Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Thermal Baths, Area D.

Area D of the hot spring bath, which was originally used as a place with some special projects, is now very quiet. The hot and humid mist inside the bath has no strange smell. This proves that the accident in the club did not last long, and may even be shorter than Han Zu expected.

“Gas mask.”

Han Zu, who was standing at the front, blocked the entrance with his body, turned his head and said something to Zhao Xuan and Su Qing behind him. Zhao Xuan immediately took out a gas mask from his backpack and gave it to Su Qing. After the two put on their gas masks, Han Zu took a step forward and made way for the entrance, allowing the two to enter the D area of ​​the hot spring bath smoothly.

Due to the mist and the lack of bright lighting, visibility in Area D was very low. Zhao Xuan and Su Qing could only see things three or four body lengths away from them. Only Han Zu was not affected, so the two could only follow Han Zu cautiously.

"Drip."

The scanner on Zhao Xuan's wrist beeped twice. Sure enough, the mist contained a special spore cloud. The composition was currently unknown and needed to be sent to the Biochemistry Department for careful study to figure out what was in the spore cloud. But they obviously didn't have the time now.

“Crash…”

Han Zu, who was walking in the front, had already stepped one foot into the hot spring. He looked down at the water in the hot spring and immediately stopped. Zhao Xuan and Su Qing, who had been following him, also stopped immediately. They saw Han Zu bending down and taking something out of the water.

"mushroom?"

Han Zu picked up a fist-sized mushroom from the water. The color on it was very bright. At first glance, it was light black, but upon closer inspection, he found that the color of the mushroom cap was actually very similar to the color of crow feathers under light.

"To be precise, it should be some kind of fungus, boss."

Zhao Xuan moved closer to Han Zu and took out another testing instrument. It looked like an adrenaline injection pen, but at the end was a short-range wireless signal transmission device, which should be connected to Zhao Xuan's terminal.

He gently inserted the end with the detection needle into the mushroom. After the tail of the device lit up twice, Zhao Xuan raised his other hand and looked at the display screen of the terminal on his wrist.

"Although this fungus is very similar to common fungi, it is certain that this thing is not a type of organism that Infinite Company has ever known. It is a completely new thing."

"Can you detect what this thing is made of?"

"We can only detect some common things. The specific detailed ingredients will probably need to be handed over to the Biochemistry Department for research before a conclusion can be drawn."

Zhao Xuan took out a box from his backpack, put the mushroom in it, and then put it back into the backpack.

"Although your messenger bag is not big, it can hold a lot of things."

Han Zu made a joke, but Zhao Xuan seriously explained to Han Zu the origin of his backpack.

"I developed this backpack when I was still in the research department. Because it uses some of the capabilities of the Infinite City system, the capacity of this backpack is not calculated based on normal space. For example, it is a bit like the backpacks in some RPG games. No matter what it is, it will only take up one grid, and some smaller items can be stacked on top of each other. My backpack has 200 grids of storage space. Now, including this mushroom, only more than ten positions are used. Oh, and this mushroom is also a stackable item."

"It's quite convenient." Su Qing nodded and gave a fair evaluation.

Han Zu rubbed his chin with his index finger and nodded.

"In this case, we can bring back some samples worth studying. Perhaps the research on these things will have a positive effect in the future and will be used when we need it most. Zhao Xuan, give me a bottle so I can collect some water from the hot spring."

"Give."

Taking the bottle, Han Zu filled it with hot spring water and handed it to Zhao Xuan, who also put it in his backpack.

"The sound disappears again here. What should we do next, boss?"

"laugh....."

"Crash..."

Just as the three were thinking about what to do next, Han Zu suddenly heard some subtle strange noises. He immediately turned to the direction where the sound came from and saw a humanoid creature staggering towards them from the hot spring.

Although his basic vision and night vision abilities were not affected, the perspective function of Han Zu's eyes temporarily lost its function. Han Zu, who was unable to recognize the outline of the humanoid creature at the first sight, gestured to Zhao Xuan and Su Qing. The two immediately distanced themselves from Han Zu, lowered their bodies, and raised their weapons.

"Come on."

Han Zu suddenly stretched out one of his hands towards the neck of the figure and grabbed the humanoid creature, but the uncomfortable sticky feeling in his hand, as if he was grabbing gel slime, and the disgusting sound made Han Zu feel that something was not right.

Subconsciously, he wanted to use flames to burn the creature in front of him, but in this building complex, Han Zu was temporarily unable to use those flames, so he could only raise the hand cannon, aim at the humanoid creature he caught, and prepare to fire a shot to see.

