Chapter 58: Into a Post-Apocalyptic Superpower Novel, Day 10

Chapter 58: The Tenth Day of Transmigrating into an Apocalypse Supernatural Novel

Ji Zishi swept a sharp gaze across the towering ruins on either side. The restless thoughts that had crept in from sitting next to An Yi quickly subsided as instinct took over, his entire being shifting into a poised state.

An Yi sat in his seat, observing the scene outside with a calm, steady gaze.

He tried to spread out his mental power like a fine net, silently sensing the subtle shifts in his surroundings. Apart from the pervasive decay and faint traces from a few weak mutated creatures, he seemed to pick up on a deeper, low-frequency energy residue, like a pulse from beneath the earth. It felt similar to what he had detected when encountering that giant lizard before, yet more elusive and scattered.

"There's something off about this area," An Yi said quietly.

"You feel it too?" Ji Zishi's brow furrowed.

The convoy slowly entered what had once been a central square.

In the middle of the square stood a dried-up fountain basin, surrounded by rusted benches and remnants of advertising billboards. What drew the most attention was a half-collapsed gray-white building on one side, clearly built in an official architectural style.

Its entrance was mostly blocked by twisted metal and collapsed walls, but a sloped driveway leading underground next to it appeared to have been manually cleared, revealing a jet-black entrance that seemed to swallow all light.

The strange sensation emanated faintly from within.

"That should be the target point—a suspected underground shelter."

He frowned, suddenly hit with an urge to stop.

An inexplicable, gut-level resistance welled up inside him, making him nearly want to call for an immediate retreat.

But Ji Zishi still ordered the vehicle to stop and picked up the walkie-talkie: "All vehicles, hold your positions. Recon team, move up and check the entrance. Stay safe."

Two nimble team members moved forward immediately, carefully approaching the underground entrance, using instruments to scan and detect.

"Captain, the entrance structure is unstable, with risk of secondary collapse. The internal passage is very deep. Thermal imaging shows... signs of life activity below, but it's blurry, impossible to tell whether they're human survivors or mutants."

Ji Zishi tsked. The situation was more complicated than expected.

He jumped out of the vehicle and looked around the suspiciously clean square—except for the building rubble, there were surprisingly few traces of mutant plants [mutant plant] or small mutant beasts, which was itself abnormal.

"An Yi, what do you think?"

Almost instinctively, he turned to An Yi for his opinion. Over the past few months, he had gotten used to An Yi consistently making key, accurate calls.

An Yi got out too and stood beside him, eyes fixed on the dark entrance:

"The energy residue is very unusual, not like ordinary mutant creatures. Whatever's inside might not be simple. I suggest a minimal unit probing first, with the main force providing support outside, ready to assist and evacuate at any time."

Ji Zishi nodded: "That's what I was thinking."

He quickly pointed out a few people: "I'll go with An Yi, Old Cat, and Nail. The four of us will scout first. The rest, establish a perimeter defense. No one is to enter without my order. Keep communication attempts going. If anything goes wrong, report immediately and prepare for support!"

The named team members immediately stepped forward and prepared.

Old Cat was an experienced earth-element ability user, skilled in defense and structural reinforcement. Nail was the team's demolition and trap expert, quick and sharp-eyed.

The four checked their equipment, put on powerful headlamps, and filed into the cold underground entrance.

Ji Zishi took the lead, An Yi followed closely behind, with Old Cat and Nail bringing up the rear.

The passage sloped downward, the air thick with a thick smell of mildew and dust, mixed with a faint, indescribable fishy sweetness.

The beams from their headlamps cut through the darkness, illuminating the mottled walls and broken floor tiles underfoot.

The passage seemed to have no end, just going down and down.

An Yi's psychic sense faintly sensed a vast space ahead.

After advancing nearly a hundred meters, the path suddenly opened up.

The headlamp light spread out ahead, faintly revealing the outline of an extremely large underground space.

It looked like the entrance hall of a huge underground shelter or experimental facility, littered with overturned tables and chairs, broken instruments, and equipment boxes.

Further ahead, several deep corridors branched off, leading to unknown destinations.

Just then, An Yi heard voices from the comment section, and the camera perspective had shifted to above them.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Watch out!"

"So disgusting!"

"Don't go any further, ahead is hell!"

"This is so gross! How is this any different from shit?!"

"The author's amazing—describing moss so disgustingly that I wanna puke..."

"It's coming!"

"..."

An Yi's eyebrow twitched. Moss?

A scene from the original story flashed through his mind.

In the original novel, during the battle between mutated flora, fauna, and humans, a safe base was almost completely covered by a moss-like mutated plant!

The base's ordinary people and ability users suffered heavy casualties, nearly wiped out, and only managed to wear it down at the cost of human lives.

Could this be that moss?

What was moss afraid of again?

An Yi's mind raced—it seemed to be afraid of strong light, drought, and... extreme cold.

But would the mutated moss still fear these things?

In a flash, An Yi stopped: "Wait, something's off. We can't go any further."

The others immediately halted, about to speak.

That's when they saw it—on the ground and walls lit by the headlamps, a thin, dark green moss-like fungal mat was covering the surfaces, faintly wriggling, as if alive!

Everyone's pupils contracted in shock. When had that appeared?!

The surface of the fungal mat was wet and slippery, glowing with an eerie fluorescence, gradually expanding.

The sickly-sweet smell was emanating from this fungal mat.

An Yi's mouth twitched. Could the comments section have timed that any worse?

"What the hell is this thing?!" Dingzi gasped, cursed under his breath, instinctively tightening his grip on his weapon as every hair on his body stood on end.

The group felt an inexplicable sense of danger from this unexpected patch of moss, triggering a survival instinct that sent goosebumps all over their bodies.

"Fall back!" Ji Zishi ordered, hitting his communicator. "Fire-type abilities, get ready! The rest of you, grab the flamethrowers and provide support at the entrance!"

But his order didn't go through; a sharp, piercing static sound came through the earpiece. "Crackle—zzt—"

The signal was lost.

An Yi winced at the sudden noise in his earpiece, tilting his head, but kept moving, quickly retreating back the way they came.

An Yi activated his ability, a wisp of freezing energy gathering at his fingertips, ready to attack at any moment.

The instant the cold energy spread, a small patch of the fungal mat in front suddenly contracted sharply, as if sensing the threat!

Just then—

"Rustle, rustle—"

A relentless, hair-raising rustling sound came from deep within the dark corridor ahead, rapidly approaching!