Having completely dumped Yu onto Luo Yu, Chu Guang vanished to fool around who-knew-where, not showing his face on Floor B6 again.
Down on Floor B6 at that very moment...
Luo Yu, who possessed zero parenting experience, stood staring at this progenitor that had modeled its mimicry after him. The two had been locked in a wide-eyed staring contest for quite a while.
In any case...
First, following customary practice, he should give it a name change.
Clearing his throat, Luo Yu spoke up. "Hey, can we change your name?"
Yu tilted its head. "Yiwu?"
Luo Yu offered, "For instance... how about calling you Yiwu?"
Yu replied, "Yiwu?"
Luo Yu was speechless.
Communication was utterly impossible!
Luo Yu let out a defeated sigh and abandoned the idea of renaming the creature.
"Uh... Yu."
"Yu!"
At the sound of its name, the tendrils floating behind Yu's head danced with joy.
It clearly liked that name very much.
Luo Yu pondered for a moment and proposed a compromise. "Xiao Yu—how about Xiao Yu as your nickname from now on?"
Compared to a single-syllable name, this pet name rolled off the tongue more smoothly and was far more distinct than before.
"Xiao... Yu!"
Stringing syllables together was still difficult for it, but from its appearance, it seemed to grasp what he meant.
A smile crossed Luo Yu's face, and he reached out to rub its smooth, tender, rounded head.
This little guy...
It actually understood speech.
Right then, an irritatingly playful voice drifted over from the direction of the elevator.
"Why's the nickname longer than the real name?"
Luo Yu turned around and, sure enough, saw Mosquito. Spotting that grinning face, Luo Yu rolled his eyes. "None of your business."
Mosquito ambled over with a smirk and casually slung an arm around his shoulder. "Haha, forget that. Come on, big bro will show you a treasure."
"Wait, what are you trying to show your old man?"
The moment Luo Yu heard the guy mention showing him a "treasure," he grew nervous.
Based on past experience, anything Mosquito slapped together casually might have a bit of utility, whereas anything he developed with grave seriousness had a high probability of being completely useless.
Every bit of that knowledge had been bought in blood!
"Let me make this clear first: the Administrator gave me a critical mission. I need to keep a low profile these next few days. How about you find someone else to test it?"
Hearing that, Mosquito immediately bristled, his brows knitting in indignation. "Damn it! What's that supposed to mean? Does my stuff have a high accident rate or something?"
A subtle expression surfaced on Luo Yu's face. "How do you even have the nerve to ask that?"
With that, he led Xiao Yu toward the elevator, planning to take the little guy outside for some fresh air.
Seeing this, Mosquito panicked and hurried after them. "Hey! Wait, cut a bro... no, give me a chance, bro! I swear to you, it's definitely not a trap this time! How about you just take a look? If it works, you can have it for free. If it doesn't, I'll keep it myself!"
Hearing that it was free, Luo Yu stopped in his tracks, turning back with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. "Really?"
Mosquito nodded vigorously. "Really! When have I ever lied to you?"
Luo Yu remained silent.
Although he doubted Mosquito could produce anything worthwhile, Luo Yu followed him with a skeptical mindset.
What if?
Mosquito occasionally did churn out a couple pieces of "god-tier gear"; his performance was just somewhat erratic.
Soon, Luo Yu brought Xiao Yu along, following Mosquito out of the shelter and all the way to a small shack south of the base.
A humanoid mech roughly three meters tall stood before the shack's entrance.
It featured heavy chest armor and sharp, angular contours. Its two mechanical arms resembled Blitzcrank's hands, like massive pincers. Mounting hardpoints on the shoulders and back seemed capable of holding other weapons, though they were currently bare, likely because Mosquito hadn't decided what to mount yet.
It looked like a scaled-down "Titan," virtually identical to the sketch Brother Mole had posted on the forums.
Luo Yu froze for a few seconds before blurting out an expletive: "Holy fuck!"
Standing beside him, Xiao Yu tilted its head and echoed, "Fuck?"
Luo Yu panicked and turned to it. "Don't copy that."
Xiao Yu nodded. "Fuck!"
Luo Yu clapped a palm over his face.
