Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 590: Chapter 184: The Process of Exploration

Chen Ming frowned slightly as he looked at the content in the photo, feeling very puzzled.

It wasn’t because the people who died in the lab with Zuo Jing were killed by the lab’s safety measures.

But because of the characteristic of this Spiritual Fungal Creature, where human tissues are toxic to them.

This characteristic doesn’t seem to be a naturally occurring one.

Just when Chen Ming felt puzzled, Extraordinary continued to patiently explain to Chen Ming: ”After an excessive absorption of high concentrations of spore masses, some fungi will always take root on the corpses of their kind.”

”Although these spores that enter the human body will also die shortly after taking root on the corpses, they will continue to adhere to various mucous membranes and cannot be expelled through normal respiration.”

”Those left in the lungs will lead to alveoli damage, lung bleeding, coughing up blood, and suffocation, ultimately causing the deaths of these individuals.”

”The bleeding of other body tissue is likely a similar situation, where the mucous membranes of human tissues have spores taking root on them and cannot be expelled.”

Chen Ming looked at the appearances of the deceased, Zuo Jing, in the photo, and it was exactly the same as Extraordinary’s analysis.

These fungi, unless intentionally manipulated, indeed pose no real threat to humans.

So, did Harmony Company carry out modifications on the Spiritual Fungal Creatures immediately after capturing them?

And then send the modified fungal creatures to the Plant Research Station in this star system?

Or did these fungi have these characteristics from the very beginning?

Chen Ming recalled that the records from the Space Station lab he controlled indicated that Harmony Company suffered severe losses while capturing these Spiritual Creatures.

They couldn’t possibly have gone underground without any protective equipment and encountered these fungi, getting choked to death by the high concentrations of underground fungal spores, right?

It must be that these Spiritual Fungal Creatures were initially extremely aggressive towards humans, thus causing such losses.

That would imply that the characteristic of ”human tissues being toxic” was likely acquired later on.

Thus, Chen Ming asked Extraordinary: ”Is this kind of ’fundamental genetic modification’ a technology currently mastered by humans?”

”Yes.”

”Oh, then there’s no problem.”

The doubts in Chen Ming’s mind were cleared, confirming that Harmony Company specifically engineered this characteristic.

However, Chen Ming curiously asked: ”When was this technology developed? I have no recollection of it.”

Extraordinary sent a paper and the website where it was published to Chen Ming’s terminal, saying: ”It’s a five-day-old technology.”

”Published by Harmony Company’s research institute, stating that this technology was obtained from the ruins of that already destroyed civilization.”

”Oh? Something found again in that civilization’s ruins...”

Chen Ming immediately opened the paper, but finding it incomprehensible, he quickly closed it again.

”Tsk.”

Chen Ming clicked his tongue and opened the coordinates transmitted from the satellite orbiting the Mechanical Race Planet stored in his terminal.

There must also be a ruin of civilization there, possibly containing such technology.

Overall, the situation was sorting itself out.

Although the paper was published late, late publication doesn’t mean the technology was acquired late.

Perhaps it was precisely because of these fungal creatures that Harmony Company’s research institute mastered this technology completely.

Chen Ming only regretted that he needed to continue his regular exploration and couldn’t just head over there with a spacecraft.

Besides, going there wouldn’t help, as searching and investigating the ruins is a massive project.

There might be countless troubles waiting for him along the way.

Even if Chen Ming managed to solve all the troubles along the way, the language issue would still continue to haunt him.

So Chen Ming glanced at the location of the coordinates before turning back to the interface on his terminal; better to proceed slowly.

If progress is fast enough along the way, he might be able to learn a few more things, thus encountering fewer problems.

However, suddenly Chen Ming realized a problem.

He asked Extraordinary: ”Wait a minute, Extraordinary, are your technical abilities in biology advanced enough to understand such cutting-edge papers?”

Extraordinary suddenly reverted to a previous topic, saying: ”I previously planned a learning path for you that enables you to use Spiritual Energy to achieve the effect of the Insect Race.”

”This learning path discards most of the unnecessary technologies at the same tier to achieve your goal.”

Chen Ming immediately understood and said: ”So that’s what you did.”

”I don’t want to invest too much in biology; my expertise has always been in spacecraft research.”

”That works.”

Extraordinary realized that it was unnecessary to delve further into biology after gaining knowledge about the fungi Chen Ming had.

Its additional Alpha Core bonuses indeed did not include any related to biological technologies.

Researching the Cruiser was already something it was reluctantly doing, and making it study biology for a while longer worried Chen Ming that Extraordinary might become depressed.

However, Chen Ming had one more question to ask.

”What other uses do these fungi have?”

”Edible.”

”What?”

”Edible.”

”Huh?”

Chen Ming uncertainly asked repeatedly, receiving consistent answers from Extraordinary.

But Chen Ming still remembered clearly that he had recently seen a massive biohazard symbol marked at the entrance of the laboratory. Are these fungi really edible?