After Being Parasitized by a Monster 76

Chapter 76: Sister is sister, and you are you.

Drip, drip.

The crowded transparent pod made the vast space look like an aquarium. The faint light shuttled back and forth between different colors and different media, pale, dark blue, mottled, and sparkling, sifting out a hazy and desolate water pattern.

A dark blood drop slid down the slender arm, which was so fragile that it seemed it would break with a slight rub, and fell into the gray-green solution. The scales that should have been there had been violently scraped off, leaving only a mess of scratches and deep, dark red wounds.

This hand, which should have been soaked in a nutrient solution to recuperate, was now tightly clasped on the edge of the glass container, so hard that the bones and joints were deformed.

“Are you so obedient now? You’re like a tamed dog,” the girl, who was covered in wounds, looked up at the person in front of her, her gaze falling on the silver metal ring on the other’s neck, and she smiled mischievously and provocatively. “With the collar on, you look even more like one.”

It was clear that she still remembered how unruly this person had been when she had first arrived here, with her sharp eyes and cold attitude, even when facing the researcher who had created her, or rather, precisely because of this researcher.

But now, she was becoming more and more inscrutable.

Overall, she was much more obedient. She did not resist at all when the inhibitor ring was repeatedly adjusted.

Hearing this, Qu Ying, who was squatting in front of her, lifted her eyelids, put the new sample bottle in her pocket, and with her five fingers, she grabbed the withered wrist on the edge of the container. With a flip, she threw her down with an irresistible force, and with a splash, a half-meter-high spray of water was raised, and was immediately isolated by the closed pod lid.

She straightened up, slowly and meticulously wiped her hands, and looked at her through the glass. “You really want to die.”

Her tone was flat, as if it were a statement.

221 had not been so sharp-tongued before. Perhaps it was because a great disaster was imminent, and a living being’s instinct was always to survive.

Putting away her useless innocence, facing the researcher who controlled her fate, facing her “mother,” she had also cried and begged, “Mom, don’t… Mom, don’t…” The sweet dimples had disappeared from the corners of her lips. She had pulled on the other’s white lab coat, and her fingers had left tragic, blood-red scratches on the corner of the clothes, and she had cried and begged repeatedly.

However, she had never received the expected response. And so, the pitiful sobs had turned into an angry question. She had asked, “If your other daughter were here, would you still treat her like this?”

There was no answer.

Unless that so-called other daughter was still alive, unless she could tie “her” over.

“You like her more too, don’t you?” she was soaked in the medicinal liquid, and her round eyes were staring at the person in front of her who was meticulously carrying out Professor Cheng’s orders, and she said a sentence out of the blue.

Qu Ying looked at her straight.

She knew that no matter how pitiful and harmless this little girl looked, she could not be trusted. None of these finished products from the evolution department were not dangerous.

A few seconds later, she raised the corners of her lips from a high position and revealed a faint, ironic smile. “Are you competing with a dead person for favor?”

…

Out of a reluctant tolerance for a dying person, Xiao Ming did not overreact to Yan Rong’s intimate behavior that was beyond the normal social distance.

In the biology department’s treatment room, she was snuggled up to Cheng Ming, and her every breath echoed in her ear, heavy.

“Sister, have I become ugly?”

Cheng Ming didn’t dare to touch her too hard, for fear of accidentally leaving a scar. Her organ functions were abnormal, her metabolic level was abnormal, and with the continuous treatment and sampling, it was inevitable that marks would be left on her body surface. She looked at her and couldn’t say anything.

She hadn’t thought of how to comfort her, but Yan Rong had laughed.

After a restrained chuckle, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her, and said softly, “Sister, I want to go home.”

In the end, staying here was just a torment of waiting.

Cheng Ming paused for a moment, and her throat moved slightly, trying to suppress the lump in her throat. But when she opened her mouth, her voice was still hoarse, and she said, “Alright.”

A beeping sound was heard, and the airtight door was opened again. She turned her head and looked at the researchers who had come in, and asked calmly, “Have you collected enough samples?”

The one at the head had just taken out a large vacuum tube. Hearing the patient’s family’s dissatisfied words, he was stunned for a moment, and then he put it back as if nothing had happened, and said with a somewhat embarrassed smile, “Enough, enough.”

Many people had come in the past few days, medical doctors, pharmacology experts, and special researchers of radiation genetic diseases… It was not so much a diagnosis and treatment as it was a race against time to collect precious data.

They had no clue about treating the disease and saving people, but they were tireless in their experimental research.

Yan Rong’s hospitalization was so uncomfortable, and it was hard to say that they didn’t have a part in it.