Mosquito smirked, stepped beside him, and nudged him with an elbow. "Destroyer 1. Production cost sits around sixty thousand silver coins, mostly in the steel... Well? Badass gear, isn't it?"
"It's practically too badass," Luo Yu muttered, his eyes glued to the hunk of metal as he swallowed hard. "If you told me this was power armor, I'd believe it... By the way, what's the power supply?"
Mosquito replied flatly, "There isn't one."
"There isn't one?!" Luo Yu froze, entirely dumbfounded. "What does that mean?"
A massive iron lump like this weighed at least five or six tons. Without a motor mechanism to provide external power, it was nothing more than an oversized ornament!
Just now, he had assumed it ran on metallic hydrogen batteries, though a cost of sixty thousand silver coins didn't sound right for that, so he had guessed a gasoline engine or solid-state hydrogen. Who would have thought Mosquito would tell him there was none at all!
Damn it all, even a Strength-type beast couldn't run while wearing this thing!
"I mean it literally, of course," Mosquito chuckled. "I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, this thing wasn't built for humans to wear in the first place."
Luo Yu immediately cast him a wary look. "Meaning?"
Mosquito turned his gaze to Xiao Yu standing beside them, his eyes gleaming with burning fervor—looking for all the world like a shady uncle abducting a kid.
"Heh heh... From what I've observed, whether it's the evolved organisms in Qingquan City or those in the Lost Valley, they all essentially rely on the raw organic power of their own bodies for propulsion! If that's the case, why shouldn't we simply ditch the drivetrain design entirely and let the slime mold we control pilot the whole machine? We can drive our armor with pure, unadulterated strength!"
Luo Yu stared at Mosquito, dumbfounded.
Good grief.
By that logic, as long as every driver was a superman, car manufacturers could just stop selling engines, couldn't they?
Just leave two holes under the seats so drivers could stick their legs out and run—energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and good exercise to boot.
Still...
Didn't his words hold a grain of truth?
While Luo Yu hadn't seen a Titan in-game, he had encountered those "Decayed Knights" that corrupted power armor.
Wielding chainsaws, those things not only chopped armor-piercing rounds in half with their bare hands, but cut through players like butter in combat—literal humanoid tanks. Whether against Tier 1 or Tier 0 players, nothing stood a chance until the Administrator stepped in and one-shotted it.
And not just Decayed Knights. According to Lao Bai and the others, there were plenty of evolved organisms of similar strength downtown. In the hands of this slime mold, the junk of the Prosperity Era was put to truly astonishing use.
Xiao Yu was a slime mold too, and a progenitor ranked higher than standard evolved organisms!
There was no reason it shouldn't know how!
At the thought, Luo Yu's eyes grew equally fervent as he looked at the little guy beside him. "Xiao Yu, want to try this out?"
"Yiwu?"
Yu tilted its head, following Luo Yu's gaze toward the metal hunk.
It drifted forward to inspect it, the tendrils behind its head floating forward to tap the hard chest armor, then the arms. It then turned around, shaking its head like a rattle.
"Yiwu!"
Perhaps due to their shared genetic link, even though Luo Yu couldn't understand its vocalizations, he miraculously grasped its meaning.
Scratching his head, he gave Mosquito a bizarre look. "Uh, it seems to think this thing is food... It's saying it's inedible."
"Pfft!"
Mosquito choked on his spit, immediately rushing forward to explain to Xiao Yu. "Good little one, this isn't food. Crawl inside and give it a try first!"
Perhaps frightened by Mosquito's impatient demeanor, or perhaps because the guy never spoke like a normal human being to begin with, Xiao Yu retreated a step in fear and swiftly darted behind Luo Yu.
"Yiwu!"
Seeing that pitiful look, the soft-hearted Luo Yu couldn't bear to force it. He cleared his throat at the agitated Mosquito, reminding him, "You scared it."
"I just want to teach it how to use it! Ugh... Why is this so hard!" Seeing that the creature simply wouldn't grasp his intent, Mosquito scratched at the back of his head until he nearly pulled his hair out.
