Star Abyss Walker

Chapter 371 The Life of Cordyceps (5th update)
Their gaze fell upon the Conqueror within the storage space, its attributes emanating from it.

It has the exact same attributes as the Conqueror I'm currently using, even the same firepower.

Excellent, excellent! This can be sold to pay off debts...

Cai Cai and Fatty already have gold-tier firearms, so it's not necessary to give them to them. Ruo Lin, Kou Mei, Aji, and others don't rely on automatic rifles that much.

We must sell it!
A true man is free from debt!

……

Carrying the power sword, they continued forward, venturing deeper into the Land of Resurgence.

"drop!"

A message came from Zhang Ruolin: "Ding Han, have you entered the Land of Resurrection?"

"In!"

"How was it? Exciting, wasn't it?"

"It's not bad."

I grinned: "The first thing I encountered upon entering the Land of Resurgence was a golden Chaos Beast BOSS, which dropped a golden Conqueror. I'm not going to keep this gun internally; I need to sell it for money. I spent all my savings on the last purchase of the bionic robots, and then bought a batch of expansion crystals. I owe Old Ma 1000 million, and I need to pay it back as soon as possible."

"That's true, Old Ma has it tough too. He's constantly being bossed around by those ruthless bosses in the black market and barely makes any money. He doesn't even have a wife yet..."

"That's really terrible."

I expressed my deepest sympathy: "Ruolin, what are you doing?"

"The seven of us set off today, teaming up to farm some aliens in the map south of the Lost Lands. For some reason, suddenly a large number of aliens gathered in the adjacent map of the Lost Lands, as if they had been summoned."

"It's most likely the work of the warp."

I frowned and said, "When you're killing monsters, be careful not to just grind. Take the opportunity to explore things related to the warp as well. This is very important for us to understand the warp and even defeat it."

"..."

Ruolin didn't say anything.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Ding Han".

She smiled slightly: "I've noticed that you're becoming more and more of a leader, unlike Cai Cai, who's like an idiot. Fatty, Aki, and the others aren't far from being idiots either, and Faye and Koumei don't think that far ahead."

"Maybe it's because I've had a lot of contact with them. Please don't flatter me too much. I'm just a slightly outstanding casual player, not some player leader."

Ruolin chuckled and said, "If you say it's not true, then it's not true. I'll listen to you."

After ending the conversation, both parties continued to focus on leveling up.

……

I took out my off-road motorcycle and sped over a hundred kilometers through the Land of Resurgence, but there wasn't a single monster in sight!
This is strange. The map is clearly marked in blood red, indicating it's an SS-level map, comparable in danger to the Lost Lands. Yet, there's such a large area that's completely empty without any monsters. This is highly unusual!

It can only be said that if there are no monsters in most areas, then the monsters that spawn in a few areas will be extremely ferocious!
After a few minutes, I stopped driving and reached out to put the off-road motorcycle back into the storage space.

Ahead, a series of strangely large trees appeared...

These trees don't look like trees at all, but they look a lot like the peanut trees I saw in the countryside when I was a child. How could there be peanut trees that are five meters tall, with thick branches and trunks, and they are flowering and bearing fruit, and the fruits they bear are somewhat similar to peanuts.

and many more……

Not similar at all!

When I got closer, I found that the fruits hanging on the tree were actually moving. Upon closer inspection, they looked like worms wriggling in the wind, and these worms looked somewhat familiar.

Some resemble scorpions, some resemble exploding insects, some resemble mother insects, and some even look like kareban, hanging from a tree by a blood-red vine, constantly twisting as if in great pain.

What the hell is all this?!

I suspect I ate some kind of mushroom, because I can even see these weird things.

"Ding Han, wake up!"

He slapped himself and opened his eyes to look again.

Nothing has changed. Before me is still a five-meter-tall "peanut tree," with "peanuts" hanging from its branches. These peanuts move and look very similar to Zerg units.

It seems that all of this is true.

So I took out my phone and snapped a bunch of photos, then sent these strange pictures to the guide, Zhou Jihuan.

"Old Zhou, did you see that?"

“I saw them.” Zhou Jihuan’s voice was grave: “These things…are they in the Land of Resurrection?”

"Yes."

I nodded: "Those things hanging on the tree are definitely insects, right?"

"Yes, it is indeed an insect."

Zhou Jihuan gritted her teeth and said, "Damn it, Ding Han, don't you think this thing looks like something we're familiar with?"

"Cordyceps?!"

This is the only answer I can think of.

"Correct!"

Zhou Jihuan nodded and said, "The reason why cordyceps is formed is that the insect is infected by fungi, and then it becomes diseased and dies. The fungal hyphae use the insect's internal tissues as nutrients to grow, becoming a strange life form that is neither an insect nor a grass. The only difference between the photos you took and cordyceps is that the insects on the tree seem to still be alive."

