The forest’s canopy left almost no sky to be seen; drape-like veils of webbing hung from the colossal trees.Silver-spotted threads as thick as a bowl’s rim crisscrossed overhead. The dense webwork formed a vaulted dome that smothered the sky.The thin shafts of light slipping through the gaps were further blocked by vines.So even though it was daytime, once she entered the forest it felt pitch-black—she needed a lantern to see her way.The once-white mycelium now gleamed an eerie gray-green, its surface beaded with tiny black droplets. Each step sank into a spongy softness; the slickness made it very hard to walk.Stamina consumption while moving was doubled compared to normal terrain.On top of that, visibility here was extremely low, so she needed to use mycelium fuel to see the path ahead.Yun Luohe crouched to gather a large quantity of mycelium. The batch she’d collected last time on Spider Island was nearly gone, though she had brought a little in her pack.[Mycelium: A material that counteracts toxic fog; can be processed into fuel and has special uses.]Previously, this mycelium could be turned into mycelium charcoal or other combustibles—very effective at burning away toxic fog.But the mycelium she gathered now was not quite the same.[Mutant Mycelium: Mycelium altered by radiation; can be processed into fuel to dispel toxic fog. The emitted vapors also have special effects.]A thought struck her; she immediately forwarded a portion of the newly gathered mycelium to Si Qi for research.Before setting out, she’d already contacted Si Qi; there was always someone on standby in her research group, so once Yun sent over information and materials, someone would immediately begin fabrication and tests.Half an hour later, Yun had collected 183 portions of mycelium, and Si Qi had new results.Under the influence of radiation, the mycelium had undergone subtle changes. It could not only burn and drive off toxic fog; it could also be made into anti-radiation fuel—its smoke effectively lowered radiation concentration.Si Qi: “Boss Yun, want to collect more? This stuff is huge. I’ve already made some mycelium torches—you can use them first.”A mycelium torch was wound from dried mycelium and coated with mutant resin; it burned long and hot.Looking over the carpet of mycelium, Yun Luohe smiled. “Sure—there’s as much as you need.”But on her own, even if she kept gathering nonstop, she couldn’t possibly strip all the mycelium here.Better to bring in two helpers.She thought of the Teleport Card.[Teleport Card: After use, teleport to a friend’s location, or teleport a friend to your location.]She had gotten this card a long time ago and never used it,saving it for a critical moment—maybe it could save a life.Forget it—better to have Yuntun help.The Teleport Card could only transfer one person. Even if she brought someone over, it wouldn’t add much. Besides, with Spider Island in this state, the danger had risen again; bringing people meant she’d also have to safeguard them.Acting alone would be more convenient.Yun first sent the hundred-plus portions of mycelium she’d just gathered to Si Qi to start production immediately.Then she lit a freshly made anti-radiation mycelium torch and aimed it at the thickest fog.But the heavy mist here had been tainted by radiation fog and was no longer easy to disperse. The torch’s combined anti-radiation and anti-toxin effect barely opened a passable path for her.She released Yuntun, carefully held the mycelium torch aloft, and burned away part of the surrounding radiation fog.Even if Yuntun was a mutated wolf spider, she couldn’t let it be exposed recklessly.Even if it didn’t harm the body, if the radiation altered its temperament, she’d never forgive herself.The moment Yuntun came out, it looked around, froze for a few seconds, then chirred excitedly.“Baby Yuntun, do you feel it? This is where I found you. Back then you were still a spider egg.”Yuntun: “Sss sss—this smells familiar, but also not. These webs look awful.”“Eat this first and the radiation won’t hurt you.”Yun fed it a bowl of Starlight Kelp Bisque.Yuntun didn’t like human food, but it could feel how comfortable it was after eating, so it didn’t resist.“The webs changed color from radiation. A lot of spiders are likely radiation-mutated. We need to be careful.”Yuntun hopped. “Don’t worry, Hehe—I’ll protect you. Here, you don’t need to be afraid.”Yun Luohe: “Good. Also—please help me gather all the mycelium on the ground. The more the better.”