"No, your father is already in the late stages, his body is filled with mycelium. He will die sooner or later; he can't be saved. As for Lucas, well, that kind of antisocial scum would just be wasting food if he were saved. Are you sure you want me to save him? You know the misfortune at Baker Farm was caused by him. I wonder if you still want to save him?" Eddie sneered.
Chapter 648: One-Punch Man, Joe Baker
"Is there really nothing that can be done?" Zoe felt helpless. She knew Eddie was a good person; although her mother Marguerite was gentle, her judgment was definitely sound.
"Yes, and that is to help them understand this fate! To end their sinful lives." Eddie took out his pistol, nodded, and smoked a cigarette, looking every bit like a hoodlum.
Zoe gritted her teeth and said, "If they truly cannot be saved, please end their lives. Please help me find the mastermind behind this, no matter the cost!"
"Any cost?" Eddie's eyes lit up. This deal could be negotiated properly.
Ada exposed her husband's little scheme, "For example, the cost of pregnancy?"
"Cough, cough." Eddie choked, "What are you talking about!" He glared angrily at his wife.
Zoe was stunned for a moment, "I'll try."
"Haha, my dad is joking, and my aunt loves to joke too. Don't worry about it." Stephanie stepped forward to mediate, chuckling playfully.
A hint of a smile flashed in Ada's beautiful eyes. She had indeed teased him on purpose, but what of it?
"Haha, I said I was kidding. Don't mind it. I will help you with what you need." Eddie smiled. It was fine to joke around occasionally; life was already hard enough, why be so serious?
The earth-shattering explosion just now also startled a One-Punch Man living in the swamp—ahem, Baker's older brother, a retired old soldier, Joe!
Joe picked up his old-fashioned hunting rifle and headed toward his brother's house.
Although he had been in seclusion for many years, he didn't live far away. Joe had never contacted his younger brother, and Uncle Baker had never contacted his older brother. Though they were blood siblings, they always felt like strangers who would never interact again.
When Joe arrived at his brother's house, he found that it had been leveled, with only an old RV remaining relatively intact.
His niece Zoe was talking to a man, and there were several beautiful women nearby.
"Get away from Zoe! Who are you people? Where is my brother?" Joe pointed the hunting rifle at Eddie and shouted loudly.
"Don't shoot, Uncle. This is my friend. My father was infected by a bioweapon virus and turned into a monster, and so was my brother. There are mysterious researchers nearby, and we are looking for an antidote. Eddie, this is my Uncle Joe. He has been living near the swamp." Zoe introduced the two parties.
"Hello, One-Punch Man." Eddie smiled.
"What One-Punch Man? I'm just an old soldier. Young man, you are not strong enough; you can't protect Zoe like that." Joe frowned. He had no children, so he treated Zoe like a daughter.
"I said your boxing skills are pretty good. This incident is a project jointly funded by Shén Yà Pharmaceutical and Glory Pharmaceutical. I don't know if these two companies cooked this up. Let's move forward; maybe we can find the answer." Eddie finished speaking and started walking ahead.
Joe and Zoe exchanged glances and followed him forward.
They hadn't walked far when a section of the swamp suddenly burst open. An alligator was thrown into the air, followed by the appearance of a tall figure covered in Swamp Vines, who grabbed the falling alligator, brutally tore it in half, and began to feed without regard for anyone else.
Joe immediately blocked Zoe, protecting his niece being the most important thing. He had already learned the whole story from Zoe.
The Swamp Monster devoured an alligator weighing two to three hundred pounds in just three seconds. Rather than eating it, it was more accurately swallowing it, using strange mycelium to begin the consumption.
When the Swamp Monster appeared before Eddie, a stench followed, a sickening smell, worse than dog feces fermented in a cesspit for four months!
Vines covered his entire body, but from his face, one could vaguely recognize Uncle Baker!
Centipedes and millipedes crawled all over his body, but Uncle Baker picked them up and ate them without concern, looking incredibly horrifying.
"Father! It's me, I'm Zoe!" Zoe cried out loudly.
