Chapter 90: A Human Conspiracy
This wasn’t the first time the Company specialists had entered an incubation barrier, but it was the first time facing one so recently formed, especially one belonging to a High-Risk Grotesquery.
Usually, Grotesquery incubation barriers were well-hidden. After all, they were meant to protect the Grotesquery during its incubation process, like in Baiyan Village. More important than containing intruders was concealing its existence.
So, by the time an incubation barrier was discovered, it had usually been active for a while.
And the stronger the Grotesquery, the longer the incubation period, ranging from several years to even decades for Dangerous Grotesqueries.
But a sudden incubation barrier like this… was unheard of.
Therefore, even though they were all High-Order Awakened Ones, the Company specialists proceeded with caution.
After forcibly breaking through the barrier, Li Shaoheng and his team carefully crossed the boundary and entered the incubation barrier.
Gruesome corpses and the remnants of Grotesquery creations littered the area. In the distance, flesh, buildings, and mycelia were intertwined.
Even more terrifying, some of the Grotesquery creations were still moving, their torn flesh revealing writhing mycelia, yet their movements were as usual, like ordinary people walking and working in an ordinary city.
Mechanically, yet vividly repeating their pre-death routines.
Looking up, in the distance, amidst the collapsed buildings, a giant, grotesque fungus stood tall, its mycelia threads reaching deep into the earth, their destination.
Even these seasoned veterans couldn’t help but pale at this grotesque and horrifying sight.
“…Similar to Baiyan Village,” Li Shaoheng observed the scene intently. These mycelia, absorbing the hosts’ memories, mimicking their actions, even replicating their emotions perfectly.
If left undisturbed… it would be difficult to distinguish between real and fake.
“Don’t touch anything. Although these Grotesqueries are only equivalent to Fifth or Sixth-Order Awakened Ones, their numbers are vast… even if only a tenth of them remain, we’ll struggle to handle them,” Li Shaoheng whispered.
It had been a workday, and at least twenty thousand people had been in the city center. Even if only five or six thousand hadn’t escaped in time, a tenth would still be five or six hundred…
Five or six hundred fearless, mid-level Awakened Ones with special abilities, even if they couldn’t kill the team with sheer numbers, after a difficult battle, the team would be left with little fighting strength.
And their true objective… wasn’t to eliminate the Puppet Ballad, but to gather intel about its abilities.
The team carefully avoided the floating mycelial creations, continuing deeper into the incubation barrier.
They didn’t use Li Shaoheng’s spatial manipulation ability, worried about landing in the middle of the enemy’s ranks.
However, as they went deeper, Li Shaoheng noticed… the number of Grotesquery creations was decreasing, even the usually pervasive mycelia threads were sparse.
As if a fierce battle had taken place.
Just as Li Shaoheng was assessing the situation, a shout echoed from within the team.
“Target sighted! All personnel, be alert, the target is highly aggressive!”
So soon?
Li Shaoheng was startled. Looking up, he saw the mysterious girl he had met at the train station.
Her silver-white hair, strands of sentient mycelia, her pale eyes like dead ashes, her delicate face devoid of emotion.
She raised a powerful, clearly handcrafted Sacred Tool and pointed it at them.
“Watch out!”
Countless mycelia threads surged from the surroundings, and the enormous fungus intertwined with the buildings in the distance swayed, seemingly noticing them, greedily extending its tendrils.
To Grotesqueries, Awakened Ones were highly nourishing, and High-Order Awakened Ones even more so.
At least a thousand ordinary people were needed to equal a single High-Order Awakened One.
The Company team, having entered the incubation barrier, knew this and were prepared. The moment the mycelia threads appeared, their abilities activated, eradicating them.
But they couldn’t block the mysterious girl’s blade.
While they were distracted by the mycelia, a silver flash, and three teammates were injured.
If Li Shaoheng hadn’t used his ability to pull them back, that single strike would have been enough to decapitate them.
“Such a fighting style…”
Li Shaoheng was surprised. This girl, clearly wielding the Puppet Ballad’s power, was using close combat…
Shouldn’t she be using mycelia threads, absorbing flesh and blood, and creating Grotesquery puppets?
