Tang Xiao didn’t know what happened after that.
From a certain stage when 428 mycelium reached into the wound, the game panel before Tang Xiao suddenly started to lag, flickering like an aging TV screen, and then his eyes went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a shocking scene before him.
In the completely dark environment, there was a sudden flash of light. Tang Xiao instinctively looked over, and then he couldn’t take his eyes off it anymore.
It was an extremely huge ‘tree’.
The entire body was green, but there were no leaves, nor the rough bark of the ‘tree’ in reality. It was as transparent as glass. He could even see the dense golden veins inside, which were strange and scared. The two ends were like the extension of roots, connecting Heaven and Earth.
He subconsciously held his breath, but before he could see the full picture of the ‘tree’, he was immediately ejected from the game.
“What’s going on? Is there a bug???” Tang Xiao sat in the login interface with a depressed face.
What the hell is that last one? Did he fail? Or did he succeed? What exactly did 428 do?
Tang Xiao wanted to log into the game immediately so that he could know the outcome. Just as he tried to load the archive, he found that the game display was being updated. It would take 72 hours to go online.
Tang Xiao: …Okay then.
At this moment, the reality was already one o’clock in the night.
Due to the bet agreement with Father Tang, Tang Xiao would go back to school and listen to classes obediently if he had his major courses. He would log in to the game at night and then sleep in the additional class.
Time management master jpg.
It was too early to go offline today. He thought about it and went back to the Internet to find news about the game.
However, as expected, the traces of this game on the Internet had disappeared, including the picture of the little monster that Tang Xiao had seen before, all of which were ruthless 404 pages.
Unable to find anything related to the game, his big brother went back to work without news, and Tang Xiao felt helpless. He had to temporarily put the game aside and went to school obediently the next day.
Because of the ‘add points’ in the game, the knowledge in the class was nothing to Tang Xiao. It was just a way to relax his nerves. Listening to it and doing homework could make his understanding of the knowledge more profound. His learning efficiency kept increasing. Compared with his previous learning efficiency, there was a kind of pleasure of using twice the experience card in the game, which made Tang Xiao unable to stop.
This seemed to have scared his roommates. The three people all came to ask him what happened. Even Li Mu came over when he heard the news, which made Tang Xiao laugh and feel helpless.
“Are you really okay? Or have you been hacked on the Internet?”
Li Mu, who rushed to Tang Xiao’s dormitory, scanned Tang Xiao up and down, left and right, and asked suspiciously.
Li Mu and Tang Xiao had been friends since childhood, one year older than Tang Xiao. They attended the same university and were currently laboratory research dogs. They might pursue this path in the future.
Tang Xiao was helpless. “It’s nothing. I just promised my father to do better in the final exam so that he wouldn’t interfere with me playing games.”
This reason was very logical and Li Mu couldn’t say anything. He just picked up Tang Xiao’s homework and looked up at him with a strange expression. He hesitated to speak.
“Spit it out.”
“Xiaoxiao, I feel guilty.”
“?”
“You’re really such a top student ah. I’m guilty of not dedicating you to the country…”
“Get lost.” Tang Xiao’s head was full of black lines.
“Do you really not want to enter the laboratory? Let me tell you, your biology department has just formed a joint project with top experts from foreign universities. They are currently short of people…”
“I’m not interested. My game update is almost over.”
Li Mu was stunned for a moment and suddenly realized. “No wonder you are doing homework. It turns out you can’t log in to the game. I thought your character had changed.”
After confirming that his friend was okay, Li Mu went away. Tang Xiao speechlessly lent the homework to other roommates for reference.
Three days passed in a flash. Tang Xiao saw that it was almost time and returned to his rental house.
Upon entering the game login page, several pop-ups appeared.
[The game update is complete. Dear player, welcome back to the Mushroom Era]
Log in to the game.
Opening his eyes, Tang Xiao sat up. The first thing he did was to observe his surroundings. He saw that the walls around him were wrapped in a soft bulge, while he was lying in a place similar to an experimental table, with various instrument patches attached to his naked chest.
“Where am I?”
