Deep Zone, in the old mushroom garden.
The spatial rifts were still steadily spawning and spreading.
Just yesterday, a sudden fissure had split open without warning, slicing a hardworking Puji clean in half! Its upper body—along with a B-rank mana crystal—plunged into the dead void of the rift, vanishing without a trace.
This was Lin Jun’s first time witnessing the birth of a rift. And truthfully, it wasn’t entirely without warning.
Before the tear opened, the surrounding space distorted faintly, accompanied by a violent surge of mana. To Lin Jun, who had [Mana Perception], the signs were clear.
That was valuable intelligence. At least now he knew he didn’t need to fear his main body being decapitated by a sneak attack from a rift.
At the center of the great Spiraltree, nearly a hundred Pujis quietly encircled the newly awakened Norris.
These were prepared by Lin Jun to test Norris’s upper limit in mental control.
At this moment, though, most were idle. Only thirty-six were actively moving under Norris’s command.
Not nothing, but… from [Mental Integration LV7], this was disappointing.
Lin Jun himself could stretch his control capacity to three thousand. Norris, what was going on with you?
Still… there were other changes.
The Pujis around Norris no longer moved like a stiff, synchronized mob.
Now, one was bouncing lightly in place, another circling on a set path, others following distinct commands—Norris had gained precise, individual micro-control!
And he sensed even more.
“Boss!” he cried, clutching a Puji like he had discovered a new continent. “I think… I can receive their perceptions! As long as I hold them… though it’s really faint.”
“Try this one.” Lin Jun pushed a scout Puji into his node.
The moment Norris grabbed it, a flood of alien sensations washed in.
“This… echolocation? And… the flow of mana? Even the faintest stirrings of air currents?!”
New streams of sensory data surged into him. Norris thrilled at the experience.
But barely a minute later, his face turned pale. He hurled the Puji aside, clutching his skull as it rang with pain. “No more! Boss… too much… my head’s going to burst…”
Only one minute of maintaining four channels of perception drove him to his limit.
Further testing showed that two simultaneous senses were sustainable without discomfort. Compared to his early days, when even [Echolocation] alone gave him headaches, this was real progress.
So [Mental Integration] had brought plenty of change—just not the overwhelming leap Lin Jun had hoped for.
Micro-control. Shared perception. Not bad, but… not enough.
Lin Jun conjured a Puji with only one skill: [Assimilation LV6].
He laid it down on the mycelium carpet beside a few others.
As [Assimilation] activated, the threads of mycelium stirred like living things, wrapping around them layer by layer.
Not just the core Puji—several nearby were dragged into the fusion as well.
In moments, a giant “mycelium man” stood nearly four meters tall, its frame formed by ten Pujis bound together.
At its “head” was the scout Puji.
Lin Jun passed full control of the construct to Norris.
“Norris, climb inside. Give it a try.”
“…Climb inside?” Norris stared blankly. “How am I supposed to—”
Before he finished, the scout Puji wriggled out of the head slot, leaving a dark opening just large enough to fit a man.
Norris gingerly climbed up. His claws snagged the threads, drawing an urgent mental rebuke from Lin Jun: “Careful! Watch those claws!”
Inside was cramped. Norris had to curl his limbs up tight. Beneath him, his seat was the cap of the [Assimilation] Puji itself.
Once he settled in, the scout Puji wriggled back into place, sealing the hole. Its cap locked like a helmet over Norris’s head, while its plump underside pressed against his scalp.
Through its senses, Norris could suddenly “see” the world outside.
“Norris, now—make the Jida stand.”
“Jida? Boss, what’s Jida?”
“The thing you’re in. Just try making it stand!”
Every limb of Jida contained two Pujis. Under Norris’s control, the construct writhed grotesquely on the ground, shredding chunks of its outer layer, but could not rise.
Lin Jun simply observed in silence.
Hours later, Norris finally… managed to crawl on all fours!
Excited, he had it scuttle around nonstop until Lin Jun reminded him: “Norris, evolve it to walk upright already!”
With the crawling experience as a base, the next step came faster.
Jida propped itself against the Spiraltree, rising shakily, then stumbled forward—one step, two steps…
A sickening double crack rang out.
The two Pujis forming its feet burst under the sudden pressure, splattering apart.
Without its supports, Jida collapsed like a pile of blocks, crashing into the ground and spraying mycelium everywhere.
Norris crawled out of the wreckage, covered head to toe in fungal debris. “Boss?” he asked weakly, confused and innocent.
“…Not bad,” Lin Jun replied evenly. “First attempt, after all. Rest and recover your mind. We’ll… get new materials and try again.”
The collapse wasn’t his fault. Those had only been plain Pujis.
Later, Lin Jun swapped in elite variants, layering them with protective shells, mounting mushroom cannons and rock-armor shields onto the arms. At a glance, it even looked formidable.
With training, Norris grew smoother at the controls, guiding it to clumsy blocks and firing gestures.
But after an entire day’s testing, Lin Jun had to admit—
The “Jida Project” was… disappointing.
Sure, elite Pujis could combine. Sure, Norris could operate them with skill.
But was its combat power actually improved?
The core Puji’s [Chitin Carapace] gave some cover to others, but this only saved the cost of giving each one defense skills individually.
Their power, speed, and mana had not merged at all.
A combined mushroom cannon had the same strength as one fired by a single Puji.
And Jida’s clumsy punch had less force than just rolling one elite Puji into a full-speed collision.
The towering figure, assembled with such care, was only an empty shell.
The Puji Gundam… wasn’t going to be that easy.