A piece of snow-white mycelium stretched out and gently rested on the surface of the metal mesh. Then, it slipped in through the small gap in the metal mesh.

——It is safe, at least here, there are no lethal weapons, just the barrier of the grid.

After the first mycelium passed through the three-layer mesh fence and reached the pipe, the remaining mycelium also moved forward. They gathered together, and because they were too soft and flexible, they presented an almost liquid state. Snow-white tide

It penetrated every hole, flowing through the three layers of metal mesh, and merged into one behind it. A pipe extending forward appeared in Anzhe's perception. The pipe wall was smooth as a whole, but there were spots of rust in some places.

The smell of rust spreads, like the smell of blood. Wind is blowing in from the end of the pipe.

An Zhe moved forward, his hyphae clinging to the wall of the pipe like tentacles, flowing forward smoothly. The pipe was straight, and after turning a right-angled bend, it still went straight. He continued to move forward, and a crossroad appeared in front of him.

A horizontal, slightly thicker pipe was connected to the pipe he was currently in.

The wind has become stronger, and the direction of the airflow has become more complicated, indicating that this huge duct system is like a tortuous maze.

An Zhe hesitated briefly in place, stretched out a long mycelium, left it in the pipe, and then continued forward - although Lu Feng thought he was not smart, An Zhe felt that he was not stupid either.

He decided to use this mycelium to mark his path, so that no matter where he went, he could return along the same path.

After making this decision, An Zhe felt much more at ease. He walked straight through the intersection and walked forward in the original direction. After another right-angled bend, there was a faint light coming from the front.

An Zhe came to the source of the light - another vent. The familiar newscaster's voice was ringing. It is conceivable that he came to the vent of someone else's house.

"After one month, the main city recalled a total of 12,000 foreign mercenaries, and officially entered the recovery period. During the recovery period, which is expected to last ten years, the main city's scientific research strength will be fully devoted to investigating the source of the infection..."

"Knock, knock, knock." A regular knock on the door sounded.

An Zhe entered here by mistake. He had no intention of prying into the privacy of other humans and planned to leave. However, the next moment, he temporarily gave up the idea.

The door opened.

"Colonel Lu." A female voice rang out with a sharp tone.

Colonel Lu.

This is Lu Feng's room.

An Zhe quietly came out of the vent and moved outside so that he could hear more clearly. He was indeed curious about Lu Feng's life.

Then, he heard a familiar cold voice: "Hello."

"Hello, Colonel Lu, I am a staff member on the 21st floor of Eden Garden."

Garden of Eden.

Anzhe pricked up his ears - if he had such a thing as ears now.

Lu Feng: "What's the matter?"

"That's right," the woman smiled: "First of all, congratulations to the colonel for returning from the outer city. Secondly, on behalf of my superior, I would like to ask the colonel if he currently has the intention to donate sperm to the Garden of Eden."

Lu Feng's answer was very straightforward and ruthless: "No."

"That's a pity. If you have any intention in the future, please be sure to contact us. Your genes are very excellent. If they cannot be effectively used, it will be a loss for the entire base."

"Thank you." Lu Feng's tone did not soften due to her praise. He said, "Is there anything else?"

"The flowers Mrs. Lu planted have bloomed." The woman said, "She asked me to give you a bunch on the way. The work in the main city is very busy, and Madam asked you to rest and take care of yourself."

After a short silence, Lu Feng said: "Is her body okay?"

"Everything is fine."

"Thank you," Lu Feng said in a lower voice, "Send my regards to her."

Their conversation ended here, and after the door was closed again, there was no other movement in the room.

The weather forecast reports that windy weather will continue and the temperature will drop.

The sound stopped suddenly. Lu Feng must have turned off the TV. Then, the footsteps gradually approached. Lu Feng returned to the bedroom and sat down at the desk. After a few sounds of paper turning, the room fell into silence, except for the sound of Lu Feng's breathing.

.

Anzhe wanted to stick out a few hyphae from under the bed to see what the colonel was doing, but he didn't dare. In the end, he slowly returned through the vent.

At the crossroads, he chose the direction where the wind was blowing, dragging the slender mycelium used to mark the path and continued moving forward.

The cold, blood-smelling wind blew his hyphae, and the pipe wall was connected to other pipe mouths, and each pipe mouth was connected to another complex pipe structure. At the same time, another intersection appeared ahead——

Just such a short path made An Zhe aware of the complexity of the entire system. He had no road map and only knew the general direction of the lighthouse. He could imagine the difficulty of entering the lighthouse from the pipe.

But he can keep looking, he is not an impatient mushroom.

After several turns, An Zhe could no longer tell the direction. He could not realize the passage of time. He only knew that when traveling in the direction of the wind, the mouth of the pipe would become wider and wider, and the wind would become stronger and stronger.

He guessed that it was because he had found the main trunk of the ventilation system. Sometimes he worried that his hyphae would break, but there was no way to reinforce or leave an extra strand. Mycelium is like human blood to mushrooms.

Too much blood loss would lead to death, and he couldn't use it up.

