Genesis: Starting with Growing Mushrooms

Chapter 2 The Bacterium Master Transforms into Ultimate Life

"It's blown up! It's blown up!"

"As expected of the class representative! Her energy is so powerful, it's really refreshing my mind."

"One brain dumped, a myriad of brains feel great!"

Exclamations of surprise came from the surrounding students.

Liu Jun huddled in the corner, listening to the rain outside the window, and excitedly recalled this little game from his past life.

The protagonist of the story is a mushroom with a rebellious spirit.

It had an epiphany while the mushroom soup was boiling on the table, gaining a series of talents, growing at super speed, and vowing to defeat the evil humans who love to eat mushrooms.

It releases spores, begins spore evolution, grows various talents such as plague, hallucination, and virus, and then fights against human pharmaceutical companies, destroying humanity.

This ability, if placed in reality, would be considered monstrous, like a plague god on a planet.

"Let's wait until we get back and see. It's always better to be cautious than to make a big mistake."

For the rest of the day, Liu Jun was somewhat distracted, but his heart was full of anticipation.

Until school is over.

As soon as the bell rang, the students rushed out of the classroom.

Another group of students, driven by intense competition, appeared on the track, running and practicing extra in the rain.

The main idea is: as long as you don't die from the sucking, suck until you die.

After all, if he doesn't break through to the third rank, he'll really only live to be in his thirties.

"gone."

Li Feng patted Liu Jun on the shoulder, "Don't be envious. We're not qualified to do extra training. If we try to do it like them, our bodies will break down."

Li Feng already has bald patches on his head, but overall he is still a very tall and handsome basketball player on the school team.

Zou Anmeng nodded seriously, "We can only attend classes for eight hours a day. Only rich people can afford to have extra classes."

Zou Anmeng is only eighteen years old, but she is already a beautiful mature woman. Every move she makes exudes mature charm, and the school uniform she wears gives her a pure yet alluring temperament.

"Well, let's go."

Liu Jun was also eager to go home and check on his golden touch.

Pack your schoolbag, change your shoes, open your umbrella, and walk side by side with them out of the school gate.

The three were family friends.

We're now comrades-in-arms, working together to run a small business and pay off our loans.

This story goes back to their fathers, who were also idiots. They were comrades-in-arms from their student days who worked together to take out loans, but all of them died in their thirties.

The three, who were junior high school students at the time, carried on their fathers' wishes and continued to repay the cerebral palsy loan left by their fathers and to continue their studies with the help of their brains.

In fact, there are quite a few such cooperative families in Rehe City.

Tigers always roam alone, while cattle and horses travel in herds.

This is a wise saying from Rehe City.

If he cannot break through, Liu Junyuan's original future is also obvious.

Like their parents, they died of old age in their thirties while lying in a hospital bed, leaving their inheritance to their descendants so that their three descendants could continue to live together.

The idea of ​​passing down a loan through generations is no joke.

This cycle continues until Liu Jun's son or even grandson has a chance to break through to the third-tier Mind Master level, at which point the family genealogy will be updated, and the family will achieve a leap in social class.

"After I was transported to this world, from the age of three when I awakened my innate wisdom, I knew as an infant that my life was predictable from beginning to end."

Liu Jun's gaze was deep and unfocused. He carried his schoolbag and his canvas shoes left a trail of footprints with each step.

"In my previous life, with the development of society, mortgages and car loans seemed to have reached their limit, and I thought I had reached the limit."

"Unexpectedly, in this more developed world of scholars, even AI assistants need loans, otherwise they are considered to have a pre-existing intellectual disability."

"However, everything is different now."

"Life has hope again."

As for the two childhood sweethearts who were discussing Xu Changsheng nearby, they did not intend to tell them about their experiences today.

To entrust one's life to the character of another is the most foolish thing to do.

Li Feng started talking about what happened today: "Xu Changsheng is so pitiful. Who isn't a complete idiot behind the scenes? What are they pretending for?"

