Although Zhou Zhe did not understand why, the memory of obeying orders was deeply ingrained in his mind.
He turned and left.
Only Qin Chuan stood silently before the wall of corpses for a long time.
Suddenly, in the corner of the wall, he spotted an exceptionally enormous sea monster.
His gaze was involuntarily drawn to it.
He walked towards the monster before him alone.
Within the monster's head, a faint, deep blue light flickered.
It was like the siren's song, continuously luring Qin Chuan forward.
He was like an enchanted traveler, aimlessly captivated by the lure before him.
He didn't even hear someone calling his name from behind.
"Boss?"
"Boss?"
Zhou Zhe called out several times, finding that Qin Chuan had no reaction at all.
He hurried back to find Qin Chuan. Holding his flashlight, he searched for Qin Chuan's trace while shouting his name loudly.
After a while, Zhou Zhe finally saw Qin Chuan.
The latter had his entire body extended into the stone wall, his head even thrust into the monster's abdomen.
It was as if he was trying to burrow into its body.
Not until Zhou Zhe grabbed Qin Chuan's body forcefully and shook him several times.
Did Qin Chuan gradually regain his senses.
Qin Chuan, having come back to himself, looked at the scene before him with some trepidation. He looked at everything around him in a daze.
"What happened?" Qin Chuan's eyes showed a momentary blankness, as if he had no memory of what had just transpired.
Zhou Zhe, still pulling at Qin Chuan, also looked surprised and uncertain.
"Boss, don't you remember what just happened?"
Qin Chuan looked directly at him and shook his head mechanically, as if his memory had a glitch.
The last time he was conscious, things stopped at seeing the sea monster. He was curious and wanted to go closer, but then he lost consciousness.
He looked at his own actions and could hardly imagine what would have happened if Zhou Zhe hadn't been there.
If Zhou Zhe hadn't quickly noticed something was wrong and pulled him back in time.
Qin Chuan was more curious about this lost memory than Zhou Zhe.
While Zhou Zhe had already recounted the events three times, Qin Chuan was still solemnly confirming.
"When you came in, were you sure I was the only one here?"
Qin Chuan's words made the already eerie atmosphere even more so.
"Boss, don't scare me. There's no one else here but us."
Qin Chuan didn't speak again but continued to walk towards the sea monster. Zhou Zhe stopped him.
"Boss, you're still going? This thing is a bit strange. Maybe we should go out first."
Qin Chuan shook his head, turning a deaf ear. "It's fine, I'll just take a look."
Zhou Zhe thought to himself, "Weren't you just going to take a look earlier?"
You were almost halfway into its belly.
But Zhou Zhe knew that once Qin Chuan made up his mind, nothing he said would change it.
He could only maintain a safe distance from Qin Chuan.
This way, if Qin Chuan encountered any further problems, he could wake him up immediately.
Qin Chuan continued forward, following the light source.
This time, he was not ensnared. Instead, he successfully retrieved the object emitting the faint blue light.
Qin Chuan brought the thing he held in his hand closer, finally seeing clearly what it was.
It was a strand of something resembling mycelium, emitting a glow.
Qin Chuan frowned, seemingly recalling something.
Zhou Zhe beside him looked at Qin Chuan, puzzled. "Boss, what are you looking at?"
Since Qin Chuan's back was to him, Zhou Zhe couldn't see the thing in his hand.
If Xu An were here, she would surely recognize it as the "little mushroom" she had been searching for.
Qin Chuan's heart vaguely had an answer regarding the object in his hand, but he couldn't be sure.
When Zhou Zhe looked over, Qin Chuan instinctively put away the mycelium he held.
"It's nothing. Let's go out and call the exploration team to clean up."
Zhou Zhe looked disappointed. "I thought there might be oil here. What a wasted trip."
Qin Chuan did not complain. "If we have the technology, we can mine the ocean. If there are still resources here, let's leave them for the people here, as they also need to survive."
Zhou Zhe had no objection. The two left the cave, one after the other.
Qin Chuan, unnoticed by Zhou Zhe, secretly put the mycelium into his close-fitting pocket, intending to study it further when they returned.
Fortunately, after the mycelium was placed in his pocket, the deep blue glow seemed to disappear as well.
He thought of the mutated monsters Xia Jin had asked him to find previously and inexplicably felt that the mycelium in his pocket was what Xia Jin was looking for.
However, he had no idea what the function of this mycelium was, and he did not wish to hand it over to Xia Jin.
Qin Chuan remained in a daze until they emerged from the cave.
It wasn't until Zhou Zhe called him that he snapped back to reality.
Meanwhile, Xu An was lying in bed reading when a voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
"The mycelium has appeared."
It was the voice of Ze Yuan, who had been missing for days.
Xu An was about to ask for more details, but Ze Yuan fell into slumber once more.
Leaving Xu An alone to ponder this single sentence.
At this moment, Gou Dan also came over, wagging its tail and shaking its head beside Xu An.
As if wanting to get closer to Xu An.
But Xu An was lost in Ze Yuan's words, unable to extricate herself.
The mycelium has appeared.
But Xu An knew that this little mushroom could not appear in front of people on its own.
However, its appearance now clearly indicated that new mycelium had emerged.
So, who would have discovered this mycelium?
Speaking of which, after they returned, the top brass of the Lighthouse still hadn't contacted them.
The tasks they had been assigned earlier had not yet been reviewed.
Speak of the devil, and he appears.
Just as Xu An was thinking about why the people who assigned them tasks hadn't come to find her, her communicator suddenly emitted a "beep beep beep" sound.
After Xu An answered, she heard a mechanical female voice from the other end.
"Xu An, please report to the White Building tomorrow morning at ten o'clock for task result handover. Reply upon receipt."
Xu An listened to the voice from the communicator and softly said, "Received." The other party then hung up the phone.
Xu An hadn't figured out what was going on with the suddenly appearing mycelium.
At this moment, Zhou Haimei's call already came through.