Mushroom People

The branch where the little black bird perched was quite high, and Du Ke couldn't reach it without climbing. However, this didn't stump him. Standing beneath the branch, the bottom of his Nano Armor continuously extended, lifting him up as if he were walking on stilts.

He grabbed the little black bird and dispelled the bird-catching net. The little black bird was thus held in his hand, only about the size of a pigeon, completely black, resembling a crow. The difference was that ordinary Earth birds have three toes in front and one in back, while this bird's toes were symmetrically distributed with two in front and two in back.

This allowed it to grip branches more firmly.

When held in his hand, he could feel a gentle power trying to push his hand away, accompanied by a faint glow.

"Is this power really Magic?" Du Ke seemed very curious, personally feeling the strength of the "Magic Shield." "What is its working principle? Is it consistent with Earth's mechanical system?"

Earth's mechanical system is based on the four fundamental forces. Scientists have consistently pursued unifying these four forces to establish the essence of the universe. Although the New World has trees of different colors and its creatures have different "attack" methods, they still appear to be carbon-based life, thus potentially also obeying the four fundamental forces.

The Ocean of Mind, a remarkable civilization, pursues Mind Power, which clearly does not belong to the four fundamental forces—though it's possible it does, and they simply don't understand its fundamental principles yet.

"If it's consistent with Earth's mechanical system, how can this Magic Shield be explained?" He had no idea, at least Du Ke truly couldn't figure it out.

"I'll call you Shield Crow," he casually named the little black bird.

After taking pictures and recording, he plucked a feather as a souvenir and then released the Shield Crow. The Shield Crow was too large to carry back, consuming too much energy, so it wasn't worth it.

"Caw!" Released, the Shield Crow let out a strange cry and flew away, disappearing into the Great Blue Forest in the blink of an eye.

Du Ke continued to walk forward, not wanting to stay in a place full of Bomb Caterpillars. He walked dozens of meters and arrived at an open area in the forest. There weren't many blue trees here; instead, it was a patch of low shrubs. These plants were not only blue but also red and yellow.

What puzzled Du Ke the most was seeing a group of "fungi" that resembled mushrooms, which he would tentatively call fungi.

These mushrooms were small, only palm-sized, but the large ones were as tall as a person. Their caps resembled umbrellas, colored red, blue, green, purple, and yellow, very vibrant and colorful. Du Ke didn't know how large the largest fungi on Earth were, but the mushrooms here were truly massive.

They grew in patches, interspersed among the shrubs.

He walked up to the largest mushroom and squatted down. He could see that the stem was about as thick as a person's waist and looked very tender and crisp. Du Ke didn't know if it was poisonous. From beneath the mushroom cap, he saw a ridge densely embedded with many sesame-sized dots.

"Are these mushroom spores?"

He carefully plucked dozens of them with small tweezers, put them into a glass test tube, and then sealed them in a storage box. As he turned around, he suddenly noticed a hole in the stem of the large mushroom. Strictly speaking, it was a man-made hole, not a naturally occurring one.

The reason for this judgment was that there were three holes, resembling a door and two windows.

He didn't see the door, only a large hole was left, but the small holes forming the windows still had clear window frames. However, more than half of them were already engulfed by the mushroom stem, with only a few frames still visible.

"This is definitely a window and a door!" Du Ke materialized a flashlight and shone it into the hole. He saw a large space inside, which must have been hollowed out by someone. However, it was clearly abandoned for a long time, and the mushroom stem had grown to fill much of it. "Have I discovered the natives of the New World?"

He gestured to the size of the mushroom and the doors and windows, and his mind immediately conjured images of tiny people less than a palm's height.

"Is this the intelligent race of the New World? Should I call them Mushroom People?"

He then inspected other mushrooms. He found that the stems of four larger mushrooms had holes similar to those left by doors and windows, while smaller mushrooms did not. This further solidified the evidence for the existence of Mushroom People, suggesting that a group of them once lived here.

"Perhaps it was the Mushroom People who cut down the blue trees, leaving this area of low shrubs, and planted these large mushrooms here," Du Ke continued to imagine. "Then, due to the invasion of Bomb Caterpillars, the Mushroom People couldn't withstand the Long-Haired Bombs and migrated elsewhere."

This was just speculation.

But it made Du Ke feel slightly more relaxed. After all, what kind of civilization could such small intelligent beings develop, living in primitive mushroom houses?

Besides, if such small Mushroom People could survive in the forest, it meant this Great Blue Forest wasn't very dangerous.

"I just need to be careful not to come into contact with the viruses and bacteria of this world... Right, when I return to Earth, I must build a sterile laboratory to prevent the germs and viruses carried by New World species from leaking out and infecting the surrounding population." Thinking of the pandemic that swept the globe years ago, Du Ke became serious.

When Westerners brought the common cold virus to North America, the Native Americans were almost wiped out because of it.

"It wouldn't matter much if the viruses and bacteria I brought infected the New World, but it absolutely cannot infect Earth in reverse. Otherwise, I would be a sinner of humanity."

These differently colored large mushrooms might not be the same species, but Du Ke still grouped them together, referring to them as "Large Mushrooms."

At this moment, something hidden in a patch of grass caught Du Ke's attention.

Lifting the grass, he immediately saw a giant snail shell half-buried in the ground, as large as a millstone. It had likely been dead for a long time, its color grayish-white, covered in pink "moss." Small grasses resembling bean sprouts were also growing out of the gaps in the shell.

"Such a big snail?"

He tapped the snail shell, and unexpectedly, a small creature darted out quickly. Before Du Ke could react, it disappeared into the shrubs.

"What was that? I only saw a grayish shadow!"

The little creature was already gone, so Du Ke could only continue tapping, trying to coax another one out, but it was no use. He even broke the snail shell, but nothing came out except some dry grass and leaves. It seemed the creature had made its home there. Among the dry grass and leaves were some black objects, likely feces.

Du Ke wasn't interested in collecting feces. He scraped a bit of moss from the surface of the snail shell and plucked a bean sprout, putting both into a test tube.

He thought to himself, "Earlier, when I saw the mushroom houses, I thought this world might not have large animals. But the appearance of such a large snail shell indicates that this world not only has large animals but possibly animals far larger than imagined... Right, I haven't felt any heaviness or lightness in my body. The gravity in this world is about the same as Earth's."

Since stepping into the New World, he hadn't felt any discomfort, so the planet where this New World was located should be about the same size as Earth.