At the council's long table, in the two seats closest to Lin Jun, one person was fidgeting restlessly, looking all around.

Old Dylan had no idea why he would appear in a place this badass.

He had originally been in Puki's House, enjoying the joys of family life.

After Sofia talked Bella into coming back, she moved in with Dylan, which made Dylan overjoyed.

And the sensible Bianca also got along very well with Bella. After a few months together, the big girl and the little girl were almost like real sisters.

This made Old Dylan so happy he felt it'd be worth it even if he dropped dead right now.

Then in the blink of an eye, he got dragged into this mysterious and solemn scene, leaving him more than a little at a loss.

You know, even though he was supposedly a "core member," he didn't even necessarily attend the monthly routine video conferences—it all depended on whether the boss remembered this guy existed that month.

Dylan didn't mind this; he had no ambition anyway. If the boss forgot him, he was happy to be left in peace.

He never expected the boss to suddenly remember him, and what puzzled him even more was why he was sitting in such a front-row seat.

As he understood it, seats this close to the boss should belong to people like Louisa or Inanna, those who had both strength and status in the Mushroom Garden, right?

For a half-retired old geezer like him to sit here—wouldn't that just make everyone hate him?

Dylan quickly glanced around and recognized the figure opposite as probably Inanna, while at his lower seat was Louisa. Further back, there were some silhouettes he could barely recognize, and some he couldn't guess at all.

However, Dylan also noticed that he didn't seem to be the only one nervous.

He'd been pulled in for a while now, yet the members on both sides were just like him, looking around and observing, with no one speaking.

More importantly, the boss at the head seat had already started tapping his tentacles, looking a bit impatient.

In that instant, inspiration struck Old Dylan, and he tried opening his mouth: "Praise the Mushroom Lord."

In a flash, everyone seemed to awaken from a dream and followed along, praising the Mushroom Lord.

Amid the chorus of praise, Lin Jun stopped tapping his tentacles and nodded his mushroom cap in satisfaction.

Dylan really hadn't let him down, smoothly completing the main task for which Lin Jun had dragged him here!

As the voices of praise gradually died down, Lin Jun waved his tentacles. A gigantic Glowing Mushroom lit up in the sky, dispersing the gray mist. The entire council hall brightened, and everyone could see each other clearly.

The Mushroom Garden wasn't some shady little organization hiding in dark corners, afraid of the light. Naturally, there was no need for mystery or hiding identities—the gray mist had just been the opening CG Lin Jun had planned.

Marshal Puki folded his tentacles beneath his mushroom cap: "Hello, everyone. Welcome to the… uh… eighty-eighth Mushroom Garden Council."

"Eighty-eight…"

At the far end, Alama muttered under his breath, then exchanged a glance with Lorenzo across the table.

As a Mage, Lorenzo was astonished by the mystery and power represented by this Consciousness Space.

Alama's thoughts were far simpler. He gazed at his daughter seated at the Mushroom Lord's side; between father and daughter there was now a pathetic, thick barrier named "status."

Inanna wasn't looking at her father at the moment. Instead, she curiously asked Lin Jun, "Boss, what is this place?"

"The Fungal Network Consciousness Space. I made a little upgrade to our video conferences~"

"Consciousness Space? That sounds so amazing—it feels just like being here for real!" Inanna exclaimed sincerely.

Lin Jun raised his mushroom cap slightly in understated pride; after all, this was one of the results of his painstaking research.

Ever since obtaining the Ultimate Magic Guide and seeing through the essence of the world's datafication, Lin Jun had gradually come to understand everything.

This Consciousness Space was something he'd crafted by using the preexisting Fungal Network connections and then imitating the Pilot's Seat Consciousness Space.

It had only the Consciousness Space, without the original's Thought Acceleration and other Advanced abilities, but it was more than good enough for holding meetings.

The reason he'd gone to all this trouble to set up such an impressive scene—aside from personal interest—was that the topic under discussion this time required giving some non-core members a bit of psychological pressure, so they wouldn't start singing against him later.

"Boss, this meeting is so different. Is there something important?" Little Pig, who was also seated quite far forward, very tactfully asked this question.

