The world enters the fungal world

Under the cover of night, what comes into view is no longer the familiar neon-lit city night scene, but mushrooms.

Mushrooms of various sizes, shapes, and colors.

The main road in front of the hotel used to be bustling with traffic, but now it is deserted. Milky white mushrooms are sprouting from the cracks in the asphalt, densely packed like a milky white carpet.

The vehicles abandoned on the road were almost entirely covered with various kinds of mushrooms.

An overturned bus was parked not far from the three people. Brown mushrooms about the size of a palm covered the bus seats and roof, and the rust on the bus body could be vaguely seen through the gaps between the mushrooms.

The overpass in the distance broke and collapsed, and a large number of dark red mycelia crisscrossed along the overpass, spreading in all directions. These mycelia varied in thickness, some as thick as an arm and some as thin as a finger. From a distance, they looked like vines.

Li Yu turned his head with difficulty, looking at the hotel building behind him. The neon sign that was once bright in the night had long since dimmed, and its surface was covered with mushrooms. A large fungus that Li Yu could not recognize was growing in the cracks in the wall, winding downwards. The walls of the surrounding high-rise buildings were basically covered with various giant mushrooms.

The air was filled with a damp, decaying smell, a mixture of earth, rotting wood, and fungi, with a slightly fishy and putrid odor.

The once modern metropolis has been transformed into a putrid ruin, devoured and eroded by fungi.

"Impossible...impossible..."

Qian Lili trembled all over, shook her head desperately, her legs went weak, and she suddenly collapsed.

Lin Muying took a deep breath to calm herself down from the chaos, and took out her phone with slightly trembling hands.

The phone screen lit up, showing the time as 8:21 PM.

Her first thought was to call the police, but she suddenly realized the call wouldn't go through.

Although the phone was turned on, it did not show any signal. She made several calls, including to the police, emergency services, fire department, and family members, but none of them went through.

Li Yu also took out her phone, but like Lin Muying, it had no signal and she couldn't make any calls.

"Are these all hallucinations? Or have we... traveled through time?"

Li Yu's mind was in complete chaos. She gave up on continuing to make calls and kept rubbing her face, forcing herself to calm down.

He had read many novels and watched many movies and TV shows, so he was familiar with the concepts of time travel or rebirth. The bizarre scene he was suddenly experiencing could not be explained by any common sense. The only thing he could think of was that the three of them had time traveled.

Although he found it enjoyable to read novels and even envied the protagonists, he only realized the extent of fear and despair when he actually encountered this bizarre and strange scene.

After repeatedly trying to make phone calls without success, Lin Muying finally gave up. Hearing Li Yu's words, she couldn't help but look at him and ask, "You're saying we've traveled through time?"

Li Yu calmed down somewhat from the chaos and said with some difficulty, "If everything we are seeing now is real, then time travel is the only explanation."

He then turned around and looked through the twisted, deformed, and damaged revolving door into the dimly lit hotel lobby. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I was in the restroom at the time, and when I came out, I saw the two of you. Everything was normal at that point. Then, there was a sudden loud noise from the banquet hall. We rushed to the banquet hall, and after that, everything started to become more and more abnormal."

"If we really did time travel, it must have been around that time. Perhaps that loud noise altered spacetime, creating a time portal there. We accidentally passed through that portal and entered this parallel world. So, although the city here is still Jiangcheng, it has become an abandoned city covered and eroded by mushrooms."

At this point, Li Yu's spirits lifted slightly, and he said, "If this reasoning is the truth, then if we go back to the third floor, we might have a chance to return to the Jiangcheng we know."

Hearing Li Yu's guess, Lin Muying calmed down a bit and nodded, saying, "Okay, then let's go back and try it."

In this abandoned city overrun with mushrooms, the three dared not wander around. No one knew if the mushrooms were poisonous, or if any wild beasts, snakes, scorpions, or insects were lurking among them. All they could think of now was to do everything possible to return to their familiar world.

Li Yu took the lead, and the three of them went through the revolving door back into the hotel. Li Yu took two steps forward, but instead of heading to the stairs immediately, he picked up a heavy ashtray placed on the front desk.

Lin Muying didn't understand why he was holding the ashtray. Just as she was about to speak, she noticed that Li Yu had already run off in the other direction. Lin Muying had no choice but to follow behind him and call out "Li Yu".

Qian Lili was completely lost and simply followed closely behind the two of them, her face still filled with terror.

Ignoring Lin Muying's calls from behind, Li Yu quickly found the hotel's fire extinguisher cabinet on the side.

Five-star hotels like this are equipped with complete fire-fighting equipment. When Li Yu saw that the surface of the fire cabinet was covered with a few small mushrooms, he did not hesitate to pick up the ashtray in his hand and smash it against the glass door of the fire cabinet.

The ashtray was very heavy, and Li Yu slammed it down with force, making a crisp "crack" sound. The glass cabinet door was quickly smashed by him.

He put down the ashtray, opened the fire cabinet, and found that it was equipped with a full range of fire-fighting equipment, including fire axes, claw hammers, and fire crowbars, which was somewhat unexpected.

When Lin Muying caught up, she saw Li Yu smashing the door of the fire extinguisher cabinet and immediately understood what he meant.

Li Yu took out a fire axe from his pocket. It was a large fire axe, a full eighty centimeters long. Seeing Lin Muying approach, he handed the fire axe to her.

Then he took out a fire-fighting crowbar and a claw hammer. He kept the crowbar, which was over 1.2 meters long, for his own use, and gave the claw hammer to Qian Lili.

Qian Lili took the claw hammer with a trembling heart and asked, "What do you need this for?" Her face showed both shock and confusion.

Holding a fire extinguisher crowbar, Li Yu walked towards the stairs, saying as he went, "Nobody knows if it's safe here, it's always good to have something to protect yourself."

He felt uneasy as soon as he stepped out of the hotel and saw the mushrooms everywhere. He had an inexplicable fear of this unknown world.

Although he was back at the hotel, the unease in his heart had not disappeared. No one knew if there was any danger in this hotel full of mushrooms. Having a crowbar for self-defense made him feel a little more at ease.

Lin Muying held the fire axe that Li Yu had given her, understanding his thoughts. She didn't say anything, but felt vaguely uneasy. She gripped the fire axe tightly and couldn't help but gently lick her rosy lips.

Li Yu, carrying a fire extinguisher crowbar, led the way towards the stairs.

Lin Muying and Qian Lili followed closely behind.

Hearing Li Yu say he wanted to get a weapon for self-defense, Qian Lili became even more frightened. Gripping the claw hammer tightly with both hands, she said in a trembling voice, "Li Yu, are you saying it's not safe here?"

Li Yu ignored Qian Lili and went up the stairs. In just a short while, he felt that there were more mushrooms around the stairs.

These mushrooms seem to be multiplying, but the rate of reproduction is far too fast, completely beyond reason.