Chapter 80: Chapter 80

The ring-shaped audience area took up four-fifths of the space, making the central stage seem quite small by comparison.

The audience seats were packed with Myconids of all sizes, each squatting in their seats like real mushrooms.

If not for the noisy chatter in the mental link, you’d never guess they were the audience."

"When Mu Ying and the others arrived at the stage, the “movie screening” was just ending. The person on stage was someone she knew—Dong Xiaogang.

To the naked eye, Dong Xiaogang sat alone on the stage with his eyes closed, surrounded by silent mushroom-folk spectators.

But in the psychic link space, the audience below was lively, and above Dong Xiaogang’s head, vivid images played out.

Mu Ying only caught a glimpse of a tail—it seemed to be an animated film, but the characters looked a little blurry and distorted, and the setting was a blank void.

Clearly, projecting the story from one’s mind into this space wasn’t as simple as it sounded.

As expected, Dong Xiaogang didn’t pass the test.

Still, some of the mushroom-folk were interested in the story he tried to convey. An adult mushroom-folk paid him a silver coin to buy the story. It wasn’t a long-term job, but at least he made some money.

Dong Xiaogang wasn’t disappointed. He’d watched a lot of animated films—though he could only remember the plots of a few—but earning anything at all was a pleasant surprise.

Most of the people after him were eliminated as well, but as long as their stories didn’t overlap with those already presented, they could usually sell them for a bit of money.

Next up was that online novelist from before, Fan Wei, who showcased one of his xianxia novels.

The male protagonist starts off crippled, then gets his engagement broken off, is hunted down, falls off a cliff while seriously injured, and obtains an immortal’s legacy.

The visuals weren’t particularly grand, but the scenes around the protagonist were detailed, and the dialogue and expressions were much richer than the others. At least, the audience could clearly understand what he was trying to express.

To humans, this plot was cliché to the point of exhaustion, but to the mushroom-folk, it was novel and intriguing.

It wasn’t the immortal inheritance or the face-slapping revenge that attracted them, though. Mu Ying overheard a few mushroom-folk youngsters exclaiming in shock at how violent and scary humans were.

When it came to fight scenes, they even covered their eyes and peeked through their fingers.

In the end, Fan Wei was hired.

“Haha! From now on, I’m the founding master of the post-apocalyptic gig worker genre!” He left the stage in high spirits, a far cry from his earlier dejection.

The next to go up was Zheng Jing. She smartly chose to share a story from her own childhood.

Since she was drawing from her own memories, it was a bit mundane, but at least it was complete and clear. She even managed to sign a short-term contract.

Mu Ying watched for quite a while, feeling that she’d never have to worry about her residents being unable to afford the entrance fee or rent again. The empty treehouses should soon welcome a new wave of tenants, and her income was about to increase!

The mushroom-folk’s requirements were really not high—her territory’s residents were sure to make a tidy sum.

In a great mood, Mu Ying left the underground chamber, stepping onto the thick mondo grass. Sunlight streamed through the forest, and she enjoyed a rare moment of leisure.

The territory was a bit quiet—most people had gone underground to join the fun.

“Mu Ying!”

Hearing someone call her from behind, Mu Ying turned to see Huo Shaobai running over. “What’s up?”

“Do you… know how the mushroom-folk instance ended up here?”

Mu Ying raised an eyebrow. Is he getting suspicious?

“Should I know?” she replied, sounding perfectly justified.

Huo Shaobai looked at her with a complicated expression, but didn’t see any hint of emotion in her eyes. “Sorry, I was being presumptuous.”

Mu Ying nodded. She wasn’t sure if he only suspected her involvement in moving the instance, or if he was also starting to suspect her connection to the territory itself.

But at this stage, she wasn’t about to reveal anything.

Even if he was suspicious, it was probably just due to a few coincidences.

She was the first to discover this camp. Aside from the general store, her treehouse had the lowest number, and she was the only one, along with the official team, who had visited the mushroom-folk instance.

Mu Ying had expected someone to get suspicious, but none of this was solid evidence. No one would take a reckless risk based on mere speculation.

Besides, it was still unknown whether the territory could even be seized.

She actually trusted the character of the official team, and so far, there hadn’t been any truly wicked people in the whole territory.

After all, those who could afford to live here long-term had adapted to the apocalypse and weren’t desperate enough to take extreme risks.

The real criminals had been locked up in small spaces when the apocalypse hit—unable to escape, with nothing to attack. Their chances of survival were slim.

Huo Shaobai watched Mu Ying’s figure recede into the distance and sighed.

Why did I even ask? Whether it’s her or not, she doesn’t owe us anything, and there’s no reason for her to confess.

By asking, I’ve probably just pushed away the little bit of closeness we’d managed to build. So much for teaming up.

Mu Ying, meanwhile, had no idea he was overthinking things. She just didn’t want to team up because it was too much trouble.

As for everything else, it was simply that she was slow to warm up to people, had a lot of secrets, and was naturally cautious.

“Gun Gun?”

The treehouse was empty—Gun Gun wasn’t there.

Mu Ying guessed it was probably playing in the plantation, so she teleported over. Sure enough, in the iron bamboo grove, a furry “meatball” was rolling around, somehow managing to dodge every single bamboo shoot.

Judging by the emotions coming through their bond, its mind was filled with nothing but “I want to eat~”.

Mu Ying was a little worried that Gun Gun’s drool would soak the ground.

Since no one else was around, the little Shi Yin figurine flew over and poked Gun Gun to a stop with one finger.

She still remembered the day the Shi Yin figurine first arrived, falling on its butt on the windowsill—so different from how agile and dashing it was now.

It was hard to imagine a thumb-sized person poking a giant to a stop with one finger.

But Gun Gun obediently stopped.

Mu Ying helplessly poured the rest of today’s Spring of Recovery onto the iron bamboo grove, hoping it would grow faster so Gun Gun wouldn’t have to drool over it every day.

It always gave her the feeling she was mistreating a national treasure.

“Gun Gun, let’s go eat!”

She waved for Gun Gun to come over and picked up the Shi Yin figurine, which had been plucking fur from Gun Gun’s head.