I am Jinshan Youxia

[Mold progression: 27% (37%)]

Oh wow.

Zhang Chengyi tried to smile, but his head, which was just an empty shell, only managed to open its mouth with the support of mycelium, revealing the black hole inside his lips.

Thirty-seven percent of the minds are still corrupted, but ten percent of those corrupted minds are being nourished by the gut microbiota.

Normally, the rapidly increasing mold growth would quickly turn Goro Furuhata into a madman covered in mold, with the portion occupied by the fungus being negligible.

However, when locked down, the bacteria will stubbornly occupy a portion of the space, causing the infected, moldy mind to appear much more normal.

After transplanting three more types of bacteria, Goro Furuhata will become a mentally healthy and normal person, until the bacteria in his body are removed.

The downside is that it's impossible to transplant too many microorganisms at the same time, as the moldy mind's ability to sustain itself cannot keep up.

This may not necessarily be a good thing.

Whether a person's mind is corrupted or not, it is part of that person's character. If you remove it, even if others think that person is better, for that person, it is probably a forced reversal of their character.

In almost every world, Zhang Chengyi rarely interferes with other people's minds, and this world is no exception; he has firmly locked down the decay progress of all infected individuals.

"Splash~"

Zhang Chengyi pressed his finger against Furuhata Goro's vein, and the bacteria flowing through the blood responded joyfully, telling him everything about the infected body's internal condition—

This is not just a result of physical ability, but also a result of the translation function.

This body has the ability to communicate with the microbial community, giving the swarms of mold a certain capacity for thought and response. However, this response is not something that ordinary people can understand or comprehend. The outward manifestation is that the large swarms of microorganisms will exhibit certain human-like behaviors, such as the swaying mycelium to welcome him just now.

It was the translation function brought by the mod that transformed the innate communication instincts of the bacteria, which were not a language system at all, into standard Mandarin, thus providing a basis for communication.

Getting back to the main point, Goro Furuhata's organs are rapidly repairing themselves under the supernormal symbiotic relationship with bacteria. His coma is not due to physical reasons, but rather because his consciousness changed after a part of his corrupted mind was occupied, causing him to fall into a coma and fall asleep.

The bacteria did not remain unchanged after entering; they rapidly changed by providing nutrients to the moldy mind. They repaired damaged organs with secretions and corroded the proliferating body tissue...

A new bacterial community has emerged.

[Mold progression: 11% (37%)]

They are smaller, more dispersed, and more peculiar. They invade the mold growth process in large numbers, rapidly multiply among the cells in the body, and after coexisting with human cells, something amazing happens.

Goro Furuhata's withered skin relaxed, and the seventy-year-old man looked like a man in his thirties or forties in the blink of an eye. Even his hair turned into a shiny brown.

Bacteria that can make people younger?

Can symbiosis at the cellular level reverse the aging of human cells?

This is a bit too surreal.

Zhang Chengyi was somewhat surprised. It turned out that it wasn't just ordinary bacteria that could react with each other; a corrupted mind could also cause bacteria to mutate, eventually evolving into a group of bacteria with supernatural powers.

He raised his finger, and the barely perceptible bacteria on it were dying extremely quickly after leaving Goro Furuhata's body. Even he could only keep these strange "longevity bacteria" alive in his body through his blood. Once they left the soil of the moldy mind, they would die as quickly as humans without oxygen and water.

The human mind and mold together create supernatural mold.

"It seems that humanity has a lot of problems in this world."

Zhang Chengyi stored the longevity bacteria in his body, eliminating a type of bacteria that could enhance hematopoiesis. The new longevity bacteria that emerged is a comprehensive and flawless way to rejuvenate a person at the cellular level, making it a superior alternative to ordinary beneficial bacteria.

With supernatural gut microbiota, who needs ordinary gut microbiota?

Goro Furuhata slowly awoke, his brown eyes and youthful face filled with confusion. He quickly sat up, feeling not only much lighter physically, but also without the usual heaviness in his heart, as if someone had cut away the pessimism in his heart.

"How are you feeling?" Zhang Chengyi asked.

