Chapter 210
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
Chapter 210: Relics
A few thin, milky-white mycelium strands crept out from around the lump of charcoal.
Just as it had sampled the invading humans in the dry grass area, it quickly completed the sampling of the charcoal.
The surrounding mycelium swiftly joined in the analysis task, and soon they reached a conclusion:
This object showed no signs of life and had no pheromones belonging to its kind, but its main components had a certain absorption value.
As a result, strand after strand of mycelium began to spread out from the surroundings, and the ground beneath the organic matter started to twitch subtly.
The milky-white mycelium formed a net, covering the dark mass.
The ground sank gradually, and that thing was slowly absorbed; the shallow pit previously made in the organic matter returned to its original state.
As the group ventured deeper, the ecology within the forest seemed to change once again.
The trees that appeared to be isolated began to entwine their roots consciously; the ground was no longer covered in thick organic matter but now showcased the roots that had extended above the surface.
The squad members initially thought these were the trees mentioned in the data that could reproduce through their roots, only to discover that different species of trees could also intertwine…
It was as if all the trees were gradually merging with one another.
Faced with such an occurrence, the non-researchers in the group did not know how to respond, so they could only make notes and remain vigilant.
Far away in Hope City, Lin Qingliu saw this scene for the first time and was equally surprised.
—
Outside Hope City, on the west side, twenty-five kilometers away.
Code-named "Tower," Zheng Gaoya was leading a few of his team members to explore further.
As Fresnel had mentioned before, his team had two newcomers.
These two individuals were recruited after Fresnel’s departure that day; although they were not the best choices, they were at least not bad.
After some rigorous training that made them cry and beg, the three veterans and two newcomers had started to work well together.
As a fellow superpowered individual who graduated at the same time as Fresnel, Zheng Gaoya possessed an interesting ability. As "Tower," he passively gained vision within a circular area around him and could share this ability with a few people nearby in a way similar to telepathy.
This was how he managed to hold the position of Captain despite not having outstanding combat power. Although he couldn’t utilize this ability one hundred percent, its existence allowed his small team to achieve commendable results in multiple back-and-forth battles.
Even during the incident where they lost two team members, he was the first to identify the problem with the Infected in the city; otherwise, the death toll that day would have been even higher.
The remaining four team members included "Gale," who had fought against Shi Jin, the last surviving veteran known as "Ray," and the two newcomers named "Extraction" and "Source."
"Ray" was the team’s main ranged attacker, and his ability had some similarities to Fresnel’s. Because he used his eyes to emit rays, he could still effectively use his power at night, delivering a firepower that was astonishing when unleashed.
His only drawback was that he couldn’t overuse his eyes, or it would cause irreversible vision damage; thus, this man, who seemed to have red-eye syndrome, always carried plenty of eye drops with him.
As for the two newcomers “Extraction” and “Source,” they didn’t possess strong combat abilities, but they were also why Zheng Gaoya’s team passed the review instead of being sidelined under Fresnel’s minor report.
"Extraction" had the ability to connect his body to living objects around him, enabling the transfer of life force and accelerating healing.
While this ability seemed very useful, it actually worked slowly and could not demonstrate the results seen from Wang Xiao or Li Rui in battle.
As for "Source," her ability allowed her to reproduce a specific object’s past experiences in her mind.
This ability was supposed to be a magical tool for investigations, but since she struggled to control the time period she wanted to see, it often resulted in either being unable to reproduce or suddenly recalling moments from years or even over a decade ago.
This seemingly useless ability was precisely what allowed Zheng Gaoya’s team to pass the review.
With the addition of these two individuals, Zheng Gaoya’s team was ultimately assigned the exploration mission to the west.
There were two reasons for this: first, according to the information relayed from the first Exploration Plan twenty years ago, a forest-like region existed to the west of Hope City.
Such a setting would allow Extraction’s abilities to be utilized effectively.
Additionally, several superhero teams had disappeared in this forest, and since it had occurred twenty years ago, Source could confidently and boldly proceed with scene Reproduction.
At this moment, the members of Zheng Gaoya’s team were walking through a dense forest.
The presence of a light mist hindered Zheng Gaoya’s ability from being fully unleashed; he could only synchronize some information within a twenty-meter radius with his teammates.
They continuously observed and recorded their surroundings, noting that although there was mist, it was not as dense as described in the last message sent to Hope City twenty years ago.
The only issue was that the mist and the tree branches blocked most of the sunlight, making the forest appear somewhat dark even at noon.
Near a big tree, they discovered several dried-up puddles.
These puddles seemed to have formed from the intertwining roots of plants, presenting an overall inverted conical shape, somewhat resembling a natural formation but also akin to handmade weaving.
As they circled the ungraspable big tree, Extraction suddenly exclaimed, “What is that?”
The group followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at a dry pit near her feet.
A grayish-white strip appeared to be stuck between two intertwined roots.
Extraction bent down, intending to retrieve the object, while the others immediately went on high alert.
She extended her hand, carefully extracting part of the life force from those roots so they would no longer remain tightly entwined.
Then, with a slight pull, she removed the strip.
It was a metal tag, a metal plaque belonging to a superpowered individual.
Each of the five individuals present had one of these.
Zheng Gaoya quickly took out his own plaque, compared the two in front of him, and wiped away some of the etched marks on the metal tag, reading aloud the content:
“In the year 32 of the New Era, researcher of the Biotechnology Research Department, direct superpowered group, Zhang Tong.”
“Hmm~”
Zheng Gaoya took a deep breath, and his expression turned grim.
“Captain, do you know this senior?”
At that moment, the others could confirm that this metal plaque belonged to a senior from the last Exploration Plan, perhaps the last trace of the person’s existence in this world.
Thinking about this, they all felt a sense of sorrow wash over them.
Zheng Gaoya remained silent for a few seconds before speaking:
“I do. There was a guy in Fresnel’s team with the code name Obscure; his father seemed to be named Zhang Tong…”