But the sticky touch on the hand suddenly became very elastic, and was expanding outwards, but soon shrank back a little.

"Get down!"

Hearing Han Zu's sudden shout, Su Qing immediately fell to the ground, and by the way, tripped Zhao Xuan who hadn't reacted yet, and used his arm to block his head to prevent it from hitting the ground.

"Snapped."

Just after the two men lay down, a slight sound similar to bubble gum popping came from Han Zu's direction. The two men saw Han Zu's back pause for a moment, then he knelt on one knee on the ground, swaying.

"Boss, what's going on?"

"Don't bang!...Bang...fruit!"

The boss Han Zu's voice became strange, as if the anesthesia had not completely worn off, resulting in a big tongue and slurred speech. However, it could be heard that Han Zu was asking the two men not to touch him.

“Crack…Crack…Crack.”

Zhao Xuan heard some strange noises coming from Han Zu's body. These should be the sounds of the boss's muscles and bones twisting as he was self-regenerating his damaged body. However, the unusual thing was that this time, the boss Han Zu's regeneration speed was obviously several times slower.

“Crack…Bang!”

With the last few sounds of twisting bones ending, it took Han Zu nearly five minutes to completely repair his body. He stood up from the ground again, and after moving his newly regenerated body, Han Zu took two steps back and stood in the same position as Su Qing and Zhao Xuan.

"Boss, what happened just now? I heard your regeneration speed seems to be several times slower. What's going on?"

"Wait a minute, we are not safe now."

"Shh... clatter..."

Some similar sounds to the previous ones, but in increasing numbers, suddenly rang out from all directions. This time, Zhao Xuan and Su Qing also heard these sounds clearly. Zhao Xuan threw a small device towards the edge of the distant wall. After the device fell to the ground, it made some harsh sounds, but soon stopped.

"It's no use, those things aren't attracted by sound. Get ready to go... Wait a minute!"

Han Zu immediately reached out, pressed the muzzle of Su Qing's gun, and pressed it down. Su Qing immediately released his finger on the trigger.

"Methane, no open flames, do you have anything like crossbows or arrows?"

"No, but I do have a set of saw blades for a small chop saw and a set of screwdrivers in my bag. Would those be of any use?"

"One set? How many is that?"

"A set of saw blades is 100 pieces, and the number of screwdrivers should be more than 200."

"That's enough, Zhao Xuan, get me some saw blades."

"I can throw daggers, so screwdrivers should be pretty close."

Han Zu took some saw blades, while Su Qing took a dozen screwdrivers. Following the directions Han Zu specified, the two of them worked together to create a lot of bubble gum popping noises in and around the hot spring pool. There were about thirty of them.

"Is it gone?"

"You two follow me, I'll go take a look."

Han Zu walked around Area D with the remaining saw blade in his hand. When he stepped into the hot spring again, he reached the deepest area, where the water surface reached the upper middle of Han Zu's thigh, and suddenly his leg hit something.

"laugh..."

"Stab!"

"Ton."

Han Zu quickly threw the saw blade in his hand towards the location of the sound. This time, there was a sound of the saw blade passing through the gelatinous substance and then falling into the water. Han Zu reached out and touched it. Sure enough, it was still that strange humanoid creature, but this time it was killed before it could move.

“Not this time.”

"Boss, what happened to you just now?"

After confirming that the place was temporarily safe, Han Zu also told Zhao Xuan and Su Qing what had just happened.

It turned out that the humanoid creature that Han Zu had just caught was a corpse that had turned into an abnormal gelatinous state, almost like a slime, and for some reason it suddenly moved.

Perhaps Han Zu used too much force and accidentally crushed a part of the gelatinous corpse, causing the entire gelatinous corpse to explode like a popped bubble gum, and the sticky liquid inside instantly splashed all over Han Zu.

These sticky liquids immediately turned Han Zu's entire upper body, including the face and part of the thigh skin, into a gel-like state. But it was not known whether it was due to the influence of the Gift of the Death Realm. Of course, Han Zu did not erase this point about the Gift of the Death Realm. The gelation soon caused an immune response in Han Zu's body. After Han Zu's bones came into contact with these gel-like substances, Han Zu's body immediately and automatically stopped the gelation from continuing.

However, these gel-like substances are highly parasitic, and they have been constantly trying to assimilate other parts. Fortunately, Han Zu's self-repair ability is very strong, so they did not succeed. But even so, they still slowed down Han Zu's regrowth and repair speed to a great extent.

