Chapter 88

If the initial thought of "hallucination" was just because of the strange "Landor" in front of her, then after carefully observing the surroundings, Xu Ming became more certain of this thought.

... Although she still couldn't remember how she came to this place, she found that she was actually very familiar with this place after a little observation.

Of course, it was in reality - there was an old street near her university. Because it was going to be demolished, the residents inside had already moved out. Only some students who came back late would take a shortcut back to school from here. Xu Ming had also walked through here several times, but due to her psychic body's desire to survive, she would rather choose to take a detour more often.

And now, she was standing in this old street.

Not only that, she also saw manicures on her hands - due to work reasons, Xu Ming basically does not do manicures. He only tried it once out of curiosity when he was a sophomore, but he took it off soon after because it was inconvenient.

So the situation now is that she is a sophomore, walking in the old street near her university with a weird "Landor"...

It looks even more fake. At least Xu Ming herself knows clearly that when she was in college, she would never run to the old street for no reason, and she definitely had never seen Landor at that time.

...Or the version with an absolutely great voice and a weird temper.

His eyes are as clear as ever. It's just that the familiar clarity is mixed with unfamiliar unhappiness, which makes it look even stranger.

This is also what Xu Ming doesn't understand - even if it is an illusion, don't you generally have to pursue the effect? Either make it as mysterious and scary as possible, and break through the psychological defense of human beings through a strong impact in a short period of time; or make it as real as possible, so that the parties themselves can't tell the truth from the false, and then use this false reality to quietly guide or even brainwash the target...

But what's the point of this?

It's scary, but not scary. It's real, but it's fake.

It's neither good nor bad.

Xu Ming was thinking secretly, but Lando, who was walking in front of her, suddenly stopped, turned his head, looked at her subtly, opened his mouth and closed it, and then pursed his lips, as if he was caught in some kind of entanglement.

After a while, he asked tentatively: "Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"Huh?" Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, and shook his head subconsciously, "No, why do you ask?" "

Then why are you walking so slowly." Lando seemed relieved, then looked away and continued to walk forward, "When you encountered this kind of situation before, you were not always the most positive."

...?

Xu Ming was getting more and more confused. What was "this kind of situation"? What kind of situation?

When thinking about the incident when Lando had pulled hair from him before, Xu Ming felt even more subtle. To be honest, it's not uncommon to have hallucinations that can write plots, but this is the first time she has encountered a hallucination that inexplicably creates a plot line without a beginning or an end, and even the person involved is confused...

To be on the safe side, she still responded in a low voice, then quickened her pace and caught up with Landor in front.

Her eyes kept scanning the old houses on both sides, and she reached out to touch her body from time to time, frowning slightly.

- Although she still can't remember how she came here, and she can't understand why the plot in this hallucination is about, no matter what, the conclusion of "hallucination" is already ironclad.

According to past experience, if you fall into hallucinations, it means that you must have been trapped in a certain legend before, and hallucinations are the means of hunting for legends. In this case, the most urgent thing is to find a way to break the illusion and escape as soon as possible...

The simplest way is naturally to destroy it violently. But how to destroy it specifically is also very particular. If you don't have the ability and momentum to sweep everything in front of you, you must find a way to hit the core of the illusion in one blow.

But the problem now is... how to destroy it.

Xu Ming just looked at it and found that he had nothing on him except a messenger bag. The bag was light and obviously didn't contain anything that could be used as a weapon; the paths were very clean, without even a stone...

Wait.

Glancing at a pile of broken tiles and gravel on the side of the road, Xu Ming's heart suddenly moved.

"Hey." She spoke immediately and called out to Landuo who was walking in front of her, "Wait a minute."

Landuo turned around when he heard the voice and looked over with a frown on his face: "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." Xu Ming smiled, pointed to the pile of tiles next to him, and walked over as if nothing had happened. "I suddenly remembered that the small fish tank in my dormitory is missing two stones... It's a rare opportunity for me to pass by, why don't you let me go and look for them first?"

