At this moment, a slightly frightened voice suddenly appeared in the crowd, "Do you smell anything strange?"

"Strange smell? I think there is a little bit. I've been smelling something damp and moldy since a while ago..."

The sentence stopped abruptly because he suddenly remembered that this smell was the most typical smell of an infected person.

"...There are infected people here!" someone screamed.

Almost instantly, fear spread throughout the area around the stage, and people jumped in panic like a school of startled fish.

Xie Xuan's heart sank, and she immediately shook off Chongming, jumped off the stage, and ran towards the place where the scream first broke out.

But as soon as Xie Xuan entered the crowd, she was squeezed by panicked people and couldn't move forward. There were screams and curses everywhere. Xie Xuan had only taken a few steps when she was pushed several times.

[The current spore concentration detected is 40%, and the parasite is beginning to lose control.]

The people who were standing on the periphery of the crowd at the beginning had already noticed something was wrong. They didn't run far before they bumped into an invisible wall.

"T-This is a territory!?"

Fear once again spread among the crowd like a plague, and some people with weaker mental qualities broke down and burst into tears.

But Xie Xuan was still squeezed in the crowd and couldn't move. She was surrounded by humans who had not been infected, and she couldn't just use a dagger to chop them in half.

Xie Xuan was overwhelmed. The crying and shouting of the people around her made her head hurt.

She now felt that if she really failed in this field, it would not be the fungi that defeated her, but the humans around her.

Amidst the screams and cries, Xie Xuan also heard Chongming's voice drowned out.

He seemed to be asking people to stop pushing and crowding, but no one was listening at the moment.

Xie Xuan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to carefully recall the last time he controlled the dogman in the field.

She imagined that her mental power was countless tiny tentacles, now spreading from her body and connecting to everyone here.

In the darkness, Xie Xuan seemed to be able to see his spiritual power extending from his body like strands of hyphae, attaching to everyone's head.

"Quiet." Xie Xuan said.

Her voice was not loud, not even as loud as the crying girl next to her, but everyone in the entire area fell silent because of her two words.

At the same time, Xie Xuan's spirit value dropped directly to 80.

The sudden drop in mental strength brought a strong feeling of dizziness. Xie Xuan bit the tip of his tongue hard and endured the sequelae of the manipulation technique.

The area is now unprecedentedly quiet.

This time, Xie Xuan was finally able to pass through the crowd unhindered and walk towards the location where the person suspected to be infected was.

Xie Xuan's manipulation technique actually only kept everyone silent for two seconds, but after two seconds, the fear Xie Xuan brought to people directly overwhelmed the terror brought by the field itself. Everyone continued to remain silent without any prior agreement, and even spontaneously made way for Xie Xuan.

In the dim light, Xie Xuan could feel the ground beneath her feet becoming softer and softer, as if thick mycelium had grown there, and the unique smell of mushrooms in the air became stronger and stronger.

Xie Xuan's eyes kept searching the crowd on both sides, but everyone she could see looked normal, their bodies and faces were clean, without any strands of mycelium suddenly growing out.

This doesn't make sense. Xie Xuan frowned slightly.

Generally speaking, the lower the level of the field, the more obvious the signs of infection will be on the parasite.

Just like the little girl she met for the first time, when the spore concentration just reached 40%, the little girl's body was already covered with mycelium.

Xie Xuan had already stood in the area where the infection was most serious among the crowd, and only then did she realize that she had fallen into a misunderstanding.

Because this field seemed so normal compared to other fields she had entered, he almost forgot that normal logic could not be used in this field.

No one stipulates that the parasite must stand on the ground like a normal person, just like the parasite who was stuck to the ceiling in the previous field.

However, some basic principles of the field will not change, and the area around the parasite will definitely be the place where the infection is most serious.

Xie Xuan took out the dagger. Last time it was on the ceiling, this time she guessed it might be under the floor.

The sharp dagger was inserted straight into the ground, directly cutting through the mycelium and the floor.

The sharp dagger did not encounter any resistance, but a sharp scream came from under the floor, and then the whole floor began to rise and fall.

The people who were just frightened by Xie Xuan began to scream uncontrollably again. The crowd pushed and shoved in panic, trying to find a safe place, but they all fell into a heap because of the floor that was undulating like waves.

The parasite who was stabbed by Xie Xuan and was hiding under the floor suddenly started to flee after twisting violently twice.

Xie Xuan immediately followed the raised marks on the ground. The parasite moved very quickly, and its target was very clear: moving towards Chongming on the stage.

When the entire field was shaking upside down, only the stage where Chongming was standing remained motionless.

Xie Xuan now fully realized how special Chongming was to the parasite, but she also didn't understand why the parasite was now running towards Chongming in an unusual way.

While everyone was in chaos, only Chongming stood quietly on the stage, as if everything that was happening had nothing to do with him.

Xie Xuan climbed onto the stage breathlessly, just in time to see the parasite sticking its head out from the ground, seemingly looking up at Chongming.

Under the bright spotlight, the ground looked eerily like a head covered in mycelium, and this head was even talking.

"Same name... I really like you..." The voice of the parasite sounded like a young girl.

This time, Xie Xuan will not be so foolish as to wait until the spore concentration reaches 50% before taking action.

She gripped the dagger tightly, aimed it at the head on the ground and was about to throw it when Chongming suddenly spoke.

"Don't love me, it's fruitless."

Chongming's tone made Xie Xuan, a bystander, feel ruthless.

Chongming's sudden reveal of his true identity did not stop Xie Xuan from throwing the dagger, but it caused the parasite to suddenly lose control.

[The current spore concentration detected is 50%, and the parasite is completely out of control.]