"That's why I didn't let you touch me at the time. Moreover, after this creature, or life form, explodes successfully, a large amount of flammable gas similar to marsh gas will gush out from its interior, so I stopped you from using guns."

"Su Qing and you, the boss, just killed more than thirty of these things. If we hadn't discovered them in time, they would probably all have died here."

Zhao Xuan walked to Han Zu's side and lowered his head to look at the humanoid gelatinous creature floating in the hot spring, the only one that had not exploded. It seemed that its transformation was not complete. The original corpse could still be seen from the head to the chest. Perhaps this was the reason why Han Zu was able to kill it before it exploded.

Using a test needle inserted into the gel-like location, the reading on the terminal explained something about the peculiarity of these things.

"According to the comparison between the scanner and the offline database, this gelatinous creature is also a special kind of fungus. The liquid after the explosion is full of unknown microscopic spores that are flesh-eating. This is why the boss's clothes and weapons were not damaged."

"Any other news?"

"Not much. This kind of thing is not something that Infinite Company has studied. Judging from the energy readings, this thing should only be able to move at a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees. If the temperature is too low, it may hibernate today. If the temperature is too high, it should die immediately. If we are not blocked, the boss's flame is indeed a good way to deal with these things."

Carefully cutting off some gelatinous fungi and collecting some of the liquid produced inside these fungi, Zhao Xuan stored them separately and put them into his backpack.

"There shouldn't be anything else here for now, let's go look somewhere else."

“Gu…”

Just as Han Zu, Zhao Xuan and Su Qing were about to leave the hot spring and head to other areas of the hot spring to search for information, that familiar strange sound rang out behind them. This time it was very close. The distance between them and the source of the sound was definitely no more than three meters.

Han Zu turned around quickly and fixed his eyes on the location where the sound came from, but strangely, he saw nothing. He stretched out his hands and gestured to Zhao Xuan and Su Qing respectively. The two stood in front of Han Zu's left and right respectively, forming a "U" shape between the three of them, surrounding the direction of the sound.

Su Qing changed the form of the composite energy rifle, turning it into two ion beam launchers that could be worn on the arms, and aimed them at the location where the sound had just been heard. However, the intelligent aiming system on the composite energy rifle did not scan anything.

"Under the water, this thing should be transparent, and the energy fluctuations it emits are very strong, but intermittent and not coherent at all."

Zhao Xuan raised the scanner, which was more powerful than the locking system on Su Qing's weapon. The scanner indeed scanned a transparent outline that was 30 cm long, 15 cm high, and 20 cm wide, and it also emitted extremely strong energy fluctuations from time to time.

But the strange thing is that when I scanned the dead gelatinous body which was less than two meters away from this thing, I did not detect this thing which was so close.

"It's invisible to the naked eye. The water is transparent and there's nothing blocking it. This..."

"Everyone take a step back."

After the two men took a step back, Han Zu slowly half-knelt in the water and slowly and steadily moved his hands closer to the outline of the thing that Zhao Xuan had described.

"There is something."

The touch from his hands allowed Han Zu to confirm that there was indeed something floating under the water. Grabbing the thing with both hands, Han Zu slowly lifted it out of the water.

"Is this... the 'freak'?"

When his hands left the water, the thing on Han Zu's palms finally revealed its true appearance. What Zhao Xuan said was right. This thing was indeed very similar to the thing Han Zu brought back to the base before. Whether it was the color, the frequency of slow movement, or the appearance, it was almost the same as that "freak" thing.

"This shouldn't be the one I brought back from the base. This one is obviously twice as big as the one I brought back, and it feels completely different. It's a bit like a soaked and softened mushroom."

Zhao Xuan took out a special storage box, which was originally prepared to store radioactive materials that might be encountered. Now it might be used to store this unique creature.

After putting away this deformed thing, the strange force field that covered the three people and blocked their powers disappeared instantly. Being able to use their abilities again made the three people feel much more relaxed.

"My perception has returned to normal. I'm going to see if there are any living people in this complex."

Expanding the range of perception, Han Zu covered the entire club, including the club's buildings and other locations that also belonged to the club. After a careful search, Han Zu actually found some people who were still alive, and there were quite a few of them, at least ten people.

"In another building. Be careful when you go out. There are still quite a few of these gelatinous humanoid creatures in the building we are currently in."

After getting ready, the three of them left Area D of the spa and steadily moved towards the exit on the other side of the building.