And… that dagger was a Sacred Tool, wasn’t it?
She seemed to be using it as an ordinary blade…
Just then, the girl’s movements faltered, then she turned and attacked again, silently.
If it were just the girl alone, her speed, although impressive, wasn’t insurmountable.
Her combat skills, though present, were still somewhat unrefined.
But the problem was…
They weren’t just facing this girl.
The fungus in the distance seemed to be mocking them, its constantly extending mycelia threads gradually wearing down their will.
Combined with the girl’s attacks, several more team members were severely injured.
Li Shaoheng tried to kill the girl first, his throwing knives flashing, slicing through her arm.
But in the blink of an eye, the deep wound had completely healed.
“Such… an exaggerated healing ability.”
The next moment, Li Shaoheng’s own throwing knife was at his throat, a thin line of blood appearing, almost decapitating him.
“Ability replication!”
Li Shaoheng’s eyes widened slightly.
And it was a near-perfect replication… as if he himself were using it.
Mastering an ability wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight, especially a complex ability like Spatial Distortion.
It had taken Li Shaoheng at least ten years and countless battles to wield his throwing knives with such precision.
More importantly… the throwing knives were his Sacred Tool, yet she had somehow used them against him.
After that attack, Li Shaoheng quickly recalled his throwing knives, afraid she would use that move again.
He could handle it, but his teammates… couldn’t dodge such an unpredictable attack.
“Retreat!”
Continuing this fight would only result in unnecessary casualties. Li Shaoheng made his decision.
With his spatial manipulation ability, they could still escape.
Li Shaoheng decisively used Spatial Distortion, intending to teleport the entire team to the edge of the incubation barrier.
The scenery shifted, and they instantly reappeared at their entry point.
Before Li Shaoheng could breathe a sigh of relief, they were back in the depths of the incubation barrier.
The silver-haired girl held a strand of hair in her hand, her gaze cold as she looked at them.
“…Retrospect.”
Li Shaoheng’s face paled.
This was an ability he would never forget, one he hadn’t expected to see again after Scientist’s death, yet it had reappeared, used by this mysterious girl.
After using large-scale Spatial Distortion, Li Shaoheng was momentarily exhausted, and his team, caught off guard, was surrounded by mycelia threads again.
This time, they were completely trapped, unable to resist.
The greedy mycelia threads gnawed at their protective gear, and even though they had taken precautions against the Puppet Ballad’s parasitic abilities, covering all exposed skin, they couldn’t withstand the relentless assault.
The mission had failed.
And… it was a complete wipeout.
…They would all die here.
And more importantly, they couldn’t send out any information.
The silver-haired girl released the strand of hair in her hand, her beautiful silver hair swaying in the breeze, but no one had the mood to appreciate it.
All around, only terror and despair.
The enormous fungus in the distance writhed, extending its tendrils towards them, its greed and hunger palpable.
There were eight High-Order Awakened Ones present. Consuming them would be a feast, equivalent to almost half the energy within the incubation barrier.
The instinctive fungus wouldn’t miss this opportunity. In the battle between “eggs,” even a small amount of energy could tip the scales, and it wouldn’t let another “egg” gain an advantage.
The silver-haired girl slowly approached the trapped team members, more fungi creeping towards them from afar. This was a dead end.
Unwilling…
He had probably disappointed Senior Lu.
A bitter smile appeared on Li Shaoheng’s lips.
He watched as the girl approached, the fungus looming, death imminent.
Just then, a faint smile appeared on the girl’s doll-like face, a hint of humanity in the terrifying Grotesquery.
“Thank you, Mr. Li,” she said.
Luo Ling smiled slightly.
In her vision, several Grotesquery puppets, their bodies completely consumed by mycelia, stood before her, surrounded by towering buildings.
But she knew it was just an illusion, all of it fake.
“Puppet Ballad, you’re trying to trick me again, but it won’t work.”
Luo Ling had sensed something amiss when her first attack missed.
And the throwing knives that followed had confirmed her suspicions.
She had instinctively replicated the ability and finally realized the attacker was Li Shaoheng, the Company’s P8 specialist.
