STB Chapter 26: Mushrooms

This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.

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Jian Hua felt absurd, what kind of ability is this?

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The flames went out.

The two of them crawled out of the car, which was completely unrecognizable, and lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

Jian Hua was covered in a cold sweat. His face was pale and his fingers spasmed as a great pain spread. His internal organs seemed to be crushed by some force——his ability was fully awakened at this moment of life and death.

In Li Fei’s eyes, the fierce beast sleeping in the darkness stood up with a roar and dissatisfaction as it angrily ripped apart the monster but still stared greedily at him. He instinctively wanted to resist, but the crisis and killing intent receded like a tide.

Jian Hua coughed hard because of the smoke left by the flames. He woke up and wiped away the black ashes on his face. In front of him stood a large squid corpse, not sure whether it was cooked or not, and a car that was deformed and turned upside down by this monster.

“Li Fei?”

“I’m here.”

Because they climbed out of the car window on opposite sides and there was a car in the middle, they couldn’t see each other. Li Fei could only stretch out his hand and move his body forward by half a meter, indicating that he was still alive.

Jian Hua was determined, but he was so weak that couldn’t even get up so he could only continue to lie down.

On the other hand, after Li Fei calmed down, he stood up and walked to Jian Hua’s side. The two of them wanted to laugh when they saw each other’s embarrassing appearance.

Full of soot and messy hair, his new Paris autumn edition clothes were no different from Jian Hua’s supermarket goods. There’s blood on their arms and their pants were also torn by broken glass.

If they grabbed a bowl and go to the subway to beg, they’d definitely disgust others and be driven out. Nowadays, even beggars in big cities pay attention to dressing cleanly with no tattered or dirty things, definitely not like someone who came out of a disaster film.

Li Fei didn’t mind, so he casually sat beside Jian Hua while rubbing his forehead, “Next time we go out, remember to remind me to take an off-road vehicle! The one with good quality.”

“Hummer, do you have it?” Jian Hua is sure that it wouldn’t match the actor’s style.

“I’ll buy it when I go back this time.” Li Fei solemnly said.

Jian Hua rolled his eyes, not wanting to speak with this local tyrant.

——his heartbeat was very fast, which might be due to the narrow escape from death, or the sequelae from the awakening of his ability.

Li Fei picked up a tentacle of the rainforest squid and pondered while looking at the corpse. With his back to Jian Hua, he lowered his eyes and wondered how this monster died.

When he “saw” the countless filaments, he felt the energy around him drain.

His flames were absorbed and the rainforest squid also twitched wildly…

After confirming that the tentacles and the whole body “shrunk” compared to when it was alive, Li Fei felt a chill on the back of his neck.

Despite this, Li Fei didn’t show any flaws, only asking with a smile, “Huai City News can report that a car spontaneously ignited, but how would they explain such a big grilled squid on the road?”

Jian Hua took a deep breath, “Are you sure that the corpses of monsters in the Abandoned World will appear in the real world?”

Li Fei thought about it and felt it was very reasonable.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Jian Hua looked at Li Fei suspiciously.

“Taking a picture of this culprit with a mobile phone. If the people from Red Dragon come looking for trouble, just slip this to them.” Li Fei casually said.

The chase just now involved four streets, and it didn’t cause any huge damage to the buildings, but all the cars along the way suffered disasters. Those turned upside down and those stabbed with two large holes in the front and rear windows by the tentacles were everywhere.

All the guardrails in the middle of the road fell and several precious ginkgo trees were badly damaged.

“Can you take a picture?” Jian had no hope.

“Can’t…” Li Fei looked at the dark screen, sighed then stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible. I don’t know how many squids are left in Huai City.”

Jian Hua could barely support himself to stand up. Li Fei planned to help him, but Jian Hua refused as his strength gradually recovered though his body was still uncomfortable. The feeling of hunger from before was also gone.

“Are we just leaving the car here?” Jian Hua raised his eyes to ask Li Fei’s opinion.

Li Fei felt sure that the car was scrapped, and the money to repair it was enough to buy a new car. “We can’t deceive the Red Dragon. The traces of fire left on the corridor on the ninth floor of the hospital are enough to tell everything. As for the rest…hide what we can.”

The Ferrari’s license plate was lost somewhere and if they don’t want to cause trouble, it’s best to get it back.

The two walked two blocks following the way they came and smoothly retrieved the license plate.

“Any injuries?”

“All skin trauma, not deep. The clinic is right in front. I don’t know whether the medicine inside will have any effect, but we can at least bandage it with gauze.” Jian Hua pointed in a direction.

The battered and exhausted duo walked into the alley. They first saw Jian Hua’s car then the clinic sign not far away.

There’s no one in the clinic so Cheng Lao didn’t enter the Abandoned World this time.

Jian Hua took off his coat and shirt with difficulty. He was injured on the back and when the clothes were torn off, the wound that had just scabbed burst again, and a dark red stain ran down the lines of his back.

Li Fei: “…”

Jian Hua turned his head in confusion. Why did the actor who cooperated with him all the way suddenly lose the chain? Seeing the injury on his back, why didn’t he come and help? He naturally can’t reach it himself.

“How do you use this?” Li Fei looked down at the bandages, iodine, and medical alcohol as if he hadn’t done these things to cover up his late reply.

“You’ve never played a doctor?” Jian Hua blurted out.

Li Fei calmly replied, “Even if I acted in one, can you believe those films that are full of mistakes in common sense?”

