After Being Parasitized by a Monster 37

Chapter 37: Intimate relationships are not all trouble.

“Warning, warning, unknown creature attack, level three protection program activated, the entire area will be sealed in ten minutes, the safety passage is open, please evacuate as soon as possible.”

“Repeat, warning, warning…”

All the lights turned into a warning red, rotating and illuminating the entire experimental area.

Han Xuhua was mechanically patrolling the corridor on the third basement level. She had just grumbled in her heart about how boring it was when, the next second, she heard the broadcast from her earpiece.

She was stunned for a moment, then immediately started running.

At the same time, she pressed the communicator, “Team leader! Team leader! Did you accidentally touch it?”

As she ran, she stared at the seawater, afraid that a huge, terrifying squid would suddenly appear in the next moment.

However, the environment that could be seen with the naked eye was completely calm.

This signal either meant that a sudden tide had already caused a monster to destroy some of the facilities, or it could only have been manually issued by the person in charge of the observation tower.

“No, there’s an abnormality in the underwater quarantine net,” Yan Li’s voice came quickly and strictly. “You guys organize the evacuation immediately!”

Han Xuhua received it.

As she rushed to the various laboratories, she quickly switched the channel, “Cheng Ming, did you see the notice? Come up quickly!”

“I saw it, I’m… static… malfunctioning… static… I can’t come up…”

The signal was very bad, but Han Xuhua had caught the main point—

She was trapped underwater!

…

Two hundred and forty-one meters underwater.

Cheng Ming was not trapped in the ecological pod.

Thanks to that metal door that she didn’t know what was hidden behind, she had been scared and had urgently stopped the survey. She had found a nearby mooring point to return, and had decided to replan her route before continuing.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t curious, but there was no need to court death.

For her, the top priority was to complete the project well. At that time, she would have the opportunity to apply for a deputy researcher position. After obtaining higher authority, she would go and see Professor Jin Xia again.

The mobile phone signal could not break through the seawater barrier, but there were special cables laid at the bottom of the sea.

Just as she was walking down the passage to the shuttle elevator, her bracelet beeped twice. She looked down and saw the evacuation message.

Three seconds later, her vision darkened, and the lights above her head went out.

The power was cut.

This was not the worst of it.

The worst was—

Rumble!

A deafening impact sound rippled out. The heavy metal was squeezed and stacked. Cheng Ming silently turned off the communication and stood far away, helplessly watching the hall door twist and deform.

After a shower of electric sparks, the smart control panels on both sides went dark.

The theoretical escape route had become a mountain of scrap iron blocking the way.

The exit was completely stuck.

Crackle. Another shower of sparks exploded, and the sparks fell, melting the coating material on the side wall into a honeycomb of small pits.

The unknown structure above her head was buzzing under the strain, probably from the lift, and it sounded like it was about to collapse.

It was too dangerous.

Cheng Ming was forced to move deeper.

She was going to the manual operation station.

On the one hand, there was a shelter there. On the other hand, she was trying to figure out what had happened.

Was it related to what she had just encountered?

…

It was not.

It was just that Yan Li needed her to be trapped at the bottom of the sea for these few hours to complete the mission assigned by that side.

On the top floor of the observation tower, a woman in a protective combat suit was leaning over the cold, metal control panel, looking down at the jumping red warning dots on the monitor, clearly aware of what she was doing.

She was violating the rules, violating the discipline, and putting the scientific researchers she was supposed to protect in danger.

Her ideal of serving the country when she graduated, her solemn declaration when she enlisted, and her determination to maintain peace because she had seen too much injustice… were all crushed by her own hands the moment she pressed those buttons.

It seemed that ordinary people with a conscience did not have it easy.

The various squads under the Security Department would also occasionally take on some hired jobs to earn some extra money, similar to bounty hunters—of course, in their private time, they would not use the name of the Security Department.

The chain reaction after the ocean pollution had hit all walks of life hard, and the economy was in a slump. But she had seen those expensive artificial sea farms, which were no less impressive than the ocean simulation experimental sites built by the Defense Center for research. However, their actual use was just to continue to cultivate the most “original” seafood for the elite class.

The upper class was living in luxury, while they were risking their lives, their lives as insignificant as grass.

Regardless of whether Cheng Ming was found to have a problem in the end, everything she had done was a problem.

It was a foregone conclusion, irrefutable.

Her hands were tightly gripping the corner of the table, so hard that her metacarpals were protruding.

Her thumb was pricked by the edge and hurt a little. She unconsciously looked down and saw the already healed scar, an inconspicuous, faint circle of teeth marks… her sister had bitten her.

Her right hand trembled slightly. She let go, straightened her back, and her eyes became cold and hard, resuming the appearance of a team leader.

She dialed the contact signal and said to the team member who was still anxious about Cheng Ming’s whereabouts:

“Han Xuhua, evacuate the experimental area immediately! This is an order.”

…

March 21st, 12:24 PM.

The sun was bright, but it still could not penetrate the 200-meter-deep sea.

“Today is the spring equinox, the day the sun shines directly on the equator, the sunrise is in the due east, the yellow longitude is 0 degrees, and the day and night are of equal length…”

Perhaps worried that the host was too lonely, Xiao Ming began to output some meaningless knowledge.

Besides proving how idle it usually was, it was of no substantial help to Cheng Ming.

“Shut—”

Cheng Ming wanted to tell it to be quiet, but before she could finish the first word, it consciously took over, “I’ll shut up.”

