The captain of the ship reached out.

Chapter 1 Miss, this place is full.

"Miss, run! Bazel has betrayed the captain!"

The first mate's words still echoed in Alice's ears.

However, looking at the cabin in front of her, she felt almost desperate.

Without a ship or sailors, how did she escape from the Golden Sun, which was located on the vast ocean?

It all started with that adventure to the Mysterious Island two weeks ago.

My father had no idea what had happened to him on that island.

Not only was he seriously injured, but he also lost several capable men, which led Bazeir to consider betrayal.

"Seize the captain's daughter!"

"It looks like she's gone to the lower deck!"

At that moment, hurried footsteps and shouts came from behind.

I need to find a place to hide!

The silver-haired girl struggled to move her legs and escaped to the lower deck of the ship.

Soon, she arrived at the deepest part of the cabin corridor.

A dark oak door stands quietly here, seemingly blending into the shadows.

strangeness……

Was it originally this dark here?

Alice glanced at the glowstones on both sides of the corridor.

Her father had taught her that darkness was the easiest place for monsters to breed, so even the lower decks of the ship needed to be well-lit.

But right now, the closer you get to the oak door, the darker it gets, as if an invisible maw is quietly swallowing up the light.

The pursuers were right behind them.

Without thinking twice, Alice pushed open the door and rushed inside.

Most of the cabin was covered by a purplish-black fungal carpet.

Large and small, densely packed black mushrooms are piled up here, still wriggling slightly.

These mushrooms are enormous, with the largest reaching over two meters in height.

But Alice was not afraid.

She knew that this type of mushroom was called a "carnivorous mushroom".

The name sounds scary, but it is actually a docile and harmless monster.

They instinctively decompose the carcasses of various animals, absorb moisture from the air, and produce tender and delicious mushrooms.

It is an important food and fresh water reserve on the Golden Sun.

This dense cluster of mushrooms also serves as a natural hiding place.

only……

Alice couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by the wriggling bacteria.

She always felt as if countless eyes were watching her from the pile of mushrooms.

Alice! You can do it!

You must live on and avenge your father and the others!

Alice mentally cheered herself up, then took out two bottles of potion and gulped them down.

One bottle contains [Exorcism Potion].

It can prevent you from being attacked by monsters.

The other bottle contains a [Pill of Feigned Death].

There are only so many places on this ship where people can hide, so she had to prepare for the worst.

Soon, Alice struggled to squeeze into the slippery, soft pile of mushrooms, silently closed her eyes, and awaited her fate.

……

……

Not long after.

Several sailors burst into the mushroom-covered cabin, and Boatswain Hansen waved his hand dismissively.

"Search her! She's definitely hiding here!"

As one of the captain's most trusted men, Hansen was the one who least wanted Alice to live.

He could only find peace of mind after seeing the girl's body with his own eyes.

During the sailors' rough search, several black mushrooms were crushed and torn apart, revealing Alice hiding among them.

However, upon seeing her at this moment, the eyelids of the group couldn't help but twitch.

On the fungal carpet, the girl's body remained motionless, without breath or heartbeat.

Fine black tentacles crawled all over her body, burrowing into her eye sockets, mouth and nose, taking deep root in her flesh.

It contrasted sharply with her silvery-white hair.

She lay quietly surrounded by tentacles, like an indescribable creature about to awaken from one of those terrifying sea legends.

"She...is dead?"

Hansen quickly realized that this was just the instinct of a low-level monster, the Carnivorous Mushroom, to decompose a corpse.

There's nothing to be afraid of.

"It looks like he committed suicide by poisoning himself."

A sailor noticed the medicine bottle beside the girl and looked on with regret.

He had originally wanted to try his luck with this young lady!

But now, faced with this corpse covered in tentacles, even a sailor who is usually indiscriminate in his tastes would find it difficult to bring himself to do it.

Let's go find Miss Goat later!

After confirming Alice's death, Hansen instead showed pity and feigned concern.

"By the goddess above, Miss Alice, since this is the 'graveyard' you have chosen, then may you rest in peace here."

"Let's go!"

The group quickly followed Hansen out of the cabin.

They always felt a strange, inexplicable feeling while staying in this room.

It felt like I was being watched by something, and I got a chill down my spine.

Short in stature and with freckles all over his face, Mike was at the end of the sailors' ranks.

He vaguely heard some strange noises and turned his head to look.

Then I saw...

In the dimly lit cabin, the shadows, resembling both mushrooms and tentacles, slowly closed in, swallowing the girl into the deepest part of that dark jungle.

Mike shuddered violently and dared not look at it again.

boom!

The oak door was slammed shut.

Only the writhing of the tentacles never ceased in the darkness.

……

……

My body is so itchy...

What's come in?

Dad, don't leave me, I'm so scared...

I don't know how much time has passed.

Alice's cold body regained its warmth, and she slowly opened her eyes, her consciousness still somewhat hazy.

Where am I?

Oh, right, I took a [Fake Death Potion] and am hiding in the mushroom grove...

Wait, why are tentacles growing on my body?!

Alice woke up with a start, reached out and touched her face, and immediately felt a smooth, slippery sensation.

The exorcism potion has lost its effectiveness?

But why did she not feel uncomfortable at all, but instead feel a strange sense of peace?

No, something's definitely wrong!

Alice struggled desperately to break free from the Carnivorous Mushroom, but in the darkness, she was heading in the wrong direction!

To the tentacles, she seemed to be pushing deeper and deeper, even flattening a few small mushrooms.

That's very impolite.

Thus, through mycelial tentacles.

A voice entered Alice's mind.

"Miss, please don't push, this place is already full."

"Who! Who's talking to me?"

Alice's body suddenly stiffened.

She realized something terrifying: what was echoing in her mind wasn't a physical voice at all, but rather a form of communication similar to a mental connection.

In other words, the ones speaking to her were this group of low-level Carnivorous Mushrooms!?

Oh no! I've been parasitized by a monster?

"Oh dear, don't be so rude. Didn't you lie down here yourself?"

Horn, the true form of the tentacles, had just finished assimilating this group of [Carnivorous Mushrooms], and spoke in a somewhat lazy and casual tone.

"I definitely wouldn't eat a living person, but how can I let a ready-made corpse pass me by?"

In his hometown dialect—

This is what I picked up!

To be honest, Horn didn't expect that either.

He had only eaten half of his snack when the corpse suddenly came back to life.

This resulted in a "parasitic state" that he had never encountered before, and even the control panel reacted.

【Parasite】

Name: Alice Hughes

Race: Human (?)

[Rank: One (Lv15)]

[Secret Path Profession: Scholar]

[Physical Fitness: 4]

【Magic Power: 10】

【Spirit: 6】

[Talents: Powerful Memory, Magical Affinity]

【技能：航海学Lv4、地理学Lv3、甲板格斗术Lv2、火枪射击Lv4、水幕术Lv1……】

[Status: Weak (Aftereffects of the Feign Death Potion)]

[Parasitism (A creature parasitized by B-007, whose life and death are no longer in its own control)]

Oh?

You ask who B-007 is?

Of course it's me, Horn!