"Crackle … call for help … hum …"
"Although I know … it's unlikely that there's a signal … but …"
"We have to … crackle … contact … hum … for help …"
This was a place in the void, a … forgotten world.
A soft snow-colored substance covered the entire land. White particles would fall from the sky from time to time. The light of the stars was also blocked by endless fog.
In this world, almost everything was dyed white.
However, some creatures were not infected and had not been assimilated. They had never given up … They had been trying hard to contact the outside world, but they did not know if they would succeed.
"Still no response …"
In the dim fog, a group of creatures gathered under a huge rock, constantly adjusting a mechanical device in front of them.
"It's no use, captain. There's no response."
These creatures were Atlan. They had participated in the attack on the pompom, but were later abandoned here by the brain spirit.
At first, they lived a life of running and hiding everywhere.
Those fungus-like things were transported to this world, and then they spread wildly. During this period of time, the terrifying fungus had devoured all the creatures known as' Cleaners'. They grew strong under the huge amount of nutrients, and finally covered the entire world.
Now, most of this world was covered with a layer of white 'carpet'. This had become a world of fungi.
But even in this world, there were still some creatures that survived. They were … Atlan. They were able to survive not only because there were many of them. It was also because they were all wearing armor.
A special type of void mobility armor allowed them to avoid infection. They also found places where the fungus did not spread and could hide to survive.
But in order to survive, they needed food, water, air, and … the hope of survival.
In this world covered by fungi, perhaps the last bit was their motivation to survive.
Many of the living Atlan formed a small camp. Most of the time, they would hide underground, but sometimes they would go out to search for something.
The things they looked for included food and machinery.
This Atlan team was a team that looked for machinery and food. This team was made up of five Atlan. They were responsible for looking for machinery in the area covered by fungi.
Although the brain spirit had driven away the spaceships that could take them away, it left behind many underground and aboveground bases. These bases had many machinery devices. The Atlan tried to find some useful devices and then tried to create spaceships or communication devices.
"Seems like the signal here is not good."
This Atlan team had another mission other than searching, which was to contact the outside world.
They believed. They must have some troops in the void outside. As long as they could contact them. They would fly over to rescue them.
"Maybe we should try to go to a higher place." The captain of the Atlan team looked at the team member in charge of communication and said, "Put that thing away. We're leaving."
"Yes." The team member carried the communication device on his back. The device looked like a cube and was very big. It was not very convenient to carry, but it was this kind of shape that allowed them to contact the troops in the void.
That was what they thought.
"Then, Captain, where should we go next?"
"We're already very close to the danger zone …" The captain said as he climbed onto the boulder. From his perspective, he could see a vast expanse of white land. This was the result of a large number of layers of mycelium covering the land, covering it with a layer of carpet made of mycelium.
There were small hairs growing on this' carpet '. They would occasionally tremble and release small particles into the air.
This was also the reason for the fog in the air.
"If only we could go up there …" the captain stood on the rock and looked into the distance covered by the fog. He could vaguely see a large object there.
It was over a hundred meters tall. Its thick stem supported an umbrella-like structure with a diameter of over ten meters at the top. This was something called the 'Giant Umbrella Mushroom'.
"Those things are getting bigger and bigger." One of the team members also climbed onto the rock and looked into the distance. "How big do they have to be before they reach the top? I've never seen such a big one before … "
"Don't worry about that," the captain said. "Check the danger level of that place."
In this fungal world, there were many areas that were safe or dangerous for Atlan. This was mainly determined by the density of the mycelium in the air.
When the concentration of the mycelium was low, it was fine for them to wear armor. But when the concentration was high, they could only move around for a certain period of time. If the concentration was too high, it would quickly block the air filter on the armor and even leak out.
So they could only move around in areas with low concentration.
At first, the concentration was high everywhere. In the past, Atlan did not dare to go within one kilometer of the area covered by the fungus … but now, for some reason, the concentration of the mycelium seemed to have decreased a lot. That was why Atlan came here.
