Chapter 436: Infectious Objects (please vote for this chapter)
He Ao took out a pair of binoculars from the storage box in front of the car, opened the door, and looked through the gradually subdued rain curtain at the building in front shrouded in light fog.
There were faint figures of people passing under the building, walking slowly in the mist.
He Ao turned the button on the telescope and turned on the thermal imaging sensing function of the telescope. What he received back was a chaotic image.
Thermal imaging cameras will be affected by rain and dense fog, and are basically useless in this environment.
He Ao turned off the thermal imaging function and sat back in the driver's seat.
At this time, a towel was placed on his head, "Dad, don't move."
Aini carefully wiped the hair on He Ao's head with a towel, "Your clothes are all wet. Do you want to change into another set of clothes? I brought a set of your clothes."
This girl actually wanted to get her father when she was cleaning up.
He Ao burst out laughing. He closed the door and restarted the vehicle. "Sit tight, we are ready to rush over."
"ah?"
Before Aini could react, the off-road vehicle suddenly accelerated, causing her to stumble and almost fall.
"Smelly daddy."
The little girl quickly hugged the passenger's headrest and pinched her father's shoulder, "You're teasing me again!"
He Ao laughed, put his foot on the accelerator, "Sit tight."
Aini muttered and sat back on the chair while hugging the pillow.
The moment she sat firmly, He Ao stepped on the accelerator.
Off-road vehicle speeds on the road.
"Dad, isn't there a house ahead? Why are you speeding up?"
Aini glanced at the hazy building in front of her and asked with some confusion.
"This road should be abandoned soon."
He Ao did not speak, but closed all the windows and increased the speed to the highest speed.
It is very dangerous to drive at this speed in this weather.
But stopping might be even more dangerous.
As the vehicle got closer and closer to the 'town', Aini also discovered something was wrong with these buildings.
As my father said, it's 'too quiet' here.
The whole town was in a strange, lifeless 'silence'.
No matter what kind of bad weather it is, when you are close to human residences, you will always hear some small sounds and see the traces of human creation.
These are the vitalities that human settlements should have.
When you walk here, you will have the first impression, ‘There are people living here’
But the 'small town' in front of her didn't give Aini any such feeling.
There are some damaged walls, empty sentry posts, and doors swinging in the wind with a sharp and harsh creaking sound.
All these are telling Aini that there is "no one" in this place.
But when she first arrived, she vaguely saw figures walking around these buildings.
She moved her gaze away from the buildings beside the road and looked around. Then she saw some white spots appearing on the road ahead in the light rain curtain.
"Dad, there seems to be something on the road ahead." She lay down between the driver's and passenger's seats and looked over. "It seems to be a white mushroom? Does this mushroom grow on the ground?"
At this point, she paused and swallowed her saliva, "These mushrooms look delicious..."
She looked at He Ao, her eyes shining with unusual excitement, "Dad, let's stop the car and pick some?"
"Do not move."
He Ao also swallowed his saliva and looked away from the mushrooms. He stepped on the accelerator and controlled his body not to look at the mushrooms.
"why,"
Aini was a little confused. Her bright brown eyes seemed to be completely filled with the white mushrooms. She reached out to pull He Ao's arm holding the steering wheel, "Dad, please stop, I'm so hungry, I want to eat that mushroom."
."
The speeding vehicle swayed.
He Ao let go of his right hand, grabbed his daughter's hand and pushed her back into the back row, and shouted sternly, "Close your eyes! Use the breathing method I taught you!"
This loud shout awakened some of Aini's sense. After hitting the back seat cushion, she glanced at He Ao in confusion, but still obeyed He Ao's order and closed her eyes.
At the same time, she began to take deep breaths, absorbing the power escaping in the air.
Martial arts practice cannot quickly improve Aini's mental resistance, but the initial practice of martial arts requires absolute concentration, which allows Aini to concentrate her energy to resist the temptation in the world.
Dark shadows emerged from the rain curtain.
That is each ‘person’.
Their bodies had already been split into countless cracks, revealing rotten flesh and pure white mushrooms emerging from the flesh cracks.
