Chapter 83: Only one person in this world calls her that.
The sound waves were diluted by the redundant miscellaneous items around, making the already emotionless words fall like snowflakes, and when they melted in the air, the entire space cooled down.
Her heart settled, and Cheng Ming also calmed down.
She just wanted to see Cheng Ran, and she didn’t want to turn herself in. And whether she used her own face or Yan Li’s, there was a risk of exposure, so before she came out, she had changed into Little Seashell’s appearance.
In the other’s eyes, it was a mutated fungus that had parasitized a fish egg and had then parasitized a human body. It was impossible to determine its original appearance.
Qu Ying didn’t recognize her.
She really didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Another loud bang, and Cheng Ming rolled out of the small shelter, flipped up, and moved to the next shelter. The cargo container that was close by was shattered into pieces, and almost hit her.
Her body’s softness allowed her to move freely in various narrow passages, and the cephalopod creature was also good at deforming. The pipes could not stop the other.
The weapons issued by the Security Department even had a number on the warhead, and it would be a big trouble if they were lost. She also didn’t bring any tools with strong killing power.
The patrol team nearby must be on their way to surround her. Not planning to fight with people, Cheng Ming took out the self-defense dagger from the inner pocket of her jacket and held it in her palm. Running away was the top priority, and in case of a close encounter, it would be good to create a flaw to escape.
She quickly looked around. Energy materials, instrument parts, raw material reagents… all had to be screened through the quarantine line for transfer, and a lot of important materials were stored here. She felt that Qu Ying would have some scruples, and it was a good place to play hide-and-seek.
But unfortunately, she had thought too much.
Her opponent was too lazy to play a guerrilla war with her.
The beams and columns formed a dense steel frame network. Qu Ying stood on a high place, the corners of her clothes floating. Against the iron-gray background, she was like a female eagle that was watching her prey.
Then, she squeezed her left arm and wrist, and from the part that was close to her skin, she slid down a few hard objects. With a light click, the precision rotating shafts were interlocked, and the mechanical parts were engaged, and they were assembled into a small weapon.
A □□ tube, not for sniping, but for providing a short-term, short-range, concentrated, and strong explosive force, to accurately strike and destroy parts.
Cheng Ming was squatting at the bottom of the shelf. After waiting for a long time without any movement, she cautiously poked her head out to take a look—
Swish. A faint airflow passed by and hit a welded structure not far away.
She was like the observer who had disturbed the quantum superposition. A sudden change, and the cat that might have been alive or dead had become a dead cat.
The groaning of the steel frame that could not bear the load came from above and entered her ears. Only then did Cheng Ming suddenly react.
She pushed off with her feet, slid through the narrow gap between the cargo containers, and quickly moved away from the danger zone. Swish, swish, swish. A few more shots chased after her, hitting several weak points of the frame. It was not a fierce movement, but it was a four-ounce-moves-a-thousand-pounds, and it triggered a series of catastrophic chain consequences.
Clang! A half-meter-diameter industrial and mining lamp with sparks and lightning crashed down. Screech! A forklift screeched and slid on the ground. Splash! A large pile of goods with a steel frame collapsed like a hill.
The good packaging was damaged and collapsed. A mirror that someone had ordered was smashed on the ground, and splash, splash, large and small beads were splashed, and it was shattered into a galaxy on the ground.
Sister, are you really from the demolition office… Cheng Ming was running around with her head in her hands amidst the flying miscellaneous items. She finally knew what a terrible experience it was for those monsters to face Qu Ying in the past.
She wanted to go around to another area. There were more transport pipes over there, and if she slipped in, it would be like a clay ox entering the sea. But the latter could always accurately identify her intention and interrupt it.
The terrifying thing about this person was her computing power, reaction speed, and emergency decision-making ability. Her own powerful defense allowed her to go to the front line of the battlefield, and her excellent brainpower was also a good commander. Every decision was not in vain, and every attack was fatal. And she was abnormally cautious and did not get close at all, but only controlled the overall situation from a high place.
Like a cat teasing a mouse, while she was intercepting her, not too tightly and not too loosely, she also had time to send a text message to the security center, “The outer circle of warehouse B03 is sealed off, level two alert, thermal weapons on standby.”
She was determined to capture this “interesting” intruder alive.
