Crash——!!!
The reinforced windshield, covered in dust and cobwebs, instantly shattered into countless fragments, spraying in like hail! Following closely behind, sticky mycelial slime, emitting a strong stench and the smell of ozone, poured into the cockpit like a torrential rain! The slime was highly corrosive, and where it landed on metal and instruments, it immediately emitted a sizzling sound and billowed into a pungent cloud of white smoke!
A thin, disproportionate figure clung to the vast indentation on the roof like a gecko. It slowly lowered its head, its featureless face covered in a smooth, ever-shifting, milky-white bacterial membrane that reflected the emergency lights inside. Most terrifying of all were its hands—their ten fingers had completely transformed into sharp, gleaming data cable plugs! At the ends of the plugs, a subtle arc of electricity crackled.
"Data Predator!" Xu Shuangyao screamed from beneath Pei Du, her voice distorted by the pain of her lungs being struck. She struggled to reach for the sclerotium pistol fixed under the operating table—an energy weapon that used high-energy sclerotia as ammunition.
Bang!
A blinding blue energy beam struck the monster's left shoulder! No blood or flesh flew, only a viscous, multicolored "code stream" spurted out, like liquid metal! The air instantly filled with a strong smell of ozone and an even more pungent odor of humus.
The monster merely shivered, the bacterial membrane covering its face undulating violently as it let out a silent roar. Where it was struck, the viscous stream of code rapidly solidified and reorganized, returning to its original state in the blink of an eye! Its target was crystal clear. Its sharp claws ignored Pei Du, who stood ready with his knife in hand, and with a shrieking sound, they pierced the console in front of Xu Shuangyao! Its target was the flickering dark golden coordinate point on the screen!
"It's not targeting us! It's targeting the Crown Coordinates!" Pei Du instantly judged and roared. His long sword transformed into a silver streak, accurately deflecting the deadly plug stabbing at the terminal! The collision of metal and data plug unexpectedly caused a series of dazzling blue sparks to burst out!
A fierce struggle erupted within the cramped carriage! The Data Predator's movements were ghostly, its claws leaving afterimages. Each strike was accompanied by a powerful data interference pulse, causing the lights and instruments within the carriage to flicker wildly. Pei Du, relying on his inhuman combat instincts and honed swordsmanship, fiercely shielded Xu Shuangyao behind him. His long sword danced into a curtain of light, barely fending off the torrent of attacks. However, the carriage was too cramped, preventing him from fully deploying his full power. Furthermore, the intense data interference from the opponent's plug attacks caused tingling and sluggishness in his neural implants.
Bang! Xu Shuangyao fired again, trying to force the monster back and create an opportunity for Pei Du. However, the monster seemed to have predicted her move, thrusting its arm back at a strange angle, accurately hitting her wrist holding the gun!
"Ah!" A sharp pain came, and the mycelium pistol flew out of his hand, hit the wall of the car and slid into the corner.
A matter of life and death!
As the gleaming plug pierced her face once more, Xu Shuangyao's pupils suddenly constricted! Her instinct for survival and the intuition honed from her long study of fungi instantly overwhelmed everything else! She didn't retreat. Instead, she faced the incoming plug, thrusting out her hands and grabbing at the exposed, heart-beating core of mycelium on the monster's chest.
A cold, slippery, and intensely bioelectrical sensation instantly spread throughout his body! Xu Shuangyao suppressed the urge to vomit and the numbness of the powerful bioelectric shock. Deep within his consciousness, he almost screamed as he forcibly activated the extremely primitive and overbearing protocol command he had just deciphered from the crown data fragments—data extraction!
Buzz——!
A strange resonance arose between her and the monster! Deep within Xu Shuangyao's eyes, the totem entwined with thorns and data links suddenly lit up! A dark golden light instantly covered her irises!
The Data Predator's movements froze instantly! The bacterial membrane covering its face twisted violently, as if in immense pain. Its frantically dancing crimson hyphae, as if strangled by an invisible force, suddenly froze. Then, like the receding tide, it emitted a mournful, sizzling sound and frantically contracted towards the core tube in its chest! Its body shrivelled and withered at a visible speed!
In less than three seconds, the ferocious monster collapsed in Xu Shuangyao's hands into a fist-sized, wrinkled, dark red sclerotium, like a dried heart. It fell to the carriage floor with a "plop." At the core of the sclerotium, a tiny, distinct mark of a crown of thorns emanated a faint, dark golden glow.
The carriage fell into dead silence, with only the roar of the engine and the heavy breathing of the two people.
Pei Du's knife-wielding hand trembled slightly as he stared at the sclerotium on the ground in disbelief. Then, he darted back to Xu Shuangyao's eyes, which still shone with a faint golden glow. "You... you tamed it?" His voice was dry, filled with shock and an indescribable mix of emotions. This was beyond his understanding of "data manipulation"!
"No..." Xu Shuangyao slowly loosened her hand, which was trembling slightly from exerting too much force, and looked down at her palm. The dark golden thorn totem slowly dissipated like a phantom. A cold and majestic will seemed to have just descended through her body, then quietly retreated. She raised her head, her face pale, but her eyes were unusually bright, with a trembling insight into the truth. "It wasn't me... it was the 'Crown.' It... through me, recovered a 'defector' or... a 'runaway tool.'"
The Hermit and the Echoes of the Past
Following the faint signal left by the core sclerotium and the "Crown" mark, their RV broke through a mass of mycelium disguised as rock and entered a vast, long-dried, abandoned urban drainage tunnel hidden deep underground. The tunnel was filled with a thick, damp odor, the strong smell of disinfectant, and the aroma of fermenting, exotic fungi. The walls were covered in a thick, fluorescent green fungal moss, like the blood vessels of some giant beast.
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