Liu Jun interjected, "Studying is stressful these days. Everyone has a bit of cyberbullying. Everyone wants to release some stress. I heard it's all because Xu Changsheng's missing father was a gambler. After losing everything, he disappeared in a black market casino."

Zou Anmeng sighed, "Alas, I've heard there's more to the story. It's said that the school beauty's mother plotted against Xu Changsheng's parents before she died. That's why the school beauty has so many resources now. She's really a scoundrel."

Li Feng's eyes widened: "Where did this rumor come from? That school beauty is naturally talented! It must be some girl spreading rumors and slandering her. Xu Changsheng's father is a gambler."

Liu Jun chimed in calmly, "Alas, Xu Changsheng only has a loyal family friend, Fatty, left by his side."

Li Feng: "Anyway, we're different from those three. We won't end up scheming against each other like that! We'll be best friends for life! Once I, Li Feng, break through to the third-tier Mind Master, I'll take you two to enjoy the good life together!"

As the sun set, the three walked into the street through the misty rain, the rain corroding every building along the street.

In the distance, chimneys spewed thick black smoke and exhaust fumes, while towering buildings formed a steel jungle, and huge neon billboards advertised the latest lightweight mechanical armor.

Everywhere you look, pedestrians are engrossed in their phones, playing with holographic projection glasses and scrolling through short videos, their cheap prosthetic feet on autopilot, seemingly unafraid of bumping into people.

Entering the subway station and boarding the crowded tram, the three began their more than two-hour commute to the neighboring Cangyun City.

The prices of school district housing in Rehe City are too high, so the three of them rent a house in the suburbs of the neighboring city.

The train carriage was filled with the smell of sweat and muddy rain from the soles of shoes because of the constant rain.

A group of students and office workers were crammed together like sardines in a can, filled with despair, numbness, and pain.
Thoughtful slogans were posted on the carriages.

[The Weather Community Management Bureau reminds you: Roads are slippery in rainy weather. To ensure fresh and clean air in the carriage, please use your smart device to block your olfactory senses before entering the carriage!]

Wow!
The train started moving.

Inside the train carriage, the scenery of rusty buildings passing by kept swaying.

In Cangyun City, back at his rented apartment, Liu Jun exchanged a few words with the two men before rushing back to his room and closing the door.

[Please join the glorious evolution of mushroom soup!]

Once evolution begins, it cannot stop; life either collapses or reaches its end!

Then a game scene appeared before my eyes: a human figure sat at a dining table with chopsticks, and in front of him was a pot of delicious and sweet mushroom soup. In the soup, an angry mushroom revealed (〒︿〒) eyes, ready to start a battle with the human.

The screen gradually rotates.

The image of mushroom soup gradually zooms in, revealing three initial talent nodes within the rolling soup. The [Mushroom Soup] is a large pot resembling a storage bag, which produces mushrooms. There are options to place it while AFK (away from keyboard) to increase the production speed of talents by x2, x3, or x4.

It's currently running at 1x speed.

In my past life, I unlocked multipliers by watching ads.

Now that we can't watch ads, I don't know how to increase the AFK (away from keyboard) speed.

The three adorable initial talent mushrooms in the mushroom soup float and sink in the delicious, clear broth.

Mushroom Head Number One made a restrained expression.

[Low symptoms: The incubation period is longer, and symptoms are reduced.]

Mushroom Head #2 made a sleeping face with a "zzZ~" expression.

[Low energy consumption: Improves energy utilization, requiring relatively little energy to maintain cell function.]

Mushroom Head Number Three struck a wise pose.

[Low intelligence: Possesses a certain level of low intelligence.]

These three options are classic opening moves.

Only by selecting lower-level prerequisite talents can you access higher-level tech trees and evolve along the way.

[Low symptoms], the first thing to rule out is that, at present, this mushroom king has no infectivity, so its incubation ability is naturally useless.

Low intelligence is important in games, as it accelerates the automatic evolution of fungi, but in reality, it would cause significant problems in various aspects.

In case.

He decisively chose the "low consumption" option first.