Jian Hua couldn’t refute.

“Clean the wound first…you can just wipe it with a cotton ball.”

Jian Hua had to wait again before feeling a cool palm pressed against his naked back. He shook involuntarily and to hide his embarrassment, he whispered, “Isn’t your ability fire? Why are your hands so cold?”

“I just washed them!” Li Fei was helpless. He dared not apply the medicine without washing his hands, okay?

He approached Jian Hua openly and fairly, carefully looking at the beautiful and smooth lines, the shoulder blades spread like butterfly wings, and the lean waist. With a palm on his warm skin, the other hand with a cotton ball dipped in iodine wiped the wounds.

The tingling sensation made Jian Hua’s entire back tense.

Li Fei cleaned this injury very carefully and very patiently, but Jian Hua couldn’t stand it.

Sprinkling the hemostatic powder, the wound instinctively contracted. Li Fei’s breathing went chaotic but Jian Hua had already turned around, picked up the bandage, and casually wrapped the wound in two rounds.

At that instant, Li Fei regretted that apart from the glass scratch on his arm, he didn’t have any injuries that needed Jian Hua’s help.

“How much do you have on you?”

“Only cards.”

“…forget it.” Jian Hua opened Cheng Lao’s drawer and took out a piece of paper and a pen. He listed the items they used, wrote to put them on his tab, and put them back in the drawer after signing his name.

“Do you know the doctor here?”

“En.” Jian Hua hesitated, then added, “he’s also an ability holder.”

Li Fei understood. Even if the medicine disappeared mysteriously and the note appeared strangely, the other party wouldn’t be surprised.

After leaving the clinic, they switched to Jian Hua’s car this time. Li Fei threw his car’s license plate in the trunk and consciously chose the back seat. The car entered a residential district unhurriedly and stopped under a residential building.

“There doesn’t seem to be a trace of monsters here.”

Li Fei didn’t let his guard down. The black hairballs were good at hiding, not to mention the rainforest squid.

Looking around, Li Fei’s expression gradually became strange, because he found mushrooms in the cracks of the roadside among the grass. Is it possible that rain in Huai City is so abundant in autumn? Enough that mushrooms are growing on the ground?

The gray-white caps are quite thick and the stalks very vigorous.

They quietly grew and looked very harmless.

This isn’t a wild, mountainous countryside where rotting wood is everywhere, so where did so many mushrooms come from?

Li Fei took a step back and looked around vigilantly. After all, no one can guarantee that the monsters in the Abandoned World would definitely be the type that can run and jump. What if even plants are counted?

“How?” Jian Hua came over to take a look and was stunned.

“What’s wrong?” Li Fei had already used the other party’s ability as a safety detector. 

Jian Hua shook his head while staring at the mushrooms on the ground.

——when he woke up, didn’t he inexplicably lose a box of mushrooms?

There are no black hairballs and no monsters. When the wind blew, the district was completely silent.

“Let’s go inside first.” Li Fei walked into the building first but he came out the next second. As calm as he was, he couldn’t help saying to himself, “Am I dreaming?”

Jian Hua’s eyes are full of doubts. He entered the building and then froze in place, dumbfounded.

The huge mushrooms arrogantly occupied all the space in the building and even blocked the way to the second floor. The mushrooms also squeezed through the gaps in the railings and spread a thick layer on the ground.

He couldn’t see the walls at all, not even the stairs. The endless gray-white mushroom caps looked like depressions on a leather sofa.

The whole building was no different from a safe room in a mental hospital. Well, the one with padded floors and ceilings to prevent patients from harming themselves.

“…”

What surprised Jian Hua was that not only did he not instinctively exit the building because of this bizarre sight, but he also felt a sense of security like he’d returned home——although it’s true that his home was in this building.

“These are not mushrooms.”

Jian Hua was inside so Li Fei could only follow him in. Contrary to Jian Hua, after he stepped into the building, his nerves tensed, his blood vessels throbbed under his skin and his heart was full of ominous premonitions.

Closing his eyes, Li Fei “saw” the energy entwined in this building. They have become morphological and their shape is the same as that of mushrooms. On the edge of the huge umbrella cap was the energy that the mycelium slowly gathered and then the mushroom slowly “grew”.

“What do you mean not mushrooms?”

“You have to ask yourself…”

This power is similar to the invisible white filaments that killed the rainforest squid. Li Fei even saw many “mushroom mycelia” coming toward him but because Jian Hua had no intention of attacking, the “mycelium” reluctantly left.

Li Fei’s eyes straightened, “Is it perhaps the embodiment of your ability?”

“You summon flames and I plant mushrooms?” Jian Hua felt absurd, what kind of ability is this?

Li Fei shook his head, “Mushrooms can’t kill the rainforest squid. Can’t you remember what happened then?”

“…I just grabbed the tip of the tentacle.”

“Then it froze and died.”

Looking at the dazed Jian Hua, Li Fei added, “I maintained the flames but it was sucked away by your ability.”

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The author has something to say:

Oyster mushroom, oyster mushroom……yes, it’s the kind of mushroom that we eat.

It’s said that it’s actually a murderous mushroom. When the nutrition is not enough, the mycelium will penetrate the passing insects and suck them dry (￣0￣) oh!

The mushrooms are not monsters in the Abandoned World nor are they cute. They’re no different from Li Fei’s flames and they’re the manifestation of an ability.

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Last Edit:     April 4, 2022, 2:23 AM

This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.