“Don’t be nervous, Researcher Tang,” A calm and gentle female voice came from the loudspeaker in the corner. “You are still in the Third Eye. Due to Huigui sect attack, you were unconscious. Now three days have passed since you fell into a coma. You’re just woken up now, if you feel palpitations and other uncomfortable symptoms, you can try to take a deep breath…”
Tang Xiao didn’t have these feelings, but to follow the plot, he still followed her instructions.
After he calmed down, a group of medical staff wearing white coats quickly opened the door and walked in, carrying a bunch of instruments to conduct various examinations and blood collection for him.
No matter how Tang Xiao asked in the middle, no answer was given. After they left for a while, a new group of people in uniforms walked in here, led by the people Tang Xiao had seen before.
“Dr. Feng?” Tang Xiao was stunned for a moment.
Feng Shuyun nodded at him with a smile on her face and sat beside Tang Xiao warmly, saying, “How do you feel? Is there any discomfort in your body?”
Tang Xiao moved his body and then glanced at the game panel. There was no negative status on it, so he shook his head.
“It’s good that you’re okay.” The middle-aged man said, “Do you remember what happened before you fell into a coma?”
Tang Xiao glanced at him and pretended to recall. “I remember a little bit. I seem to be infected with the zombie mushroom.”
Tang Xiao’s expression suddenly changed and he lowered his head to look at his hand.
“It’s okay. You’ve recovered.” Feng Shuyun thought that Tang Xiao was infected because of herself. She couldn’t help but hold Tang Xiao’s hand and pat the back of his hand. “Don’t worry. We gave you a comprehensive examination. You are very healthy now.”
“What’s going on here…” Tang Xiao pretended to look at Feng Shuyun in confusion.
“That’s also what we want to ask,” the middle-aged man spoke. “Do you still remember what happened after being infected with the zombie mushroom?”
“I was in the hall. When my consciousness was vague, I seemed to see a huge monster…” Without knowing what the Third Eye had done or how much it had seen, Tang Xiao just picked up some vague parts and said, “Then I passed out and didn’t remember anything.”
This was indeed a fact. He just covered up the sentence he spoke to 428.
From the fact that the main task had not shown any failures, 428 probably did not have any problems. Thinking that somehow his zombie disease that could not be cured by common sense had been cured for some unknown reason. It was probably related to 428.
“That monster… is 428, right? What happened to it later?”
“It’s alright. It’s cocooned now. I don’t know when it will hatch. You can go later if you want to see it.”
The few people in uniforms looked at each other and were about to ask another question, but Feng Shuyun said firmly, “Can’t you see that he just woke up? Is this how you treat meritorious officials?”
“How dare I ah?” The middle-aged man said with a bitter smile. “Alright, alright, let’s not ask anymore. Then, you have to let us finish this task.”
“Task?” Tang Xiao asked in confusion.
Feng Shuyun patted Tang Xiao’s back and comforted him. “Don’t worry. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just that the leader of the Third Eye wants to talk to you.”
“With… me?”
“That’s right.” Feng Shuyun patted Tang Xiao’s hand. “Rest assured. It’s a good thing. The leader has not appeared in front of outsiders for a long time. He’s not in good health, but after he heard about you, he wanted to see you. Of course, it’s through video calls.”
After saying that, the middle-aged man walked to Tang Xiao with a tablet in his hand. Soon, the screen lit up.
Tang Xiao saw an old man who seemed to be nearly eighty or ninety years old half-lying on the hospital bed. On the small screen, he could see many instruments connected behind him. He tilted his head strangely, a bit like a famous scientist on Earth. His face was covered with many wrinkles as he tried to smile and said, “Hello, this is our first meeting. I’m Manfred Dalton, the leader of the Third Eye.”
“Hello, I’m Tang Xiao.”
“I know you, Tang.” Dalton said with a smile, “First of all, I have to thank you for your help. If it wasn’t for you, I think the disaster today would be much more than that.”
“No. I didn’t do anything.” Tang Xiao hurriedly declined. “I just made suggestions to Dr. Feng normally.”
“If you hadn’t proposed to use the testing machine, I’m afraid there would be many people to be victims now.” Dalton said softly, “Besides, there’s the experiment subject 428… It’s also because of your persistence that we have discovered its precious potential.”
