Chapter 83 — Mushrooms
Everyone spent a short while shooting zombies from atop the city wall. Before long, the patrol unit that had coordinated with Captain Guo drove over and signaled from below. The captain told everyone to conserve their strength and wait for the people below to get to work. For safety’s sake, the patrol unit didn’t dismount from their armored vehicle. Instead, just like before, they stood on the vehicle and swept fire outward. Only then did the people on the wall resume their coordinated shooting to support the patrol team.
Recently, the number of zombies crowding near the wall had surged dramatically. Once they started firing here, zombies farther away would hear the sound and stagger over, causing their numbers to grow larger and larger. It wasn’t until close to the lunch break that they barely managed to clear out most of the zombies in the area. Even so, plenty could still be seen in the distance, swaying their way toward them.
Standing atop the wall, Captain Guo shouted down, “Find a way to move this pile of zombies out of the way! We need to expand outward by a full meter! They’re completely blocking the area!” Earlier, because the zombies had been packed tightly below, Yan Fei and the others had been forced to prioritize deepening the foundation of the existing six-meter section of wall, slowly forcing metal outward from the soil. Now they could finally move these obstructions away.
The earth-type ability users nearby finally realized why they had been killing zombies in the first place. Earth-type users thickened the wall by expanding inward, but metal-type users could only expand outward. With all the zombies clogging the base of the wall, how were they supposed to work?
The person in charge of the convoy below flashed an OK gesture upward. “On it—I’ve sent someone to bring a bulldozer!”
A bulldozer?
Well… looking at the mountain-like pile of zombie corpses below, it really would take bulldozers to move all that.
During the lunch break, the time was finally used to haul all the zombie corpses away from outside the wall. After eating, Yan Fei and the others hurried back up to mark out territory—first fencing off, with metal, the points one meter away from the wall, to prevent zombies from clogging things up again in the afternoon. Once the corpses were removed, work finally proceeded smoothly.
The transported zombie bodies were all piled up in an open area outside the base and burned en masse. Thick black smoke rose as the foul-smelling corpses were completely incinerated. Afterward, trusted personnel were sent in to sift through the ashes for crystal cores… This was the daily routine of the patrol teams responsible for base perimeter security and zombie cleanup.
In the afternoon, far fewer zombies gathered nearby than in the morning, so the convoy outside the wall departed for other zombie clusters to begin another round of clearing. A short while later, however, a soldier hurried up onto the wall and called Captain Guo over. Not long after, Captain Guo returned carrying a bag.
“These are the morning’s spoils,” he said. “This afternoon, there probably won’t be many zombies coming here before we leave, so they won’t be coming back today. We’ll continue tomorrow.”
“Captain, how many did we get?” Several soldiers who were momentarily free crowded around, asking curiously.
“Looks like a bit over two hundred,” Captain Guo said, glancing down over the wall. Things were still under control—zombies gathering below hadn’t affected the ability users’ work. He took the bag and began distributing crystal cores to the four ability users. When he saw several with noticeably different colors, he paused. “Huh? Pretty generous. They even split some level-two crystal cores with us.”
Although no one was sure what the maximum zombie level was, since zombies could evolve, researchers at the base conservatively followed common usage: zombies that had just developed crystal cores were defined as “level-one zombies,” while those that evolved abilities and had different-colored cores were defined as “level-two zombies.” The same applied to the cores in their heads.
Of course, if you counted the earliest slow-moving zombies without any crystal growths in their brains, then the current zombies would technically be third-generation. But since those early zombies had existed for such a short time and later classifications were based on crystal cores and only retroactively applied to zombies, their “level” was effectively downgraded.
Thus, zombies that hadn’t yet grown any crystalline deposits in their heads were simply called “primitive zombies.”
These level-two crystal cores were valuable, but unfortunately, none of the metal-type ability users could use them. They were casually distributed among everyone, to be traded later with other ability users if they had the time—though no one really knew what level-two metal-type crystal cores even looked like.
After pocketing the crystal cores, everyone kept working until three in the afternoon before climbing down from the wall and returning to the truck, which jolted its way back to camp.
Luo Xun stowed the heavy crossbow in his backpack and took out his small hand crossbow. Then he noticed that the phone in his backpack was flashing—there was a missed call.
