After Being Parasiticized By A Monster - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: “Can I stay with you?”

The next day, Cheng Ming left her apartment yawning incessantly.

“You’re going to be late,” Little Ming said in her head.

It sounded like a reminder, but the voice was airy, infused with a playful schadenfreude that suggested it didn’t care.

Cheng Ming tiredly lowered her hand, brushing the “hair” that had clung to her cheek back into her collar.

“Shut up.”

A sleepless night made her irritable.

When she reached the bottom of her apartment building and saw a long corridor, leading from the exit to her position, covered with tents, she realized she had missed some news again.

Just as she took out her phone, a voice called out from afar. A familiar figure bounced up happily, yelling, “Ah! Senior!”

Cheng Ming focused her eyes. It was the bright and lively Huang Chengcheng, the intern she had previously assisted. She hadn’t seen her for a while.

The girl jogged over, wearing a fuzzy hat that covered her ears, and moved like a startled rabbit. “That’s great! Let’s walk together!”

It was easy to be infected by someone so full of life.

Cheng Ming’s usually cool features softened. She extended her hand in amusement and confusion. The girl’s enthusiastic embrace made her stumble. She took half a step back to steady herself and asked:

“What is it?”

“Senior, you didn’t see the notice! They said there’s a new type of mutant organism, and they advise against walking alone,” Huang Chengcheng wailed. “I was so scared I didn’t sleep well last night!”

“Where are your roommates?” Cheng Ming asked in surprise.

Although they were all from the North Tower Fungi Institute, their communal apartments were not in the same place. Since their job levels were different, the transient interns were usually housed in mixed-occupancy rooms.

“Oh! Remember the incident and the emergency lockdown notice? They were scared, so they all went back home, leaving me all alone…”

So that was it.

It was true that once you entered the defense center, you had to be prepared for sacrifice. But for these students, still hot-house flowers who had rushed in with zeal, they hadn’t weathered major storms. Suddenly experiencing such high-intensity turmoil was difficult to process.

It was a natural human reaction.

Cheng Ming didn’t criticize. Instead, she asked with concern, “It is very dangerous. What about you? Why didn’t you go back?”

“Uh…” She scratched her head. “I had a fight with my family, and I don’t want to go back…”

Cheng Ming quickly lifted a corner of her hat. “Did you shave your head?”

She hadn’t misread it. The girl had cut her hair into a severe buzzcut. The girl who was once lively and pretty with a long ponytail now looked refreshed when she took off her hat.

“Well, that was a spur-of-the-moment thing…” Huang Chengcheng awkwardly pressed the hat back down. “Please don’t scold me, Senior, I regret it! It’s so cold in the winter. My crown feels chilly all the time…”

She spoke with a playful and mischievous tone, but Cheng Ming sensed the subtle undertone of melancholy.

During the two months they worked together, she remembered the girl as an optimist. She was often restlessly moving around the lab. When she occasionally turned and her hair swept against a glass instrument, Cheng Ming would scold her. After apologizing, she’d mutter, “Senior, you’re not like my mom, who always wants me to cut my hair…”

At the time, Cheng Ming would hold a hair tie in one hand and scissors in the other, smiling without warmth, “Come on, pick one?”

Now, the girl had actually cut her hair, and Cheng Ming’s throat tightened. She couldn’t speak.

She gently smoothed her hat over the prickly hair, which was rough to the touch, and asked as they walked, “What did you argue with your mother about to make you so angry?”

The enclosed tent was a temporary inspection channel. As they entered, the lights came on, and their human silhouettes appeared on the imaging equipment.

“Sigh…” Huang Chengcheng hesitated. “I want to stay at the institute, but she disagrees. She thinks it’s too dangerous… I can’t stand it; she always wants to control my life.”

Cheng Ming opened her mouth to say something, then thought of her own mother.

She understood Huang Chengcheng’s desire for independence, but she also understood the girl’s mother’s wish for her to be safe. If Cheng Ran were still here, would she be proud of her, or would she worry?

“Never mind… I’ll talk to her properly when I have the chance. It’s too late to talk about this now.” Huang Chengcheng pouted and pulled a face, turning into a sad frog. “I’ve already cut it, and I can’t leave anyway. They’ve sealed all the roads out, probably afraid those things might escape.”

