Cheng Jun gravely flipped through the documents on the table.
The veil of the world was slowly being lifted before her.
Previous doubts were now being resolved one by one, but instead of feeling relieved, she grew increasingly terrified.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss - the more you know, the heavier the fear becomes in your heart.
Taking a light breath, she spoke:
"Shen Yi, come take a look at this."
At that moment, Shen Yi was fiddling with a square brick, and hurried over when he heard her.
"What is it? Any new discoveries?"
"It's not just a discovery, it's completely revolutionary."
Cheng Jun said with deep concern.
"Nine months ago, this world was still peaceful and tranquil."
"Then, with a small meteorite exploding and scattering across various corners of the planet, it arrived."
Cheng Jun discreetly pointed at the purple mouse.
Shen Yi knew she was referring to the black flower, so he nodded.
"This plant was extremely aggressive, quickly taking root and sprouting upon landing, seizing territory and nutrients, causing massive public panic and economic losses."
"According to the records, in just three short hours, it caused nearly all green plants and trees in an entire city to wither instantly. All the plants we can see now with our naked eyes are its subsequent offspring."
"But that wasn't the most terrifying part. When human forces intervened to try to eliminate it, it fought back by releasing spores."
"That's when the infected emerged. The infection was extremely contagious, and those infected became incredibly powerful fighters. Ordinary people stood no chance against them, and even running away was nearly impossible."
As she spoke, Cheng Jun handed over the research section about the infected.
Shen Yi took it and saw that it clearly documented the entire process of transformation from ordinary person to mutant.
After infection, a healthy adult would develop a headache within fifteen minutes of the spores entering their bloodstream.
After half an hour, their entire body would develop a high fever that wouldn't subside at all.
After an hour, their nasal cavity would become itchy and develop fungal filaments, their eyes would become swollen and painful, and consciousness would begin to blur.
After two hours, the fever would break, and all muscle fibers throughout the body would transform into plant fibers, multiplying their strength and flexibility.
After three hours, consciousness would be completely lost, the entire body would become a breeding ground for fungal filaments, and would begin producing spores to infect new hosts.
By this point, the person would have truly transformed into an infected, with every movement capable of spreading the infection.
Their physical capabilities would generally be equivalent to that of a level-two athlete, with intense aggression toward non-infected individuals, and some showing even greater variations.
This transformation process was irreversible - even if the host died, as long as the head and torso remained intact, the infection process couldn't be stopped.
Besides destroying the head and a fear of fire, they had no weaknesses, and they became more vigorous in sunlight, tireless, able to repair their bodies through photosynthesis.
The more Shen Yi read, the more alarmed he became. Beyond shock, he couldn't muster any other emotions.
"Zombies don't even compare to these..."
Apart from being slower to infect and less unscientific than zombies, these infected beings were absolutely devastating against ordinary civilians.
Few weaknesses, powerful abilities, solar-powered healing, all athletic champions, capable of fighting whether alive or dead.
Even necromancers would probably come begging to learn from them.
But this raised new questions, and Shen Yi put down the documents to ask Cheng Jun,
"Didn't humanity have any countermeasures?"
Cheng Jun had anticipated this question, and flicked another document in her hand as she replied:
"Despite the alien plant invasion, humans weren't entirely defenseless."
"Countless scientific teams quickly began researching, naming the alien plant 'Eukaryotic Fungal Host,' or 'Krichia' in the West."
"According to research findings, the fungal colonies were just its external manifestation - its true form was actually a black, oil-like liquid."
"It could be flowers, leaves, plants, and naturally, fungal colonies as well."
"It became fungal colonies simply because this form was advantageous for its survival."
At this point, Shen Yi instinctively looked at the mouse, remembering the times he had seen it transform into liquid.
Cheng Jun took out a lab journal and continued reading - this contained the key information about their situation.
It turned out that in the early stages of the disaster, military forces had managed to forcibly separate a portion of the Eukaryotic Fungal Host while it was weak.
This portion was brought back to the laboratory for research, and fortunately, it wasn't so supernatural as to defy the law of conservation of energy.
Without access to nutrients and sunlight, even with its incredible abilities, it could only remain docile in the culture box for research.
It was during this period that many key pieces of information about it were discovered.
What happened next aligned with Cheng Jun's suspicions.
During a research accident, this separated portion of the organism was forced to parasitize a laboratory mouse.
After obtaining a host body, survival instinct enabled it to escape the laboratory using what little energy it had.
"What about the researchers in the laboratory? Did they evacuate or did they all die?"
The lab journal was still very clear at this point, obviously the story hadn't simply ended there.
Cheng Jun rubbed the goosebumps on her arm and managed to say:
"None of the research staff survived. As for where they are, those things we saw in the tunnel were..."
"This relates to another characteristic of the infected - in places without sunlight, they consume the host's flesh and bones for survival until only a mass of fungal roots remains."
"In the sunless underground laboratory, all these infected bodies self-consumed until death."
Shen Yi hadn't realized that those fungal masses they'd seen were transformed from actual people, and couldn't help but feel a chill.
"So this big mouse is that same laboratory mouse?"
"Yes."
Cheng Jun nodded, pointing to a new entry in the journal as she continued:
"When that portion of the organism escaped, it couldn't access sunlight, and due to retaining some of the mouse's instincts, it actually returned."
"At this point, the surviving researchers, instead of evacuating, continued their research."
Cheng Jun clicked her tongue, having to admire the researchers' death-defying courage.
Looking back at the scene of the mouse entering the cage on the desk, Shen Yi suddenly understood.
When it was still a laboratory mouse, it had probably been kept in this cage, and it retained some of its mouse consciousness and instincts.
"But how do we explain its current behavior? Why bring us here? Did it develop a conscience?"
New questions arose.
This part was unknown to Cheng Jun as well, as she hadn't gotten to read that far yet.
There were no more lab journals below, only speculations recorded in various handwritten notes.
They weren't diaries, just random recordings of moments of inspiration.
The truth was about to surface, and Shen Yi's sense of unease suddenly increased.
He stopped Cheng Jun from reading further,
"Take the notebook, we can read it after we get out of here."
He said, pulling Cheng Jun toward the exit.
"If these infected are so formidable, how come we haven't encountered any of them?"
This was what truly worried Shen Yi.
He had a gun, but against these monsters, he estimated he could barely handle two of them.
Just before leaving the laboratory, Shen Yi turned back to the purple mouse playing on the table:
"Are you coming or not?"