Mycelial Will, a conscious entity born from the massive reproduction of fungal organisms.

He comes from every mycelium and from every cell structure in the huge system. He is one and also ten thousand.

The will of the cluster allows Him to think of the optimal solution at the moment when facing most problems, and the number of individuals that can never be completely wiped out allows Him to learn lessons after every failure.

He can continuously evolve, learn, and iterate, but there is only one thing——

The objective birth and existence form determine that the mycelium cannot deceive itself even if it chooses to differentiate consciousness.

So, when Clotho said He couldn't do it, it really was impossible.

Even if the three consciousnesses were combined into one and conducted the most extreme self-examination, they would come to the same conclusion.

This made Him feel the emotion of confusion for the first time.

This emotion has been felt many times in human dreams, but He has never been able to understand it.

Because He thought He was omnipotent until the moment He realized He couldn't do it.

But why is that?

Although we already have such powerful learning and evolutionary capabilities, no one has come up with a similar method for tool manipulation in the past few decades.

But once I thought of this method, I found that I couldn't do it even if I tried my best.

As if being bound by invisible chains, the mycelium will felt a sense of powerlessness.

He has a more objective understanding of "self".

Although the reason was not clear, the mycelium will understood that if it wanted to go further, the only way was to assimilate.

Anything can only be used if it becomes a part of oneself and cannot be manipulated as a tool.

The Supreme Will split again, and three consciousnesses of different forms appeared in the sea of consciousness.

Because of the emotions of the complete body, the emotions of the three consciousnesses, Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis, are not high at the moment.

"It seems that your first plan cannot be carried out."

Lachesis said:

"We have to think of a new approach. What is your second plan?"

Atropos said:

“I thought about the possibility that the plan would fail, but I didn’t think it would fail because we couldn’t do it.

“Plan 2 is essentially a supplement to Plan 1 when something unexpected happens. It seems that we can now bring it forward.

"I think that in order to cope with the current rapid development of mankind, it is necessary for us to make some use of the materials underground."

"Are you crazy?!"

Clotho and Lachesis were both shocked.

As part of the Supreme Will, they share memories of a past before they split, and are fully aware of the possible impact that ingesting that substance could have on the entire ecosystem.

When the mycelium first landed on this planet, it had not yet learned the ability to spread out a fungal carpet. It could only obtain more genetic samples by constantly wriggling, and then conduct trial and error bit by bit.

At that time, He had come into contact with that mysterious gray-black substance.

After using its own abilities to purify the slag, the remaining organic matter is a great temptation to the mycelium.

After all, He, or rather, it needed sufficient nutrients for its growth.

However, after taking a small amount, He felt the pain from the source.

The toxicity of that substance was beyond His tolerance, and after careful testing, He gave up the idea of using it in large quantities.

Until now, Atropos has once again proposed this crazy idea.

After calming down a bit, Cloto asked:

"You should have some basic ideas. We can't absorb that kind of matter indefinitely to grow ourselves. This is a form of self-destruction."

"Yes, I got some ideas from the last human attack."

Atropos said:

"There are two methods. One is to let Clotho evolve in the corresponding direction and filter and purify the biomass by breeding exotic beasts. We replenish the biomass by recycling the corpses of exotic beasts.

“If you are worried that it cannot be purified in one go, you can produce some more exotic beasts for secondary filtration. In short, the toxicity of that substance must be reduced to a level we can accept.

"Another method is for us to split off a new consciousness, let Lachesis erode its will, and then completely cut off the connection with it.

“After He ingested a large amount of that biomass and entered a period of decline, we simply recycled it.

"This is the solution to the current dilemma. What do you think?"

After Atropos finished speaking, the remaining two consciousnesses fell into silent thought.

There is no free lunch in the world. No matter which method is used, the mycelium will inevitably require material investment.

For these swarming creatures, property is essentially organic matter.

Atropos was like a stockbroker making a sales pitch to two clients.

As we all know, this kind of thing only emphasizes the benefits and rarely explains the risks.

But the mycelium cannot deceive each other, and they naturally understand the disaster that may be caused by doing so.

Time in the sea of consciousness has no meaning. After an unknown amount of time, the two consciousnesses responded:

“You can try.”

"Which plan?"

"all."

The three consciousnesses reached a consensus. Clotho began to conceive and evolve, while Lachesis began to prepare to split a small part of himself and personally erode any instincts that might be born from him.

As for Atropos, he returned to his original position and began to analyze the abilities he had not yet learned.

In the misty forest west of Hope City, new animal cocoons began to appear in the cracks of the towering trees.

Only this time, the cocoon didn't have any particular color and was the same grayish color as the surrounding bark.

The creature among them seemed particularly strange. It had a small head, but its mouthparts took up half of the space.

Its limbs are short and weak, while its trunk seems to have been specially treated, covered with tiny scales like a balloon that can expand ten or a hundred times.

The crude design of this creature is visible to the naked eye, but fortunately Kroto did not choose to produce it in large quantities.

Soon, the first batch of more than one hundred strange beasts used their short and thick limbs to tear through the cocoons and fell out.

Although their muscles are not very strong, their round bodies allow them to fall from great heights with little to no injury.

A large amount of gray-white spore mist quickly entered their mouths and noses, and the strange beasts' originally lifeless eyes gradually turned gray and red.

At the call of the voice in their heads, they began to move in the same direction, using their short limbs to reach the edge of a bottomless pit.