This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 631: Assimilated Fighter?

Chapter 631: Chapter 631: Assimilated Fighter?

A pitch-black underground tunnel.

After being knocked out, three newbie players were dragged here by a group of mucosal entities and then shifted to a secluded room.

This place seemed to be part of Qingquan City’s underground traffic network, except it had been completely transformed by the mold spots and was unrecognizable.

The first player to wake up shook their head, pushed themselves up off the ground with their hands, and felt something sticky. They opened their eyes and got a shock.

Surrounded by a sinister red, pulsating mold carpets like living chunks of flesh, emitted an unsettling stench.

Big Pig’s Foot looked around in a daze for quite a while before he managed to blurt out a phrase.

"What the fuck? What kind of hell is this?"

I was only offline for a while, and when I got back online, even my location had changed?

At that moment, another man and woman who had been abducted also came to, trembling as they took in their surroundings.

Debt Giant Eye: "I giao... we haven’t been swallowed by the mucosal entities, have we?"

Lowering head to Debt Giant Eye: "Wake up, you’re such a big clump, how could it swallow you without chewing you up?"

Debt Giant Eye: "...?"

Lowering head to Debt Giant Eye: "My bad."

Just then, a strange figure appeared from a pitch-black entrance ahead.

It was two people tall, with a burly body filling almost the entire passage, an abstract face, a strong upper body, and a flared skirt at the bottom, with edges rolling like octopus tentacles.

It somewhat resembled Xiaoyu when she was still in her mother state, but it was clearly larger, and the human elements were even less.

All three were frightened by its abstract appearance and backed away with terrified expressions.

Unfortunately, they were in a dead-end. Walls were behind them, and there was no space to move.

Watching the creature slowly wriggle its tentacles moving toward them, Debt Giant Eye’s forehead broke out in cold sweat. They swallowed and bravely said,

"Gurgle... kill me then, I won’t say anything!"

They had wanted to try that line for a long time, and, importantly, these newbies didn’t actually know anything.

Whether it understood their words or just heard the noise, the Variant turned its abstract face toward her, and the skirt adhering to the ground suddenly opened a slit.

While everyone was wondering what it was about to do, countless tentacles burst out from the slit and yanked her into the gaping maw.

Before she could even cry out, Debt Giant Eye, who had been so tough a second before, disappeared into that closing "mouth."

The skirt billowed as if meticulously chewing.

Seeing his partner eaten right in front of him, the man lowering his head to Debt Giant Eye, after a moment’s shock, let out an agonizing scream.

"Wife!! I’m going to fight you!"

He struggled to his feet, swinging his fists as he charged the two-person-tall monster.

But his fate was no different from the previous players’.

He didn’t make it two steps before a tentacle slipped out from under the skirt tripped him. Just like a mosquito in front of a frog, he was unceremoniously licked up by the gaping maw.

The pair, the dog-man and woman, both met their demise.

Xiya, satiated from her meal, joyfully tapped her tentacles on the ground like she was savoring the steak that had just entered her mouth.

Yet those abstract features still held a trace of confusion, as if pondering something.

Looking at the throbbing red skirt, Big Pig’s Foot turned pale with panic and quickly thought of something.

"Big brother! Don’t eat me, I don’t taste good... I surrender! Do you need a translator? I’ll betray them for you!"

They say this game has a high degree of freedom.

What if it worked?

Xiya turned her abstract features toward him, and after a moment’s thought, unexpectedly opened the skirt on the ground once more.

Seeing the clothes that fell out and the grinder-like writhing tentacles inside, Big Pig’s Foot could sense his impending doom and his face instantly changed.

I’m fucked either way!

"Fuck—"

Before he could curse the dog-plan, the gaping maw swallowed him whole. Without a chance to resist, his remaining consciousness merged with that expanse of blood-red sea.

Feeling that life’s essence meld inside her, Xiya chewed quietly for a bit, the confusion on her face gradually turning to an incomprehensible melancholy.

"How strange..."

Seemingly noticing the child’s confusion, the mother’s voice silently appeared in its blurred sea of consciousness.

"What’s the matter, my child?"

Facing the empty, crimson walls and the undigestible impurities left at her feet, Xiya whispered soundlessly.

"They are empty."

Those guys were but hollow shells.