“Huh? Professor Xu.” The call had come in a little after one in the afternoon, when they’d just returned to the wall and were busy hauling small metal pieces for Yan Fei, which was why he hadn’t heard it. He quickly called back.
“Is this Little Luo? The research report on the mushrooms you’re growing is out. It’s best not to grow them anymore—and the wood should be burned as well. Don’t keep it.”
Professor Xu’s words startled Luo Xun. He immediately asked, “Is there something wrong with those mushrooms?” In his previous life, he’d grown mushrooms before. Although they had an extremely high mutation rate and were hard to cultivate, he’d lived in a basement with them day in and day out without any apparent issues.
If they truly posed a serious danger, he wouldn’t have dared try again in this life. It was precisely because of his past experience that he’d felt confident doing so.
Professor Xu explained, “Our research found that once the mushrooms’ juice is extracted and splashes onto human skin, it has very strong corrosive properties. A moment’s carelessness can cause serious injury! So it’s best not to grow them at home—they’re too dangerous. When harvesting, you should wear rubber gloves or similar protective gear, and absolutely avoid skin contact!”
Luo Xun froze, then glanced in surprise at Yan Fei waiting beside him. He blinked and acknowledged the warning—serious corrosion? Harmful to skin? Good thing he’d always habitually worn gloves when handling dangerous plants… Wait. “Professor Xu, does this substance corrode other things? Like metal? Or… zombies?”
“Metal and… zombies?” Professor Xu clearly hadn’t caught on. Those were two entirely different categories—surely Luo Xun had misspoken?
“Yes! Zombies! Aren’t zombies transformed from humans? If this poisonous mushroom juice were applied to weapons—and if it doesn’t corrode metal—couldn’t it be used to kill zombies?” Luo Xun had long regretted his lack of strong combat power against high-level zombies. He’d even fantasized before about soaking crossbow bolts in some toxin with explosive power comparable to gunpowder.
But he also knew that zombies were already dead—you couldn’t poison them to death again, no matter how potent the toxin. So the idea had remained a fantasy. Now, hearing about the mushroom’s special properties, his thoughts immediately veered in that direction, revealing just how strongly he hoped for such a possibility.
“Wait—wait! I’ll have people test it!” Luo Xun’s words flung open a door to a whole new world for Professor Xu. If this possibility proved viable through experimentation… Heaven knew how monumental the discovery would be! A botanist who studied whether plants were edible might achieve unprecedented acclaim in an entirely different field!
Overcome with excitement, Professor Xu hung up and rushed into the lab to have people procure zombies and test the mushroom juice, hoping for the result they all dreamed of.
Luo Xun looked at the phone that had already gone dead and smiled helplessly at Yan Fei. “He got too excited…”
Yan Fei smiled, helped him put the phone away, and took his backpack. “Wanting the experimental results is easy enough. When we get back, we’ll pick a few mushrooms, mash them up, smear the juice on some crossbow bolts, let them soak overnight, and test them on the wall tomorrow. Problem solved.” They should be grateful they were working on the outer wall—otherwise, where would they find such a convenient testing ground?
“Sounds good—let’s try it when we get back!” Excitement flashed in Luo Xun’s eyes. “Those mushrooms look creepy, but since the apocalypse, their growth rate has been insanely fast. After harvesting one batch, another pops up not long after!”
The two of them drove home eagerly and headed straight for the heated room in 1603. When they opened the door and saw only a few scattered red mushroom caps on the bare mushroom logs, Luo Xun frowned. “Why are they so small? And there are so few…” Previously, their mushroom logs had grown as if pumped full of growth hormone—tons sprouting almost overnight, unstoppable, forcing them to burn a batch every couple of days. Why were they growing so slowly now?
“Could it be that the wood’s been used too long?” Yan Fei guessed, not knowing much about their growth habits.
“No, it’s not time yet. Why would moving them cause—” Luo Xun stopped mid-sentence, suddenly freezing. “Moving them?”
“You think it has something to do with moving them?” Yan Fei asked, equally surprised.
“Come on—let’s check the other side!” A vague but powerful intuition surged in Luo Xun’s heart. He was certain the reduced mushroom growth was related to moving the logs—and the answer would become clear once they returned to the neighboring apartment.
They rushed into the seedling room next door and were immediately shocked by what they saw in the incubator area—a mutated zombie quail! And beside it, the corpse of another small quail, already dead and reduced to bones!
