.

The mycelium was simply growing steadily, showing no intention of bothering them at all.

They searched layer by layer and, when they reached the bottom, found that the mycelium beneath their feet had noticeably increased and formed a thick layer embedded in the hull. Like blood vessels, it clung to the wood, absorbing nutrients and continuing to grow.

“They all seem to be heading forward.” Mo An activated the laser lights on his guns.

“I know.” Lao Gui gestured, and the laser lights on everyone’s guns lit up, pointing directly at the door ahead. All of those vein-like threads originated from behind that door. Once they reached it, they would understand everything.

The spore concentration in the air was zero, which also struck Lao Gui as strange.

The mushroom monster hadn’t released spores to contaminate them. Was this a complete relaxation of vigilance or a deliberate display of friendliness? Or perhaps the mushroom’s power was weakened within the strange range of the Black Sea, rendering it unable to harm the intruders.

“Everyone, be careful. Be prepared to fire if necessary to ensure your safety.” The closer they got to the door, the tenser Lao Gui became.

He wasn’t the only one. Opening this door would shatter all the illusions on the ship. The mushroom-like monsters could not coexist peacefully with humans; they would wreak havoc. Their only chance of victory was to eliminate the monsters the moment their identity was confirmed.

The inescapable fate of carbon-based life forms is annihilation by firearms. With this desperate resolve, the wooden door was pushed open, and all the laser beams focused on one person’s back.

He stood barefoot in the center of the room, wearing a bloodstained bathrobe. Countless mycelia sprouted from his feet and crawled up his skin. He didn’t turn around, but everyone knew who he was: the monster who had escaped from the building.

Silence reigned, calm except for the sound of the wind. Sunlight streamed through the window, and the mycelium basked in it.

Lao Gui aimed the red dot on his gun at the back of the man’s head. “Where’s Xiang Xing?”

Mo An knew how to aim for vital areas and did the same. His finger was on the trigger. He had long since learned to fire, aim, and reload in one smooth motion. But when the man turned around, Mo An’s hand froze for a moment. Once his finger recovered, he immediately released the trigger, afraid of accidentally pulling it.

This person… was exactly like Xia Yu!

He couldn’t do it! He couldn’t bring himself to shoot him, let alone shoot him in the back of the head. He didn’t even dare aim the gun at him. Wasn’t this Xia Yu? This was Xia Yu, without the slightest difference—a complete clone.

“Who are you?” Mo An shouted. But then he realized this wasn’t it. There was only one Xia Yu: unique and irreplaceable.

“I am Xiang Xing.” He hadn’t expected them to come, much less return so quickly. “You are Xia Yu’s friends?”

“Yes, we are his friends. I am his best friend.” Puzzled, Mo An asked, “Why are you the same? He said he sent us to pick you up. Why are you…a fungus? You’re not human? What are you?”

Only children would demand a straightforward answer in a situation like this. Adults only consider safety. Lao Gui had already concluded that Xia Yu had been tricked by the mushroom people. The jellyfish tribe only had Xia Yu at the moment. This Xiang Xing is a mushroom.

“I…I don’t know what I am. I met Xia Yu, and he thought I was a little jellyfish. I really want to be a little jellyfish. It’s great; now I’m a little jellyfish.” Xiang Xing looked at them. “He really told you to take me back?”

Before Mo An could speak, Lao Gui spoke up: “Yes, he thought you were one of his kind, so he told us that we had to save you. But…now we need an explanation from you.” “Who are you? Why did you go on a killing spree in Qingyao City? Why did you get on the ship? Many people died in the building, and you must be held responsible for their deaths.”

“I don’t know. I was just a lab rat in Yukun City. A friend said he could help me escape, so I believed him. But he used me as a bargaining chip to leave the city and sold me to someone. When I woke up, I was already in the building,” said Xiang Xing.

While he was speaking, Mo An couldn’t concentrate at all. Their voices were exactly the same, and their glances and movements were identical.

“You mean you don’t know how you got to Qingyao City either?” Lao Gui wasn’t convinced.

Xiang Xing cautiously nodded his head. “I don’t know how I got here or why I got into the building. My friend sold me.”

“And then?” Lao Gui continued.

This wasn’t insignificant information. If Xiang Xing was telling the truth, then everyone had the wrong idea. They had all been misled by the severity of the incident, thinking that the mushroom had gone out of control first, leading to a series of consequences. But Xiang Xing offered an alternative explanation: he was innocent.

The mushroom was sold to Qingyao City, placed in a building, and then, as if waiting for the right moment, released its spores at the crucial instant.

“After I was sold, when I regained consciousness, I was in a building. There was a person I didn’t recognize next to me. He had a remote control device in his hand,” Xiang Xing continued.

“What kind of device?” Lao Gui suddenly realized this was within his area of expertise.

“There are several…mercury spheres on it. I don’t recognize them,” Xiang Xing said, trying to recall. “There are several spheres and a lot of wires. He was very busy, so I secretly observed him.”

“It’s a detonator.” Lao Gui recognized it immediately. He had personally dismantled dozens of mercury detonators, the most troublesome and dangerous kind. “And then?”

