STB Chapter 26: Mushroom

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 special ability is this?

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The flames extinguished.

Struggling, both crawled out of the unrecognizable car, lying on the ground to catch their breath.

Jian Hua was drenched in cold sweat, his face pale, fingers spasming as intense pain spread through him, his organs feeling crushed by some force—-his special ability had fully awakened in this life-or-death moment.

In Li Fei’s perception, the beast that slumbered in darkness stood up, roaring discontentedly, furiously tearing apart the monster and then fixing its greedy gaze on himself. He instinctively wanted to resist, but the sense of crisis and murderous intent ebbed away like a tide.

Jian Hua coughed painfully, awakened by the smoke left from the fire. He wiped the ash from his face, and before him lay the partially cooked corpse of a large squid, along with the deformed, overturned car.

“Li Fei?”

“I’m here.”

Since they had climbed out on opposite sides of the car, they couldn’t see each other. Li Fei extended his hand and moved half a meter forward to indicate he was alive and well.

Jian Hua felt reassured, too weak to stand, and continued lying down.

Li Fei, after catching his breath, walked over to Jian Hua. Seeing each other’s disheveled appearance, they both felt like laughing.

Covered in ash, hair a mess, the latest Parisian fashion and Jian Hua’s supermarket clothes indistinguishable, arms streaked with blood, pants torn by shattered glass.

If they begged at a subway entrance, they’d likely be chased away for looking too dirty. Nowadays, beggars in big cities dress cleanly—-torn is okay, but not dirty, let alone looking like they’ve just escaped a disaster movie.

Li Fei, not fussy, casually sat next to Jian Hua, rubbing his forehead, “Next time we go out, remind me to drive an off-road vehicle, a good quality one.”

“A Hummer, do you have one?” Jian Hua doubted it fit the actor’s style.

“I’ll buy one when we get back,” Li Fei said seriously.

Jian Hua rolled his eyes, not wanting to talk to the rich man.

—-His heart was beating fast, possibly from the close brush with death or the aftereffects of his ability awakening.

Li Fei picked up a segment of the rainforest squid’s tentacle, studying the corpse. With his back to Jian Hua, he pondered how the creature died.

He had “seen” countless thin threads draining energy from the surroundings.

The flames disappeared, and the rainforest squid convulsed wildly…

Confirming that the tentacle in his hand and the entire corpse had shrunk compared to when the squid was alive, Li Fei felt a chill down his neck.

Still, he didn’t show any signs of concern and jokingly asked, “The Huai City news can report a car self-combusting, but how do they explain a giant roasted squid in the middle of the road?”

Jian Hua took a deep breath, “Are you sure the corpses of creatures from the abandoned world appear in the real world?”

Li Fei thought about it and found it made sense.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Jian Hua asked, puzzled.

“Taking photos of this troublemaker with my phone. If the Red Dragon people cause trouble, we’ll give this to them,” Li Fei said casually.

The recent chase had affected four streets, causing little major damage to buildings but wreaking havoc on cars along the way. Vehicles turned upside down, others punctured with large holes in both the front and rear windows, were a common sight. The median barriers in the middle of the road were all down, and several valuable ginkgo trees were severely damaged.

“Got it?” Jian Hua asked without much hope.

“Can’t…” Li Fei sighed, looking at the dark screen of his phone and pocketing it. “We need to leave here quickly. Who knows how many more of these squids are in Huai City.”

Jian Hua barely managed to stand, refusing Li Fei’s offer to help. His strength was gradually returning, but he felt uncomfortable and bloated inside, his previous hunger now gone.

“Leave the car here?” Jian Hua asked, seeking Li Fei’s opinion.

Li Fei, confirming the car was a write-off, reasoned that fixing it would cost as much as a new car: “We can’t fool the Red Dragon; the burn marks left in the hospital corridor on the ninth floor say it all. As for the rest… let’s hide it if we can.”

The Ferrari’s license plate had fallen off at some point. To avoid trouble, it was best to find it.

They walked back two streets and successfully recovered the license plate.

“Your injuries?”

“Just superficial wounds, nothing deep. There’s a clinic up ahead; not sure if their medicines will work, but they at least have bandages,” Jian Hua pointed.

The disheveled duo entered an alley, first spotting Jian Hua’s car, then the clinic’s sign a short distance away.

The clinic was empty, probably because Dr. Cheng hadn’t entered the abandoned world this time.

Jian Hua struggled to remove his jacket and shirt, revealing a wound on his back. The scabbed wound reopened as he tore off his clothes, a fresh red bloodstain trickling down the contours of his spine.

Li Fei: “…”

Jian Hua turned, puzzled. Why was the usually cooperative actor suddenly dropping the ball? Didn’t he see the wound on his back, and why wasn’t he helping? Jian Hua couldn’t reach it himself.

“How do I use this?” Li Fei looked at the bandages, iodine, rubbing alcohol, seemingly slow only because he was unfamiliar with these tasks.

“Haven’t you played a doctor?” Jian Hua blurted.

Li Fei calmly replied, “Even if I did, those error-ridden shows, can you trust them?”

