Chapter 132
Si Chen turned his head and looked at Dr. Sheng, “So the name Serpent Staff Gene came from the mushroom? I thought ‘Serpent Staff Gene’ had something to do with medicine.”
Dr. Sheng replied, “There are the words ‘Serpent Staff’ so there was the Serpent Staff Mushroom. After there was the Serpent Staff Mushroom, I founded Serpent Staff Gene. This question is like asking me which came first, the chicken or the egg; in terms of the outcome, it is not important.”
The hologram story continued.
Dr. Sheng chopped off his arm in front of the world’s media.
There were no longer any bones or any other hard parts in his body. When Sheng Wu cuts off his arm, it felt like he is chopping vegetables.
When his arm fell to the ground, many of the reporters screamed.
“Call a doctor quickly!”
“Has Dr. Sheng gone crazy?!”
However, the bloody scene that everyone had been expecting did not appear.
Thin and dense strands of mycelium quickly grew out of the broken part of Sheng Wu’s arm.
These hyphae slowly gathered together, like water-saturated beans turning into sprouts.
Dr. Sheng said slowly, “It only takes one day for my arm to recover; if you are still willing to give me one more day.”
He held the microphone, “Taking mycelium capsules can permanently change the genetic sequence, creating a brand new species! I would like to name these new humans ‘mycelium men’. As you can see, I am 62 years old. But not only am I not old, I can even regenerate broken limbs. This is the miracle that everyone dreams of! With them we can fend off death and illness. We can have more time and energy to devote to the things we care about and love!”
Sheng Wu’s eyes were shining. His tone was overflowing with excitement.
“According to the results of the physical examination, given no unforeseen incident or pathological changes, my body can live for another seventy years! And when that time comes, I can simply discard my old body and obtain a brand new one.”
This scene overturned everything that everyone knew. The entire venue was as quiet as a frozen lake in the middle of winter.
But the next second, everyone’s eyes revealed not only shock but also a touch of fanaticism.
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In the holographic image, the young Dr. Sheng’s voice began to turn hoarse, “Relying on mycelium, we became new humans, un-aging and undying. The original humans were now called ‘old humans’. At the beginning, there were both voices of approval and opposition, each accounted for half. Later, the old humans gradually grew old and died; replaced by a new generation that never knew a world without mycelium men. However, at the same time, it brought about the collapse of certain social orders.”
“Although the mycelium men are immortal, they have no way to reproduce. Those spores are more like pollen than offspring. The old humans wanted to become new humans. But the new humans blocked the paths for them to do so. They wanted the remaining old humans to stay as old humans in order to maintain human reproduction. There was constant conflict between the two.”
“How talented I am in research is how untalented I am in management. And so, I completely delegated my power and authority. I concentrated on experimental research. My hope was to develop a new variety of mycelium, one that would enable the mycelium men to operate normally, to reproduce and completely become a new human race, replacing the original old human race.”
“I restarted animal experiments again, feeding mycelium capsules to animals. As a result, I found that the animals’ degree of mutation intensified. They had practically become completely new species. I kept these new species in the ‘Gene Museum’.”
“Decades later, the mutated animals died. New varieties of mycelium grew on their corpses. These mycelium had many special effects on humans. And so, we also developed mycelium capsules with more specialized functions.”
“Because of our undying and un-aging nature, the experiments of Serpent Staff Gene became bolder and bolder. Gradually, the boundary of what was moral and ethical blurred…”
When he heard this, Si Chen couldn’t help but frown.
When he had been working in the laboratory, their company followed a very stringent code of ethics for performing experiments.
In order to prevent psychological problems among the researchers, the company even forbade researchers from participating in research and experiments on contaminated humanoid beings and mutants.
In contrast, Sheng Wu hemmed and hawed, not even daring to say what kind of experiments he had done. It was indeed very suspicious.
“I am one of the first people to embark on the path of evolution. I can feel the genetic locks being unlocked one by one. Or, as it is called in other places, the climb on ‘Heaven’s Stairway’?”
The holographic image is just a video of the past, so naturally, it was unable to interact with Si Chen.
But the mushroom version of Dr. Sheng was standing next to Si Chen.
Si Chen pressed the pause button again.
He asked, “Boss, just what is going on in the universes of the different dimensions? Just where did evolution start?”
Dr. Sheng was momentarily silent. “I too only learned about these things after my death. Although we are in universes of different dimensions, the timelines of all universes are moving forward at the same time. The Space Folds encountered by your low-dimensional universe are just time and space fragments of a high-dimensional civilizations that had been destroyed long ago.”
“I also believe that there is a group of the most advanced high-dimensional creatures controlling all of this, absorbing things produced by the death of other worlds as nutrients. They are like farmers with all worlds as their farmland and the people in them just seedlings in the field. Whenever the farmer wishes, he starts harvesting the ripe wheat.”
There was a look that could definitely be called hatred on Dr. Sheng’s face.
The whites of his eyes turned black, his pupils, red. Red hyphae crawled across the black eyeballs. He looked ferocious.
Si Chen made no comment and clicked the play button again.
“The humans of that time were immersed in the joy of evolution.”
