A dark underground tunnel.

After being knocked unconscious, the three little sprouts were dragged here by a group of slime fruiting bodies, and then moved to a claustrophobic room.

This seems to be a part of Qingquan City's underground transportation network, but it has been transformed beyond recognition by plaque, and it is impossible to see where it is.

The player who woke up first shook his head, put his hands on the ground, felt sticky on his hands, and was startled when he opened his eyes.

I saw that the surrounding area was scarlet, and the agitated fungus carpet was like a piece of fresh meat, exuding an unsettling stench.

The big pig's trotters looked around in a daze, and it took a long time to hold back a sentence.

"? What the hell is this place?"

Why did you drop the line for a while, and even the position was moved when you returned to the line?

At this time, the other captive man and woman also woke up and trembled with fear when they saw the situation around them.

Hungry forces: "I giao...... We're not going to get slime in our stomachs, are we?"

Bow to the hungry forces: "Wake up, you are such a big lump, how can you swallow it if you don't chew it."

Hungry Forces: "......?"

Bow to the hungry forces: "I was wrong."

At this moment, a strange figure appeared at the entrance in front of him, which was pitch black.

It was two people tall, its burly body occupied almost the entire passage, its face had only abstract features, its upper body was burly, and its lower body was a stretched skirt with octopus tentacle-like cilia rolling around the edges.

It is somewhat similar to when Xiao Yu was still a mother, but it is obviously larger, and there are fewer human elements.

All three of them were taken aback by the guy's abstract appearance, and stepped back with a ghostly expression.

Unfortunately, it's a dead end, with walls behind them, and there's no room to move around.

Seeing that the guy slowly squirmed his tentacles and moved in front of him, cold sweat oozed from the forehead of the hungry force, swallowed saliva, and pouted his neck hard airway.

"Goo...... Kill me, I won't say anything!"

Anyway, she has wanted to try this line for a long time, and the key is that they don't know anything about these newcomers.

I don't know if I understood her words, or if I just heard the voice, the alien pointed the abstract features towards her, and the hem of the skirt that was attached to the ground suddenly opened a slit.

Just when everyone wondered what it was going to do, countless tentacles pounced out of the crack, instantly dragging her into the gaping jaw.

Even the screaming "Woo Ka" didn't have time to make a sound, and the hungry force that was still hard in the mouth a second ago disappeared into the closed "mouth".

The stretched skirt twitched up and down, as if chewing carefully.

Seeing that his subject was eaten by the monster in front of him, he bowed his head to the hungry force and let out a hoarse cry of exhaustion after a brief stunned moment.

"Wife!! I'll fight with you!"

With that, he struggled to his feet, and rushed at the monster, which was two feet tall, with his fists clenched.

However, his fate was no different from that of the previous player.

Before he could take two steps, he tripped over a tentacle that slipped out from under his skirt, and like a mosquito that landed in front of a frog, he was licked into the gaping mouth of the blood basin without any suspense.

A pair of dogs, both men and women, died.

A well-fed Thea shook her tentacles beneath her and slapped the ground happily like she was chewing on a steak that she had swallowed in her mouth.

It's just that the abstract features still have a hint of confusion, as if they are wondering something.

Looking at the scarlet skirt that was constantly agitating, the big pig's trotter turned pale with nervousness, and his eyes rolled in a hurry.

"Big brother! Don't eat me, I'm not delicious...... I, I, I surrender! Do you lack a translator? I'll be a two-five boy for you!

I've heard that this game has a lot of freedom.

What if it happens?

Thea pointed her abstract features at him, one

After thinking about it for a while, he suddenly opened the hem of the skirt that was close to the ground again without warning.

Looking at the clothes that fell out of it and the tentacles that rolled like a meat grinder, the big pig's trotters had already felt his end, and his face suddenly changed.

It's dead! "I-"

Before he could scold the dog plan, the open mouth of blood swallowed him. Without even a chance to resist, his remaining consciousness melted into the sea of scarlet blood.

Feeling the breath of life melt into her body, Thea chewed quietly for a while, the confusion on her face gradually turning into incomprehensible bitterness.

"Strange.

As if sensing the child's confusion, the mother's voice silently appeared in its hazy sea of consciousness.

