Chapter 35

In the dim light, the six round, black holes were like the compound eyes of insects watching him.

An Zhe subconsciously took a step back, bumping into the metal platform behind him. His body became unstable for a moment and his hand rested on the epitaph. The inscriptions on the epitaph brought a sensation of ups and downs. He didn’t know why but this cold, lonely metal table standing in the empty space with the ashes of the dead made him feel safe.

An Zhe gently breathed out and tentatively walked forward, coming in front of the row of openings. He climbed into the entrances of these six pipes one by one but still couldn’t find any traces of the mycelium. It was too thin and would shrink back after breaking. Finally, it was blown by the wind and this place was too dark.

An Zhe looked around blankly. There were four sides to this cylindrical space, his front, rear, left and right sides and there were the six duct entrances. This was 24 in total and they all headed to different directions. This was the origin of the whole city’s ventilation system.

He knew he had two options. Find his way back before dawn and try again tomorrow night or… don’t go back.

He could abandon his human identity right now and disappear from the main city. As a mushroom, he would wander the underground pipeline for a long time, regardless of day and night. As long as he wandered long enough before he dried out, he could sneak into the Lighthouse.

The wind was stronger and he shook gently. He knew the decision he was about to make would decide his fate in the future. However, even if he decided to go back, could he really go back? An Zhe didn’t know.

Looking at the six holes, he gritted his teeth and climbed into the middle one on the right side. He wasn’t sure if this was the original road or not but he could only use fate to decide.

In fact, it would be more convenient to climb into the hole in the form of mycelium but there were three human predecessors living here. He didn’t want them to see any heterogeneous species coming in. Thus, it wasn’t until he was thoroughly back in the pipe that An Zhe turned into a mass of mycelium.

The mycelium sped up and moved in the direction of the wind, the wind pushing him from behind. An Zhe turned a few corners and passed many intersections. Now he just wanted to find a pipe connecting to a human room as soon as possible. It would be better if the room had a window so he could sneak out through the window. He could find the nearest shuttle bus stop while it was dark and quietly stick to the bottom of the bus. The bus would take him to the terminal near Building 24 and then he could slip back to his own corridor. As long as the night was deep enough, no one would find out.

In this way, he wandered for a long time. Just as the pipes were becoming smaller and smaller, a faint light appeared in front of him. He had come to the mouth of the pipe. This was a ventilation duct located on the ceiling.

Looking down from the pipe, a cylindrical transparent container appeared in the centre of his vision. Inside was a slightly cloudy liquid where a flesh-coloured thing floated. It was very small, around the size of two human fists. A large transparent tube was connected to one end of this flesh-coloured object while the other end was connected to a complex-looking device.

There was a special sensation rising from this device. An Zhe couldn’t describe the exact feeling, only that the container had a living object. He suddenly choked. He knew. This was a baby. No, an embryo, an embryo for a human baby.

Looking to the side again, there was another of the same device. More than that, the entire spacious room was full of such things. An Zhe’s vision was limited and he couldn’t perceive how big the room was, but he knew that the base could produce 5000~10,000 babies a year.

So this wasn’t anywhere else. He had accidentally come across the Garden of Eden.

An Zhe was relieved since Eden was a place he was familiar with. At the same time, he felt it was even more difficult. He knew how much humans cared for their children. Almost all areas of Eden were covered by cameras and guarded by people 24 hours a day so that no one could hurt the children.

Thinking about it, he became angry again. If the mushroom world had cameras then how could his child be stolen by Lu Feng?

Then after three seconds, An Zhe found the error in his logic. Even if there was a camera, he couldn’t prevent Lu Feng from stealing the spore. The key wasn’t the camera but the existence of the bad person.

…Wrong.

The key to this matter was how to get out.