After Being Parasiticized By A Monster - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: “I’ll Take Good Care of Her for You.”

The Price of Salvation

The night of July 8th.

The tsunami had retreated, leaving countless people missing and the Defense Center facing a massive upheaval. The tide, which had caused such chaos, quietly receded, leaving only scars.

Cheng Ming dragged a person from the sea, collapsing with them onto the shore. The night was clear, the moon serene. She flipped herself over, looking down at the drowned figure.

Her long hair, like black algae, curled behind her, mostly submerged in the water, glistening under the moonlight. To a living person nearby, she might have looked like the Sea Daughter from a fairy tale.

But she looked nothing like a beautiful mermaid. Her clothes were stained by the polluted seawater. Backed by jagged rocks and surrounded by debris, she looked more like a witch.

And those she rescued would have to pay a price.

Given the current nuclear radiation levels, a few minutes of immersion could result in severe exposure, far exceeding the safe limit. The victim’s body should have been decomposing flesh, yet Cheng Ming was fine.

Though she had bl00d spots and looked superficially terrible, she showed no signs of acute radiation sickness. Her most severe injuries—fractures and bone cracks from the sea’s impact—had healed in a matter of hours.

Radiation could not kill her.

She hadn’t intended to save anyone; she was simply hungry.

So hungry.

Submerged at the bottom, her respiratory tract filled with seawater. The fish-fungus was busy feeding, tearing and decomposing bl00d and flesh from the deep-sea sediments. Cheng Ming, having briefly succumbed to self-abandonment, had let Little Ming take control, which was now ravenously consuming nutrients.

It was only when she encountered a human body with distinct features—a familiar face—that a sliver of her consciousness returned.

Opening her eyes, she recognized the woman: Yan Li.

Incredibly, Yan Li still had a faint pulse. Her sophisticated battle suit was intact, protecting her from radiation. But her sternum and spine were broken, her chest caved in, and bl00d-flecked foam escaped her mouth beneath the helmet. She was dying.

Fungal hyphae were already climbing around Yan Li, searching for a weak point.

Cheng Ming wrestled control from the fish-fungus and, not knowing how to swim but effortlessly borrowing the water’s momentum, pulled Yan Li ashore. She ignored her own disheveled appearance, leaning in like a ghoul seeking warmth.

Yan Li’s survival, despite such catastrophic injuries, was a miracle, due in part to the suit’s oxygen supply and her sheer will to live.

“You won’t live much longer,” Cheng Ming whispered.

The cruel statement, spoken softly, sounded less like a death notice and more like a gentle angel offering passage to heaven.

Yan Li was conscious, sustained by adrenaline, but unable to speak, her throat blocked by bl00d. The situation was a cruel reversal: Cheng Ming, who had once been forcibly isolated by Yan Li, now had her completely at her mercy.

As waves crashed, Cheng Ming knelt beside her. Despite their shared, pathetic appearance, when her eyes lowered, she looked like a cold, compassionate deity.

She removed the helmet, bringing her forehead close to Yan Li’s. “I want your body. Do you agree?”

She saw the pain and despair in Yan Li’s eyes. Cheng Ming’s gaze was calm, signaling that she would wait until Yan Li consented, or until she died—in which case, consent was irrelevant. The gentleness masked a chilling ruthlessness: If you don’t agree, I’ll take it anyway.

“I can fulfill your last wish. Is there someone waiting for you at home?” Cheng Ming inferred from the woman’s desperate refusal to die.

A spark of intense sorrow flared in Yan Li’s eyes. She couldn’t speak, but she managed to lift her fingers half an inch, clamping down on Cheng Ming’s wrist, choking on more bl00d. Her breathing was quick and shallow.

“I will take good care of her for you,” Cheng Ming promised, gently brushing the hair from Yan Li’s forehead, seemingly oblivious to the pain in her hand.

To be granted compassionate final moments by a seemingly human entity, rather than dying alone in the deep sea, was its own strange fortune.

So, do you agree? I will inherit your body, take on your fate, and complete your final wish.

Under the moonlight, Cheng Ming leaned down. This was the final contact, the total assimilation. Fungal threads separated flesh, rooting themselves internally, acting as a bridge between two species.

Their most intimate distance was the transition between life and death.

Yan Li’s bl00d washed over Cheng Ming in a final baptism, marking a death and a rebirth.

…

The Empty Tomb and the New Test

The scene jumps back to the morning of September 17th.

Qu Ying had no idea the person who should have been in the grave was now standing beside her. Only here, looking at her friends and her own tombstone, did Cheng Ming feel truly alive again.

If her existence lacked value, she would find or create it.

Seeing Qu Ying was clearly irritated, Cheng Ming reached out, took the cigarette from her mouth, tossed it on the ground, and casually stepped on it.

“I don’t like it either,” she explained calmly, meeting Qu Ying’s sudden, deadly glare.

It was a brazen move, especially given their supposed distant acquaintance.

Qu Ying stared, her formidable mind likely struggling to process the interaction. Han Xuhua, seeing the tension, rushed over.

“N-n-no, I’m so sorry! My Group Leader has a few loose screws after being submerged in the tsunami!”

Qu Ying, processing that she was dealing with a mentally impaired person, finally said nothing, only casting them a few indecipherable looks. She silently picked up the cigarette butt before leaving, perhaps out of respect for the gravesite.

Yan Li was dead. Cheng Ming had consumed her, mimicking her form by simulating her genes, and allowing Little Ming to temporarily store her neural information for later analysis.

Nine brains would be so much easier, she thought, a dark joke to herself.

Cheng Ming was concerned by Qu Ying’s composure. The calmer Qu Ying seemed, the more uneasy she felt. But she remained in place, unable to expose herself.

Cruelly, the death of Yan Li’s entire team meant her disguise had fewer intimate eyes to fool. She had chosen to be reborn.

Her survival was an instinct. Being exposed as a parasitic host was dangerous, but being exposed as an experimental subject stolen by Cheng Ran was a death sentence. Cheng Ran herself had tried to kill her. She could not rely on Jiang Dexin, and she couldn’t be sure Qu Ying would side with her.

Yet, she returned to human society, driven by too many unanswered questions and a fierce, primal will to survive.

Leaving the cemetery, Han Xuhua shook out her umbrella. “How long is this awful rain going to last?”

The persistent artificial rain, part of the efforts to suppress high-risk mutated microorganisms, continued. The Defense Center was locked down, only allowing people in.

Cheng Ming looked out over the city, now shrouded in a yellow haze under the thick, silver-rimmed clouds.

She knew that returning to the Defense Center meant facing a new round of trials: from the Security Department, the Institute, the lurking monsters, the hidden enemies, and those who used to be her friends…

But first, she had to face Yan Li’s most intimate relative—her younger sister, Yan Rong.