Chapter 231
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Chapter 231: Where Did the Gray-skinned Eggplant Come From?
In the cold midnight, Fresnel’s brows knitted tightly under the pale moonlight.
How could this be? Why does it look so similar?
He couldn’t help but ponder, especially since there had been no plans for exploration or development in the north of Hope City during the entire first phase of the Exploration Plan.
It was only the second phase that brought the five members of the Nian team.
This meant that for decades, those five superpowered individuals were the only ones who had set foot on this land besides them.
Before they began their exploration, that strong and friendly team had simply vanished from the lounge.
Now, they encountered plants that could use part of their abilities one hundred and fifty kilometers north of Hope City.
The abilities of Quicksand, Vine, and Gecko had already appeared; would there be more abilities?
Bomb Man and Nian, one could create explosive fireballs, and the other could levitate objects.
Plants that could turn invisible, breathe fire, and fly…
Fresnel felt that the world was becoming a bit magical.
And if they couldn’t escape this area, would future explorers encounter plants that could gather light?
Fresnel dared not think too much and focused on illuminating the way ahead while keeping an eye on his teammates to prevent anyone from falling behind.
However, the plants’ pursuit did not weaken due to their escape; instead, it grew stronger, as if the entire forest was gradually waking up.
This also drew Lin Qingliu’s attention. In his perception, the initial dissatisfaction among the plants was only from a small number of them; however, as the group fled, the range began to expand, and the biological field grew heavier.
This was a very unreasonable development.
Because in Lin Qingliu’s understanding, the will of the mycelium, as the collective consciousness of the tribe, should be able to control any individual within the tribe.
So when Fresnel and the others provoked one plant, it was as if they had provoked all the plants.
But the current situation seemed to indicate otherwise.
Watching his friends flee in panic, Lin Qingliu suddenly thought of something.
It was a little trick he had set up earlier, along with what he had Wang Xiao monitor continuously—
The enhanced nutritional paste.
All the nutritional paste used by the Fresnel team during this exploration had been tampered with by Lin Qingliu.
To disguise the extraordinary biological fields of Wang Xiao and Shi Jin, Lin Qingliu ground the straw that made up the Dummy Nian team members’ bodies into powder after several experiments confirmed it wouldn’t harm them and mixed it into the nutritional paste using Dimensional Shift abilities.
Sure enough, after sticking to eating these things at every meal, the Fresnel team successfully crossed the endless yellow wasteland.
This felt like being recognized by the mycelium consciousness as part of itself.
And tonight, they first discovered the wreckage of a rocket stuck between the ground and the trees, followed by disassembling parts and finding a life pod.
Finally, they began to sprint for their lives, as the identifying substances consumed at dinner had long been metabolized completely.
Thinking of this, Lin Qingliu recalled what Fresnel had said ten minutes ago:
"Get rid of everything except water and samples."
Clearly, among those discarded items were all the nutritional paste supplies the group had during their return journey.
Far away, a hundred miles away, Lin Qingliu slapped his forehead—Fresnel, that fool, had thrown away the antidote!
But regretting now was futile. Firstly, the current emergency situation did not allow the superpowered individuals to turn back, and secondly, there was no reasonable way to convey this news to Fresnel.
Lin Qingliu was well aware of the abilities of the five members of the Nian team, having invaded the memories of the five Dummies.
He carefully observed the predicament everyone faced and connected it with some of his own knowledge and information, forming a similar hypothesis to Fresnel’s.
As for why Nian and Bomb Man’s abilities had not appeared, Lin Qingliu believed it must be related to the will of the mycelium.
Earlier, Lin Qingliu had discovered that among the few memories of those Dummies, there were traces of ability Analysis and imitation.
Of course, the so-called Analysis was the work of the will of the mycelium, and successfully analyzed abilities could allow these copies or Dummies to replicate certain powers to achieve a fake-it-until-you-make-it effect.
The ability of quicksand was more akin to soil liquefaction, Vine’s ability was equivalent to ripening, and Gecko’s was optical camouflage.
All of these were abilities that could be explained within a certain range, making it reasonable for them to be the first ones to be cracked and imitated.
However, the other two abilities—levitating objects and creating explosive fireballs out of thin air—were things even Lin Qingliu could not do.
Such seemingly fantastical abilities were indeed too advanced for the will of the mycelium.
To stabilize morale, he reactivated the Fulan-brand communicator and lightly said to Wang Xiao, "The other two abilities won’t be used; charge ahead confidently."
Although he did not know how the other party had come to this understanding, Wang Xiao felt a bit more at ease with Dr. Lin’s endorsement.
After a long period of running, the branches spreading around them had grown to the thickness of a forearm. Only Wang Xiao could ensure a single strike would break such wood.
Thus, his physical exhaustion was quicker than before; his digestion system, compressed by muscles and lungs, began to roar indignantly.
Finally, at a certain moment, the plants’ reaction speed surpassed the escape speed of the group.
When Wang Xiao’s powerful strike only broke half of the branch, he realized today’s escape would come to an end.
His right arm, thrusting forward with all his might, was firmly trapped by the broken branch, making it hard for Wang Xiao to muster any strength at such a tricky angle.
The four teammates behind him quickly stopped as well, and Wang Xiao formed a circle with the four facing outward; with no way to escape, they entered combat mode.
But… where were the enemies?
The enemies were right in front of them, but they were grass, trees, and mycelium—nothing like the extraordinary beasts they were most adept at dealing with.
Fresnel tried to maintain the light and visibility; this was the only thing he could do besides directing the team.
As he saw the trees about to encircle them, he suddenly shouted, “’Twin Clock’ (Shi Jin)! Get out!”
With a thundering sound, the layers of trees completed the encirclement, but there were only four prey. At this moment, Shi Jin was standing on a tree crown not far away, looking serious in that direction.
At the moment of desperation, Fresnel suddenly thought of the teammate in their group whose escape ability was almost unmatched—the one who could accelerate his own flow of time.
