The young girl led Zhang Chen along the stone wall for a while before suddenly turning into a crevice.
The crevice was filled with glowing mushrooms, casting the narrow path in a flickering light.
Passing through this path, the ground suddenly became flat. Although there was still plenty of soil and rubble, Zhang Chen could clearly feel that the ground beneath should have been artificially leveled.
The floor of a natural cave would not be this smooth.
Indeed, after walking forward for a bit longer, the soil on the ground and the mushrooms on the sides gradually decreased, revealing a dilapidated corridor.
"Please wait a moment!"
The young girl suddenly stopped, turned around, and said with a strangely mismatched smile.
Following this, the sounds of machinery starting up filled the air.
Immediately afterward, the lights at the end of the corridor flickered and then struggled to come on.
However, it seemed no one had walked down this corridor for a long time. Dust on the light tubes obscured the light, making the entire corridor appear very dim.
On both sides, some sections were walls, while others were glass, faintly revealing the dim light within the rooms.
"I will wait for you in the innermost room!"
After saying this, the young girl once again fell into a death-like state, leaning against the wall with her head bowed.
Zhang Chen walked along the corridor, observing the situation in the surrounding rooms as he went.
These observation rooms seemed to contain experimental subjects, and through the hazy glass, he could vaguely see what appeared to be human forms.
"Are they using people for experiments?"
Zhang Chen casually pushed open the door to an observation room.
On the operating table lay a humanoid creature. Its state was the same as the corpses outside; although dead, it did not decay, and its body remained soft.
To Zhang Chen's surprise, although the creature's body was human, it had cat-like claws and a pair of fluffy cat ears on its head.
Its chest had been cut open, with clear signs of suturing.
"Cat ears... person?"
Zhang Chen was slightly taken aback.
He turned to look at the hibernation pods along the wall. Their doors were all destroyed. Inside, a wolf-eared person, a person with bull horns, and a person with pointed ears like an elf lay peacefully.
Above the hibernation pods were jars containing various indeterminate organic matter.
"Are these... new species?"
Zhang Chen scratched his head. Perhaps he had not been in the ultimate apocalypse survival for long enough? Why had he never encountered such creatures before?
He had seen lizard people, but those things, despite being called people, were essentially lizards that walked upright, completely different from the beings here.
Zhang Chen then moved to the adjacent observation room.
In the center was a chair, on which sat a person with goat horns. However, to accommodate a helmet-like device on its head, the horns had been sawn off and discarded in a nearby trash can.
The other end of the helmet was connected to a hospital bed where a withered old man lay.
It looked like some kind of consciousness transfer device, designed to move the consciousness of a dying old person into this creature's body.
"Is this where the progressives conduct consciousness transfer experiments?"
Zhang Chen's understanding gradually solidified.
But that monster that had killed so many people, was it also a product of this laboratory?
Curiously, Zhang Chen walked towards the end of the corridor.
The end of the corridor was not an elevator, but blocked by an unknown mass. It looked somewhat like mucus, but it had already dried and hardened, still retaining the appearance of flowing outward.
There were two rooms here: one was a laboratory, and the other was an observation room.
This unknown mass had oozed out from beneath the door of the observation room.
Therefore, Zhang Chen unhesitatingly pushed open the door to the observation room.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a mass of dark, viscous fluid splattered onto Zhang Chen, enveloping him from head to toe.
The fluid desperately tried to burrow into Zhang Chen's mouth and nostrils.
At the same time, a voice suddenly appeared in Zhang Chen's mind:
"Eat you, if I eat you, I will have a body, I will be free, hahaha!"
The voice began as that of a little girl, then changed to a middle-aged man's voice, and finally to a woman's voice, with the laughter sounding like a chorus of people.
"Dream on!"
[Armor of the God of Light]!
Suddenly, a golden light erupted from Zhang Chen, and a complete set of armor instantly encased his every inch of skin.
After repelling the viscous fluid, the armor rapidly expanded until it filled the entire room, forcing the fluid into a corner before it stopped.
Heh, this tactic is an old trick.
Zhang Chen had been possessed by the previous Spider Queen when his strength was not yet significant.
At that time, the Spider Queen had been counter-devoured and turned into an egg.
Now, with Zhang Chen's current strength, could a creation truly devour a creation god?
That was simply wishful thinking.
"Wuwuwu, please let me go, I am just a very helpless, pitiful, and infantile experimental subject..."
"Without a main body, I cannot leave this laboratory."
"Once I step out this door, within seconds, I will turn hard, like stone, and die..."
The voice of the viscous fluid reverted to that of a little girl, weeping as she spoke.
"What exactly are you?"
"Those corpses outside, you did that, didn't you!"
Zhang Chen frowned and asked.
Killing this guy would be as easy as flipping his hand.
What interested him more was its identity.
If it were a monster, it would mean that the monsters of the apocalypse had developed a certain degree of intelligence, and perhaps intelligent life could emerge.
If it were man-made, what was its purpose?
"You... release this energy, I can't breathe!"
The viscous fluid again took on the voice of an old man, gasping for breath.
Zhang Chen deactivated his skill and silently watched the viscous fluid slide down the wall and onto the floor.
Then, it gradually began to form a human shape on the ground.
However, the shape was vague, making it impossible to discern gender, and it had no facial features, merely the general outline of a human.
"Actually, I... just want to eat you!"
The viscous fluid suddenly surged towards Zhang Chen again.
However, Zhang Chen was prepared this time. A powerful force field directly compressed the fluid into a sphere, suspending it in mid-air.
Zhang Chen had seen people who were not afraid of death, and he had seen shameless people, but this was the first time he had encountered someone who was both fearless and shameless.
"Is there something wrong with your brain?"
Zhang Chen frowned, then carefully peered at the viscous fluid, thinking, "Why isn't the prompt appearing yet?"
After a while, the prompt slowly materialized:
[Name: Netherworld Mushroom Essence. It absorbs the energy and consciousness of all surrounding creatures and integrates them into itself.]
[It can destroy, merge, and transfer consciousness, and even act according to its own will. Its main body flows within the giant mushroom forest, making it difficult to capture.]