Landuo: "......?"

"What are you kidding?" He looked at her in disbelief. "Your dormitory closes at 10:30, and we don't have much time in total. You still have time to pick up stones..."

"Don't worry, don't worry, it will be quick." Xu Ming thought to himself, who knows where you are taking me, so he just perfunctorily replied, his eyes constantly wandering on the pile of tiles, trying his best to find sharp stones that could be used as weapons. Seeing that "Landuo" looked more and more strange, Xu Ming simply spoke before him:

"By the way, I wanted to ask you before."

She pointed at his neck meaningfully: "Where is your bell?"

"Such an important bell, could it be lost?"

"..." Landuo was stunned when he heard it, and subconsciously touched his throat, with a bit of embarrassment on his face.

Sure enough. Xu Ming thought without surprise, and turned her eyes to the pile of tiles on the side again.

Frankly speaking, she has not experienced many strange stories that can create illusions. But at least she has summarized some experiences. One of the most important ones is that you must not let the existence in the illusion lead your rhythm.

And one of the effective ways to break the rhythm is to directly expose the contradictions and loopholes in the illusion.

Monsters also have emotions, at least monsters that simulate illusions can understand and imitate emotions to a certain extent. This means that when a loophole is pointed out, the other party is likely to give a short-term emotional reaction, such as surprise, confusion, or even hesitation. Then

, there are only two developments. Either the other party starts to try to fill the loophole and maintain the authenticity of the illusion; or it simply breaks down and stops acting... No matter which one it is, it at least means that the rhythm of the illusion itself will be broken, and the person trapped in it can take this opportunity to get a little respite...

just like now.

Xu Ming's sight finally locked onto a sharp piece of gravel. While Landor was looking away in embarrassment, he quickly picked it up and quietly hid it behind him.

Turning around and trying to find a suitable angle to attack, his eyes accidentally swept across Lando's red ears, and his expression froze instantly.

...No, I just asked about a bell, why are you blushing? What kind of emotional reaction is this?

This is just an illusion, please be normal, I'm scared.

Xu Ming was a little confused, a tile had been hidden behind his back for a long time, and he didn't know whether he should smash it at this time; at this moment, he heard Lando cough lightly again, and his ears seemed to be even redder.

Then he looked around, lifted the luggage bag he was carrying, patted it, and scolded the bag in a low voice, and then turned his eyes back to Xu Ming.

He turned around, but refused to look her in the eye. His gaze wandered for a long time, and finally dropped like a feather. Then he hummed again, turned his head, and gently lifted his right trouser leg towards Xu Ming.

"......?"

Xu Ming lowered his eyes in confusion. With the light of the street lamp, his gaze finally fell on the other's ankle.

On the pale skin, there were two circles of bright red rope; in the middle of the red rope, there was a golden bell.

Xu Ming: "..."

Wow. She sighed in her heart with a blank expression.

I have to say, this illusion is really good at playing... and in a sense, it is quite detail-oriented.

Although it’s a bit strange to say this, Xu Ming herself did have a special liking for drawing footwear and other elements. And if I remember correctly, when she was a sophomore, she happened to receive a commission to help someone spend an animation fan art. The character in the animation happened to be a handsome paper man with a silver chain on his ankle, which completely hit her aesthetic point, causing her to fall into the pit directly after drawing the order...

Unfortunately, the character collapsed later, and the animation itself was also aborted. Xu Ming had no choice but to quit, and her love for footwear also cooled down.

...So this bell hanging on the ankle may not be very attractive to Xu Ming, a social animal; but to Xu Ming, a sophomore, it is definitely very attractive...

"It's okay." Xu Ming sighed from the bottom of his heart, not knowing whether he was exaggerating his illusion or the "Landuo" in front of him, "You know a lot."