Moreover, they were more purely empty shells than simple organisms like cockroaches and mice, just like a blank sheet with no information whatsoever.

It was the first time she had encountered such strange creatures since she was born.

These things couldn’t be assimilated, or rather, even if they were assimilated, it would be meaningless. They were nothing but walking corpses.

It couldn’t understand what kind of existence they were.

Could it be that they, like the "mucosal entities" of the mother, were puppets controlled by some consciousness outside their bodies?

But, they also exhibited a strong independence.

Confusion could not help but rise on Xiya’s face.

Could it be...

Do these humans also have a lair?

...

"They have been assimilated by Variants."

Shelter No. 404, Floor B4 Viewing Room.

Heya, sitting on the couch, briefly explained to Chu Guang and Yin Fang the preliminary test results of the Alliance Biological Research Institute on two mucosal entity samples.

Upon hearing the unexpected and intriguing claim, Yin Fang put down his coffee cup and raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Assimilated?"

Heya nodded seriously and continued.

"Correct... The slime fungus collected their DNA data and, while absorbing their organic matter, it preserved part of the neural tissues originally belonging to those creatures."

After a pause, she went on to say,

"You still remember Batch? The one infected by the slime fungus. His situation has similarities with those special mucosal entities, only the slime mold in Qingquan City is clearly more aggressive than the one in Yongdong City. Here, the fungus does the assimilation more thoroughly, turning most of the captured organic bodies into part of itself, only leaving a very small part of the host’s brain tissue."

In a sense, for the mutated slime fungus of Qingquan City, this was actually progress.

Similar to moving from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

In addition to turning the bones of their prey into weapons, they also learned to domesticate on this foundation—that is, to cultivate prey into "combat puppets" that obeyed them.

Yin Fang stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Chu Guang, who had been silent, gave a gentle cough.

"Could you explain it in a way that I can understand?"

Heya patiently explained,

"To put it simply, they made improvements based on the Unified Consciousness. Before, whether it was Eaters or Crawlers, they hunted under the guidance of the Lair. Now some special mucosal entities have retained the combat experience from before assimilation, allowing them to hunt in their original manner with a more powerful body given by the slime mold."

Yin Fang interjected,

"It’s like installing an intelligence plugin on combat robots that are not controlled by cloud servers."

Heya snapped her fingers.

"Exactly!"

Chu Guang stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"What’s the point of this?"

Yin Fang analyzed according to his understanding.

"The significance is that the lair can allocate more of the beehive’s ’computing power resources’ to the strategic level of command, while the higher mucosal entities and evolutionary bodies can make tactical decisions based on experience. Even if their tactics are not necessarily clever, they will be more flexible and variable than before... Am I understanding this correctly?"

Heya smiled and nodded.

"Yes, that’s exactly it!"

Picking up his coffee cup for a sip, Yin Fang sighed and said.

"It’s evolved to this extent in just one year... The evolution speed of this thing is too exaggerated."

Heya shook her head.

"It’s not just a year’s time, evolution is a long-term process. They’ve been learning from us all along, whether it’s our tools or our society... I tend to think that the emergence of the Alliance has accelerated their evolution to some extent, but the real factor that caused them to shift from quantitative to qualitative change is their long-term observation of us."

The spore clouds pervaded every corner of Qingquan City, and in theory, the mother entity in the city center could indeed see them.

Just like how the Alliance Biological Institute has been seeking ways to resolve the Lair, that creature must also be tirelessly searching for ways to unravel human society.

Perhaps eradicating them in the early Wasteland Era would have been a better solution, as the slime fungus back then couldn’t have been as difficult to deal with as it is now.

But these are all hindsight.

People back then had their troubles too. Surviving in the severe cold of dozens of degrees below zero was not easy, let alone facing an unknown enemy in an unprepared battle.

"Actually... compared to what you’re discussing, there’s something else I’m more worried about."

Seeing the two look towards him, Chu Guang paused for a moment and slowly continued.

"As they evolve, they’ve gradually learned to hide themselves. While testing us, they consciously prevent us from obtaining their remains."

"It’s like they’re getting to know us better and better."

...

"Wasteland OL" Official Website.

The mood on the Forum was bustling, a stark contrast to the solemn atmosphere in the Viewing Room.

Ever since the new expansion was released, players had been looking forward to what new stuff Dog Plan would come up with, and this time they did not disappoint.

