People fearing The Last Of Us will come true after man grows zombie fungus from his own skin and eats it
Topics: The Last of Us, TikTok
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: southernspore/TikTok
Topics: The Last of Us, TikTok
The hit show and game The Last of Us proved to be even more terrifying when most fans realized the world-ending fungus was real.
And now that fear has been compounded thanks to one TikToker.
Last month, mushroom enthusiast and TikToker Jacob Riley Hood - who goes by @southernspore on the platform - had a clip go viral with over three million views.
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In the clip, he explained that not only was he growing the cordyceps fungus, he was using his own blood and skin to do it.
In the HBO show and Naughty Dog video-game the cordyceps fungus essentially turns its unlucky victims into zombies, though they are referred to as infected, after spores of the fungus enter the human body.
In the real world cordyceps still essentially turn its victims into zombies, but mostly small insects, with infected the creepy crawlies behaving normal for a time before breaking out of regular insect-like behavior.
They then find a high spot in a forest and bite down on a twig or vine, giving the fungus time to consume everything inside and kill the host.
The high position the insect chooses allows the fungus to grow more and for the spores to spread further and infect more insects, ultimately continuing the cycle.
In a stroke of good fortune, humans are unlikely to be infected by the cordyceps fungus due to our advanced immune system. This hasn’t stopped social media users feeling concerned about Hood’s actions, however.
In his viral video, Hood explains how the cordcyeps fungus has been growing using his blood, dead skin, and rice.
The most troubling part is that, for reasons only known to him, he decides to taste the fungus, biting and chewing it before saying he isn’t going to swallow it.
He even shockingly says the fungus tasted sweet and that he would do it again.
“This cordyceps was grown using me so uh let’s see if it tastes good," he said before giving it a few chews.
“I’m not going to swallow it, but it is strangely sweet and it is pretty good, I would eat it again.
“I would be interested to see how it taste compared to normal grown cordyceps.”
TikTok users were left stunned by Hood’s experiment and joked about the likelihood we are going to have an epidemic like that of The Last of Us thanks to him.
“Teaching cordyceps to consume human tissue, what could go wrong,” one person commented.
“Gonna be so p*ssed off if the world ends because some guy wanted to make cordyceps tiktoks,” another joked.