MASG chapter 100

 

Mi Dou’s sudden stop instantly raised Yan Xia’s guard. When Mi Dou looked downward, Yan Xia also held her breath.

She possessed a hunter’s sensitivity and sharpness. Although she had fought her way through obstacles to reach the decision-making level and secure an office, her past life of licking blood from blades was never far from her mind. The slightest disturbance would be picked up by her. Yan Xia’s peripheral vision immediately locked onto the ground right beneath the ventilation duct.

The situation changed in an instant. The original detour plan was clearly no longer workable.

In the moment she paused, Silver Fang seemed to have a telepathic reaction and looked down at the same time. Lao Gui was still crawling ahead as the vanguard, but he, too, seemed to sense something and stopped cautiously.

This time, the four of them moved in perfect sync, lowering their necks and looking down at the ground together. On the pale floor tiles stood a person with vacant eyes that were precisely locked onto their position. The person’s facial features were extremely strange. He looked like he had died long ago yet was still somehow alive. His skin was grayish white, and his eyeballs were slightly cloudy.

Mi Dou was also staring at him. In that moment, he felt as if he himself had become the one being observed.

Animals, plants, fungi, and the like had always been objects of human research—freely dissected, anatomized at will, and constantly placed under microscopes with every daily change recorded. But now, the situation had undergone a bizarre reversal. The fungus was observing them.

Lao Gui’s breathing sped up and his fingers unconsciously rested on the trigger. Something was wrong, and there was too much of it. It was only after getting closer that the strangeness became more perceptible. The incident at the research institute had happened when Xia Yu was young, and more than ten years had passed since then. How could the people down there possibly still be alive today when they couldn’t get out and had no material supplies?

The people below were all researchers from the institute. There might even be Professor Wang Qin, whom Xia Yu constantly thought about. But how could they not have aged at all?

Lao Gui forcefully closed his eyes. His eyeballs were still original, so he was afraid he hadn’t looked carefully enough. When he opened his eyes again and looked down, he took in a sharp breath. The people below hadn’t just aged; they were swollen and abnormally bloated.

Each of his fingers was three times thicker than normal. His face was so full and round that it looked like an inflated balloon. At first glance, they seemed young with no visible wrinkles.

Shoot! Open fire. Lao Gui made the judgment immediately. However, before starting a massacre, he needed to confirm his teammates’ intentions. Yan Xia looked at Silver Fang. His weapons were the most varied and complex. If he was given the main firepower, they might not necessarily lose.

“Don’t move!” But Mi Dou grabbed Yan Xia’s calf. “Don’t shoot!”

“Why?” Yan Xia quickly signaled to Lao Gui. At that critical moment, Mi Dou must have seen something.

Lao Gui and Silver Fang were the main combat faction. At a time like this, nothing was more important than firepower suppression. However, trusting their teammate, they stopped their attack in time.

“It’s just observing us. Don’t act rashly.” Mi Dou trusted his intuition. Right now, the main body had transformed into an observer, using human eyes to observe humans. The ventilation system in the research institute had long been shut down, so there shouldn’t have been any airflow, yet everyone could hear the sound of wind blowing.

The wind blew into the ventilation duct and stirred Yan Xia’s hair.

In those few seconds of daze, Yan Xia suddenly remembered her childhood. Inside the copper walls and iron barriers of Qingyao City, she hadn’t felt such a wind in a long time. Perhaps she had felt it as a child, with her family and friends. There used to be beautiful scenery on the outskirts of Qingyao City: a stretch of woodland.

After growing accustomed to the color of metal, that occasional patch of wild green felt precious. Without control from a weather system, the feeling of natural wind against one’s face was much like it was now. She had once squatted down to observe a blade of grass or a little ant as if she were a higher-dimensional being towering over their lives, watching them for an entire day without being noticed.

This exact feeling was too familiar. She didn’t move at all, completely trusting Mi Dou’s intuition. “So, what do we do now?”

Mi Dou continued to lock eyes with the person below; his Adam’s apple bobbed several times. “We…go down.”

