Mech: Shattering of the Galaxy

(An added update for Hall Master "Flowing with the Wind"!)

Hmm, what's going on?

Mu Fan picked up his hand and saw a light red-brown slime on it. Rubbing it with his finger, it felt slippery.

What is this?

Curious, Mu Fan got up and looked at the root where he had been sitting, not noticing anything of this color there before.

Just as White Hair, who had finished drinking his water, saw Mu Fan sit down and then get up again to crouch, he asked, "What's wrong?"

There's nothing unusual on the surface...

Mu Fan grabbed another handful, and the feeling of cold slipperiness was still there under his fingertips.

Under the root?

Crouching down, Mu Fan cocked his head to look up.

A patch of red-brown slime was underneath the roots, already covering them completely.

It looked a bit like enlarged cellular tissue.

Mu Fan then lowered his head to look at several other roots, finding similar traces under all of them.

"Come check this out," Mu Fan waved at White Hair.

Yin Shuai bent down to look and said perplexed, "What is this stuff? This red-brown slime is disgusting. It looks like a layer of living skin."

While still pondering, Mu Fan suddenly heard Black's voice, "Wait! You said you found red-brown slime, does it look a bit like living soft tissue with some irregular thickenings on it?"

Mu Fan hummed in response, which made White Hair think he was answering him.

In reality, Mu Fan was confirming to Black.

"This is the fungus blanket of the Zeg Clan!"

The sound of Black's voice shocked Mu Fan. Was this the real territory marker of the Zeg Clan?

Looking up at White Hair, Mu Fan thought for a moment and then said, "Why is this slime only on the shaded side of the roots, and not visible on the parts that face up?"

White Hair spread his hands; how would he know? Such a redundant question.

Mu Fan was still questioning Black.

"It indicates that this place was once a domain of the Zeg Clan, but not anymore. There must have been an insect nest of the Zeg Clan near here!" Black was very certain.

"The fungus blanket proliferates near an insect nest, but once it leaves the energy supply of the nest, it quickly shrinks, and after more than 24 hours, it disappears completely! You mentioned that the shady side has more, indicating that the nest was moved or destroyed less than 18 hours ago!"

Mu Fan stuck one hand into the soil, wiping all the slime off.

"Captain, have you discovered anything?"

"No, encountered a few scattered beetles, not even a guard. We've now advanced almost 3 kilometers. What's up, Mu Fan?"

"I haven't encountered any Zeg on this route, nothing much, just asking."

"Oh, be careful, contact anytime if something comes up."

After ending the conversation, Mu Fan said to White Hair who was now standing up, "Let's be careful. Stick close to me."

"Did you find something?"

Mu Fan nodded, pointing at the location of the roots. "I suspect these are the tracks of the moving insects."

Because Black had just reminded him through the headset to follow the traces of the remaining fungus blankets, it would definitely lead to traces of the Zeg.

But at the same time, Black's tone was very serious, since the presence of an insect nest, even the lowest breeding site, means that the scale of the Zeg Clan there is not something one or even dozens of people can confront.

A mechanized troop must be deployed to wipe them out!

Thus, Black gave Mu Fan a strict order to run immediately if he found any signs of substantial Zeg activity.

Although Mu Fan held some hope against Black's words, he didn't say anything and just hummed.

Standing behind, White Hair with his eyebrows knitted tightly watched Mu Fan's mysterious actions.

What does it mean, stepping forward and touching that root?

He couldn't be trying to track the Zeg based on that, could he?

White Hair guessed right, as that was indeed what Mu Fan was now using this crude method for.

Quickly moving through an area of about ten meters in radius, Mu Fan looked at his palm and finally determined a direction.

The remaining fungus blankets disappeared in the direction of a high slope ahead, but traces were along the ridge.

So, White Hair watched as Mu Fan moved from stop to stop, the two of them starting to advance along an irregular arc.

Behind Luo Jianjin in the giant tree crown, Tracy, looking at the electronic map showing the deviating green dots, opened the voice chat and asked, "Little brothers, you are deviating from your course."

It was supposed to be at the 9 o'clock direction, but now the two were heading towards the 8 o'clock direction.

Mu Fan's voice came through again, "The terrain ahead is uneven; we're advancing along the edge."

"OK, be careful."

Another quarter of an hour passed, and the pair, stopping and starting, finally halted due to Mu Fan stopping.

"Why did you stop?"

"It's gone." Mu Fan shook the reddish-brown viscous substance off his hands, in front of them was a large rock slope with sparse vegetation, no traces of fungus blankets nearby.

"Can we retreat then?"

White Hair prepared to walk up to the top of the slope for a quick look and then leave.

"I suppose so; we'll just have to continue exploring another time."

"Okay, I am planting the surveillance device." White Hair pressed a metal ball into the soil, then headed towards the rock region.

Mu Fan looked around, there really were not many trees nearby, but there were plenty of light red weeds growing densely, feeling the grass leaves earlier also revealed nothing unusual.

At that moment, White Hair stepped onto the rock slope.

Bang, bang, bang...

The Exoskeleton Armor stepping onto the rock surface emitted a deep feedback sound.

Thump, dong, dong, bang...

Then, a subtle difference caught Mu Fan's attention.

"Wait!"

Mu Fan suddenly waved his hand, signaling Yin Shuai to stop moving forward.

"What's up?"

"Take a few steps back."

Confused, White Hair moved back several steps, not walking straight up but diagonally from one corner of the slope.

Thump, thump!

Again, the same echoing sounds came.

"Stop!"

Mu Fan ignored the puzzled look on White Hair's face and quickly walked over.

Yin Shuai was stepping on a relatively large piece of shale. Because he was wearing Exoskeleton Armor, he took large strides, covering more than three meters in two steps.

Mu Fan only noticed, upon getting closer, that the piece of shale extended downwards into the red grass.

He tapped his toes lightly on the ground.

A thump sounded, and tapping again produced the same echoing thump.

The space beneath the rock was hollow!

Mu Fan finally confirmed this and exchanged glances with White Hair; clearly, Yin Shuai had also noticed the problem.

The two followed the direction of the shale downhill until they reached the red grass patch.

This time, White Hair, hurrying ahead, ended up falling halfway through.

"Holy shit, that scared the life out of me, come take a look."

White Hair cried out, beckoning Mu Fan.

When Mu Fan approached, he saw the shale slab slanting down to a stop about a meter from the ground.

Between the ground and the shale, there was a huge gap about four meters wide and one meter tall.

However, it was concealed by the dense red grass.

Mu Fan leaned in to look inside; the inner side of the stone wall was covered with dense reddish-brown fungus blankets!!

Without a word, Mu Fan gestured with his eyes for White Hair to take a look.

And with just one glance, Mu Fan could see the goosebumps rising on Yin Shuai's neck.

Turning stiffly back around, White Hair stared at Mu Fan and said, "Can I say I'm scared?"

Mu Fan shook his head, "No, stick close to me."

After speaking, he ducked and went in.

"Oh."

White Hair closed his eyes and obediently followed into the large gap.

The two disappeared among the red grass.