"What's wrong? My child."

Faced with the empty scarlet walls and the indigestible impurities left beneath her feet, Thea murmured silently.

"They are empty.

Those guys are empty shells.

And it's even more simple than cockroaches and mice

Pure empty shell, like a blank sheet of paper without any information.

It was the first time it had seen such a strange creature since it was born.

There is no way to assimilate this kind of thing, or even if it is assimilated, it doesn't make any sense, they are just a walking corpse.

It can't understand what kind of existence they really are.

Are they, like the "fruiting bodies" of the mother, puppets governed by some consciousness outside the body?

But they have shown a strong sense of autonomy. Thea's face couldn't help but be confused.

Don't

These humans also have a brood?

"They're assimilated xenos."

Vault 404, B4 Browsing Room.

Heya, who was sitting on the sofa, briefed Chu Guang and Yin Fang about the preliminary test results of the two fruiting body samples of the Alliance Biological Research Institute.

Hearing the unexpected interesting statement, Yin Fang put down the coffee cup in his hand and raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Assimilation?"

Hea nodded with a serious look and continued. "That's right...... The slime molds collected their DNA data and retained a portion of their organic matter while absorbing it

It belongs to the nervous tissue of those creatures themselves."

After a pause, she continued.

"You remember Bucky, right? It's the guy who was parasitized by slime molds, and he has similarities with those special fruiting entities, except that the slime molds in Qingquan City are obviously more aggressive than those in Yongdong City, and the slime molds here have been more thoroughly assimilated, turning most of the captured organisms into a part of their own body, and only retaining a small part of the host's brain tissue.

In a sense, this is actually an improvement for the slime fungus variant in Qingquan City.

It's like going from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

In addition to making weapons from the bones of their prey, they also learned to domesticate them – that is, to train their prey to be subordinate to their "fighting servants".

Yin Fang pinched his chin and fell into deep thought.

Chu Guang, who had not spoken, coughed lightly.

"Can you say something I understand?"

Hea patiently explained.

"To put it simply, they have made improvements on the basis of unified consciousness, in the past, both nibbles and creepers hunted under the guidance of the mother hive, and now some special fruiting entities retain the combat experience they had before they were assimilated, and can hunt in the same way with the stronger flesh that slime fungi gave them."

Yin Fang interjected and said.

"It's equivalent to a combat robot with an intellectual plug-in installed and not controlled by a cloud server.

Hea snapped her fingers.

"That's right!

Chu Guang touched his chin and thought.

「

Does that make any sense?"

Yin Fang analyzed according to his own understanding.

"The meaning is that the brood can allocate more of the hive's 'computing resources' to command at the strategic level, while some higher fruiting entities and evolutionaries can make tactical decisions on their own based on experience. Even if their tactics may not be clever, they will be more flexible than before...... Am I right?"

Hea smiled and nodded.

"That's right, that's it!"

Picking up the coffee cup and taking a sip, Yin Fang sighed and said.

"It's only been a year to get to this level...... The rate at which this thing evolves is exaggerated."

Hea shook her head.

"It's not a year, evolution is a long-term process. They are learning from us all the time, whether it's our tools, or our society...... I am more inclined to think that the emergence of alliances has accelerated their evolution to a certain extent, but what really prompted them to change from quantitative to qualitative change was their long-term observation of us.

Spore clouds are all over the city of Clear Springs, and theoretically the parent in the city center can indeed see them.

Just as the Alliance's biological research institute has been looking for a solution to the brood, that guy must be tirelessly looking for a solution to the disintegration of human society.

Perhaps it would have been better to eradicate them early in the Wasteland Age, when slime molds would not have been as difficult to deal with as they are now.

But that's all for another time.

At that time, the people also had the troubles of that time, and it was not easy to survive in the freezing cold of dozens of degrees below zero, let alone fight an unprepared battle against an unknown enemy.

"Actually...... I'm more worried about something else than what you're talking about."

Seeing the two of them looking at him, Chu Guang paused, and slowly continued.

"They have evolved to learn to hide themselves, to tempt us, and to consciously prevent us from acquiring their remains."

"They seem to get to know us better.

」......「

The official website of "Wasteland Online".

