Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 800: You guys started it!
At this moment, Xiao Ran was unaware that they had become a thorn in the side of everyone in the no-man's-land.

After the repeated raids, Xiao Ran began to have a headache.

As if the bandits had received the news, they all vanished without a trace.

The inability to collect enough resources also made Wu Man's mood begin to turn negative: "To synthesize the fourth generation, we need to synthesize at least five more portions of the third generation culture medium. If we rely on these guys to slowly synthesize it, who knows how long it will take."

Wu Man observed the space inside the fungal ball with a sense of frustration. At this moment, a complete operating system had been formed inside the fungal ball.

The bandits assigned to Wu Man, after receiving only basic training from her, were now operating like machines.

Everyone has a different job.

A group of people are responsible for producing the culture medium and the elemental spores.

The materials are readily available; the bandit's lair has no shortage of materials.

The other part is used to generate [metal-dissolving liquid], which is then processed in the cultivation pool.

Each step was very simple, like an assembly line operation, which was extremely easy for these consciousnesses with weak mental strength.

The price Xiao Ran only needed to pay was to let them parasitize her body.

Faced with Wu Man's complaints, Xiao Ran realized that this couldn't go on, so she simply changed direction and headed straight for the core area that no one cared about.

Since trading is possible there, I might be able to sell some second-generation and third-generation mycelium in exchange for sufficient resources.

Xiao Ran had this plan, after all, she already had a considerable amount of mutated mycelium.

If it weren't for the fact that some of the bandits had too weak a mental strength to control these mutated mycelia, Xiao Ran would have upgraded himself inside and out to the third generation of mycelia long ago.

However, in order to minimize the impact, Xiao Ran disguised himself on the way to the Spirit Tomb City, covering his appearance with a layer of mycelium.

Although it looks bulky, it looks much more approachable compared to its previous glittering appearance.

Why do we say it's kind?

With such a large size, it's impossible for him to keep a low profile.

"Swish..."

The thick mycelium forms a conveyor belt, propelling the mycelial ball forward rapidly.

Before long, Xiao Ran had already sensed the existence of the Spirit Tomb City.

It wasn't a closed structure like other bandit lairs, but rather a vast, complex microbial network shimmering with dense pheromone light.

Countless tiny, diverse consciousnesses shuttle, communicate, and trade among the nodes and channels of the microbial network, their pheromones weaving together to form a nearly ubiquitous spectral network.

As Xiao Ran approached Spirit Tomb City, the actions within the city accelerated.

A large number of mutated mycelia were quickly activated, and blackness covered the entire Spirit Tomb City at an extremely fast speed.

A pheromone signal was transmitted from within the Spirit Tomb City.

"Halt! You are not welcome here. Please leave the territory of Spirit Tomb City immediately."

Looking at the pheromones that appeared in front of her, Xiao Ran was not annoyed, but calmly replied, "Don't be nervous, I'm just here to make a deal."

Xiao Ran took out the second and third generation mycelia cultivated by Wu Man and sent them directly to the front of the Spirit Tomb City through a thick mycelium.

Whether it was the second-generation mycelium shimmering with fiery embers or the third-generation mycelium resembling gold, their appearance immediately caused quite a stir in the Spirit Tomb City.

They hadn't seen such high-quality mycelium for many years; such mycelium would be highly sought after even in the central cemetery area.

The various factions within Spirit Tomb City were discussing the value of these mycelia, but the topic of discussion was not how to trade them.

The moment Xiao Ran appeared, a large amount of pheromones had already been transmitted through the mycelium buried in the soil.

Now, the armies of various forces have begun to converge on this area. All they need to do is delay them for a while.

Soon enough, some people began to try to contact Xiao Ran on behalf of Lingmu City.

A consciousness entity calling itself "Hao" separated a portion from the black defensive microbial blanket covering the city wall and condensed into a spherical structure with the appearance of Xiao Ran.

“Distinguished visitor,” Hao said, trying to sound as natural as possible, “Spirit Tomb City welcomes all sincere traders. Your goods… are indeed rare and of exceptional quality. What would you like to exchange them for?”

Xiao Ran's massive consciousness only fluctuated slightly before handing over the initiative in the transaction to Wu Man.

Wu Man couldn't hold back any longer and immediately released a crystal-clear list of pheromones, which detailed the types and quantities of the required elemental spores, as well as several rare substances.

This list is long, but it is the result of Wu Man's further simplification, and it is only enough to synthesize the fourth-generation culture medium.