The next moment, Liu Jun saw a 3D projection of his entire body, his cells looking like a pot of humanoid soup.

He was like a pot of boiling soup, with countless particles of material fissioning, colliding, recombining, breaking through, and raising the upper limit of life.

Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, the person's spirit and energy are completely different.

then.

He started to melt.

The nuclei of all the cells in the body began to melt, decompose, and reorganize, transforming into a peculiar structure with multiple nuclei. Some cells were mononuclear, while others were multinucleated, intermingling and interweaving with each other.

The flesh and fat of the human body were scattered on the ground like a fungal carpet, and the internal organs were also scattered, eventually revealing a crystal-clear white human skeleton.

"Is that my skeleton?"

Liu Jun crawled on the floor and found himself turned into liquid.

With a thought, he transformed and merged his entire being into a perfectly natural entity:

mushroom!

Then a thought naturally came to mind: I am a fungus with the talent of [low energy consumption].

The liquid flows back the next moment.

The bacterial solution is like clothing that covers its own skeleton.

Liu Jun returned to human form, swung his arms, squatted down to stretch, stood up and easily stretched, swinging his arms and punching.

"You've broken through your cultivation level?"

He was somewhat incredulous:
"I actually broke through to the sixth level of the Rain Realm in one go? Spanning five minor realms? This has already surpassed the top student in our school!"

In this world, the realms of cultivators are divided into four: wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.

Wind Realm: It is simply the ability to control objects with Nen. Nen is like the wind, initially like a gentle breeze rustling willows, and later like the wind blowing through wheat fields.

Rain Realm: Can condense into tangible spiritual spikes, initially like a gentle spring rain, later like a violent storm.

Thunder Realm: Thoughts are like thunderclaps; the moment a thought strikes, the mind explodes like a thunderclap, causing the spirit to dissipate.

"Good, good, good." Liu Jun smiled, in a very good mood, rubbing his hands together as he paced back and forth in the room.

"I've turned into a mushroom? I finally have the right to stop being human?"

"Have my physical ailments been resolved?"

For the first time, he felt that his body was so healthy and normal, and that he had perfectly recovered to his youthful age of eighteen.

In this world, cloning, replication, and prosthetic modifications are all possible; the body is merely a shell that can be replaced at will.

But only the rich have the right to be treated as less than human.

In the eyes of this highly developed world, humanity is merely an intermediate stage in their biological evolutionary history.

Other spiritual practitioners cultivate spiritual energy, abandon their physical bodies, and become eternal and immortal wise gods, who in the past would have been worshipped by scholars as the God of Literature.

In a sense, Liu Jun had already completed his ascension at this moment; others have undergone prosthetic body modifications, but I...
Mushroom modification.

Soft, bouncy, cute, and with a rich aroma.

He exudes a rich, woody fragrance, carrying the profound sense of life nurtured by the earth, with the mellow richness of truffles.

"I smell so good?"

Liu Jun felt that he truly deserved to be called a life born from a delicious mushroom soup. No wonder humans captured him and boiled him into soup. How could humans in this game's storyline possibly resist?!

Putting aside these chaotic thoughts, Liu Jun clearly sensed the evolution of life.

A talent can be nurtured in a few days.

If this continues, I don't know what my life structure will become.
A feeling of ease and pleasure filled my body, followed by an unparalleled hunger.

He decisively took out a second-tier psychic energy supplement from the bedside box and plunged it in.

As nutrients flow in, like the bright yellow flames burning beneath a pot of mushroom soup, a mysterious number flickers again at the corner of my eye.

The idle placement multiplier has been increased to ×2.

"Can we increase the AFK (away from keyboard) multiplier by replenishing nutrients and burning mushroom soup over a large fire, thus accelerating the awakening of the next talent?"

This ability was even more formidable than he had imagined.

He closed his eyes slightly, and the mental power from the spiritual master was activated, illuminating his body. He discovered that all the cells in his body had begun to undergo various branching and mutations, becoming cellular bacteria and viruses.

I am the ultimate life form.

What we need to do is develop quietly and steadily.

(End of this chapter)