"......!" Landuo heard this, but his eyes suddenly widened, and for some reason, his ears became more red, "What are you talking about! Didn't you say... I just... I still... But you still went to touch the cat!"

...? ? ?

What?

Xu Ming was confused again. No, brother, how did you manage to omit at least three key contents in just a short sentence? OOC is not such a C method.

Considering the cheapness of this illusion, Xu Ming couldn't help but wonder if it was because the original plot couldn't be completed so he madly blurred himself.

Speaking of which, when he first came here, the hair on his body... was it cat hair?

Xu Ming subconsciously looked down at the fine hair on his body, and then looked at Landor who was looking at him with a surprised expression. For some reason, he suddenly felt a very strange feeling in his heart.

It was as if... as if he had really heard a similar conversation somewhere.

The fingers holding the tile loosened unconsciously, but then tightened tightly again in an instant. Xu Ming calmed down and noticed that Landor was looking at her again. She felt nervous for no reason and quickly changed the subject:

"If you care so much, why don't you make two cats for me to pet?"

"No!" This time the other party answered very quickly, "I said, this is a matter of principle."

"What does this have to do with principle... Are you a dog person?" Xu Ming said absentmindedly, "Then why don't you make a cow cat, which is a husky..."

Here it comes again. Her expression paused slightly.

That familiar feeling - I didn't really think about it just now, but the words came out naturally, almost like a conditioned reflex...

His brows were unconsciously knitted because of this strange feeling of familiarity. Landor on the opposite side seemed not to want to continue discussing this matter. He quickly changed the subject and asked, "Have you finished picking up the stones?" After getting an affirmative answer, he hurriedly turned around and walked forward with Xu Ming.

Still holding the sharp tile in his hand, Xu Ming followed Landor, constantly looking for the right angle to start. But Landor suddenly spoke, and this time he talked about an unexpected topic:

"By the way, did you find what you wanted in the previous strange talk?"

...?

Xu Ming paused, and pulled the tile in his hand back slightly: "What do you mean?"

"It's, the thing called 'root'." Landuo half turned his head to look at her, and scared Xu Ming so much that he quickly withdrew his hand. Fortunately, it seems that because of the previous bell incident, he doesn't dare to look at Xu Ming now. His eyes only turned slightly and quickly turned back.

"Besides, didn't you say that your aunt might have been to that strange story... Is it because of this that you tried every means to get in?" Landuo said, his voice slightly lowered, "After you came out of there, your emotions have been... Didn't you find it?"

"..." Xu Ming listened quietly, but his heart was already in turmoil.

What does this mean? Root, strange story, aunt, what kind of weird combination is this?

It sounds like, like...

it sounds like this sophomore self is frantically looking for ghost stories everywhere to find clues about the whereabouts of his aunt.

The problem is that this is simply impossible. After graduating from high school, he no longer has psychic powers and cannot see anything unreal. And with his personality, he would not be able to avoid ghost stories, so how could he take the initiative to...

Wait a minute.

Something in the depths of his mind seemed to loosen suddenly. Xu Ming's heart moved slightly and he stopped involuntarily.

Yes, personality.

Xu Ming remembered clearly that his aunt disappeared for no reason, just like she evaporated from the world, and suddenly there was no news.

...With his personality, how could he not go looking for her? Even if he didn't use the inhuman method of ghost stories, at least he should take some action. For example, calling the police, posting a bounty, contacting people everywhere...

But why do I not remember any of these things?

Why do I seem to have accepted all of this calmly and naturally in my memory... Now that I think about it, this is the most discordant part, isn't it? What

's even more bizarre is that my past self never seemed to notice this discord - until now.

... What did I miss?

Xu Ming closed her eyes tightly. For some reason, she felt a burst of pain in her head like an explosion. She heard Lando's anxious call in her ears. She opened her eyes and found that she had fallen to the ground without knowing when. Even the broken tile that was ready to hit people fell to the ground.