“…”

Right now, Cheng Ming was at the end of a dark corridor, holding a detector flashlight. The safety gate was open, and from a few meters away, she was confronting a school of strange fish outside the transparent glass.

The white light shone out and was completely swallowed by the vast water.

Many sea creatures were gathered at the small circular window in front, and their dark or pale pupils were all staring straight at her.

Everything seemed so strange.

Even though there was still a considerable distance between them, and the “safe house” should be very safe, this scene was still creepy.

She took a quiet breath and stepped in.

The heavy gate closed behind her, isolating it into a completely independent space.

Beep. The smart device responded.

The life pump was running, detecting the composition of the air and electrolyzing water to produce oxygen at the same time. The lighting facilities were turned on, with a warm color to stabilize the emotions of the trapped personnel. The heating system was activated to prevent the protective suit from being damaged and the human body from losing heat. There were food boxes and clean water in the corner, and the energy reserves were sufficient.

Even if the seabed collapsed, she could at least spend 24 hours safely here.

The material of the walls was unknown, but it was very solid.

There were low, small circular observation windows on all three sides to avoid missing a rescue in case of an accident.

But now, these observation windows were being used by the sea fish to observe her.

She, on the other hand, was like food in a sardine can, being coveted by countless eyes.

Thump, thump, thump.

A few fish began to hit the glass.

Some quickly turned into a pile of rotten flesh, while others had hard heads. Along with the churning of the seawater, the vibration was like a pulse, leaving a sudden rise and fall of digital signals on the display screen.

It was a suicidal attack.

Remembering what had happened after she had first encountered the sea fish, Cheng Ming put the collected data close to her body, steadied her mind, and walked forward.

She bent down, stretched out her palm, and pressed it against the glass.

An invisible wave was transmitted from the liquid to the solid. Not surprisingly, she felt that faint attraction again.

She was in a daze for a moment, confused, and then panicked.

What did that mysterious creature, which was locked in some secret corner of this seabed, want to do?

So many people had come down here before, why was it targeting her?

Thinking of her own specialness, Cheng Ming felt a slight twitch in her heart.

Infrasound was also a sound wave.

Since it was a sound wave, perhaps it could be understood as—the other party was talking to her.

It was just that she couldn’t analyze the information contained in it.

Such a violent tremor, if replaced with a human voice, would be a heart-wrenching scream.

What did it want to tell her?

“You said that your senses are limited by me… right?” An idea formed in her mind, and she slowly opened her mouth. “What if I let you out completely now?”

The clever parasite immediately reacted, “What do you want me to do?”

Cheng Ming turned off the flashlight, stepped back, and sat down against the wall.

From a distance, her figure was completely contained in the small window. The light was scattered, and the surface of the glass was coated with a layer of silver-gray. In the hazy, faint light, she could clearly see her own silhouette in the reflection opposite her.

She raised her hand and touched the placket of her clothes, and rip—

She tore open the sealed strip of her protective suit.

Then, she unzipped it, took off her headgear, and exposed her body to the air. The heating had just been turned on, and the temperature was very low. She trembled slightly at the moment of contact.

Although it was a safe house, and theoretically isolated from the seawater, and there were no radioactive experimental materials around, her action was still very risky.

Especially since there was a group of marine creatures of unknown origin and unknown intentions outside the wall.

Before handing over control of her body, she instructed, “Listen to what it’s saying.”

A blue fluorescence surged, the scales sensed the air, and the mycelia grew wildly, eagerly pressing against the glass.

Separated by a wall, the seawater it craved was just outside the area where its tendrils were spreading, so close, so tempting.

Cheng Ming felt its emotions without reservation.

To be honest, she was a little worried that this siren would not be able to control its instincts and would break the glass and run out.

But she estimated that it also knew that doing so would definitely cause fatal harm to Cheng Ming. The tendrils carefully touched the seawater for a short distance and then reluctantly retracted. And considering Cheng Ming’s condition, it retreated very quickly.

In that case, intimate relationships were not all trouble.

For a host that was forcefully occupied, it was enough to keep them alive. For the other half of a symbiosis, communication and cooperation were needed to maintain mutual trust. For a partner, more consideration was needed, to care for and take care of the other’s feelings, even if there was no interest relationship, even if it meant sacrificing some of one’s own experience…

This strange thought flashed through Cheng Ming’s mind for a moment.

When she regained her senses, her hands and feet were a little frozen.

She quickly pulled back her protective suit and sealed it. She asked without much hope, “Can you ‘understand’ it?”

“Yes.”

Hearing this answer, her breathing hitched.

It was a little unexpected.

Could different species actually ‘communicate’ with each other?

Or was it that…

“What did it say?”

Xiao Ming paused strangely. After a long while, it said, “It’s saying—run.”

Thump. Her heart lost its rhythm.

As soon as this answer came out, it was as if two pairs of invisible, cold human hands had brushed across her back. Cheng Ming was instantly horrified.

Seeing her own silhouette on the glass opposite her, it was also like looking at an unknown creature. A chill ran through her body.

She suppressed the tendency of her teeth to chatter and said with difficulty, “Those two words? Are you sure? Only those two words?”

“Yes,” Xiao Ming’s voice was very low. “It’s repeating this meaning over and over again.”

It was still this dark environment, still this sealed room like an iron bucket, but the seawater outside seemed to have a substantial weight pressing on her back, making it difficult for her lungs to expand and inhale.

Looking at the marine creatures that were still desperately hitting the glass, her state of mind was completely different.

She might have misunderstood something.

They didn’t want to attack her, but were just trying to escape under the disturbance of the sound waves.