The Death Knell

Mushrooms are always easily associated with dreams. They may be the earliest natural hallucinogens used by animals. These soft and cute fungi have always existed on the earth and played various roles.

Before the 1960s, people thought that mushrooms belonged to the plant kingdom, because these guys holding small umbrellas could not move. They were just under the roots of big trees or in dark and humid places, appearing harmless to humans and animals.

Ancient people thought that they, like lichens and mosses, were the most primitive and humble cryptophytes and did not deserve attention.

However, with the development of science and technology, especially the widespread use of microscopes, people have discovered that the growth methods, living habits, and even the overall structure of mushrooms are very different from those of plants. Most of the materials that make up the plant body are cellulose, while the material that makes up mushrooms is chitin. This is commonly found in the bodies of various insects.

They are more like animals than plants, decomposers in the food chain, and can even be said to be the ultimate participants in all life forms.

The energy circulation cycle in nature is not very complicated.

Plants absorb trace elements from the soil and synthesize carbohydrates through photosynthesis, which are then consumed by herbivorous consumers.

These herbivores survive, reproduce, and are consumed by carnivores. Energy is transferred up the pyramid of the biological chain step by step, reaching the animals at the top. That position is now occupied by omnivores represented by humans.

After the death of the high-level consumer, the corpse is consumed by decomposers represented by fungi and bacteria, and is decomposed into trace elements, which become fertilizer for plants again, completing the cycle.

In the food chain, fungi have a higher status than plants, and they have a very powerful characteristic. That is, you can intervene at any step in the above cycle to directly complete the closed loop of energy.

It can cause the seeds to become moldy before the plant can grow, killing it in its infancy. It may also be parasitic in various living organisms, thereby accelerating their return to dust.

But now, the head-sized fungi that Su Ming saw were the first to 'directly kill people'.

"Xiao Hong, do you see clearly?"

Along with the 'whoosh' message sending sound, Harley began to urge her relatives and friends again.

But then she took a selfie of herself and Deathstroke and sent it.

"Ah, are you with that otherworldly Slade again?" Poison Ivy quickly sent a voice message, but her focus was not on the mushroom zombies at all: "Are you at the beach? Why didn't you Wearing a swimsuit or encountering a drooling zombie?”

Harley squirmed up twice, hooked Deathstroke's neck with one hand, and rolled her eyes while holding the phone in the other hand: "Who knows, I found that my life is full of ups and downs. I had a great time with him last night. , but at dawn today, da da, the happy journey turned into a biological apocalypse.”

"Last night?" Poison Ivy's voice sounded strange.

"We'll talk more about it later. First tell me what's going on with these mushrooms. They spread so quickly. I don't want my favorite ice cream shop in New York to close." Harley smiled and filmed another video of zombies eating people. video of the past.

There were not many buildings around the harbor, and the tallest building was only six stories high, but these zombies began to drag people out of the buildings and bite them, and more zombies began to climb along the outer walls.

When they reached the rooftop, they stopped moving and stood straight on the edge, looking like they were about to jump off the building collectively.

Poison Ivy responded quickly, but it wasn't really useful information: "I don't know much about fungi, but I can tell that their bites may be due to the self-division of the strain, and the explosion of the head to spread spores is more Traditional propagation methods. I have modified dandelions that parasitize other people, and trees that release hypnotic pollen, but that is still in the category of plants. You know that mushrooms are not plants, right?"

"Oh, I've known it since I ate the poisonous mushroom the Mad Hatter gave me last time, okay, little red, okay." Harley pouted towards the phone and made a kissing sound: "Although you didn't help much. , but I still kiss you, but our scheduled SPA trip tomorrow may have to be postponed."

"I think you just want to show off to me that you have found a man." Poison Ivy had already seen through the truth, and her voice became weak: "I am currently cultivating new plants on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. Since the United States has become haunted again, Then I won’t go back, you can have fun.”

"Uh-huh, hey, bye." Harley put away her colorful mobile phone covered with rhinestones, flipped her hair, turned to Deathstroke and said: "Slade, you heard it too, these mushrooms were not done by Xiaohong. When she came out, she was abroad."

She first needs to clear her best friend's suspicion, because Poison Ivy is the most famous plant terrorist in the world, and she is almost labeled as the culprit.

Want to avoid getting into trouble with Zhenglian? As long as he proves it to Deathstroke first, those fools are willing to listen to him now.

While she was talking to Poison Ivy, the roofs of every building by the harbor were already filled with various mushroom heads. They were lined up in a single row like an army, not knowing what they were waiting for.

On the other hand, those who were not watching the excitement on the boat now had a chance to escape. They all sailed towards the depths of the sea. The yachts all took on the posture of speedboats. The bow of the boat was raised high from the water, with a strong desire to survive. strong.

It’s unknown how many of them are infected with spore parasitism, but this brain-eating parasitic mushroom kills people very quickly and is probably incurable.

Seeing many yachts colliding together and exploding below, with burning oil covering the sea surface, Su Ming nodded: "I know that behind Poison Ivy is the Queen of May, the representative of the vines. Fungi are not under her control. I just think we see The person who arrived is not like 'Patient Zero', he is not the original source of infection, what do you think?"

"Well... I think we can continue to play. Look, the man in corn clothes is here. Zheng Lian has taken over. Let's go first. We have to find Xiao Dai."

Harley blinked her cute big eyes and stuffed a bubble gum into her mouth.

The corn clothes refer to Neptune. Even though he only exposed his shoulders and head from the blue waves, his golden scales were so flashy that they flashed like a warning light in the sunlight.

"Strangulation."

Su Ming sighed and let Strangler extend its tentacles to fish Arthur out of the water. The spores in the air were spreading, and it was not safe on the sea level.

Arthur was still holding the fivedent in his hand, and his long wet hair and beard were dripping with water, flowing down his green trousers.

He was happy to see Deathstroke, but he didn't like the tied position.

Why turtle shell binding? This is too...

In fact, the strangulation was not intentional, because Arthur's body was slippery and his scales were like fish scales. He chose the most reliable binding method in the host's memory. What if he fell into a pile of mushrooms?

"Slade, you're back, what's going on?" Neptune shook his head like a dog in water, and the water droplets formed a faint red color.

Su Ming took the two of them to fly farther away again, and landed directly into the city of Atlantis, dozens of kilometers away from the coastline, and stood on the top of a spire:

"I don't have a clue for the moment. I only know that it is a zombie crisis caused by a fungus. We need to contact the Hall of Justice. I feel that mushroom spores have been spread in many places before I came back."