The world enters the fungal world

Zhou Xigang said: "According to current scientific theories, traveling to the future is theoretically feasible, but going back to the past faces huge paradox challenges, such as the grandfather paradox and the unidirectional nature of time revealed by the principle of entropy increase. Therefore, the scientific community generally believes that if time travel can be realized, it is very likely to be unidirectional, that is, it can only go to the future and cannot go back to the past."

Lin Muying was taken aback, and Qian Lili couldn't help but exclaim, "You mean we can't go back to the way things were?"

Zhou Xigang nodded and said, "That's probably it. Even if we could go back, it might just be a similar parallel universe, not a true return to the past."

He paused slightly before continuing, "Moreover, judging from the current situation, Jiangcheng will undergo drastic changes in just over a year. Even if we can return to the original Jiangcheng, we can only enjoy a peaceful life for a little over a year at most before encountering the same huge changes. Thinking about it this way, there's not much point in going back."

"Instead of thinking about how to get back, we should think about how to survive here, figure out the reason for this upheaval, and also... why did the four of us time-travel? Maybe we are the protagonists of this era."

Zhou Xigang got excited as he spoke. He had an exceptionally good memory since childhood. Although he didn't quite have a photographic memory, it wasn't far off. Over the years, he had read countless novels about time travel or rebirth, and he was particularly obsessed with these novels. As a result, he had learned a lot of theoretical knowledge. He knew the principles and theories of time travel, rebirth, parallel universes, and multiverses like the back of his hand and could recite them backwards.

Not only that, he also memorized a large number of ancient poems and learned a lot of chemical knowledge, such as how to make sugar, salt, soap, and glass, and mastered the gunpowder formula and the method of purifying saltpeter, thinking that if he really time-traveled one day, it might come in handy.

Now it's finally his turn to time travel. All the knowledge he's memorized will finally have a chance to shine. He's determined to make a name for himself in this world and demonstrate the prowess of a time traveler.

Zhou Xigang's words made Li Yu's heart sink. Was there no going back?

Qian Lili stared in disbelief at Zhou Xigang, stammering, "You...you're not scared? You're actually excited?"

Zhou Xigang said, "Of course, the days before were too boring. I just ate and waited to die every day, day after day. I was looking forward to a change every day. Now that I finally have this opportunity, don't you think it's very challenging and exciting?"

Qian Lili shook her head repeatedly, looking at Zhou Xigang's expression, completely unable to understand what was going on in his mind.

Zhou Xigang glanced at the firefighting equipment the three men were carrying and suddenly said, "You're all carrying weapons..." He then looked Li Yu over carefully and asked, "You have an injury on your face. Were you attacked?"

Li Yu nodded, not hiding anything, and said, "Yes, these mushrooms can parasitize animals and turn them into monsters. You'd better find a weapon to defend yourself."

Seeing Zhou Xigang's excited expression, he felt he should pour cold water on him. This world was far less interesting than he imagined. This was not a game or a novel, but a cruel reality.

Upon hearing Li Yu's words, Zhou Xigang's expression changed slightly, and he whispered, "A monster parasitized by mushrooms?"

As he spoke, he looked around, turned on his phone's flashlight again, and began searching the surroundings.

Li Yu also turned on his phone's flashlight. Originally, they entered the supermarket to look for supplies such as ropes, hoping to have a chance to return to the hotel and go down into the deep pit to see what caused them to travel to this Jiangcheng.

Although Zhou Xigang believed they could not go back to the past, Li Yu did not think so.

If such a bizarre thing has happened, then returning to the original world is not necessarily impossible.

However, judging from the rotten state of the surrounding items, even if the rope is found, it will probably be unusable.

While searching around, Zhou Xigang asked, "You said mushrooms can parasitize animals, are you referring to specific types of mushrooms, or all mushrooms?"

Lin Muying chimed in, "We don't know either. Just be careful and try not to touch these mushrooms unnecessarily."

Zhou Xigang said, "There are mushrooms everywhere on the ground. It's impossible to avoid them. Since you arrived here at least half an hour earlier than me and haven't been parasitized by mushrooms yet, I guess these parasitic mushrooms must be special fungi, not all mushrooms can be parasitized."

He paused here, and found a small fire cabinet at the end of the supermarket shelf. Inside, he found a rather small fire axe. Unlike the large fire axe that Li Yu found in the hotel, this fire axe was no more than thirty centimeters long.

Zhou Xigang held it in his hand and tried it out. Li Yu, who was standing to the side, held up his phone with the flashlight on and shone it around. Suddenly, he said, "You all come here."

Hearing his voice, Lin Muying and Qian Lili walked over from the other side.

"What's wrong?" Lin Muying asked.

Li Yu pointed around and asked, "Have you noticed anything?"

Qian Lili looked around, then shook her head, feeling there was nothing special about it.

Upon hearing Li Yu's words, Zhou Xigang immediately looked around and suddenly said, "It is indeed strange. The goods were severely corroded and covered with mushrooms, but the situation here is obviously much better. You can see that very few mushrooms have grown on these goods; most of them only have some mold spots."

Li Yu nodded and said, "Zhou Xigang, when you were shopping at the supermarket earlier, you suddenly heard a loud bang, and then all the lights went out. Were you in this area at the time?"

Zhou Xigang was taken aback, then said, "Yes, I remember taking two quick steps forward and then falling down right there."

As he spoke, he pointed to the ground and saw two crushed mushrooms on the ground, which he must have accidentally stepped on and slipped and fell.

As Lin Muying listened to their conversation, she also carefully observed her surroundings. She indeed discovered that the severity of the fungal infestation in the supermarket varied. The area closer to the supermarket entrance was more severe, while the situation was less severe as one approached the deeper parts of the supermarket.

"This situation is similar to what we encountered at the hotel before," Li Yu said. "Mu Ying, do you remember? We had an accident on the third floor before. At that time, there weren't many mushrooms around, and the corrosion wasn't very serious. It only gradually became more and more serious later."

Lin Muying hummed in agreement, a look of surprise on her face.

Zhou Xigang interjected, "No wonder this fire axe shows no signs of being eroded by fungi. It seems that a spacetime rift must have appeared here before. I experienced the past and the present here. It can be said that the spacetime here is between the past and the present. However, unfortunately, the spacetime here is slowly eroding the past spacetime. It will probably be eroded by fungi soon. This further proves that we can't go back to the past."

Li Yu felt somewhat heavy-hearted. His thoughts differed from Zhou Xigang's. The phenomenon before them meant that the time-space passage they had mentioned earlier was likely not a guess, but a real occurrence. The most important thing now was to find the reason for this phenomenon.