“Then…he stabbed me. To survive, I released spores and produced a large amount of hyphae. Then, my bodily functions failed, and I had to enter a new body.” “Measure the energy.” Xiang Xing didn’t finish speaking.

Mo An continued, “I understand. Your spores entered his body and burst out. I saw that scene.”

“You saw it? No, that’s impossible. How could you have seen it?” Xiang Xing was unaware of the mermaid’s prediction. “I only killed him to survive. My body can replicate anyone’s appearance, so I took his organs and became human again. Then, I heard a loud argument and saw that someone was coming. I immediately climbed onto the ceiling and saw people evacuating residents.”

He paused for a second or two, red mycelium crawling onto his arm.

“I was curious, so I followed them. But I couldn’t control the spores anymore. They were flying everywhere. I wanted to warn everyone to run because the spores are resilient and seek living organisms to fuse with. But before I could say anything, a bunch of people rushed in, knocked out a teenager, and locked the rest in the elevator. A few seconds later, there was a very loud explosion somewhere in the building.”

“The explosion wasn’t caused by the kidnappers after all,” Lao Gui confirmed.

Xiang Xing nodded again. “I followed them. The kidnappers said that they were glad the bomb had exploded because that way, no one would know they had kidnapped someone. Even if Xia Yu was reported missing, they wouldn’t be caught. I had nowhere else to go, so I snuck behind them, transformed into a filament, boarded the ship, and hid next to Xia Yu. I pretended to be another kidnapped person, and since the kidnappers split up, no one knew how many people each had kidnapped… I lied to Xia Yu.” This was Xiang Xing’s deepest regret.

He wasn’t a little jellyfish and had never belonged to anyone. But when Xia Yu offered him a helping hand and warmth, he genuinely wanted to become one of Xia Yu’s kind, even if it was just pretend. If he could die as a jellyfish, death would no longer be a vague, intangible fear.

“So you infected them all?” Lao Gui moved the laser spot down slightly.

“Yes, after you rescued Xia Yu, this ship became mine, and they were all my food,” said Xiang Xing. “I just didn’t expect him to actually come back and find me. He’s different from my friend. He didn’t abandon me. But I can’t leave with you. I have to stay here in the Black Sea.”

Mo An sensed something was wrong. “Why?”

“Because of this,” Xiang Xing said, pointing to his abdomen. “That man who planted the bomb and used the detonator had something inside him. I came out of his body and copied his organs. That thing ended up in my stomach, which is why my kidneys never heal properly. It’s a chip, and it’s very hot. I heard about this in Yukun City. It causes electronic corruption. It’s a self-aware… powerful chip.”

This was utterly absurd. Xiang Xing had never seen anyone handle a sentient electronic chip with their bare hands before. Yet he cut open his stomach in front of Mo An, unable to hide his true thoughts. What if he succeeded? He could find Xia Yu.

After the incision, many pulsating hyphae appeared near the wound, resembling tiny hands. Xiang Xing wasn’t particularly sensitive to pain. He reached into his kidneys with his bare, blood-covered hands and pulled out the glowing red chip.

This chip was larger than any that Mo An had seen before. Its light… It became even brighter, and Xiang Xing felt extremely uncomfortable just from touching it. The Black Sea was a special spatial zone that could temporarily suppress the chip, but it could not leave the zone.

However, the moment Mo An took it, its light disappeared.

It turned into… a very ordinary chip without anything special about it and completely devoid of light.

Xiang Xing was utterly baffled. He had once thought he was a special kind of species, but it turned out that strange species were everywhere in this vast world. Seeing the chip dim, Lao Gui led the team closer. “How are you feeling? Are you all right?”

Mo An shook his head and clutched the chip tightly. “I feel a bit queasy, like I’m going to throw up.”

Talos’s ship was empty again. The sirens were underwater and ready to destroy the large ship at any moment. Xia Yu and Mi Dou sat together waiting for some movement. When the rope ladder shook again, their tense expressions finally softened into smiles.

They counted everyone—not a single one was missing! Everyone was safe and sound!

“My God, Xiang Xing really looks just like you!” Mi Dou immediately spotted him. It had to be a clone, right? Lao Gui’s team had worked hard, risking their lives to bring him back.

Xiang Xing’s bathrobe was covered in blood, making it seem as if he had been seriously injured. A rope ladder brought everyone back one by one, and Xia Yu was waiting by the boat. He helped Xiang Xing down the ladder himself. Just as he was about to reach for Mo An, he subconsciously withdrew his hand.

He no longer dared to carelessly touch his younger brother’s body.

Mo An’s… His hand reached out, but he grasped empty air. Mo An jumped onto the boat like a child who hadn’t been picked up by an adult. Everyone else was relieved, but Xia Yu was disappointed.

Fine, if they don’t want to pick him up, so be it. He’s grown up now. He doesn’t need Xia Yu to coax him. Mo An turned around coldly and resolutely, returning the gun and dagger to Lao Gui. At that moment, the familiar person behind him finally called his name—just two simple words:

“A-Ni.” Xia Yu finally couldn’t hold back anymore. Since his younger brother had grown up, he hadn’t used that nickname much.

Mo An turned around without hesitation and stood there, stammering: “What… what is it? Why are you calling me?”

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