I'm Not Shouldering This Blame

The manhole cover slightly raised, showing a gap.

Here in the Abandoned World, it happens to be night, and dim lights shone on the street.

The roar of the monkeys came from the rooftops. A silhouette ran, and the figure of monkeys flashed from time to time from behind.

These monkeys are flexibly bouncing from building to building, extending its long arms, and wanting to take people away. The man who escaped panted. Once he wasn’t paying attention, his swinging arm was caught by a monkey. His whole body went out of balance and fell down.

Seeing the prey at hand, the monkey excitedly clamored.

At this time, its companions that are squatting up high gave a warning shout.

Corpse Crows are coming again? The monkey angrily looked up, looking for the bastards who’ve been robbing their food lately.

“*boom*!” The manhole cover blew up. Two monkeys were stunned and fell from the shop signs.

A huge mushroom rose with a trunk as tall as a person. After the manhole cover flew, the mycelium scattered, looking like a big net, and covering several monkeys.

The other monkeys left their companions, turned around and ran.

The mushrooms rushed out from the sewers and out of the manhole to chase their prey.

Some monkeys climbed to the high buildings, and others broke into houses. The latter is unlucky since their exit is sealed as the mushroom came from below, spraying mycelium from the shower head and sinks.

The hyphae grew in the direction of the wind, like a pudgy cream coming out of a piping bag. It opened its umbrella unique to fungus, and instant mushrooms all over the floor.

The screams are endless, and the hunt came to an end.

The aftermath is that the rescued person is sitting on a mushroom bush, his body stiff and motionless.

“You pass the assessment, good performance.”

From a flower shop on the roadside, a young man came out with his hand holding a form. With a ballpoint pen in hand, he drew a tick behind several options. At the top of the form is a digitally printed color photo, looking exactly the same as the one sitting on the mushroom.

The young man holding the form walked towards the mushroom bush, and the mycelium immediately wraps around him. He is very calm and did not struggle. After the mycelium found that he’s not food, they got bored and left.

So he went straight to the person who was almost taken away by the long-armed monkeys, then held out his hand, ” Hello, my name is Yang Chao. Welcome to Black Abyss, an Abandoned World Survival Group!”

After a life and death assessment of “assisting in feeding the mushrooms”, the other person’s face is white. While trying to ignore the mushrooms around him, it took him a long time to get up.

“Yang-ge, hello. I’m Zhang Tao.”

The name is in the form, so Yang Chao certainly knows. He examined the new member, and seeing that the other’s face is submissive, he feels a little uncomfortable.

“You were taken to the mountains, until a month ago. A spider attacked the gang’s den. The people with you are eager to escape and as a result, was discovered by the spider. All are eaten. Only you are lying alone in a broken house, waiting until the end of the Abandoned World, and went to the police to escape. You were finally brought to the Haicheng Military District by the Secret Service Red Dragon, and participated in the survival training of ability holders?”

Zhang Tao look surprised, feeling like the Black Abyss is really almighty, even the things he didn’t say were found.

His mind conjured up baseless suspicions.

After being rescued, Zhang Tao originally wanted to stay at the secret base of the Red Dragon. As a result, he found that one of the people imprisoned by the gang, Guan Cheng, is the brother of a B-class Red Dragon ability holder.

After the death of that Guan Cheng was confirmed, the high-level ability holder was sad. Zhang Tao has a brain, so he hurried to apply to leave the base.

When the spider struck, he was acting like a madman and pretended to be unconscious. He wants other people to force the door open, and to first run out to lead the spider and escape. He didn’t expect that the monster would be too ferocious that no one else was able to run away. For safety reasons, Zhang Tao stayed in the house and finally retained his life.

He can’t say this kind of thing. He is also afraid of others knowing it.

If he stayed in the Red Dragon, Zhang Tao is worried that he will be exposed sooner or later. He was busy leaving the secret base of the Red Dragon because the military has his identity records, making Zhang Tao feel very frustrated. He is eager to get rid of his covert surveillance, and at the very least, survive in the Abandoned World.

Black Abyss, Zhang Tao heard it from other ability holders.

He found this “science group” on the Internet. After hesitating for a few days, Zhang Tao decided to choose the highest authority test.

One cannot survive in the Abandoned World without power, and Zhang Tao longs for power. Since he is not a dominant ability holder, he can only turn to those who have power.

He can see that Black Abyss has unlimited potential. He was planning to be a full member of this organization at the beginning to have the opportunity to climb to the middle and upper ranks of the organization in the future.

Aside from a visionary like him, there are also a lot of people ready to gamble. Black Abyss is flourishing because of these people’s struggles. Although a group with ulterior motives and someone that can do harm, as long as they can be exploited, Li Fei will not let them go.

As for the future, it’s up to the performance of people like Zhang Tao.

——if you are smart, it doesn’t matter if you’re a little out of line, just get rid of the arrogant people.

As a true confidant, when Yang Chao presided over the assessment, there will also be an “interview” to gain trust. Zhang Tao’s performance is a little substandard. Concealing his experience, and it seems from experience, Zhang Tao is not the kind of people who have no ideas at all but pretending to be like that.

In his mind, he gave the new member another red cross. Yang Chao collected the form.

“I......can I ask about the characteristics of these devouring mushrooms?” Zhang Tao put on a curious expression.

Many ability holders know that the mushrooms can be put to use. When you escape, you can drill into a mushroom bush. But when they do this, they were trembling at the same time. The mushroom will eat the monkeys and black hairballs near them, and the screams are also nearby, which person standing among the mushrooms will not panic?

