I Picked up a Planet, Do You Want It, President? - Chapter 32
Chapter 32: The Core Of The Spore
When they entered the base, they realized that the firepower they saw installed onto the steel wall was relatively small. The real deal was still inside the base.
The area 100 meters within the steel wall was separated by barricades.
All sorts of heavy weapons were arranged here. They were all raised high and were aimed outside the steel wall.
This angle was decided after careful calculation. If the artillery was fired from this place, the effective range could accurately cover an area of 5,000 meters beyond the steel wall.
As they continued to walk further in, many tents had already been set up in the base. Many soldiers were wearing heavy protective gear as they walked into the tents to sterilize them.
On the wide road, there were many specialized vehicles carrying sterilizers that sprayed disinfectant into the air.
William was a little curious, so he stopped a soldier and asked, “Why is the base spraying disinfectant everywhere?”
When the soldier saw the emblem on Gaia and the others’ uniforms, he immediately straightened his back and saluted. Then, he said respectfully.
“Good Morning, sir! Last night, a wolf monster rushed over the steel wall and invaded the base. The higher-ups were worried that the virus would spread to the base, so they ordered us to spray disinfectant here.”
“Oh!” Everyone immediately understood.
Following the standard operating procedures, everyone went through the usual handover procedures. The medical staff took their blood and checked their belongings before letting them go.
Everyone returned to their designated areas and found their own tents to rest in.
Gaia laid on the bed and opened the system.
He was shocked when he saw the 1010 points displayed on it.
Yesterday, his points were only at 137. How did it increase so much in just a single morning?
Gaia was shocked.
He opened the system log and took a closer look.
In the beginning, everything seemed normal. Basically, it was a whole bunch of “+5s”. There were about 50 to 60 of those in the logs.
Gaia guessed that this should be the points he received when he fought against the amber snails.
At that time, that stun grenade did kill a lot of amber snails.
If the monsters on Planet Mushu were given classifications, the amber snails and wolf monsters should be on the same level.
Other than that, there were also a bunch of “+0.1s”, over a thousand of them, in fact.
Gaia was confused. When had he ever killed so many low-level creatures?
Unless the spores that were removed from his body and counted as points…
Gaia was delighted. Did that mean that there was another opportunity to earn points?
However, after thinking about what he had gone through, only a fool would risk his life by intentionally infecting themselves with the spores and then removing them, all just for the sake of earning points.
Gaia continued to read, more than a dozen blood-red numbers appeared in front of him.
+ 50!
+ 45!
+ 55!
…
That totaled up to be over 500 points.
Gaia is shocked!
What did he do to deserve 500 points in one go?!.
Could it be…
The spore clusters were counted as points individually?
Or maybe, the spore clusters were not of the same level as those ordinary spores. In fact, they might even be an outright different kind of creature.
Gaia immediately thought about it in horror.
Thinking about it carefully, Gaia found that there was a huge difference between the spore clusters and the normal spores.
The most obvious part was that the spores that Gaia was infected with could only execute stress reflexes.
When Gaia injected the anesthetic, causing them to sense the danger, they moved deeper into Gaia’s body.
This was an unconscious move, it was mere biological instinct.
However, the spore clusters were different.
It always appeared in large clumps, as if the spores had all gathered together.
Previously, Gaia thought that the situation happened because the spores were stimulated, so they all huddled together as a stress reflex.
He even gave these clumps of spores a name – spore clusters.
However, now that he thought about it, that was not the case at all.
The spore clusters were sentient.
It did not show disorganized behavior due to multiple spores being clumped up together.
It was consciously dodging, attacking, and even feasting on Gaia’s body.
When the spore clusters were in danger, they could even destroy a portion of its spore cells to attack its enemy.
Was this something that an ordinary cluster of spores could do?
It was obvious that the spore cluster acted more like a singular core that had countless spores.
These spores were under the control of the core and were carrying out deliberate actions.
These cores were probably a parasite that had managed to make their way into Gaia when he was covered in the powder.
They must have been more than a dozen individual cores in that powder. That was why there were more than a dozen separate spore clusters found within Gaia earlier.
Each of these cores provides Gaia with a bunch of points.
It was definitely a lot easier than killing a werewolf.
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Gaia was ecstatic. He felt that he had discovered the biggest secret of Planet Mushu.
The biggest threat that this planet had was most likely these cores.
They could live on the bodies of living beings, leech on their nutrients, and eventually, turn into terrifying monsters.
They did not need to take control of their hosts’ bodies. After all, compared to their hosts, they were much more terrifying monsters themselves.
What happened next confirmed Gaia’s conjecture.
Since he had discovered the extremely dangerous existence of the spore core, Gaia’s desire for strength had reached its peak.
If he did not improve rapidly, the next time he faced such a thing, Gaia was doubtful of his ability to survive.
Gaia opened the system shop, wanting to find something that could quickly increase his potential.
Currently, he had a total of 1,000 points, which could be exchanged for many good items.
Basic skills were priced from 100 to 200 points.
Basic gear was around 1,000 points.
Basic Gene Potions were also priced at 1,000 points. Consuming them would definitely improve Gaia’s physique. It was a rather worthwhile choice.
Alternatively, he could choose to increase his attributes. He only needed 1,000 points to increase either his Strength, Constitution, or Agility by 1 point.
It was also a very worthwhile choice.
Gaia was in a dilemma. Although he already had quite a number of points, he still felt that these things were far too ordinary. They were not what he wanted.
The Basic Gene Potion seemed like the most attractive choice for him right now, but it was definitely not something to write home about.
At best, it would raise his constitution to William’s level, but that was still more underwhelming than he had hoped.
In the face of danger, just that little bit would not be enough.
