10: The bacterial flora is beginning to show its power.
“Although I don't know why you're hiding your strength, it doesn't matter anymore.”
“How about we discuss something? As long as you let me vent my frustration obediently, just like you did this afternoon, I promise not to bother you again.”
“Plus, your good brother Luo Feng is still locked up in the detention center. I happen to have some connections inside. If you don't want your good brother to come out missing an arm or a leg, how about you just let me vent my frustration?”
Zhang Haobai slowly walked towards Qiao Yu, his tone carrying a hint of playful mockery.
Regardless of Qiao Yu's choice tonight, he was going to cripple both of them. He just enjoyed giving people hope while simultaneously crushing them.
Zhang Haobai casually kicked aside one of his subordinates who was lying on the ground groaning, and stood in front of Qiao Yu.
“With that pathetic look, you're still trying to act tough?”
“Blah blah blah, so much nonsense! Take this punch!”
Qiao Yu listened to Zhang Haobai appreciating his own verbal artistry and felt speechless. If he hadn't known how pathetic Zhang Haobai would become later, he might have almost believed him.
In any case, he was already an Advanced Trainee now. During the earlier fight with the Four-Man Group, his control over his body had become increasingly proficient. He should be able to exert seventy to eighty percent of his strength, which should be enough to deal with Zhang Haobai.
Qiao Yu immediately threw a powerful punch straight at Zhang Haobai's face.
Zhang Haobai hadn't expected Qiao Yu wouldn't play his word games at all, and he immediately felt bored.
He found Qiao Yu's attack full of flaws. Without even putting down his briefcase, he casually deflected Qiao Yu's attack with a slight movement.
He had been immersed in the Advanced Trainee stage for a year, and was originally a veteran Advanced Trainee at Third High.
It was just that Luo Feng's outstanding strength and sudden rise made him look weak by comparison.
Seeing Zhang Haobai easily deflect his attack, Qiao Yu wasn't surprised. His large fists continued to rain down blows toward Zhang Haobai's face.
Zhang Haobai yawned, dodging Qiao Yu's attacks while fighting back.
“Heh, unsteady footwork, weak punches. It's hard to believe someone with your martial arts level is an Advanced Trainee. You're miles behind Luo Feng.”
After testing Qiao Yu's strength, Zhang Haobai shook his head, put down his briefcase, shrugged, and started taking the fight seriously. His body moved, transforming into an afterimage.
He appeared directly behind Qiao Yu, raising his leg to deliver a kick to Qiao Yu's waist.
Qiao Yu quickly made a dodging movement. Although his eyes could follow Zhang Haobai's movements, his nerve reaction speed was still half a beat too slow.
Zhang Haobai's leg still grazed Qiao Yu's waist, forcing Qiao Yu back two steps.
“Looks like you're not completely useless after all. You can still play with me.”
Zhang Haobai became slightly interested, and his attack speed increased rapidly, until he was forming multiple afterimages.
Although Qiao Yu took several punches from Zhang Haobai due to his insufficient nerve reaction speed and lack of precise control over his strength.
However, the longer the fight went on, the more fluid Qiao Yu's nerve reaction speed and control over his body became.
From taking nine out of ten moves initially, he gradually reduced it to taking five, then three out of ten.
Zhang Haobai also realized that Qiao Yu was using him to hone his skills.
“Interesting. Using me as a test subject?”
Zhang Haobai simply stopped holding back and immediately exerted all the strength he could muster.
The scale of victory seemed to tip toward Zhang Haobai once again.
But as the fight continued, Zhang Haobai noticed that the situation was becoming increasingly strange.
His stamina was much worse than usual!
At first, he thought it was due to his body not having fully recovered from the beating Luo Feng gave him earlier that day, resulting in poor reaction time.
As time passed, Zhang Haobai felt his body growing weaker. Something was wrong—extremely wrong!
“Achoo!”
Zhang Haobai's sudden sneeze completely disrupted his rhythm, and Qiao Yu seized the opportunity to counterattack.
A beautiful left hook struck Zhang Haobai directly on the right side of his face, sending Zhang Haobai flying half a meter away, fulfilling Qiao Yu's expectations.
“Cough, cough! What kind of dirty trick did you use! Cough, cough!”
Zhang Haobai gasped for air while clutching his chest and coughing incessantly. With every breath, he felt his head grow dizzier and his strength drain away.
“What dirty trick? What clean trick?”
Qiao Yu was also puzzled by Zhang Haobai's condition. He had been punching powerfully just moments ago, but after only ten minutes of fighting, he looked completely exhausted, as if he had participated in a dozen consecutive poker games.
Before Qiao Yu could ask further, Zhang Haobai completely passed out.
Qiao Yu then looked at the five people lying on the ground and realized that the Four-Man Group had already fainted earlier. Everyone's face was as pale as paper.
“What in the world is going on?”
Qiao Yu scratched his head in confusion, a small head filled with a big question mark.
He felt the wound he sustained on his arm was already starting to scab over, and the itchy sensation made Qiao Yu want to scratch it.
As Qiao Yu gradually calmed down and carefully sensed the situation, he finally realized what caused Zhang Haobai and the other four to faint.
Zhang Haobai and the others must have all been parasitized by his fungal swarm.
Although the amount of blood he lost from his injury earlier was small, since he had been optimized by the fungal swarm, every drop of his blood contained hundreds of millions of fungi.
When he was attacked, the fungal swarm leaving his body via the blood also released countless spores invisible to the naked eye into the air.
Zhang Haobai and the others had continuously inhaled these spores during their fight, leading to gradual parasitism.
The more fiercely they fought, the faster the blood flowed in their bodies, and the wider the spores spread throughout them.
The nutrients and oxygen in their blood and internal organs were constantly being devoured by the fungi and fed back to Qiao Yu. No wonder they became weaker the longer they fought.
“I didn't expect the fungal swarm to have this function. The alley is a semi-enclosed space, so Zhang Haobai and the others were affected quickly. If we were in an open area like the Wilderness Area, achieving this effect would probably be difficult.”
Qiao Yu analyzed what kind of help this new discovery could bring him in the future.
If it were open terrain, this ability would require a massive amount of spores in the air to form an effective range.
However, a large number of intelligent monsters hide inside buildings, and the enclosed environment inside a building makes Qiao Yu an unrivaled king.
As long as he didn't encounter a monster with a vastly superior strength difference, he could completely build his own Fungi Empire in the Wilderness Area!
The more Qiao Yu thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed.
“As expected, my ability is too limited in densely populated areas. Only places like the Wilderness Area are the domains where I can truly showcase my skills.”
Although Qiao Yu could completely build his own Fungi Empire within the Base City, the risk would be far too great.
The human high-levels and other powerful individuals would definitely notice something was wrong, and it would also be too immoral.
Those things were secondary. If Luo Feng found out, Qiao Yu would be inextricably linked to it, and he didn't want to end up standing alone against humanity.
“However, all these plans can only be implemented once I become a Martial Warrior...”
Returning to the age-old problem of becoming a Martial Warrior, Qiao Yu was just about to get a headache when the corner of his eye caught sight of the briefcase Zhang Haobai had brought with him.
“Oh, a wild Safe!”