Pollution throughout the territory

"What do you see?"

Xia Ren asked curiously.

"I heard them talking."

The housing agent recalled the scene at that time and said: "But they didn't use human language to communicate, so I didn't understand a word."

"..." Xia Ren.

The real estate agent continued: "At the time I didn't quite know what they were doing, but because I was accidentally discovered, I was forced to fight and kill the congressman who had fallen into paranoid beliefs and one of the heretics. , but like you, I didn’t realize the horror of those fungi at first, and during the battle, I was infected.”

"They grew very fast. Almost as soon as the battle ended, they were already attached to all contact points, deeply rooted under the skin, and even established a connection with my brain. By the time I discovered it, it was already too late. Late. Then I found the aberration in the basement."

"Relying on the fungus that parasitized in my body, I felt the specialness of that aberration, and finally understood what those aliens wanted to do in Soli City."

"They're growing that fungus, the food, which is humans."

"You mean..."

Xia Ren clenched his fists subconsciously.

This is very similar to the cause of the outbreak of atypical entomophobia. These heretics deserve to be damned!

"The fungi living in the aberrant body are extremely close to maturity. I can feel their desire to release and spread. She is like a bomb. Once fully mature, it will spread hundreds of billions of spores into the air. , infecting countless people. But I have no ability to stop it, and no one in the entire city can stop it."

"That's when I saw the missed call from you."

"So, you just dropped this bomb on me?"

Xia Ren had guessed from the beginning that the housing agent might be behind the aberration he met at the hospital door, but he didn't expect there to be such a complicated reason behind it.

"You just trust me so much?"

Xia Ren really wanted to punch him twice.

The real estate agent smiled with no apology on his face and said, "There is no other way, and the final result is pretty good, isn't it?"

"What a fart!"

Xia Ren couldn't help but swear.

Because of this incident, he and Lily were directly infected and fell into the current predicament.

However, Xia Ren had to admit that from the perspective of the housing agency and all the citizens of Soli City, the other party did the right thing, and once the fungal spores broke out, he might not be able to survive in Soli City.

The real estate agent covered his mouth and coughed twice. After calming down his breath, he said: "There was also a heretic who escaped at that time, and he seemed to be carrying something important with him. In order to continue tracing, I didn't have time to say hello to you, so I walked all the way. Followed to this small town.”

"Just like what you just encountered outside, when I arrived last night, the residents of the town had been twisted into disgusting and horrific monsters."

"But before everyone here went crazy, some people still left a lot of valuable clues, and the most important clues are in the only hospital in this town."

"What clue?" Xia Ren asked.

"It's a doctor's note."

The real estate agent put one hand on the ground, stood up unsteadily, walked to the empty clinic desk, picked up a notebook from the table, and threw it to Xia Ren.

"Let's see."

Xia Ren reached out to catch it from the air and looked at it briefly.

The notebook is relatively thick, with about four to five hundred pages, and it can be seen that the owner uses it frequently, but now there are a few suspicious drops of blood on the side, and it seems to have been torn by fighting, and the appearance is somewhat damaged.

Xia Ren opened the first few pages and found that the records on them were all about patients' conditions and medical key points, which seemed to be of little value to him.

"You just turn over to the back."

The housing agent warned.

Xia Ren flipped through about three hundred pages in one go before he finally saw the clue.

The owner of the notebook is a doctor at this hospital, with beautiful handwriting. From a first-person perspective, she wrote how this town gradually turned into the hell on earth it is today.

As early as three months ago, everything was normal in this small town, and the residents' life pace was unhurried and could even be called leisurely.

There is a church in the center of the town. Since their ancestors, the residents here have often gone to the church to pray to comfort their faith. However, as time goes by, recent generations have become tired of the traditions of the older generation. They like to be new and different. So fewer people are going to church.

In recent decades, there has been only one priest in the church, and the faith that was once passed down among the ancestors in the town is slowly getting old.

The priest is a kind white-haired old man. Although he is tall and usually full of majesty, he is very happy to play with the children. Everyone in the town knows the priest. When they meet on the street, they will say hello to each other, but he No one would want to go to church because of that, that rotten and boring place.

However, one day, something unexpected happened.

Some residents of the small town suddenly suffered from a strange disease. Dense dots appeared in patches on their skin, just like moss. At first, these skin bulges were not painful or itchy, but only affected their health. Beautiful, some patients came to the hospital, but the doctor only thought it was some kind of wart or caused by allergies, and simply prescribed some medicine.