As they moved, the mushrooms on their bodies fell to the ground one by one, emitting an inexplicable and alluring fragrance.
The fragrance was so strong that even if Heao closed all the car windows, he could still smell it clearly.
These ‘people’ can no longer be counted as human beings, they are the fungi that cultivate these mushrooms.
Their lives have long since died, and their bodies are controlled by these mushrooms, looking for the next 'fungus base'.
He Ao suppressed the strong feeling of hunger that was constantly flowing out, held the steering wheel, and drove forward without hesitation.
On the road ahead, there were also shadows walking slowly, blocking He Ao's sneaking path.
Fatal temptation is in the air.
He Ao stepped on the accelerator and crashed into the shadows blocking the road in front.
"Dad, I'm so hungry."
Aini opened her eyes.
At this moment, the front of the off-road vehicle hit the shadow blocking the road ahead.
Those manipulated 'monsters' with human shapes were smashed into pieces as easily as tofu. Their muscles had already melted, and the muscles were replaced by dense white mycelium.
Seeing this scene, Aini's eyes became dull.
She should obviously find this scene terrifying and disgusting, but the first thought that came to her heart was 'delicious'.
Those mushrooms that fell from people and were smashed into juice should be extremely 'delicious'.
I'm so hungry, I really want to try it.
He Ao saw his daughter's dull expression through the rearview mirror. At this moment, shouting had no effect. He did not loosen his footsteps, and the speeding car passed over the mushrooms and moved forward.
Dense white mushrooms began to appear on both sides of the road.
This seems to be a field of mushrooms, with endless pure white mushrooms stretching all the way to the end of the sky, where the dark clouds meet the earth.
The smooth mushroom umbrella cover is stained with crystal rainwater, reflecting attractive colors under the dim light.
As there were more and more mushrooms around, the desire in He Ao's heart became more and more intense, as if there was another force controlling his body, asking him to step on the brakes, stop, and enjoy the delicious food at this time.
Pure white juice burst onto the rain-stained wheels.
Behind her, Aini got up from the back seat and tried to fight with him for control of the vehicle, but he pushed her back again.
The actions of the two people continued to repeat like this.
At the same time, shadows were knocked away by him.
There are fewer and fewer white mushrooms on the road.
Until the dim sky completely plunged into darkness, and the whole world fell into silence,
There is not a single white mushroom on the road.
He Ao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking back, Aini, who had exhausted all her strength and was no longer tempted, had sat tiredly in the back seat and fell asleep.
He turned on the car lights, slowed down the car, and continued to move forward slowly.
The rain curtain has gradually become smaller.
The wilderness in the dark night is very dangerous, and a strange beast will suddenly appear from nowhere.
Powerful alien beasts are different from those 'people' controlled by mycelium. Their bodies are more or less solid. If they are hit by one while driving at high speed, there is a high probability that neither the person nor the car will be saved.
And the visual distance in the dark is also very short, so we can only slow down the car.
The air was still filled with that weird aroma, which was the juice of those white mushrooms splashed on the off-road vehicle, but it gradually dissipated under the wash of the rain.
Heao knew exactly what they had just encountered.
Ghost mushroom.
This is a mushroom-like thing that can lure animals to eat it, then take root and sprout in the animal's body, using flesh and blood as a breeding ground to grow wantonly.
After it is eaten by the host, it will drive the host to find the gathering place of the host population and lure more life to become its 'mycobase'.
If the host dies on the way back to the gathering place, it will use mycelium to control the host's body and continue moving forward until the host's body collapses and new ghost mushrooms fall to the ground.
Or arrive at the host's population gathering place to attract more lives to eat the ghost mushrooms on the host.
Judging from Ronal's memory, once infected with ghost mushrooms, there is almost no cure.
Only the constant burning flames can completely burn the mycelium of the ghost mushroom.
The last time He Ao heard about ghost mushrooms was when Ronal was a copy.
At that time, he rescued a young man outside the Wilderness Wanderer Factory. The young man told He Ao that he had seen a large dense field of "ghost mushrooms" outside Chenxi City. The boy's parents also died of ghost mushroom infection.