The gene therapy proposed by Chu Xiuru was to use a certain substance to specifically and strongly activate the differentiation potential of undamaged stem cells. There were two difficulties in its implementation: the production of this substance, and how to locate the cells with intact DNA chains.

In any case, the medicine would inevitably touch the genetic level. This gave the pharmaceutical company an opportunity to modify the cell targets through gene editing technology, so that they could only bind with a special structure, and thus cause a rejection reaction.

After such a long and stable intake of this special medicine, Yan Rong’s reaction to other therapeutic agents was already very weak.

It was not impossible to crack, but it required a large number of samples and a lot of time.

And Yan Rong was now most short of time.

Unless they could directly obtain the preparation R&D process and original formula of Shenzhou Pharmaceutical.

To this end, the R&D group of the biology department had designed different blockers and had injected them from time to time to observe the effect, trying to find this specific site.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and for Yan Rong, it was pure torture.

“The living cells should have been cultivated, right? You should try it on an isolated tissue. Human experiments are illegal,” Cheng Ming’s expression was very light.

This was a serious statement. Stripping away the guise of treatment, they were indeed using patients to conduct experiments. And so these people were even more embarrassed, “Of course, of course.”

“Alright, then you can come over for a check-up every week.”

When Tan Shuqin heard about this, she was indifferent. She had someone sort out some emergency supplies, medicines, injections, first aid facilities, and life monitoring devices, and had half a carload of them brought back for them. She even included a high-end medical pod and told her to lie in it if her condition worsened and to contact her in time.

It was very generous, but Cheng Ming knew that it was because they still needed Yan Rong’s data.

When she saw Yan Rong suffering from the “treatment,” she would occasionally feel angry, but at the same time, she understood that if it weren’t for the fact that she was useful, Yan Rong might not have received such attention, such top-notch medical facilities, and so many people doing their best to keep her alive.

In this society, only those with value were worthy of resources. How was this not another form of a wilderness jungle, just that it was decorated with a more exquisite and more acceptable crystal shell.

More systemic symptoms appeared, and Yan Rong became more and more tired and weak.

Most of the time, she was sleeping in her room, and Cheng Ming couldn’t help much besides accompanying her.

At nine o’clock at night, she took a look at her condition before going back to her room as usual. The bedroom lights were on, but the person was not there.

She walked to the living room and found that Yan Rong was sitting quietly in front of the balcony. The night was a mottled dark gray, and she was a thin, light color like a mist.

There was a blanket on the wheelchair. She was not facing the glass to look at the scenery outside the building, but was facing the room, quietly staring at this apartment.

The living room was quite empty and not very ornamental. It basically maintained its original configuration, with a minimalist style. There were no flowers, plants, or bookshelves. The sofa and coffee table did not take up much space and were awkwardly close to the wall, and the safety hazards had been removed as much as possible to ensure the freedom of wheelchair travel.

But Cheng Ming knew what she was looking at.

This was the home where she and Yan Li had lived for many years.

“Sister Cheng,” Yan Rong saw her standing in a corner of the corridor, tilted her head, and called out.

This had distinguished her from Yan Li.

Cheng Ming walked over and heard her say again, “Did you know that you are actually very cold.”

“…” She stopped, and her mouth opened slightly, but she made no sound.

Seeing her dazed expression, Yan Rong burst out laughing and rephrased her words, “I mean, you’re too detached. You actually don’t like to get too close to others.”

She looked up at her, and the faint light from outside brushed past her curved brow and then to her small nose. “I can see that you’ve been trying to imitate my sister’s concern for me, and you’re making it up to me for her… are you tired? Sister Cheng, thank you. I’m sorry to have made you accommodate me for so long. You shouldn’t have had this burden.”

Cheng Ming’s back, which had wanted to bend down, stiffened. After a moment, she still squatted down, and her gaze met hers.

Yes, if it were Yan Li, she should have given her an intimate hug at this moment.

But once it was pointed out, and she was out of the fake shell she had created for herself, she could only look back at her like this, quietly and at a loss.

She tried to raise her hand, and the faint barrier was between her and the outside world.

Actually, Yan Rong didn’t need her.

At least, she didn’t really need her.

It was her human side that needed Yan Rong, like an anchor that had pulled her up from the dark seabed and had fixed her to the continental embankment.

The too-close emotional bond between people made her panic, uneasy, and at a loss… but she could not deny those strange, wonderful, and irresistible warmth and beauty.

If it weren’t for the identity of Yan Li, she would never have established such a connection with a stranger in her life.

She was like holding seawater on a fluorescent coast at night. The small plankton collided with her fingertips and created a brilliant starlight. And so at that moment, she had briefly had a piece of light. But they had eventually retreated with the tide and had merged into the long and boundless darkness.

