"What do you mean, he turned into a zombie?"
Qian Bin’s face was ashen, his voice laced with suppressed fury.
A perfectly good rescue mission hadn’t just failed to get Biaozi out—it had also cost him a distant relative.
No, it was probably two people.
According to the man before him, the long-haired man who accompanied them had fled the warehouse in a panic. Afterward, his eyes grew vacant and he became delirious, completely lost in a hallucinatory state before he collapsed, unable to get back up.
When the scar-faced man’s head was pierced by a fungal tendril, the terrified long-haired man had conjured a water arrow and shot it at the grotesque, zombie-like Biaozi. But when the arrow pierced the creature’s rotting flesh, a thick cloud of spores burst out like smoke, and he had inhaled a huge mouthful.
Perhaps the Healing Skill they possessed was too low-level. So far, they had only been able to alleviate his condition, not cure it completely.
"Shit!"
Qian Bin felt the whole thing was absurd and bizarre, but this unexpected turn of events, so far outside his plan, was starting to get to him.
Two of his best operatives for night missions, lost just like that in an accident. If Su Chen himself found out about this, there was no telling how much he’d be ridiculed.
"Can you bring back their Runes?"
Qian Bin suppressed his dissatisfaction. Forget Biaozi—the ill-fated scar-faced man had a level-four Earthquake Wave Rune, a truly coveted item. It would be a real shame to just leave it behind.
"No, we were discovered. The underground warehouse has been temporarily sealed off." The man still looked shaken from the ordeal.
The truth was bound to come out.
The guards were already lax, and some were deliberately neglecting their duties. But the earlier commotion had been too big, attracting the attention of people in the nearby conference hall. One thing led to another, and the jailbreak attempt was exposed.
Not only that, but news that the fungus could parasitize human bodies had also spread far and wide.
The Conference Hall.
Feng Zhiyuan had just cornered the twin brothers for a "friendly consultation" and realized that the trade list Su Chen provided didn’t match any of the Earth Element Runes or the Runes from the three archery coaches.
Just as he was about to ask for more details, his son came running over in a mad rush.
"Dad, there’s something wrong with the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms from the forest! The fungal spores can parasitize human bodies!"
Feng Yuanjie, ever the busybody, had also gone to peek at the warehouse. But after seeing a mass of mycelial threads sprouting from the infected person’s corpse, he had shuddered and immediately sprinted back to the conference hall.
At that moment, the old hunter’s expression was grim but composed; he seemed unhurried. After a moment of contemplation, he picked up his radio and ordered all personnel to return to the Archery Hall at once for a comprehensive purification.
At the same time, when Manager Shao received the notice, his first thought was that the would-be jailbreakers were truly audacious and hadn’t given up. But as he considered the implications, his expression froze, and a cold sweat broke out on his back.
If his hypothesis was correct, a devastating catastrophe was about to befall the campsite... No, not even Dongfu City would be spared.
"Quick, notify the entire base and make an emergency call to the city!"
Just as the group rushed to the building’s broadcasting room, the scene before them left everyone breathless.
There were no lights on inside. Only the eerie green glow of the emergency exit sign outside the door illuminated the room. In front of the broadcasting console, the staff member on duty was still sitting in a swivel chair. His head was slumped forward, and his hands rested on the control panel as if he had just dozed off.
But something was very wrong.
From their diagonal viewpoint, an unnatural lump was clearly visible bulging from the back of his head, with a root-like fungal tendril extending out of it.
Wisps of grayish-white mycelia had also sprouted from his hands, appearing to creep toward and into the broadcasting panel.
"This..."
Everyone was scared stiff, never imagining they would witness such a horrifying scene. Their arrival had clearly alerted the figure. Its neck twisted, turning slowly toward the door at an angle that completely defied human anatomy.
The next instant, a terrified Manager Shao quickly slammed the door shut, and the whole group turned and fled.
"Go get an expert to help clear out the broadcasting room! Until then, you all take the sightseeing carts and use the megaphones to warn everyone about the dangerous parasitic mushrooms!"
’The person in the broadcasting room might not have willingly consumed the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms. It’s unclear if it was a spore infection or if another type of fungus is the problem.’
After Su Chen informed Yan Ziqian and the others about the discovery of the human-parasitizing fungus via his radio, he immediately turned back toward the conference hall. A growing uproar indicated that another case of a parasitized human had been found.
Someone was shouting that the mushrooms were toxic, proclaiming that all the addicts who had consumed the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms should be burned to death.
The thought that other types of fungi might also be problematic made some people’s faces change abruptly. Overcome with paranoia, they started asking others to cast a Healing Skill on them.
"Shouldn’t it be the Purification Skill?" someone retorted.
According to the official information...
The Healing Skill was geared toward physical injuries, like damage to flesh and blood.
The Purification Skill focused on abnormal mental states and was also exceptionally effective at completely removing contaminants, pathogens, and toxins.
Judging by their effects, the latter was clearly more useful for this situation.
The problem was, the Purification Skill was a Light Element Rune. Even though the official formula for crafting the Rune had been made public long ago, far fewer people actually possessed one.
Su Chen ignored the surrounding chaos. When Yuan Haotian saw him return, he cheerfully led him to a lone-wolf figure carrying a large axe. According to their trade agreement, the man was willing to trade a level-three Flame Burst for any equivalent Thunder Element essence.
’That matches up.’
"How about a level-three Thunderclap?"
Su Chen had just happened to acquire a Thunder Element Damage Rune from one of the archery coaches.
The man’s face lit up, and he nodded in agreement.

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