Mushroom charged across the Space Station's dark corridors with a heart-palpitating sense of urgency.
They had just lost contact with Master.
Even the Spores, communicating with Mushroom through electromagnetic waves, had stopped responding from the Control Room.
Something had happened.
Something that Master had been fearing all this time.
ROARS and SCREECHES accompanied the cyborg as the Rampagers stormed toward the Control Room as well.
There was such a massive commotion because of all these mindless, but extremely powerful existences' hurried charge that ORIGIN itself was shaking, despite its size.
Mushroom took a turn, the Spores letting them know the map leading to the Control Room, and found one of those Rampagers rushing like a maniac in the same direction.
From the back, it resembled a corpse, emitting geysers of green fumes that instantly rusted all the metal that came into contact with it.
Such a disastrous, inflated ability must have already weakened the Space Station's integrity.
To make matters worse, who knew how many of these Rampagers were unwittingly damaging it as well?
As that thought bubbled in their minds, Mushroom slammed their hand on the control panel right next to them, shoots of fungus streaming out from their fingers before connecting to the panel itself.
Instantly, the cyborg went for ORIGIN's damage status.
"…" Mushroom took off their hand with a darkened face. "How… How is it still intact?"
The Space Station was damaged, from top to bottom and from left to right, so much that it felt impossible it hadn't shown any sign of total collapse from the outside when they had docked New Moon to it.
Presently, ORIGIN was like a castle of matchsticks, with almost ninety percent of its sticks missing… from the inside!
The matchstick castle only looked intact.
However, with just a few… perhaps, only one… stick's disappearance, ORIGIN would cease to exist, spewing all of its content into the space.
Meanwhile, as they went through that dark scenario, Mushroom's other hand had already become a fist in preparation to use Light Roast First Crack to barge right through the Rampager instead of taking another route.
Slowly, they put down that fist, letting the mutated creature disappear into the darkness; a darkness that led straight toward the Control Room.
Because Light Roast First Crack would have delivered a punch of 0.3 kt instantly.
It would have also disintegrated the entire Space Station as a consequence of the chain reaction that would have followed.
The cyborg would have been fine, it knew.
But Master and Empress Raven might not have prepared a Quirk that would let them survive in the vacuum of space.
Perhaps, the two of them weren't even in a state to use any Quirk whatsoever.
Sadly, Mushroom had no other attack with a lower kiloton output, as shown by the status that flashed in the corner of their eyes.
…
[
Mushroom-nimi's Stats:
Total Energy: 500 kt [kilotons TNT equivalent]
Recoverable Energy: 380/380 kt
Idle Energy Regeneration: +0.005 kt per minute
Constant Life Consumption: -0.0002 kt per minute
Regeneration Profile (Damage Restored = Energy Consumed):
— 1% = 0.4 kt
— 5% = 2 kt
— 10% = 4 kt
— 25% = 10 kt
— 50% = 20 kt
Flight Profile:
— Mach 1-2 = 0.05 kt/minute
— Mach 3-5 = 0.2 kt/minute
— Mach 6-10 = 0.8 kt/minute
— Mach 10-15 = 2.5 kt/minute
Attack Profile:
— Atomic Fist: 25 kt
— Light Roast First Crack: 0.3 kt
— Medium Roast First Crack: 2 kt
— Dark Roast First Crack: 8 kt
Defense Profile:
— Energy Consumption to sustain Defense Form: 0.15 kt/minute
— Transformation Cost (one time): 0.5 kt
— Idle Energy Regeneration: -50%
— Regeneration Energy Consumption: +50%
— Flight Energy Consumption: +100%
— Instantaneous Output >2 kt: blocked
]
…
Mushroom looked at their Recoverable Energy.
After undergoing a forced mutation, the cyborg had regenerated nearly 50% instantly, keeping the damage mostly internal. That act had consumed 20 kt, surpassing the non-recoverable consumption limit of 10 kt.
The cyborg had regenerated the rest of the damage over time by going into hibernation and letting its Idle Energy Regeneration kick in.
Still, that 20 kt was gone for good now.
That's why, ever since waking up, Mushroom had been focusing on odd jobs with the help of Apostle Shield, like using the Spores, creating different kinds of Mushrooms, etc. — tasks that consumed their energy marginally.
Such a versatile use of mushrooms came at a cost, though.
Neither Mushroom nor Melissa had figured out a way to use any attack that wouldn't outright puncture through a Nomu.
So, narrowing their cyan eyes, the 8-foot-tall cyborg decided to take another route to the Control Room.
And the moment Mushroom turned around, they found him standing in front of them.
It was a man wearing glasses.
Mushroom remembered the face from the list of crew members they had gone through while hacking ORIGIN.
The man was one of the mechanics, but he must also be one of the most skilled people in his field on the entire planet.
Why?
Because the governments behind ORIGIN had sent him here despite him being Quirkless.
But, from what Master had shared with them about an Evil God's Corruption, Mushroom remembered, being Quirkless wasn't sufficient to survive the fate that all those who had become Rampagers had met.
"We meet again," the man said, smiling ear to ear. "Quite a fascinating creature, aren't you?"
Mushroom felt like… they had forgotten something.
And that was shockingly surprising, given the millions of minds they had.
Which meant that forgetfulness…
Mushroom blinked several times, forgetting even about forgetting something.
"Took me a while," the man said, walking forward, pinching the glass over his right eye. "But I figured it out. There is literally no stopping you once you get that initial advantage. Look at the lengths I had to go to draw you out and separate you from that fake believer. That must show my genuine interest in you. How about it? Come with me. I will…"
Mushroom hadn't been just listening to the man, while constantly having a feeling of forgetting something.
With every word the man uttered, every single mind within the cyborg was trying to make sense of what was going on.
When they failed at that, they reached a single conclusion together.
Something was happening…
Something that didn't make any sense…
So, the best thing to do was to make that Something go away…
And, as the man had already said, once they got that initial advantage in working toward the same goal with all their minds, there was literally no stopping them.
The man must have also realized that, because he had stopped smiling and continued to pinch the glass over his right eye.
That was the last action the man took before…
… a blast erupted from Mushroom-nimi's entire body with a deafening BOOM!