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At the forty-fifth minute, the clump of fluff began slowly crawling toward the giant Cordyceps in the pit. It did not stop until it had fallen into the pit and vanished completely from Sun Hang's sight.
"So that counts as returning to the mother body, right?" Sun Hang muttered.
"Looking at it this way, these separated spores aren't independent individuals. They're offspring created to gather nutrients for the mother body." Candle Dragon pondered. "Don't you think this fungus-type Anomaly is somewhat similar to the flesh-eating ants Nagano Souya and the others encountered?"
"Anomalies with this type of structure are not uncommon," the Mainframe said. "Thus far, six hundred and seventy-four species of Anomalies have been discovered that use hive-mind networks to control their entire populations and rely on offspring to provide nutrients for the mother body. Excluding the giant fungus-type Anomaly discovered during this operation, there are nineteen such Anomalies in the uninhabited region of the Hexi Corridor alone."
"So is this kind of Anomaly considered a population, or a single Anomaly?" Candle Dragon asked.
"Theoretically, either description is acceptable," the Mainframe replied. "Some scholars have advocated for a more detailed classification based on certain specific characteristics of these Anomalies, but this proposal has not been accepted by mainstream schools of thought. Both sides have engaged in several heated debates, all of which ended inconclusively. As a result, the boundaries of their precise definition remain extremely vague..."
"That does fit my stereotype of the current field of Anomaly research." Candle Dragon smiled helplessly. "They tear each other apart over trivial nonsense..."
"Those research lunatics actually care about that sort of thing?"
"Of course they do. The more obsessed someone is with Anomaly research, the more likely they are to get hung up on the smallest details." Candle Dragon let