Unlike the solemn atmosphere in the browsing room, the forum is full of excitement at the moment.

Since the release of the new expansion, players have been looking forward to what new work the dog has planned, and this time it turned out

Didn't disappoint.

The original wave was a group of fruiting entities swarming up to A, but now these fruiting entities will not only move away, but also play a wave of jaw-dropping cooperation, and even kidnapped three little sprouts under the nose of the spring brother.

This is something that no one expected.

Quit smoking: "Cow!"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Even the dog spring water is deflated, it's not scientific!" (funny)

Commander of the Spring: "Fuck off, where is Lao Tzu deflated, picking up a corpse is already a great achievement, okay?"

Irena: "Speaking of which, what about the corpses? Isn't there another youkai? (curious)"

Spring Commander: "By the time the fog clears, it's gone, so it's either dragged away and recovered, or eaten on the spot."

Fang Chang: "It's okay to eat it......

Night 10: "Hiss...... This new mother feels something."

Makabah: "Speaking of the brothers who were taken captive by the fruiting bodies? Haven't you come down yet?"

Big Pig's Trotter: "That's me...... Anyway, I might have seen my mother!"

As soon as they heard this, the players squatting in the post instantly became energetic.

Quit smoking: "it! Really?"

Elven King Fugui: "Tell me what that thing looks like, brother. (funny)"

Big Pig's Trotters: "I don't know how to describe it, it's a bit like Xiao Yu's previous appearance...... It's a lap bigger than it, and then it's a little uglier.

Although he hadn't seen Xiao Yu in the game, but

There have always been photos of Xiao Yu posted by other players on the altar.

Compared with those photos, Xiao Yu still has a similarity with it, but the facial features and body outlines are more rounded, and the color is more pink.

To use an inappropriate but graphic analogy, the mother called Thea is more like a shark with a bloody mouth, the kind that can scare children into tears. Xiaoyu, on the other hand, is more like a dolphin, although it also has a ferocious side, but it is closer to human aesthetics.

Commander of the Spring: "Do you remember where you saw that guy?"

Big Pig's Trotter: "I don't know...... But I feel like it's somewhere underground, which looks like a subway station.

Edge paddling: "Subway station...... It's too broad."

Commander Spring: "Anyway, it's safe to assume that the brood and hatchery are hidden underground...... Damn, no wonder it's something we haven't seen before."

Fang Chang: "@大猪蹄, the last mother ate you all?"

Bow to the hungry forces: "Yes, it took my wife in one bite

Swallowed it...... Or in front of me, woo woo.

Hungry Force: "Tsk, you guy, don't say it so strangely, okay! (Angry)

Like a hungry force bowing his head: "I was wrong." Big Pig's Trotter: "......"

Commander of the Spring: "And then? Don't you find anything else? Anything goes."

Hungry Force: "Well, I feel ...... It seems to be responsive to our voice.

Commander of the Fountains: "Voices?"

Hungry Force: "It seems to start eating with my subject at first, but as soon as I speak, it swallows me first...... I always felt like it didn't understand what I was saying, and I didn't know how to speak."

Like a hungry force bowing his head: "Hiss...... I remembered when you said that, I was the second to speak, and then I was eaten right after you."

Hungry Force: "So this xenomorph feeds on sound?"

Commander of the Spring: "No, I think there's another possibility, and it mistakes you for a human who calls the shots...... Like the head wolf among the wolves."

Hungry Forces: "Huh? Do I still have what it takes?"

Like a hungry force bowing his head: "? What do I do?"

Commander of the Fountains: "Then I don't know, but that's not the way it looks, after all, most mammals

They all rely on the vocal cords to transmit information, and it may be possible that the mother nest will understand sound as a biological pheromone in its cognition.

Big Pig's Trotter: "Speaking of which, I also found something unusual, I don't know if it counts as a clue...... The guy who seemed to be the mother seemed to be very surprised after eating those two bites.

Commander of the Spring: "Surprised?"

Big Pig's Trotters: "That's right, it's like eating the wrong thing...... I looked at it for a while before I spit out their clothes and shoes."

Fang Chang: "It's kind of interesting."

Quit smoking: "Uh, what do you mean?"