"I feel...good." Goro Furuhata stood up. His clothes, which had been slightly loose, now fit him very poorly, too tight and small. He noticed the changes in his skin; his hands alone looked much younger. Resisting the urge to go find a mirror to check his appearance, he repeated his answer:

"It's never been this good."

"You can leave now." Zhang Chengyi dismissed him, as he could monitor the infected person's condition at any time and there was no need for him to stay and observe.

Goro Furuhata instinctively obeyed the command and walked downstairs, just like bacteria obeying the command of mold, without the slightest hesitation or doubt in his heart.

"And one more thing," Zhang Chengyi suddenly said, "If you discover any problems, come and tell me, whether it's a physical or psychological issue."

"Yes." Goro Furuhata bowed and then said with a start, "Yes, sir."

[Is it because the body has a high degree of symbiosis with fungi that it instinctively resists disobeying my orders?]

Zhang Chengyi was unsure whether this transformation was good or bad; it had practically turned a person into a completely obedient slave.

He sounds exactly like a villainous big boss.

[I'm clearly a good game mod that wants to heal people, right?]

Chapter 302 Expansion...

three days later.

The simultaneous and mysterious deaths of multiple high-ranking officials and wealthy individuals raise many questions about the secrets behind their deaths.

Looking at the front page headlines of several newspapers in a row, Zhang Chengyi figured that probably no one would care about the deaths of some people in a remote village anymore.

After the death of the cloaked man Yamada, a large number of elderly officials and wealthy people died in full view of the public, turning into skeletons covered in human skin. This caused a huge uproar and plunged the entire Japanese political scene into chaos, which then spread to the management of the government.

A few days is certainly not enough time for chaos to spread from the upper echelons to society, but public opinion has already exploded.

In modern society, a large number of elderly high-ranking officials and wealthy people die at the same time in extremely horrific ways. Some of them die during live news broadcasts or while campaigning on the street. The news is destined to be impossible to hide. With most of the high-ranking officials dead, it is inevitable that no one can control public opinion. Those who are still alive will only fuel the flames to seize power and money. They will not help clean up the mess.

The public speculated wildly whether it was vampires or some strange force that caused the deaths of these people. This horrific event attracted the attention of media outlets throughout Japan and many other countries around the world.

"It will be very difficult for Japan to regain control at the grassroots level in the short term."

Zhang Chengyi concluded that Japan previously lacked effective management of remote villages. Even between cities, there were discrepancies in the police systems, allowing many criminals to roam freely, easily changing their names and starting over. Village management was virtually nonexistent.

In Japan, the grassroots management organization for villages is called a village office, which is somewhat similar to a village committee. The village head, village council, and village councilors are all elected. Each of the several departments under the village office has a section chief, who is a senior official with considerable influence. They check and balance each other and manage the village through funding from higher levels.

It seems like there's no problem, but once it's implemented, problems inevitably arise: the village chief position is monopolized by one or a few families, senior officials in the village office are practically useless, elections have little to do with the grassroots, and due to the heavy reliance on funding from above, administrative efficiency is extremely low.

The village of Morimi where he is currently located is much like this. Because of the severe aging population, the village office has long been turned into a tool for a wealthy and powerful person to obtain government funding.

A few days ago, a group of gang members from big cities died. Their deaths were horrific and looked very strange. The village chief had already fled with his whole family, and even the village office was empty.

However, this situation conveniently allowed him to expand the range of his infected individuals without worrying about whether the government would crack down on him.

"It's time to have Goro Furuhata and the others take me to explore the area."

Zhang Chengyi thought to himself, crossing out a line on his development plan.

After several days of observation, Goro Furuhata was in better condition than ever before. His body not only became younger, but his strength, speed, and reaction time also improved. Even his ability to infect others increased, and the longevity bacteria he carried had a stronger infectious capacity.

Even without actively infecting others, he simply received some elderly people he knew in the village and transmitted the proliferative bacteria in his body to them. Interestingly, the people infected with the proliferative bacteria were mostly elderly people, and the older they were, the faster they were infected.