But not long after, more and more residents showed the same symptoms, and these skin bumps began to turn malignant. In severe cases, the skin ulcerated and pus continued to flow. At the same time, the patients' movements were slow and their thinking ability declined. Doctors in the small town used Despite all efforts, the symptoms were not alleviated.

The incurable disease caused panic among the residents. They looked back and found that almost all newly infected patients had been in contact with previous patients. For a time, everyone knew that the disease was contagious.

But at the same time, they also found that some children who had also been in close contact with the patients did not develop the same symptoms.

These kids all have one thing in common.

They like to hang out with the priest in the church in the center of town.

The residents who were tortured by the disease didn't have time to think too much, so they went to the church together and wanted to ask the priest for a solution.

At first, the priest was a little at a loss because he didn't know what was going on. The residents who thought they had found hope returned home disappointed. However, the next day, they were pleasantly surprised to find that their symptoms were much relieved.

Although it was impossible to determine whether it had something to do with going to church yesterday, the fact was before their eyes and the residents went to church again.

As the time spent in the church became longer and longer, the skin diseases of the first group of people who went there quickly recovered, so the remaining residents also went to the church to pray, and even those who were not sick also followed. .

The unknown disease only appeared for less than half a month and then completely disappeared. During the whole process, the doctors' role was minimal.

But from then on, something was wrong with the priest. He seldom went out and stayed in the church all day long, staring at the statue of the god that the residents had worshiped for generations.

A rumor gradually spread in the small town:

They got sick because they abandoned their faith and were punished by God. Because they returned to God's embrace, the pain was relieved by the merciful God.

"What kind of bullshit logic is this?"

Xia Ren thought when he saw this.

If you don’t believe me, I will torture you until you believe me, and I will also make you burst into tears of gratitude for not torturing you. How can I still be a merciful God?

Do everyone in this town have Stockholm Syndrome?

He patiently continued reading.

Sure enough, things did not end so simply. About a month ago, several mysterious strangers suddenly came to the small town.

They found the priest and didn't know what he said, but from that moment on, the whole town gradually began to go to hell.

The same disease spread to every household almost overnight. The residents of the town opened their eyes and saw moss-like things appearing on their bodies. They walked out of the streets in panic, but the streets had already been infected by the same disease. The station was full of people who discovered the situation.

No one went to the hospital. After discussion, everyone came to the church together. However, the changes that happened inside were simply unacceptable to the residents who had just developed devout faith.

The idol collapsed.

A priest dressed in black sat among the ruins, holding a blue gem dug out from the eyes of the statue, and said with a bit of madness:

"God will not come to save you! But, I can..."

Everyone thought the priest was crazy and the residents left the church in anger.

The doctor began to study the causes of the disease from the earliest days. According to the records in her notes, she discovered that the illnesses suffered by the residents were caused by a fungal infection that had never been seen before.

This fungus can penetrate the stratum corneum of the skin, directly erode the subcutaneous nerves, and spread along the nerves. The infected nerves lose their original function, so those patients whose symptoms worsen will experience slow movement and numbness of the senses.

What’s even more incredible is that after these fungi infect nerves, they can actually replace the original function of the nerves, so that the patient will not completely lose mobility, and even in the final stage of development, it is possible for people to become controlled by the fungi.

If the human body is compared to a computer, then illness is equivalent to some hardware damage or program running errors, but this fungus is like a hacker, directly controlling the operation of the entire program.

To make it easier to record, doctors temporarily named this incredible fungus neurofungus.

Just when the doctor just found the cause, walked out of the laboratory, and wanted to tell everyone, it was already too late.

Her guess was correct. The final step of the neurofungus was to replace all nerve functions in the human body and completely control humans.

The streets were already filled with residents wandering aimlessly. They were dead, but their bodies were not completely dead. Their instinct drove them towards the church in the center of the town, worshiping the statue of the god who had smashed it and dragged all the residents away. Going to hell...

demon.

"That guy succeeded. No one can escape from his control. My body is gradually losing control, and I'm afraid I will become like them."

"Finally, may the priest and those despicable strangers receive the most severe punishment in the world!"

Xia Ren turned back further and found that all was blank paper.

He closed the note and briefly sorted out what he had just seen in his mind.

The doctor said that she had been studying the cause of the disease from the beginning, but the time was not right. The first wave of the disease only lasted a few days and everyone recovered. The second wave of the disease occurred even faster, although the notes did not indicate the specific duration. It took a few days, but according to speculation, no one had time to escape the town. It is estimated that the condition developed to an irreparable point on the day of the incident.

In such a short period of time, there was no time for doctors to study it carefully.