"Are you okay?!" Lando squatted beside her and reached out to help her up, but Xu Ming just waved her hand, closed her eyes and tried to regulate her breathing.

"I'm fine." She whispered, "I was just thinking about my aunt..."

She had an inexplicable premonition. She should probably stay in this illusion for a while longer - for some information that could not be confirmed to be true or false, but might bring her unexpected inspiration.

"...Okay." Seeing that Xu Ming had no intention of getting up, Landor could only retract his hand. After a moment of silence, he sighed softly.

"I understand your thoughts about your family. It is indeed difficult for anyone to accept the sudden disappearance of family members. My mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease, so I can empathize with this..." "

..." Xu Ming listened, but couldn't help but look up at him again.

"I'm sorry." After a moment of silence, she heard her say, "But, my mother?"

"Yes." Landor nodded affirmatively, "My mother suffered from Alzheimer's...!"

Before he finished speaking, he saw a shadow rushing towards his head - it was Xu Ming who picked up the tile on the ground.

Xu Ming did not hold back, and the sharp end of the broken tile pierced heavily into Landor's temple. Blood splattered out, and Landor in front of him was like a punctured inflatable doll, and it went limp.

He fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes still wide open, staring at Xu Ming with disbelief.

Xu Ming also stared back with pity in his eyes.

"I wanted to get some information from you, what did you do? Why are you in such a hurry to give it to me?" She muttered softly, and stood up with difficulty, "Give you such a big wound, I can't pretend I didn't notice it..."

Mother. Just kidding. Is this something Landor would say?

Xu Ming shook his head and stood up, and saw Landor lying on the ground, still staring blankly, with the wound on his temple facing upwards, but what flowed out was no longer blood, but clumps of white, cotton-like stuff. After a

careful look, it turned out to be dense mycelium.

Xu Ming couldn't help but frowned, and the next moment, she felt a shaking around her, and a heavy feeling of falling from below - followed by layers of darkness, wrapping up from all directions.

The next second, there was a distinct touch on her arm. She slowly opened her eyes following the force of the shaking, and met Qiu Yufei's subtle eyes.

"Mingming? Teacher Mingming, don't sleep!" She was sitting next to her, gently pushing Xu Ming, "Wake up, wake up, the movie is over, all the easter eggs have been released... I'm not saying, this is a gun battle movie, it's thanks to you that you can sleep."

... ?

Xu Ming looked at her blankly, then looked around, paused for a while, and finally remembered where he was.

Qiu Yufei won a movie redemption voucher in an online lottery, so she exchanged it for two tickets for a gun-and-gun movie and dragged herself to watch it together. As a result, because I stayed up late last night, I fell asleep in the midst of the overwhelming gunfire...

"I'm sorry." Xu Ming came to his senses and apologized quickly, "I really didn't sleep well last night, but the movie was actually pretty good..."

"Okay, okay." Qiu Yufei patted her face, "Go out and wash your face first, you've got marks from sleeping... You slept so soundly, that's amazing, don't tell me you had a dream."

"Well..." Xu Ming responded absent-mindedly, and walked out with Qiu Yufei, "It seems like I had a dream."

"No way?" Qiu Yufei looked over in surprise, "What did you dream about?"

"I dreamed of a...man I don't know." Xu Ming recalled and pursed his lips slightly, "He was quite good-looking, and there was a small bell tied on his foot, which was quite attractive. But he spoke strangely...ah!"

Before she finished speaking, she suddenly let out a low cry and looked back in surprise. Qiu Yufei followed her gaze and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Xu Ming shook his head, squatted down with a strange expression and touched his foot, "I just felt a sudden pain in my heel, as if I was bitten by something."

"? Is it a bug?" Qiu Yufei also looked over in confusion, but saw nothing, "Did you sleep too long and get numb..."

"Maybe." Xu Ming nodded hesitantly, got up and continued to walk out with Qiu Yufei. Maybe it was because of the pain, but she suddenly had a strange feeling in her heart. She felt that everything around her was full of discord, but she couldn't tell what the problem was.