The original Tide was just a bunch of entities mindlessly swarming over, but now these entities not only can move but also display stunning coordination. They even managed to kidnap three newbies right under Brother Quanshui’s nose.

This was unexpected by everyone.

Quit Smoking: "Awesome!"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Even Dog Quanshui got trounced, that’s not science! (funny)"

Spring Water Commander: "Get lost, where exactly did I get trounced? Bringing back a body is already a great achievement, okay!"

Elena: "Speaking of which, where are the rest of the corpses? Wasn’t there a monster too? (curious)"

Spring Water Commander: "After the fog cleared, they were gone. Probably either hauled off for recycling or eaten right on the spot."

Fang Chang: "Eaten, that’s something..."

Night Ten: "Hiss... This new mother entity seems to be something."

Makabazi: "Speaking of which, what about the brothers who got kidnapped by those entities? Haven’t they come down yet?"

Big Pig’s Foot: "That would be me... I think I might have seen the mother entity!"

Upon hearing this, the players squatting in the thread instantly became energized.

Quit Smoking: "WTF! Really?"

Gnome King Riches: "Tell us what it looks like, bro. (funny)"

Big Pig’s Foot: "I don’t know how to describe it, it’s kind of like what Xiaoyu looked like before... but one size bigger, and uglier."

Although he hadn’t seen Xiaoyu in the game, photos of Xiaoyu had always been posted by other players on the Forum.

Comparing to those photos, there was a semblance with Xiaoyu, except that the features and body contours were smoother and the color a bit more pinkish.

To make an unsuitable but vivid comparison, the mother entity they called Xiya resembled a wide-mouthed shark, the kind that could scare children into crying. Xiaoyu, on the other hand, was more like a dolphin, which, despite its ferocity, aligns more closely with human aesthetics.

Spring Water Commander: "Do you remember where you saw that thing?"

Big Pig’s Foot: "I’m not clear on that... but I think it must have been somewhere underground, a place like a subway station."

Edge Shoveling: "Subway station... that target is too broad."

Spring Water Commander: "Regardless, we can be sure that this time both the Lair and the Hatchery are hidden underground... damn it, no wonder they are creatures we’ve never seen before."

Fang Chang: "@Big Pig’s Foot, did the mother entity eat you all in the end?"

Hungry and Bowing: "Yes, it swallowed my wife in one gulp... right in front of me, wuu wuu wuu."

Hunger: "Tsk, you, don’t put it so weirdly! (angry)"

Hungry and Bowing: "I’m sorry."

Big Pig’s Foot: "..."

Spring Water Commander: "And then? Didn’t you guys find out anything else? Anything at all."

"Hunger Force:" "Um, I feel... it seems to react to our voices."

"Spring Water Commander:" "Voices?"

"Hunger Force:" "At first, it seemed like it intended to start by eating my companion, but as soon as I spoke, it swallowed me first... I always feel like it didn’t understand what I was saying, after all, I don’t speak United Human language."

"Looking down, Hunger Force:" "Hiss... Now that you mention it, I recall I was the second one to make a sound, and then I was eaten right after you."

"Hunger Force:" "So, is the Variant hunting by sound?"

"Spring Water Commander:" "Not likely, I think there’s another possibility, it mistook you for a commanding figure among the humans... like an alpha in a wolf pack."

"Hunger Force:" "Ah? I have that kind of ability?"

"Looking down, Hunger Force:" "The f*ck? My companion has that kind of ability?"

"Spring Water Commander:" "I wouldn’t know, but maybe that’s how it appears through its perspective, considering that most mammals convey information through vocal cords, perhaps the Lair perceives voices as some kind of biological pheromone."

"Big Pig’s Foot:" "Speaking of which, I also noticed something unusual, I’m not sure if it counts as a clue... that thing that’s suspected to be the Maternal Body, it seemed very bewildered after eating that couple."

"Spring Water Commander:" "Bewildered?"

"Big Pig’s Foot:" "Exactly, like it ate the wrong thing... I watched it taste for quite a while before spitting out their clothes and shoes."

"Fang Chang:" "Hmm, that’s interesting."

"Quit Smoking:" "Uh, interesting how?"