Unless the doctor is studying herself, she was already sick when the disease spread in the first wave. Even though she knew that going to church could cure the disease, she still chose to use scientific methods to find the cause instead of blindly relying on so-called so-called God.

However, it did not mention the transcendent thing that Xia Ren wanted to know most. However, based on the development of things, the residents became ill for the first time and were infected with neurofungus, and the treatment was to go to the church. Therefore, it is possible that there is something hidden in the church. There's that thing that inhibits fungal growth.

When the residents fell ill for the second time, they went to the church and found that the priest had smashed the statue of the god. From then on, the disease completely lost control and developed into what it is today.

Xia Ren recalled the details and noticed in his notes that the church held a blue gem cut out from the eyes of the statue.

"Could that gem be something transcendent?"

"Now, you should know the origin of the incident."

The real estate agent leaned on the clinic table, smiling half-heartedly, making it difficult to tell what he was thinking.

"There are always crazy people in this world."

Xia Ren put the notebook on the windowsill aside.

The similarity between this neurofungus and the first instar larvae of the earthworm is that they can both control humans to a certain extent, but atypical entomophobia affects patients mentally, causing them to gather together and cause swarms. Phenomenon, and the manipulation of neurofungi is even more thorough, directly turning humans into their puppets.

There are also significant differences between the two in terms of transmission methods. Xia Ren originally thought that neurofungus was only transmitted through contact, but according to the records in his notes, during the second outbreak, all the residents of the town were infected overnight, which shows that it can also spread There are other more efficient ways of transmission, and the transmission efficiency is even more terrifying than that of atypical entomophobia.

In terms of treatment, with my own constitution, there is nothing I can do after the infection. Even the Shoggoths who can swallow pollutants are suffering from the fungus. It is hard to imagine that there is any medicine that can eliminate this fungus. What's worse is that , once ordinary people are infected, they will quickly transform into a puppet state, completely controlled by the neurofungus, and there is no way to survive. Even the housing agent who is a B-level investigator has to rely on the dark water to survive. This level of infection , perhaps close to the Color of Stars.

However, unlike Star Color, Neurofungi does not have the destructive power to seize the energy of the entire planet.

But if it were really released outside, it might really become a plague on the same level as atypical entomophobia.

It must be contained as soon as possible!

Just as Xia Ren was about to take out his mobile phone and contact the outside world, he saw the housing agent looking at him with a smile.

"It's useless. The pollution here is too serious, and there seems to be some kind of shielding device. Even the Foundation's mobile phone has no signal."

Xia Ren looked at the screen of his mobile phone. As the real estate agent said, there was no signal at all.

He looked up at the other party with a firm gaze and said: "Then I have to leave here and go outside to inform the foundation that this town must not continue to exist, and none of the aberrants inside can escape."

Neurofungus must not be allowed to spread and become another plague!

The real estate agent shook his head: "That's not necessary. Little Brother Xia underestimated me. Before entering the town, I had already informed Lady Jiufeng and asked her to come and help. She should be able to arrive here by tomorrow at the latest. "

"The reason why I stay here is not because I can't escape, but because I want to investigate other things."

Xia Ren asked: "What's the matter?"

The real estate agent laughed twice and said, "Those foreigners mentioned in the notes."

“I felt something was not right from the beginning of my pursuit of the heretic, as if there was an invisible force interfering with my continued pursuit. As a result, the clues were almost interrupted several times, and they were not connected until sacrifices occurred again in other cities.

At first, I thought it was a coincidence. After all, bad luck happens often. However, when they arrived in Soli City, they were still careless and let a city councilor come into contact with heretics. City councilors are not on the same level as ordinary people. Characters, how can a group of lunatics with brain problems interact with people of this level. "

Xia Ren frowned: "Isn't the Immortal Society pulling strings in the middle?"

"As expected of little brother Xia."

The real estate agent clapped his hands and said, "How much do you know about the Immortal Society?"

Xia Ren gritted his teeth: "Only a simple understanding."

The real estate agent pulled up a dusty chair next to him and sat down, saying: "I suspect that the Immortal Society is helping this heretic behind the scenes. I don't know what their purpose is, so I want to stay here and try to dig into it." The truth is, if you are lucky enough to bite one of the members of the Immortal Society, it will be a great harvest."

It turned out to be this reason.

However, although Xia Ren is also curious about the Immortal Society, he does not have much interest in the decryption game: "Ignore the Immortal Society for now, but if you continue like this, before you find the truth, you will become the same as those people outside. puppet."