"Of course. What we're going to discuss this time is the important matters of world peace and the final battle!"

At these words, everyone showed faintly puzzled expressions, especially Bado representing the Dwarves, Eco representing the Elves, and the two human Dukes, Alama Lorenzo.

World peace was easy enough to understand.

In today's Empire, aside from a few remaining areas, the vast majority of regions had already been swallowed by the Fungus Castle.

With the tide turned, many places had surrendered without a fight.

And those few places still not occupied were mostly Imperial nobles who knew their sins were great and were putting up a last-ditch resistance—but they were just autumn grasshoppers, not able to hop for much longer.

Once the Empire was destroyed, the Fungus Castle would naturally become the new hegemon.

What's more, because of the parasitic nature of the Mycelium, this hegemon was countless times stronger than the old Empire.

The Mushroom Lord's willingness to pursue peace was something all the other races were happy to see.

What puzzled them was the "final battle."

"By this 'final battle,' do you mean wiping out the Demon King?" Lorenzo asked.

This was also the guess held by the vast majority, including Little Pig and the others.

However, Lin Jun replied, "Not just the Demon King. Our enemy also includes the world's strongest former Hero—Link."

"No way?!" Alama slapped the table and stood up, then quickly realized he was losing his composure. He sat back down and tried to speak as calmly as possible: "I mean, isn't Link one of ours? In the Battle of Oath City, it was him who drove off the Demon King in the end—that's something everyone saw with their own eyes. How did he suddenly become an enemy? And together with the Demon King at that?"

"Unfortunately, that's the reality." As Lin Jun spoke, the space above the long table began playing the Demon King and Link's conversation in Oath City. "Call it Link's betrayal, or say the Demon King brainwashed him—either way, the next time we meet, there's a high chance Link will be standing opposite the world. Or to put it another way, which of you wants to support their plan that seems suspiciously like a world-destruction scheme?"

Lin Jun didn't directly mention anything about the Pilot's Seat, but did specifically bring up the Demon King's act of collecting souls during the war.

Everyone looked at one another. Alama and Lorenzo still found it hard to accept; humanity had paid so much, only to resurrect an enemy in the end.

Especially since they'd originally harbored a faint hope that the strongest Link could provide at least a little balance against the Mushroom Lord.

It was Bado the Dwarf who gave a derisive snort: "I think the Mushroom Lord's got it right. Don't forget, he already did it once three hundred years ago! This time he came back and saved your necks only because he'd temporarily lost his memories. You humans really do love causing trouble for everyone by lifting rocks just to smash your own feet!"

Like most Dwarves, Bado had never had a great impression of the United Kingdom. In his view, they were "petty men" forced into alliance by the Empire, so naturally nothing nice was going to come out of his mouth right now.

Eco, on the other hand, didn't mock them, but he also directly acknowledged the judgment that Link was an enemy: "Even so, that leaves only the Demon King and Link. Mushroom Lord, what's your plan? Please speak plainly. Wherever we can cooperate, we will cooperate."

Lin Jun lightly tapped his mushroom cap: "Please listen carefully, everyone. I've made the following arrangements…"

...

After the meeting ended, Alama still found it hard to accept, and wanted to talk it over with his daughter.

When he found Inanna, she was, as usual, RUA-ing a Puki.

This Puki was somewhat unfamiliar, not one of the Mushroom Race individuals he already knew.

And for some reason, after he came in, the Puki that Inanna had already kneaded into a limp puddle suddenly began struggling violently.

When it failed to break free, it went limp as if dead, collapsing there motionless.

This abnormal yet oddly familiar scene made Alama raise an eyebrow. He took another couple of long looks at that Puki, and after confirming it wasn't that shameless mutt Elvyn, he finally started discussing the matters of the meeting with Inanna.

...

On the other side, after the meeting, in order to unite every force that could be united, Lin Jun sent delegations separately to the Dwarves and Elves, to persuade the two kings to fully support this "final battle."

As for Lin Jun himself, he used Subordinate Control to control a Puki and headed to the sapling at the very bottom level of the Divine Wood Dungeon.

It was about time to make Old Deng pull his weight!

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