Dream Travel

Chapter 265 is actually about 'the gatherers'.

"...I kill demons, this is my hunting seal." Bai Mu took out the pendant he was wearing.

This thing stirred when dealing with Ryder, but its agitation wasn't strong before Ryder became a demon.

When the target becomes a demon and slows down the surrounding area, the agitation of this exorcising ornament becomes intense.

It also neutralized the power that turned the surroundings gray and slowed everything down, allowing the white curtain to successfully kill the demon.

Without this, killing that demon would be quite difficult.

Qianhu stared blankly at the demon-slaying ornament in Bai Mu's hand, his feelings indescribable. How could he put it?

What should have been a post-apocalyptic survival story has turned into a Witcher movie set. She's just an ordinary post-apocalyptic survival girl. Isn't this a bit too much?

"What is hell like? Is it better than reality?" Yuri became even more curious about hell.

“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know,” Bai Mu said straightforwardly, then stood up. “I will give you new suggestions on what to do after we get to the top floor. I’ll keep the details a secret for now. I need to go see something else now.”

"Are there new attackers?" That was the first thing Yuri thought of.

"No, that's not it." Bai Mu looked into the darkness in the distance, where something was quietly wriggling.

He took out a flashlight and shone it directly on the spot, revealing a mushroom-like creature crawling on the ground.

(￣△￣)——

The slowly wriggling mushroom creature stopped, then wriggled to its feet. The white-curtained phone emitted a voice: "Hello, outsider humans."

"This works?" Bai Mu shook his phone; this wasn't a communication device from the current world.

"We can communicate through communication devices."

The mushroom-like creatures, like their bodies, spoke in a soft, gentle voice.

Yuri couldn't help but ask, "Is this edible?"

"Shut up!" Chito immediately covered Yuri's mouth. Words can be dangerous; this mushroom-like creature looked cute, but it was just too big when it stood up.

And it seems they've also come looking for Bai Mu; I wonder if this will bring new trouble.

She felt that after encountering the white curtain, she had experienced everything.

They had only known each other for less than two weeks.

"What do you need me for?"

“You are the most energy-dense being of all,” the arriving mushroom-man replied. “We are observing you.”

"You don't mean you want to eat me, do you?" Bai Mu asked half-jokingly.

“We don’t eat living creatures.” The mushroom-man denied this: “So far, we’ve only been cleaning up things that contain high energy.”

So is the main purpose still observation?

Bai Mu sat down. Since some mushroom people had come over on their own initiative, Bai Mu was happy to chat with them.

After glancing briefly at the curious Yuri, Bai Mu had a similar thought to Yuri: could mushroom people be eaten?

Ahem, he was just a little curious.

Incidentally, although these mushroom-like beings have expressions similar to humans, they are very different from humans, so the White Curtain's Dream-Eroding Imperial Arms is ineffective.

Their expressions were more like mimicry.

How much do you know about us?

“Very few, you are not humans from this world.” The mushroom-man’s voice, transmitted through a local’s cell phone, remained calm.

But they clearly knew a lot of information, so the White Curtain wasn't surprised. The White Curtain had reviewed a lot of information from Borei's side, so it was normal for the humans of the Otherworld to recognize 'visitors from another world'.

Often, when the locals discover something, there's no need to try to silence them; instead, it can be an opportunity for further cooperation and exchange.

Conflicts will only arise if they encounter some ambitious locals who want to carry out some kind of otherworldly invasion.

However, the benefits of the invasion are not significant for either side.

So what if reality is invaded by dream creatures? Most of what they obtain can't be taken out normally. Do dream creatures really want to invade reality?
First of all, Dream Erosion can intercept a large number of Dream Creatures, and invading is more like courting death.

"What else?"

The mushroom-man continued, "You are accelerating the demise of this city, and we don't care."

The actions of people like Bai Mu are indeed further depleting the city, but for the Mushroom People, this depletion has actually had a positive effect.

They are the remnants of 'humanity' on this planet. After absorbing the energy of one city, they move on to the next.

Once everything is resolved, everything on this planet will come to an end, and those who have completed their mission will fall back into slumber.

The planet remains a planet, but the traces left by humans on it will eventually return to dust without the support of energy.

The exploration team's actions are undoubtedly accelerating this process.

They are also consuming energy to open those sealed bases, and once the sealed bases are opened, their shelf life will decrease rapidly.

As an important area within the city, the rate of urban abandonment will accelerate once the shelf life of the area is reduced.

As for the research data obtained by the exploration team, given the circumstances of this world, it is insufficient to support their complete reconstruction of that data. Even if it were reconstructed, it would be impossible to restore humanity to its former state; the small population would not be able to wage an overly intense war.

