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Chi Que had considered even worse possible outcomes.

If the spores are infectious, then were the team members who stayed on top also infected by the spores?

Could it be that he has already been infected?

Is this the reason why the entire expedition team was wiped out?

I'll choose you to be on set for the next Resident Evil movie.

Chi Que thought of a lame joke to calm himself down.

In situations like these, it's crucial not to panic.

Think about what else can be done.

Chi Que's mind raced.

He recalled what the captain had said earlier: a villa garden filled with hallucinogenic fungi—that didn't make sense.

Such a huge garden must have had many staff members. If the fungus was already present at the time, they must have had a way to deal with the spores, otherwise it would have caused a huge uproar long ago.

In other words, there must be some kind of antidote here.

He continued with his original line of thought.

Chi Que glanced down at the captain.

His convulsions began to subside, but this was not a sign of improvement; he seemed to be struggling to control them, but it was unclear how long he could maintain this.

There's no time left.

He quickly escaped and ran deeper into the garden.

The ferns grew denser and denser, and moss covered every inch of the rock face. Chi Que ran while observing his surroundings.

Then he saw it.

A small stone house, cluttered with miscellaneous items, yet solemnly placed a ceramic jar.

His intuition told him that this was what he was looking for.

Chi Que strode over, picked up the pottery jar, shook it, and sensed something inside. Without hesitation, he smashed it.

Inside was a pile of withered, decaying debris, clearly rendered useless.

Damn it.

He should have realized this sooner; it's true he prepared an antidote, but so much time has passed that the antidote has long since lost its effectiveness.

What other options are there?!

His gaze swept over the clutter in the hut and suddenly he spotted a tattered notebook.

Although it was old and worn, the owner seemed to cherish it.

Chi Que opened the notebook and quickly scanned it. He completely ignored the many words such as "sacrifice" and "ritual" that were mixed in with it, until he finally saw what he was looking for.

"Near those fungi, there are often some strange ferns. Perhaps the folk saying that there is an antidote within seven steps is true. Those fungi seem to deliberately avoid ferns. I tried to make them into medicine, and my madness was indeed relieved."

Chi Que suddenly stood up.

This is what he's been looking for!

Perhaps for the sake of finding raw materials, a large patch of ferns, as depicted in the book, grew near the stone house.

He quickly gathered some ferns and rushed back to where the captain had gone berserk, then his heart sank.

The captain is missing.

"Damn it!" he couldn't help but growl.

What should we do now?

Should we go find the captain, or just go back?

He looked around but couldn't find any possible whereabouts of the captain.

It was as if they had vanished into thin air.

After searching the surrounding area without success, Chi Que decided to go back first and treat the other people who might be infected.

Carrying the bag of mushrooms and ferns, he hurriedly returned to the ground, following the path he remembered from his journey.

The scene was slightly better than he had expected. Although both of them had been affected, they were huddled in a corner of the hall, but they remained restrained. The teammate who had gone berserk was tied to a pillar in the hall.

Without a word, Chi Que quickly tore off a piece of meat and stuffed it into the mouths of the logistics guy and another person: "Chew it up and swallow it! Quickly!"

The two did as instructed, and the bitter juice filled their mouths. After a few minutes, their breathing gradually calmed down.

Chi Que turned to the frenzied teammate and tried to feed him the fern leaf, but the other person clenched his teeth and twisted wildly. After finally managing to stuff the leaf into his mouth, he blocked the other person's mouth and forced him to swallow it.

However, it had no effect on it.

Chi Que frowned and shook his head. It seemed that simple herbs could only be used for early symptoms, and they still needed to be made into medicine.

The logistics officer snapped out of his daze: "Where's the captain?"

"The captain went berserk down there and suddenly disappeared. I couldn't find him," Chi Que explained briefly. "We'll go find him tomorrow. Tonight, I'll refine these herbs to enhance their effects."

As he spoke, he pointed to the pile of mushrooms: "As for these, they should be non-toxic and can be used as food."

The two exchanged a worried look. The logistics officer seemed to want to say something, but ultimately said nothing.

The outburst had drained him of a lot of energy, but given the current situation, he really couldn't go to the captain anymore, so he had no choice but to agree for now.

The logistics staff made mushroom soup with mushrooms and cream. Chi Que had just experienced that incident, and now he felt nauseous at the sight of mushrooms, so he just took some compressed biscuits from the warehouse, mixed them with water, and swallowed them.

Chi Que leaned against the wall, flipping through his notebook. The little dog nestled at his feet, and like its owner, it didn't eat the mushroom soup.

The gardener's notes contained much rambling, and in some places the handwriting was illegible. It seemed that the former owner had performed some kind of cult ritual in the garden, but in the end nothing happened.

Unable to find anything useful, he simply tossed the notebook aside, closed his eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

The events of today replayed in his mind over and over again:

The crazed team members, the spores on the captain, the ferns in the underground garden, and the people who vanished into thin air.

He disassembled every detail and reassembled it.

He suddenly realized something.

What would have happened today if he hadn't followed along?

The captain went berserk, and no one could save him. The people above were infected one after another, all of them went mad, then died, and turned into monsters.

But he followed.

Although the captain has not yet been saved, the logistics staff and another person also ate fern leaves, and their symptoms subsided.

The crazed team member hasn't woken up yet, but at least he's not dead.

Chi Que slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.

He changed something.

If he changed the fate of the expedition in the past, would those monsters still exist twenty years later?

Chi Que didn't know.

He wasn't even sure if the inference that "changing the past will affect the present" held true in the copy.

Thinking too much is useless. His current task is to survive three days in this instance, not to solve the time paradox.

But he couldn't help but wonder what he would see if reality really changed and he returned to the present timeline.

Chi Que rolled over and buried his face in his arms.

Forget it.

Let's talk about tomorrow's problems tomorrow.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness began to fade.

......

wrong.

It suddenly occurred to him.

If the logistics guy and the other two went mad in the original history, then they should be wandering around the manor.

However, there was only one person in the logistics department inside the manor.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Chi Que suddenly opened his eyes.

The fire in the fireplace had become dim at some point, and Wen Lu was fast asleep on another sofa.

The students and the girl stood by, dozing off.

He glanced at the clock.

It's almost midnight.

There's something standing not far away.

A tall, thin, dark figure waited at the end of the corridor.

Chi Que stared intently at it.

Why did he feel a sense of déjà vu?

Why are the shadowy figures behaving inconsistently?

Why is the shadowy figure so distorted?

The dark figure gradually overlapped with the shadow cast by the logistics team when they suppressed the crazed members.