After Being Parasiticized By A Monster - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Are you okay… Or should I do it?

“Alright.”

With those two words, the two monsters finally reached an agreement and ended their conversation.

The fungus opposite politely gave up the space first, and strands of “hair” like mud-worms emerging from water drilled out of the host’s head, sliding down the helmet.

Cheng Ming saw her hair grow longer and longer. Little Ming approached unhurriedly.

It was ready to transfer.

Her throat was choked, and she felt as if she was in a bottomless abyss, unable to feel her heartbeat or breath, only endless regret and anxiety. Emotions, like a raging downpour, overwhelmed her. She regretted not having prepared more defensive measures… How could one trust a monster?

Saying all this was too late; she had to seize the moment the parasite completely left her to break free.

The difficulty lay in the fact that, first, this body was severely injured, and the new body opposite still held a weapon. Second, the other fungal monster was still watching nearby—

A glance from the corner of her eye confirmed her fear.

The “mud-worms” hadn’t completely left the old body and were already sliding towards her.

After all cells “crawled” out of the empty brain cavity, they gathered into a mass on the human’s shoulder, wriggling and reorganizing into a chain of threads amid the wet, fishy smell. It stretched out of thin air toward her, finer than a strand of hair, almost invisible as it floated in the air.

But based on biological instinct, she knew it was approaching her. It was also waiting for the moment Little Ming detached, trying to drill into her body.

Just as the MF204 was almost touching her mouth and nose, the strand of thread suddenly vanished—no, it was pulled back.

A chill brushed her cheek; the broken fungal thread swept her face, a light, weightless flick like a spring catkin, barely noticeable.

But the psychological shock it caused was far greater than a resounding hammer blow.

Little Ming ignored the empty new body, instead directly wrapping its feelers around the moss and algae-like fungus. Its movement was also much like a hungry animal pouncing on fodder, but far cleaner and more thorough than an animal’s chewing and gnawing.

The two masses of threads mixed like ink dissolving into ink, completely blending after a few seconds, indistinguishable from each other.

A silent shriek spread out, and high-intensity mechanical waves scratched against her skull like a file reaching into her ear canal. Bl00d instantly gushed from Cheng Ming’s nostrils, and her throat was filled with the smell of bl00d.

Everything happened too fast.

She was pressed, entangled, and constrained by an invisible ghost, unable to move the entire time. And right under her rigid gaze, it mercilessly killed the ally that was supposedly going to lead it to a wonderful, free life.

“Yes, I like her body very much, so I don’t want to change.”

These words, one by one, were like the cold, contemptuous, ghost-like, malicious whispers of a nightmare, revealing a playful irreverence and a lofty, god-like nature.

Cheng Ming regained sensation in her limbs and collapsed onto the ground. Her entire body’s bl00d vessels and meridians seemed to be twisting and writhing arbitrarily, accompanied by bouts of dizziness, ringing in her ears, and pervasive dull pain. She pressed one hand to her abdomen and the other to her mouth and nose, suspecting all seven orifices were bleeding.

The living corpse, its nervous system ceasing operation without the fungal threads to maintain it, finally fell, face down with a dull thump.

The well-fed fungal threads returned belatedly, circling her, covering the floor and her clothes, or finding gaps to squeeze into and cling to her injured skin, recycling bl00d cells without waste.

Little Ming asked, “How are you?”

Her own voice sounded buzzing in her ears.

“Ugh…” Mentally exhausted and subjected to sonic torture, Cheng Ming lay on the ground, seeing stars and dry heaving, but unable to throw anything up. On one side, her wounds burned fiercely, and on the other, her internal organs cramped and swelled.

She couldn’t speak, but forced herself up with her elbows, staggering to the bathroom by leaning on the wall. She pulled out the dissection kit stored in the cabinet under the sink, grabbing a handful without looking closely. Scalpels, needles, and forceps clattered together.

Shrapnel embedded in the flesh was preventing healing; the immediate priority was to quickly pick them out.

Fortunately, she had installed a full-length mirror in the bathroom. She slumped against the wall, sat on the floor, bit down on the hem of her undershirt, and forced herself to perform surgery.

Large beads of sweat seeped from her forehead, sliding past her eyebrows, quickly absorbed by nearby strands of hair to avoid obstructing her vision.

Her hand trembled violently, and her vision was blurry and scattered.

“Are you okay…” Little Ming was in much better spirits than her and volunteered, “Or should I do it?”

Cheng Ming focused all her concentration on the tip of the scalpel in her hand. It took a long time for her to belatedly receive its query and understand what it meant.

Consequently, she didn’t immediately realize that it hadn’t opened its mouth to speak but had directly transmitted the information into her brain.

She didn’t have the strength to refuse, but a weak whimper rolled out of her throat, her teeth clenched, refusing to nod. Poor visibility was unfavorable for precise positioning, and with a large area of burned and contaminated necrotic tissue, she simply gave up on probing and cut directly. The intensity of this pain soaked her body in sweat, making her look like she had crawled out of water.