Luo Yu said patiently, "Be patient. Its mind is still that of a child; it knows nothing... Even if you tell it this is gear, it won't understand what it's for."
As he spoke, an idea gradually formed in his mind.
Perhaps he should take it for a walk along the edge of the city and teach it how to hunt, or at least show it where the food it ate every day came from.
Leading by example, so to speak.
It was definitely more reliable than simply trying to hammer ideas into its head.
Mosquito, however, seemed trapped in a dead end. Gritting his teeth, he strode obstinately toward the iron hunk. "Damn it all! I refuse to believe I can't teach this guy! Hold on, I'll demonstrate it for you!"
With that, he grabbed a crowbar, pried open the rear hatch mechanism of Destroyer 1, and slipped both his arms and legs inside.
A muffled, bell-like clang drifted from within the tin can.
"You crawl in like this, grab the two handles inside, and twist hard to switch into mobility mode—"
Before he could finish his sentence...
A crisp snap rang out.
Accompanied by the rolling grind of hinges, the rear hatch slammed shut, and the locking mechanisms across every joint disengaged. At the exact same moment, an uncontrollable chain reaction unfolded.
Destroyer 1 slowly leaned forward, then accelerated into a fall. Its two forward-reaching arms struck the muddy ground like inverted scallions. Its upper torso folded forward into an M-shape, its head plunging straight into the dirt.
Watching Mosquito suddenly drop to his knees and faceplant, Luo Yu was utterly dumbfounded. Beside him, Xiao Yu let out a sound of intrigued curiosity.
"Yiwu."
Luo Yu coughed lightly. "...Even if it's edible now, you still can't eat it. You're not allowed to eat people."
The floating tendrils drooped, Xiao Yu's face written with disappointment. "Yiwu..."
Strange...
He clearly couldn't understand what the guy was saying, yet communication proceeded without a hitch.
Now was not the time to dwell on that, however.
Luo Yu walked over to Destroyer 1 and called out to the immobilized hunk of metal, "Hey, still alive?"
After a long pause, an echo-laden voice drifted out of the iron shell.
"...Fuck, that almost knocked me offline. *Cough, cough*... I'm alive. Give me a hand."
Luo Yu stepped forward, gripped the iron armor's shoulder, and hauled with all his might, only to find it didn't budge an inch.
A weight of five or six tons was a bit too much for an Agility-type player to handle.
Next, he tried fiddling with the rear hatch to help Mosquito out, but the door seemed welded shut to the armor. Prying with his bare hands or the crowbar produced no effect.
Apparently realizing Luo Yu's intentions, a weak voice drifted from the metal shell. "It's useless... In combat mode, the hatch locks down tight."
Luo Yu couldn't help but snap, "Then hurry up and disengage combat mode, damn it!"
Mosquito fell silent for a long moment before finally squeezing out, "To disengage combat mode... I have to stand up first."
Luo Yu dropped the crowbar, sighed, and tapped his VM twice.
"...Anyway, I'll call Lao Bai and the others for you."
Setting a distress beacon on the map, Luo Yu left the area with Xiao Yu and headed toward Qingquan City's Fifth Ring Road.
Because numerous newcomers farmed levels nearby, and because gnawers could yield nutrient paste and active substances, the number of fruiting bodies in the northern suburbs had dropped drastically. If one wanted to hunt monsters, one had to venture deeper into the urban area.
Originally thinking Xiao Yu was an SSSR-tier, server-unique divine pet that could at least offer some help in combat, Luo Yu didn't waste much time in low-difficulty zones. He targeted an office building suspected of housing Crawlers and charged inside with Xiao Yu.
According to the Administrator, among all slime mold fruiting bodies, this little guy loved eating Crawlers best, followed by Butchers.
The latter boasted thick health pools and high defense, making them tough to handle, but the former were relatively easy to deal with and not particularly scarce.
However, there was an issue.
Areas frequented by Crawlers were usually close to incubation chambers. In such places, aside from Crawlers, there were plenty of other mutant variants like gnawers and martyrs, not to mention terrifying Tyrants.
Meanwhile, because Luo Yu flew planes every day—either in training or on sorties—he hadn't fought on foot for quite some time, let alone inside an urban dungeon.