Since this is the first transaction, if we immediately present a huge list of transactions, it will not only scare the other party, but they probably won't be able to put together such a large volume in a short time.

However, even after Wu Man had already simplified it, and then simplified it again, when the list of these items was transmitted to Hao's consciousness along with the pheromones, the mycelium on Hao's body suddenly stopped!
Clearly, they were shocked by the long list of items in the pheromones.

With so many items, including some that are extremely rare even in Spirit Tomb City, and even the quantity of basic culture medium and elemental spores is ridiculously large. These supplies alone are enough to sustain Spirit Tomb City for a very, very long time.

"This... Your appetite is far too great! The list you provided, including the quantities of Shadow Spores and Sparkling Gold Spores, is enough to empty more than half of our Spirit Tomb City's reserves!"

Hao tried his best to appear embarrassed.

"We can make more concessions on the price."

As Wu Man released her pheromones, she complained to Xiao Ran, "I think we should just snatch it directly. How long are we going to drag this out?"

Wu Man was confident that with the third-generation mycelium, she could completely devour this so-called Spirit Tomb City.

But Xiao Ran did not approve of doing so.

"Even if you swallow this city up, how many resources will you get? After barely managing to gather enough for the fourth-generation culture medium, are you planning to make the materials yourself for the rest?"

Xiao Ran responded irritably.

Plunder is the least costly and most profitable method.

But this only applies to those robbers.

Xiao Ran could devour those bandits without any psychological burden, completely turning them into a part of her spiritual power.

But in front of her, a perfectly good city, a place where people could stick together and find warmth, was being swallowed up by her. This shameless act was hard for Xiao Ran to accept.

Even though I am no longer a human being, it's still better to maintain some principles.

Moreover, just as Xiao Ran said, the resources they need to advance to the seventh generation are even more enormous, and these resources can no longer be obtained by simply robbing them.

Even those bandits have completely hidden themselves now. If they simply devour the Spirit Tomb City, where will they get resources from?

Do we end up having to convert the resources ourselves? That's too slow.

Faced with Xiao Ran's question, Wu Man was very unhappy, but she couldn't refute it and could only patiently wait for the other party's reply.

Fortunately, the speed of pheromone exchange is much faster than the efficiency of human communication in reality.

Hao sent Wu Man's list back and quickly received a reply.

"No problem, we'd be happy to trade these things, but you're asking for too many, so we need to make some preparations."

After receiving Hao's reply, Wu Man breathed a sigh of relief. At least they could synthesize the fourth-generation culture medium first. Even if they didn't have enough resources later, they wouldn't be completely helpless if they wanted to force their way into the central tomb area with the fourth-generation mycelium they had cultivated.

“Sure!” Wu Man replied to Hao, and then asked, “Would it be convenient for us to go in and have a look around?”

After Hao received Wu Man's question, the bacteria on his body visibly twitched slightly.

The twitch was extremely slight, but it was immediately detected by Xiao Ran's immense mental power.

"has a problem!"

Xiao Ran's heart tightened, and an intense sense of crisis instantly struck him, making him alert.

After all, visiting the city is just a perfectly normal request, and the Spirit Tomb City itself is an open area.

Normally, shouldn't they be informing you of the number of mycelia allowed to enter the Spirit Tomb City? Why is this guy suddenly getting nervous?

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran immediately focused her mental energy, even gathering back the mental energy she had shared with Number Two.

Then, he spread his spiritual energy outwards from himself as the center.

Soon, Xiao Ran discovered a large amount of pheromones around the Spirit Tomb City.

These pheromones are rapidly transmitted to the outside world through the fungal hyphae buried underground, spreading in all directions.

Xiao Ran forcibly inserted a wisp of spiritual energy into the soil.

Soon, one pheromone after another appeared in front of Xiao Ran.

Hurry, hurry, this guy seems to be starting to suspect something.

[Damn it, how long until those guys from the central tomb area arrive? Have these idiots been taking all that money for nothing?]

[This place seems to have a lot of stock inside. With such a large transaction volume, there must be a huge amount of mutated mycelium inside. Have our people get ready; we'll just storm in and grab it!]

Looking at the pheromones that appeared in front of me.

Xiao Ran's mood immediately soured, thinking, "Are they treating me like a traitor?!"

However, after a moment's thought, Xiao Ran calmed down. After all, since someone was so eager to give her experience points, how could she miss such a good opportunity?

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran had already hatched a vicious plan: "I had some reservations before, but now... you guys made the first move."

(End of this chapter)