Inside his mushroom house, Norris opened his eyes with a tired look. The whites were bloodshot.
He had spent the whole night in a nightmare, chased by indescribable giant claws. Even though he had slept long enough, he felt exhausted in body and mind, as if he truly had been running for his life all night.
So he had been scared after all.
The only good news was that the boss did not seem inclined to blame him for the accidental death of that special Puchi.
Knowing the boss, if he meant to teach someone a lesson, he usually did it the same day.
Since a full day had passed in peace, chances were he really did not care much about it.
However, when Norris picked up the Yellow Book and stepped out of his mushroom house, the scene before him stunned him in place.
In front of Little Black’s mushroom hut, Puchi One, freshly reborn after Lin Jun had stuffed his soul back into a cocoon, stood up straight in front of a group of later-born intelligent Puchi.
He waved his tendrils, and his fervent thoughts echoed across the public channel of the mycelial network.
“Fellow Puchi of the clan, look at us. We are the Mushroom Lord’s chosen children, the extension of His great will, the guardians of this paradise.”
His “gaze” swept across the surrounding Puchi, who were all listening with vague confusion but great interest. Then his tendril snapped toward the narrow gap of Little Black’s closed door.
“But right there lurks a savage brute that takes pleasure in devouring our noble kin. A terrifying beast that we must acknowledge as our natural enemy.”
A chorus of fearful and indignant cries rippled through the gathered Puchi.
“And today,” Puchi One’s cap trembled with passion, “we will gather the strength of the clan and challenge it. We will defeat it. We must make it understand that we are not snacks to be eaten at will. We have strength. We have wisdom. We must defend the dignity of the Puchi, which cannot be trampled.”
The ten-odd Puchi below him burst out in cheers. Tendrils slapped the ground in support.
Not everyone bought it.
“Hmph.”
A displeased voice cut in as Puchi Two shoved the overly excited Puchi Four aside.
“Who made you leader just because you said so? You were only born a day earlier. The great Mushroom Lord never said you were in charge. I will not risk my life following your orders.”
With that, Puchi Two turned and left.
Among the group, Puchi Ten, who had been quietly observing, glanced at Little Black’s mushroom hut, then at the agitated Puchi around him.
He shuffled his stubby feet and drifted unnoticed to the back of the crowd. Then, while nearly everyone’s attention was fixed on Puchi Two’s departure, his body blurred and slipped into the shadow of a nearby mushroom house, disappearing.
After that brief unpleasant moment, the remaining eleven Puchi seemed to regain unity.
Puchi One finally began laying out his “strategy.”
“Listen. Once the entrance opens, we all…”
Before he could finish, the Puchi around him suddenly stepped back in unison.
Puchi One realized something was wrong. His senses spread backward along the fungal carpet…
At some point Little Black had already poked her head out through the crack of her mushroom hut.
Her golden eyes swept over the scene and discovered that the ones disturbing her morning nap were an entire group of breakfast.
“For the glory of the clan, defeat the Puchi-eating beast.”
Puchi Four recovered first. With a shout of fighting spirit, he charged forward bravely.
Straight into Little Black’s mouth.
“Run.”
Someone screamed, and every Puchi still alive, except Puchi One, bolted in all directions.
Seeing the situation collapse, Puchi One was forced to swallow his fury and prepared to retreat for now and return in glory another day.
Just as he turned to flee, Puchi Thirteen quietly hooked one of his short legs with a tendril amid the chaos.
Puchi One toppled headfirst.
He did not even have time to look up and see who had tripped him before a familiar black claw descended onto his cap and dragged him back into the mushroom hut.
Puchi One’s enraged roar in the mycelial network lasted only a heartbeat before Little Black’s door closed, and his signal vanished completely.
Norris sat on a large mushroom outside his own hut, scratching at the scales on his chin as he watched the “Puchi Clan Crusade against the Puchi-eating Beast” farce come to an end.
He had the vague sense that the boss was working on some incredible new project again. These Puchi that could think for themselves and even bicker among each other were like nothing he had seen before.
But watching Little Black pick them off one by one like snacks… their supposed greatness was hard to put into words.
And the boss did not seem to care if they died.
He was still lost in thought when something below startled him.
On his lap, the Yellow Book was spewing lines at incredible speed, almost filling every blank space.
[Norris, what are those?]
[Souls. I can sense independent souls. How do those mushrooms have souls like that? They are clearly all just]
[Shapeshift? No… Is it stuffing someone else’s soul inside? That does not seem right either…]
[Cre… creating souls? Is it soul creation???]
[Norris, what is that? Look at them.]
[Norris?]
[Norris!!!]
Seeing his name fill whole lines made Norris’s heart lurch. He had rarely seen the Yellow Book this agitated.
In his impression, the Yellow Book was all obsequious flattery in front of the boss, sharp words and begrudgingly useful advice when Norris was in trouble, and idle gossip about Bloodsis and other bloodborn the rest of the time.
Most days, it had an air of bored calm. It almost never lost its composure like this.
“Senior, please calm down.” Norris scratched his head and quickly explained.
“They seem to be a new type of Puchi the boss made recently. I am not really sure what is going on.”
[Boss. Great boss. Can you hear me? I have something important to say.]
Messy lines scrawled down two more rows. When no reply came, the text immediately turned back to Norris.
[Norris, call the boss for me.]
“Uh…” Norris shrank a little.
[Norris, I am begging you. This is really important to me.]
“It is not that serious…” Norris was rattled by the Yellow Book’s intensity. He could only steel himself and contact the boss through the mycelial network.
Pop, pop.
Two soft snaps sounded as Puchi One and Puchi Four once again wriggled out of sticky cocoons.
Mycelium still clung to their caps. Puchi One flailed his tendrils angrily, ready to report the Puchi-eating beast’s crimes and his comrades’ betrayal to the Mushroom Lord in the mycelial network.
Puchi Four hopped in place beside him, eager to back him up.
Before either of them could say anything, a Knight Puchi waiting nearby grabbed both round bodies and dragged them out.
Originally, Lin Jun had planned to create a larger number of intelligent Puchi.
Even though each one required a fragment of his soul, given the sheer scale of his soul, even hundreds or thousands would not affect him much.
But after seeing their behavior, he decided to limit production to thirteen for now.
The reason was simple.
They all had too much personality.
This was not a simple upgrade to a high-grade AI. Each Puchi had a truly distinct personality.
If he made too many, he would end up with chaos on his hands and orders would not be followed.
Better to restrict them to a small number of high-tier Puchi and increase the count only as needed, keeping everything under control.
Right now, they were still in the “personality tuning” and “social adaptation testing” phase. Their bodies were only ordinary elite-tier Puchi.
Even if some, like Puchi One and Puchi Four, died early, the loss was acceptable. He could just reclaim their souls and hatch them again.
As for this broken book…
Lin Jun’s attention shifted to Norris’s timid call in the mycelial network.
What did he want all of a sudden?
(End of Chapter)
