Chapter 248
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Chapter 248: Is Someone Raising Gu?
After two not-so-funny jokes, Ink Drench politely extinguished her cigarette and began to briefly recount the exploration of the outside world.
In reality, their experience wasn’t complicated; it simply involved crossing plains, traversing swamps, reaching a village, eliminating all threats, and then returning the same way.
However, because of this, a seemingly disconnected part along the way became a source of deep concern for Ink Drench.
“I know that if we had stayed at the Marsh Settlement, we could have gathered more information and intelligence.
“I also know that many of them were completely unaware of their current situation, even unsure of why they died.
“But without the memories of those who hadn’t fallen asleep, we couldn’t deduce whether the mysterious ritual occurs once a week, once a day, or at some other frequency. I had to prioritize the interests of Hope City and put the lives of the team first…”
Having extinguished her cigarette, Ink Drench seemed to be recounting events, but in reality, she was trying to convince herself.
Lin Qingliu didn’t interrupt much, pretending to jot down random notes in his notebook, waiting for her to resolve her thoughts on her own.
“To be safe, I covered every corner of the Marsh Settlement with my ability—whether it was people, trees, or even the crops grown in the settlement, nothing survived.
“Because of this, we lost a lot of valuable intelligence.”
“But you don’t regret it, do you?”
Lin Qingliu set down his pen and looked up to ask.
Ink Drench nodded without hesitation,
“Perhaps a little at the time, but after linking this matter to the ‘Thought’ team, I felt no regret at all.”
“One bad piece of news.”
Lin Qingliu’s expression grew serious:
“Today is October 31st, and the external exploration phase of the Exploration Plan officially ends today.
“Do you know how many superhero teams successfully returned?”
Ink Drench looked at Lin Qingliu’s expression, trying to guess some numbers but feeling she shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Finally, she shook her head.
“Two teams, ten people.”
Ink Drench found this answer surprising yet reasonable.
On paper, her team was the strongest, but other teams had their own strengths and shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Whose team is it? Crusher? Or Gale or White Stone? Their combat capabilities are quite strong.”
Lin Qingliu shook his head,
“As someone who experienced it, you should understand that the biggest danger outside the city is invisible. Focusing solely on raw combat ability can be misleading.”
Seeing that only two options remained, Lin Qingliu had no intention of hiding information and directly revealed the answer:
“It’s Fresnel’s team.”
“Surprisingly, it’s him.”
A look of surprise flickered across Ink Drench’s face. After all, Fresnel wasn’t an unknown figure; the daytime lightsaber superhero and his unusual abilities at night made him memorable.
She felt the need to look up information on this seemingly inconspicuous team to lay the groundwork for potential future cooperation.
“What I want to say is, the reason the number of successfully returned teams didn’t become ‘1’ is closely related to your caution and carefulness.”
“There’s no need to guide me further; I just have a few questions I’d like to discuss with you.”
Ink Drench waved her hand to halt Lin Qingliu’s next words and instead inquired:
“Doctor, what do you think is the likelihood of that so-called ‘Shelter’ existing?
“Although it’s almost certain that those people are puppets controlled by creatures outside the city, the more I ponder, the more I believe their mention of an ‘underground Shelter’ must hold some truth.
“If this thing doesn’t truly exist, then fabricating such a concept for deception would be highly unreasonable.”
Ink Drench lowered her legs from the table, propped her chin on her hand, and assumed a thoughtful expression:
“But that person mentioned it so casually, suggesting it might not be of great importance.”
Lin Qingliu’s lips twitched almost imperceptibly, thinking to himself that he indeed had a scout currently surveying the terrain outside the city. If she asked in a few months, he might even have a map.
With this in mind, Lin Qingliu combined some of his own thoughts to guide Ink Drench through the relevant possibilities, including aspects related to the biological field.
Ink Drench listened attentively and finally remarked with a sigh:
“From an outsider’s perspective, your prospects at the research institutes should be quite promising.”
Lin Qingliu didn’t mention that he was shooting arrows first and drawing the target later; he merely recounted intelligence gathered through multiple events and disguises, briefly touching on the topic as he began to genuinely guide her thoughts.
Half an hour later, the tense Ink Drench relaxed considerably, and the smoke in the room gradually dissipated.
At Lin Qingliu’s snap of his fingers, she leaned back against the soft single sofa and fell into a deep sleep, while Lin Qingliu invaded the dreams of this superpowered individual and began to view her memories from a first-person perspective.
After about ten minutes, having implanted suggestions, Lin Qingliu was the first to exit the dream, taking the opportunity while Ink Drench was still asleep to summarize some recent intelligence.
From Ink Drench’s memories, the straight-line distance between the Marsh Settlement and the southernmost point of Hope City would not exceed sixty kilometers; it just seemed distant due to the peculiar terrain.
According to the mysterious rituals performed by the villagers at night, under normal circumstances, the Marsh Settlement is separated from the external mycelium ecosystem, resembling a “colony” of mycelium outside of itself.
Otherwise, even if those people were genuine humans, they would gradually lose their sense of self due to the erosion of the biological field.
This situation likely arises for two reasons: the mycelium cannot directly invade this area because certain substances in the swamp may harm them significantly, so they can only send out extraordinary beasts sparingly.
After confirming this, to obtain more information related to humans, the mycelium life simply designated this problematic area separately, allowing some humans they had partially controlled or revived to live difficult lives within.
Based on the cleanliness of the square in the Marsh Settlement, Lin Qingliu believed these people must perform a ritual every night.
This ritual could gather and enhance the biological field, transmitting the information from the puppets received from true humans to Hope City; this practice had accumulated over twenty years, and some information that may not be time-sensitive might have already been comprehended clearly by the will of the mycelium.
So insidious…
Lin Qingliu couldn’t help but frown; even though the consciousness produced by a collective life may exist, this mycelium seemed a bit too anthropomorphized.
Deceit, concealment, disguise… these are all skills that need to be learned. Who first granted it such abilities when the mycelium first arrived on this planet with the meteorite and hadn’t spread widely yet?
