The Last of Us fans are furious with a scientist showing off cordyceps growing on muscle tissue.
The Last of Us, from developers Naughty Dog, is a fantastic video game series. In fact, I believe it to be one of the best ever. While the setting of a post-apocalyptic world is nothing new, usually consisting of zombies or nuclear mutations, Naughty Dog altered that tale by leaning into a little bit of reality.
In The Last of Us Part I, a fungus known as Cordyceps plagued the world by infecting humans, turning us into blood-thirsty creatures commonly known as ‘Infected’. The variety of Infected can differ, but perhaps the most terrifying of them all are known as Clickers.
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Unlike most post-apocalyptic tropes, the cordyceps virus is said to be inspired by an episode of Planet Earth, hosted by legendary nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough. One particular episode, called ‘Jungles’, told us about a cordyceps fungus that infected ants by turning them into mind-controlled zombies. This episode was quite terrifying and Naughty Dog capitalised on this fear with the release of The Last of Us for PS3 in 2013.
The Last of Us Part I recently launched on PC.
This haunting prospect was developed further with the HBO live-action series. The Last of Us TV series not only caused gamers to freak out but also those not familiar with the video games series. To make matters worse, experts claimed that humanity is only three steps away from a real life version of the fungal pandemic. To make matters worse, a scientist has now conducted an experiment that shows cordyceps growing on muscle tissue, and it’s fair to say that Reddit users weren't best pleased.
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“Using our mushroom cultivation equipment we were able to test if cordyceps would grow on muscle tissue,” posted Redditor themushroomshop. The Redditor even uploaded a video to YouTube, detailing the whole process.
“Could you not please? Thanks,” pleaded chefkeef_. “I don’t understand why scientists keep doing s**t they know is stupid and could possibly cause serious f**king issues,” replied DirectSession. “Very cool, very interesting but are you trying to terrify an entire community?!” said a concerned Writing_with_flowers. However, a more constructive Godwinson4King responded, “In all seriousness, these kinds of investigations are important because they give us insights into how these organisms work. The better we understand something the better we can respond to it.”
In related news, the season two release window for The Last of Us TV series has seemingly been revealed, and Naughty Dog has announced that it is working on a new ‘single-player experience’.
Topics: The Last Of Us, Naughty Dog, TV And Film