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.
What’s interfering and affecting him is not the mushrooms, but ‘destiny’.
Moans emanated from a corner of the studio.
Jian Hua looked up, quickly sensing through his ability that it was a potential superhuman who hadn’t fully awakened yet, surrounded by chaotic energy fluctuations.
The deceased who appeared in the studio was likely this person’s companion.
Recalling the horrific wounds on the corpse, Jian Hua suspected this person might have also been attacked by monsters, possibly struggling between life and death, covered in injuries.
He hesitated; without medicine or medical skills, he couldn’t help even if he went over.
The sight of mushrooms bouncing everywhere made Jian Hua’s temples throb. He feared the mushrooms might drag the person to him as a “present.” Eventually, he decided to check the corner.
The studio, eight meters high, had become a landscape of uneven “hills” due to the mushrooms’ unrestrained growth.
Climbing a “steep slope,” Jian Hua found deep pits encircled by mushrooms, containing long-armed monkeys — some dead, others screaming and struggling weakly, wrapped in life-draining white filaments.
Jian Hua’s emotions were indescribable.
It was like walking above a dungeon, where prisoners couldn’t die even if they hit the walls. The only side without mushrooms was covered in a net of interwoven white threads. Through this mesh, he could see the dying creatures of the Abandoned World, losing their lives in agony.
This place was not a dungeon but an execution ground, a living coffin.
The only sound was the light rustling of the growing mycelium.
–you are the final antagonist of the book.
–you want to control the world.
The absurd words resurfaced in his mind with a crushing force, making him feel breathless. Everything seemed distorted, ludicrous, and blurry.
Jian Hua instinctively looked for Li Fei, who was casually brushing off the white filaments that landed on his shoulder, looking around with no smile but no fear either.
Sensing Jian Hua’s discomfort, Li Fei turned and pointed to the corner of the “mushroom dungeon”: “The person is there.”
Approaching Li Fei, Jian Hua was enveloped in a familiar scent and steadied by the firm grip on his arm.
“What’s wrong?” Li Fei’s voice cut through the chaos, exceptionally clear.
Jian Hua clung to it like a lifeline, gripping Li Fei’s hand back. The warmth from the contact dissipated the eeriness and chilling discomfort brought by the surrounding scene.
Jian Hua heard his own heartbeat and heavy breathing again.
“I don’t want this ability,” Jian Hua’s voice was weak but resolute.
The mushrooms suddenly fell silent.
Their growth and spread ceased, and the pervasive filaments stopped moving. The trapped monkeys in the dungeon took advantage of this and increased their struggles and cries, attempting to break free from the mycelium that held them.
Jian Hua had had enough of this disobedient, self-acting devouring ability that decided its form of mushrooms!
But he wasn’t used to complaining and eventually suppressed his irritation.
Li Fei asked softly, “Is the situation with your ability getting out of control?”
“It’s not out of control; it’s its instinct,” Jian Hua replied, rubbing his forehead tiredly. “I can’t command it 24/7 to control its actions. It’s like a real plant, lacking consciousness but possessing a tenacious survival instinct.”
Just like someone planting sunflowers couldn’t influence their innate love for sunlight.
The insatiable greed of the devouring ability…
“You’re taking things too seriously,” Li Fei said, masking the unusual look in his eyes and focusing on persuading Jian Hua. “I think the danger level of the Abandoned World has escalated, causing them to expand their territory.”
Their voices were low, blending with the noise of long-armed monkeys tearing and howling, making it unclear.
The person trapped in the mushroom dungeon, sensing something from the monsters’ cries, desperately shouted for help: “Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? I’m here, these mushrooms seem to have stopped moving…”
“That’s a strong voice, much more energetic than the long-armed monkeys,” Li Fei commented, glancing in that direction.
“…”
“Take my ability, for example. It’s easy to destroy things, but using it to kill requires much more control because it crosses my subconscious moral line.”
Li Fei, dressed in an elegant British-style coat and black checkered shirt, maintained his grace even amidst the bizarre mushroom landscape. The only thing ruining his image was the plastic bag of lunch boxes in his hand.
Jian Hua felt like tossing those lunch boxes away.
He wouldn’t mind replacing them with a cigarette or something more fitting the scene. The director and makeup artist had been so particular about Li Fei’s appearance during the seven days of filming, that they seemed to have infected the onlookers with their perfectionism.
“I said before, these creatures didn’t devour Geng Tian and Zhang Yaojin when you were unaware. But when it comes to malicious creatures from the Abandoned World, there’s no stress for you. You don’t even have a concept of them in your subconscious.” Li Fei concluded calmly, “Your ability is closely linked to you. Your emotions affect it, and your concepts control it. Don’t lose confidence in yourself.”
Jian Hua remained silent.
What was disturbing him was not the mushrooms, but ‘destiny’.
“See it as a sudden trouble that we will eventually conquer,” Li Fei suggested, flicking off the white filaments from his hair and tossing them to the ground.
“It could kill you at any moment,” Jian Hua said coldly.
A giant mushroom beside Li Fei suddenly opened its cap, dropping a net-like cover over him.
“That presupposes I owe it wages, or abandon you in the Abandoned World, causing you to hate me,” Li Fei said earnestly. His body emitted a faint glow, the traces of his power’s fluctuation both distinct and prominent.
The mushrooms, stimulated, revived.
Jian Hua instinctively stepped back, awed by the sheer power of Li Fei’s ability, surpassing anything he had seen.
