Chapter 64: The “Parasite” in the Circular World

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The artificial people modified by the Nano Plague seemed to have some fluctuations in their consciousness after being strengthened by the electronic implant.

Although they were still “docile”, they had become more active.

Their castrated spirits, after being supplemented by mechanical consciousness, began to think about the meaning of their existence. Their past, which was once “food”, had long been regarded as a part of history that needed to be remembered.

After countless repeated reflections, they vaguely believed that that happened because of the estrangement between species.

Perhaps after many generations, they would embark on the path of “assimilation” of all organic forms.

That was why Li Wenyuan named them the “Assimilation Fighters”.

However, it would still take a long time for them to reach that step. The influence on their bodies could not be eliminated in a short time.

…..

They were very gentle now and had begun their glorious work under the instructions set by Li Wenyuan in advance.

Li Wenyuan, on the other hand, came to the control center of the second section of the circular world.

“I hope the remaining three sections of the circular world aren’t filled with disgusting people…”

The first section of the circular world experience had already given him a lot of bad feelings. If the lifeforms in every section of the circular world were similar, he really wanted to question the humans in person why they had taken in those things.

The research spaceship scanned the second control center and found it was in an “abnormal” state of damage.

“This is …” Gray Wind took a look, and then her expression instantly became somewhat disgusted.

A large number of fungal lifeforms were attached to the control center, and the mucus they produced hung all over the control center.

Although the control center did not seem to be damaged, it was likely that its inside was also full of these strange fungal lifeforms, which caused the ‘destruction’ of the control center.

Li Wenyuan also saw this scene and felt a little surprised.

Looking around, these fungal lifeforms did not cover the surface of this section of the circular world, and they seemed to be limited to the control center.

Then, who brought them here?

He was just about to ask Gray Wind if he could use the nanobots to clean up these disgusting things when he suddenly noticed a lot of abnormal signals.

At the same time, Gray Wind, sitting directly outside the research spaceship, also sensed something and instantly scattered into a nanorobotic storm.

In the distant horizon of the circular world, dozens of fighter aircraft were flying toward them at several times the speed of sound.

It was alright if it was just that. But the most unusual thing about these high-speed aircraft was that strange fungal lifeforms were growing on the aircraft’s surface, similar to those in the control center.

They seemed to be able to control machines as they fired dozens of missiles from a distance. Their target was the research spaceship.

Even though the missiles were disintegrated on their way here by the nanorobotic storm transformed from Gray Wind, Li Wenyuan was still very surprised by their special situation.

“…It’s a slightly inferior weapon with only the technology of the atomic era. But what are those fungi?”

Without hesitation, the space fleet immediately launched a space attack, accurately destroying the incoming aircraft.

Li Wenyuan, on the other hand, released a drone and began to collect samples of the fungi all over the control center.

He didn’t expect a bigger change to begin.

The fungi seemed to have noticed the drone’s approach, and they instantly burst into a cloud of white fungal spores, forming a dense cloud of “snowflakes” in a short time.

The drone couldn’t dodge in time and was instantly surrounded by fungal spores. If it wasn’t for the shield that blocked the spores, it might have ended up in the same miserable state as the control center.

Li Wenyuan’s eyes narrowed. He tentatively extended the drone’s mechanical arm, wanting to extract a spore sample for analysis.

However, he found that the moment the mechanical arm touched the spore, it was parasitized. Then the spore began extending along the mechanical arm toward the drone as if it wanted to grow all over it.

At this moment, he even felt that the connection between him and the drone had weakened greatly, and it felt like it was about to collapse.

Without hesitation, he ordered the drone to self-destruct and explode into fireworks.

After seeing the terrifying parasitic abilities of these fungi, Li Wenyuan said to Gray Wind, “Don’t get close to these things first. They seem to be a special fungus that can parasitize machines. It will be a little troublesome if you get entangled with them…”

As he spoke, he looked over when he didn’t hear Gray Wind’s response but saw a creepy scene.

Although Gray Wind maintained the appearance of a human, her body was covered with the same fungi as the control center, as if she had been parasitized.

“You …” This time, even his virtual world trembled. Could it be that even the “Gray Storm”, a disaster crystal that could devour everything, could not resist the parasitism of these fungi?

However, the next moment, the fungi on Gray Wind’s body suddenly turned into nano dust and spun around her.

It turned out that those fungi were transformed from her nanobots, and she wasn’t really infected.

She revealed a happy expression, “How is it? Were you scared? I’ve always wanted to experience what it’s like to scare others. It’s not bad this time, right?”

The nano dust reattached to Gray Wind’s body, and a small nano ball floated in her hand. It seemed to be the fungal spore she had captured.

Seeing that Li Wenyuan didn’t respond for a long time, she said exaggeratedly, “Did you really think these mysterious fungi can parasitize the nanobots? Their spores’ bodies are bigger than the nanobots. I low are they going to parasitize?”

Although Gray Wind’s words made sense, Li Wenyuan was indeed scared earlier. At that time, he was thinking about whether he should use the fleet to blow up Gray Wind and the circular world and then collect the wreckage of the nanobots to see if he could resurrect her.

However, seeing the current situation, his heart was temporarily at ease. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I have to admit that you are really talented in transformation…Alright, you got the fungus sample?”

Although Gray Wind still wanted to show off, seeing that he was getting down to business, she began to talk about the data she had obtained from the spores she had captured.

“This fungus can be a parasite on machinery…Of course, it can only parasitize ordinary machines. They can’t do anything to nanobots like me.”

“To be precise, their parasitism is to replace the circuits of the mechanical creation with hyphae, and then their fungal bodies will become tiny processing units, replacing the original processors of the mechanical creation.”

“It looks like they can only parasitize mechanical bodies, but I think living beings are also within their range of parasitism. If I’m not wrong, the underground of this circular world region is already full of their hyphae.”

“I think they’ve even developed a certain level of intelligence.”

A small opening appeared on the nano ball in Gray Wind’s hand, and the spores that were hard to detect with the naked eye seemed to have a life of their own as they tried to escape. They were then caught by the surrounding nanobots.

Seeing how active these spores were, he looked down at the control center, which was still bathing in the “sea of fungi”.

“What kind of things did the humans take in back then…” Li Wenyuan lamented..