Although Ashley was very worried about Little Cousin, the teacher’s analysis calmed her down.
Union City had already gathered elites to investigate, and the teacher’s girl form with spatial abilities was the most suitable for finding the Lost City. She had already set off for the Rift City Ruins, so Ashley just needed to wait for the summons.
Even so, she was still burning with anxiety.
Get stronger!
She had to get stronger as soon as possible!
Ashley steeled her resolve inwardly.
First, she needed to have her own laboratory.
The Blackfoot Workshop was great, but it was a profit-oriented studio. All services cost money, and even if she bought it, she’d have to rehire Little Black Feet. There was no way she could domineer her into working for free.
If she wanted a partnership, she had no projects to collaborate on.
Ashley rented a three-warehouse complex with a yard in the alley next to the Blackfoot Workshop and moved in extraordinary materials and ancient relics, some of which came from the family secret room.
But she was clueless about research and didn’t know what to do.
When it came to getting stronger, Ashley noticed that Amber had recently been stimulated by something. She was studying and training like mad, even inviting Ashley to study together, but Ashley dismissed it. Hmph, that dumb loli wants to grow a brain? Dream on!
–
Ashley was on duty as usual in Office 207. She was assigned a desk piled with books borrowed from the library. At that moment, she was flipping through a book on biotech.
“So this world has systematic genetic engineering technology… First, you need a biological computer… Using the brain of a sentient creature for computing power… Parrots, crows, dolphins, monkeys… even… humans…”
Ashley muttered:
“Good grief, one brain is equivalent to a graphics card, huh? Monkey head is a budget card, human head is flagship, hmm… If you took out all the brains from an entire city’s people to make graphics cards, wouldn’t that just be a mining farm?”
She was so engrossed that she didn’t even hear the captain calling her.
“Time to head out!” A girl with purple braided hair shouted very close by, her face displeased.
“Huh?”
Ashley quickly stood up and saw the Seventh Group’s members packing up to depart.
“Rookie, why aren’t you more proactive?” The second-year Elsa with the purple braids complained.
Ashley glanced at her. You want to outwork me? No way!
She leisurely changed into her cowboy boots and uniform, stuffed Flora’s homemade lunch bento into her bag, and was the last to leave the office.
The Investigation Department’s transport was lizard-class cadavers, shaped like velociraptors with saddles on their backs like baskets. They could reach forty kilometers per hour for long distances and sprint at twenty meters per second.
Captain Roy led the way, turning north from Fifth Avenue onto West Ding Street, then through a dark tree-lined path to a residential complex of four buildings.
Police had set up a cordon at the entrance, with the victim’s family standing by in bewilderment and anxiety, while some onlookers watched from afar.
It required Tribunal agents, indicating a supernatural incident, but the scene wasn’t tense.
“The victim is a construction worker, Cliff Garcia. He came home last night with no abnormalities, but this morning his family woke up to find him sitting motionless on the sofa in a strange state… My vocabulary is too limited to describe it. You’d better check it out yourself… Also, instruments detected supernatural fluctuations. Please be careful,” the sheriff reported.
“I’ll go inspect the scene now.”
Roy nodded slightly. His steady, powerful tone gave a very reliable impression as he strode toward the stairwell.
“You stay here.”
Elsa shot a sideways glare at the blue-haired loli, finding her more and more disagreeable.
Ashley acted like she hadn’t heard and dashed ahead even faster than Captain Roy, taking the stairs two at a time to the second floor.
It was a long three-stairwell building housing twelve households per floor. The affected home had its door open, easy to spot.
Ashley arrived at the door first and immediately saw the victim sitting on the sofa in the corner of the living room.
Cliff wore a work uniform with frayed cuffs, faded from washing, not even changed at home, suggesting he had only a few to rotate.
At first glance, he looked normal. His lips were still moving, his expression serene but dull, though his face was ashen and his gaze unfocused.
But looking down, the style changed drastically. Instead of legs extending from his pant legs, countless black threads as fine as hair writhed, crawling and spreading across the floor in a glossy, semi-transparent texture. Some thicker ones resembled veins, linked by tumor-like protoplasmic nodes with liquid gurgling through.
Ashley noticed that a bread basket and fruit plate on the dining table nearby were overrun by the black threads like a water ghost’s hair, wrapping and devouring the food until only scraps remained. If they’d arrived later, even the scraps would be gone.
“This… this is mycelium?”
Ashley saw at a glance that Cliff’s legs had turned into a massive bundle of fungal hyphae. He wasn’t sitting on the sofa; he had planted himself in it, with the sofa as his flowerpot.
Though his eyes still moved, his chest no longer rose and fell. With no air flow, he couldn’t make a sound.
Clearly, his human organs had transformed into something else. The current Cliff was merely an unknown creature in human form.
“Hey! Why didn’t you follow orders!” The purple-haired girl stormed up furiously and demanded.
“Because I’m special,” Ashley replied indifferently, half-turning to face her. “We won’t be working together long. I’ll soon be promoted to officer and form my own investigation team. Don’t think you can boss me around. That’s impossible.”
Elsa was speechless from the retort. This rookie showed no respect for her senior. Back when she first joined the Seventh Group, she’d come at dawn every day to sweep and flush toilets. So what if she was the Trial Judge’s disciple? Big deal!
But what she didn’t know was that Ashley didn’t respect even the Trial Judge, let alone agents.
At the door, Roy was talking to the family.
“Has he left the city recently? Contacted any supernatural items?”
The family shook their heads, saying Cliff’s recent projects were all inside the city. His last trip out was half a year ago.
“Then, any strange incidents with him?” Roy asked, notebook in hand, recording diligently.
The family said that two days ago, Cliff had fallen from scaffolding at the site and was rushed to the clinic for rescue.
The doctor examined him and regretfully declared Cliff dead, with dilated pupils and no need for resuscitation.
But soon after, the ‘corpse’ on the stretcher twitched, slapping the diagnosis in the face. They rushed him into surgery, and miraculously, he came back to life.
“Which doctor treated him?” Roy asked next.
“Doctor Duke…”
“Bug House Clinic, run by Duke Yabei?” Ashley interjected quickly.
“Yes, that house looks just like a cicada shell—very distinctive,” the family confirmed with a nod.
Ashley’s heart jolted. Doctor Duke’s professionalism was beyond doubt; if he confirmed death, he wouldn’t be wrong. So, could the corpse have truly revived?
She immediately thought of the accident where Curator Mavis’s surgery used horsehair worm material that wasn’t fully inactivated. This was very likely similar!
That Insect House might revive the dead, but not in their original form—instead creating some twisted existence.
