"A lot of them," the little girl said quickly, "They are everywhere in the town."
As if she was afraid that he would not believe it, she hurriedly added: "Butterfly Bone Town was originally built on rocks, because the wood is easily eaten by fungi, and it would not take long to build a house, and there is not so much money to go elsewhere. We buy metal materials from other places, so we always build our homes on mountains or rocks.”
Xu Huo's eyebrows relaxed and he said with a smile: "Don't be so nervous. I just think this kind of fungi is rare. Even stones can be used as nutrients."
Since they were traveling alone, and the roads in the forest were not easy to walk, and they might encounter land corroded by fungi at any time and have to change their route, the two of them walked very slowly.
Seeing that he seemed to believe her words, the little girl relaxed a little and said proactively: "I heard from the old people in the town that it's actually because there is a kind of bacteria that can live in stones, and this kind of anthelmintic bacteria particularly likes that kind of bacteria. , so it also becomes parasitic on the stones, and is not eaten by the anthelmintic bacteria.”
Xu Huo nodded, "Area 013 is really a magical place. Do you have many players from other areas there?"
"Not much..." The little girl paused and asked again: "The guest is not here for the copy, is he here specifically for the bacteria?"
Xu Huo looked back at her, and she explained: "Although we don't often have people coming and going here, there are still some people who like to study fungi come here every year. Several people came a few days ago... But now people I’ve already left, maybe I didn’t find the bacteria I wanted.”
Pretending not to notice the unnatural turn of her words, he asked again: "Are there many players from outside areas in Butterfly Bone Town now?"
"I don't know..." the little girl hesitated before saying, "I've been out for a long time, and those people left whenever they wanted, so I don't know."
Glancing at her wound, he said, "The fungus wound medicine you used was quite effective."
The little girl immediately took out the medicine bottle and said, "I made this myself. It's not valuable. If the guests want it, I can make more for you."
Xu Huo took her things without any psychological burden.
It took the two of them a while to arrive at the Butterfly Bone Town that the little girl mentioned. It was indeed a town, with well-established roads and signs, and even a station with a sign left at the entrance - it should have been after the town was shrunk. Traces left behind, but this town was not built on the mountain, but underground.
Next to the abandoned station is a narrow staircase going down. It is a long path that goes straight to the bottom. There are branch roads on both sides of the stairs every ten or so steps, which should lead to the residences on the left and right.
Xu Huo was not in a hurry to go down, but stood at the entrance and looked at the surrounding environment.
Except for the abandoned station, there are no other traces of human habitation on the ground. The surrounding trees have been cleaned up, and there are still some tree stumps that have not completely disappeared, protruding from the fungus.
The fungi in Area 013 are all kinds of strange. In addition to being in patches and flowers as we normally understand them, there are also many that grow like vines. However, they have no rhizomes, but rather spider webs or fishing nets formed by the spread of fungal hyphae. The same thing has a lot of cocoons made of mycelium on it. I don't know how it grows. These mycelium spans the sky above the dug underground cave, covering the originally cracked rock tightly.
The entrance has just been cleaned, but a little further away you can see that it has been a long time since the last cleaning.
Xu Huo stretched out his hand to fish out the mycelium.
The little girl quickly stopped, "Those hyphae like fabric very much, and they might damage your clothes."
Xu Huo now feels that Chi Xian's "upside down milk bottle" is of some use.
Congshan Ruliu withdrew his hand, and just as he was about to say something, a man with a face full of pustules suddenly appeared from under the steps. He rushed to the little girl in a few steps, took her hand and scolded: "Where did you go, you damn girl?" Go, we have been looking for you for two or three days! Oh, you are so seriously injured, your mother is so distressed..."
After he finished speaking, he turned to Xu Huo and said, "This kind man must have saved my daughter. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, our family is poor and we have nothing to entertain you. If you don't mind, go and sit at home." "
Although he said this, he didn't show too much enthusiasm and had a sense of propriety.
"Okay, I just want to find some fungi, and I need local people to lead the way." Xu Huo said.
The man then helped the little girl up and said, "My name is Liu Da, and this is my daughter Xiaotan. What do the guests call me?"
"You two." Xu Huo dealt with it casually, put away the props, and said kindly: "I think you are also very ill. Can you help her? How about I come?"
Hearing this, Liu Da smiled on his face and let go without hesitation, "Thank you so much. Come on, come on, come this way."
After all, it is moving from the ground to the underground. The environment below will not be much better. In addition to the old and new fungi that can be seen everywhere, the caves for people to pass through are not spacious, and you have to bend down to go through some places.
There are not many people living here. Up to Liu's family, there were only two or three people in a similar situation to him on the road who came close to take a look.
There was another woman in Liu's family whose face was also covered with pustules. Her condition was much worse than the other two members of the family. It was inconvenient to move her legs. After seeing Xu Huo, she cheered up a little. He managed to get up and give him some water.
Liu Da stopped her, "Pour whatever you want. Foreigners can't eat what we have here."
Liu's wife muttered and put down the tea set.
Seeing that no one cared about Xiaotan, an injured person who had not yet been treated, Xu Huo mentioned something.
The couple seemed suddenly awakened to their responsibilities as parents. They quickly helped their daughter sit down on a simple stone bed, showing concern and protection. They also gave her the water they were going to give Xu Huo to drink.
Then Liu Dabian suddenly began to talk about the difficulties of his family and the people living in these caves. Originally, there were many people in Butterfly Bone Town, but a new fungus drifted in from nowhere, and all the people who didn't survive it were Dead, there are only a few people left living here, and they can't get in touch with the outside world - even if they get in touch, no one will work hard to save them, so they can only live here without knowing the sun.
"It is better to die than to live," Liu Da said with tears in his eyes: "Who knows what will happen in the future, anyway, life is like this..."
Xu Huo looked at him expressionlessly and echoed without any fluctuations in his tone, "Yes, it's really pitiful."
Seeing that he was unmoved, Liu Dali wiped his tears quickly and murmured in a low voice, "Those of us who are half buried in the ground are nothing. The poor child has grown up and eaten all poisonous bacteria..."
Xu Huo pretended not to hear and asked: "You just said that Butterfly Bone Town became like this because of a special bacteria. What kind of bacteria is it? Can you take me to see it?"
