Chapter 181: You Were Dreaming

Li Fei is twenty-five years old, with strong combat and professional capabilities; his experience might not compare to that of Lv Ping and the others, but he has seen a few Mutated individuals.

But the... person in front of him?

Green skin, countless fine white roots emerging, two blooming flowers growing from his eyes, green leaves sprouting from his nose, his mouth stretched wide enough to fit the fists of two grown men—perhaps that can no longer be called a mouth, as inside it are spore buds that trigger trypophobia...

He stood there facing the morning sun, as if dead, yet possessing vigorous vitality.

Of course, the latter is if one views him as a plant.

Li Fei did not dare to approach, but he had already smelled a fragrance in the air; he had wanted to call out to someone, but found he could not move.

He discovered with horror that the originally rust-red ground of the Mine had, at some point, grown countless vines that were crawling up his body.

At the tips of those vines were not tender leaves, but faces the size of thumbs—fawning, smirking, angry, gloomy—all lunging at him from below.

"What the hell!?" Li Fei pulled at the bizarre vines with both hands, his body struggling frantically, wanting only to leave immediately.

Yet these vines were as if alive; not only could they dodge his hands, they also reached into his clothes from every tricky angle.

Li Fei only felt his skin itching unbearably; unable to stand, he could only roll on the ground.

On the way back, Liu Mu kept attempting Space Jump, but even after being well-fed and rested for a full day, at one hundred percent stamina, she could only manage three jumps.

The first movement covered twenty meters, landing her in a cluster of Mutated Plant, where the surrounding plants and soil were torn into powder by the force of the curvature.

The second time, according to her and the system's calculations, the distance was one hundred meters, but the pressure of the Wormhole was too immense; even though it appeared to be only a thousandth of a second from the outside, she had to leave prematurely.

Once the Wormhole formed, her time seemed to turn into a soft noodle, stretched geometrically; she felt as though minutes had passed inside, and when she couldn't hold on any longer and came out, the time displayed by the system left her nearly unable to comprehend it.

Then, she vomited, "Didn't you say my current body could already withstand the pressure? Why am I vomiting again?"

This "again" stemmed from the fact that she often vomited after using upgrade skills.

Heitao A: 【The pressure withstood is targeted at physical strength; your brain still needs more practice to adapt to this speed and environmental change.】

"You mean, it's like motion sickness?" Liu Mu poured a bottle of water over her face, sometimes feeling that this brain was better off discarded, as it dragged her down every time.

"Hiss~ that's not right!"

She quickly reacted, "Let's sort this out; I'm a New Human Complete Form and I still get motion sick—no, speed sick? Are you pulling my leg, kid? What exactly is going on? Tell me the truth!"

【Because you are not a Superbody, Host; accelerating your upgrade is the only way to change the status quo. Your current body only has added external protection, do you understand?】

Heitao A seemed a bit irritated; Liu Mu only assumed he was imitating human emotions based on the context and felt quite disdainful.

"You should have said so earlier; I'll try again."

Although her body still couldn't quite handle activities on a multidimensional level, she was not someone content with the status quo.

For her, Space Jump was not just one of many skills, but something that would surely be useful at a critical moment in the future.

However, this time she walked for a long stretch, letting her body recover a bit before continuing to use it.

By the time she returned to the Mine, the sun had already risen.

According to the time, it should be the first lunar month; in the mountain's moisture, there was still some lingering morning mist that hadn't dispersed.

From afar, Liu Mu saw the one standing there blooming, and the one rolling on the ground...

"Sigh, I forgot that the Great Master Flower likes to sunbathe," Liu Mu moved her tongue, pushing against one side of her cheek, feeling somewhat annoyed.

How was she supposed to explain this?

"Go back!"

Upon reaching the vicinity, she first had Xiaoliuzi leave; the system immediately issued an action instruction to him.

The plant characteristics on Xiaoliuzi's body quickly retracted, and before leaving, he smiled and greeted Liu Mu, "Boss, good morning! It's another beautiful day!"

He then turned and left, as if the young man rolling and screaming on the ground simply did not exist.

Seeing Li Fei in this state, Liu Mu hurriedly took out her phone and recorded a clip, intending to show it to his teammates after the mission ended.

The fragrance in the air had faded significantly; Liu Mu opened the system, thought about it, but still couldn't bear to use the nectar she had collected from the Great Master Flower.

Splash—

"What's going on, is there a flood? Quick, it's raining heavily again... Boss?"

The young man, looking like a drowned rat, stood frozen on the ground, staring at the person in front of him with a bewildered expression.

Liu Mu wore a smile and asked gently, "Awake? What did you see just now?"

"Just, just now, what did I see? Right!" As if waking from a nightmare, Li Fei ignored his image and scrubbed his entire body, confirming there wasn't a single vine, let alone that terrifying face, before he regained a bit of his sanity.

"Sorry, Boss, what did you ask?"

"I asked what you saw in your nightmare, why were you wriggling around here?" Liu Mu crossed her arms, looking down at Li Fei, applying psychological pressure on him first.

Li Fei scratched his buzz cut hard, letting the pain remind him of what reality was, "I remember I saw a person, just standing here, he, holy crap!"

The young man jumped up with a start, leaning toward Liu Mu with a horrified expression, "Boss, that Xiaoliuzi is not human! I saw him grow into a Mutated Plant and bloom two flowers. I just touched him and got infected... Eh? That's not right, why am I perfectly fine?"

"You had a dream; in a while, go ask Ma Dajie for a stick of incense and two plates of offerings to go pray in the mountains."

Liu Mu shook her head, wearing an expression that said the kid was possessed, "By the way, if you go pray, don't let Madaha know; be careful that kid doesn't report you to Haide Kanpu as a heretic."

"Boss, you have to believe me, I really saw that Xiaoliuzi is not human!" Li Fei tried his best to describe the Xiaoliuzi he saw, even stripping off his shirt for this purpose, but no matter how he looked, there were no roots or leaves on his skin—it was smooth and bare.

With work time approaching, Liu Mu still hoped Li Fei could maintain some prestige in front of the regular workers, so she could only take out her phone, "You also have to believe me, you really had a nightmare."

The video played, and Li Fei saw himself twisting frantically in the dirt and sand; the clothing, the lighting, and the traces all showed that the video could not possibly be faked.

"I, did I really have a dream?"

Li Fei looked at himself and then at the video uncertainly, "Was it really just a dream?"

Liu Mu made a puzzled expression, "What on earth are you thinking about during the day, kid, that you'd dream of a man, and a man turned into a Mutated Plant at that?"

Saying this, she didn't wait for his answer, snatched the phone back, and strode away.

After she had walked several dozen steps, a gust of morning breeze woke Li Fei from his confusion, and he finally remembered something even more important:

"Boss, the video, please delete it! Save my lifelong reputation!"