Leaving the apartment building, staff handed them special portable flashlights.

Based on the principle that the transparent mutant organisms’ internal cavities have a different refractive index than their body surface, a specific light wavelength could reveal them. The flashlights also had a high-energy laser function just in case, and a one-click alarm button.

Transparent organisms… Listening to the staff explain the precautions, Cheng Ming immediately thought of the vanished “sea urchin.”

One wave hasn’t settled before another rises.

The broadcast repeatedly announced: “The Defense Center has entered a Level 3 state of alert. The latest mutant organism is Medium-Risk, mainly in its Hydra form. Cleanup is currently underway. Please do not panic, minimize unnecessary outdoor activity, and use public transportation…”

Huang Chengcheng rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and urged Cheng Ming to walk faster. “I wasn’t worried before, but the more I listen, the creepier it gets.”

The shuttle buses were also modified. It wasn’t clear if they were sturdier, but at least they didn’t have their lights on in the middle of the day before.

They arrived at the institute safely and had to go to their respective floors.

Before parting, Huang Chengcheng timidly held her back. “Senior, Senior, can I ask for something from you?”

“What?” Cheng Ming didn’t understand.

“Anything!” she grinned. “I want it as a good luck charm.”

She was clearly one of those people who shook a top student’s hand before every exam. Whether it worked or not didn’t matter; it was for good luck.

Under her verbal barrage of sugar-coated flattery, Cheng Ming was amused. She ended up taking a hair tie from her wrist and giving it to her.

Ever since her hair was replaced by fungal threads that had a mind of their own, she had habitually carried a few extra hair ties.

Cheng Ming continued upward to the higher floors.

Huang Chengcheng entered the lab. Before she could even get settled at her desk, a colleague opened the door. “Little Huang, you’re late! Come help us move things!”

“Coming!” She dropped her backpack and walked out, complaining, “Ugh! Can you guys stop calling me around like a dog, learning from Professor Jiang…”

“Okay, Little Huang!” Laughter rang out, filling the corridor with a cheerful atmosphere.

There were many women in the team. Perhaps it was a case of the fish rotting from the head down, but with Professor Jiang Dexin as the boss, the team atmosphere had always been excellent—mostly informal with a touch of professionalism.

The group walked down to the basement, laughing and talking.

This was the cargo storage and transfer depot. When the elevator stopped and the outer hall door opened, a blast of cold air hit them.

“This place is about to be sealed. Let’s be quick and move an urgent batch of reagents upstairs.”

“Huh? Why are they sealing it?” Huang Chengcheng arrived late and didn’t know what had happened. She was operating on pure work-horse instinct, automatically following along when someone yelled for help.

“They say a cleaner went missing in the adjacent garage. Since these two areas are connected, they’re sealing both until the Security Department finishes their inspection. It’ll probably take a day or two, and our fungi can’t wait that long.”

The prohibition notice had been issued, but the elevator hadn’t been shut down yet.

So, this trip was actually an unauthorized stealth operation. Therefore, they didn’t have specialized personnel to help and even had to actively avoid certain people.

They wound their way to the containers. Several people scrambled to fill the metal baskets. Then, pairing up, they quickly carried them away, acting extremely furtive.

Moving experimental reagents was turned into a tense operation, like underground party members moving vital strategic supplies.

“Wait, wait, I forgot my phone!” After putting the things back in the elevator, Huang Chengcheng checked her waist pouch and screamed.

She had casually placed her phone on the cargo box to make it easier to pick up the reagent bottles!

“Wait for me—” She darted out of the car just a second before the elevator doors closed. “Just go up first!”

Returning, she found her phone quietly waiting for her, thankfully.

Huang Chengcheng felt relieved. She dusted it off, tucked it into her pocket, and walked back.

Her footsteps echoed in the vast space. The slightest sound became a ripple on a still lake, expanding in circles, layer after layer.

She hadn’t noticed anything when the others were around, but now that she was alone, she felt the environment was either getting colder or the lights were getting dimmer.

