"I feel something is wrong..." Due to the influence of environmental radiation, Layton's voice was filled with a hint of electric noise. "The life detector shows... there are no living people in the cars. None of the three cars."

In a "car accident" of this magnitude, even if there were no protective devices in the car, not all the occupants would be killed - unless they were really extremely unlucky.

"Be careful and keep a safe distance." Ke Lan said, letting the drone slowly approach one of the modified cars.

But the scene captured by the camera made everyone in the car gasp - through the rusty barbed wire and the scratched window glass, they saw two skeletons dressed in exile costumes lying crookedly on the seats, with fresh blood still seeping out of their clothes, but there was not even a bit of flesh left on their bones.

Instead, there is a layer of fine white hair growing on the surface of the bone.

"What the hell is this?" The old dog's eyes widened as he stared at the screen in Ke Lan's hand.

"It looks like a fungus..." Ke Lan felt his eyes twitching wildly, and he suddenly had a bad premonition.

"Mushrooms are growing all over them? How long have these people been dead? Could it be that these are the dead people who were chasing us just now?" The old dog's expression was very ugly.

"No... they just died. You can tell from the bloodstains on their clothes that they were eaten by this fungus..." Ke Lan paused, glanced at Youyi, and continued, "This thing is similar to the blood-sucking fungus blanket we encountered before at the sarcophagus."

"Then how did this thing parasitize on them? Could it be that these people haven't showered for too long?" The old dog rubbed the stubble on his chin vigorously, but accidentally broke a pimple. He grimaced in pain, "Hiss... But that's not right. If they were parasitized by this fungus, they should have died long ago... How could they live to the point where only bones are left!"

Ke Lan shook her head. "I'm afraid they have only been parasitized for a short time... This fungus devours flesh and blood much faster than the blood-sucking fungus blanket... It seems that we are in trouble - all vehicles, stop immediately, all personnel, do not act rashly without my order, and it is strictly forbidden to open the windows and doors. Layton, come back quickly, and stay as far away from those three modified cars as possible!"

The main way fungi spread, besides direct contact, is through spores floating in the air. Ke Lan guessed that not long ago, they and the exiles following them might have passed through an area covered with spores. The exiles' modified cars were not as well sealed as theirs, so the spores of these carnivorous fungi were able to enter the cars and eat up all the unfortunate guys.

All the vehicles in the convoy stopped - except car number ten.

It was a large-tonnage van-type armored truck. It seemed to be deaf to Ke Lan's orders and continued to drive forward at the same speed.

"Car number 10? Car number 10? Can you hear me?" Ke Lan shouted into the intercom. He glanced at the fleet communication channel. The green light representing car number 10 kept flashing every three seconds, which meant that car number 10 was still within the channel and there was no communication failure.

Ke Lan and Lao Gou looked at each other, and both saw a hint of anxiety in each other's eyes.

There was no response. Ke Lan called Car No. 10 three times in a row but received no response. Looking at the armored truck going farther and farther away, Ke Lan knew to issue a second order: "Layton, catch up and stop Car No. 10... Attack the tires first and try not to damage the car."

"receive!"

The speed of the armored truck was not slow, but the "Wolf Spider" all-terrain mecha was faster. In less than a minute, Layton had circled in front of the truck and aimed at the truck's tires.

The large-caliber railgun on the Wolf Spider is enough to destroy the entire truck no matter where it hits, but Layton chose to use a secondary weapon - two 30mm caliber machine guns on both sides of the mecha's cockpit.

“Da-da-da-bang! Bang!!”

The two front wheels of the armored truck exploded, and the whole vehicle suddenly lost balance and drifted to one side. It was about to roll over, but the "Wolf Spider" arrived in time and just held against one side of the car. The claws at the end of the eight mechanical arms grabbed the ground at the same time... After plowing a nearly 30-meter-long trench on the ground, the mecha and the armored truck finally stopped.

Under Ke Lan's control, the drone flew right above the truck.

Just like the three Exiles' modified cars, the driver and the security guard sitting next to him had turned into two skeletons, and their bones were also covered with white fluffy mycelium.

"Sure enough..." Ke Lan flew the drone around the cockpit and found that there seemed to be a small problem with the right window. It could not be closed completely, leaving a gap of less than two millimeters.

Generally speaking, if it is just radiation, this gap will not have much impact on the human body. At most, after the mission is over, you can go to the medical point and get a small bag of radiation-eliminating injection to eliminate the radiation accumulated in the body. It is for this reason that the truck driver ignored the warning that the "window is not completely closed"... But it is this gap of less than two millimeters that gives the flesh-eating bacteria spores an opportunity to take advantage of...

"Everyone, put on your protective clothing, and then check once more whether the compartment you are in is completely sealed!" Ke Lan ordered, "Layton, open the compartment... Don't move too much, or the spores will fly everywhere."

"Hmm..." The Wolf Spider mecha raised a mechanical arm, and a small laser cutter popped out from the interlayer of the mechanical arm. As the mechanical arm moved, the laser cutter cut open the locked door of the truck little by little...

Just as Ke Lan had expected, the other two security guards who were originally sitting in the carriage guarding the supplies were also killed. Their combat uniforms and armor were still on their skeletons, while their helmets and weapons had fallen to the side... Not only them, but even the supplies in the carriage did not escape this disaster - this car was transporting food, including two large slabs of frozen pork specially supplied to the base management staff... At this moment, only the white bones of the two slabs of pork were left, and the carriage was almost everywhere with white mycelium.

"This carnivorous fungus...is it recorded in the Ark's database?" Ivan asked.

"There are at least a dozen similar species, but none of them can be matched exactly." Ke Lan shook his head.

"I really don't know whether we are lucky or unlucky. Every time we go out, we encounter new species of indigenous creatures." The old dog smiled bitterly with some self-mockery.

"It may not be a new species. We cannot rule out the possibility that it is a variant of a known species." Ke Lan bit her lip. "I have sent the photos and videos back to the Ark, but without the physical specimens, I am afraid we will not get any results... In short, we have to clean up this mess ourselves."