Chapter 57

After the short holiday, countless tasks followed. Xiao Shengyun received an assignment to continue his investigation at Jinghai University.

"Why does it have to be me? I showed up there last time. Going there again would only alert them."

“I can have someone disguise you. The main problem is that we’re really short-staffed right now. Chen Buyan is currently lying in the infirmary. There were traces of pollutants in a residential area in the west, and Huang Yu went to deal with them. Yang Xiao went to investigate in another group, and the rest of us are all busy with other tasks. You’re the only person I can use. As for the problem you mentioned, I’ll have someone next door give you a new face.”

Ye Ting himself had no choice. Some cases required investigation, while others required fighting against pollutants. There were very few people like Xiao Shengyun who could do both.

The capable should do more work; in other words, one person should do several tasks.

Face swap?

The executor next door is quite skilled. Xiao Shengyun's face is like a mirror image, only about three-tenths the same as before, but even fairer and softer, making him look less like a fighter.

The university was very easy to manage. Ye Ting had spoken to the president and had Xiao Shengyun's fingerprints and disguised face recorded in the machine. At the same time, he arranged a single dormitory room for him.

The new dormitory is next to Lin Mo's dormitory.

"Hey bro, did you just move here? I've never seen you here before."

It's not the start of the school year, and there are no new students coming.

As Xiao Shengyun was getting water from the water dispenser in the corridor, someone peeked over from the side.

He recognized this person; he was in Lin Mo's dorm, and his name seemed to be... Chen Hao.

"I'm from X University, here as an exchange student, only staying for a few months."

Xiao Shengyun used his prepared remarks to explain that Jinghai University also has cooperation and exchanges with many other schools, and exchange students often come to visit.

"Oh, no wonder! You live alone next door? That's so cool!"

"That's true, but nobody talks, it's a bit too boring. I just arrived at school today and haven't gotten my student ID card yet. Do you know where to get one?"

“I know that,” Chen Hao said enthusiastically. “I happen to have no classes this afternoon, let’s go together.”

Jinghai University is mainly divided into two dormitory areas, with teaching buildings between them. Around the dormitory areas are areas such as canteens, bathrooms, and cafes.

Xiao Shengyun subtly steered the conversation toward Chen Hao's roommate.

"I'm the third oldest in our dorm, according to age. The oldest is the only one with a girlfriend, the second oldest plays games all day... The sixth oldest is the youngest, and he's known as the king of exams in our college. He's always in class, doing experiments, and working part-time. You basically never see him in the dorm."

"Speak of the devil, and he appears; isn't that Old Six up ahead..."

On the playground not far away, Lin Mo seemed to be arguing with another boy in a blue shirt.

The two ran over and asked the onlookers. They learned that the boy in the blue shirt was playing basketball on the court when, for some reason, the ball flew too high and flew over the wire fence next to the court, hitting Lin Mo on the head and breaking his glasses. After that, the two started arguing.

"I've already apologized, what more do you want from me?" The boy in blue seemed very angry, but the subtext was that he didn't want to compensate Lin Mo for his glasses. He was half a head taller than Lin Mo, and he figured that this bookish guy with glasses wouldn't dare to resist if he was intimidated.

"Pay up!" Lin Mo grabbed the boy's arm, squeezing hard, and a sharp pain shot through his arm, causing the boy to scream in pain.

Chen Hao's jaw almost dropped in shock. Was the person arguing with someone in front of him Lin Mo?

That soft-spoken, gentle girl?

"Are you sick in the head?!" The boy in blue also had a bad temper, and he raised his fist to punch Lin Mo in the face.

At that moment, he was stopped by someone.

The person who stopped him had a delicate and frail face, but long, strong fingers, and the muscles he had worked out were faintly visible under his thin clothes.

After a few days apart, the concentration of pollution on Lin Mo's body had increased even further.

When a weak person gains power, they gradually become unrecognizable.

"It's nothing, it's no big deal."

In the end, it was Moses Chan who brought Lin Mo back.

"This is the new guy... uh," Chen Hao said somewhat awkwardly. He had been chatting with him for so long, but he still didn't seem to know the guy's name.

"Xiao Yun, I just arrived in Jinghai as part of an exchange program."

"Hello." Lin Mo didn't say much to strangers.

After Xiao Shengyun got his campus card, he had to pass by the path where the accident had happened on his way back to his dormitory.

The road was equipped with surveillance cameras, very clean, and bathed in bright sunlight; everything seemed peaceful.

"What happened to that senior from last time? There's been no follow-up. They haven't even caught the culprit. I wonder if he just disappeared, or if there's something really going on at school?"

"Who knows?" Lin Mo said casually as he repaired his glasses.

"That's pollutant, and you're not afraid? Can you even see where you're going? Do you want me to go get your glasses fixed in a bit?" Chen Hao casually put his arm around Lin Mo's shoulder, only to be dismissed by the latter with a nonchalant refusal.