“Go down?” Lao Gui had just accepted being observed, but no matter what, he couldn’t accept walking into the tiger’s den voluntarily.

“Yes, go down.” Mi Dou was sweating. “When the observer and the target are close enough, the observer won’t act rashly. Otherwise, if we move farther away, it will definitely capture us and drag us back. If its need to observe is satisfied, it will be very stable.”

“Stable? Are you talking about stability in front of a fungus? You’re really funny.” Even Silver Fang laughed helplessly. The kid was truly unconventional. In the past, this kind of situation would have been resolved by simply destroying everything with firepower. Now, there were detours and friendly contact. What exactly was going on?

However, Mi Dou had his own reasoning. “We’ve already been discovered. Or rather, we were discovered the moment we entered this place. Do you think they didn’t have a chance to make a move? Taking a step back, if we really have to open fire, being closer is also an advantage. Shooting from a lower position is more accurate than shooting from here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the person beneath the ventilation duct clumsily raised his hand and waved at them. “You…hello…”

This thing could actually speak! Was it fungal threads or some kind of mutant? Lao Gui’s whole body jolted as a strange chill shot up his spine. He didn’t know whether to call it human, fungal, or something else…a synthetic organism?

“Please… come down.” The person continued speaking.

He was deeply linked to the mother body. A dark fungal thread extended from the back of his neck; its source was still throbbing. Just moments ago, Mi Dou had confidently said they could be observed. However, at the moment he heard the fungal threads speak and imitate human behavior, he was still overcome with unease and fear.

“Please… come down… help me… help me.”

This time, there was more than one person standing under the ventilation duct. Everyone. All the people surrounding the fungal mother body stood up. Every pair of cloudy eyes looked toward the ventilation duct. Their arms were raised and waving in unison, like some kind of strange ritual or waiting for salvation.

Mi Dou swallowed and looked at Yan Xia. “I’ll go down.”

“No, I’ll go with you.” Yan Xia nodded. “Lao Gui and Silver Fang, you handle the aiming positions. Provide rear fire support. Shoot if anything seems amiss.”

Silver Fang made a “no problem” gesture. Yan Xia kicked open the isolation panel of the ventilation duct without wasting any time. The loud noise was like firing a shot down below. She reached out to Mi Dou. “Go!”

Mi Dou placed his hand on Yan Xia’s wrist; the two of them gripped each other tightly. Yan Xia moved swiftly and jumped down. Mi Dou, who wasn’t good at physical activity, followed and also landed safely. The people on the ground parted to form a path. At the end of the path was the fungal mother body. Strangely enough, those people were still speaking at first, but once Mi Dou and Yan Xia came down, their expressions showed anxiety and fear instead.

“Something’s wrong,” Yan Xia warned. “Stay alert.”

“Okay.” Mi Dou stood on her right side. The two of them advanced forward in a left-right cover formation. Those people only watched, making no sound. It was a feeling that only humans could understand, like being afraid of something but only being able to express it through micro-expressions.

Along with the sounds of footsteps and breathing, Mi Dou and Yan Xia walked forward one step at a time until they were near the mother body. At such a close distance, they could hear the fungal threads breathing. Details that couldn’t be seen from above only became apparent up close. The middle of the mother body…was actually hollow.

It looked as if something had already eaten it hollow, leaving a cavity like a rotten tooth. But the hole was packed full with a mass of writhing flesh. At first, Mi Dou thought it was one entity until a black fungal thread suddenly crawled out. Only then did Mi Dou realize that this was the main intent of the mother body.

The fungal thread stretched out and successfully locked onto its target. It flew toward Mi Dou and Yan Xia. Yan Xia raised her hand and the gun on the ventilation duct fired. Silver Fang’s and Lao Gui’s bullets brushed past their hair.

In the deep sea, the mermaid seemed to be at a dead end!

