The Mushroom's Silent Struggle Chapter 7

Then, he became lighter, floating in the air. The sunlight coming in from the window turned into a vast ocean, and the papers and notebooks on the desk were soaked into a white ball.

Adrian An blinked his eyes. He didn't feel uncomfortable, but he felt that all his movements became very, very slow and erratic. He couldn't control his body. He felt like he was flying up, and about to fall.

And then---the world in front of his eyes gradually turned black and he completely lost consciousness.

He was awakened by the cold. When he looked up, he found that the endless gray buildings outside the window were immersed in the golden afterglow of the setting sun. It had been at least seven or eight hours since he fell asleep or fainted. It turned out that the toxicity of his mycelium made people sleepy.

The temperature in the room dropped a lot in the evening, and Adrian An lay back on the bed and wrapped himself in the quilt, which restored the temperature. But after the numbness brought by the cold dissipated, he was hungry again.

Adrian An would rather absorb nutrients from mushrooms, but along the way, he did not find even a piece of moist soil in the entire base. He could only eat. Humans are very troublesome creatures, and he frowned.

Fortunately, Ethan An's remaining memories told him where to eat. The base was divided into eight areas, and areas 6, 7, and 8 were the main residential areas. Here, each building was a community, and the first floor was the lobby. Water and food were supplied on a regular basis every day. Children under the age of sixteen had free quotas, and adults over the age of sixteen needed to swipe their cards to pay in base currency, and the currency unit was the letter r.

There weren't many people in the hall, about fifty or so. There were only two food windows, one selling pureed food made from the tubers of a certain plant, and the other selling... soup made from the tubers of the same plant. He searched his memory and vaguely remembered that the plant was called potato.

Adrian An card payment.

Mashed potatoes, price 05, balance 95.

Potato soup, price 03, balance 92.

Adrian An stared at the number representing the balance in the card and realized that he would be on the verge of starvation in a few days. It felt like a mushroom taking root in dry soil, facing death at any time.

---This feeling became more obvious when he returned to the fifth floor after eating and spent 01r to get water in the public water room.

So he added another thing to do: find a source of income.

After screwing the standard stainless steel bottle cap on, Adrian An held it in his hand and was about to turn around when a voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Ethan An?"

The sound was loud and trembling, echoing in the small space.

Adrian An turned around.

Standing in the corridor was a young man, tall and handsome. At this moment, the man was looking at him with his eyes wide open, his lips trembling, and it was difficult to tell whether his expression was joy or shock.

"Ethan An?" He called again: "You...are back? You are not---"

Having said this, he suddenly became speechless, his face turned pale, as if he didn't know how to continue.

But Adrian An knew what he wanted to say, because he knew this person, his name was Qiao Xi.

Qiao Xi is Ethan An's neighbor and friend. They grew up together. Sometimes, Qiao Xi would take care of Ethan An, and more often, Ethan An would also take care of him. Those spots of remaining memories appeared in front of Adrian An. br >

But his knowledge of Qiao Xi did not entirely come from Ethan An's memories. He had seen this person when he was a mushroom. What he saw combined with Ethan An's memories just completed the real cause of Ethan An's death.

Ethan An is a person who makes a living by writing. His job is to write some novels, essays or poems for people's entertainment and submit them to the base. The base will regularly publish such pamphlets to people. However, just three months ago, in order to save the increasingly scarce manpower and resources, the base removed this department.

At that time---

"Ethan An, what book are you reading?" Qiao Xi asked.

"I want to prepare for the selection test for the base supply station," Ethan An circled and drew on the book with a pen, "I think I will like the work content there, and the salary is not bad."

Josie frowned.

"You want to leave your civilian status?" he asked. "The exam is very difficult."

Ethan An said: "It's okay."

"Ethan An," his tone became stern, "You obviously always knew that I wanted to go to the wild with you."

Ethan An smiled, his tone was very gentle, as if he was coaxing this wayward friend, but also like a helpless sigh: "I am not suitable to go out."

"I will protect you." Josie put her arm around his shoulders and softened her voice: "I can't leave you. You follow me into the wild, and we won't go to any dangerous places."

Those fragments in the memory were roughly like this. In the end, after Qiao Xi's soft and hard persuasion, Ethan An agreed to go on an adventure in the wild with him. Qiao Xi was a member of a large mercenary team. He had made many contributions and was able to introduce Ethan An to the team smoothly, who was responsible for the distribution and statistics of supplies.

But in the wild, anything can happen. On that day, the convoy lost its way and drove into the edge of the abyss. By the time they found that there were unusually many mushrooms here, it was too late. The monsters in the abyss would not let go of any food that came into their mouths.

For humans, even the edge of the abyss is terrifying. Three of the five armored vehicles were damaged, and the people in the other three panicked and moved to the intact armored vehicles. When escaping, Ethan An pushed Qiao Xi, allowing him to barely avoid the attack of the winged monster in the air, but Ethan An was tripped by the vines on the ground.

Qiao Xi stood there in a daze for a second. After that second, the instinct for survival overwhelmed everything. Between pulling up Ethan An and escaping himself, he chose the latter. He gritted his teeth and ran forward. He was pulled onto the armored vehicle by the captain. At this moment, Ethan An looked at their figures, with his chest pierced by the monster's bone spurs.

The mercenaries used their heaviest firepower to engage in a fierce battle with the monsters, fighting and retreating. Their movements were so loud that they woke up Adrian An in the middle of the battle. He came out to look for spores, but he always returned empty-handed. This time was an exception. While the battle was fierce, he quietly picked up Adrian An and brought him back to the deep cave.

So at this moment, facing Qiao Xi, Adrian An had nothing to say. When facing death, the first reaction of any creature is to escape. Qiao Xi did nothing wrong, but he didn't like him.

"You... don't seem like yourself anymore." Qiao Xi's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty: "Have you recovered from your injury? Have you escaped from the abyss?"

Adrian An just looked at him calmly.

"No, you are not Ethan An." Qiao Xi took a step back, his face pale: "You are an alien."

"Sorry." Adrian An walked out and passed him by: "I accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms and can't remember who you are."