"So how exactly did this thing form?"

I frowned, then suddenly thought of something and said, "Why did the main system name this map 'Land of Resurrection'? What is it referring to that is being resurrected? Obviously, this map is related to the Chaos faction in the warp. And what is the relationship between the Zerg and the Chaos faction? Could the Great Devourer's entry into the Earth's core and its devouring of the mother planet's core be related to this as well?"

"Depend on……"

Zhou Jihuan's expression was clearly not good: "If it is really related to the Great Devourer, then our Star Abyss problem is really serious. Just think, all the signs indicate that the Zerg are not native to the home planet, but most likely came from the warp. Since both the Zerg and the Chaos faction came from the warp, what is the relationship between the two? And what is the relationship between the Great Devourer and the Chaos God?"

He became increasingly alarmed as he spoke: "Damn it... Could these cordyceps be related to the core of the Great Devourer Star, or some kind of life form deep within the Earth's core? If so, the humans living on our home planet will face far too many crises; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they'll suffer many disasters."

"..."

I paused for a moment, thinking of Lin Qingying, Lu Xiaobei and Cheng Shuang, as well as Lao Ding, Zhao Yihang, Chen Xiaoman and others who were far away in Tengshan.

Their seemingly peaceful lives are actually quite fragile.

"It shouldn't be that bad, right? Huan-ge, your thinking is too far off..."

I couldn't help but feel a little scared: "I hope it's not like that..."

"I also hope it's just my own nonsense."

Zhou Jihuan said, "Ding Han, be careful in the Land of Resurrection. Also, collect more samples and bring them back. I'll take them to the research department above for study. This is very important, since there aren't many people who have the ability to enter the core area of ​​the Land of Resurrection."

"understood."

……

After ending the call, I looked up at the road ahead again.

Just as we took another step forward, the nearest "Cordyceps tree" began to move. Its leaves rustled in the wind, and its roots, like squid tentacles, kept churning the soil and actually started to move. Meanwhile, the insects hanging on the tree began to squeak and squeak, looking quite menacing!
Finally, its health bar appeared!
Cordyceps Life, Level 75, Cyan BOSS!

The strength is not high, which is reasonable. Insects that can be invaded by fungi are weak. Only the strength of S6 is reasonable!
Just then, a bell rang in my ear—

[Congratulations! You have triggered the scenario quest "Peanuts Growing on Trees, Clean Up the Contaminated Cordyceps" (S-rank)! Quest details: The core ecosystem of our home planet has been invaded and polluted. Ecosystems that have existed within the Earth's core for billions of years have been released by the Great Devourer. The insect swarms have suffered a backlash from the core ecosystem, giving rise to this extremely twisted existence. Please kill 10000 Cordyceps lives. Upon completion of the quest, you will receive a very generous reward!]

……

Good heavens, 10000?!

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Sure enough, it really required killing 1 cordyceps. This task treats people like animals instead of humans.
I had been hoping that I could finish work early today and go home to be with Lin Qingying.

Now that this task has been assigned... well, let alone today, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to get home tomorrow night!
Of course, from a player's perspective, this is definitely a good thing. These monster-hunting quests are the main way to level up. The experience points provided by 1 blue bosses are not insignificant. In addition, clearing out the junk from 1 blue treasure chests can greatly alleviate my current financial difficulties. After all, I still owe Ruolin 200 million, and I need to pay it off as soon as possible.

It's not a good thing to delay repaying debts; it erodes friendships and the trust of others.

At that moment, the peanut tree suddenly swirled around, and the insects on it squealed and opened their gaping maws, as if they were about to tear me apart.

It's hard to imagine that there are still such arrogant blue BOSSes in the 4.0 era. Are they usually this brave?

With a swing of its power sword, it began "weeding" its home planet!
As the sword flashed, several branches and twigs of the peanut tree were continuously severed, causing a continuous "severe damage" effect. Once the branches on the tree were cut off, the insects hanging on the tree lost their nutrients, quickly wilted, and withered away in the blink of an eye.

It seems that their life essence has long been drained. The reason they can still shout so loudly is because of the nutrients provided by the peanut tree. Once the nutrients are cut off, they will show their true form, just like grasshoppers in autumn.

"drop!"

Zhou Jihuan sent another message: "Ding Han, remember to collect more samples. Not only cordyceps life, but also any other random things we encounter later. Collect as many as you can. I'll take these samples to claim credit later, and I estimate I can get a lot of world contribution points. These world contribution points can also help strengthen the players in Huaining City, making Huaining City bigger and stronger, and gradually becoming the strongest prefecture-level city in the player camp!"

"6, Brother Huan..."

I almost burst out laughing: "Don't worry, we'll collect them."

……

As he spoke, he took out an empty bottle from his storage space and put in a portion of the cordyceps' roots, leaves, and the only remaining empty shell of the insect.

(End of this chapter)