Assimilation

Just as its name suggested, the Abandoned Alley was a completely forgotten corner.

The houses still stood, but the windows were nothing more than empty frames. Doors hung crookedly on their hinges, creaking loudly whenever the wind blew.

The massive drop in temperature in the Northern Territory had driven away nearly two-thirds of Cold Bay Fort's population, leaving many areas vacant just like this. The Abandoned Alley was one of the most dilapidated among them.

Today, however, silhouettes flickered within the alley.

Grey slowed his pace, his gaze sweeping over the figures leaning against the base of the walls or squatting on the steps. White mycelium crawled across their exposed skin—they were clearly all parasitized individuals.

He and Ke were also in disguise.

Before setting out, the two had used a specially made gel to stick imitation mycelium onto their cheeks, the backs of their hands, and their necks. They looked no different from the genuinely parasitized.

At least, that was what they thought.

But the moment Grey took his first step into the Abandoned Alley, he felt something was wrong.

"They’re staring right at us, Senior," Ke’s voice was pressed incredibly low, so quiet that only the two of them could hear it.

His footsteps hadn't faltered, but Grey could sense that Ke was getting nervous.

"It's our first time here. It's normal for them to be guarded," Grey responded in an equally low voice, keeping his eyes looking straight ahead and not making eye contact with anyone.

What he didn't know was that within the localized mycelial network of this Abandoned Alley, all the parasitized individuals were currently discussing the two of them.

"These two didn't come with good intentions." "They even put fake mycelium on their faces. Are they trying to sneak in?" "Looks like the higher-ups have their eyes on us..." "Who's going to go notify the boss?" In the alley, someone quietly took a few steps back and disappeared around a corner.

Another crossed their arms and continued to stare, an indiscernible smirk tugging at the corners of their mouth.

A few others trailed closely behind Grey and Ke.

It didn't take long for Grey to realize that they had been surrounded.

Front, back, left, and right—over a dozen parasitized individuals blocked every route of retreat. A tall, burly Horned Demon stepped forward, reached out, and pinched the fake mycelium on Grey's cheek, giving it a hard yank.

The Horned Demon held the fake mycelium up to his eyes, inspected it, then casually tossed it to the ground and crushed it under his foot.

"Sticking this fake crap on your faces... are you trying to mock us?" He took a step forward, stopping less than half an arm's length from Grey. "Or were you planning to sneak in and quietly do some shady business?"

The others remained silent, but Grey could feel their gazes growing even colder than before.

"Everyone, stop!"

Just as Grey was preparing to grab Ke and fight their way out, a voice echoed from deep within the alley.

The crowd parted automatically, yielding a narrow path.

Grey looked up.

The newcomer was a bald Vampire, his face similarly covered in crawling mycelium.

He walked up to Grey and stopped.

Those eyes lingered on Grey's face for a moment before sweeping over Ke beside him.

"Sent by the higher-ups?" his tone was utterly calm.

Knowing there was no point in hiding it, Grey gave a curt nod.

As if he had expected this all along, the bald Vampire turned around and waved his hand at the surrounding parasitized crowd. "Disperse. Don't act like a street gang. I'll handle this."

Someone looked as if they wanted to say something, but upon meeting his gaze, they snapped their mouth shut. The encirclement slowly dissipated, and those icy stares shifted away. Only a few remained standing in the distance, keeping a vague watch on them.

The bald Vampire turned back to Grey.

"Follow me."

The three of them entered a room that had been tidied up fairly well. The bald Vampire poured each of them a bowl of hot soup, then poured himself a full glass of blood.

He took a sip first, let out a comfortable sigh, and then said, "Sorry if they scared you, but please don't blame them. Guys like us, forced into a symbiosis with mycelium, face terrible discrimination everywhere else. Huddling together here for warmth and venting our grievances to one another, it's inevitable that we'd be wary of people without mycelium like you. Please forgive them this time."

Grey remained noncommittal and didn't touch the soup; he had spotted mushroom fragments floating in it.

"Are you the Boss here?"

"The Boss?!" The bald Vampire's eyelid twitched violently, and he hurriedly clarified, "I'm their leader, but I am not the Boss."

This left Grey thoroughly confused.

Didn't "Boss" and "leader" mean the exact same thing?

However, he couldn't be bothered to waste time on trivial details, so he asked directly, "We're investigating the traitors who have been maliciously spreading spores in the city recently. Since you're the leader here, you should know at least something, right?"

Ke also placed a hand on the Vampire's shoulder. "Don't worry, we only want to catch the culprit. We won't drag innocent people into this."