The noctiluca did not belong to her.

And the light did not belong to her either.

…

Yan Rong grabbed her hovering hand.

Although her fingertips were also cold, she placed it on her knee, and it was wrapped in a soft blanket.

“It’s fine, Sister Cheng,” she said with a soft smile. “Anyway, I’ve wanted to go and find my sister for a long time… I’m very happy that these extra days can help you. It’s just a pity that I haven’t found all the truth with you yet.”

The passing lights from outside were either from the Security Department’s cars or the patrol team’s flashlights. A white light flashed on the balcony glass, and there were shining, shattered stars in Cheng Ming’s eyes.

She said in a low voice, “I don’t know what the meaning of life is either, but you are the person she was so desperate to see again…”

I forgive the resentment between you and me, I have forgotten the contradictions of countless years, I give you my blessings, I give you my all, I only hope that you live, live well—whether it was a discipline, a shackle, or a sincere friendship, she had fulfilled the expectation that her mother had placed on her. As an older sister, she would always tolerate her younger sister, and would never give up.

Cheng Ming had been influenced too much by Yan Li’s feelings.

She couldn’t say what she was feeling. Perhaps it was more numbness, but the frozen human heart in her chest was warming up and resonating, and she still felt the grief of a rabbit dying and a fox mourning.

Everyone was being caught in an invisible net. Life, health, happiness, power, wealth, dreams, ambitions… countless transparent threads were weaving a fate, until this behemoth of human society had completely swallowed them.

Also an orphan left behind by a beloved relative, Cheng Ming rested her forehead on hers, closed her eyes, and felt the wet and cool sensation of her eyeballs and eyelids touching.

Time was silent and still.

She wished it could really be still.

“I—am—so—hungry—” a very sudden voice. The Fish-Fungus in her brain had popped out at an inopportune time to spoil the mood, and the resentment in the neural messages was about to overflow.

Cheng Ming’s scalp went numb. She opened her eyes and subconsciously withdrew her hand and separated from Yan Rong.

She reasonably suspected that it was intentional.

“Rongrong…” she reorganized her feelings and called her. “She is your sister, but you still have your own life…”

“No, she is more than a sister,” Yan Rong interrupted, shook her head, and murmured with tears in her eyes, “More than…”

In the days and nights of depending on each other, what had supported them was just each other.

Cheng Ming still wanted to say something, but the words on the tip of her tongue turned into a silence, a silence filled with a sad atmosphere.

Taking a light breath, she spoke again, a futile comfort, “There will be a cure. You believe them, and you also believe me.”

“Sister Cheng,” Yan Rong smiled noncommittally, stretched out her hand, and touched her cheek. “Change back to your original appearance.”

“Sister is sister, and you are you,” she said. “I also want to remember your appearance.”

…

Yan Rong needed company, but at this very moment, Cheng Ming received a mission message.

And she had to go.

—VOM47 had struck again.

First, the Investigation Department had found an abnormality during a patrol and had determined that it was a mutated creature. They had tracked it all the way, but it had disappeared near the experimental building. This was the jurisdiction of the biology department, so then, the biology department’s field team had also been dispatched to search, and then, the entire team had lost contact with the outside world.

Cheng Ming was stunned when she saw it.

She was busy taking care of her sister. How could she have the time to cause trouble in the biology department?

The incident was sudden. She had received the message at 21:47, had changed her clothes in three minutes, and had arrived at the designated location at 22:06.

An armored vehicle was parked in front of a broken wire fence, blocking a large hole one meter long and wide.

A few team members who had also received the notice had already arrived, but they were not her familiar teammates. Han Xuhua and the others had gone down in the first batch, and now they had successfully become missing persons.

The technician waiting on the spot handed her the equipment.

Just as she had finished putting it on, she received a message from Qiu Ju—

“They should have entered the abandoned underground experimental area from your current location. The structure below is quite complex, and the further down you go, the higher the radiation concentration. There is no signal, and it is easy to get lost.

“The route map has been sent to you. It may not be complete. Some places have collapsed and are impassable, and some places were halfway through construction when the construction team withdrew. In short, adapt to the situation. Do not go beyond the scope, it is not safe.”

Cheng Ming confirmed the information and said, “Received.”

After getting ready, they entered the underground along the slope, passed through the broken glass and the collapsed concrete sealed wall, and directly entered a corridor. The walls were covered with rust and cracks. Although her helmet was sealed, she seemed to be able to smell the pungent smell of chemical agents and the stench that had been accumulating for years.

The first twenty minutes passed smoothly.

There was no danger, and no gains.

