Chapter Three: Mushrooms and the Mushroom Pouch

Sure enough, a rush of hurried footsteps sounded outside, followed by a loud crash as the door was flung open. The person who burst in clearly didn’t realize the door had only been left ajar, and immediately toppled headlong, rolling across the floor in a series of somersaults until he came to a stop at Wang Ling’s feet.

Wang Ling saw that it was an elderly Mushroom person and quickly helped him up. This old Mushroom exuded an air of dignity, with a long white beard and a cane. He groped for his crooked spectacles and straightened them, but didn’t have time to greet Wang Ling before turning to Mario in alarm and exclaiming, “Something terrible has happened! Princess Peach has been kidnapped by the evil King Bowser!”

“What? King Bowser?” A look of astonishment appeared on Mario’s face. “Isn’t he the ruler of the Bowser Kingdom? Why would he kidnap the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom?”

The old Mushroom—Minister Mushroom—hurriedly explained, “Bowser claims to be madly in love with Princess Peach and intends to make her his bride!”

Hearing this, Mario drew in a sharp breath. Even though Wang Ling already knew the storyline, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of incredulity. Bowser was an ugly, fire-breathing giant turtle, while Princess Peach was a beautiful human maiden—this certainly counted as a love that crossed species.

He noticed that both story characters seemed to have lost their composure in panic, so he tried to reassure them: “Don’t worry, Minister Mushroom. Take your time and explain. If King Bowser wants Princess Peach as his bride, the princess should at least be safe for now.”

Minister Mushroom panted, catching his breath, before saying, “This is too shocking. The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom mustn’t find out, or there will be mass panic. We can’t mobilize the Mushroom Army to rescue the princess, so we have to rely on you!”

Mario replied uneasily, “But I’m not sure I can rescue the princess all by myself!”

“There’s no need to worry about that. King Bowser likes to hide the treasures he seizes inside the bricks and secret passages of his castle. Among these treasures are Super Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and Invincibility Stars—on your way to rescue the princess, you can use them to enhance your abilities.”

Minister Mushroom then produced a sheepskin scroll from within his robes. “We sent the Seven Mushroom Brothers ahead to investigate Bowser’s castle, but they were all captured and imprisoned in seven different fortresses. These fortresses are connected—you should head to the first one and rescue Number Seven. He likely has information about the princess and a map to the second fortress.”

“With your skills in running, jumping, and stomping, I’m sure you can do it!” Minister Mushroom said encouragingly, handing the sheepskin map to Mario. “This is the map of the first fortress. There are four zones, and the map marks critical terrain features and the routes forward.”

Mario took the map, and Wang Ling craned his neck to get a look as well, his heart pounding. The intelligence recorded on the map was startlingly faithful to the original game! Of course, the scope was much larger than in the game, but the positions of treasure bricks and pipes appeared unchanged. One detail stood out: on the map of the first zone, the fourth green pipe was labeled, “This is a shortcut tunnel!”

“Just like in the game… So, could my knowledge from the game help me gain extra benefits during this novice mission?”

Mario slipped the map into his T-shirt and, with no time to do laundry, hurried into the back room to fetch a change of clothes. Before long, he re-emerged, neatly dressed in a red T-shirt, blue overalls, yellow work boots, and a red plumber’s cap emblazoned with an “M,” returning to the living room.

According to the original story, Mario was supposed to go rescue the princess alone, but thanks to the intervention of the Dreamspace, Wang Ling knew he would certainly be joining him.

As expected, Minister Mushroom said to Mario, “Let Wang Ling go with you; it’ll be good to have someone to watch your back.”

Mario glanced doubtfully at Wang Ling. “He’s rather weak. Won’t it be dangerous for him?”

Wang Ling immediately put on an indignant expression and shouted with righteous passion, “Princess Peach is beloved by all, and now she’s been taken by Bowser! Even if I’m weak, how could I just stand by and do nothing? Since I’ve heard about this, I must go with you, no matter what terrifying foes we may face!”

With the main quest ahead, there was no avoiding the journey, so Wang Ling took the opportunity to speak these stirring words to win the favor of the two key story characters.

His speech was impassioned and full of conviction, moving the kind-hearted Minister Mushroom and Mario, who both nodded emphatically. Minister Mushroom dabbed at the tears in his eyes and pulled out a mushroom spotted with red. “Take this mushroom, and be careful!”

“Could it be a Super Mushroom?” Wang Ling took it, slightly surprised.

“It’s a Healing Mushroom. Eat it, and you’ll instantly recover twenty-five health points. It’s a specialty of the Mushroom Kingdom and cannot be taken out of the Super Mario World.”

