You Even Bring Your Precious One Along on Missions?

At the Mutation Research Institute, Mu Yi finally got to see the Grade S Variant again.

He followed Team 404 into the observation room housing the Zombie Fungus.

The moment he entered, he saw a huge transparent observation tank in the center of the room, with the Zombie Fungus inside.

Along with... the corpse of Team 403's healer, which had fused with the Zombie Fungus's roots and could no longer be removed.

Mu Yi approached the tank and noticed that the parasitized corpse had shriveled slightly, while the Zombie Fungus had grown taller and stronger.

By his estimate, it was already about half a meter tall, and its broad cap was nearly a meter across.

It was still releasing spores nonstop. Under the observation lights, they looked like a dazzling shower of spores.

According to Zhong Xuezhi, the Zombie Fungus was the first Grade S Variant they had encountered with neither an appetite nor any attack desire.

Apparently, its Grade S rating came from its powerful ability to remain undetected and spread infection.

Mu Yi leaned closer and closer, until the face shield of his protective suit almost touched the tank's outer wall.

Zhong Xuezhi pulled him back in time and warned, "Don't get so close."

Mu Yi shook the wrist in his grasp and said carelessly, "It's fine. The walls of this thing are as thick as concrete."

Zhong Xuezhi didn't let go. He pulled Mu Yi right up beside him before he felt reassured.

"Can't you just stand still? Every little move you make draws attention."

Mu Yi looked rather innocent. "I'm not a block of wood. Am I not even allowed to move?"

As soon as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded behind him. The other team on night watch had come in as well.

Mu Yi looked over and thought they seemed familiar. They appeared to be the team they had run into outside the Mirage Wall.

Their leader came forward first to greet Zhong Xuezhi. "Captain Zhong."

Zhong Xuezhi nodded in acknowledgment.

Once the man was close enough, Zhong Xuezhi twitched his nose and said with some familiarity, "Fu, you really need to rein in that smoking habit."

Fu Chuan patted himself down and laughed. "That's incredible. You can smell it even through the face shield."

Zhong Xuezhi shook his head and reminded him, "Try to smoke less."

Fu Chuan stopped patting himself down, his smile turning entirely wry.

He said, "Ah, I'm worried..." Without a cigarette between his lips, he felt anxious.

Zhong Xuezhi fell silent for a moment, having a fair idea of what was worrying him.

Fu Chuan had a happy family and a loving marriage, and he and his wife had just welcomed twins at the start of the year.

He feared that one of his family members might be among the Infected still in the incubation period, and feared even more that Crystal City might fall.

Zhong Xuezhi couldn't offer any words of comfort. He was single, with no ties or dependents; anything he said would sound like easy advice from someone who had nothing at stake.

Fortunately, Fu Chuan was fairly good at regulating his own emotions. After smiling bitterly for a while, he changed the subject himself.

He turned to Mu Yi, who was standing motionless beside them, and asked hesitantly, "Isn't this... the little brother you picked up?"

Zhong Xuezhi broke into a smile and nodded. "That's right."

Fu Chuan couldn't quite understand and asked again, "You even bring him along on missions?"

Zhong Xuezhi said, "He was curious. He couldn't sit still at home."

"Oh, I see..." Fu Chuan scratched the back of his head through his protective suit, then glanced down at the two brothers' joined hands. He didn't dare ask any more questions.

After that, he tactfully continued, "Since you've got this place covered, I'll take my team to the front entrance."

Zhong Xuezhi nodded. "All right. Thanks for the hard work."

Fu Chuan quickly led his entire team out. Only then did Zhong Xuezhi belatedly realize that he was still holding Mu Yi's wrist.

Ah, I've been grabbing him so much lately that it's become a habit.

He let go, a little annoyed with himself, then asked Mu Yi, "Why didn't you remind me just now?"

Mu Yi's eyebrows shot up, and he snapped, "Didn't you tell me not to speak in front of strangers? You wouldn't let me move, either."

He finds fault no matter what I do. He's so damn hard to please.

"Hey, don't raise your voice..." Zhong Xuezhi hurried to soothe him. "I'm not blaming you. You did really well just now. Keep it up."

Mu Yi gave a cold snort, couldn't be bothered to reply, and moved over to a waist-high wooden cabinet. Bracing both hands on it, he hoisted himself up to sit.

It was close to the observation tank and directly opposite it, giving him an excellent view.

Seeing that he was sitting quietly, Zhong Xuezhi didn't follow him and focused on his task instead.

Night watch was tedious, and Mu Yi, who had tagged along, found it even more so.

After watching the giant mushroom for ages, he slipped a hand into his protective suit's pocket, which held a bag of Grade D shard crystals.

As though passing the time, he took the shard crystals into his hand one by one, absorbing the energy in each core.

To avoid drawing attention, he did all the absorbing inside his pocket, never taking his eyes off the observation tank.

Once he had absorbed all the shard crystals in the Storage Bag, Mu Yi quietly circulated the pheromones in his body to see whether anything had changed.

He couldn't detect any difference in his pheromones for the moment, but the Zombie Fungus before his eyes suddenly looked completely different.

Crimson lines of light seemed to travel silently between its broad cap and stalk. Their intricate paths intersected to form a blood-red web of densely packed veins.

Mu Yi was fairly familiar with this sort of network. It was bioelectricity.

Thanks to his electric-type pheromones, he had always been able to faintly sense the presence of various electrical elements.

He had noticed bioelectric activity within living organisms many times before, but this was the first time he had seen it so clearly with his own eyes.

He couldn't help turning to look around, studying each of the people standing watch in the corners of the room.

Sure enough, beneath their protective suits, he could faintly make out dense networks woven from lines of bioelectric light.

Unlike the Zombie Fungus, every member of Team 404 had vivid green lines of light inside them.

Moreover, the paths along which those lights traveled were unobstructed, and the lights moved back and forth briskly. They looked quite healthy.

Once he finished observing them, Mu Yi withdrew his gaze and lowered his eyes in thought.

Clearly, after absorbing the energy in the shard crystal cores, his electric currents and electric flames had grown stronger, and his sensitivity to electrical elements had also increased considerably.

He just didn't know yet what use this ability to visualize his electrical perception might have.

Surely it can't just be for checking whether a living organism's bioelectric conduction is normal, or whether it's healthy? I'm not a doctor in a white coat.

Just as he was thinking about white coats, two bright white figures appeared in the doorway.

Feng Zhengqing stepped in first, followed by his junior assistant.

Both wore the white protective suits unique to the institute, which were particularly conspicuous. As a result, the networks of green light flowing beneath them were especially clear.

Mu Yi first looked at Feng Zhengqing as he strode toward them. Compared with the members of Team 404, the light inside him was slightly dimmer and flowed more slowly.

That was only natural, though, because Feng Zhengqing didn't look to be in very good shape.

His hair was a bird's nest, enormous dark circles framed his eyes, and his face had a sickly pallor.

He strode up to Zhong Xuezhi and immediately asked, "Seriously? You even bring your precious one along on missions?"

Zhong Xuezhi coughed twice and said, "I'll explain that to you later."

[Note: Feng Zhengqing's mutated form is a beagle. A literal single dog!]