Scavenger Fungus

The street ahead grew narrower.

The buildings on both sides became lower, transitioning from workshops to worker dormitories, and finally into cramped little wooden huts.

This was the deepest part of the North Ward, inhabited by the lowest social strata, feeling somewhat out of place compared to the prosperous inner city.

After rounding the first alleyway, a massive ghoul suddenly came into view.

Currently, this hideous monstrosity was crouched over a corpse.

Its split mouth was buried in the body's abdominal cavity, its three layers of teeth constantly chewing on something as the sounds of flesh and bone being crushed echoed through the air.

The corpse was still faintly twitching.

Bo Er's short-shotgun was already raised.

But Lu Yuan was faster than him.

The sound of a revolver shot erupted in the alley, cutting through the wind.

Bang!

A silver-plated bullet struck the ghoul in the back of the head, the bullet head exploding inside the cranial cavity and blowing off half its head.

The ghoul's body stiffened for a moment before sliding limply off the corpse.

Lu Yuan did not stop.

He glanced at the corpse on the ground.

It was a woman.

She wore the coarse cloth dress of a textile worker, her feet bare, and her hand still clutched a kerosene lamp.

The lamp had already gone out.

She had likely heard a noise and attempted to relocate with the lamp.

She didn't make it in time.

Lu Yuan retracted his gaze.

"Move faster."

The team did not linger.

However, similar scenes began to occur more frequently.

At the next intersection, three scavenger ghouls were surrounding the corpse of an old man.

Scavenger ghouls were much smaller than standard ghouls, only about the size of a large dog, covered in slime and lacking a fixed form, looking like heaps of rotting meat molded into a rough shape.

Their method of feeding was very different from ghouls.

They simply adhered to the corpse, absorbing the remaining decayed matter like sponges.

The sound of firearms rang out, and the three scavenger ghouls were blasted into fragments by silver bullets, splashing across the ground.

After walking less than another hundred meters.

They found another site.

This time, two ghouls and five scavenger ghouls were mixed together, surrounding a shack that had been torn open.

There were bloodstains inside the shack, but no corpse.

It had been dragged away.

The close-combat team cut in, copper swords slashing down while firearms provided finishing shots.

Resolved.

But Lu Yuan's expression grew increasingly grim.

It wasn't because of the corpses.

It was because of the numbers.

Since entering the North Ward, they had cleared at least a dozen ghouls and scavenger ghouls.

Furthermore, they were widely distributed.

If there was only one collapse point, it would be impossible for them to spread this far in such a short amount of time.

Unless the intelligence was inaccurate.

"Bo Er," Lu Yuan lowered his voice, "The intel said there was only one collapse in the North Ward?"

Bo Er's face was also very pale.

"That's what the intel said." A hint of bitterness entered his tone, "But looking at the situation on the ground..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

He didn't need to.

Both of them understood perfectly.

The intel said one, but the reality might be two, or even three.

And they only had nine people, yet things had reached a point where there was no turning back.

After clearing two more waves, the team finally approached the core area of the North Ward.

The first thing that caught their eyes here was the darkness.

A precipitous, absolute darkness.

The previous street still had streetlights, but this street had none.

All the electric lights were out.

It wasn't that the filaments had burned out.

The lamp posts themselves had been snapped.

The iron lamp posts were twisted and broken from the middle, the upper halves slumped by the roadside with shattered covers and glass shards scattered everywhere.

It wasn't just one.

As far as the eye could see, every lamp post on the street ahead had been destroyed.

It was obvious that something was deliberately destroying the light sources.

It was the ghouls.

And it was an organized group of ghouls.

Bo Er saw this as well.

His face was pale, but his voice remained steady.

"How could ghouls possibly know to destroy light sources? There must be a high-level entity commanding them!"

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Because he noticed something even worse.

The ground had changed.

On the bronze alloy floor ahead, a thin, pale green film had formed.

It looked like some kind of moss, but the texture was clearly slipperier than moss.

They clung tightly to the ground, spreading outward along the brick joints and seams like a slowly expanding net.

A scent filled the air.

It was a sharp, acidic, and pungent odor.

Lu Yuan's gaze fell upon that film.

Greyish-white text emerged.

【Target Detected: Scavenger Fungus (Active Fungal Layer)】

【Traits: A special species capable of surviving in almost any environment. It adheres to various surfaces and secretes a weakly acidic liquid, exerting a slow but continuous corrosive effect on metal, stone, and wood. It is a symbiotic organism of scavenger ghouls; the expansion of scavenger ghoul colonies is invariably accompanied by the spread of scavenger fungus.】

【Weakness: Any holy item.】

【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.1】

A symbiotic organism of scavenger ghouls.

Invariably accompanied by their expansion.

Lu Yuan's heart sank slightly.

He crouched down and carefully examined the contact surface between the fungal layer and the floor.

The bronze floor surface had lost its original luster.

It had become rough, blackened, and in some places, tiny pits had even appeared.

The copper was being corroded.

And copper was the core material used by this city to suppress scavenger ghouls.

Lu Yuan stood up, his expression grim.

The situation was now very clear.

What was pouring out of the collapse point wasn't just ghouls and scavenger ghouls.

There was also scavenger fungus.

The ghouls were responsible for destroying light sources and creating darkness.

The scavenger fungus was responsible for corroding the copper structures and dismantling the natural suppression of Bronze City.

The scavenger ghouls were responsible for spreading and filling the ranks.

The three worked in coordination.

Clearly, this was an organized offensive.

"Try to avoid the fungal layer ahead," Lu Yuan spoke, "This stuff is corrosive, and it's decomposing the copper in the ground."

Bo Er listened; he didn't ask how Lu Yuan knew this, but simply digested the information and made a judgment.

"If the copper is decomposed, then the suppression of scavenger ghouls in this area will completely fail..."

"It's already failing," Lu Yuan interrupted him.

He pointed ahead.

Following the direction of his finger, the area covered by the fungal layer was rapidly expanding.

The further north they looked, the denser it became.

In the deepest parts, it was no longer a thin film, but a thick, frothy green covering.

It completely enveloped the entire ground and the lower halves of the walls on both sides.

Upon that dense fungal layer, countless scavenger ghouls were slowly writhing.

They looked like a swarm of giant slugs clinging to rotting meat.

They were not being suppressed by the copper.

Because the copper beneath their feet had been completely isolated.

Bo Er sucked in a breath of cold air.

"We can't get through this," his voice was very low, "We need reinforcements..."

"How many grenades do you have?" Lu Yuan interrupted him.

Bo Er was taken aback.

"Alchemical grenades, six of them." He looked back at the team, "Distributed among three people."

"That's enough."

Lu Yuan took a small bottle of refined sandworm oil from his waist and gripped it in his hand.

"Concentrate all the grenades together. I'll count down from three, and you throw them simultaneously."

Lu Yuan spoke rapidly.

"After blasting open a path, don't stop, just charge straight through. I'll use the sandworm oil to create a light source to cover both sides."

"What if we step on the fungal layer?" one Nightwatcher asked.

"Pass through quickly, don't linger," Lu Yuan's voice was calm, "I have a way."

No one asked anything else.