Chapter 35

Chapter 35

In the dim red glow, the six circular, pitch-black openings resembled the compound eyes of an insect, watching him intently.

An Zhe subconsciously took a step back, bumping into the metallic platform behind him. For a moment, he lost his balance, and his hand pressed against the epitaph. The engraved words on the tombstone offered a bumpy texture. Strangely, this cold, solitary metal platform standing in the vast, empty hall, holding the ashes of the deceased, made him feel secure.

An Zhe let out a soft sigh, cautiously stepping forward to approach the row of openings.

He crawled into each of the six conduits one by one, yet found no trace of the fungal thread. It was too thin; after snapping, it would retract, eventually carried away by the wind to stick to some unknown corner. Moreover, the place was far too dark.

Lost in thought, An Zhe gazed around. On all four sides of this cylindrical space – in front of him, behind him, and to his left and right – there were six conduit entrances each, a total of twenty-four, leading in different directions. This was the source of the entire city's ventilation system.

He knew he had two options – find his way back to his residence before dawn and try again the following night, or... or simply not return at all.

He could abandon his human identity and allow An Zhe to vanish from the main city, while the mushroom version of himself wandered perpetually through the underground pipes, indifferent to day or night. As long as he explored long enough before withering away, he could infiltrate the lighthouse.

The wind grew stronger, and An Zhe shivered slightly, aware that the decision he was about to make would determine his entire future.

But even if he decided to go back, could he truly return?

An Zhe had no idea.

Gazing at the six entrances in the direction he came from, he gritted his teeth and crawled into the one slightly to the right of the middle – uncertain if it was the original path, he could only leave it to fate to decide.

It would have been more convenient to crawl into the tunnel using his mycelium form, but since three human seniors resided here, he didn't wish for them to witness an alien's entry. Hence, it wasn't until he was completely inside the pipe that An Zhe transformed back into a cluster of mycelium.

The mycelium accelerated, moving with the wind and pushed by it from behind. Turning several corners and passing numerous intersections, all An Zhe wanted now was to swiftly swim to a duct connected to a human's room – ideally, one with a window. He could secretly slip out through the window under the cover of night and find the nearest shuttle stop, attaching himself to the bottom of the vehicle. The nocturnal shuttle would transport him to the terminal near Building 24, after which he could sneak back into his own corridor. As long as the night was deep enough, nobody would notice him.

After wandering aimlessly for quite some time, when the ventilation pipe narrowed, a faint light finally appeared in the distance. Reaching the end of the pipe, he saw...

...a ventilation duct situated on the ceiling.

Peering down from the opening, a cylindrical transparent container took up the center of his vision. Inside it was a slightly turbid liquid, within which floated a pale object, small in size, comparable to two human fists joined together. A transparent tube connected one end of this object to a complicated contraption, while the other end was attached to it.

A peculiar sensation emerged from within the device, and An Zhe couldn't precisely describe the feeling, only knowing that the container held a living entity.

He froze abruptly.

He understood.

This is an offspring.

No, an embryo - a human embryo.

Looking to the side, there's another identical device. Not just that, the vast room is packed with such contraptions. His limited field of vision doesn't allow him to perceive the true size of the chamber, but he knows that this base can produce five to ten thousand offspring annually.

So, this isn't anywhere else – he had stumbled upon the Garden of Eden by accident.

An Zhe lets out a sigh of relief. The Garden of Eden is a familiar place to him, but at the same time, it makes the situation more complicated. He knows how fiercely humans protect their young; almost every inch of the Garden is under surveillance, guarded around the clock. No one could harm the offspring.

The thought angers him anew.

If the mushroom world had cameras, his offspring wouldn't have been taken by Lu Fen.

But only three seconds later, An Zhe realizes the flaw in his reasoning. Even with cameras, they wouldn't have stopped Lu Fen from digging out the spores. The crux of the matter wasn't the cameras, but the existence of that nefarious Lu Fen.

...No, that's not right.

The crucial issue now is how he's going to get out of here.