Dr. Sheng gazed into the distance. “Finally, when the world’s population of mycelium men exceeded 40%, a disaster occurred. The low-level mycelium men gradually lost consciousness. Both the mycelium and spores on their bodies became contaminants. They turned healthy human bodies into breeding grounds for mycelium.”
“I was the first human to evolve and naturally became the biggest source of contamination. My spores exploded and reached all around the world. The entire world became my petri dish…Gradually, I could feel that I could control other mycelium men. But at the same time, that part of my consciousness and memory as a human being was disappearing.”
“I became an existence similar to a ‘mother plant’ or a ‘queen bee’. In order to preserve my sanity, I began to control my own evolution and kept cutting off parts of my body.”
Although doing so allowed Dr. Sheng to retain human memory and sanity, it made him lose control over the other mycelium men.
Some mycelium men, those with weaker connections, began to move freely without Dr. Sheng’s control.
A look of pain appeared on Dr. Sheng’s face. It didn’t seem as though he were simply pretending. “The whole world began to go out of control. It turned into a world of fungi and spores. Human civilization was heading for collapse and destruction. I didn’t want this. At first, I really just wanted to promote mycelium capsules that can cure all diseases. I wanted the sick to get better, to no longer suffer from the pain. While I made money, it was simply for further research.”
“This obviously should have been a good thing.”
Sheng Wu began to gather the survivors. These survivors included humans as well as some mycelium men who still retained their sanity. He established a Safe Zone around the Gene Museum.
Housed in the Gene Museum were mutant species that he accidentally created during his early research… Under his control, these mutant species could be used to kill other mycelium men.
With this backdrop, although human beings lived a very difficult life, they were able to hold on to life under Sheng Wu’s protection.
“On the top floor of the museum, the remaining members and I began to study ways to eliminate the mycelium men. After an entire century of research, we finally made a breakthrough.”
“But what scares me now, is that recently, those mycelium men have began to birth consciousness. I have lost control of other low-level mycelium men. All this proves one thing. A new ‘mother plant’ had been born among the mycelium men. They are no longer under my control. They launch mycelium tides; spores explode at the same time and attack the survivor base.”
“Tomorrow will be a new round of the mycelium tide. I know that this round will be the biggest ever since the ‘mother plant’ has completely surpassed me.”
“I am recording this video. If the mycelium men are successfully eliminated, I will destroy this video myself.” Dr. Sheng slowly closed his eyes, “If not… outsider, did you encounter a Space Fold or did you get here through a fragment of the Realm Gate? I hope it’s the latter. At least, you won’t be some vegetable-dog.”
“On the top floor of the museum is the slime mold solution we developed. It has both fungal and biological properties and can effectively dissolve the mycelium. But after so many years, I don’t know if it still exists. On the bottom floor of the museum is my storage room and the password is sw0000. If you’re some poor bastard who accidentally wandered into a Space Fold, you might be able to wait out this Space Fold by hiding in the storage room. Provided that my storage room hasn’t fallen.”
“Every winter, the mycelium men’s mobility and attack power will be greatly weakened. The mother plant will also fall into a semi-dormant state. This is your only chance to kill the mother plant.”
“In addition, mycelium will die quickly after breaking away from its host; mycelium men below Level 3 can still be killed by ordinary fire.”
“Oh, by the way. I am now at the Eighth Step. Through a complicated evolution, I have changed from being a mycelium man to a half-human half-mycelium man. If I die tomorrow, my mycelium half will probably remain, only that it will be greatly weakened from losing its host.”
“Whether he is the monster or I am, I do not know. This matter can only be left for your own judgment.”
Dr. Sheng’s tense face finally showed a faint smile: “That’s it for the story. I’m tired. Good night.”
After this, the holographic recording stopped playing.
The lights on the second floor turned on again.
Discomfort from the sudden brightness made Si Chen squint his eyes.
The red mushroom version of Dr. Sheng crossed its arms and said sarcastically, “You’re very lucky. It just so happens to be winter now. Unfortunately it’s no use. Fifth Step! Bah, forget it.”
Si Chen did not reply immediately.
His attention was grabbed by the test paper, which had once again gone hot.
Three new questions had been added to the test paper.
Additional question 2: Resolve the out of control mutant species in the Gene Museum (I hate all biological modification research; all of it.)
Additional question 3: Eliminate the mycelium mother plant (You don’t really want to do this question, do you? Let that undergraduate do it.)
Test question 2: Wait in the underground storage room until the Space Fold’s energy is exhausted (about half a year).
Half a YEAR?! That’s way too long!
Might as well go and try to kill the mushroom mother at this rate.
As for the OG Dr. Sheng… poor guy, a doomed narrative. The perfect example of the proverb “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”
It’s when it gets cold that it’s a good time to go mushroom hunting.
This is my first time seeing a six-month tax for minding your own business
Half a year for the space fold to be exhaust is so long
Thanks for the chapter
There is pregnant man in this fold, we can’t wait 6 months
Thank you for your translation 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Is the “undergraduate” White King? Because he didn’t receive his graduate degree?
I think so! It does sound like the Prophet would keep brining up White King’s “embarrassing past” lololol
sounds like it. That was exactly what i was thinking too, esp since white king has been referred to by his undergraduate degree several times before