"Spreading spores in the city?" The bald Vampire looked utterly baffled. "My lords, I really don't know anything about that. Most of our daily work involves going outside the city to clear away mycelium. Why would we bring spores back to spread them? Isn't that just asking for more work?"

The bald Vampire sounded incredibly sincere, but Ke turned his head and blinked at Grey.

Seeing no reaction from Grey, Ke blinked again, harder.

Seeing that Ke was going to continue "hinting," Grey had no choice but to quickly blink back in response.

"What kind of... secret signals are you two exchanging?" the bald Vampire said coldly. It was obvious he had noticed their interaction.

When Grey and Ke didn't answer, he sighed. "Really now... Demon-kin sure have a lot of tricks up their sleeves."

In the next instant, blood surged from his cuff, shooting straight for Ke's face like a spear.

Grey grabbed Ke and threw him behind his back. A blazing fist of fire met the attack, boiling the blood dry.

At the same time, Grey couldn't help but curse, "You idiot! Do you not know what a subtle hint is?!"

Knowing he had messed up, Ke retreated from the fighting circle while apologizing, "I'm sorry! It's my first time doing this kind of job!"

But before he could retreat more than a few steps, he was blocked by the parasitized individuals who came rushing in from outside.

The bald Vampire pointed at Grey and Ke, shouting into the mycelial network: "We're exposed! Kill them!" The room instantly erupted into a chaotic brawl. The relatively tidy house in the Abandoned Alley was reduced to a pile of rubble in less than three minutes, baptized by various impacts and bursts of flame.

Being besieged, Grey and Ke were in a terrible spot, but fortunately, the situation didn't last long.

The soldiers who had been on standby on the perimeter rushed into the Abandoned Alley the moment they heard the commotion.

While the parasitized weren't weak, the fully prepared soldiers possessed overwhelming strength. It didn't take much time for them to suppress the entire Abandoned Alley.

Grey and Ke narrowly escaped with their lives.

Grey reflected on his own carelessness. He had originally thought the spore-spreading was the isolated action of a few extreme traitors, and had hoped to root them out using less violent means.

Now, it seemed the entire Abandoned Alley was in on it.

Looking at the restrained bald Vampire, Grey couldn't help but ask, "Why betray us?"

To his surprise, the somewhat dejected bald Vampire suddenly grew agitated upon hearing this. "I betrayed you? You betrayed me! I fought for the Empire, barely surviving by the skin of my teeth! But when I came back, I was treated like a discarded pawn, thrown in here to wait for death! Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

As he spoke, he started to laugh. "Hah! But it doesn't matter. Today it's me, but tomorrow it'll be you! I really want to see what kind of expressions you'll make when that day comes!"

The bald Vampire was dragged away by the soldiers. What awaited him was a trial, and he would likely be used as a sacrifice to boost morale before the war officially began.

A groan of pain from behind pulled Grey's attention back.

Unlike the remarkably strong Grey, the chaotic battle just now had been incredibly perilous for Ke, who lacked self-preservation skills.

Even though Grey had intentionally tried to protect him, Ke still sustained significant injuries in the crossfire.

Fortunately, the soldiers arrived in time, and there was no shortage of healing potions.

"I'm sorry... Senior..."

Looking at the numerous cuts on Ke's body, Grey couldn't bring himself to be overly harsh on the young rookie.

"Don't overthink it. Focus on recovering. You've already earned merit for this mission."

Afterward, Grey wrote the report by himself and submitted it.

The next day, he visited Ke and found him in much better spirits, which finally put his mind at ease.

However, after experiencing all this, deep down, he felt even more pessimistic about the future of Cold Bay Fort.

Inside the hospital ward, Ke, munching on the comfort food Grey had brought him, was also somewhat surprised by his own recovery rate.

He had originally thought he'd be bedridden for half a month, but he was actually able to shakily get out of bed by the second day.

Recalling his blunder yesterday, Ke scratched his neck in embarrassment.

He felt something strange under his nails.

He stood up and abruptly pulled his shirt open.

Between the numerous lacerations, white mycelium had crept in at some point.

They were binding his wounds together, filling in the missing flesh and blood. This was the reason he was healing so quickly!

In a daze, he remembered that during yesterday's chaotic brawl, one of the parasitized had indeed thrown some unknown powder at him while attacking...

He rushed to the door, wanting to tell Grey, wanting to report it to the higher-ups, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Parasitism was irreversible. At least, no one had found a cure for it yet.

Thinking of the plight of the parasitized, and the curses the bald Vampire had screamed before being dragged away... Ke hesitated, his hand hovering over the handle, ultimately failing to pull the door open.

He leaned against the doorframe and slowly slid down to the floor. "What... what should I do?"

(End of Chapter)