Fang Chang: "...... Do you think there is a possibility that in the perception of slime molds, other organisms are "mushrooms" with autonomous consciousness, and the clones we use happen to have no autonomous consciousness, so it is confusing where our autonomous consciousness comes from?

Commander of the Spring: "Looks like we're thinking of a piece." Fang Chang: "However, if my inference is correct, this matrix is probably different from all the mothers we have encountered before, it does not simply eat its prey, but selects some of it and assimilates them into 'its own people'."

Just as everyone was talking, an announcement suddenly popped up from the official website.

["The Return of the Tide" Expansion Pack Update: Added the concept of "Assimilation"]

[According to the results of the Alliance Research Institute, "Thea" will consciously capture organisms that invade the territory and assimilate them into a race

retains its aggressiveness as well as part of its self-awareness, while forcibly implanting a biological prosthesis to modify it. 】

[Currently known "assimilants":

1. Fungus Eater Monster: It has similar strength to that of youkai, and its recovery power and defense power have been strengthened by the biological prosthetic body constructed by slime molds, and its individual combat power will be stronger than that of youkai.

2. Bacteriophage Deathclaw: With the speed and agility of Deathclaw, and on this basis, the resilience and damage resistance have been strengthened, no samples have been collected so far, and qualitative biological analysis cannot be done, and it can only be speculated based on combat images that it has combat effectiveness comparable to that of evolutionary bodies.

3. Fungal Devourer: The fruiting body of the slime fungus suspected of being assimilated twice, no biological prototype was found in the ecological environment around Qingquan City, and the ability is speculated to actively detonate itself, releasing a corrosive poisonous mist, and other fruiting bodies will throw it as a throwable.

Quit smoking: "it!"

Debt-ridden eyes: "6666! As soon as I talked about assimilation, I updated the setting of the assimilation!"

Night Ten: "Brother Guang plagiarized the forum! (funny)" Fang Chang: "But this server announcement proves that our thinking is correct, and there are two pieces of information that can be extracted. For one, Thea has the trait of 'Assimilation Fighter', which transforms parts

The prey uses their combat experience to be better at micromanipulation than the parent body in the previous wave. Second, it looks at what makes us different and is consciously studying us and learning from us...... However, due to limited knowledge, it may have some deviations in our understanding.

Commander of the Spring: "These two clues are crucial! Since our opponents are no longer the same group of critics as in the last wave, it is very likely that the form of the wave has changed radically, and it is dangerous to formulate tactics with the original ideas."

Edge paddling: "You mean, they might not play the cards?" Bypass the defensive line we have placed in the northern suburbs?"

Commander Izumi: "It's very likely, and the experience of measuring the direction of the slime mold's attack by the concentration of the spore cloud is very likely to be invalid in this battle!"

Commander Springs: "I even think that the tide has already begun, but they are taking advantage of the inertia of our perception of them to stay on the ground and deliberately follow the schedule we expected. In two weeks' time, they will be able to devour our line in one gulp by sending out a large number of cannon fodder to rush up to our positions as they did in the previous wave, and then send a handful of elite troops around the emptiest flank of our garrison!"

Luo Yu: "I'm blanching?!" Slime molds still have this heart?"

The construction site boy and the bricks: "Well, you won't think too much.

Commander of the Spring: "I've heard that slime molds can plan the shortest path to food based on where it is, and the slime mold variants we're dealing with are significantly smarter than the real-life slime molds

Well, I have reason to believe that these guys would do this.

Fang Chang: "Agreed, anything can happen on the battlefield, and my opinion is the same as yours, underestimating the enemy will suffer a big loss.

Midnight Kill: "It's too troublesome, do you two have any plans?"

Fang Chang: "After hearing about those two budding encounters, I do have an idea.

Edge paddling: "What's the idea?"

Fang Chang: "As we all know, a guy who is a little clever but not smart enough is better to deceive than a fool who doesn't know anything. This time the Mother is smarter and more difficult to deal with than ever, but we can take advantage of that in turn."

Edge paddling: "How do you use that?"

Fang Chang: "It's very simple, the idea is the same as the intelligence warfare of World War II, since they understand us as 'a group of organisms that rely on sound waves as pheromones to transmit information, then we just need to fake a 'mother nest that gives orders' and show it our 'flaws'!"