Little Mushroom

A snow-white mycelium stretched out, lightly resting on the surface of the metal mesh.Then, it got in through the tiny gaps in the metal grid.

——It is safe, at least here, there are no lethal weapons, just the barrier of the grid.

After the first mycelium passes through the three-layer grid fence and reaches the pipeline, the remaining mycelium also moves forward. They gather together, and because they are too soft and flexible, they present a state close to liquid.The snow-white tide penetrated everywhere, overflowed the three layers of metal mesh, and reunited behind it.A pipe extending forward appeared in An Zhe's perception. The pipe wall was smooth as a whole, but spots of rust had appeared in some places, and the smell of rust spread, like the smell of blood.There is wind blowing in from the end of the pipe.

An Zhe moves forward, his hyphae stick to the pipe wall like tentacles, and flow forward smoothly. This pipe is straight, and after turning a right-angled bend, he still goes straight. He continues to move forward, and a crossroad appears in front of him.A horizontal, slightly thicker pipe connected to the one he was in now.

The wind has become stronger, and the direction of the airflow is also intricate, indicating that this huge pipeline system is also like a labyrinth of twists and turns.

An Zhe hesitated for a moment on the spot. He stretched out a long mycelium, stayed in the pipe, and then continued to move forward—although Lu Yan thought he was not smart, An Zhe felt that he was not stupid either. He decided to mark his path with this mycelium so that no matter where he went, he could follow the mycelium back the same way.

After making this decision, An Zhe felt much more relieved. He went straight through the intersection and headed in the original direction. After making another right-angle turn, there was a faint light ahead.

An Zhe came to the source of light - another vent.The familiar voice of the newscaster is ringing.It is conceivable that he came to the vent of someone else's house

"It took a month for the main city to recall a total of 1 foreign mercenaries, officially entering the recovery period. During the recovery period, which is expected to last ten years, all the scientific research forces in the main city will be devoted to the investigation of the source of the infection..."

"Knock, knock, knock." There was a regular knock on the door.

An Zhe had entered here by mistake. He had no intention of prying into the privacy of other humans, and planned to leave, but the next moment, he temporarily dismissed this idea.

The door rang.

"Colonel Lu." A female voice sounded, with a neat tone.

Colonel Lu.

This is Lu Feng's room.

An Zhe quietly came out of the vent and moved outside to hear better. He was indeed curious about Lu Feng's life.

Then, he heard a familiar cold voice: "Hello."

"Hello, Colonel Lu, I am a staff member on the 21st floor of Eden Garden."

Garden of Eden.

An Zhe pricked up his ears—if he had such a thing as ears now.

Lu Feng: "What's the matter?"

"It's like this," the woman smiled. "First of all, congratulations to the colonel on his return from the outer city. Secondly, on behalf of my superior, I will ask the colonel if he is willing to donate sperm to the Garden of Eden."

Lu Feng's answer was very straightforward and ruthless: "No."

"That's a pity. If you have any intentions in the future, please be sure to contact us. Your genes are very good. If you can't use them effectively, it will be a loss for the entire base."

"Thank you." Lu Feng's tone did not soften because of her praise, he said: "Is there anything else?"

"The flowers Mrs. Lu planted are blooming." The woman said, "She asked me to drop by to give you a bouquet. The work in the main city is very busy. Madam asked you to rest and take care of yourself."

After a short silence, Lu Feng said, "Is she in good health?"

"everything is normal."

"Thank you," Lu Feng lowered his voice and said, "Say hello to her for me."

Their conversation ended here, and after the door was closed again, there was no other movement in the room.

The weather forecast reported that the windy weather will continue and the temperature will drop.

The sound stopped abruptly. It must be that Lu Feng turned off the TV. Then, the footsteps gradually approached. Lu Feng returned to the bedroom and sat down at the desk.After a few flips of paper, the room fell into silence except for the sound of Lu Feng's breathing.

An Zhe really wanted to stick out a few mycelia from under the bed to see what the colonel was doing, but he didn't dare.In the end, he slowly returned from the same way through the vent.

At the crossroads, he chose the direction the wind was blowing, dragging the slender mycelium used to mark the path and continue on.

