Chapter 100
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nAbandoned World has no day or night, they just rest at “night” by feeling.
nThis night is not destined to be calm. The giant worm rubbed itself on the ground and roared endlessly.
nThe Special Forces members on night watch listened to the above movements with vigilance. The skinny man Zhou Wen and Li Fei did not rest as they squinted in the darkness. After thinking a lot, the stifling hot environment eventually brought their thoughts back to reality.
n——they have to go back alive.
nThe vibration on the ground became bigger and bigger.
n“Boom!”
n“Cough cough!” The Special Forces members lying down all jumped up with their guns. The dirt on the top of the cave fell on their faces.
nJian Hua also woke up, but even when he opened his eyes, he can’t see the situation in the tunnel. The soil in the Northwest is drier, so the loosened soil is scattered, while everyone moved to cover their noses and mouth.
n“What did that crazy worm do?”
n“Quick, get the supplies. We’ll evacuate the tunnels!” The captain ordered.
nEveryone was busy and carried the few items around them. The skinny man who held onto the battery lights saw that the car bumper supporting the roof is shifting.
n“Not good! Hurry, leave your stuff!”
nIt was followed by a rock falling and hitting the skinny man’s foot.
nThe top of the cave is suddenly covered in flames. Like a crimson brocade, it hung upside down like a sea of fire. The dazzling light is refracted due to smoke, behind it is a shadow of the giant worm’s head.
n“Block the tunnel opening!”
nThe last one to escape the tunnels is the Captain. He jumped forward. Immediately, the Special Forces waiting for a long time are desperately trying to fill the gap with car seats.
nThere’s a layer of ice to cover the gaps, and it was also pasted with a lot of hyphae.
nSince the hyphae hadn’t had any food for a long time, they couldn’t help but lick the skinny man’s ice abilities. When the giant worm rushed over, the mushrooms, along with the ice dregs slid directly into its mouth. After colliding with the teeth, it issued a strange sound.
n“Hold on. Don’t panic. Continue moving back!” The captain calmly instructed.
nWith the limited tunnel width, the giant worm crashed into the car seats. And with its head blocking the tunnel, its stench approached them.
nThe lethality of this smell, human beings simply can’t resist. Added with the limited air circulation in the tunnels, the “poison gas” ejected by the giant worm made the Captain sway, and almost faint.
nA fat mushroom cap covered the mouth of the giant worm.
nThe giant worm angrily ground against the foreign object with its teeth. The mushrooms twisted and deformed into mycelium, and became a mask that pasted over the giant worm’s mouth.
nMore hyphae grew along the wall, and firmly entangled the giant worm’s head. They met with their companions on the antenna, and because the energy is not enough, the mushrooms appeared to devour each other——the mycelium on the antenna scattered to fill in the new mushroom wool cap.
n“Devour my abilities!”
nLi Fei pushed his flame close to the passage. The temperature rose, and everyone sweated.
nThe hyphae bluntly extracted the flame energy, and the skinny man followed with an ice blade.
nWith the alternating hot and cold, the giant worm madly hit the tunnel passage. The Captain, who was helped by the crowd, gave himself a slap in the head. Only then did he recover from the unimaginable stench, and weakly said, “Retreat!”
n“But, when we go up to the surface, there would be no place to hide from the giant worm……”
n“The tunnels will collapse! After the death of the earth ability holder, the strength of the tunnels has decreased.”
nIf they don’t go, they’ll be buried alive.
nBut leaving the cover of the tunnels would make the giant worm enjoy chasing its prey. When everyone is making a different choice, the mushrooms near their feet suddenly pushed them aside.
n“Tie up the giant worm in the tunnels!” Jian Hua urged his abilities. The hyphae spread to the “open room” where the giant worm collapsed and grew along the body of the giant worm.
n“kacha……kala……”
nSmoke filled the air. Only Li Fei can see what happened.
nThe teeth of the giant worm are falling off.
n“Wait, aim at its mouth!” Li Fei attributed this to the “baptism” of alternating hot and cold.
nThe skinny man made several ice cones at the direction of where Li Fei is pointing.
n“Come on up, the tunnel can barely hold!” The Captain of the Special Forces urged them from behind.
n“It can still hold for five minutes!” Jian Hua never looked back. The mushrooms crazily grew to block the falling soil. Right now, only some sand is slipping off the edge of the cap.
