Lifestyle

We call them ' Food Mother Fish '.

"It's a species unique to the Metaverse."

The Shui Man stopped swimming, gently waving its arms, hovering in the seawater. "You can think of it as a source of food."

Qin Yiguan looked ahead.

But all around the bodies of those Food Mother Fish were hundreds of residents with technologically advanced gills, swimming up and down.

Someone approached the fish's belly, their arm muscles bulging and transforming into something resembling a drill, which they used to drill into the Food Mother Fish.

After drilling a hole in the scales, the underwater dweller burrowed into them.

A moment later, the man returned carrying a jar of blue fluorescent liquid.

That's our food.

Shui Man said, "We underwater dwellers do not farm, and we rarely even catch marine life. We only eat the human glands secreted by the Food Mother Fish."

"If we consume just 0.3 grams of that blue liquid, it can provide humans with energy for about seven days."

"And this is all under the premise that Tuomen Acuminate Fungus will be parasitizing our bodies."

Qin Yiguan nodded slowly, "Will the fish die?"

"No, it won't."

Shui Man laughed, "When we drill through its scales, it's so small it's practically imperceptible to it. Besides, Food Mother Fish have huge pain receptors. We can see them clearly and avoid them, so it doesn't feel any pain."

And at this very moment.

A huge shadow swept over Qin Yiguan's head.

That was an adult Food Mother Fish. In the old days, a 60,000-ton aircraft carrier was the largest and most powerful creature in the water. To make a comparison, this fish was comparable to a 60 million-ton aircraft carrier!

It was enormous, while Qin Yiguan's body was comparable to a speck of dust, or perhaps, a bacterium.

I don't know why.

The marine life in this Metaverse Experimental Zone was magnified countless times by the Gemini Superbrain.

And at this very moment.

Using the fluorescent light, Qin Yiguan saw that within the hundreds of large scales on the belly of this Food Mother Fish were actually small 'rooms' built?

These rooms are inside the scales, where a dozen or so sea creatures work around the clock to obtain that blue liquid.

In the distance, there was another Food Mother Fish, whose abdomen was even more exaggerated, containing at least tens of thousands of such small chambers.

"At this level of mining, they won't have any problems?"

Qin Yiguan asked in confusion.

"Won't."

Shui Man laughed and said, "Moreover, we have a symbiotic relationship. These Food Mother Fish are actually very Sloth, so Sloth that they don't want to eat. So we regularly inject Food Mother Fish with trace elements or energy needed for survival, and even help them defend against predators. Because Food Mother Fish are Sloth, they often crash into the reefs because they don't want to change direction, so we help them change course."

Qin Yiguan looked into the distance, where, sure enough, there was a bewildered Food Mother Fish being forcibly turned around by several sea creatures using their devilishly strong arms to prevent it from crashing into another fish...

Qin Yiguan nodded slowly, "It's quite amazing."

The two swam forward a little.

Qin Yiguan saw the carcass of a giant Food Mother Fish.

It lies dormant at the bottom of the sea, like a mountain.

Inside its belly, many Haitian residents are being evacuated in an orderly manner.

This giant jellyfish was extremely thin and had likely died from exhaustion.

Shui Man shook her head and said, "Look, it starved itself to death because it was too Sloth. There's really no way we can save it."

Qin Yiguan scratched his head.

To be able to starve yourself to death, that's incredibly lazy.

However, whether it's obtaining food or building homes, these Haitian residents survive by 'parasitizing' marine life, which is definitely a very unique way of life.

"Okay!"

Shui Man took Qin Yiguan's hand again, "Let's go back!"

The next moment.

It was that kind of very fast flight again, with the surrounding scenery blurred.

Qin Yiguan felt as if he had traveled through some kind of space.

Ahead, the Giant Whale City came into view.

Shui Man led Qin Yiguan closer to the waterproof shield.

From Qin Yiguan's vantage point, the city stretched out before him—grand, magnificent, and dreamlike.

This is like a toy from an old era, where a model house is placed in a crystal ball, and when the base is rotated, snowflakes fall while the music "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way" plays.

That piece of music is usually used to celebrate a festival.

It expresses that eternal blessing, which is the heartwarming and joyful "Happy New Year".

I enjoyed it for a moment.

Qin Yiguan focused his gaze on the Giant Whale City directly below.

It was a building that resembled a hospital, and parents were holding many newborn babies, queuing up.

The doctors, meanwhile, were holding syringe-like conch shells and injecting something into the baby's tender, white arm.

Qin Yiguan asked, "Is that a vaccine for Tuomen Acuminate Fungus *?"

"No."

Shui Man shook her head. "That's Tuomen Acuminate Fungus."

"Um?"

Qin Yiguan was taken aback, then realized, "You mean, it's a weakened form of Tuomen Acuminate Fungus that, when injected into infants, won't cause mutations but will instead stimulate their bodies to produce antibodies. That's the principle behind vaccines from the old days."

"No."

Shui Man looked somewhat helpless, but seemed to have long accepted the situation. "That's the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus *."

"Why?"

Qin Yiguan exclaimed in disbelief, "Isn't this tantamount to planting a time bomb?!"

"The first and second stages of Tuomen Acuminate Fungus take a very long time."

"Approximately 15-25 years."

"During this phase, people will not become Negative Doppelgänger,"

"On the contrary, they will possess extraordinary abilities."

Shui Man looked at Qin Yiguan, her green eyes flashing frequently. "If newborns are not injected, the entire underwater world will experience a power shortage. With the frail bodies of humans, it will be impossible to survive in such deep waters, to build cities, or to control the city's foundation made of giant marine creatures."

"That means..."

Qin Yiguan's eyes twitched. "You are both terrified, because you are about to enter the Hell caused by the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus, and at the same time, because you are greedy for the power of the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus, you are constantly getting closer to that Hell?"

"Not just us."

Shui Man sighed, "Aren't all humans like that?"

"To use a small example, isn't this gambling—a form of entertainment that has existed since the dawn of humanity?"

"To give a major example, aren't the nuclear weapons, Antimatter Weapon, and crustal weapons that people create in the physical world also doing things that could potentially destroy the Earth under the guise of protecting themselves?"

"For example, why did the coronavirus outbreak a century ago spread?"

"Because people always feel that they won't be among the worst off."

People also think that time will heal the crisis, and everything will be alright next year, the year after, and the year after that.

"Or perhaps, a capable person will appear and rightfully stop all of this, and do so before their own destruction."

Qin Yiguan pondered.

The dangers of this underwater world are not limited to the external Tuomen Acuminate Fungus.

There is also the decadence in people's hearts.