novelraw Chapter 467 - 457: The Mushroom Clan
Chapter 467 - 457: The Mushroom Clan
Inside the Mushroom House, Norris opened his eyes wearily, veins showing in his eyeballs.
Having spent the entire night in a nightmare where he was chased by indescribable giant claws, even though he had enough sleep, he felt physically and mentally exhausted, as if he had truly been fleeing all night.
Indeed, he was really scared.
The only good news was that the boss did not seem to bother him about the unexpected death of that special Puki.
According to the boss’s habits, if someone were to be punished, it would usually be done the same day.
Since a day had passed calmly, it was unlikely that the boss held the matter at heart.
However, as he held the Yellow-covered Book and just stepped out of the Mushroom House’s door, he was frozen by the strange scene in front of him.
...
Outside Xiao Hai’s Mushroom House, Puki No. 1, who had been reborn by Lin Jun after its soul was stuffed into a cocoon, stood upright in the center of the newly born intelligent Pukis.
It waved its mycelium tentacles, and its passionate thoughts echoed in the Fungal Network public channel: "Comrades of the Mushroom Race! Look at us! We are the citizens appointed by the Mushroom Lord, extensions of His great will, guardians of this paradise!"
Its "gaze" swept over the Pukis, who were bewildered but seemed to be listening intently, then abruptly pointed a tentacle towards the gap of Xiao Hai’s tightly closed door: "But there! A barbaric, rough beast lurks, taking pleasure in devouring our noble Mushroom Race! An enemy we must confront!"
A mix of fearful and indignant exclamations immediately erupted among the mushroom crowd.
"And today!" Puki No. 1’s mushroom cap shook slightly with excitement, "We shall gather the power of the Mushroom Race, challenge it, and defeat it! We must make it understand that we are not snacks to be eaten at will! We possess power, we possess wisdom, and we must defend the dignity of the Mushroom Race that cannot be trampled!"
Below, among the dozen Pukis, cheers and sounds of mycelium tentacles slapping the ground exploded in support.
However, not all Pukis were convinced.
"Hmph," a dissatisfied voice sounded, and Puki No. 2 pushed away Puki No. 4, who was about to jump with excitement, with its tentacle, "Why do you get to decide as the leader just by speaking? You were born only a day earlier, the great Mushroom Lord did not designate you to lead us, I won’t follow your orders and risk my life."
After speaking, No. 2 turned and left.
Among the Pukis, Puki No. 10, who had been silently observing, first looked at Xiao Hai’s Mushroom House, then glanced at the emotionally charged comrades around, quietly moved to the very back of the team unnoticed.
While almost all Pukis were distracted by No. 2’s departure, its figure flashed and quickly slipped into the shadows beside the Mushroom House, disappearing.
After the unpleasant incident, the remaining eleven Pukis seemed to finally unify.
Puki No. 1 could finally begin to deploy its tactics: "Remember, once the entrance is open, we will all together..."
Before the words were finished, the Pukis around suddenly took a step back.
Puki No. 1 realized something, its perception spread behind it through the Fungal Mat...
Unbeknownst to them, Xiao Hai had already poked her head out through the gap of the Mushroom House, her golden pupils scanned around, discovering that those disturbing her sleep were actually a group of breakfast?!
"For the glory of the Mushroom Race! Defeat the Food-eating Beast!" Puki No. 4 reacted the fastest, a high-spirited shout rang out, charging boldly forward.
Only to charge into Xiao Hai’s mouth.
"Run!" shouted a Puki, and all but Puki No. 1 scattered.
Puki No. 1 seeing the situation was lost, could only swallow its grievances, prepare to retreat, planning for a comeback later.
Just as it wanted to escape, Thirteen quietly wrapped one of its short legs with a tentacle during the chaos.
Caught off guard, Puki No. 1 tripped solidly.
Before it could even lift its head to see who had done it, a familiar large black claw pressed on its mushroom cap, dragging it back into the Mushroom House.
Puki No. 1’s indignant roar lasted only a fleeting moment in the Fungal Network before disappearing altogether with the closing of the Mushroom House door.
...
Norris sat on a Big Mushroom outside his own Mushroom House, scratching the scales on his chin, watching the "Mushroom Race’s crusade against the Food-eating Beast" farce come to an end.
He vaguely sensed the boss was up to something amazing again, these Pukis capable of independent thought and even internal squabbles were indeed unprecedented, but watching them be picked off by Xiao Hai like snacks... this prowess was difficult to put into words.
Moreover, the boss seemed indifferent to their deaths?
He was lost in thought for a long time before he snapped back from the drama, only to be startled when he looked down.
The Yellow-covered Book sprawled on his knees was quickly filling with writing, almost overflowing every blank space!
[Norris, what are those things?]
[Souls! I sensed independent souls! How can there be such souls in those mushrooms? They were clearly]
[Transformation Technique? No... forced someone else’s soul in? Still doesn’t seem right...]
[Create... creating souls? Is it creating souls???]
[Norris, what is that? Look here!] Norris?]
[Norris!!!]
Seeing his name fill the page, Norris’s heart skipped a beat; it was rare to see the Yellow-covered Book being so impatient.
In his impression, the Yellow-covered Book was extremely sycophantic to the boss, sharp and sarcastic towards Norris during his misfortunes while awkwardly offering practical advice, and on rare occasions keenly criticized Sister Blood or other members of the Blood Race.
At other times, the Yellow-covered Book mostly sported a look of bored calmness, rarely showing such loss of composure.
"Please calm down!" Norris scratched his head, hastily explaining, "It seems those are some new model Pukis the boss has recently created; I’m not entirely sure how it all works."
[Boss! Great boss! Can you hear me? I have something important to say!]
The script scrawled hurriedly across two lines, when met with silence, it immediately turned to Norris.
[Norris, help me summon the boss]
"Um..." Norris felt timid.
[Norris, I beg you! It’s really important to me!]
"Not really necessary!" Norris, a bit frightened by the Yellow-covered Book, could only muster the courage to contact the boss via the Fungal Network.
...
Poof, poof——
With two snapping sounds of mycelium breaking, Puki No. 1 and Puki No. 4 emerged again from the sticky cocoon.
Mycelia were still attached to their caps, Puki No. 1’s tentacle angrily waved, ready to accuse the Mushroom Lord through the Fungal Network of the "Food-eating Beast’s" atrocities and the betrayal of its comrades, Puki No. 4 also bounced excitedly in agreement.
However, not waiting for them to speak, the Knight Puki guarding the side dragged the two plump fellows away.
Lin Jun had originally planned to create more intelligent Pukis, although each one required a small piece of soul to be divided, in terms of his soul’s capacity, even creating hundreds or thousands wouldn’t have a significant impact.
But after seeing their specific performances, Lin Jun instead opted temporarily to only manufacture thirteen of them.
The reason was simple: they all had too much personality.
This thing was not a simple upgrade of advanced artificial intelligence but each Puki truly had its own character.
Making too many of them would result in a mess among his subordinates, orders would be hard to carry out.
It’s still better to limit it to just a few high-level Pukis, the quantity will be gradually increased later as needed, kept within controllable range.
Of course, these ones still in the "personality tuning" and "social adaptability testing" phase have bodies carrying souls that are only of the most ordinary Elite Puki standard.
Even if unfortunate like No. 1 and No. 4 and died prematurely, the loss is within acceptable limits, just recover the soul and hatch it anew.
This darn book...
Lin Jun’s attention turned to Norris’s timid call within the Fungal Network
What’s the matter suddenly looking for me?