Chapter 469

Chapter 469: Corruption, Theft, Decay

A sharp yet tender cry, reminiscent of a newborn, surged into Clotho’s consciousness, carrying with it a profound meaning.

At that moment, the consciousness known as Clotho felt as though it had undergone a self-iteration, a sensation both strange and profound.

In the past, the evolution of consciousness always required aggregation, where the thoughts of three consciousnesses would unify towards a common direction, leading to moments of enlightenment.

The will of the mycelium would also evolve as a result.

However, this time was different; Clotho sensed an addition to its consciousness—or rather, its very existence.

Despite not having intervened with the white extraordinary beast using mycelium and spores, it detected a… new possibility.

Unlike other extraordinary beasts, this little one before it was special.

Yet, this creation was not within the plans of the Supreme Will, and Clotho felt it necessary to share this with its two companions.

However, knowing that the other two consciousnesses were preoccupied with their own matters and that it must prepare for the impending war, Clotho decided to set this aside, trusting that everything would become clear during their next aggregation.

—

In a forest composed of various strange plants, there were already eight humanoid monsters freely moving about.

They were all humans—or so they believed themselves to be—whereas in essence, they were monsters revived by Atropos in a limited way.

Their bodies were composed of vines and flesh, with a human brain, which had been working for decades, still running within a gelatinous mass.

Atropos sometimes played the role of an apprentice or a younger relative, and other times acted as an opponent or family, reactivating the numb brains that had undergone infinite cycles, granting them limited new lives.

The corruption power of Atropos altered these individuals’ perceptions, applying a different filter to their vision.

These monsters treated the mycelium mat as flooring, used pliable branches that could change according to their needs as tools, and regarded everything around as a vast laboratory.

For each researcher, this place was like paradise.

So, after modifying a part of their perception, they did not think about their origins, families, or other issues; they simply believed they were completing a task.

The number of experts in the team had grown from one to eight, and their task was singular: to complete a genetic analysis of a new organism.

This was Atropos’s pursuit, identifying issues inherent to its race as being related to genes, leading to the current scene.

Meanwhile, it itself was not idle, controlling several avatars to continuously observe and learn these humans’ techniques.

—

Lachesis had recently become obsessed with puppet games.

That was how it described them.

The humans under its control were like marionettes, their every move within its grasp.

This feeling differed from mere corruption; as the consciousness responsible for corruption, Lachesis used to enjoy watching humans’ cognition slowly become disordered under the influence of the biological field, leading them to raise weapons against their companions in confusion and walk towards eventual collapse in terror.

But now, it realized that its former pursuits were perhaps too trivial.

Corruption without allowing collapse, but instead manipulating the humanoid bodies so that they retained an outward appearance of integrity while their insides completely decayed.

What a delicate art this was!

Lachesis finally understood what it had seen in some human brains, comprehending the humans’ pursuits regarding objects and actions that were originally meaningless.

Of course, as part of the Supreme Will, Lachesis did not lose itself entirely in play.

It still remembered its mission to defeat the humans within these high walls, allowing mycelium to become the master of this planet.

Thus, its first avatar capable of real-time communication, the young man named Ain, was currently lurking in a shadowy corner in a bizarre posture.

Human bodies were still too frail… Lachesis thought, recalling previous attempts.

About a year ago, it had used tall grass to create five false human bodies and successfully infiltrated Hope City.

But at that time, the will of the mycelium had not yet fully differentiated into three parts, and the manipulation had not been in real-time control; it could only receive information during each connection and preset the logic for the next action.

This had led to those bodies meeting ambiguous ends and caused the mycelium’s plans to collapse easily.

However, this was no longer an issue for the current Lachesis; although it lacked superpowers, real-time manipulation was perfectly aligned with its desires.

The only problem was that human bodies were overly weak. The lurking Ain had already broken two ribs, which were his only achievements thus far.

The surveillance camera turned slightly, and Ain heard the barely audible sound, realizing that the next ten seconds would be a blind spot for monitoring.

He then stepped forward quietly, making no sound as he slipped into the target of this operation—

the factory manager’s office.

He was stealing factory documents.

This was not only happening at Factory No. 22, but also involved many other places.

Lachesis, leveraging its multi-threading capability, sought to acquire as much information related to that great war as possible from human society.

It donned gloves, opened the file cabinet in the office, and began to rapidly browse through various documents, whether important or unimportant.

An hour later, Factory No. 22 had completely lost its value.

As a factory producing simple light industrial products, Factory No. 22 had no connection to the war brewing among humans.

Lachesis had already decided to head to another human factory a few kilometers away the next day to steal documents, knowing it might take several nights; after all, without superpowers, it was just an ordinary person.

Having obtained what it wanted, Lachesis returned everything in the file cabinet to its original state, confirmed there were no issues, and exited the factory manager’s office.

It certainly noticed the factory manager’s computer but chose to pass on it; human electronic devices left traces too easily during use, so Ain, or rather Lachesis, decided to let it go.

What it did not know was that on this computer connected to the intranet, there lay a message that would have a slight impact on its future.