The mindset for fighting mutant slime mold differed completely from fighting marauders, mutants, or mutated beasts.
Good marksmanship alone wasn't enough; one had to exploit the terrain to kite and reposition, avoiding being swarmed by packs of fruiting bodies.
Once surrounded by sufficient gnawers, let alone an Awakened, even an Awakened clad in power armor would feel their scalp go numb.
Carrying only light weapons, Luo Yu found himself locked in a bitter struggle the moment he entered the office building ruins.
He had nearly been ambushed by a martyr lurking around a wall corner.
Ducking aside to dodge corrosive mucus and a sulfurous cluster of spores, Luo Yu barely managed to find his footing when a Crawler charged head-on.
*Roar—!*
A deafening roar echoed down the stairwell. Luo Yu flicked out his rifle's bayonet and lunged straight for the Crawler's head.
His speed as an Agility-type gave him a significant advantage; the cold steel drove straight into the Crawler's eye.
The Crawler let out an agonized screech as black blood sprayed outward.
Luo Yu rolled along the ground, evading a claw sweeping downward, drew the Decurion pistol holstered at his waist, and fired several consecutive shots into the back of the Crawler's head.
*Bang—!*
Flames erupted from the muzzle. As the gunsmoke cleared, the Crawler's shoulders finally slumped, and it collapsed sideways.
Panting heavily, Luo Yu breathed a sigh of relief. He holstered the pistol, walked forward, and retrieved his rifle, which had been soaked in black mucus.
"...I really should have brought a couple teammates."
Soloing a densely populated dungeon like this was simply too taxing.
Glancing at Xiao Yu, who was peeking around the stairwell doorway, Luo Yu couldn't help complaining, "You could at least help out a bit!"
"Yiwu?"
Xiao Yu tilted its head, whether unable to understand or merely feigning ignorance.
However, the moment its gaze landed on the fallen Crawler in the stairwell, its crimson eyes instantly lit up.
"Yiwu!"
No instruction from Luo Yu was needed.
In a flash, it pounced onto the Crawler, tilted its head back, took a massive bite, and cheerfully began gorging itself.
Watching the little guy's gluttonous display, Luo Yu couldn't bring himself to stay mad. He chuckled and shook his head.
Forget it.
It was a brand-new pet, after all.
Expecting it to immediately possess the ability to "punch the Administrator and kick Lao Bai" was unrealistic. Perhaps he should be more lenient, giving it some time to grow and adapt.
Imagining the day this little guy grew up and stunned everyone, Luo Yu observed its eating habits while waiting for it to finish.
Its slender waist rippled up and down as the devoured food seemed to channel beneath its midsection, packing into the skirt-like fungal mass below.
*Is its stomach located in the lower body?*
What a bizarre anatomy.
Come to think of it, it seemed to have grown slightly taller, though the change was within a centimeter and thus barely noticeable.
Just then, Xiao Yu suddenly stopped eating and raised its head alertly, looking around as if sensing something.
"Yiwu!"
Hearing that warning cry, Luo Yu's expression changed slightly, and he chambered a round in his rifle.
Right at that moment, suppressed low roars grew increasingly distinct. Accompanied by the tremor of running feet, they surged from both above and below the stairwell like a tidal wave.
Gnawers!
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Luo Yu's forehead.
There were at least a hundred—no, perhaps four or five hundred!
Without hesitation, he grabbed Xiao Yu's arm, yanking it up from beside the Crawler's corpse.
"Run!"
...
Thanks to Xiao Yu's perception, they weren't trapped in the stairwell, managing to relocate to an adjacent floor to skirmish with the surging swarm of gnawers.
Gunfire and explosions dragged on for a good while.
By the time Luo Yu escaped the office building ruins with Xiao Yu, two hours had already passed.
Finishing off the pursuing gnawers with a grenade, Luo Yu exhaled a long breath, slumped onto the hood of an abandoned car by the roadside, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a grimy sleeve.
That was too close!
He had nearly bought the farm!
For an ace pilot like him to bite the dust in a place like this would have been utterly humiliating.
Time slipped away unnoticed, and before he knew it, dusk had arrived.
