Little Mushroom

1.

"Remember: bravery, strength, self-sacrifice. These are the heroism of our time and the common heroism of humanity."

In Eden, Tang Lan was memorizing these words.

"Collective heroism, individual heroism, they all share—"

Hubbard covered his face with the illustration of a gun. "You aren't finished yet?"

"I'm almost done." Tang Lan closed the book and looked at the ceiling. "Hubbard."

"What is it?"

"Do you want to be a hero?"

Hubbard pulled down the book, revealing chestnut brown eyes. He also looked at the ceiling and replied after three seconds, "It doesn't matter."

Some time passed before he asked, "What about you?"

Tang Lan answered, "I don't know."

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2.

The reinforcements from the Northern Base arrived at the Highland Research Institute.

The heavy weapons were on the plane and Colonel Lu was in charge of the air operations. The rest of the lightly-armed troops used large gliders to land. They spread out in an orderly manner to clean up the monsters attacking the institute.

Hubbard was on a large open space to the right of the institute. Behind it was a steep cliff. There was a bright red triangle sign erected on the edge of the cliff that red 'easy to fall, no access'. The main body of the institute covered most of his field of view. His heavy machine gun killed a small monster and there were no other enemies.

The reason he came here was because he had looked up into the air during the melee.

There was a bloody and chaotic battle taking place in the sky. A huge monster died and fell. Then Hubbard looked up and saw a person in black in the air.

No, it wasn't a person. He had a human body but behind him was a pair of huge black wings. He was a heterogeneous.

By the time Hubbard saw him, the figure was falling down. Thus, he only existed briefly in Hubbard's vision.

Yet this brief second was enough to leave his soul blank.

"Where are you going?" His teammates shouted at him but he didn't hear it clearly. It was as if the sound was coming from a far away place.

Hubbard rushed to the place where the man fell. This place was neglected. It was covered in vines and weeds grew wildly at his feet. Nothing can be seen on the surface and the cliff was behind him.

His eyes narrowed as he stepped forward with the machine gun. He opened the vines and searched through the waist-height grass. There seemed to be the illusion of panting in his ears. He turned sharply only to see the grass swaying in the wind.

"Is someone there?" he shouted.

The panting sound seemed to increase but there was also a noise coming from behind him to the right. He looked there and his eyes stopped sharply.

A thousand metres away, the left rear side of the institute building. It was the place where the wind turbine was located. Several triangular sails were spinning wildly in the wind.

At this moment, several white thorny tentacles were rolling up the column of the power generation tower and twisting the shaft in the center of the windmill. The tentacles were strong and the rotation of two power generating towers was gradually stopping.

The purpose of the monster obviously wasn't limited to this. The thorns and bumps on the tentacles were rising. Hubbard had spent most of his life in the wilderness and experienced hundreds of battles. He knew the monster was about to uproot the power generating tower.

The heart of the melee was the open space in front of the institute. People were unlikely to notice the power generating towers in the distance, not to mention that the colour of the monster was so similar to the tower.

Of course, the most important reason was that there was no time. The third power generating tower stopped spinning. The tentacles were shaking slightly because of the force.

Hubbard wasn't clear on the importance of these towers but it could be imagined. The communication equipment and scientific research facilities of the institute, including the device that created the sea of red fire An Zhe had just walked into, all needed a lot of power supply.

He took the large handheld uranium bomb launcher from his back and aimed forward. Few soldiers could use this weapon flexibly. It had enough firepower but it had a terrible weight and was extremely difficult to aim. The recoil could crush the shoulders of an ordinary person.

Hubbard knew the key weak points of the tentacle monster but the existence of the research institute buildings seriously blocked his aim and the weak points weren't shown.

Hubbard backed away. All his thought processes and decisions were completed within three seconds of seeing the monster. He stepped back, back and back.

The wind was becoming louder. Within a few seconds, he had already crossed the 'no access' sign. He glanced back and saw the endless sky. Then he looked down and saw that he was only one step away from the edge of the cliff. The ground under his feet was shaking slightly and there was the sound of stones rolling down.

It was still a bit short of the position where he could kill the monster without damaging the buildings and the power generating towers.

In fact, he never wanted to be a hero. Nevertheless, he continued to take a step back. There was once again the sound of loose stones falling.

The crosshairs of the weapon's sight were right on point. This type of launching weapon had enough penetrating power, enough firepower and enough range.

Bang!

The huge recoil threw him backwards. The edge of the cliff trembled and the already loosened stones collapsed like an avalanche.

The wind rang in his ears as he fell down. His vision was full of the glorious dawn, the sun leaping out from one side of the mountain and the dazzling golden light hitting his retinas. Just after this fleeting moment, another figure appeared from the top of the cliff, leaping in his direction.

A few drops of blood fell on Hubbard's cheek. It was like it was a dream. He reached out—

Tang Lan's hand that was pale from blood loss grabbed his.

A shadow covered the sky and the bloody wings unfolded. The wind in the mountains blew to the east and blood stained his clothes. Tang Lan had no strength to flap his wings. He just grabbed Hubbard and slipped in the wind, like a paper plane that was folded incorrectly and had been lost when he was a child.

Hubbard stared into this person's eyes. Tang Lan's eyes were as handsome and cold as before and there were two bleeding scratches on his cheeks. Tang Lan also looked at Hubbard and laughed.

There were many things in Hubbard's eyes that Tang Lan could see. Hubbard wanted to ask him why he was here, what he had experienced and why he would sacrifice himself to follow Hubbard off the cliff.

Tang Lan just laughed and clasped Hubbard's hand tighter. Hubbard responded to him with the same intensity.

There was only the roaring wind as they fell to an unknown fate, but there was nothing to fear.

"You have been a hero," Tang Lan declared. "I'll be a hero too."

In the distance, the mountains stretched out. The morning sun was shining.