After Being Parasiticized By A Monster - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: A Great Opportunity to Seek Death.

Yang Mei sat on the edge of the laboratory debris, not looking at her “teammate”—the mutated fungus that had been strictly contained.

Instead, she stared at the candy that had sadly fallen into the water after being unwrapped, and sighed pitifully.

In front of this circle of aggressive adults, the little girl, who was shrinking because she was shorter and completely soaked, looked particularly harmless.

Yet, she was the culprit behind everything.

And one who was not remorseful, only regretting her bad luck.

“Sister Qu, didn’t you say you’d buy me candy?” She looked up, her gaze faintly accusing the other party of breaking a promise.

Qu Ying’s eyes narrowed warily; she did not reply.

Although she was officially on vacation during this period and only casually helping the Investigation Department, she was actually in charge of a long-term mission that had never been interrupted.

It was just merged with the Internal Security Team’s operational path.

The Investigation Department’s Internal Security Team, as the name suggests, was responsible for the stability within the Defense Center. More plainly, their scope of work was not only to protect their own people but also to uncover hidden traitors.

With Qu Ying controlling the scene, the armed forces slowly tightened the encirclement.

Kang Ming switched to intercom mode and turned on the loudspeaker: “DE127, you are under major suspicion. Please submit to review.”

A long-unheard designation.

Yang Mei slowly looked up. After a moment of internal struggle, she still picked up the candy, swished it in the not-so-clean water, and popped it into her mouth.

DE stands for Dolphin. She was Project No. 127.

“How do you plan to review me?” She looked at them, her eyes curved into a smile, radiating an innocent naivety. “Fusion experiment?”

The dissonance between childhood innocence and maturity, blended in such a small body, appeared even more cruel.

Several members who were standing close couldn’t help but look away.

As enemies, they couldn’t afford to be soft-hearted, but as human beings, it was hard not to be moved at all.

That was not a review; it was consciousness erasure.

To fuse her with another mutated creature, randomly resulting in a new monster, or immediate death—with the latter possibility far exceeding the former.

Once a fusion experiment was proposed, it meant complete abandonment, equivalent to a death sentence.

“I heard my name is because my mother loved eating bayberries when she was pregnant with me,” Little Yang Mei propped her chin. “But I’ve never tasted a bayberry… Sister Qu, do you know what a bayberry tastes like?”

Her life was too short.

Her apparent age was not a lie; she was truly only seven years old. Although her psychological age had been stretched to an unachievable length by repeated experiments and endless indoctrination, it was forcing growth prematurely.

People would blame her for defecting, for being an internal spy, a traitor. But for her, was she human or monster? Her self-perception had always been blurry.

Qu Ying looked at her, her gloved hand in her pocket, her expression largely unchanged, appearing abnormally cold.

She had been in the Security Department long enough, and thanks to Professor Cheng Ran, higher-ranking individuals naturally enjoyed better treatment, greater authority, and more freedom.

But Yang Mei was too young, still in the key monitoring stage, and thus was deprived of childhood, deprived of the initial human experience. Yet, she was also expected to remember obscure principles and serve humans wholeheartedly.

She didn’t understand, so she didn’t know the right or wrong of her actions.

With countless eyes focused on her, Yang Mei sighed like an old soul in a small body, shaking her head.

She slowly opened her mouth again, as if to confide something more.

But no sound came out.

Or, more accurately, a sound that the human ear could not hear.

But it could affect the human body.

Extremely high-intensity ultrasound propagated through the air, colliding with the helmets. Everyone felt a buzzing in their ears, followed by subcutaneous edema and bloodshot eyes, suffering a temporary loss of vision.

When it hit the human body directly, the bl00d vessels contracted abnormally, and the muscles experienced a bout of paralysis. Some immediately collapsed into the water.

However, the liquid environment was a far more dangerous place.

Ultrasound waves transmitted through water doubled in power, creating a cavitation effect. Innumerable tiny bubbles collapsed and expanded, resulting in explosive bursts. In addition to the terrifying shockwaves, the water temperature instantly spiked due to accumulated thermal energy. The entire visible water area began to boil.

They felt like they were in a large pot of boiling water, steam enveloping the entire area.

Team Leader Kang Ming shouted: “Shut down acoustic sampling!”

To collect environmental data in real-time, the helmets automatically transmitted the full range of sound waves, which ironically became a weakness exploited by this type of enemy.

Fortunately, the protective measures were effective, and most of the energy was absorbed by the clothing. They were also highly trained veterans, holding their positions without chaos.

Qu Ying was simply “tougher,” enduring the attack directly. She calmly tracked the enemy’s whereabouts amidst the confusion.

Those familiar with obscure facts might have heard that octopuses are said to have nine brains. The tentacles quietly winding along the bottom of the water were her ubiquitous eyes.

Almost no one saw her move. She intercepted Yang Mei before she could retreat, blocking her path.

The glove contained a neural tactile device. As she bent down and pressed it against the girl’s forehead, a tiny needle sprang out, piercing the skull and entering the dermal layer, forcefully accessing the neurons.

“Shut up,” she spat out two words, her eyes narrowed.