The descending western sun cast long shadows of the man and the progenitor, blending them into the wreckage of concrete and rebar.
Xiao Yu drew closer.
A slender tendril drifted to his forehead, gently brushing away the black mucus at his temple, emitting a soft murmur.
"Yiwu."
Hearing that comforting sound, Luo Yu smiled and replied, "Thanks."
"Yiwu!" Xiao Yu let out a cheerful noise in response, as delighted as a little dolphin.
Luo Yu scratched the back of his head sheepishly, a hint of bashfulness in his pleased smile.
He suddenly felt that this tagalong was quite cute, and those abstract facial features weren't so ugly after all.
It was modeled after him, after all...
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the tendril that had wiped the black mucus from his forehead retracted and slipped straight into its mouth.
Its cheeks worked as if sucking on it.
Cold and hot sweat broke out across Luo Yu's brow simultaneously.
Somehow...
The whole vibe had turned very strange.
...
Meanwhile, by the south gate of the outpost base.
With Lao Bai's help, Mosquito finally managed to crawl out of the iron contraption he had built.
Because the Burning Corps had been out on a mission earlier, he had spent the entire afternoon pinned face-down with his rear in the air, nearly suffocating to death.
Eyeing the disheveled Mosquito, Ye Shi teased in a mocking tone, "Good grief, what kind of torture device have you invented this time? An automatic canning machine?"
Jieyan burst into hearty laughter. "Hahaha, feels like you need to pair it with a fishing rod!"
Mosquito rolled his eyes, too lazy to bicker with these philistines who couldn't appreciate art. "Get lost! This is my Destroyer 1! *Tsk*... Seems the drivetrain still needs refining, or at least an auxiliary motor installed."
Standing nearby, Kuang Feng rubbed the bridge of his nose. "To be fair... falling over is a center-of-gravity issue. If your center of gravity isn't on the central axis, it'll topple forward no matter how you design it."
Mosquito scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "...Oh yeah, looks like I forgot about that."
Kuang Feng was speechless.
To divert the topic away from himself, Mosquito coughed and asked, "By the way, why haven't you guys headed to the front lines?"
Ye Shi smiled. "We're a quick reaction force, not line-holding troops. If everyone went to the front, who'd handle domestic defense?"
Kuang Feng nodded. "Yeah, speaking of which, we caught two spies recently... slipped in from the Bugra Free State. Someone bribed them to pose as refugees and infiltrate Daybreak City's industrial zone to blow up our tank production lines."
Mosquito was astonished. "Holy crap, those guys still won't behave?"
Lao Bai chuckled. "They're probably desperate. After all, Brother Edge ruined a business deal worth hundreds of millions for them. With the Enterprise stationed along the south bank of the Tianshui, they can't make overt moves, so they have to resort to underhanded tricks... Speaking of which, what about you? Why've you been lingering in the rear for so long?"
"Exactly. It's been a whole week—enough time for you to feed twice... and this is the only thing you managed to cook up?" Ye Shi chimed in with a laugh, steering the conversation right back to that useless hunk of iron.
Knowing he couldn't dodge the topic today, Mosquito sighed. "Ugh... it's a sob story. I thought I could build a set of god-tier gear for Brother Luo Yu's battle pet, but who knew that progenitor was a total idiot? It couldn't grasp my meaning at all."
Kuang Feng gave him an odd look. "Is there a possibility that you misunderstood how a progenitor is supposed to be used?"
Even going by the literal meaning, that thing wasn't built for combat, was it?
Based on the clues they had gathered so far, hunting was primarily the job of "fruiting bodies" and "evolved organisms."
The two were essentially the "laborers" and "specialists" of slime mold society.
"It could also be that its strength is still too low, so it lacks the capacity to digest such a massive hunk of iron..."
Lao Bai tapped the outer shell of Destroyer 1, an intrigued expression surfacing on his face. "If this thing were designed a bit lighter, say down to one or two tons... Strength-types could actually try wearing it."
Mosquito's eyes lit up. "I'll look into that!"
...
The sun soon dipped below the horizon.
Having handled official business all day in the browsing room, Chu Guang received a brief update on the progenitor's status from Xiao Qi.