Clink, the last bl00d-stained shrapnel piece, embedded deep within, was finally clipped out, falling onto the tile floor with a crisp sound. The hand gripping the surgical tools finally relaxed, the fingertips bloodless, losing strength almost instantly.

“Why so stubborn,” she seemed to hear it mutter in the last second before losing consciousness.

In the reflection of the flat mirror, the battered woman’s eyes, which had drooped weakly, slowly opened again.

A slight twitch of the fingers, seemingly refamiliarizing itself with the limbs, raised her hand, pushed aside a corner of her shirt, and pressed the pale, translucent skin on her upper waist.

The torn flesh on her abdomen healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Peering at the host, who was weak and had fallen into a coma, the fish-fungus monster sighed with a human-like demeanor, its voice soft as a dream, “Sigh…”

It decided she had tacitly consented.

So, it moved its hands and feet, got up, and thoughtfully tidied up the body.

It went out to busy itself for a while, then came back, stood under the showerhead fully clothed, briefly rinsed to let the hot water wash away the dirt other than bl00d. Next, dripping wet, it walked into the bedroom, found pajamas, closed its eyes, stripped, tossed the wet clothes aside, and put on the pajamas. Finally, it flopped down onto the bed—

After all, it was a marine organism and didn’t find being completely damp bothersome.

It even felt the environment was particularly comfortable tonight.

Pulling up the blanket, it whispered to itself, “Good night.”

…

When Cheng Ming woke up again, it was still dark.

The prolonged alarm, mixed with faint commotion from the coast and occasional red flashes, still lingered in the air.

The defense center remained on alert.

She was woken up by Little Ming. It was a familiar scene, a familiar process. Fusion and evolution had completely depleted the organism’s energy; she felt like she was one step away from starving to death in bed.

The effect of symbiosis was evident here; as the fish-fungus grew, she also benefited. Shotgun pellets were slow and prone to causing extensive, irregular wounds. Not to mention the danger of excessive bl00d loss, there was damage to muscles and even internal organs. Adding to that, she had been heavy-handed when removing the shrapnel. Despite such severe damage, it had completely healed in just a few hours.

The injured areas no longer hurt, but her limbs were weak, and she barely managed to get up.

The parasite inside her was even more anxious than her, repeatedly urging her to inject nutrient solution.

Bumping into obstacles two or three times and knocking over four or five items, when Cheng Ming finally grasped a nutrient solution vial from the bedside table drawer and aimed the needle at her wrist, her hand was shaking so badly it looked less like she was trying to inject and more like trying to slash her wrist.

She couldn’t even aim for a vein. The parasite had to help, its fungal threads wrapping around her elbow a few times to steady her hand.

One vial wasn’t enough, so she injected a second one.

The medication quickly took effect. Cheng Ming leaned against the bed leg, sitting on the cold floor, only then feeling slightly better. Looking at the mess in the room, she felt the nutrition she had just absorbed into her tissue cells quickly vanish.

She covered her forehead, lowered her head, closed her eyes, and took a deep, heavy breath.

Her clothes were inexplicably damp, but she was in no mood to worry about it. Her heart was cold, and her body felt even colder.

With the threat of death gone, she had to seriously consider how to deal with the aftermath. Everything else could wait. The fungal monster’s host was undoubtedly a member of the security department. How was she going to cover that up?

Moreover, the other side was likely urgently looking for the person… Daybreak was approaching. She didn’t know when the lockdown would end. Time was short, and she had to race against the clock to figure out a plan.

“What are you worried about?” Little Ming asked abruptly.

“…”

Cheng Ming didn’t speak and walked towards the living room.

Although the outcome was unexpected, the events of this night were undoubtedly caused by it. Or rather, all the dangers and crises she had encountered in the past few days were because of it. Otherwise, she could have quietly worked as a low-profile researcher in the institute, focused entirely on experiments, with her only worry being how to quickly get promoted to senior researcher… instead of being crushed by the two mountains of it and the security department.

She didn’t know why it ultimately chose to stay with her, but she was physically and mentally exhausted and didn’t want to ask.

Who knows? The monster was just so arbitrary, leaving when it wanted to, staying when it felt like it, never her choice.

There were marks on the pink-white walls and solid wood door panels where projectiles had grazed, with some fragments embedded in them. Cheng Ming frowned, forcing herself to look away, not wanting to think about how to fix these traces, and focused on the urgent matter.

She stepped out and looked at the nearest side of the living room, where the infiltrator controlled by the fungus had last been—

With one look, her heart instantly stopped.

It was empty; there was nothing there. Let alone a fully armed special reconnaissance agent.

…

How do you think Cheng Ming will handle the situation now that the body of the infiltrator is missing?