Little Mushroom

On the way, they saw the wreckage of a plane. The shape of the plane was exactly the same as the one Lu Feng flew in. An Zhe estimated the direction and this plane should be the one that crashed before Lu Feng. He had witnessed it fall.

After three or four plane crashes, he no longer saw the base's planes appear in the sky. Presumably, the base had also noticed this strange change and no longer sent fighter planes out. Still, this plane was in a better condition than Lu Feng's one. It didn't explode and everything was well-preserved apart from disfigurement from the damage.

Lu Feng walked over and removed the black box of the plane. He hesitated for a moment before climbing through the cracked cabin door that had bite marks on the edge.

A monster had eaten the pilot's body. The blood-stained clothes had dried and bones were scattered around the cockpit. The skull was rolled under the console, of which only half was left. There were sharp tooth marks on the edge.

An Zhe also followed him in. There was a moment when Lu Feng wanted An Zhe to leave so he wouldn't be scared by this scene. Then he saw An Zhe's calm eyes and realized that An Zhe wouldn't be scared of human remains.

Below the console was a flight manual. The flight manual was a pilot's reference book and recorded the basic operating steps, instrument usage and various solutions to unexpected situations.

Lu Feng reached out and grabbed the flight manual. An unknown change had occurred in the manual. The black handwriting had penetrated deeply into the paper while tiny black tentacles stretched out from the colour, making all the writing on the paper distorted in strange ways, like some type of evil symbol.

An Zhe looked at the paper and struggled to identify the characters. This page was about various types of engine failures. This was how he knew that the plane had crashed because of an engine failure. Until the moment the plane crashed, the pilot was still looking at the manual to find a possible solution. Then the moment the plane crashed, the manual fell to the ground and people died.

After being pulled out of the plane by Lu Feng and set on the ground, An Zhe heard Lu Feng say, "The plane I was in also crashed because of an engine failure."

An Zhe frowned.

Lu Feng continued, "However, there were problems with other parts."

An Zhe wondered, "Is there a problem with the manufacturing?"

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"The PJ fighter planes have performed flight missions many times and have also undergone maintenance before takeoff."

They went ahead to where Xi Bei and the old man was waiting.

An Zhe didn't understand the cause of the plane's failure and asked, "So why?"

"I don't know." The colonel rarely spoke these three words.

Then he added lightly like he remembered something, "The PL1109 also had an engine failure but it landed safely."

The PL1109 was the base's most advanced fighter plane. Listening to Lu Feng's meaning, it seemed all aircrafts were now at risk of failing. Not long ago, when An Zhe left the human base, he had looked back at the main city and seen the slowly falling PL1109. It turned out that at that time, Lu Feng had already made a trip to the edge of life and death.

"That…" An Zhe whispered. "Then you won't take a plane in the future?"

Lu Feng said nothing and only rubbed An Zhe's hair.

They met Xi Bei and briefly talked about the situation before moving on. Everything in their field of view was the wilderness.

Xi Bei looked around. "There really are fewer monsters. There used to be quite a lot here."

An Zhe knew what this meant. Whether large or small, many creatures died and became part of the mixed-type variants. Since the total number of monsters had decreased, this place looked much safer but the individual monsters were much more dangerous.

However, all these changes occurred within 10 days. The weak monsters were swept away. This process was too fast. An Zhe recalled the monster who greedily ate the gene. Its actions seemed too impatient.

There was a similar scene in his memory—it was the end of autumn in the Abyss.

In winter, the Abyss would become wet and cold. After snowfall, the ground and trees were icy. Many monsters would no longer come out and would hide in warm caves. In order to survive the entire winter, they would furiously kill each other, desperately eating more blood and flesh to store nutrients for the winter. Or they would tow enemies into the cave as food reserves. The month before winter arrived was the most dangerous and bloody time in the Abyss.

Now the same killings were happening outside.

The journey wasn't long. All along the way, they were cautious enough to choose hidden routes to walk. Perhaps it was luck but they didn't encounter any horrible mixed-type monsters.