"I brought some Fengyoujing, I'll put some on you later." Qiu Yufei was still thinking about the dream that Xu Ming hadn't finished, "Hey, go on, what did that sexy handsome guy say to you?"

"...Why are you gossiping in that tone?" Xu Ming couldn't help but look at her, "It's not a normal thing. He said, my mother..."

"My mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease." Before she finished speaking, she heard a strange voice coming from the side.

Xu Ming was shocked when he heard this, and turned around in surprise, only to find that the voice came from the crowd next to him - a group of young people wearing the same uniform were gathering together and walking out. Among them, an older man was talking to someone next to him, "I was busy with my own things at the time and had no time to take care of him. By the time I realized it, he was already seriously ill and couldn't even recognize people..."

"..." Xu Ming slowly stopped.

"?" Qiu Yufei next to him was still muttering, why did he talk about his family for no reason, did he start talking about marriage in his dream, but he saw Xu Ming next to him thinking for a moment, and suddenly turned around and walked back.

"......?! Teacher Mingming?" Qiu Yufei was stunned for a moment, "What are you doing, what are you looking for..."

"Nothing." Xu Ming walked around the empty waiting hall of the theater twice, picked up two chairs in a row, waved them and put them down. After a while, he finally walked to the display cabinets around as if he had locked onto a target, called the theater staff, and spent a lot of money to buy a very heavy small statue.

Qiu Yufei was still wondering why she suddenly liked this thing; then she saw Xu Ming holding the statue upside down, walking straight towards the group of people, walked to the side of the man who was talking, nodded at him, as if asking something - followed by a "bang"!

The man was knocked over by Xu Ming, and the crowd exploded in chaos!

Xu Ming, who was in the middle of the chaos, had no expression on her face, and just stared at the man lying on the ground. Someone started to call for help, someone rushed up, and she was dragged back by someone holding her arm, but she saw it clearly -

the blood on the man's head on the ground stopped flowing after a while.

Instead, dense mycelium was gushing out of that fragile head like a living thing...

? Wait.

Why do I know that thing is mycelium?

This thought suddenly flashed through Xu Ming's mind - and then, everything in front of him was suddenly covered by darkness.

"Teacher Mingming? Teacher Mingming?"

A familiar voice came to his ears. Xu Ming opened his eyes and found that he had fallen asleep on the desk somehow.

"Are you okay? It took me a long time to wake you up." Qiu Yufei worriedly said, "You didn't stay up late again last night..."

"..." Xu Ming shook his head, but he didn't know what he thought of, and frowned slightly. Then, as if he sensed something, he looked under the table.

"What's wrong?" Qiu Yufei was very surprised.

"My foot hurts a little." Xu Ming said, and he lifted his right foot with great difficulty and touched it. "It's the heel area, it seems to be bitten by something."

"Ah? Could it be a mouse?" Qiu Yufei was instantly nervous, "I'll go see if the rat poison I bought last time is still there... By the way, have you read the new copy I sent you? The poster needs to be modified based on that, troublesome..."

"..." Xu Ming nodded slowly, and reached out to touch the table next to him, as if to confirm the reality of the table. His frown never relaxed.

At this moment, an overly loud discussion came from the conference room not far away:

"I think that compared with the monetary value, the work should pay more attention to humanistic care - my mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and I was busy with my own things at the time and had no time to take care of her..."

Xu Ming: "..."

After a while, Qiu Yufei finally came back with rat poison, but Xu Ming's desk was empty. She asked the people next to her curiously, and they just said that they saw Teacher Xu Ming borrow a utility knife and went to the conference room.

As soon as the voice fell, bursts of screams were heard in the conference room -

and Xu Ming, who was at the center of the screams, just looked quietly at the person lying on the ground not far away.

There was a shallow wound on her throat, the blood had already flowed out, and white mycelium flowed out of the gap like cotton wool.