A cold wind whistled through from nowhere, like someone repeatedly slapping the back of her neck with an icy hand.

Huang Chengcheng involuntarily hunched her neck and quickened her pace.

Just as she passed a corner—

“Hello.”

The sudden voice startled her.

Huang Chengcheng looked over. In the dim light, a gaunt figure stood silently.

Thankfully, it was a person. And not a duty officer looking to cause trouble.

The middle-aged man leaned on a flat mop, wearing a cleaner’s uniform. When he saw her turn her head, he repeated, “Hello.”

“You… hello?” Although it was a bit strange, her kind nature instinctively made her think he needed help. “Is something wrong?”

“Hello.” It was those two words again. The man slowly raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a standard, friendly smile. “Nothing is wrong.”

Huang Chengcheng clutched the phone in her pocket. She felt that the cold wind wasn’t just slapping the back of her neck anymore.

It was pounding her forehead and drilling into her spine.

It was a standard call-and-response conversation; nothing seemed amiss.

But his voice was mechanical and his logic was abnormal, like a parrot mimicking speech or an AI that hadn’t been properly trained. Everything about him hinted at an unsettling sense of the unreal.

The deeper she thought, the more chilling it became.

Huang Chengcheng wanted to leave.

If she didn’t leave soon, she suspected she would be “leaving” in a different way today.

So, she forced an awkward smile at him. Unwilling to turn her back, she stared at the spot and moved sideways like a crab.

After creating a short distance, she pulled out her right hand, pressed the flashlight switch, and aimed a straight beam of light at him!

In the glaring white light, the thoroughly unreal-looking uncle only squinted his eyes reflexively and didn’t move an inch.

In the dazzling white light, a circle of slender, colorless tentacles suddenly appeared on his chest. Like a net spun by a spider, they were extending and clawing toward her.

“Oh my god!” Huang Chengcheng let out a shriek.

…

“Warning! Hydra mutant detected in North Tower Transfer Depot, Zone 2-12. Proceed immediately!”

The Security Department’s small reconnaissance team, which was conducting a grid search of the garage with large instruments, received the notification. The team leaders quickly switched to the internal channel to coordinate.

A real-time map unfolded before their eyes.

Confirming that her Team 1 was the closest, Yan Li immediately made a decision: “I’ll take the lead. Team 3, hurry over here.”

“Team 3, roger,” came the response.

…

Basement Level 1, Zone 2-12. The air was cold and damp.

Huang Chengcheng was sprawled on the ground, face down. The hair tie Cheng Ming had given her not long ago was still on her wrist, now stained crimson with bl00d.

A fire extinguisher had rolled away, and fragments littered the floor.

Her wristband and flashlight were smashed, and the automatic alarm hadn’t gone off.

Her phone lay on the concrete floor, its screen fractured with a spiderweb of cracks, emitting a faint, weak glow. It showed it was still connected to a call.

The anxious voice of the operator came from the other end—

“Hello? Hello? Miss! Are you alright?”

The signal was poor underground, but thankfully, she had managed to reach the edge of the structure. Huang Chengcheng had ultimately connected with the institute’s security station.

The message sent to the External Operations Team was relayed by the security station.

The human body, which had been used as a mobile vehicle by the Hydra, also lay on the ground, covered in white powder. The hydra body and its tentacles were shriveled and gray, completely still.

But it wasn’t dead yet.

On its slender body wall, near the basal disc, residual moisture concentrated and nurtured a tiny bud that was slowly swelling.

The bud matured, detached from the mother body, and floated into the air.

After a long while, Huang Chengcheng’s fingers twitched slightly.

She woke up from a brief blackout, blurry-eyed, looked at her surroundings, and remembered everything that happened a second before losing consciousness. She stared at the bl00d on her hands, almost fainting again.

She jumped up, snatched the phone, and ran, shouting, “I’m okay! It smashed my phone, ahhh, but it still works… I sprayed it with a fire extinguisher! It seems to be afraid of dry powder!”

She was gasping and sobbing, about to ask when help would arrive. Before she ran two steps, there was movement ahead.

Seeing the fully armed, security-filled personnel of the Security Department, Huang Chengcheng’s tears were about to fall. She ran toward them and was shielded behind the members of Team 1.