This “egg,” whether it wanted to use her hand to kill these outsiders or use the outsiders to kill her, didn’t matter.
This was the Puppet Ballad’s scheme, but also Luo Ling’s opportunity.
A chance to expose the “egg’s” true form.
Luo Ling had been killing and consuming the “egg’s” power, hoping to find its true consciousness within the enormous fungus and defeat it.
And during this process, the “egg” had been using Luo Ling’s memories to create illusions, trying to assimilate her power.
It was a long and arduous battle, and whoever faltered first would lose.
“Do you think I can’t tell the difference?”
“No, I can tell the difference very clearly.”
Even after killing her sister dozens of times, even with reality and illusion, memory and experience constantly intertwining, Luo Ling had maintained her composure.
She had calmly analyzed the situation, calmly killed her sister, calmly consumed the body, until she broke free from the illusion.
And the “egg” had been losing ground, perhaps sensing its impending doom, which was why it had tried to pit Luo Ling against the outsiders.
A desperate gamble.
But it had miscalculated.
After using Scientist’s ability, stored within a Spore, to pull the escaping team members back, Luo Ling knew that it couldn’t hold back any longer.
It was also afraid, afraid that after Luo Ling consumed these Awakened Ones, she would have the power to defeat it.
Only by using its true will to devour this flesh and blood could it trap Luo Ling within the illusion, assimilating her power.
After trapping everyone with mycelia, the “egg’s” true consciousness finally emerged, eager to begin its feast.
A seemingly insignificant fungus, hidden behind several larger ones, tried to consume Li Shaoheng.
But as it emerged, it was met with a flash of steel.
Severed, eradicated.
“Compared to Grotesqueries, humans are far more skilled at ‘conspiracy’… you’ve already lost.”
The twitching fungus struggled for a moment, then collapsed into a mangled corpse, vaguely recognizable as a tall woman.
Luo Ling’s vision returned to normal; she had once again broken free from the illusion.
This was the last time.
The mycelia threads binding the team members loosened, freeing them, but they were still in shock.
Who would have thought that the two Grotesqueries (?), who had been fighting side by side just now, would suddenly turn on each other? It was difficult to comprehend.
Li Shaoheng wanted to say something, but seeing Luo Ling ignore him, her expression filled with sorrow as she picked up the corpse and walked towards the withered fungus in the distance, he stopped.
Only a small figure remained, and although a teammate wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to attack, Li Shaoheng stopped him.
“We… might need to reassess her existence,” Li Shaoheng whispered, the image of the silver-haired girl’s smile and sorrow flashing through his mind.
Could she really be an apostle?
Could she really be a Grotesquery?
At this moment, Li Shaoheng’s certainty wavered.
Just then, a teammate exclaimed,
“The Grotesquery energy within the incubation barrier is disappearing!”
Li Shaoheng checked his device, and the readings were indeed decreasing, meaning the incubation barrier was collapsing.
It seemed the White Witch had truly resolved the source of the disaster. The corpse of the tall woman they had just killed was likely the Grotesquery’s true form.
But…
“Is it… really over?”
Li Shaoheng was silent, his heart filled with disbelief.
His intuition told him it wasn’t that simple. A High-Risk Grotesquery incident wouldn’t end like this.
But regardless… they had to leave this place first, report the situation to the Company outside the incubation barrier, and then decide on their next course of action.
“Let’s go.”
Li Shaoheng exhaled and used his ability.
…It failed.
“Wait, my ability…”
Li Shaoheng looked up, instinctively thinking that the White Witch had taken his ability.
Could the Puppet Ballad… even do that?
Only when the others also exclaimed in shock did he realize it wasn’t just him.
His phone rang. It was Old Madam Lu.
Impossible, the incubation barrier blocked all signals… at least phones shouldn’t work.
Could it be that the incubation barrier had disappeared?
Li Shaoheng answered the phone, and Old Madam Lu, without any pleasantries, said in a grim voice,
“Shaoheng, I’m afraid the worst has happened.
“Perhaps… all of Jiangcheng County… is an incubation site.
“It always has been.”
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