Darkness fell again, and this time, Xu Ming didn't even close her eyes -

she let the darkness shroud her and disappear again. The surrounding scene had indeed changed. This time, she sat directly at the conference table.

The leader who presided over the meeting was presenting a PPT with the company's future vision. What he said was: "My mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and I was busy with my own things at the time..."

"..." Xu Ming looked down at his heel, and not surprisingly felt a little pain there again. Then she opened her bag, found a fairly sharp pen from it, and walked to the other end of the conference table -

screaming, bleeding, white mycelium, and darkness.

A familiar process passed, and Xu Ming opened her eyes again and found herself sitting alone in a fast food restaurant.

It was the one she often went to, and the employees all knew it. There were a lot of people around, and Xu Ming sat in a familiar environment, but her first reaction was to check her feet.

The slight pain in her heel again made her frown.

Looking around again, she took a deep breath and stood up directly.

"Excuse me!" She put one hand to her mouth like a megaphone and shouted as loudly as possible to the people around her, "Excuse me, whose family... whose mother has unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease? Please raise your hands if you have any questions, thank you! Is there any, is there any——"

She shouted three times in a row, and the fast food restaurant, which was noisy just now, suddenly became quiet, as if someone had pressed the mute button. Everyone looked at Xu Ming, expressionless, with dull eyes, like lifeless dolls.

Xu Ming didn't care, but continued to shout persistently: "Is there anyone? Is there? If you have, please raise your hand--"

He shouted like this twice, and actually saw a person sitting not far away, tremblingly raised his hand: "How do you know that my mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease..."

Xu Ming: "..."

To be honest, I don't know.

I know you are dying.

Xu Ming thought silently, picked up the straw on the table, stood up and walked towards the other party.

Sure enough-not long after, it was the familiar process again. When

he opened his eyes again, it was at the table where he was having a small meeting with Party A. His heel was aching again. Party A was talking about his mother, Azheimer. Xu Ming nodded in response and drank the coffee in the cup - otherwise it would spill when he swung it, which would be inconvenient to clean.

He opened his eyes again, and it was in a university classroom. Two classmates were talking next to him:

"My mother had unfortunately suffered from..." "Bang!"

He opened his eyes again, and it was at a high school sports meet. "My mother had unfortunately suffered from

..." "Bang!"

"My mother had..." "Bang!"

"My mother..." "Bang!"

He closed his eyes for the nth time, and his chest was pounding as if he had a nightmare. Xu Ming took a deep breath and heard a familiar voice coming from not far away. She struggled to look back and saw Po Haitang standing at the bottom of the stairs a dozen steps away, looking at her nervously.

"Teacher Xianming?" It spoke cautiously, as if it was on guard against something, "Are you sure it's okay to go up like this? Otherwise, we should take a look..."

Xu Ming: "......?"

She raised her eyebrows slightly and looked around again.

The space filled with white mycelium looked like the corridor of a unit building. On the side of the stairs leading to the upper floor, there was a huge iron door.

As the surrounding scenes gradually became clearer, long-lost memories gradually returned to his mind. It took Xu Ming a few seconds to finally remember where this place was and why he was here.

He remembered. This was a ghost story unit building, and he came here to save Qiu Yufei. If he wanted to take people out, he had to go to the fifth floor to get the key first; and she was now on the fourth floor, which was occupied by white hyphae. Those hallucinations that were layered one after another just now were probably caused by these hyphae...

The more he broke the illusion, the closer he was to reality, the more memories he kept, and the less likely he was to be deceived by the illusion. Judging from the current situation, she had probably broken through the last layer. These hyphae could no longer hold her back, and she could only let herself fall back into reality.

...I have to say, this place is quite torturous.

Xu Ming pondered secretly, and after thinking about the situation just now, he couldn't help but feel a little lucky - if you look at all the hallucinations together, it's not difficult to guess that the essence of these hallucinations is actually the reproduction of memories. Except for the spell-like "my mother unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease", the rest of the content is almost completely copied from real memories.