“There are mutated plants in the seedling boxes!” Yan Fei suddenly noticed that in one seedling tray, nearly one-fifth of the seedlings had changed color.
Luo Xun said nothing. He raised his hand crossbow and killed the mutated quail, then walked over to the seedling tray and stared at the grotesque, horrifying seedlings. Instead of fear, his eyes grew brighter and brighter, his expression increasingly excited.
“I think I know why the mushrooms grew less after being moved,” he said, turning to Yan Fei, his face showing no trace of distress over their losses. “And I also know why our house has always had fewer mutated plants than others—and why the quails have always been safe!”
Yan Fei’s mind raced, his eyes widening. “You mean… they can absorb substances that might be toxic? So other things don’t get infected and mutate!”
Luo Xun nodded vigorously. This wasn’t just a conclusion from this life. In his previous life, he’d never had the heart to throw away that rotten log. The basement had been too dark to dry it out, and taking it outside risked someone else picking it up. So he’d kept it, hoping that one day it might grow some normal, edible mushrooms.
Sadly, that never happened before his rebirth. And it was precisely because he still harbored that hope in this life that he’d deliberately brought back several pieces of rotten wood to grow mushrooms again.
This time, with more time and space, the wood he brought back was larger and more plentiful. And it was precisely because of this that the seeds sprouting in his home—and the animals he raised—had such a low mutation rate!
“I’m moving them back!” Whether or not the mushrooms could actually harm zombies, Luo Xun had made up his mind—he would never throw away those logs, not even if it killed him! Not only would he keep them, he’d be bringing in more!
Yan Fei smiled as well. “Alright, I’ll help you move them.”
“And next time we leave the base, we’ll bring back even more!”
“Deal. Next time I go out, I’ll look for them with you.” Yan Fei added silently to himself—at worst, we’ll just chop down a couple of trees and haul all the wood back.
The two of them huffed and puffed as they carried back the logs they had moved away a few days earlier. This time, when placing them in the room, Luo Xun deliberately adjusted their positions. Originally, he had stacked all the logs in the inner corner against the wall, but now he put them beneath the seedling trays, and had Yan Fei make some metal racks to properly rearrange everything.
After picking out the mutated seedlings that absolutely couldn’t be used and burning them together with the poor little quail’s remains, Luo Xun finally let out a long breath of relief.
Professor Xu didn’t call Luo Xun back even by evening. Luo Xun could understand—after all, he was just an ordinary civilian. If the mushrooms really had that kind of effect, once the military learned about it they would definitely require Professor Xu to keep it confidential until the results had been verified through repeated experiments. In any case, Luo Xun and Yan Fei could verify the possibility through other means, so there was no rush.
At this point, Luo Xun suspected that if they wanted the mushrooms to grow faster, aside from placing them near animals or plants that were more prone to viral infection, they could also use completely unpurified water that had been heavily contaminated by the virus to humidify the host plants.
Still, for the sake of their home’s safety, Luo Xun decided that the current approach was good enough.
Before going to bed, the two of them used a small glass scoop to collect some mushroom juice and evenly coated several crossbow bolts with it. Yan Fei then used metal to completely wrap and seal these nasty things inside, preparing to have these “sandwich rounds” explode inside zombie bodies under his control when they worked on the wall the next day, to see how effective they were. Only then did the two of them fall asleep with excited hearts, looking forward to the next day.
Early the next morning, Luo Xun got up very early. Yan Fei sat on the bed, rubbing his hair, took a deep breath, and then got up as well—Luo Xun had been overly excited the night before and hadn’t gone to sleep until Yan Fei had worn him out, yet he was already up again so early… Was last night’s effort not enough? Next time, he’d try harder.
Several metal bolts lay in a glass bottle, coated with red juice. Luo Xun picked up the bottle and examined it carefully, but because of the juice’s harmful effects on the human body and skin, he didn’t dare touch it directly. After some thought, he took the rubber gloves he’d used the day before, carefully checked them, then opened the bottle and reached inside to test the hardness of the bolts—checking whether they had been corroded by the strange liquid.
They felt solid in his hand, and even squeezing hard revealed no problems. Only then did Luo Xun relax. If the stuff could dissolve metal as well, that would be real trouble—they couldn’t possibly produce only this kind of ammunition and then go searching for other special materials just for it.
