An Zhe looked around blankly. There were four sides to this cylindrical space, his front, rear, left and right sides and there were the six duct entrances. This was 24 in total and they all headed to different directions. This was the origin of the whole city’s ventilation system.

He knew he had two options. Find his way back before dawn and try again tomorrow night or… don’t go back.

He could abandon his human identity right now and disappear from the main city. As a mushroom, he would wander the underground pipeline for a long time, regardless of day and night. As long as he wandered long enough before he dried out, he could sneak into the Lighthouse.

The wind was stronger and he shook gently. He knew the decision he was about to make would decide his fate in the future. However, even if he decided to go back, could he really go back? An Zhe didn’t know.

Looking at the six holes, he gritted his teeth and climbed into the middle one on the right side. He wasn’t sure if this was the original road or not but he could only use fate to decide.

In fact, it would be more convenient to climb into the hole in the form of mycelium but there were three human predecessors living here. He didn’t want them to see any heterogeneous species coming in. Thus, it wasn’t until he was thoroughly back in the pipe that An Zhe turned into a mass of mycelium.

The mycelium sped up and moved in the direction of the wind, the wind pushing him from behind. An Zhe turned a few corners and passed many intersections. Now he just wanted to find a pipe connecting to a human room as soon as possible. It would be better if the room had a window so he could sneak out through the window. He could find the nearest shuttle bus stop while it was dark and quietly stick to the bottom of the bus. The bus would take him to the terminal near Building 24 and then he could slip back to his own corridor. As long as the night was deep enough, no one would find out.

In this way, he wandered for a long time. Just as the pipes were becoming smaller and smaller, a faint light appeared in front of him. He had come to the mouth of the pipe. This was a ventilation duct located on the ceiling.

Looking down from the pipe, a cylindrical transparent container appeared in the centre of his vision. Inside was a slightly cloudy liquid where a flesh-coloured thing floated. It was very small, around the size of two human fists. A large transparent tube was connected to one end of this flesh-coloured object while the other end was connected to a complex-looking device.