A large searchlight illuminated the area, leaving no corner unseen.

Han Xuhua was at the back of the team. As a rookie meeting another rookie, she felt a sense of empathy. She supported the poor victim and asked concernedly, “Where are you hurt?”

The bl00d was from a scraped knee from falling. Huang Chengcheng’s adrenaline was pumping, so she couldn’t feel the pain, but her whole body was trembling, especially her hands, which were severely cramped. She couldn’t tell if it was from injury or fright.

Team Leader Yan Li, holding a flamethrower at the ready, kicked the tentacle of the mutated Hydra with her specialized hard leather combat boots.

No movement. It was certainly dead.

Osmotic pressure was unbalanced. A large puddle of viscous fluid soaked the floor, leaving only a thin layer of skin.

She waved her hand, telling the others to approach and wrap the body in a black body bag for transport.

At that moment, Han Xuhua said, “Leader! Something is wrong with her…”

She was restraining Huang Chengcheng. She had given the civilian a sedative, as ordinary people often went into shock after a monster encounter. But the person who had just shown signs of calming down suddenly started convulsing, like a stroke patient.

Even Han Xuhua, who underwent high-intensity training daily, was struggling to hold her down.

Yan Li, with her rich experience, immediately understood. “Hydras have stinging cells; she’s been poisoned!”

She pressed her headset and asked, “How far away is the medical team?”

The medical team arrived.

As she was being lifted onto the stretcher, Huang Chengcheng still tried to struggle. She couldn’t control her body and her consciousness was hazy. “I hope I don’t have to go to an outside hospital! Waaah, I don’t want to go! I still want to go back to the lab, go back to being yelled at by Professor Jiang, go back to fighting for the fried chicken drumsticks at the third-floor canteen…”

She was sobbing hysterically.

“Little Huang!”

Han Xuhua picked up the phone and thoughtfully held it to her ear. A thunderous roar immediately followed.

Jiang Dexin had received the news and called. She heard the sobbing clearly. “Go get treated immediately! Don’t make me scold you right now!”

“…”

With the boss making an appearance, the effect was doubled.

Little Huang quieted down.

She closed her eyes and was wheeled away by the wailing ambulance.

…

Cheng Ming had no idea what happened at the institute during the day.

She spent another day hunched over the computer desk in the electron microscope room. When she left work, she felt the building was unusually quiet, noticeably emptier.

She had originally intended to call the timid Huang Chengcheng to walk together, but the message she sent received no reply. Assuming the girl had found someone else since she was leaving so late, Cheng Ming didn’t press it.

Walking out of the institute building, she quietly asked Little Ming, “Still no sense of other monsters nearby?”

She had asked this question countless times.

Little Ming replied patiently, “No.”

Most importantly, it had also lost all trace of the conidium spore it had released.

Her heart was thumping in her chest, beating a little too fast.

Cheng Ming had a persistent bad feeling, worried that the vanished planula larva might become a hidden danger.

Interrogation yielded no results. She returned to her apartment, almost hysterically shining her flashlight into every corner of the house at least twice.

Doors and windows were sealed. Temporarily safe.

Reluctantly convincing herself to accept reality, she returned to her bedroom, took off her jacket, grabbed a towel, and was about to take a shower.

Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock.

A knock on the door.

In the dead of night, with this eerie atmosphere. The scene felt somewhat familiar.

“Who is it?”

She put her clothes back on and asked, but there was no response. She walked out to the living room and looked through the peephole.

The visitor tonight was visibly shorter, standing half a meter away and looking up directly into the peephole.

Seeing the appearance, Cheng Ming was startled. She quickly turned the lock and opened the door. “Chengcheng?”

The hallway light was dim, and the deep night devoured the color of her clothing, but her large, dark eyes received the scattered light from the room, gleaming faintly like gemstones.

The young woman standing at the door was undoubtedly Huang Chengcheng.

However, she was wearing a hooded top that was completely ill-fitting, seemingly an old, thick, loose work uniform. The hood was pulled over her head. The fabric had several strange rips, as if she had traveled a great distance to get here.

She asked: “Can I stay with you?”