Thinking of this, He Ao realized that there was such a huge group of ghost mushrooms in the place he just passed by. Even if He Ao's "hitchhiking" gang convoy did not encounter those wilderness wanderers, they would probably be wiped out.
Thinking about it this way, it is also possible that those wilderness wanderers discovered the ghost mushrooms here, so they chose to strike first and robbed the convoy's belongings.
After all, after the convoy enters the scope of the ghost mushroom, even if all the people are dead, the wilderness wanderers will not dare to go in and take those things.
Every wilderness wanderer knows the rule, 'Stay as far away from dangerous things as possible.'
This is one of the rules for wilderness wanderers to survive in the wilderness.
However, judging from the road the convoy chose to pass through, this road should have been safe before, at least it was safe when the convoy last passed.
The time between two passes for this kind of convoy generally does not exceed one month.
In other words, at least a month ago, there were no ghost mushrooms in the place they just passed. This period may actually be shorter.
Calculated this way, the growth rate of ghost mushrooms is too fast.
Ronald's knowledge of ghost mushrooms was limited to the information collected by his father and the stories of a few wilderness wanderers who entered their camp.
In the entire wilderness, the knowledge about ghost mushrooms is very weak.
Because generally after seeing this thing, most people will be tempted by it, and the entire wilderness wanderer camp or family will be destroyed overnight.
Under such circumstances, surviving and escaping is already the limit, let alone doing research.
However, even things like ghost mushrooms cannot be generated out of thin air.
Since there were no ghost mushrooms in the area just now, it could only be that someone brought them here.
For some reason, He Ao remembered the vast "Ghost Mushroom Field" that the young man said he had seen outside Chenxi City.
Where does the source come from?
Then he shook his head again.
Limen City is in the north of Chenxi City, hundreds of kilometers away from Chenxi City.
The boy walked straight and finally arrived at the south gate of Chenxi City, which meant that the ghost mushroom field was probably a little south of Chenxi City.
The convoy that He Ao followed was heading north to Irons City.
To the south and north, the distance is even further.
The spread of ghost mushrooms generally depends on the actions of animals themselves.
Of course, this kind of situation may not happen. For example, if you encounter a very fast alien beast and run all the way for a long time, directly from Chenxi City to Limen City.
It is also possible that there are ghost mushrooms nearby, and these ghost mushrooms came from not far away.
However, there is another possibility.
What if someone could move with the ‘spores’ of the ghost mushroom?
A word came to He Ao's mind,
'sowing'
Then he shook the word out of his mind. This possibility was still too weak.
However, he was still wary of ghost mushrooms.
According to the characteristics of the ghost mushroom, if it appeared in a densely populated fortress city, the consequences would be almost devastating.
Moreover, He Aogang personally fought against the ghost mushrooms, and he also discovered some information that he had never known before.
The 'temptation' of ghost mushrooms can be superimposed. The greater the number, the greater the temptation.
And the actions of the 'dead bodies' controlled by ghost mushrooms also have a certain convergence, and are not chaotic instinctive movements.
In other words, these 'dead bodies' have certain 'commands'.
This command naturally cannot come from those dead corpses, but most likely comes from ghost mushrooms.
Ghost mushrooms most likely have some kind of 'wisdom'.
I just don’t know whether this wisdom is real wisdom or a more advanced hunting instinct.
For He Ao, these ghost mushrooms are potential dangers.
There are not many roads in the wilderness. If He Ao still takes this road back, he will definitely encounter these ghost mushrooms again.
He Ao shook his head, temporarily clearing these thoughts.
He glanced at his daughter sleeping in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
These ghost mushrooms may need to be dealt with, but his first priority now is to find a place where he can communicate and provide supplies.
The place he just passed by, which has been devoured by ghost mushrooms as value-added nutrients, should be the nearby wilderness wanderer camp.
Normally, the same area cannot support two wilderness wanderer camps.
I don’t know where the next wilderness wanderer camp will be.
If that doesn't work, I can only try to find a way to see if I can find a family of wanderers in the wilderness.
At this moment, He Ao's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked forward.
In the depths of the night, the lights of two cars slowly appeared.