The cold, blood-smelling wind blows his mycelium, and the pipe wall is connected to other pipe openings, and each pipe mouth is connected to another complex pipe structure.At the same time, another intersection appeared ahead - just such a short path was enough to make An Zhe realize the complexity of the entire system.He didn't have a road map, he only knew the general direction of the lighthouse, and he could imagine the difficulty of entering the lighthouse from the pipeline.

But he can keep looking, he is not an impatient mushroom.

After several turns, An Zhe couldn't tell the direction at all, and he couldn't realize the passage of time. He only knew that when traveling along the direction of the wind, the mouth of the pipe would become wider and wider, and the wind would become stronger and stronger. The bigger it was, he guessed it was because he had found the backbone of the ventilation system.Sometimes he worried that his mycelium would break, but there was no way to strengthen it or leave an extra strand. The mycelium is like human blood to mushrooms, too much blood loss will lead to death, and he can't use it up.

Sometimes, there will be a metal mesh in front of him, or some sharp turbines that seem to be able to cut through all flesh and joints. At this time, he will carefully slide along the knife edge to prevent the hyphae from being cut off.

An Zhe didn't know how long he had been walking, only the sound of the wind and the slight rustling sound of mycelium flowing over the rusted pipe wall accompanied him.

In front of him is a black pipe that extends infinitely, and also behind him. This feeling brings him back to the time when he lost the spores—wandering aimlessly around the abyss, maybe he can find it tomorrow, maybe never way to find out.

When the diameter of the pipe was as high as two people, An Zhe felt a vague red light in front of him.He went forward, carefully stepping over a large turbine - and fell out of the mouth of the pipe unexpectedly.

He fell on the hard and rough metal ground, illuminated by the dim red light, An Zhe looked in all directions - this is no longer the inside of the pipe, but an empty and spacious cylindrical space, the size of the hall in the Garden of Eden, the wind It pours in from above together with the red light.It was too high and far away, An Zhe couldn't feel it.

So his snow-white mass stretched on the ground, and the hyphae gathered into a human body and skin. It was very cold, so the mycelium spread over his body, densely weaving a loose white robe to block the cold outside. Shen Chill.

An Zhe stepped on the metal floor with bare feet and looked up.

A huge turbine was placed obliquely at the top of the entire space, occupying his field of vision.There was a dark red laser light curtain around the turbine, similar to the one on the outer city wall. An Zhe knew that this was a kind of human defense weapon. Once a creature tried to forcefully cross it, it would immediately trigger an alarm.

Looking through the iron teeth of the turbine, An Zhe saw the sky outside, and the aurora was still shining.This place is connected to the outside world, and he realized that this is the air inlet of the ventilation system. After the turbine starts up, the outside air will be continuously drawn in and sent to the pipes in all directions.

An Zhe retracted his gaze and looked forward. In the center of this cylindrical space, there was a rectangular metal workbench—maybe it was the operating platform of the entire system. He walked up it, but found that it was not the case.

On this metal table, three small rectangular boxes were welded. Through the light, one could see the mottled writing on the side of the small boxes, which seemed to be plated.

An Zhe leaned over slightly, wiped away the dust and rust, and saw the densely packed handwriting clearly.

- It's a letter.

"To latecomers:

I am Kang Jinglan, the person in charge of the construction of the underground ventilation system of the northern base.The design of the ventilation system took one year, and the construction took nine years, at a cost of 1.1 million yuan per kilometer.

Opponents once suggested delaying the construction period because of the difficulty of base construction and the huge cost of manpower and material resources.However, after discussion, we believe that once the weakening of the geomagnetic field continues to deteriorate, the human economy will inevitably collapse within ten years, and within 50 years, the surviving humans will completely lose their heavy industry R&D and production capabilities, and the focus of production materials and scientific research will all be tilted to the medical field. We are running out of time.

Fortunately, this year, the underground ventilation system was successfully built together with the above-ground base, and human beings can now live in the strict protection of the base. This is the only thing I am gratified about.Under the cosmic radiation, despite being under strict protection, I still suffer from various cancers and immune diseases.I asked the base to have my ashes buried in the core of the ventilation system, so that each generation of engineers went into maintenance of the system, I could know that the base is still safe and the great human species still exists.

May you have a bright future.

