sbdcsierra Chapter 162 Even Mushrooms Have Nightmares
Chapter 162 Even Mushrooms Have Nightmares
The silence three thousand meters underground is not empty; it is full.
The oppressive feeling was like being wrapped in thick cement, and every breath was a struggle against the gravity of the air.
Pierre was the first to break the silence.
The old man was squatting in a recess in the rock wall, using a small pair of finely crafted steel tweezers to gently pick up a fungus covered in purple fuzz, the tip of which was still trembling slightly.
"Mon Dieu (My God)..." Pierre's eyes, which usually only gleamed when looking at black truffles, were now frighteningly bright. "This is 'Ghost Umbrella'! In ancient French recipes, this is known as 'the taste buds of death.' Just fry it slowly in butter over a low temperature, and add a touch of sea salt..."
"Eating this will send you straight to God." Su Qing coldly interrupted him, the detector in her hand was beeping wildly. "This stuff contains a high concentration of neurotoxins, and its hallucinogenic effects are a hundred times stronger than LSD. If you dare put it in the pot, I'll shove you in the pot too."
"Art, Miss Sue, this is the price of art." Pierre regretfully placed the mushroom into a specially made lead box. "But it should be good for extracting anesthetics."
The team continued its advance.
The once spacious mine tunnels became increasingly narrow, and the water on the ground grew deeper and deeper, already reaching above ankle level.
The water wasn't clear groundwater; instead, it had a strange, murky yellow color, like the fluid oozing from a festering wound.
Tu Jinshan had completely lost the ability to walk, and Guan Shan was carrying him on his shoulders like a load of rice. Even so, he could still feel the malice coming from all directions.
"Dr. Wang... Dr. Wang," Tu Jinshan stammered, his voice trembling as he leaned against Guan Shan's broad back, "Did you hear that? Someone's crying... and someone's singing opera..."
"I didn't hear it." Wang Minyu walked in front, the compass in his hand (borrowed from Wong Tai Sin and modified by Zero) pointing straight ahead. "That's an auditory hallucination caused by infrasound. The rock structure here is special, forming a natural echo chamber that amplifies the sound of crustal movement. Your brain, due to kidney deficiency, can't block out this low-frequency noise."
"Then...what about that shadow up ahead?!" Tu Jinshan suddenly screamed, pointing deep into the mine tunnel.
Following his finger, at the end of the flashlight beam, there was indeed a figure standing.
The shadow, dressed in tattered miner's clothes, held a pickaxe and stood motionless in the puddles with its back to them.
Everyone stopped in their tracks.
Guan Shan put Tu Jinshan down and shielded him behind him. He slightly raised the entrenching tool in his hand, his muscles tensing instantly—the instinctive reaction of a wild beast facing a threat.
"That's... Old Zhang?" Tu Jinshan squinted for a long time, then suddenly gasped. "Wait a minute! Old Zhang disappeared underground three months ago! They said he was killed in a gas explosion!"
"Hey! You there!" Guan Shan shouted, his voice echoing through the mine tunnel.
The figure didn't move.
Wang Minyu frowned and activated the [Aura Observation Technique].
In my field of vision, the "person" did not have the red light that represents vitality, nor the blue light that represents a ghost, but was a chaotic gray cloud.
Its body was densely covered with the same kind of "ghost umbrella" mycelium, which connected every muscle and bone like electrical wires.
"Don't go over there." Wang Minyu stopped Su Qing, who was about to step forward. "That's a human-shaped bonsai."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the "miner" suddenly moved.
Its neck snapped open at an angle no human could possibly make, turning 180 degrees.
It has no face.
Where there should have been facial features, clusters of white, wriggling fleshy buds grew, with a vertical slit in the middle, which contained not teeth, but countless tiny barbs.
"roar--"
The monster let out a hissing sound like a pressure cooker leaking steam, and charged forward with a pickaxe, its speed leaving a white trail in the water.
"I'll do it!"
Instead of retreating, Guan Shan advanced, delivering a powerful sweeping blow to the monster.
"when--!!!"
The entrenching tool and the pickaxe collided, sparks flying everywhere.
To Guan Shan's surprise, this seemingly emaciated monster possessed astonishing strength, which made Guan Shan's hands go numb from the impact.
The monster was sent flying by the shovel and crashed into the rock wall, but this did not stop it; instead, it enraged the mycelium inside its body.
The fleshy buds suddenly swelled up and rolled towards the crowd like tentacles.
"Physical attacks are halved in effectiveness." Wang Minyu analyzed calmly, "This thing doesn't have a pain center; it's driven by a fungal network."
"What should we do then? Burn it?" Pierre excitedly reached for the flamethrower at his waist.
"No way, the concentration of methane gas here is unknown. Do you want us all to turn into roasted pigs?" Su Qing shouted.
Wang Minyu took a glass bottle out of his pocket, which was half-filled with a yellowish-brown liquid.
That was a specially prepared "concentrated fermented stinky tofu juice"—an enhanced version—made to cure that big star's facial paralysis.
"Fungi are living things too, and they have weaknesses." Wang Minyu unscrewed the bottle cap. "Since they want to 'smell' something, let's give them something strong."
With a flick of his wrist, he splashed the liquid from the bottle onto the oncoming tentacles.
An indescribable smell instantly exploded in the narrow mine tunnel.
It wasn't just stinky; it was an ultimate biological weapon, a mixture of dead fish, rotten shrimp, years-old sewers, and garbage heaps baked in the summer sun.
Even Su Qing, who was wearing a gas mask, couldn't help but gag.
A miracle happened.
Those tentacles, which were originally baring their fangs and claws, convulsed violently the moment they came into contact with the liquid, as if they had encountered sulfuric acid.
Immediately afterwards, the "miner" let out a piercing scream, and the fleshy growths on its face quickly withered, turned black, and finally turned into a puddle of black liquid.
The monster fell to the ground, twitched twice, and then lay still.
"This..." Tu Jinshan covered his nose, tears welling up in his eyes from the fumes. "What kind of magical water is this? It's so poisonous?"
"A family secret recipe, a cure for all kinds of stubbornness." Wang Minyu carefully put away the empty bottle, his heart bleeding inside. This was a fermented brine that had been fermenting for three whole years, and every drop used was precious.
"Let's go, that last burst should have cleared out all the monsters around here."
As he passed the corpse, Wang Minyu took a special look at it.
Those mycelia didn't grow out of thin air; they took root in the miners' spines, seemingly trying to reconstruct their nervous systems.
"Zero, this symbiotic mode is very similar to your previous 'seed'."
"Yes, boss." Zero's voice was somewhat heavy. "What's behind that 'valve' is slowly eroding the real world through these fungi. It's dreaming, and these mushrooms are its nightmare tentacles."
Finally, a huge metal wall appeared in front of them.
This is not a human creation at all.
It was a bronze-colored metal plate as tall as a three-story building, its surface covered with raised patterns like blood vessels. In the very center was a circular disc with a diameter of two meters, the disc was rusted, and dark red liquid seeped from the gaps.
This is the loosened "valve".
It stood there quietly, like a last line of defense separating the human world from hell.
The chilling thud came from behind that door.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
With each impact, a portion of the rust would peel off.
"We're here." Wang Minyu stopped and turned to look at Tu Jinshan, who was almost fainting. "Boss Tu, it's your turn. Don't tremble, this is a 'faucet' that only someone of your stature is qualified to turn on."