Mou Xuan had just twisted the metal spine of the seventh mutant slug when the mycelial network blasted blood-red cracks on the bulletproof glass.
Pus dripped down the tactical gloves onto the ice crystal map that Shen Yao unfolded. The texture of the transport vehicle's chassis suddenly vibrated at the same time as the rose petals - the Steel Bone City's armored vehicle crushed the last roadblock.
"The meeting will start in five minutes." Mou Xuan shook off the mycelium tentacles stuck to his combat uniform, and Chen Yao condensed ice cones on her fingertips to pick away the parasitic spores on the back of his neck.
The two men stepped over the twitching slug remains on the ground, and the mycelium automatically filtered the explosion sound coming from the sewage pipe into a dull drum beat.
The titanium alloy door of the conference hall was slammed loudly by the people from the Lu Meng. "It will be too late by the time they transport thirty tons of compressed biscuits away!" The bearded man threw the shotgun on the holographic sand table, shaking the red dot representing the power of Steel Bone City. "If it were you, I'd blast those bastards right now!"
Negotiator Tao adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said, "The other party has the radiation-resistant bacteria we need..."
"Military force bullshit!" The flat-headed woman from the Lu League opened her collar to reveal her mechanical prosthetic limbs, and her metal fingers directly pierced through the sand table projection, "Didn't you see the living bomb stuffed in the can?"
Chen Yao's ice crystal rose suddenly blossomed amid the quarrel, and the smell of preservatives from canned yellow peaches wrapped in cold air filled the entire place.
Mou Xuan raised his hand to hold down the mycelium network that was about to explode, and the projection of rotten fruit poured down from the ceiling - it was the "gift" intercepted three days ago.
"Slugs can survive for 27 days in a -20℃ environment." Mou Xuan picked up the still-squirming remains of the can with the tip of his military boots, and the mycelium automatically analyzed the genetic map. "Every box of goods sent from Steel Bone City has a refrigerated temperature precisely maintained at -19.5℃."
The holographic image suddenly switched to a scene of an underground sewage pipe, showing twenty metal slugs mutating into miniature bombs wrapped in mycelium.
Chen Yao flicked her finger and released ice crystals, freezing the hawk totem on one of the beasts' back armor: "It's a triggered biological weapon. The explosive equivalent is just enough to destroy the water purification system."
Just as the people from Lu Meng were about to speak, the mycelium network suddenly shrank into a cage shape.
Mou Xuan took off his protective mask covered in ice, revealing an old wound on his left eye that went straight through his brow bone - it was this scar in his previous life that caused him to misjudge the traitor's bullet on a stormy night.
"Their transport vehicles are equipped with double-layer radiation shielding." The mycelium condensed into a triangular thorn model in his palm, "but the roof vents use a single layer of mesh."
Representative Tao suddenly grabbed the negotiation recorder and said, "So the southeast wind today..."
"Enough to blow the neurotoxin back to their own camp." As Chen Yao spoke, ice crystals were condensing into hexagonal early warning devices at the ends of her hair.
Su, the material appraiser in the corner, suddenly coughed. The detector in his hand showed the data of the bacterial culture dishes that Ganggu City promised to deliver - the humidity value was 0.3% higher than the agreed parameters.
Mou Xuan caught a glimpse of the flashing abnormal value, and the mycelium silently wrapped around the trembling wrist of Appraiser Su.
At the end of the meeting, Chen Yao's ice rose just melted into water droplets, leaving a suspicious ink stain on the list of materials provided by the other party.
"Please ask Engineer Su to retest the activity of the strain." Mou Xuan threw the modified detector over, and when he turned around, the mycelium had already wrapped around a vague trademark code on the list.
The eagle totem of Cyborg City flashed across the surveillance screen, and the sound of new slugs hatching came from deep in the sewage pipe.
Su, the material appraiser, rubbed a water mark on the edge of the culture dish with his finger, and the detector wrapped with mycelium suddenly beeped.
As he retreated, he knocked over the incubator, and three bacteria tubes engraved with the emblem of Steel Bone City rolled to Mou Xuan's feet. The fluorescent codes on the inside of the tube walls were melting.
"Abnormal humidity will cause the spores to wake up prematurely." Chen Yao picked up the tube of bacteria with ice crystal tweezers. The light green mist overflowing from the tube condensed into the shape of a falcon ten centimeters above the ground. "It seems that someone wants us to sign for this batch of time bombs in advance."
The bearded man of Lu Meng kicked the chair away and was about to rush out, but the mycelium network suddenly formed a tripwire under his boots.
Mou Xuan picked up the tube of vaporizing bacteria, and pheromones with the smell of rotten strawberries instantly filled the entire meeting room - it was the prelude to the nerve gas used by Steel Bone City to massacre the survivors' camp in the previous life.
"The inside of the compressed biscuit packaging they sent was coated with isotopes of anti-radiation agents." Appraiser Su tremblingly called up the holographic projection. The two gene chains showed a strange mirror symmetry under the analysis of mycelium. "As long as they come into contact with the filter membrane of the water purification system, they will mutate into prion carriers."
The flat-headed woman's mechanical prosthesis made a sound of gear jamming.
She grabbed the negotiation recorder and threw it at Representative Tao, but was frozen into an ice sculpture by Chen Yao's ice rose in mid-air.
Black blood suddenly oozed out of the old wound on Mou Xuan's left eye, and the hyphae spread along the blood beads into a projection of his past life's memories - the list of materials that was tampered with on the rainy night perfectly overlapped with the trembling test report in Appraiser Su's hand at this moment.
"The southeast wind will turn in four hours." Mou Xuan wiped the blood from the corner of his eyes, and the mycelium condensed into a miniature weather model in his palm.
The alarm sounded simultaneously on the communicators in the helmets of everyone in the Lu League. In the sewage pipe monitoring screen, twenty metal slugs were using their tail needles to carve a countdown on the mycelium cage.
Representative Tao suddenly tore open the lining of his suit, revealing seventeen sheets of negotiation minutes sewn into the interlayer.
On the yellowed paper, the amount of materials that Ganggu City promised to deliver would be reduced by 0.3% each time. This error rate happened to be the same as the deviation value of Su's detector.
"They are using psychological anchoring tactics." Chen Yao's ice crystals spread dense formulas on the ground. Each number corresponds to the number of casualties in a tragic battle in the previous life. "They deliberately create small errors in each negotiation. Once we get used to compromise..."
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