Sincerely,

salute

June 2030. "

Here are the ashes.

Therefore, this box contains the former body of a human being, which is a tomb, and these leftover writings are the letters left by this human being to the latecomers. Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it an epitaph.

An Zhe looked to the right, and on the right was a box with almost the same shape, the bottom was welded to the countertop, and there was also a letter on the side, a letter with the same tone.

"To Mr. Kang Jinglan, to the latecomers:

I am Liao Pingan, the person in charge of the underground ventilation system engineering maintenance of the northern base.The ventilation system is overhauled every six months and overall maintenance is performed every two years, and it is currently running in perfect condition.

As Mr. Kang expected, the weakening of the geomagnetic field did not improve, but completely disappeared in December 2030.Fortunately, the artificial magnetic pole project succeeded soon after, and the earth was again under the protection of the magnetic field, and human beings no longer suffered from diseases due to radiation exposure.Unfortunately, cosmic radiation caused infection and mutation of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and mankind ushered in an unprecedented catastrophe.As an experiencer of the catastrophe, I have witnessed the shrinking of the human living field, the collapse of the economic system, and the gradual loss of industrial capacity.The base puts all the remaining production capacity of human beings into military production, the construction of military bases, and the expansion of bases. A steady stream of guns, ammunition, nuclear weapons, aircraft, armor, and tanks are produced.I don't know what the purpose of the base is, and I don't know whether this behavior has accelerated the depletion of human resources. I can only hope that the base has other far-reaching purposes.

During this catastrophe, I was unfortunately infected with deadly bacteria. At the end of my life, I still felt endless panic about the future of the base, so I chose to be buried here with Mr. Kang, waiting for the next generation of engineers to report safety.

May you have a bright future. "

Sincerely,

salute

June 2052. "

Next is the third urn and epitaph.

"To Mr. Kang Jinglan, Ms. Liao Ping'an, and to the latecomers:

I am Yang Ye, the person in charge of engineering maintenance of the underground ventilation system of the northern base.The ventilation system is overhauled every six months and overall maintenance is performed every two years, and it is currently running in perfect condition.

I have to tell the two predecessors that in this era, the ventilation system no longer exists as one of the countless infrastructures of the base, but has played an incomparably brilliant role in the cause of safeguarding human safety. In 2053, global biological mutations began, and the human base, with the army as the main force and civilian mercenaries as the auxiliary force, was thrown into the grand defense war.In the absence of resources and industrial construction capabilities, the solid military bases and powerful military weapons left to us by the previous generation have played an unimaginable role in ensuring the safety of the remaining human beings.After the ventilation system has been transformed, it becomes one of the fortifications of the main city of the base, protecting people from the invasion of insect monsters.

At present, the northern base is still safe. The military and mercenary teams continue to bring back monster samples from the outside world, and recover scientific research equipment, civilization materials and other necessary materials from the abandoned human cities.The base's scientific research strength is concentrated on the research of the principle of infection and the reproduction of the human race. The former has not found a direction for the time being, while the latter has been initially conquered. A large number of new lives have come, and the population has begun to rise.Although the environment is still harsh, I believe everything will get better.

I died of blissful old age under the shelter of the base.

May you have a bright future.

Sincerely,

salute

June 2104. "

An Zhe finished reading it carefully, and then looked to the side, it was empty, there were no other boxes. 2104 is already a very distant era.Perhaps the next generation of engineers will lie here soon, with epitaphs telling the story of what happened recently, the fall of the outer city, or something.

At this moment, loud whimpers sounded from all directions again, and the mighty night wind blew in from the air inlet, An Zhe shivered.The strong wind was like an irresistible torrent, which made him almost unable to open his eyes—he put his elbows in front of his eyes to resist the blowing of the strong wind, and lowered his head slightly.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a pain.

A section of snow-white hyphae floated up in the wind, in his peripheral vision, the white shadow flickered slightly, and disappeared in an instant.

An Zhe turned his head suddenly, and the white mycelium that he had deliberately left to mark the route before dragged only a short section on the ground, trembling in the wind.It was the strong wind that broke his mycelium, and the broken part was blown away by the wind.

His pupils shrank suddenly, and he looked in the direction he came from. Six dark holes were arranged side by side, exactly the same.

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