Chapter 43: Mimicking Mushrooms
“Yaoyao, are you feeling better?”
“Yaoyao, can you hear me?”
“Yao… don’t scare me…”
“Wait here, I’ll go get Wang Yi to take a look at you…”
Lin Xiwan paced anxiously beside the bed in their villa room.
Lin Jiayao lay on the bed, her face flushed.
For some reason, at the night market, Lin Xiwan had noticed her sister seemed distracted and unwell.
A little later, Lin Jiayao had fainted in her wheelchair, her forehead burning hot with fever.
No matter how she called out, her sister didn’t respond, as if unconscious.
She had immediately carried her sister and the wheelchair back to their room.
At first, Lin Xiwan thought the cool night air had made her frail sister catch a cold, but she quickly realized the situation was more serious.
Just as she was about to spend some blood crystals to get Wang Yi’s healing assistance, her sister finally opened her eyes.
“Sister…”
Hearing her sister’s weak voice, Lin Xiwan practically slid to the bedside and grabbed her hand.
“How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”
Looking at her sister’s concerned face, Lin Jiayao forced a weak smile, fighting the splitting headache. “I’m fine…”
Though she said so, she clearly didn’t look fine.
She looked incredibly weak.
Lin Jiayao didn’t want to worry her sister, but the side effects of using the Blood Orb Fungus ability had been unexpected.
When the fungus invaded a single person, it was fine, just some fragmented memories playing in her mind like a slideshow.
But when she spread the spores, infecting more than ten people simultaneously, her mind felt like it was exploding. She almost lost consciousness.
It was like someone blasting distorted music at maximum volume inside her head—through Bart Simpson’s mega-phone.
Enough to make anyone’s head explode.
Overloaded by the simultaneous influx of memories from more than ten people, Lin Jiayao had simply fainted.
Fortunately, before losing consciousness, she had given the command for the spores to mature within the Blood Gang members’ bodies, growing into fruiting bodies.
Only after the Blood Gang members lost consciousness did Lin Jiayao’s condition improve slightly.
As she recovered, she felt a wave of fear.
This ability… the side effects were too severe…
This wasn’t an ability meant for humans; it was meant for the mindless, emotionless fungus.
They didn’t have to process the memories; they simply parasitized the host body.
This confirmed Lin Jiayao’s suspicion that there wasn’t a single, intelligent leader controlling the Blood Orb Fungus. They were all independent, acting on instinct.
Then why hadn’t Survivor’s Light been completely overrun by the Blood Orb Fungus?
What methods could be used against it?
Lin Jiayao needed to figure these things out.
But now, she at least understood some of the characteristics of the Blood Orb Fungus.
Just now, she had used the Blood Orb Fungus to kill more than ten Blood Gang members who were planning to head to the highway.
The fungus had consumed their flesh and blood, grown fruiting bodies from their bodies, and continued to spread spores.
But this process could be interrupted.
The spores released from the fruiting bodies—the blood-red mushrooms—drifted for a dozen meters without encountering flesh and blood before falling to the ground, losing their potency and becoming inert.
And the blood-red mushrooms, after completely draining the Blood Gang members, withered away.
The Blood Gang had run to an abandoned field by the highway. There were no other living beings or zombies around.
Without new flesh and blood to consume, without new hosts, the Blood Orb Fungus withered and died by the roadside.
This revealed several key characteristics to Lin Jiayao.
Before maturing and growing mushrooms, the spores would remain in the host’s bloodstream as spores or tendrils, absorbing some energy.
In this form, they could coexist with the host for a long time. This was likely the state of most Blood Orb Fungus infections among ordinary people and Awakened in Survivor’s Light.
The other form was the active growth and consumption of flesh and blood or energy, developing into fruiting bodies.
Once this stage began, the host’s death was inevitable, as the blood-red mushrooms needed a large amount of flesh and blood or blood crystals to mature.
The “Mimics,” whether Awakened or ordinary people, were likely in this stage.
At this stage, the person’s consciousness and actions were completely replaced by the fungus; they were effectively living corpses.
And the fungus, while retaining the host’s memories, would spread its spores to as many people as possible – it was in their nature.
As for why the Blood Orb Fungus in Survivor’s Light, after maturing into mushrooms, didn’t become monstrous like the Blood Gang members, but retained a human form…
It was likely due to that gold evolution – [Mimic Fruiting Body].
[Mimic Fruiting Body Lv.1 (Gold): Your fungal tendrils can transform the parasitized host’s body into a fruiting body, directly entering the mature stage】
This evolution’s description stated that it could transform the host into a fruiting body.
In other words, at that stage, the person became the fungus, the mushroom, a human-shaped fruiting body spreading spores.
That gold mimicry evolution was likely the true form of the “Mimic” zombies.
She had to find a way to convey this information to the leadership of Survivor’s Light.
“I should still go get a doctor for you.” Seeing her sister’s dazed expression, Lin Xiwan gently pressed her hand.
“No need, Sister,” Lin Jiayao said, snapping out of her thoughts and sitting up. “I’m fine now.”
“Wait—”
Lin Xiwan tried to push her back down, but her sister was too quick.
Touching her sister’s forehead, she no longer felt the burning heat.
“Huh? You’re really better?” Lin Xiwan seemed incredulous. She carefully examined her seemingly fully recovered sister, tilting her head.
As if not quite believing it, she placed one hand on her own forehead and the other on Lin Jiayao’s, comparing them.
Finally, she pressed her forehead against her sister’s, confirming that the fever was gone.
“Maybe it was just a draft,” Lin Jiayao said softly, seeing her sister’s relief.
“Maybe… Well, keep yourself covered. You’re too frail…” Lin Xiwan pulled the blanket over her sister, covering her completely except for her head.
“I’m going to revise the shopping list… I’ll get more medicine.” Lin Xiwan walked back to the desk.
She was starting to regret agreeing to go north with her sister.
Could her sister’s frail body really handle the journey?
She had to consider her sister’s health.
If her sister had another episode like this in the next few days, Lin Xiwan wouldn’t agree to go north, no matter what.
The further north they went, the colder it would get.
Leave a Reply