642. Ascending Mushroom

The tide surged in, then ebbed away.

Will stood on the shore.

Under the wash of the waves, the grime on Will's body was rinsed clean, leaving him with an unprecedented sense of ease.

The Will of now could not recall the Cultists' hideous faces, could not recall those companions from the Mushroom Worship Cult, and could not even recall how he had come to this stretch of coast.

He simply stood there, hesitating over where he should go.

Behind him stretched the beach, and farther off was an empty expanse of blank white nothingness.

He vaguely felt that he should walk that way. That place was the end, the destination, the place everyone who stood here would eventually go.

But the sea was trying to keep him.

Wave after wave came in, each one retreating a little more slowly, curling around him a little deeper.

Will stood on the shore for a long time. In the end, he stepped toward the sea.

Step by step, the seawater rose past his calves, past his waist, past his chest.

He kept walking. He did not feel cold, nor did he feel suffocated. He only felt that, wrapped in seawater, he was growing lighter and lighter—

Will's world once again sank into darkness.

Puji—"I didn't expect a new mushroom to be born all of a sudden. This is great, Fourteen. You're not the youngest anymore."

"—So this one is called Fifteen?"

"It moved, it moved! It's coming out!"

The thought-conversation appeared directly in Will's mind. He knew this was communication through the Mycelium Network, but both thoughts in the conversation were utterly unfamiliar to him.

Who were they?

Companions from the Mushroom Worship Cult?

Had he actually been lucky enough to survive?

Will wanted to open his eyes, only to discover that