“I thank you on behalf of everyone, Tang, for your persistence and your contribution to scientific research.”
Tang Xiao’s eyes lit up. He said, “So, my thesis…”
“Of course, you have proved that you are right. Indeed, as you wrote in your thesis, the growth and development trajectory of 428 is unpredictable for us humans. Perhaps, we should not have judged it so easily at the beginning. There are still things hidden in it that we don’t know. The level 5 project will be restarted.”
Finally, I didn’t work in vain.
Tang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.
“In addition, I think there might be a little controversy about the Best Achievement Award at the Achievement Conference…” Dalton looked at Feng Shuyun mischievously, and Dr. Feng smiled, not at all provoked by him. “Okay, but the Best Newcomer Award is certainly not controversial… cough, cough, cough, cough!”
As Dalton spoke, his face suddenly turned red and he couldn’t help coughing. The values of many instruments in the screen soared, and the doctor on standby next to him anxiously persuaded, “Doctor, it’s time for you to rest!”
“I think I’m in good health today,” Dalton muttered, looking at Tang Xiao. “Okay, Tang. It seems that our conversation is over today, cough cough! I look forward to your follow-up performance. I wish you on the road of scientific research, and enjoy your glory.”
The screen turned black again, and the middle-aged man smiled as he said, “That’s what the leader wants to say.”
Tang Xiao hesitated for a moment and couldn’t help but ask, “The leader… is he okay?”
“He’s okay.” The middle-aged man forced a smile. “It’s not entirely true to say he’s okay, but the leader is already in his nineties. He is prone to illness at this age. His condition today is quite good.”
Over ninety… no wonder.
Tang Xiao remembered what the masked man had said to him before. He couldn’t help but ask, “Is the leader the founder of the Third Eye?”
“Yes. He’s old now and hasn’t been involved in the organization for a long time,” The middle-aged man said vaguely. Feng Shuyun nodded and added, “The leader is the one who first put forward the ‘King of Mushroom’ hypothesis. You should have heard of him, one of the greatest scientists of the last century.”
Tang Xiao was surprised.
He had actually read it. It was in Bader’s research material.
The King of Mushroom hypothesis probably referred to the social study of mushroom communities. In 1970, scientists proposed that the mushroom race had an existence similar to the ‘queen bee’, but compared with the swarm, the King of Mushroom had more control over the mushrooms. It could even be said that it was an extension of the will of mushrooms. 100 years ago, mushrooms suddenly began to invade and parasitize other species, which was likely to be the will of the King of Mushroom.
In addition, Dalton also inferred the general division of labor and operation of the mushroom kingdom, as well as the existence of mushroom networks, by observing the mushrooms, which helped survivors avoid countless disasters. In that chaotic era, it could be said to be quite remarkable.
Also, if it wasn’t for being a big shot himself, how could it be possible to create an academic organization like the Third Eye?
The middle-aged man said, “Alright. My task has been completed and it’s almost time to leave. Researcher Tang, the leader is very optimistic about you and hopes that you will continue to make achievements in the future.”
“I can… be a researcher?” Tang Xiao nodded first, then reacted. “Researcher? Am I not an assistant?”
“Aiya,” the middle-aged man subconsciously glanced at Feng Shuyun but was glared at again. “I should have told you the news.”
“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.” The middle-aged man smiled sheepishly and cupped his hands repeatedly. Under Feng Shuyun's resentful eyes, he casually said a few words of congratulations to Tang Xiao and quickly left with his people.
After the middle-aged man left, Tang Xiao turned his gaze to Feng Shuyun, who sighed and said, “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Congratulations, your thesis has been approved by the higher-ups. After two days of discussion, we have decided to promote you to an official researcher.”
Tang Xiao was slightly stunned and instinctively opened the personal attribute page.
Sure enough, his profession had been upgraded from assistant researcher to official researcher, and he had also obtained 5 freely assigned attribute points and 2,000 subject experience points.
Tang Xiao saved it for the time being and saw where the key points were later.