“Mm-hmm, leave it to me, Hehe!”Yuntun spread its eight cheliceral limbs and sprang into motion.It spat silk—Yuntun moved with startling agility, shuttling through the mycelium beds. Each sweep scooped great drifts of mycelium into its web.Yun held the mycelium torch and used the golden axe on various harvestables.All the while her nerves stayed taut; she felt danger approaching, but even after using [Scanning Eye] for a long while, she found nothing she could identify.She could only remain on guard, ready to respond.After roughly half an hour of stop-and-go, she and Yuntun had pushed deeper into the forest.She dimly recalled traces from before.Here, the green slime seemed even thicker.Holding her breath, Yun listened intently for sounds around her, afraid to miss even a whisper.Suddenly, a rustling came from far off. The sound was distant but drawing nearer, and Yun sensed it quickly.She clenched the torch. “Something’s coming.”Finally.She was excited—she’d known something would appear. She’d waited so long that at last having it arrive felt like relief; better than keeping her nerves strung tight.A gigantic mutated spider slowly crawled up from underground. Its carapace was dark green, the joints of its legs bristled with sharp spines, and its abdomen was dotted with dense red speckles.What spider was this? She hadn’t seen it last time.The island had mostly Silverback Spiders and Gold-Shell Spiders back then.This one was completely different—and eerier still, several mushrooms parasitized its back, slick green caps that screamed poison at a glance.“Yuntun, forget the mycelium—get over here.”She hadn’t called Yuntun at first because she’d thought there was only one spider and she could handle it herself.The next second, more and more of the same spiders emerged—every one of them crawled up from underground.Spiders that lived beneath the earth?Yuntun: “Sss sss… what have you turned into?”It halted its gathering, fixed those mutated spiders with a hard stare, confusion in its eyes.It tried speaking in spider—more precisely, sending a mental wave.The spiders ignored it completely. Not the slightest response.“They… don’t seem like spiders anymore,” Yuntun said hesitantly.Since they weren’t kin, Yuntun’s strike would show no mercy.Its body lowered into a slight crouch—the posture before an attack.The mutant spiders let out a keening hiss and lunged first, darting with extreme speed toward Yun Luohe, spitting a wad of green, mucous-laden webbing.Yun slipped sideways; the green web splattered onto the ground and instantly corroded the grass to mush.Pretty vicious.[Unlimited good reads, all at Jinjiang Literature City.]Her face cold, Yun lifted the torch with one hand and gripped the Thunder Vortex Trident with the other, slashing at the mutants.Seeing Yun attacked, Yuntun grew furious. It circled to the spiders’ flank, sprang, and drove its sharp chelicerae hard into an abdomen.The blades punched through, and thick green slime gushed out.The mutant thrashed wildly, then collapsed and lay still.The mushrooms on its back withered at once, shriveling to husks.Working in sync, Yun and Yuntun cut down dozens of green mutant spiders in short order.She crouched to examine them. “Likely all mutated under radiation.”Yuntun: “Radiation is that horrible?”Yun Luohe: “Mm. It strips away the self, turns you into the walking dead. Animals aren’t spared.”She took out anti-radiation food and fed both herself and Yuntun.Better to be careful—don’t give the radiation fog a chance to slip in.She hadn’t expected any drops from the kills, but on a whim she picked one of the mushrooms off a spider’s back.They had shrunk to little dry clumps—obviously inedible—but she still checked.And was pleasantly surprised.[Green-Bar Fungus: A rare parasitic fungus grown on irradiated organisms. Grind into powder to craft Immunity Pills.]You could craft Immunity Pills—good stuff![Immunity Pill: After use, you are unaffected by radiation fog for 5 hours.]Even with her deep pockets, Yun only had a few Immunity Pills on her!Now she’d found a material for making them.All things counterbalance each other—radiation is no exception.She hurried to gather the Green-Bar Fungus from all the dead spiders.Then, along with the newly obtained green mycelium, she forwarded everything to Si Qi.Priority one now was getting Si Qi’s team to crack the Immunity Pill formula.With these, they could at least solve the Association’s shortage of anti-radiation supplies.Since autumn began, people had been dying daily—the biggest reason was the scarcity of anti-radiation gear. Step outside and you were liable to get hit.But if you never went out and just hid at home, the other life on your Reef would be wrecked by radiation fog. Sooner or later the entire Reef ecosystem would collapse—and the player would still be waiting to die.After a brief rest, Yun and Yuntun continued collecting mycelium. By late morning, Yuntun’s haul had grown massive; Yun stowed and