nWith fewer worries, Li Fei can control the attack frequency of the flame and ice more calmly. He constantly reminded the skinny man. At the same time, the tunnel was filled with strange cracking sounds.
nWith the size of the giant worm, it can swallow three people with one bite. The powerful force when the big mouth is closed is estimated to crush a man into a meatloaf. Now, with the tooth extraction, it at least guaranteed an escape even though the clothes may be bitten, and blood dripped on the floor, making them lose their fighting power because of injuries.
nThe giant worm finally feels something is wrong. It struggled to move backward, and the tunnels shook more intensely.
nThe mushrooms fully supported the falling roof. The giant worm also “pulled” its head back, as it growled at the mushrooms and tried to squeeze out of the passage. It began drilling downwards.
nDid the worm want to fight tunnel warfare too, and sneakily attack them from the ground?
n“Jump on top of the mushrooms!”
nEveryone followed suit, even Li Fei and Zhou Wen are no exception. Even after clinging to the mushroom handles, everyone’s mood is very complicated.
nTo stabilize the ground, large and small mushrooms created a layer above the tunnel floor. Right now, everyone is completely in a “mushroom house”, and there are mushroom caps everywhere.
nNot to mention Northwest China, even in the rainforest, they would rarely see this scene.
nLi Fei condensed a flame in his hand, just waiting for Jian Hua’s feedback ability to “see” the giant worm ready to break out of the ground and give the giant worm a high-temperature flame ball.
n“It’s digging……not towards this side. It’s not trying to drill a tunnel, it……”
nJian Hua suddenly paused. Everyone heard the movements outside, as well as a clear swallowing sound.
nThe skinny man thought of something, and his face became ugly. His hand punched a mushroom cap. The mycelium shook and wrapped him up completely. Jian Hua waved to dispel the hyphae surrounding the skinny man, then said to the crowd, “It’s eating the buried bodies.”
nThe Captain revealed an expression of regret.
nThe people buried in the cave, they believed that they would finally be at peace. Even if everyone here died, the country could still guess about the giant worm based on the wound on their bodies. Also, the “buried” people is the backup in their mission records.
nIf they knew that the giant worm will attack the tunnels, and devour the corpses, it is better to let the fire ability holder cremate the dead.
nThe giant worm did not hit the mushroom at the entrance again, and it slowly left.
n“It only swallowed the ability holder who just died. You mentioned before that you also buried an unfortunate victim?” Jian Hua turned to ask.
nThe captain nodded. He also told Jian Hua the location of two other bodies that they’ve buried.
nIt is not far from the giant worm, but it didn’t find it. It seems that dead ability holders still have a power that has yet to dissipate. They haven’t been gone for a few days, and the worm has shown several times that it is sensitive towards ability holders.
nLi Fei is still thinking, when Jian Hua suddenly shouted, “Be careful!”
nThe worm left the illusion of “leaving after eating”, and went around in a circle where it suddenly launched an attack. Its head hit the tunnel above Li Fei, and the mushrooms were crushed by the sudden collapse.
nHyphae rushed to wrap around Li Fei, like putting on protective clothing and only revealing the nose and mouth. You can’t even see a single hair.
nMycelium isolated power fluctuations, so the dual role of the mushroom house plus the protective clothing fooled the giant worm’s antenna and transferred its attention towards Jian Hua.
nJian Hua calmly puts protective clothing on himself and the skinny man.
nThe giant worm that lost its target hit the ground angrily. Just when the Captain is worried if the mushroom house can hold, the giant worm, unwilling to be trapped by the hyphae, bitterly left.
nAfraid that it’ll come back, the three can only continue to wear the mycelium protective clothing.
nThe fireball shone brightly, and they look like mummies.
nSpecial Forces holding guns: ……let’s put the flames out. Let’s pretend that we didn’t see mummies sitting on a huge mushroom.
nThey touched the mushrooms around them. In hindsight, they found that the mushroom “auxiliary ability” is excellent. It can be used as a “building material” in sticky situations.
n“The giant worm will definitely come back. 70% of the tunnels have collapsed, and we are trapped here.” The captain seriously said, “If it came back and smashed this place again, we can only go to the surface.”
n“Can the mushrooms grow on the surface ground?” The skinny man consulted the speed of building a “temporary shelter”.