“In addition to that, I also want to give you my personal gratitude.” Feng Shuyun stood up from the bench and bowed slightly to Tang Xiao solemnly. “One for my thesis and two for my life. I don’t know how to express my gratitude.”
“What are you doing?” Tang Xiao was startled and struggled to move his body away from the hospital bed to avoid the salute. “This is too frustrating for me. I just did what I should do. Your research can save many people and avoid many disasters. Every human in my perspective would make such a choice.”
Feng Shuyun shook her head and said, “That is also a solid life-saving grace. If not for you, I wouldn't be here now, and you deserve to accept my gratitude. Also, if it wasn’t for your warning, I wouldn't have discovered the traps set by those annoying people, and the patent ownership would be controversial. Therefore, I want to give you a 1% dividend”
“No, no. I won’t take it.” Tang Xiao shook his head repeatedly. This was not a problem he had discovered in the first place. He was able to convince Feng Shuyun because of the guidance given by Feng Shuyun in his last archive.
He only grasped this information by relying on the loading of the archive’s advantage. Although it was just a game, he would feel uncomfortable to accept it. After all, he did not put in much effort.
No matter how Feng Shuyun tried to persuade him, Tang Xiao shook his head. Helplessly, Feng Shuyun sighed. “Don’t you know how much wealth this is… Forget it, I can’t force it to you even if you don’t want it.”
Tang Xiao just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard a transfer reminder from his bracelet, with 200,000 points.
“But I can still force you to have this money.” Feng Shuyun fiddler with the bracelet. Without waiting for Tang Xiao to say anything, she said, “You don’t think my life isn’t worth this point, right? Consider it as pocket money for you.”
So, Tang Xiao shut up, torn for a moment, and said, “Thank you, Dr. Feng.”
It's not a Spring Festival red envelope. Why push it so many times?
Seeing that Tang Xiao accepted it, Feng Shuyun smiled like a grandma who had successfully stuffed the red envelope to her grandchildren. She rubbed Tang Xiao's head lovingly: “By the way, don't forget to prepare for the dinner party. You are one of the protagonists.”
“Um... um? What kind of dinner party?” Tang Xiao said in confusion.
“There will be an award ceremony after the Achievement Conference. It’s a tradition. After that, the award-winning scientists will usually give a speech in the award ceremony.” Feng Shuyun winked niftily, “In the words of your young people, if you don’t pretend to be impressive when you make achievements, it’s equivalent to not doing them.”
Tang Xiao mocked. “... You’re really in a vogue.”
“But this dinner party is a little different. Due to this incident, the Achievement Conference was suspended. During the three days when you were coma, the organization was closed. No one was allowed to leave without authorization. They could only publish the achievement online, and they had to wait for staff to check… In short, there was a lot of messy things that made those scientists suffocated.”
Feng Shuyun shrugged: “So they protested, and the high-level officials had to change the award ceremony into an academic dinner. The award-winning scientists would hold a small presentation at the dinner.”
Tang Xiao opened his mouth and said, “Is it okay? What if that disaster happens again?”
“It’s okay. The purpose of the Huigui sect is to prevent my achievements from flowing out, but they have failed. All relevant personnel have been purged in the past two days. A lot of rats have been caught.”
“And the testing machine has been expedited in the past few days, ensuring that every corner of the venue is full of testing machines,” Feng Shuyun said happily. “Although this is a bit bad, it is indeed because of this time that my achievements quickly passed the patent application.”
The corner of Tang Xiao’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch. “Congratulations…”
“I also want to thank you,” Feng Shuyun said with a smile and stood up, “Okay, I won't disturb you anymore, let's prepare for tonight's award ceremony. Experimental subject 428 is the biggest hot spot in the academic world recently, and many people are curious about you. It is estimated that there will be many people here specially for you tonight.”
“Okay... eh??? Tonight?!”
“How else can you say that you woke up at the right time?” Feng Shuyun patted Tang Xiao's shoulder, her eyes full of expectation for the younger generation. “Enjoy this moment.”
Seeing Feng Shuyun leave, Tang Xiao petrified in place.
Giving a presentation? In front of so many scientists??
Is it too late for him to go back and pretend to be unconscious now?!
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