The first and second basement levels were clearly a transitional area, and the equipment had not detected any corresponding traces. Continuing downwards, the strangeness gradually emerged. There were intermittent static in the sound collection device, and the ground under her feet was wet and slippery. There were scattered and viscous liquids, and when the light shone on them, a dark brown color flashed before her eyes.

She didn’t know if it was human blood. The communication channel was very quiet, and a quiet tension spread.

The area was very large. They made a layout according to the map, arranged the routes, and searched in groups of two. One person was mainly responsible for detection, and the other was mainly responsible for security. In order to prevent getting lost, each group would return to the original point to gather after each search, and after confirming the situation, they would go down to the next level in sync. If the communication failed, they would use sound to confirm each other’s information. For example, three short tones meant that they needed support, and the person who heard it would immediately respond and go.

The one in Cheng Ming’s group was named Sun Xiangxiao. Her combat suit was tightly fitted, and her figure and appearance could not be seen clearly. She only knew that she was a tall and quiet girl.

After scanning the third floor, there was still nothing.

In a grim and anxious atmosphere, they came to the fourth basement level. There were more cracks in the walls, as if they had been torn open by some creature. In the depths behind the long and narrow darkness, there would be eyes staring at them.

At the end of the stairs was a heavy, sealed door. Cheng Ming had gotten the authority command, had connected the backup power supply and had entered the password. With a click, the access control was unlocked, but the metal was rusty and had been in disrepair for a long time. It had opened a crack and was completely stuck. It took everyone’s combined efforts to pry open a passage that one person could pass through.

As soon as they passed this gate, the radiation index rose sharply, and rustle, rustle, there was more static in the helmet.

If the front was still like a normal experimental area, with laboratories, workbenches, offices, and shower rooms, then it started to get chaotic here.

The low corridors, the irregularly cut cubicles, and the traces of unfinished construction were everywhere.

And what made her instantly alert was that Xiao Ming had happily popped up in her mind and had said, “Cheng Ming, there’s food here.”

She had stepped on something hard.

After a slight pause, she bent down and picked up a shell casing. The flashlight shone forward from here, and there was a mass of scarlet flesh, with white bone fragments sticking out from the edges, like the remains of some creature.

The light spot continued to slide forward, and more traces of a firefight appeared.

The ground was covered with flesh and blood remains.

There were monsters here, and there were many of them.

Cheng Ming couldn’t help but think, did the biology department know about this situation, or was this their monster warehouse, which was why they had so quickly determined that the unknown creature they were tracking was the work of VOM47?

It wasn’t a wrong judgment.

It was fine when she didn’t know there was “food,” and at worst, she would use glucose solution to stuff Xiao Ming’s mouth. But now, a restless hunger was surging forth, and the craving was unusually intense.

She really wanted to go and find food.

She couldn’t help but glance at her teammate next to her.

The latter probably thought that she was also scared. She gripped her weapon and exchanged a somewhat frightened but abnormally determined look with her.

They didn’t encounter any living things on the fourth basement level either.

But a group of two on the next route had run into something. There was a fierce ping, ping, pang, pang, and the corridor walls were booming under the impact of the powerful weapons. Cheng Ming and her partner looked at each other, and just as they were about to rush over to help, they had only gone halfway when the other side had hurriedly retreated and had said:

“There’s something. We hit it! But it slid down the pipe.”

The top priority was to continue to track it to the next floor. But there was still a group that had not yet reached the meeting point after the time was up, and it was unclear what accident they had encountered that had increased the difficulty of the search. They tried to send a signal, and the sound spread very widely in the quiet area, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, and it kept overlapping and echoing until they finally got a response.

A few minutes later, the two who were late arrived at the meeting point. It was indeed because the terrain was complex and they had taken a wrong turn.

Soon, they reached the fifth floor.

The road was even more muddy and difficult to walk, and water was dripping from the ceiling, accumulating in a turbid puddle under their feet. Drip. A drop of viscous liquid hit the transparent cover of her helmet, leaving a long, dark red mark.

The white light shone on the wet marks on the ground, and the color was also dark—wrong, it was blood.

The broken cables were hanging down, like snakes jumping and twisting above them. The air was humid, and the vision was poor.

These bloodstains were so fresh that they were almost hot. They wound along the cables into the distance, and were doodled on the ceiling, like a large magic circle that summoned a demon. Cheng Ming couldn’t help but raise her vision, and she turned her head left and right, trying to find more traces.

Just as a thought flashed through her mind, and she was thinking that the little soldier next to her was even calmer than her, her eyes shifted, and she was stunned.

Behind her was empty.

Sun Xiangxiao, who should have been following her closely, had disappeared.