"Captain, the concentration is within the safe range." A team member in charge of the detection pressed a button on his helmet and said, "We can go in now."
"Alright, although the communication failed, we still need to find food," the captain said. "Let's go in and hunt."
As he said that, he jumped down from the rock. His feet stepped on the white carpet on the ground and white dust splashed up.
The Atlan held the weapons in their hands and moved forward in the fog and the soft carpet. Every step they took would stir up a cloud of dust. However, the dust would soon scatter to the ground and would not increase the concentration of the dust in the air.
"There!" Suddenly, the captain stopped. His helmet showed that there was a moving object not far ahead.
Under the captain's command, all the team members immediately became alert. They raised the weapons in their hands and quietly approached the target step by step …
"It's in that place …"
Slowly, they saw the target in the mist. It was a creature that looked like a beetle. It was one meter tall and about three meters long. Although it did not look very big, it was actually very heavy.
And this creature was the prey that the Atlan wanted to catch recently.
Previously, the Atlan ate the food reserves here, but most of the areas with food reserves were contaminated by the fungus. Although there were a few left, they would be eaten up very quickly.
Initially, the Atlan did not have a way to deal with the decrease of food.
That was because it was impossible to grow anything here. At the same time, there was no way to find other food. Although there was underground water, the things that were grown would be quickly infected by the fungus.
The Atlan found this creature by chance … They called it 'fungus beetle'.
This creature only appeared after the fungus had spread to almost the entire world. The Atlan tried to catch some of them. Originally, they wanted to study them to see if they were related to the fungus.
However, during the study, they found that these beetles did not have any fungus in their bodies. There was also no infection like the fungus. Moreover, the cells inside were determined to be quite nutritious.
Of course, the Atlan did not dare to eat it at first. However, the food in their camp was soon exhausted. After the food was finished, an Atlan ate the beetle when he was hungry.
Yet, it was still alive and well.
The Atlan found that as long as the fungus on the outer shell of the beetle was burned, there was no danger in eating the insides. Of course, they could not eat the organs like the stomach. This news had spread to many Atlan camps. Now, they were all trying to catch these beetles for food.
The only difficulty in catching these beetles was that their outer shell could not be damaged in any way. Otherwise, the fungus would enter through the wound, and they could not be eaten.
'Bang!'
The Atlan captain pressed down on the weapon in his hand. With a loud noise, a large net shot out from the cylindrical weapon and instantly covered the beetle.
"Caught it!"
The beetle kept struggling in the net, but it could not get rid of the metal net. A few Atlan immediately ran forward and tied the net up with a metal rope.
"This thing can be eaten for many days!"
"Yeah, and it's very easy to catch. There are quite a lot of them too, although I don't know where they came from …"
"According to research, their stomachs can dissolve the fungus without being infected. If we study it further, we might not be infected … I have to admit that the situation is getting better and better recently."
"Yeah, the concentration has decreased, and there are prey that can be caught … Captain, we should go back … Captain?"
A few Atlan dragged the beetle and wanted to leave, but they found that the captain was standing there and staring at the giant umbrella mushroom more than ten meters away.
The captain suddenly said, "I want to climb up there and take a look."
"What?" A team member was shocked. "Why do you want to climb up there?"
"There." The captain pointed at the top of the umbrella mushroom and said, "The top of the umbrella mushroom has extended out of the area covered by the fungus. There might be a better signal there. We can try to contact the troops outside …"
"Captain …"
In fact, all the team members here knew that contacting the outside was just a comfort to them. They basically thought that it was impossible to contact any rescue team.
"There's still hope. We have to try," the captain said. "You can go back first. Give me the communicator. I'll climb up there."
"…" A few team members looked at each other. A team member stood up and said, "We won't go back first. This bug can't escape anyway. Let's go up together."
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