“Well?” Yan Fei’s voice came from behind.
Luo Xun took out the “bullets” and carefully placed them into a rubber-made pouch he’d prepared the night before, wrapping them layer by layer. “No problem so far. We can look for a chance to test them when we’re up on the wall.”
Yan Fei glanced at the pouch and frowned slightly. “We’ll test the effect today. If this stuff really works, I’ll make some hollow rounds later and see if they can explode directly inside the target even when fired from a crossbow. Otherwise, it’s too inconvenient to use.” They didn’t dare let that mushroom juice touch their skin at all—packed like this, who knew if it might accidentally leak somewhere? What then? It was best to solve the problem at the root.
“Sure, but we’ll have to see how it works today,” Luo Xun said cheerfully. He didn’t mind the inconvenience at all. After wrapping the rubber pouch in another seven or eight layers, he carefully placed it in his backpack.
After breakfast, carrying the experimental ammunition, Luo Xun and Yan Fei waited for Li Tie and the others before driving toward the military camp. They didn’t mention the poisonous mushrooms to Li Tie’s group—mainly because the two of them hadn’t tested it yet. They’d talk about it after results came out. Growing mushrooms had many benefits: it reduced the mutation rate of their vegetables and yielded special mushrooms as well. Such a win-win situation naturally deserved to be promoted internally.
Zhang Su had also received his phone card the day before and put it into the phone Wang Duo had earlier “bought” from Luo Xun. Everyone had exchanged numbers before going to sleep last night. Now they were chatting in the car about earth-type ability users.
“…I asked our boss whether he knew of any earth-type ability users willing to leave the base for missions. He said most of them aren’t willing to go out—they think it’s too dangerous. Going out with the army is safer than with small teams, so very few are willing to go out privately, though he can help us ask around.” Li Tie said, looking somewhat displeased. “He also said that even if someone is willing to take the job, it’d probably be at a high price—not cheap—so we should be mentally prepared.”
Yan Fei replied bluntly, “There’s no need. We’d like an earth-type ability user to cooperate with us, but it’s not essential. These past few days we’ve needed to drive wall foundations into the ground while building the wall. After we get familiar with it this month, we should be able to set up a trap fairly easily when we go out again.” What he didn’t say was that he and Luo Xun both had four days off this month—if it really came to it, they could head out early and dig traps at the place they’d stayed before.
But that would be too risky, and it would mean they’d have to temporarily team up with other squads. With only the two of them, the danger would be far too great. Unless absolutely necessary, there was no reason to do that.
Li Tie and the others didn’t dwell on the issue. Hearing that Yan Fei’s recent work involved digging pits, they immediately became cheerful. “That’s for the best, for the best!” Earth-type ability users were hard to find mainly because the military had monopolized them. Otherwise, there were actually more of them than most other ability users—why would they all act like pampered lords?
Zhang Su sat quietly in the back of the vehicle with his eyes closed, not joining the discussion. Recently he’d been absorbing crystal cores to improve his strength. Every night after returning, the large iron sandbags Yan Fei had made for him were left battered and scarred, needing reshaping every few days. As he consumed more crystal cores, he could clearly feel improvements in his control, usage, and power—but it still wasn’t enough. He needed more, more crystal cores, so he was eagerly looking forward to the next day they went out of the city.
The vehicle stopped at the military camp entrance. As they parted, Li Tie and the others said to Luo Xun, “We’ll bring back gasoline when we return today!”
Luo Xun and Yan Fei drove everyone to the camp each day, and Li Tie’s group simply handled exchanging points for gasoline. Given the nature of their work, they could get it at an internal price at the camp’s exchange window—much cheaper than buying it outside.
After locking their car, Luo Xun and Yan Fei hurried toward the small plaza inside the camp. From afar, they could already see that the southern wall had been completed and was now expanding in other directions.
After riding back to the outer wall area, they found that yesterday’s work had still been in a trial phase, so progress hadn’t been fast. However, the foundation locations had been chosen and tested. Once everyone became more proficient, the work would proceed smoothly.
Climbing the tall staircase up to the top of the wall and looking down at the zombies waving up at them, Luo Xun, for the first time, found those zombie faces rather adorable. He touched the backpack on his back, forcibly suppressing the excitement in his heart—not yet. They had to wait a bit longer before testing…
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