Everything will eventually come to an end, and these extra people will not have much impact on the world.

When everything has decayed, it is not only humanity in this world that will give up and return to the silent and primitive Earth.

Watching the mushroom-like creature communicating with the white curtain, Yuri noticed a subtle change in the situation and cautiously glanced at Chito, who was listening intently.

Suddenly, it pounced and grabbed the wriggling thing hiding in the shadows.

The captured creature struggled frantically, but Yuri held it tightly in her arms and it couldn't break free.

"Hehehe, I've got you!"

“That’s a juvenile of my own kind.” The mushroom-man looked at the mysterious creature that Yuri was holding.

“It looks cute.” Yuri reached out and stroked the mushroom-man larva that had been caught.

This creature has an adorable, blank expression; it looks a bit like a cat, but also like a living sausage. It's soft and squishy, ​​and feels great to the touch.

The mushroom-like larva, having stopped struggling, stared blankly at Yuri.

They are clearly not as skilled at speaking through their phones as mature mushroom-like individuals.

The mushroom man stopped looking at the infant race members who had fallen into the hands of the two human girls and continued to communicate with the white curtain.

"We will continue to monitor you, but we will not do anything else. Please don't mind this."

Bai Mu found it strange: "Why? I'm no different from the other exploration team members, am I?"

His answer was too modest, but it wasn't entirely unfounded. They all came from reality, and compared to the members of the exploration team, Bai Mu had the added identity of a Dream Walker.

Oh, brains are more expensive than them.

So why are these mushroom people paying attention to him instead of other exploration teams?
Before the mushroom-man could answer, Bai Mu suddenly thought of a possibility: "You guys aren't planning to wait until I kill a bunch of people and then go and eat them, are you?"

The mushroom man is very intelligent; he can even understand the meaning behind what Bai Mu said.

“You are not like them; your existence is more dangerous.”

The mushroom-like beings calmly replied that they were decomposers, and that items containing high energy needed to be decomposed and absorbed, and that they would do the same when they encountered things like corpses.

They can eat anything, not just corpses, they can even eat nuclear bombs!

Even the weapon crates with white curtains are, in the eyes of the mushroom people, items that need to be broken down and absorbed, but the energy state of those things is very special.

The weapon case doesn't actually contain much energy, but it's a 'converter' that allows the White Curtain's own energy to be converted into another type of energy.

The high energy density of the white curtain lies in 'bioenergy'.

However, none of these aspects made the White Curtain seem too dangerous. In the Mushroom Man's observation, the White Curtain was more like a bee-like collector.

Everything he did in this world was like collecting pollen.

Just like now, Bai Mu has collected a lot of 'pollen' on her body, but Bai Mu only collects pollen and does not pollinate.

When he leaves this world, the pollen that was collected will also be taken away with him.

However, they do not attack living creatures, and the White Curtain's 'collection' behavior is passive.

They have been observing the White Curtain for some time now, and the White Curtain has indeed not actively 'collected' the world's 'pollen'.

What he does is similar to what other humans do, except that compared to other humans, Bai Mu pays more attention to the locals and is more enthusiastic.

The mushroom man had no objection to the exploration team members killed by the white curtain.

Those exploration teams also possessed a similar nature to the White Curtain.

However, the White Curtain obtains 'pollen' through collection, while those people are in an environment filled with 'pollen' and unintentionally come into contact with some 'pollen'.

The efficiency gap between the two is enormous, which is why Mushroom Talent pays close attention to White Curtain.

The white curtain killed those who attacked him, and the 'pollen' that they had unintentionally picked up would be scattered back into the world.

As for the pollen collected from Bai Mu, it should have scattered if he died, but Bai Mu is still alive and well.

They will not harbor ill will towards the White Curtain, nor will they actively attack it. However, for this reason, they will continue to 'spy' on the White Curtain while it is still active in the current city.

They will reappear after the White Curtain encounters some unexpected event and directly destroy it.

Decompose his body, and then accelerate the return of the world pollen passively collected by the White Curtain to this world.

The mushroom man didn't hide this information, and Bai Mu listened to the mushroom man's explanation, stunned.

He had analyzed and speculated about his own uniqueness, but he never expected that there would be an expert who could further understand his uniqueness.

They even know more about all of this than Bai Mu himself.

"You guys are really amazing." Bai Mu said sincerely to the mushroom people in front of him, but he didn't care about their intentions.

He's not dead yet.

As for what happens after death... he's already dead, so there's no need for his body to be eaten by mushroom people. On the bright side, at least someone will help collect his body.

(End of this chapter)