"Need not."

late at night.

Lin Mo hid in the shadows, watching the people and friends laughing and joking not far away, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

Kill him.

This idea kept swirling in his ears.

With his current power, killing an ordinary person doesn't seem difficult.

It's hard to say whether this violent emotion was caused by pollutants, or whether his inner desires were amplified by the pollutants.

"You guys go back to the dorm first, I'm going to the supermarket. Do you need anything?"

"Then please bring me a cup of instant noodles, thanks."

The boy separated from his companion and walked in another direction.

Jinghai University is planted with a large number of trees, and there are designated planting areas everywhere. These areas are also the research sites of the College of Forestry and the College of Horticulture.

There is such an area right next to the supermarket, covered with towering trees that are decades old and lush greenery.

Hmm—

The red mycelium in the grass was already poised to sprout. The mycelium had now turned reddish-black, with some of it binding the boy's mouth and nose, and the other part wrapping around his limbs, dragging him into the grass.

The weeds and branches in the green belt scratched the boy's face, but he couldn't feel the pain because he was almost out of breath.

The fungal hyphae began to flood into the nasal cavity and throat, almost completely blocking the airway.

Thinking of the argument between the two during the day, Lin Mo felt a surge of pleasure.

Then, a sharp pain came from my heart.

A flash of snow-white light appeared in the darkness, and a sharp blade, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, severed the mycelium. The mycelium was now fused with Lin Mo, and the severing of the mycelium felt like a part of his own flesh being cut away.

Someone's there!

Lin Mo squinted and, using the light from the supermarket not far away, saw the man sitting quietly in the bushes. The man was holding a knife in his hand; it was very ordinary, just the kind of thin, long-bladed fruit knife sold in supermarkets.

It's the person from during the day.

He instantly understood: this person was from the Operations Department, not an exchange student.

Lin Mo's courage is only enough to deal with ordinary people; he'd be finished if he encountered an Awakened.

The man flicked his wrist, and the blade flew towards Lin Mo in an instant.

escape.

His body quickly transformed into mycelium, like a snake darting into the grass, as he became unsure if he could escape successfully.

The blade only cut off a small portion of the mycelium.

What he wanted to do was just grab any student.

There were also many students on this road in the evening, some who had just finished class and others who had bought late-night snacks outside the school.

"I'm starving! I'm going to order a large bowl of instant noodles today, with meat and an egg."

"Eating so extravagantly, it's almost the end of the month, how are we going to make ends meet?"

"Hahaha."

The voices of students came from not far away, completely unaware of the danger lurking in the bushes.

Lin Mo twisted his body and pounced on him.

Bang-

An invisible barrier stood directly in front of him.

The man walked over, and Lin Mo finally saw his true appearance. He was the young man who had sat next to him on the day of the lecture.

It's over.

"His body has become one with the mycelium."

Inside the research institute, the people locked in the incubators had transformed into a bizarre and unsettling figure.

Only the torso and head remained of the person; his limbs had completely transformed into mycelium, which was extremely thin and long, clinging to the glass.

"This is not pollution, but fusion. Someone used some means to forcibly fuse him with the mycelium. Others have conducted similar experiments before, but in the end, the human body is always harmed by the pollutants. But this person, for some reason, has maintained a balance with the pollutants in his body. All his indicators are stable, and his body remains in a human state."

"Is this what you call maintaining a human state?"

Xiao Shengyun glanced at the creature, which consisted only of a head and a torso, and thought the other party was joking.

Zhou Zhi explained, “Currently, if the pollutant completely occupies the human body, it will devour human organs and blood. But look, this person’s brain and heart are intact, and the source of the pollutant is also in his body. These two are not parasitic, but symbiotic. It’s too strange.”

Inside the incubator, Lin Mo's mycelium wrapped around the part of the human body, looking like an embrace from a distance.

"Let me out!"

No, I can't die here.

The fungus in Lin Mo's body grew wildly. He had so many things he wanted to do. His mother was not yet fully recovered, he had not yet trampled those who had mocked him underfoot, he wanted to make a lot of money, and he did not want to live such a stifling life for the rest of his life.

Bright red mycelium enveloped his entire body, completely disfiguring his human face.

By the time he finished, it was already 3 a.m. The pollutants in the school had been dealt with, so Xiao Shengyun didn't need to rush the investigation and simply rested at the research institute for the night.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" He even suspected that Zhou Zhi wasn't human; his physical abilities were a bit too strong.

“Some data hasn’t been tested yet,” Zhou Zhi wrote on the paper.

"All right."

He walked easily to the top floor, where there was an ordinary lounge.

Xiao Shengyun closed his eyes, a deep sense of exhaustion washing over him, and he quickly fell into a deep sleep.