"Fang Chang:" "... Could there be a possibility that in the slime fungus’s perception, other organic beings all possess a self-consciousness of ’mushrooms,’ and our used clones just happen not to have this self-consciousness, so it’s confused about where our consciousness originates from?"

"Spring Water Commander:" "It seems we’re on the same page."

"Fang Chang:" "However, if my conjecture is correct, then the Maternal Body we’re dealing with now is different from all the ones we’ve encountered before, it doesn’t just simply eat its prey but selects some to assimilate into ’its own kind.’"

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

"[’Tide Returns’ expansion update: The new concept of ’Assimilated Body’]"

"[According to investigations by the Alliance Research Institute, ’Xiya’ deliberately captures organic beings that invade its territory and assimilates them into its tribe, retaining their aggressiveness and part of their self-consciousness while forcibly implanting biomimetic bodies to modify them.]"

"[Currently known ’Assimilated Bodies’:"

"1. Fungal Goblin: Possesses strength nearly equivalent to Goblins, resilience and defense are both enhanced by the slime fungus-built biomimetic body, making its individual combat power even greater."

"2. Fungal Death Claw: Maintains the speed and agility of the Claw of Death and enhances its resilience and damage resistance on this basis. No samples have been collected yet, and a definitive biological analysis cannot be made. Only based on combat footage can it be conjectured that it has combat power akin to evolutionary bodies."

"3. Fungal Martyr: Suspected to be a mucosal entity that has been assimilated a second time, no biological prototype has been found in the surrounding ecology of Qingquan City. Its ability is presumed to be self-detonation, releasing corrosive gas, and other mucosal entities use it as a throwing weapon."

"...

"]"

"Quit Smoking:" "Damn!"

"Debt Giant Eye:" "6666! Just talked about assimilation and then they updated the setting for assimilated bodies!"

"Night Ten:" "Brother Guang plagiarizing the forum confirmed! (Joking)"

"Fang Chang:" "But this server announcement still proves our line of thought is correct, there are two pieces of information we can distill. First, Xiya possesses the characteristics of ’Assimilation Fighters,’ it will transform part of its prey to use their combat experience, which makes it more adept at micromanagement compared to the Maternal Bodies we faced in the previous Tide. Second, it’s targeting our uniqueness, consciously studying us, learning from us... although due to limited understanding, it may have misunderstandings about us."

"Spring Water Commander:" "These two clues are critical! Since our opponent is no longer the bunch of fools from the last Tide, the form of the Tide has likely fundamentally changed, to use the same thought process for tactics as before is very dangerous."

"Edge Shoveling:" "You mean they might not play by the rules? Bypass our defenses at the ’North Suburb’?"

"Spring Water Commander:" "Very likely, our experience using spore cloud concentration to predict the direction of the slime fungus attack might be ineffective in this battle!"

"Spring Water Commander:" "I even feel that the Tide has already started, but they are using our inertia in understanding them to hold their position, deliberately moving according to the schedule we expect. In two weeks, they just need to send a large number of Cannon Fodder, charging at our position just like the last Tide, and then dispatch a small group of Elites to our most undefended flank, they can swallow our defensive line whole!"

"Falling Feather:" "Damn?! Slime fungus is that cunning?"

"Construction Site Youth with Brick:" "Eh, aren’t you overthinking it..."

"Spring Water Commander:" "I’ve heard that slime fungus can plan the shortest path to food based on the location of the food, and the Variants we’re facing are obviously much smarter than the real slime fungus, I have reason to believe these creatures are capable of this kind of maneuver."

"Fang Chang:" "Agreed, anything is possible on the battlefield, and I share your opinion, underestimating the enemy will lead to serious consequences."

"Midnight Chicken Killing:" "Too troublesome, do you two have any plans?"

"Fang Chang:" "After hearing that newbie couple’s encounter, I do have an idea."

"Edge Shoveling:" "What is it?"

"Fang Chang:" "As we all know, someone who’s a little smart but not quite there is easier to deceive than a complete fool. The Maternal Body this time is smarter and more difficult to handle, but we can also use that to our advantage."

"Edge Shoveling:" "How can we use this?"

"Fang Chang:" "It’s simple, the idea is like the intelligence war during World War II. Since they understand us as ’a group of organic beings that transmit information through sound waves as pheromones,’ we just need to fake a ’commanding Maternal Lair,’ and perform our ’flaws’ for it to see!"