nJian Hua gently shook his head, “There is a strange wind outside.”
nWith just one round, it can blow the mushrooms into mycelium any time. How can resist the attack of the giant worm?
nThe hearts of everyone sank.
nThe fireball hung in the air along the tunnels. The mushrooms around it are desperately extending its mycelium to explore it, showing its greedy nature. Jian Hua prevented them from swallowing the “light bulbs”, but the mycelium is not willing to leave. Many white strands “stick” to the fireball, making the burning fireball look like an alien creature’s egg. You can shoot a sci-fi movie with it even without CG.
nLi Fei found himself still in the mood to appreciate this “bizarre” beauty.
nFilmmakers are always unable to resist the impact of excellent images and perspective shocks……
nThe magic eyes can’t see through the things behind the mycelium, so Li Fei doesn’t know Jian Hua’s expression. However, he felt that Jian Hua is not as anxious as everyone else. His whole atmosphere showing indifference is back, and it doesn’t seem like he cares about other people, much less his life and death.
nIf it were before, Li Fei would feel that Jian Hua is difficult to understand, but through a “deep” communication while learning about Jian Hua, Li Fei can now guess what his lover is thinking about.
n——what details had he ignored?
nLi Fei slightly frowns, recalling the process of the giant worm’s attack. After half a minute, he blinked his eyes and asked cautiously, “There are hyphae on the dead bodies?”
nEveryone became quiet while the skinny man is stunned. Their abilities are useless on the giant worm’s body, and it also has a dual oral structure. But the mycelium is eaten by the giant worm, which is different! Is the body also reinforced with a steel frame?
n“Only a tiny strand. While the giant worm excavated the bodies, one went down from the antenna.” Jian Hua absently said. He looks like he’s feeling something with his eyes closed, “Its contact with me has been interrupted, I don’t know the current situation……”
n“Boom!”
nThere was another loud noise from the top of their heads. No, the top of the tunnel was hit. It’s like a heavy object hit the ground, and the giant worm made a long whine.
nThe Captain immediately decided to go out and check.
n“I’ll go!” The skinny man volunteered. He also has mycelium protective clothing on his body.
nThe mushrooms let them through the tunnels. As the skinny man climbed to the surface, he saw the hole in the sky at a glance——the giant worm slipped out from the hole, and the considerable body twitched. It piled up in the highway into a meat mountain, and you can directly see the swirling void, blowing out manic winds from inside.
n“Not good, we have to plug the hole!”
n“……”
nThe people who heard the sound climbed out and were dumbfounded.
nThe sky near the void is dark. The range of this black void is still expanding. Although they don’t know what that is, they know it’s not a good sign.
nThe body of the giant worm bounced as if given an electric shock, spasming up and down, completely irregular, causing an earthquake.
nIt has a total length of several hundred meters. Long triangular hooks are on the back half of its body, some are in the giant worm, uncontrolled and waving madly with its movement, and some are on the ground.
nThe hard shell of the giant worm was actually pierced by these hooks. The most serious part is where the meat can be seen, its body fluid oozing iron gray.
nJian Hua urges more hyphae to drill into the wound to kill the monster as soon as possible.
n“Blocked?” The mushrooms can grow up to 20 meters high, but then why did it stop midair?
n“No, there is something strange in the hole, the mycelium has been swept away.” Jian Hua paled. What he said was a half-truth. He felt that the hyphae actively went into the void, just like when it crossed through space to forage for food.
nSeeing the sky become more and more black, the wind grew stronger and revealed the three “mummies”, so they can only drill back underground——
n“Woof woof woof!”
nThrough the wind and sand at the end of the highway, brazenly run out a small figure.
nEven with the corgi’s short legs, it ran fast.
nIt barked at the sky, and the black area suddenly condenses, then quickly receded like a tide. In the end, the void began to shrink. When the corgi joined them, the void has completely disappeared. On this road, only the dying giant worm lay on the side.
n“Woof?” Corgi’s nose twitched. He recognized Jian Hua, so it stretched out its tongue and licked Jian Hua enthusiastically.
nLi Fei: ……
nEveryone: ……
nThe mood of being saved by a dog is difficult to describe.
nThe author has something to say:
nThe hero should debut at the crucial moment, quick, lights!
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