“Even if your ability loses control, I still have a chance to survive. I wouldn’t gamble with my own life.”
Flames rose, burning the net. The white filaments first contracted, then sprouted around Li Fei’s feet, seemingly in retaliation.
Jian Hua waited and saw that the mushrooms made no further move.
Was it because the mushrooms sensed weakness, or were they influenced by him?
“Let’s check on the person attacked by the monster,” Li Fei said, not allowing Jian Hua time to think, and walked towards the end of the mushroom dungeon.
The mushroom structure, made of mycelium, was extremely soft. The unfortunate person trying to climb up was promptly pushed back down by the impatient mycelium.
“Help me!”
The vibrations from walking on mushrooms were transmitted along the “walls,” alerting the injured person to their approach. The hopeful victim cried out, “I’m here, help me! Be careful of the threads on the mushrooms!”
The “pit” in the dungeon was about three meters deep.
The trapped person looked up, and through the opening in the white filament net, saw two men.
The studio lights were blocked by the mushrooms, casting darkness, making it hard to see the faces of the rescuers, but he could tell they were two men.
“I’m so glad to see living people in this cursed place!”
The person wiped the blood from his face and nervously recounted how he and another person had run into monsters while touring a scenic spot.
They had fled to the road to find help but encountered black furballs and monkeys along the way, leading them to this studio. They had hoped to find shelter in a building, but the studio’s numerous ventilation openings made it impossible to block the monsters. Just as they were about to be overwhelmed by the monkeys, the studio shook, and white filaments dragged away his unconscious companion.
“My God, look at that huge black hole! You see it, right? It must be the mouth of a monster; the filaments came from there!”
“Actually, it’s just full of mushrooms here.”
Li Fei pulled out a rope used for set decorations and threw one end into the “mushroom pit.”
“You’d better climb up yourself; this place is dangerous, and we need to leave quickly.” After speaking, Li Fei signaled Jian Hua to retreat. The studio was now full of hiding spots, and just pulling over a mushroom could cover them both.
“Hey, hey, don’t go!”
The man in the pit panicked and clumsily climbed out using the rope.
Once out, he looked around, hearing only the rustling of the mycelium. The terrifying sight of long-armed monkeys being gradually killed by the filaments in similar pits nearly made him faint. He stumbled away, not looking back, stepping on mushrooms as he fled.
“Help! Help me—”
Li Fei watched the man escape, his gaze thoughtful.
Two people had encountered monsters; one was severely injured and unconscious, while the other could run and jump. One had fatal wounds on the head and chest, the other only superficial scratches on the limbs.
“Move out, take those monkey corpses with you!” Jian Hua commanded the mushrooms.
The mushrooms, filling the studio, joyfully expanded their territory, leaving a mess for Jian Hua and Li Fei.
“…”
What else could they do but work to restore order as much as possible?
Thankfully, their abilities were based on mental power, making moving objects effortless.
Li Fei squatted beside an overturned camera, studying it and finding it in good condition.
The monkeys hadn’t been in the studio long enough to cause significant damage. Due to the mycelium, the studio’s items were all covered in white filaments. The mushrooms themselves were soft, so although the equipment was compressed, it wasn’t damaged.
The filming cart holding the camera and the toppled set pieces were quickly handled by Li Fei, but the numerous small items in the studio, especially those that usually went unnoticed, posed a challenge.
Li Fei felt like he was in the final round of a memory test on a variety show. Being an ordinary person, he could only remember the general layout and the details were far off.
As he pondered this, he turned around to find that Jian Hua, handling the other half of the studio, was an exceptionally efficient partner.
Confidently arranging the larger items and leaving a pile of smaller ones uncertain, Li Fei noticed that Jian Hua had meticulously restored various areas. Pondering the placement of a teacup compared to Li Fei’s uncertainty about where to place a chair was a stark difference.
“You remember all this?” Li Fei asked in surprise.
“Yeah,” Jian Hua replied emotionlessly, setting up a plywood partition to recreate the makeup and changing rooms. “Good memory doesn’t put food on the table,” he added before pausing in front of the female actors’ changing room.
Li Fei chuckled, throwing a pile of clothes into the arranged compartments. “Let’s just say there was an earthquake,” he suggested.
“Don’t just throw them in there. What if something doesn’t belong?” Jian Hua cautioned.
“…Start with what you remember,” Li Fei advised, using the process of elimination.
In the Abandoned World, where time had no meaning, they finally sat down, stumped by the array of lipsticks, powder cases, eye shadows, brushes, skincare products, foundations, and nourishing oils scattered on the floor.
Broken and damaged items aside, distinguishing which items belonged to the studio’s makeup artists and which to the actors’ personal makeup artists was a daunting task.
The items looked so similar that even a single misplaced brush would likely be immediately noticed by the makeup artists.
Last Edit: December 20, 2023 at 4:14 PM
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.
Thanks for the chapter! ; D
Well… that certainly is a test of your memory for how things were placed.
Feels like a spot the difference game with before and after pictures lol =P
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the update and your hard work 😄.
Hmm. I wonder what Jian Hua meant by comparing the two guys. Is he implying this guy sacrificed his companion?
No idea how to fix tgge makeup issue. Just blame it on an earthquake?
awww Jian Hua held Li Fei’s hand to reassure himself… so cute…!
Thanks for the chapter~ (～￣▽￣)～