An Unexpected Discovery

Please collect, recommend, monthly passes, and all other kinds of support!

"Hahahaha! As expected," there's always a solution within three steps," this saying is truly not false!"

Gu Su swung the Plague Cutter, his knuckles turning slightly white from excessive force, his hearty and wildly unrestrained laughter echoing through the empty, silent supermarket.

Using the emaciated yet incredibly strong bone claws of his skeleton servant to prop up the heavy door panel, and then relying on the unique cold and sharp edge of the Plague Cutter to break through.

Gu Su forcefully carved a hideous gash in the storeroom door.

When the airflow, carrying a strong stench of decay, gushed out from behind the door, Gu Su exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the situation inside the cold storage room.

The cold storage room before him assaulted the senses with a peculiar smell, a mixture of mold, fishy sourness, and rotting grease. Anyone else would have vomited on the spot upon inhaling a single breath.

The moment he stepped into the storeroom, a sticky and slippery sensation came from under his feet. The ground was covered in dark brown and black stains, a mixture of sewage and rendered corpse oil.

It clung firmly to the concrete floor like a solidified swamp, emitting a faint squelching sound with every step.

Above the dark brown sludge, a thick, greasy layer of milky white oil floated, resembling melted and then cooled butter, yet emitting a nauseatingly putrid smell.

Scattered animal bones were embedded in the gaps of the sludge, their color a ghastly white. The surface of the white oil was covered with countless fine, chaotic claw marks of varying depths, clearly the traces left by long-haired rats scurrying and foraging here for an extended period.

As a mage specializing in necromancy, Gu Su understood the situation with just a glance.

This was clearly the result of the large quantities of frozen meat originally stored in the storeroom rapidly decaying and fermenting in this airtight, sealed space after the refrigeration system completely failed and the power went out.

The combination of time and environment had turned this place into a natural container for decay.

His gaze swept across the depths of the storeroom, and Gu Su made a rough estimate.

Countless tons of pork, beef, and lamb, chickens, ducks, and other poultry, as well as various types of seafood like fish and shellfish, along with large blocks of butter, cream, and mountains of frozen fruit, were all trapped within this confined space.

They had undergone cycles of decay, decomposition, and fermentation day after day in the darkness and confinement.

First, they turned into turbid, foul-smelling sewage, which settled with the dust and debris accumulated in the corners of the storeroom.

As the underground drainage system had long been blocked and rusted, unable to discharge outwards, it eventually solidified over time into the foul and yet energy-rich state before him.

The small holes gnawed into the storeroom walls by those long-haired rats did not bring life to this place.

Instead, they became channels for air circulation, adding a touch of "special vitality" to this dead and foul land.

It was not the vibrant aura of living beings, but rather crevices that allowed the power of decay to further spread, penetrate, and condense.

This made the decaying energy here increasingly pure and concentrated. The tiny mold spores floating in the air danced like dust motes under the faint light, each wisp containing pure corrosive power.

When Gu Su's gaze fixed on the grayish-white mold spreading across the surface of the white oil, his eyes suddenly flashed with brilliance, and his heartbeat couldn't help but quicken.

He strode forward, crouched down, and carefully brought his fingertips close to the mold, feeling the familiar energy contained within. His mind had already reached a conclusion.

The core material required for the [Repair Quest: Barren Land] – Corrupted Mycelium – had been found here as an excellent natural source, and its reserves far exceeded his expectations!

Who decreed that cold storage rooms could only be used to preserve ingredients and not as natural containers nurturing the power of decay?

And who dared to say that spoiled rotten meat was useless and could not become a rare material, hard to find in necromancy?

The scene before him was a miracle born from the symbiosis of natural laws and the power of decay, a treasure born in desperation, precisely fitting his urgent needs.

After laughing, Gu Su gently touched the grayish-white mold with his fingertip, feeling the pure corrosive energy surge into his body. His mind had already made all the arrangements.

As long as he collected all the Corrupted Mycelium here and sealed it to bring back to the Graveyard Witch, the [Repair Quest: Barren Land] would be completed.

He stood up and turned to issue instructions to the skeleton squad waiting behind him, his voice filled with undisguised excitement: "Come here, be gentle! The magic-type skeletons will guard the entrance, guarding against sneak attacks from enemies; the remaining skeletons will split up and find all the containers they can, carefully collecting these grayish-white mycelia first, don't waste a single bit!

After the mycelia are collected, we'll deal with this sludge. Be careful, everyone, this is all treasure!"

The skeletons immediately responded and moved, the clattering of their bones echoing softly in the storeroom, yet not at all chaotic.

The magic-type skeletons quickly retreated to the entrance, gripping their wooden staffs and tensing their bodies, their empty eye sockets scanning the corridor.

Two sturdy skeletons walked towards the depths of the storeroom and found a plastic bucket that looked like it hadn't been used for years, preparing to use it to collect the white mycelia.

The remaining skeletons crouched beside the sludge, restraining their usual brute force, and used the slender bone joints of their fingertips to gently scrape the grayish-white mycelia, carefully gathering them in their palms before transferring them one by one into the plastic bucket.

For mycelia embedded in crevices, they would slowly pick them out with the tips of their bone claws, fearing that excessive force would cause the mycelia to break and waste this precious decaying material.

After all the Corrupted Mycelium was collected and divided into containers, Gu Su found some items and sealed each container filled with mycelia tightly.

He personally moved them to a dry area outside the cold storage room door and arranged them neatly, both to prevent the mycelia from being contaminated by the dirt and impurities in the storeroom and to prevent energy loss, ensuring the effectiveness of subsequent use.

After dealing with the core mycelia, the skeletons' movements were no longer deliberately restrained, and their strength gradually increased.

They bent down and used their bone claws to vigorously shovel the sticky sludge and corpse oil from the ground, gathering these substances containing rich corrosive power bit by bit, piling them into a small dark brown mound in the center of the storeroom.

After piling it up, the skeletons stopped moving, their empty eye sockets turning towards Gu Su, their joints shaking slightly, clearly contemplating what to use to transport these things.

Gu Su also hurriedly looked around the storeroom, his gaze sweeping over the toppled shelves, broken planks, and rusted containers, but he could not find a sufficiently large container.

After a moment of thought, he immediately pointed to two agile skeletons and ordered in a deep voice: "You two go, search the supermarket lobby and the surrounding areas of the storeroom, and find some larger complete wooden boards. Pile all this sludge and corpse oil onto the wooden boards, and we'll transport it in batches later."

Those two skeletons immediately bowed in response, turned, and quickly walked out of the storeroom, following the previous route to search for wooden boards.

The magic-type skeletons still guarded the entrance vigilantly, while the other skeletons waited around the pile of sludge and corpse oil, preventing them from accidentally scattering the piled-up foul substances.

At this time, Gu Su thought of the skeletons he had previously sent out to search for treasures in the store, wondering how they were doing now.