People from Black Abyss won’t!

That kind of relaxed attitude, let Zhang Tao suspect that Black Abyss found a way to restrain the mushrooms. Unfortunately, as he secretly looked at Yang Chao, he did not find any strange items carried by the other person, nor did he smell something strange.

“No characteristics. They feed on the monsters of the Abandoned World. Sometimes it will absorb our abilities. Therefore, it’s not recommended to use your abilities when among mushrooms.” Yang Chao casually answered.

He separates the mushrooms, and lead the way ahead.

Dark red blood is everywhere. There are monkeys at their feet, and half of them are still struggling.

Despite hating these monsters, Zhang Tao is still shocked. Yang Chao saw that the other side is also a low-level ability holder and the contempt in his heart vanished.

“Why do we have to work hard to feed these mushrooms?”

“Abandoned World has very troublesome mole rats. They like to walk through the ground. If no mushrooms are growing, the road being destroyed would be trivial, high-rise buildings can also collapse.”

This is why the country allows the mushrooms to occupy the sewers.

In the eight cities centered on Huai City, the mole rats have disappeared, and even the black hairballs are also missing. Only the flying Corpse Crow and responsive monkeys are still alive.

“Nonetheless, if they ate all the monkeys and rats, what will they eat next?” Zhang Tao asks.

“This is not something we care about.” Yang Chao threw those words.

In fact, he was also worried before. The first time he saw a mushroom catch a monkey, his eyes are wider than Zhang Tao’s right now! But Geng Tian has already revealed to him, the mushrooms actually devour abilities, not biological creatures. They won’t die even if they don’t eat. If after max energy consumption they were not replenished, their form shrinks or even disappear.

Red Dragon’s newest hope is that the mushrooms lose weight.

***

“Reporting to Major, the boxes are all counted!”

Zhang YaoJin looked stiffly at the stack of metal boxes in the open space.

These boxes are smaller than a drawer. Although the lid is closed, there is still fine white strands coming out of the gap.

——no food, cannot expand the space, mushrooms don’t like it very much.

Jian Hua took a box, and the mycelium slowly retreated back.

“......I thank you for your assistance on behalf of the country!”

Major Zhang’s words is like being pulled out between his teeth. There are several large and densely populated cities in the North where residential buildings collapse, but nothing happened in the South. Right now, they have to adjust the Southern mushrooms to the North. These mushrooms are dangerous, but not yet.

Jian Hua can’t go to too many cities since he is not willing to leave Li Fei alone and leave the place where the mushrooms are thoroughly entrenched. That is not safe enough.

Since the establishment of Black Abyss, the relationship between the two S-class ability holders and Red Dragon has become more subtle.

The country is wary of them, but there are no conflicting points for the time being. They can only say that the existence of the mushrooms and Black Abyss itself is a threat.

In the face of this crisis, threats can be temporarily ignored, because the Abandoned World only started for three months......

“How are you going to send the mushrooms away?” Jian Hua asked.

There are hundreds of these boxes to be sent to the North, Southwest, and Central regions.

“Plugged into a sealed, refrigerated vehicle, and go to a place and release it.” Zhang YaoJin also has a headache. These hyphae are also controlled by Jian Hua. With no invisibility, their trails can be seen. But to avoid the mushrooms seeing something to “eat” along the way and fleeing, and also finding only “empty packaging” when they received the package, Major Zhang is also racking his brains.

“The sooner, the better. I don’t know how long they can maintain this form without eating.”

“......” When performing dangerous tasks, he was most afraid of such an accident!

“We’re going to send these things as soon as possible!” Zhang YaoJin did not forget to ask about the “opening and usage” matters, “After arriving at the destination, what if the mushroom stays in the box and refuse to come out?”

This time, it’s the turn of Jian Hua to have a headache. He was silent for half a minute before he answered himself, “Put the box next to the sewer. As long as there is food, they would run out, and you won’t be able to chase them!”

“......” He seems to know something.

What’s in the sewers? As long as there are rats, they won’t reject it?

Jian Hua has no way to say it. It’s because he wants to be “safe”. Since the mycelium is dominated by his subconscious mind, rats and cockroaches are somehow included in “disruptive factors”.

With this embarrassing meeting drawing to a close, Major Zhang suddenly stopped Jian Hua.

“With the New Year’s Eve shooting incident and the explosion in front of a cafe in Huai City before, we already found a small leader of Holy Gate organization in China. His identity is a reporter. He’s the person who bribed the cleaning company supervisor. He also taught the other reporter to deliberately shoot at Li Fei with a flash when the lights are off.”

Jian Hua did not speak, but his eyes have changed, “He escaped the hunt of Red Dragon?”

“No, he disappeared.” Zhang YaoJin smiles, “This reporter has long planned a retreat. He wants to escape to the Northwest and then contact a dangerous offshore organization to escape from China. But he had not arrived yet in Ganzhou when something happened on the way.”

Zhang YaoJin casually waved. He used his ability to control the gravel on the ground to draw a simple map of China, and also painted a circle in Gansu Province.

“Right here! Including his bus ride, there have been ten cars missing here. Dozens of cars inexplicably piled up, and the Red Dragon members who went to investigate the situation were also missing. This section of the road is now blocked, and the scope of the anomaly is still expanding. Colonel Lu hopes to get the assistance of Black Abyss. About the specific matters and remuneration, we can further negotiate.”

Negotiating this kind of thing, Jian Hua thinks he can’t. He thought about it and found no harm, but he didn’t agree, “I’ll let Li Fei give you an answer.”