Nixida had already thought of countless ways out. In the end, he looked at Qiuman, and the answer had formed in his heart. Today was their first direct confrontation with human ecological weapons. Due to the information gap, the mermaid lost. This place had to be abandoned. The Deep Ghosts and the mixed-blood mermaids had to evacuate without worrying about the mess left behind.

This included the seabed being overrun by creatures that were neither human nor fish.

“Retreat first!” Nixida waved his arms. Even if tens of thousands of sirenns arrived, it wouldn’t help. They couldn’t fight at close range. They could only wait for these ecological weapons to destroy themselves. Their numbers were enormous, beyond what could be waited out in a short time.

Qiuman was unwilling—unwilling from the bottom of her heart. The Deep Ghosts were the “farmers” among the mermaid branches. They loved their territory and planting seagrass. If conditions allowed, they would want to cover the entire sea with seagrass. Sirens wouldn’t understand this feeling because they roamed the seas and lived in shallow waters year-round. The Deep Ghosts were different; only volcanoes could meet their requirements for water temperature.

Abandoning their territory was the greatest humiliation.

“Go! Go first!” Seeing that no one intended to retreat, Nixida hurriedly grabbed Kuni’s hand. “You go help! Lead everyone!”

“Lead them where?” Kuni roared.

“Anywhere! Just leave this place first!” Nixida shoved her.

Kuni swam in a circle and turned back. “Then what about you?”

“I’ll cover the rear! I can’t let those things catch up to everyone! You go first!” Nixida glanced around casually. There were elderly mermaids in the group, whether Deep Ghosts or mixed-blood. They were already swimming very slowly and would easily be caught.

Amid Nixida’s shouts, a reluctant retreat was about to begin. Nixida turned around, ready to create an undersea vortex by swimming rapidly to block them. In the second before the most dangerous moment arrived, all the ecological weapons stopped.

They stopped moving, like machines that had lost power. They were frozen in place with no further response.

The mermaids who were about to retreat on a large scale also stopped and looked down at the rift from above. Both sides of the rift were already covered with countless bodies. They layered themselves on top of each other, climbing upward without regard for anything. Their hands were still tightly gripping the rocks, but their limbs seemed to have stiffened.

Then, their fingers loosened as well.

Like human corpses falling into the deep sea, all of the ecological weapons “died” at the same time. Just as with their bizarre appearance, there were no details to reference. After loosening their grip, they turned their backs toward the depths of the rift. Their arms were stretched upward as if trying to reach the creatures in the sea, and their fingers were stiff. Their eyes were utterly lifeless as they fell, one atop another, filling the bottom of the rift.

“What’s going on?” Aibaoin, who was helping everyone retreat, was astonished. She had already mentally prepared herself to save a large number of wounded people, but unexpectedly, the fighting just stopped.

“No idea. What exactly happened?” Nixida knew even less. He had only just figured out the mermaid’s branches. But this strange situation didn’t look accidental, nor did it look like a defeat. It looked more like the entity controlling these ecological weapons had been killed, causing the fungal threads to lose control.

But no matter what, this hurdle had been cleared. It was purely a matter of luck.

Before Nixida could think it through, an even stronger undersea current arrived.

It came from the upper left, fierce, violent, and unreasonable. The current flipped all the mermaids over, leaving them unable to tell directions and spinning in the water. When Nixida finally stabilized, he felt his head brush against something.

“What is this thing?” He reached out and touched it—it felt like touching huge fish scales!

Nixida looked up. A golden fish scale larger than his face slid across his palm. Not just one, but sheets of them—a whole series! The scales were huge yet fine and smooth, seemingly unable to harm him. An entire fishtail slowly brushed past above Nixida’s head, once again stirring the deep sea.

When Nixida could finally see everything clearly, he almost suffocated in the seawater.

He saw a golden sea serpent hundreds of meters long. It had no human face or upper body—just a gigantic snake. It had golden horns on its head, dorsal fins covering its entire body, and curved, sharp, hooked claws like limbs. Before she could speak, Nixida knew who she was.

This was the Snake Woman, the legendary being who defeated Leviathan!