tallied it in her pack—over two thousand portions in all.By her estimate, this haul was enough for Si Qi’s group to go into mass production.They topped up Stamina and pressed on.Along the way, besides mycelium, they gathered plenty of spider silk.Spider silk was a useful material. Common silk could be spun into threads and net bags; high-grade silk could be made into armor.For example, Spider-Silk Armor and Pearl Scale Armor both required special silk.But irradiated silk was unusable. After checking, Yun only collected intact silk that hadn’t been irradiated.Though most was tainted, there was simply so much silk here that some of it was clean.Yun’s eyes were keen—she could always pick out the clean strands, so her efficiency stayed decent.Aside from that, the spring wild greens she’d planned to find were a bust. Even though she could revisit spring-limited islands, the seasons had already shifted—Spider Island was now in autumn.There were few wild greens; what it had in abundance were fruit trees and medicinal herbs.[Unlimited good reads, all at Jinjiang Literature City.]Most had been spoiled by radiation, but a few were still fine.Yun harvested those carefully.The wild herbs were mainly: dandelion, balloonflower, polygonatum, and wild chrysanthemum.[Unlimited good reads, all at Jinjiang Literature City.]Dandelion was a spring plant—it bloomed in spring and its flowers could be brewed into tea—but it could also be harvested in autumn as medicinal stock.Every part of the plant was useful; typically, leaves and roots were dried and used to craft Detox Pills.The other plants were all first-time gathers for Yun.[Balloonflower: An autumn plant; roots are medicinal, …][Polygonatum: Rhizomes can be dug in autumn; a tonic herb used to craft Stamina Pills. Greatly increases Stamina after use; may be used to make gold-tier dishes that boost Strength.][Wild Chrysanthemum: Blooms in autumn; used ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) for tea; increases San.]Beyond those, she picked even more wild fruits.Autumn was harvest season, and most fruits were ripe.She found the most hawthorn and mountain grapes this time.There were also smaller numbers of prickly pear.Fruit could be made into jams, desserts, or fermented into wine; sometimes it went into cooking as seasoning.It was one of Yun’s favorite categories.Hawthorn was the most practical.When players were short on Stamina or their San was too low, they tended to eat.But constant eating led to being too full to eat more. If you ate less, your Stamina recovery lagged; or your Stamina would drain again quickly, so you couldn’t keep boosting it through food alone.There hadn’t been a great solution.Hawthorn fit perfectly.Its tart-sweet fruit was excellent for promoting digestion.Made into hawthorn cake, it could rapidly digest what you’d just eaten. After filling up, you could simply eat a piece of hawthorn cake and then keep eating again.Mountain grapes were mainly for brewing—and they also had anti-radiation uses.Yun sorted the haul, checked the time, and took out the Treasure Cave map again.She’d examined the map before coming.The Treasure Cave lay not far from the broodmother’s nest. She still remembered the route, so after landing, she hadn’t needed to navigate by the map.Now, near the broodmother’s nest,she took the map out to study which way to go next.Dark red lines sketched the deep-forest terrain; between two peaks on the right at the far end, a bold X marked the Treasure Cave.At the lower left, not far away, was where she’d found Yuntun—the Spider Queen’s nest was there.She hesitated over whether to visit again.It was close, after all.But she worried it would waste time and delay her trip to the Treasure Cave.Yun rummaged in her pack and produced a Spider Queen Cloak blueprint fragment.It had been gathering dust in her backpack, but she’d never forgotten it.Legendary-grade gear—even a fragment—was no mere chicken rib.[Spider Queen Cloak: Legendary purple armor. Evasion +35%, Move Speed +15%, and grants a stealth effect in toxic fog (CD: 2 hours).][Crafting Materials: Silver-Web Silk ×200, Golden Silk ×200, Gold-Shell Fragments ×50, Obsidian ×1. Requires an Advanced Sewing Machine to craft.]This time, she could definitely gather the materials.But she still needed to find the other fragments.Running the Spider Queen’s sacrifice quest again should be quick—she’d done it before; it’d be smooth.Thinking it over, she decided to go. Beyond the quest, she had another idea.She remembered a transparent tree in the cave, its branches laden with spider eggs.She’d gotten Wolf-Spider Amber there; bringing Yuntun along this time might yield a surprise.

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