Chapter 471

Chapter 471: How Could It Not Be Corrupted?

Lachesis manipulated every muscle fiber in his face, striving to make his expression appear as natural as possible.

Yet, the more he tried, the more he seemed insincere to those around him.

Fortunately, since recognition often stirs envy, no one suspected him of being a Dummy; they merely muttered to themselves about Ain’s apparent insincerity.

With some difficulty, he turned his gaze toward the factory manager, his expression silently conveying:

"I helped you, so why are you doing this to me?"

However, Ain ultimately kept these words to himself and instead asked, with a complex expression and tone:

"Why did you only inform us of this good news now?"

"Hey, I thought I’d give you a surprise!"

The factory manager chuckled, his face creasing with laughter.

Lachesis’s fury burned within him; had they not been in such a public setting, he might have ordered his puppets to act and eliminate this human on the spot.

"Thank you so much," he said, suppressing his anger, and then followed the others, escorted by several strong men.

As they stepped out of the factory, the leading strong man looked at Ain and inquired curiously:

"You don’t seem very eager to receive this recognition?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Ain quickly smiled and replied:

"If I had known today was such a big deal, I would have dressed more appropriately."

He pointed to several stains on his clothes, expressing regret that he could have presented himself better.

"Don’t overthink it; our factory manager just didn’t want to disrupt production. Otherwise, the recognition would have started at the end of last month."

Lachesis, who could mimic humans quite convincingly, knew that he couldn’t just express complaints at this time. He needed to display his unique qualities—

After all, how could someone who is always complaining receive recognition?

So, he casually shifted the topic:

"Speaking of which, how should I address you?"

The strong man scratched his short-haired head as if just remembering:

"I forgot to introduce myself! Actually, several of us are here for the recognition too; we just came to pick you up along the way.

"My name is Liu Xiaoheng; you can call me Brother Liu."

Everyone boarded an all-terrain vehicle, and Ain began to contemplate his upcoming experience.

After the initial shock, Lachesis quickly realized a fact: this recognition was not only dangerous but also an opportunity.

The intelligence from the last humanoid bodies he constructed had been quite limited, so this time, he needed to grasp more knowledge about humans.

With that determination, Lachesis decided to revise his plan and start laying out the groundwork from this moment on.

The puppets in the vehicle exchanged glances; while their appearances showed no changes, they had already begun to strengthen their biological fields continuously, like increasing the voltage to a bulb.

The biological field surrounding them was destined to erode the minds of the nearby strong men. By subtly influencing their thoughts without the need for complete control, a hypnotic effect could be achieved.

The biological field, governed by the mycelium, began to layer itself, causing slight changes in the strong men around him. Some felt a bit dizzy, while others experienced dry heaves, as if suffering from motion sickness.

However, ten minutes passed swiftly, and after the initial wave of nausea, the strong men showed no further signs of change.

This left Lachesis deeply puzzled. Through the biological field, he could clearly sense that these individuals, despite their high health status, were not superpowered individuals.

For such humans, corruption should have been a straightforward task, yet why…

Before he could ponder further, Lachesis quickly identified a new critical vulnerability—

The direction in which the vehicle was heading.

Due to the location of his main body, Lachesis had been focusing his corruption on the northern part of Hope City’s outer city. However, the all-terrain vehicle, after picking them up, began to head south toward the inner city.

As they ventured deeper, Lachesis encountered a new issue: the density of human biological fields around them was increasing, becoming so dense that it caused discomfort to the mycelium.

Moreover, biological field corruption was not an ability exclusive to the will of the mycelium; humans were also capable of reversing the corruption.

However, unlike the mycelium, humans lacked a Supreme Will that unified all individuals, which meant their power could only cause interference and not perform more precise manipulations.

But now, the mere interference from the increasing density of surrounding humans was enough to make Lachesis sweat profusely.

In human terms, his network was experiencing fluctuations, making the control of his puppets feel choppy and erratic.

This was evident in the all-terrain vehicle, where the humans onboard appeared dazed, as if not fully awake, their heads bobbing up and down, more symptomatic of motion sickness than the strong men.

The other strong men, of course, noticed this behavior, but recalling that these were workers who had exceeded their tasks, they assumed the others were simply exhausted and chose not to intervene, instead positioning themselves to prevent the dazed individuals from bumping into anything.

This situation could not continue.

Lachesis could not allow such a thing to happen; these human bodies were not only his puppets but also his eyes, ears, taste buds, and even his brain, aiding in some of his thinking processes.

If this continued, his puppets would be completely exposed, and he had to take corrective action.

However, seeing that the strong men around him had no excess flesh to exploit, violent resistance was certainly not an option; in fact, resistance would only hasten their demise.

So… there was another way.

At that moment, hundreds of normal working humans in the northern part of Hope City simultaneously set down their tasks.

Some, like Ain and Cheng Fan, were on the assembly line, some sat in offices, and others were maneuvering mining trucks to transport ore from underground mines.

But at this moment, they dropped all their tasks, unexpectedly showing panic on their faces, and began to run outside as if a family member had suddenly died.

Though some noticed, Lachesis couldn’t care less; whenever someone inquired, the humanoid bodies under his control provided very human-like responses, such as:

"My stomach suddenly hurts."

"I have an urgent matter at home."

"None of your business."

The hundred or so individuals quickly blended into the crowd on the streets after leaving their jobs, making their escape less noticeable.

But all these people moved in the same direction, toward the destination of the all-terrain vehicle’s journey—the auditorium in the inner city.