Jian Hua had no rebuttal.

“First clean the wound… Just dab it with a cotton ball.”

Before Jian Hua could continue, he felt a cool hand on his bare back, shivering involuntarily. To cover his embarrassment, he said in a low voice, “Isn’t your ability fire? Why are your hands so cold?”

“I just washed them!” Li Fei responded, not daring to apply medicine without washing his hands.

He approached Jian Hua openly, carefully observing the smooth muscle lines, butterfly-like shoulder blades, and lean waist. His palm rested on the warm skin while the other hand dabbed iodine around the wound with a cotton ball.

The sting made Jian Hua’s entire back tense.

Li Fei was very meticulous and patient in cleaning the wound, but Jian Hua was somewhat overwhelmed.

When applying the hemostatic powder, the wound instinctively contracted. Li Fei’s breathing faltered, and Jian Hua had already turned around, grabbing the bandage and wrapping it carelessly a few times.

For a moment, Li Fei regretted not having any wounds that required Jian Hua’s help, aside from the glass cuts on his arm.

“How much money do you have on you?”

“I have a card.”

“…Never mind.” Jian Hua opened Dr. Cheng’s drawer, took out a piece of paper, wrote down the items he used, marked the account, signed his name, and put the note back in the drawer.

“Do you know the doctor here?”

“Yes.” Jian Hua hesitated, then added, “He’s also a special ability user.”

Li Fei understood that even if the medicine mysteriously disappeared and the note inexplicably appeared, the doctor wouldn’t be surprised.

After leaving the clinic, Jian Hua drove this time, and Li Fei put his car’s license plate in the trunk, choosing to sit in the back. The car drove into the residential area at a leisurely pace, parking under a building.

“It seems there are no traces of monsters here.”

Li Fei remained vigilant; black furballs were adept at hiding, not to mention the rainforest squids. Surveying the area, his expression gradually turned strange. He noticed mushrooms growing in the cracks of the ground by the roadside and in the grass. Was Huai City’s autumn rain so plentiful that mushrooms were sprouting on the ground?

The grey-white caps of the mushrooms were thick and flourishing.

They grew quietly, appearing harmless.

This wasn’t a wild mountain range with rotting wood everywhere, so where did all these mushrooms come from?

Li Fei stepped back cautiously. After all, no one could guarantee that creatures from the abandoned world were only the running and jumping type; what if plants counted too?

“What’s wrong?” Jian Hua came over and looked, then froze.

“Is there something unusual?” Li Fei had come to regard Jian Hua’s ability as a safety detector.

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

—-Speaking of which, hadn’t a box of mushrooms mysteriously disappeared from his home?

There were no black furballs or other monsters here, and the neighborhood was dead silent.

“Let’s check your place first.” Li Fei walked into the building, only to come out a second later, muttering to himself in disbelief, “Am I dreaming?”

Jian Hua, full of confusion, also entered the building, then stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed and speechless.

Giant mushrooms brazenly occupied all the space in the hallway, even blocking the doors of the second-floor residents. The mushrooms squeezed through the gaps in the railings, forming a thick layer on the ground.

The walls and stairs were nowhere to be seen, the continuous grey-white caps resembling the indentations on a leather sofa.

The entire hallway was as exaggerated as a padded room in a psychiatric hospital, designed to prevent patients from harming themselves.

“…”

Jian Hua was shocked, not only because he didn’t instinctively leave the bizarre scene, but he also felt a reassuring sense of homecoming—-though his actual home was indeed in this building.

“These aren’t mushrooms.”

Inside, Li Fei had no choice but to follow Jian Hua. Unlike Jian Hua, Li Fei’s nerves tensed the moment he stepped into the hallway, his blood pulsing beneath his skin, filled with ominous premonitions.

Closing his eyes, Li Fei “saw” the power entwined in the building. It materialized into something resembling fungi, with large umbrella-like edges and mycelium-like forces slowly converging and then the mushrooms slowly “growing.”

“If not mushrooms, then what?”

“You should ask yourself…”

This power, similar to the invisible white threads that killed the rainforest squid, made Li Fei see many “mushroom mycelium” strands moving towards him. Since Jian Hua had no intent to attack, the “mycelium” eventually relented and retreated.

Li Fei looked stunned: “Maybe, it’s a physical manifestation of your ability?”

“You summon flames, and I grow mushrooms?” Jian Hua was filled with absurdity, wondering what kind of special ability this was.

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

“…I grabbed the tip of its tentacle.”

“And then it died.”

Watching Jian Hua’s bewildered expression, Li Fei added, “The power sustaining my flames was also absorbed by your ability.”

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The author has something to say:

Oyster mushrooms, oyster mushrooms… yes, the kind we eat.

Apparently, they are ferocious fungi. When lacking nutrition, their mycelium can penetrate passing insects and suck them dry (￣0￣) oh.

These mushrooms aren’t creatures from the abandoned world, nor cute beings. They’re like Li Fei’s flames, just a manifestation of a special ability…

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Last Edit:  December 20, 2023 at 3:49 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.