To prevent Yu from going berserk, ever since Luo Yu led it out of the shelter, Chu Guang had arranged for a Hummingbird drone to shadow the pair overhead.
So far, Yu's behavior appeared relatively stable, showing no obvious hostility toward humans.
Furthermore, judging by the reactions of other slime molds, they didn't treat it as one of their own, but rather as a target requiring "purification," just like any other organic organism.
The enemy of an enemy wasn't necessarily a friend, but they could certainly become a target for recruitment.
Chu Guang reached out with an index finger to dismiss the holographic window floating before him, then leaned back into the sofa.
"Keep monitoring Yu. Unless there are abnormalities or major changes, you don't need to report every minor detail to me."
Xiao Qi replied, "Understood, Master!"
Chu Guang asked further, "What about the front lines? Any news?"
"Based on player reports in-game and discussions on the forums, the entirety of Oasis No. 9 is currently under our control. There is occasional friction along the northwestern defensive line, but largely no large-scale engagements... According to your army command's analysis, the Legion seems to be waiting for us to push deep into the desert and enter their home turf."
Listening to Xiao Qi's report, a faint smile curved Chu Guang's lips.
"Then let them keep waiting."
The Skeleton Corps had already completed its assembly in western Oasis No. 9, and the Storm Corps' training of the Lion Kingdom's army had been underway for a week.
The five "Cloud Dragonfly" ornithopters provided by Enterprise reinforcements had been transferred to the aerospace base south of the Tianshui tributary; as soon as the Alliance pilots finished training, they could deploy to the front lines.
Moreover, just yesterday, Chu Guang had established contact with Yun Song.
A light infantry strike team composed of over twenty power armor suits and more than a hundred exoskeleton-equipped soldiers would soon merge with several hundred bionic strike troops dispatched by the Kangmao Group to form an independent thousand-man unit. The moment the main battle commenced, they would launch an assault against the Falcon Kingdom's homeland—Oasis 2.
Situated on the border of the Great Desert, Oasis 2 was the gateway into the desert wastes.
According to clues provided by Luo Hua, the Pioneer had been captured by the Legion shortly after passing through Oasis 2 into the Great Desert; it shouldn't be too far from Oasis 2's western border.
To prevent the Legion from acting rashly in desperation and completely dismantling or destroying the Pioneer, they needed to strike in two directions simultaneously.
"Everything is in place; we only await the east wind."
If all went smoothly...
Before the end of the year, Griffin would be reunited with his old friend MacLaren.
Just as Chu Guang was lost in thought, Xiao Qi's voice drifted into his ear.
"Master, Prince Samer of the Honey Badger Kingdom wishes to see you."
"Have him come straight here." Given the hour, Chu Guang—who had already eaten dinner on North Street—couldn't be bothered to make a special trip outside.
Sitting atop the desk, Xiao Qi nodded with boundless enthusiasm. "Right away!"
...
At the same time, deep in the desert within the Lost Valley, Xiao Hong stood atop the valley ridge, staring motionlessly toward the east.
After a long time, it let out a faint murmur.
"Yiwu."
Standing behind it, White Pigeon wore a surprised expression upon hearing this. "You mean... the planted seed of life has vanished?"
"Yiwu."
Xiao Hong shook its head, then nodded, saying nothing, yet conveying everything.
White Pigeon, however, clearly understood.
There were many mediums for transmitting information; not every message required a conduit in the physical world.
Although his Xiao Hong couldn't speak to the "child" over a thousand kilometers away, that mysterious connection allowed it to sense the child's presence.
Now that bond had severed, yet Xiao Hong denied that it was "death."
In that case, there was only one possibility.
The "symbiote" inhabiting that young man had been transformed into something else.
What could it be?
Rubbing his chin with an index finger, his decayed face revealed little emotion, yet those crimson pupils flickered with intrigued fascination.
"I see. How fascinating... These juniors truly have some tricks up their sleeves."
A mystery that had taken him decades to decipher had been unraveled by these people in just a few short days.
That someone in this regressed world understood slime molds better than he did...
It was simply incredible!
Chapter 455