Sometimes, there would be a metal mesh or some sharp turbine that could cut all flesh and joints. At this time, he would carefully slide along the edge of the knife to prevent the hyphae from being cut.

An Zhe didn't know how long he had been walking. He was only accompanied by the sound of wind and the subtle rustling of mycelium flowing over the rusted pipe wall.

In front of him was an infinitely extending black pipe, and behind him too. This feeling brought him back to the time when he lost his spores - wandering aimlessly throughout the abyss, maybe he could find them back tomorrow, maybe never.

Find a way.

When the diameter of the pipe was as high as two people, An Zhe felt a vague red light in front of him. He moved forward and carefully crossed a large turbine - and then fell out of the mouth of the pipe unprepared.

He fell on the hard and rough metal ground. Under the dim red light, An Zhe looked in all directions - this was no longer the inside of the pipe, but an empty and spacious cylindrical space, as big as the hall in the Garden of Eden.

It poured in from above together with the red light. It was too high and far away, and An Zhe couldn't feel it.

So his snow-white mass stretched on the ground, and the mycelium gathered into human body and skin. It was very cold, so the mycelium spread on his body, densely woven into a loose white robe, blocking the cold outside.

Deep chill.

Anzhe stepped on the metal floor with his bare feet and looked up.

A huge turbine was tilted at the top of the entire space, occupying his field of vision. There was a dark red laser light curtain surrounding the turbine, similar to the one on the outer city wall. Anzhe knew that this was one of the human defense weapons.

, once a creature tries to forcefully cross it, the alarm will be triggered immediately.

Looking through the iron teeth of the turbine, Anzhe saw the sky outside, where the aurora was still shining. This place was connected to the outside world. He realized that this was the air inlet of the ventilation system. After the turbine was started, the outside air would be continuously absorbed.

Roll it in and transport it to pipes in all directions.

An Zhe withdrew his gaze and looked forward. In the center of this cylindrical space, there was a rectangular metal workbench - it might be the operating platform of the entire system. When he walked up, he found that this was not the case.

On this metal platform, three rectangular small boxes are welded. Through the light, you can see mottled writing on the side of the small boxes, which seems to be plated.

An Zhe leaned over slightly, wiped away the dust and rust, and saw clearly the dense handwriting.

——It’s a letter.

“To those who come after you:

I am Kang Jinglan, the person in charge of the construction of the underground ventilation system of the northern base. The ventilation system took one year to design and nine years to build, with a cost of 110 million yuan per kilometer.

Opponents once suggested delaying the construction period because of the difficulty of base construction and the huge amount of manpower and material resources consumed. However, after discussion, we believe that once the weakening of the geomagnetic field continues to worsen, the human economy will inevitably collapse within ten years, and within fifty years, the surviving

Humanity will inevitably completely lose its heavy industry R&D and production capabilities, and the focus of production materials and scientific research will all shift to the medical field. We have no time.

Fortunately, this year, the underground ventilation system was successfully constructed together with the above-ground base. From now on, human beings can live under the strict protection of the base. This is the only thing I feel gratified about. Under cosmic radiation, despite being under strict protection, I am still

Suffering from various cancers and immune diseases. I asked the base to bury my ashes in the core of the ventilation system. This way, when each generation of engineers enters the system maintenance, I can know that the base is still safe and the great human species still exists.

May you have a bright future.

Sincerely

salute

June 2030.”

This is the ashes.

Therefore, this box contains the body of a human being. It is a tomb, and these remaining handwritings are the letters left by this human being to the later generations. Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it an epitaph.

An Zhe looked to the right. On the right side was a box of almost the same shape, with the bottom welded to the countertop. There were also plated words on the side, a letter with the same tone.

"To Mr. Kang Jinglan, and to those who come after you:

I am Liao Pingan, the person in charge of the maintenance of the underground ventilation system of the northern base. The ventilation system is inspected every six months and overall maintenance is performed every two years. It is currently operating in perfect condition.

As Mr. Kang expected, the weakening of the geomagnetic field not only did not improve, but disappeared completely in December 2030. Fortunately, the artificial magnetic pole project was successful soon after, and the earth was once again under the protection of the magnetic field, and humans no longer suffered from diseases due to radiation exposure.

.Unfortunately, cosmic radiation has caused infection and mutation of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and mankind has ushered in an unprecedented catastrophe. As an experiencer of the catastrophe, I have witnessed the shrinkage of human survival areas, the collapse of the economic system, and the loss of industrial capacity.

The base invested all remaining human production capacity in military production, the construction and expansion of military bases, and a steady stream of guns, ammunition, nuclear weapons, aircraft, armor, and tanks were produced. I don’t know the purpose of the base.

We don't know where this is, and whether this behavior has accelerated the depletion of human resources. We can only hope that the base has other far-reaching purposes.

During this catastrophe, I was unfortunately infected with a fatal bacteria. When my life was about to end, I still felt endless panic about the future of the base, so I chose to be buried here with Mr. Kang and wait for the next generation of engineers to report that it was safe.

May you have a bright future.”

Sincerely

salute

November 2052.”

Next is the third urn and epitaph.
To be continued...