On the contrary, young people have absolutely no chance of being infected by the proliferative bacteria.

Now, all of them, who used to be elderly, look to be in their thirties, and they get together every day to play happily.

Singing, dancing, campfires, picnics, exercising...

It's so normal it's unsettling.

After the corrupted parts of their minds are occupied, they are more likely to experience happiness and become more self-disciplined. Each of them has an extremely upright personality. Because Furuhata Goro's corruption progress was already high, even after the longevity bacteria occupied his mind, he still had 11% of his corrupted mind left, so he still looked relatively normal.

There are four elderly people who were already quite eccentric, and now they are incredibly cheerful, laughing and joking every day. They also actively learn about things that interest them to enrich themselves. They rarely lie, speak gently, treat people kindly, and have elegant manners.

Almost every positive word can be used to describe them. The combination of an elderly person's mindset and a child's innocence would make anyone who has never met them before see them as the kindest people they've ever met.

Zhang Chengyi, however, only felt a bit of a headache. He had asked them if they had noticed any changes in him and whether they should have the bacteria in his body removed.

Even those who had changed drastically refused outright.

They resisted that ugly, moldy past.

That was clearly their true selves.

With such vivid examples, Zhang Chengyi has not taken the initiative to carry out the next round of reforms. When it comes to human experimentation, it is best to find real criminals or villains to do it. He is not so despicable as to experiment directly on ordinary people, especially on experiments involving the mind and personality.

But what criminals or villains are there in a small village? At most, there used to be a petty thief, and there were relatively few naughty children. Now there are even fewer people, so he can only expand his territory first and then slowly look for test subjects.

----------------

In the afternoon, at the entrance of Morimi Village.

"Lord Zhang Chengyi."

Goro Furuhata bowed respectfully, took out a map, and pointed to the route on it, saying, "About five kilometers from our Morimi Village along the highway is the nearest town, Mazan. After passing through the Mazan Tunnel, not far to the east is another village, Shirasa, which is very close to us."

"However, I heard that the people in Baisha Village are very resistant to development outside the village, so roads have not yet been built into the village."

As the name suggests, Morimi Village is a village where you can see the forest. Morimi Village is very remote, and the only way to get out of the village by the nearby road is to pass through Mount Mo, which is the origin of the names of Mount Mo and Mount Mo Tunnel.

"The Demon Mountain... that sounds like a very ominous sign."

Zhang Chengyi used his two eyes, one on the left and one on the right, to memorize the entire map. He said, "Let's get ready to go." He got into the back seat of the car.

The villagers standing nearby, looking very respectful, boarded a nearby car, which was driven by Goro Furuhata.

These dozen or so villagers infected with the proliferative bacteria can maintain an area where he can control the movement of this body, as long as they don't leave him by more than a kilometer.

It wasn't big, but it was enough for him to leave the village and explore the surrounding area.

Anyway, as long as it's not an infection of the proliferating bacteria, but simply an infection of [mold], once the mold growth is locked, there's no difference between them and a normal person. Based on his observation of multiple infected individuals, apart from the bacteria he cultivated with his blood, other molds do not arouse the infected person's desire to eat them.

Therefore, he had no psychological burden regarding expanding the scope of his infection.

"Magic Mountain..."

Zhang Chengyi was still pondering the strange name of the mountain not far away, feeling that in such a world, it would be quite reasonable for something strange to happen with such a peculiar name.

Chapter 303 Real-Life Plague Inc.

This world seems so dangerous. What if I fail to get out and have to donate this body?

Zhang Chengyi's idea was that he could give up his own body, but he had to safely send the other infected villagers back home.

He had already spent many years in this world in a state of being unable to see, hear, or perceive anything, so naturally he didn't care about continuing to wait.

Compared to his initial anxiety about what to do, he has now adapted well to his identity as an immortal being. As long as he can survive in any world, it's just a matter of waiting a while longer. No matter how great the loss, he can recover it all sooner or later.

Time is his best friend.

In the long run, he will be the ultimate victor; in the present, he only needs to enjoy the twists and turns of the process.

Perhaps it wasn't so complicated?