Yang Mei’s pupils dilated suddenly. The fear in her eyes reflected the face inches away. Then, her body shook violently, her mouth closed, and her limbs slowly drooped, losing all vitality.

“Who told you to do this?”

As she asked the question, countless electrical signals rushing between the neurons flashed rapidly, being reorganized and refined by the powerful operation of her billion-neuron brain, extracting the desired information.

The so-called “Adjudicator.”

The so-called “Human PC.”

However, this information was often mixed with the intense emotions of the person under review right before death. Even with nine brains processing and diluting it, it was difficult to remain completely unaffected.

Qu Ying finally retracted her hand after a long time.

“It’s sour, doesn’t taste good,” she finally said flatly.

…

Sirens blared over the entire Defense Center area.

Every apartment complex had an underground protection station. The safety guidelines mentioned this, but it was the first time Cheng Ming was personally experiencing it.

Even the sirens could not completely mask the intermittent sound of faint explosions, making the building structure tremble, and creating small ripples in her cup of water.

Occasionally, cold white lights crisscrossed in the distance. A large number of vehicles were heading in one direction. The night intertwined with dazzling light made it impossible to see the specifics, but she could guess that the Security Department had likely been deployed.

Something felt unusual.

Were a large number of monsters coming ashore?

Pulling open the curtain, Cheng Ming stared intently into the distance. The fragmented, black ocean was visible along the edge of the buildings, its full view obscured.

She asked the parasite within her: “Do you feel anything?”

“I do,” Xiao Ming said. “Lots of food.”

It sounded a little excited.

Cheng Ming: …?

She said nothing more, pulled the curtain closed, turned to pick up her jacket, and planned to head to the protection station as instructed.

“Don’t you think this is a great opportunity for foraging?” Xiao Ming asked again.

A great opportunity to seek death, she thought.

Cheng Ming firmly kept her mouth shut, ignoring it, and quickened her pace toward the exit.

At the same time.

Five kilometers from the coastline.

Countless armed vehicles sped out of the gate. Reinforcement troops were ready for deployment. The first batch to leave the gate was already engaging the enemy. A mutated creature had destroyed the Level 1 power grid. The massive roar of sparks and electric flashes was muffled by the hundred-meter-high protective wall outside.

The Internal Security Team, having just completed the previous mission, rushed to the next target point, with the injured being sent to the hospital and others changing gear.

The Investigation Department did not go to the frontline, but at times like this, they acted as a temporary patrol squad to ensure no mutated creatures infiltrated the safe zone.

The area to be searched was large, and with personnel losses, the members divided into smaller units, relying solely on communication equipment for exchange. As the indicator light on the helmet headset flashed, messages on the team channel were constantly being updated and overwritten.

“Report to the Team Leader, arrived at the predetermined coordinates. Request instructions.”

…

“Report to the Team Leader, suspicious target has moved.”

…

“Report to General Command, Team 4 Leader Kang Ming is missing.”

…

Experimental Base No. 1 was damaged and required repairs. Eco-pods containing important live experimental subjects were being loaded onto transport vehicles, preparing to be transferred to a nearby smaller reserve base.

In one large transport vehicle, the central biosafety pod was completely transparent. A fungal body, curled up like seaweed, was floating motionlessly in the nutrient solution, looking half-dead and barely alive.

Chen Ke, the experimenter assigned to clean up the mess, stood in front of the console, continuously adjusting parameters to provide new stimulation, but still received no expected reaction. She stared for a while, then reached out and pressed a button, opening the observation window on the top of the containment.

This was an extremely risky move. Since MF204 had been confirmed to possess intelligence, it was impossible to judge whether its current state was genuine or feigned.

The person next to her immediately warned: “Dr. Chen—”

The experimenter, however, even took off her protective gloves, raised her head, and said: “No need for resuscitation. Report that the MF204 main body has escaped.”

…

Cheng Ming only remembered a severe problem when she reached the door.

She had carefully read the relevant content in the safety manual, knew the way to the station, and remembered the basic facility structure.

The protection station’s main purpose was naturally to defend against monsters.

Could she, with this parasite in her body, pass through the security gate?

At the institute, she was a respected researcher. Even if the Security Department conducted a screening, the people who came would treat her politely, allowing her to find loopholes. But entering the protection station, facing those “battle-hardened” soldiers, there would only be a distinction between ordinary people and the enemy. Any abnormality would surely be magnified indefinitely.

Upon realizing this, a cold sweat broke out on her back. A feeling of dread rushed into her sinoatrial node like a rapid current, momentarily stopping her heart.

She didn’t dare to risk it. She couldn’t risk it.

Cheng Ming released the doorknob and retreated back into the room.

Kitchen, bathroom, living room, balcony… She carefully checked every door and window, locking them all, pulling the curtains tightly closed, sealing the vents and drains, and turning off the lights.

Having secured the exterior, she groped in the dark and pushed open the bedroom door.

Then, with one foot stepping in and the other still on the door frame, she froze like a wax statue, her eyes wide as she stared at the room.

She was sure she had closed the window before leaving.

Now, a whooshing cold wind poured in. The sheer curtain lifted and then slowly fell, like the blade of a guillotine.

In front of the window, a towering black silhouette loomed.