The real estate agent raised the corners of his mouth and said confidently: "I don't have to worry about this."

Looking at his expression and the tone of his words, Xia Ren wondered if he already had a solution, so he said, "Do you know how to treat this fungus?"

Unexpectedly, the real estate agent said simply: "I don't know."

"and you……"

Xia Ren was halfway through talking when he suddenly guessed what the real estate agent was thinking. He was stunned and said, "It's so shameless."

This guy was already lying down, planning to leave everything to himself regardless of anything. He was also convinced that he was also infected by a fungus, so he would definitely continue to investigate.

The real estate agent didn't have any embarrassment and said with a smile: "Both each other. And it's not that I don't want to help you. Look at my frail body. If I go out and fight those town residents who have no sense at all, I will die."

Xia Ren did not dwell too much on this issue and said instead: "I have a request."

The real estate agent knew why he came to Xizhou to find her, so he was prepared: "When this matter is over, I will satisfy your requirements."

"real?"

Xia Ren seemed to be a different person, his eyes shone and he became energetic instantly.

He looked at the real estate agent up and down as if he were looking at a delicacy. He couldn't help but lick his lips, and his breathing became a little short.

The real estate agent's heart trembled, wondering if this kid had any weird sexual fetishes?

"Ha ha ha ha."

Xia Ren rarely laughed.

"It turns out you were teasing me on purpose."

The housing agent breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not that I don't have any clues about how to treat fungal infections. When I was tracking them down, I realized one thing. These members of the alien sect all carried fungal spores and traveled to so many cities, but they never There have been cases of fungal infections, which means that these fungi are not completely out of control for pagans."

"If it's just that, I'm not sure yet, but when they look for ordinary people to perform sacrificial rituals, they will inevitably have physical contact with the victims, but the remains of those victims have never been infected, so it can be seen that , they must have some way to prevent the spread of the fungus. I suspect it is the blue gem that the priest dug out of the statue recorded in the notes."

“But what I can’t figure out now is that if the purpose of these pagans was to spread the plague, they could have spread the fungal spores to every city the soil passed through, but they did not do so, especially in the city of Soli. At that time, these heretics had clearly prepared aberrations that could be used to self-explode and spread fungal spores, but they did not take action until the plan was destroyed by me. They actually fled back directly, knowing that the Foundation had intervened in the investigation. They left this town and cut off all contact with the outside world, just like they were waiting for us to come to them.”

The real estate agent spoke out all his thoughts in one breath, trying to provide some help to Xia Ren.

"Their actions seem inconsistent. Well, they are a bunch of lunatics. It's normal to not understand their thoughts."

"If it weren't for this damn fungus and this ordinary person's body, I would really want to go out with you and see how far you have grown now."

"Wish you all the best."

said the housing agent.

Xia Ren nodded and planned to climb out from the window again.

As soon as he stretched out his legs, he turned back and asked worriedly: "Is it safe for you to stay here?"

If it is true that the priest rules all the pagans in this town, then the other party already knows about his intrusion and will definitely search everywhere, and this abandoned hospital is not safe.

"Brother Xia doesn't have to worry about this."

The real estate agent showed a slightly satisfied smile: "After all, I am very afraid of death."

What's the point of being proud of being afraid of death...

Xia Ren thought that the other party's brain was not working well because of the pollution.

He climbed out of the window, stretched out his tentacles and attached them to the wall, and then threw himself onto the roof of the hospital.

This is the tallest building in the whole town except for the church, which is convenient for him to observe the situation.

Otherwise, if you plunge into the street and are accidentally surrounded by enemies, your plan will be declared a failure.

Xia Ren took out his mobile phone and saw that the time was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon.

The bright sunlight shines down from above, unable to dispel the gloom.

The once peaceful and peaceful town has now become an eerie and taboo place.

The living residents were wandering the streets as if they had lost their souls.

They tried their best to walk under the shadow of the eaves, not letting the warm sunlight come into contact with the swollen and white skin. They seemed to be walking towards the rotting bodies. In fact, no maggots could survive. Under the disgusting appearance, they were filled with twisted flesh and blood. Full of indescribable tiny blue fungi walking through the gaps between flesh and blood, controlling huge bodies several times their size.

The pagans walked out of their homes and walked from building to building, searching for the scent of strangers.

Xia Ren squatted on the roof of the hospital and observed for a while. He found that it was very difficult to completely bypass the pagans and go to the church.

"Why don't we take a look at the internal situation of the enemy first."

He lay on the rooftop, opened his empty eyes, and a few drops of blood flowed out of his eyes and flew into the sky.