Killer Mushrooms, Arrival at Xintang Town

"You're really not going?"

After the car stopped, Fan Hui hesitated again.

"No!"

"If you're not going, neither am I."

Fan Hui once again abandoned the idea of heading into the town.

By then, some people had already approached the town.

They had stayed safe for a long time by following Su Chen, and had lost some of their sense of danger.

Perhaps.

Running aimlessly had also begun to bore them.

As people approached the town, it immediately changed.

What town?

There was nothing but a mushroom forest in the distance.

Giant mushrooms, as large as houses, cast patches of shade over the ground.

Smaller mushrooms grew in those shadows.

The people who approached the town became like idiots.

They actually stood completely motionless.

A swarm of mushrooms covered in teeth chased and bit the people approaching the town.

Even as their flesh was torn into a bloody mess, the people who approached the mushrooms remained as still as statues.

Seeing the mushrooms eating people, Gao Yue immediately started the car and caught up with the convoy.

She chickened out!

Who could have imagined that a town that looked fully stocked with supplies...

Was a fucking mushroom?

"Good thing I was smart enough not to go."

After seeing what happened to the people who went over, Fan Hui sounded very pleased with herself.

Gao Yue rolled her eyes.

Fan Hui had nearly gone herself, and had almost dragged her into it.

What a fucking fraud!

Su Chen kept watching the rearview mirror.

The scene behind him was rather horrifying, and left him somewhat speechless.

He almost thought he had eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Who could have imagined that mushrooms could take the shape of a town, with nothing looking wrong from a distance?

Perhaps.

Mushroom Town had only revealed its true form to deal with the few prey that approached it.

Otherwise, it would still have looked like an ordinary town to them.

"That was close!"

Yang Defa was also watching the rearview mirror and could not help speaking.

He trusted Su Chen absolutely.

When he saw that Su Chen had not stopped earlier, he had suspected there was danger in the town.

He had never expected the entire town to be fake.

Anyone who went over without knowing could easily suffer for it.

"Thank goodness for Su Chen."

Wang Xiumei also sighed.

Since Huang Wei had woken up, Wang Xiumei had returned to Yang Defa's car.

Wang Xiumei felt very lucky.

Yang Defa had the foresight to stick close to Su Chen, keeping them relatively safe all along.

Her father-in-law, Old Yang, had even gotten Su Chen to promise to save her once.

That sort of tie was not something others could compare with.

Huang Wei stared into the rearview mirror, dumbfounded as well.

He had been a little slower.

Originally, he had planned to see how things went and rescue people.

But the sight behind him was like a bucket of cold water thrown over him.

After awakening his Awakening Sequence and killing the Tree People, he had truly felt, in that instant, that he could change the world.

But.

Even while looking at the town, he had not realized it was fake.

Even his senses had deceived him.

Once ordinary people went over, they could no longer move.

Could he really deal with those mushrooms?

Su Chen had made the right choice yet again.

"Senior, what is that?"

Zhang Xiaomeng asked curiously.

Her senior was a Sequence user.

Since Su Chen knew so much, perhaps her senior knew too.

"I don't know!"

Huang Wei answered, a little embarrassed.

After he awakened his Awakening Sequence, his junior had admired him even more.

But he only felt a tiny bit stronger than an ordinary person.

That feeling became even clearer after Huang Wei saw the false town.

Earlier.

He had even wanted to return to Changcheng.

Thinking back on his earlier thoughts, Huang Wei found them laughably naive.

He had thought he had a choice.

He had no choice at all.

Five or six people were gone in the blink of an eye.

Without following Su Chen, he might not have survived.

The false town.

It had brought Huang Wen completely to his senses.

Su Chen adjusted his speed and kept the convoy moving.

After Mushroom Town.

The convoy looked much more orderly.

Watching this, Su Chen could not help thinking of the mountain behind Banyan Tree Village.

Quite a few people had been left there back then.

Like a lizard shedding its tail.

So.

The convoy needed some surplus people.

Keeping their numbers at a suitable level would prevent them from attracting powerful Weird Entities, while allowing them to shed their tail to survive.

If Xintang Town had survivors, they could take them in.

However.

With more people in the convoy, he would also need to reconsider how to manage it.

Everyone had all sorts of different ideas.

Even refueling earlier had been somewhat chaotic.

Not to mention.

Gathering and distributing supplies could easily lead to conflict.

Who would gather the supplies?

How would they be distributed?

They would certainly need to establish some rules.

As Su Chen drove, his thoughts occasionally wandered.

Two in the afternoon.

Another town appeared ahead of the convoy.

They could also see a stone archway.

-Xintang Town!

The three characters on it were the town's name.

However.

Everyone had been frightened by the fake town.

Even with a town in sight, their nerves remained taut.

Su Chen checked the Escape Map and confirmed that this was the town the system had mentioned.

Naturally, he had to stop.

The refrigerated truck was the first to stop at the town entrance.

He had stopped?

Behind him.

Yang Defa and Huang Wei could not help sticking their heads out of their windows.

Seeing Su Chen stop put them at ease.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Su Chen began checking the intelligence.

[Host's arrival at Xintang Town detected. Intelligence has been refreshed!]

[1. Haunted Zones will appear after the two worlds merge.]

[2. The spatial properties of Haunted Zones include effects such as duplication and stretching, distinguishing them from real space.]

[3. A Haunted Zone exists in Xintang Town.]

[4. You may stay in Xintang Town until nightfall. Be sure to leave after dark.]

(Note: The Escape Map has been updated. Flee west from here.)

[5. If you find a mirror, the mirror will help you unlock a Sequence.]

[6. Someone in Xintang Town has awakened the Florist Sequence and can sense plants' emotions.]

[7. There are survivors in Xintang Town. Beware of conflict.]

[8. This area may face unusual weather conditions. Please make some preparations.]

Haunted Zones?

Su Chen thought of the extra distances he had traveled along the way.

Those were called Haunted Zones.

It was as though extra, overlapping spaces had appeared on Blue Star's original map.

Spaces overlapping with other spaces?

Su Chen frowned when he saw that Xintang Town also had a Haunted Zone.

Was that something his group could handle?

However.

They could stay until nightfall.

That was fairly good.

It was two o'clock now, so they had roughly three to four hours.

That was far more time than the half hour at the gas station.

Of the final three pieces of intelligence.

Two supplemented earlier intelligence.

At first.

It had only mentioned helping to awaken an Awakening Sequence.

This time, it specifically identified the object as a mirror.

A mirror?

Finding a mirror that was an Anomalous Object in the town would be rather difficult, wouldn't it?

The Florist Sequence?

Now the specific Sequence had been revealed too.

That ability to sense plants' emotions.

Did that mean they needed to be careful of the plants in town?

Survivors?

Su Chen's eyes lit up when he saw the mention of survivors.

With survivors there, it would be much safer for everyone to enter.

The last piece of intel.

Extreme weather?

This intel wasn't specific enough. It really wasn't easy to prepare for it.

"Su Chen, what should we do?"

Yang Defa came up to Su Chen with a group of people.

He intended to follow whatever orders he was given.

Huang Wei also came closer, hoping to get some useful information.

Everyone crowded together in a disorderly throng.

Su Chen once again thought of rules.

He adjusted his glasses and said, "Let's eat something first!"

Su Chen planned to establish a hierarchy among the people in the convoy over the meal.