They departed at 8 o'clock and it was 9:30 in the morning when a city half buried in sand appeared in front of them.

It was big. As they approached, the end couldn't be seen at all. From now on, the roads of the ruins could be faintly seen among the endless buildings. Unlike the regular, horizontal buildings of the Northern Base, these buildings were scattered and irregular. Tall buildings and short buildings stood together. Round buildings and rectangular buildings were scattered. The road was a zigzag and in the centre of the city stood a dark red tower. Half the overpass had collapsed and there were dense, dry vines hanging from it. The central road contained buildings of all colours but because there were too many colours, they were unified in An Zhe's vision and gradually blurred into foggy grey.

An Zhe looked into the distance. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would've never imagined that there was such an intricate city in the world. If he was a resident here then it would be easy to get lost.

Dark clouds obscured the sun. The sky was cloudy and covered with a faint mist.

"Follow me," Xi Bei told them. "The people of our mine often come here to find supplies and there is a stronghold in the city. In fact, it is okay to live in the city but we are afraid of monsters. Grandpa doesn't know why but the cave is the safest. My third uncle used to feel that life in the cave was too hard and went to live in the city. Then there was no news of him."

Xi Bei walked through the buildings and they came to a densely populated area. Large grey residential buildings were crowded next to each other and there was a square in the distance. A white sphere could be seen in the centre of the square. In the quiet city, there was only the sound of the wind passing through the buildings and their footsteps.

Lu Feng was responsible for watching the surroundings. Since Xi Bei was carrying his grandfather, he bowed his head and said, "We will arrive soon after that square."

Just then, the old man's throat made a sound.

His vocal cords vibrated and constantly emitted a fixed syllable. There was phlegm in his throat and his voice wasn't clear. It was barely audible. "Ru…"

"Ru, ru…"

Xi Bei wondered, "What?"

Lu Feng's footsteps suddenly stopped.

An Zhe glanced over and found this person staring at the square ahead.

The next moment, this person spat out a short syllable. "Run!"

There was no time to think. An Zhe was yanked on the arm and subconsciously followed Lu Feng, who ran into the nearest building. Xi Bei didn't know what was happening but he quickly followed with his grandfather.

An Zhe was familiar with the structure of this housing building. The moment he entered the corridor, he was met with a skeleton in grey-white clothes, leaning against the wall like it had been integrated into the grey-white wall. However, he couldn't take a closer look. His body was weak and he moved slowly upstairs. Lu Feng carried him horizontally and quickly climbed up the stairs. The stairwell was very spacious and there were the bodies of three tenants on the first floor. Once they got to the eighth floor, a door was open and Lu Feng rushed in with An Zhe. Xi Bei followed and once he entered, Lu Feng closed the door. Every piece of furniture in the room was covered in dust and there was a skeleton lying on the sofa in the living room.

Three was a three bedroom, two common room apartment. It was from north to south and a piece of the living room protruded out the building where there was a huge floor to ceiling window.

Lu Feng put An Zhe down. He was breathing a bit hard because he had run too fat just now. An Zhe had never seen him like this.

Then the next moment—

He saw Xi Bei looking out the window, pale and with a lost gaze.

An Zhe looked forward.

White.

A white, spherical monster half a storey high was taking strange steps. It was almost floating as it slowly moved here with ghostly footsteps. This was the thing he had seen in the square in the distance. An Zhe had thought it was a white decoration but it was actually a huge monster.

It came straight to this side and once it was two streets away, An Zhe saw what it looked like. An indescribable mass of grotesque feet like octopus or snails were growing underneath it. The first half was responsible for walking while the second half dragged behind it. Its body was almost round and covered with a translucent membrane that shifted between pale and grey. Under the membrane, there were countless black or flesh-coloured objects that were difficult to describe. They were organs, dense tentacles, limbs or other things that were constantly moving.

The close it got to this neighbourhood, the more details that could be seen clearly. It was a mixed-type monster that was completely beyond the scope of human understanding. The location of its eyes couldn't be seen at all. Xi Bei was staring at it like he would die from panic the next moment.

It was getting closer.

The people in the room held their breaths.