... And this kind of hallucination is exactly the easiest to make people fall. Thanks to it for giving a fake look at the beginning, it planted the seeds of rebellion in my heart, otherwise I can't say whether I can successfully escape from it layer by layer...

Thinking of this, Xu Ming couldn't help but sigh again. Hearing Po Haitang downstairs calling her again, she quickly responded, stood up and was about to go downstairs, but she suddenly felt a slight pain in her heel.

She slowly turned her head and looked back. But there was nothing on her heel.

"..." Silently retracting his gaze, Xu Ming hesitated for a moment, and still went downstairs.

"Po Haitang." She looked at the people waiting downstairs and spoke softly, "My mother..."

"?" Po Haitang looked at her in confusion, and tentatively continued, "She unfortunately suffered from Alzheimer's disease?"

"Isn't this what is written in the diary? What's the matter?"

"...Nothing." Xu Ming shook his head, but suddenly reached out and grabbed Po Haitang's shoulder.

"It's just that - if I remember correctly, I haven't shown you the notes."

After saying this, he pushed without hesitation - the figure in front of him immediately rolled down the stairs, and with a bang, he hit the wall heavily. The

thick hyphae spread out like cotton again. Xu Ming closed her eyes tightly, and then opened them again. Sure enough, the scene around her changed again.

She returned to the space wrapped in white hyphae. But this time, the hyphae around her were wrapped more tightly, layer upon layer, like an airtight wall.

The familiar pain in her heel came again, and Xu Ming was startled in her heart. She lowered her head and looked down, but her sight froze again.

Unlike before, this time she finally understood what the slight pain was all about - she saw a small yellow dog, no bigger than the size of a palm, lying at her feet, constantly nudging her, and biting her through her shoes with its teeth, biting carefully and vigorously.

Noticing that Xu Ming was awake, it immediately opened its mouth, humming happily a few times, and its short tail wagging desperately. Xu Ming reached out and picked it up and held it in his arms, looking around again. His consciousness, which was still a little confused, finally became completely awake -

so that's how it was, this time she really understood.

She must have been tricked when she was using dream simulation to test the situation. And this kind of hyphae happens to affect people's memory and cognition. When her memory is affected, she cannot freely control the dream simulation. As a result, after the first attack, she unconsciously released the dream simulation and fell into the real mycelium circle...

This is why she felt a clear sense of falling only when she escaped from the first illusion. Because the simulated scene itself is a few centimeters higher than the real scene.

After falling into the real mycelium environment, the memory influence caused by the mycelium really began. But just as Xu Ming analyzed before, because the first illusion she encountered did not deceive her, but made her aware of the strangeness of the words "mother", and left a deep impression on her, causing her to immediately notice something was wrong as soon as she heard this sentence in the subsequent illusions, no matter how real the scenes reappeared were... In addition,

the little dog given by Landor also came out and tried desperately to wake her up. The two sides cooperated internally and externally, and with Xu Ming's simple and rough way of breaking the situation, it was really a fool defeating a master, allowing her to break free layer by layer.

"..." Finally, after sorting out everything, Xu Ming couldn't help but touch the head of the puppy in her arms, and made up her mind that no matter what Landor said, she would buy it an upgraded doghouse when she returned.

...Speaking of which, Landor...

Thinking of the contents of the first illusion, Xu Ming couldn't help but pursed her lips. She felt that her head, which had just been refreshed, began to gurgle with question mark bubbles again.

But at this time, it was useless to think about this. Besides, too many lice will not be itchy. There were too many questions temporarily put aside in her mind, which made Landor's problem less noticeable - it's not that she didn't care, but if she really wanted to talk about the first come, the second, the importance, and the urgency, his matter would probably have to be put aside for a while...