The Swamp Monster's eyes looked at Zoe, then at Eddie, and finally said in a hoarse voice, "Eddie, save my family, I can't control myself anymore!"
Bang! Right after speaking, Uncle Baker, who had become the Swamp Monster, let out an inhuman roar and charged.
Eddie punched out, sending Uncle Baker flying directly away.
A large number of Fungus Beasts began to appear around them. These Fungus Beasts seemed not to be naturally occurring, but Artificial Monsters created through infection and mutation via some process.
"Watch out!" Joe immediately picked up his hunting rifle after speaking and fired a shot at the monsters.
As the Fungus Beasts approached, Joe ran out of bullets. Helplessly, he abandoned the hunting rifle, raised his fist, and smashed the head of a Fungus Beast with a single punch!
Now that was a One-Punch Man; anyone using a hunting rifle wasn't a Superman, but just an old man!
This batch of Fungus Beasts lacked infectivity and did not possess the terrifying, stealthy parasitic ability of naturally occurring Fungus Beasts to silently parasitize and devour.
Although this ability surprised the Pharmaceutical Developers somewhat, they didn't pay too much attention to it.
What they wanted was how to quickly infect and control the enemy, not just simple transmission that turns the enemy into a monster.
This fundamentally did not align with their original intention: to eliminate the maximum number of enemies at the minimum cost. Nothing is more frustrating than having your own people fight each other—if there is anything more frustrating, they didn't know what it was.
"Joe, right? Go out and report this to the police. Bring the Agents over. Just report my name. The monsters here are highly contagious, and you are just an ordinary person; you can't handle it." Eddie instructed.
"Hmph, when I was fighting wars, you brat probably didn't even know where to play in the mud." Joe refused to admit defeat.
"Uncle, you should go report this. Just leave this place to Eddie. I want to see with my own eyes if Lucas truly colluded with others to frame his own family." Zoe also advised.
"Alright then, Eddie, was it? Take good care of Zoe. If anything happens to her, I won't let you off the hook!" Joe made two gestures with his fist, like an old father reluctant to see his daughter marry.
Chapter 649: Neil, Killed by His Own People
"Zoe, take care of yourself. I'm leaving. I'll bring people back soon." Joe instructed before leaving, clearly going to find Reinforcements.
He felt assured about Eddie's strength; anyone who could punch his brother flying had reached peak Fighting Power, more or less.
After Joe left, the Swamp Monster staggered back to its feet again, with vines reinforcing its body to mend the injured areas.
"Your father will eventually die. He can't be saved anymore. His only wish is probably for you and Marguerite to live well." Eddie explained.
Tears welled up in Zoe's beautiful eyes. Watching her father turn into a monster, she felt truly heartbroken as a daughter. "Please help me, help me find Lucas. If he is an accomplice, please kill him. Thank you. I am willing to pay any price to avenge my father!"
"No problem." Eddie readily agreed. This kind of thing was easy to do while he was at it.
Moving forward, the Swamp Monster was annihilated piece by piece using the Gravity Field, breaking down the mycelium's rapid proliferation ability. Uncle Baker, having lost his regenerative ability, eventually turned into a rock.
The consequence of the mycelium dying is Calcification, which specifically manifests as turning into stone, making it perfect for land reclamation.
These dead mycelium pose no risk of transmission; instead, they might turn into excellent Nutrient Fertilizer.
This biotechnology, reaching its peak, had instead turned into crop fertilizer. Shén Yà Pharmaceutical and Glory Pharmaceutical shouldn't bother making medicine; they could probably make a huge profit producing Chemical Fertilizer.
Seeing her father turned into Calcified Stone, Zoe cried heartbrokenly.
If Stephanie hadn't been supporting her, she probably would have fainted from crying.
Not far from the farm was an Abandoned Mine Shaft, and not far from the mine shaft was the overturned Cruise Ship from years ago, abandoned on the riverbank with no one managing it.
Eddie walked step by step toward the mine shaft, where the dense mycelium in the air had reached its peak concentration.