“This wasn’t in the original Mario on the Famicom; it’s from the GBA game Mario & Luigi RPG! It seems that the various worlds of the Mario series are interconnected. Unfortunately, the main quest only lasts a single day, and after rescuing the Mushroom Brother and obtaining information about Princess Peach, I’ll be returned to the Dreamspace, with no time to explore hidden features.”

His earlier rousing words had indeed touched the anxious Minister Mushroom. Seeing Wang Ling holding the Healing Mushroom, not sure where to put it, Minister Mushroom hesitated for a moment and then produced a small pouch. “This is a Mushroom Pouch. It can hold three mushrooms. Mario is strong and doesn’t need to keep mushrooms in reserve, so you should use this pouch to keep yourself safe.”

Taking the pouch, Wang Ling used his Dream Badge to examine it:

“Mushroom Pouch: Can hold three specialty items from the Mushroom Kingdom. Items inside can be taken out of the Super Mario World.”

“This is the same as the backup pouch from Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Famicom and GBA, where Mario could store mushrooms, fire flowers, stars, raccoon feathers, and so on. I never expected Minister Mushroom to have this in the first game!”

A Healing Mushroom and a Mushroom Pouch—such a windfall exceeded Wang Ling’s expectations.

“Is it because Minister Mushroom is too pure-hearted, or is Dreamspace giving special advantages to novice dreamers during the first mission?”

After a moment’s thought, Wang Ling suspected it must be a privilege, but one that had to be earned. If he hadn’t played his part so well, he certainly wouldn’t have received these two items from the minister.

Of course, Minister Mushroom’s personality played a big part. Influenced by Dreamspace, he felt guilty about sending the weak Wang Ling into danger alongside Mario, and after hearing those stirring words, he was both moved and remorseful, prompting him to offer important compensation.

Wang Ling tucked the mushroom into the pouch—he couldn’t very well put it in his badge’s item space in front of the others. Fortunately, the pouch was tiny and spatial in nature, so storing the mushroom didn’t make it bulge, and he could slip it into his pocket.

He was still wearing his school uniform from when he entered Dreamspace. Chinese school uniforms all shared certain traits: baggy, old-fashioned, and unsightly, but with the advantage of large pockets in both the jacket and trousers.

“There’s no time to lose—you’d best be on your way!”

“Please wait!” Wang Ling quickly said. “Let me grab a kitchen knife from the kitchen to use as a weapon.”

Given his chef status and the dangers ahead, this was a reasonable request.

“Large Kitchen Knife. Type: Weapon. Rating: E. Class: White. Attack: 1-1. Description: A sharp kitchen knife. Note: Item from the story world, cannot be taken out of this world.”

He selected a sturdy, half-meter-long kitchen knife that looked sharp and reliable, and, together with Mario, rode a wooden cart dispatched by Minister Mushroom to the first zone of Bowser’s fortress.

The Mushroom coachman who drove the cart hurried away at once. Mushroom people were timid and frail by nature, and with all the dangers lurking in Bowser’s fortress, he dared not stay a moment longer.

Standing on the thoroughfare of the first zone, Wang Ling looked ahead. The ochre-brick road stretched into the distance, flanked by dirt embankments that rose into grassy green mounds. There were bushes and towering trees growing on some of the earth, lush and verdant.

What was truly astonishing was that, in the distance, at a height of about five meters, bricks floated in midair. Some bricks glowed red, with a question mark emblazoned on them. Wang Ling knew these were the treasure bricks Bowser used to stash his loot.

Further away, he could just make out coins floating impossibly in the air, defying gravity. In the game, Wang Ling had always called these “gold coins,” but their paler color suggested they were Mushroom Copper Coins.

With fresh air and no modern high-rise buildings to block the view, visibility was excellent. Wang Ling strained his eyes and finally made out the faint outline of a green pipe in the distance—something that, in the game, was only a stone’s throw away.

Now, however, the first zone of Bowser’s fortress seemed to stretch for kilometers, the green pipe now lying a thousand meters off.

Bricks, coins, pipes—Bowser’s fortress had all these and more. He could see some of the world’s unique monsters: Goombas and Koopa Troopas patrolling the brick road to the castle—Bowser’s soldiers.

Goombas were brown, mushroom-shaped monsters (often called “poison mushrooms” in the game), and Koopa Troopas were green-shelled turtles. In the game, both were unremarkable, but confronted in person in the Super Mario world, their impact was overwhelming!

Goombas were about as tall as Mario—nearly one and a half meters—while the Koopa Troopas, when standing tall, were not a bit shorter than Wang Ling’s own height of 1.75 meters!

“Perhaps the first Super Mario world isn’t as easy as I imagined.”

Wang Ling, who had hoped to take full advantage of his familiarity with the game during his first mission, now felt his face turn a little pale.