So Xu Ming quickly pulled her mind away from this name without much effort, and then held her breath slightly, and carefully observed the surroundings again.

The white mycelium almost completely blocked her vision, and she couldn't even see where the stairs were. Xu Ming tried to move forward two steps, but his feet touched a protrusion. He lowered his head and looked carefully for a moment before recognizing that it should be a corpse.

...The reason why he could recognize it was because the outline of the protrusion vaguely resembled a human figure. And under a cluster of white mushrooms, Xu Ming also saw something that looked like teeth.

As for other features, they really couldn't be seen at all - because the surface of the protrusion was completely covered with fungus umbrellas, and no gaps could be seen. It is no exaggeration to say that Xu Ming felt that it looked like a mummy wrapped in fungi.

This realization made her feel a little scared again. Obviously, this small world composed of hyphae is not as harmless as it seems.

Considering its characteristics for memory, Xu Ming even suspected that it might be the culprit that caused Po Haitang to be forgotten by outsiders... After all, Po Haitang himself said that he had been to the fourth floor, but he himself did not remember what happened afterwards.

... I just don't know if I will encounter such side effects. The good news is that at least for now, I will no longer be wrapped in those illusions made of memory...

Xu Ming pondered and stopped in front of a large white fungus wall. It seemed that the front was blocked, and she had to think about changing direction to find a way out. At this moment, she saw the puppy in her arms raised its head and sniffed the air a few times, and suddenly whimpered, and then struggled to jump out of Xu Ming's arms and rushed forward.

The puppy knocked a tiny crack in the fungus wall in front of her. Xu Ming could see clearly that it was not a wall, but a half-closed door covered with fungi.

She pushed the door open tentatively, revealing the space behind it. It was also covered with white fungi, but it looked much wider than the outside. Xu Ming estimated the direction and felt that this was probably the original Room 401.

There was no one in the house. Xu Ming seemed to have thought of something, and she opened the dream simulation again, searching repeatedly in the house. After searching back and forth for several rounds, she finally found the thing in the bedroom -

it was a white mushroom. It is

a very small white mushroom, with a stem only as high as a little finger. However, the top of the stem does not have an umbrella, but a complete white brain.

If I guess correctly, this should be the root of this mycelium area.

In other words, it is the root of this mini-ghost story area.

The brain hung on the thin stem, swaying slightly, like a ripe dandelion. Xu Ming first tried it in a simulated scene, and after confirming that there would be no risk, she ended the simulation and returned to reality, and carefully reached out to it -

with a click, the thin stem broke. Xu Ming picked up the brain-shaped mushroom and tried to poke the top brain. After confirming that it would not break at the touch, she gently put it into the rule book.

And almost at the moment she put the thing away, the surrounding environment suddenly changed -

some kind of invisible pressure suddenly faded, and large pieces of fungi withered and fell off like dirty wall skin. Xu Ming put the puppy back into the bag and walked out of Room 401 along the way. She saw that most of the fungi outside had withered, and the color of the wall behind and the outline of the electric meter box were faintly revealed.

The passage leading to the upper stairs was finally revealed.

Xu Ming was truly relieved, and hurried forward, and arrived at the door of the corridor in three or two steps. Po Haitang, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, noticed her figure and exclaimed in surprise. Then, under Xu Ming's instructions, he hurriedly crossed the withering fourth-floor platform and walked towards her quickly.

"Awesome, it feels like you came up not long after you went in." It sighed from the bottom of its heart, and noticed the bulging bag on Xu Ming, and couldn't help but feel a little curious, "Teacher Xianming, did you... pick up something?"

"Yeah." Xu Ming was busy using the password on his phone to open the door, and he just nodded slightly when he heard it.

"That mycelium area was a bit troublesome, so I picked their roots... Okay, the door is open, let's go up."

After saying that, without even looking at the whale man, he took the lead and walked up. The whale

man was left standing there in a daze, and after a while he sighed again from the bottom of his heart:

"Ah?"