The road ahead was blocked, and Cheng Ming wanted to take the back road, but after a lot of effort to reach the edge, smack! the glass shattered, and a dazzling light shot into the broken hole, and countless scratches were haloed with colorful light spots. The metal gate was roaring, and the laser system was activated.
She urgently grabbed a horizontal bar and jumped down, fixed her body, and avoided the high-energy beam.
The outside was already blocked, and she could only turn back.
Being forced into a corner would be even more difficult.
Xiao Ming and Qu Ying had never gotten along.
Although Cheng Ming didn’t want it to have too many movements, at a critical moment, the mycelia rolled out, like a flood from a broken dam, and blocked the sharp fragments.
But when the force exceeded the bearable limit, the dark tendrils broke with a boom. A feeling similar to pain rolled into her neural network, and her vision blurred and she lost her balance. She almost fell into the broken glass. She supported herself on the ground with her elbow, and a cut was made by a sharp spike. The blood wet her sleeve and then quickly healed.
Struggling to prop herself up, Cheng Ming found the enemy’s tracks in a piece of broken mirror. The broken mycelia grew again and rolled away the blood she had dripped to avoid leaving any biological information. At the same time, she separated some others and climbed up the iron frame along the wall, and began to differentiate spores.
But if she could see Qu Ying in the mirror, it meant that Qu Ying could also see her.
The latter raised an eyebrow, and through the illusory mirror, a faint smile appeared. Cheng Ming’s forehead was a little sweaty.
However, looking at the menacing, approaching filamentous substance, at this time, Qu Ying also stopped.
“Fungus, is it?”
She looked at the sign on the storage box next to her and narrowed her eyes.
Seeing the faint, interested curve on her lips, Cheng Ming felt that something was wrong.
Just as she was about to move, she heard a thump from over there, the sound of a box being broken open. Qu Ying hooked up the things inside with her toe and casually scooped them up and threw them.
Cheng Ming didn’t even see clearly what it was. A white object, like a meteor, brushed past, and at the same time, the other’s left arm was raised again and aimed. And so, the meteor exploded right above her, burning fiercely, and sparks scattered.
A strong, irritating, and sour smell spread, and the high-concentration vapor almost blinded her.
Small droplets were scattered on her skin, and a sharp pain pierced into her brain. The mycelia that had been splashed were curled and shriveled as if they had been burned.
Cheng Ming belatedly understood what it was—peracetic acid. She had once secretly carried it to guard against and threaten Xiao Ming, but in the end, she had used it to deal with MF204. Now, this chemical reagent was back for a limited time, and was being used by Qu Ying to deal with her.
Letting Xiao Ming retract its mycelia, she quickly retreated and moved away from the area covered by the peroxide. Just as she had adjusted her posture, she caught a glimpse of a residual shadow in the half-piece of glass on the ground.
She turned her head abruptly, and the hand was almost on her shoulder.
While the mycelia were weak, Qu Ying had suddenly approached, like a falcon that had folded its wings from a high altitude and had dived down to intercept her. The oppressive feeling was like a whale wave stirred up by a strong wind. The person had already landed, and her hair was left in mid-air, like a slow-motion in a movie. It was reflected in Cheng Ming’s eyes, and every strand was clear.
Before she could think much, she grabbed the dagger and stabbed diagonally with her backhand. The angle was unexpectedly tricky. Normally, doing this would most likely hurt herself, but on the one hand, she had Xiao Ming to help her adjust her defense, and on the other hand, her self-healing ability was strong, and even if she was injured, she would not be unable to stop the bleeding.
Thanks to her year in the Security Department, her combat skills had improved a lot.
Qu Ying had dodged the first time. In the fleeting gap, Cheng Ming had wanted to pull away from her, but she was still tripped. She lowered her back, and her body bent as if it had no bones. When she turned her hand for the second time, she clearly felt the tip of the knife embed itself in the flesh.
But the other did not plan to let her go again.
The silver-white metal ring pulled out a cold starlight, and it flashed in Cheng Ming’s peripheral vision, like a thorn. She remembered that this thing had restricted Qu Ying’s abilities, but she didn’t know to what extent, and how much her defense and self-healing ability would be affected.
With a moment’s hesitation, the wrist bone of her hand holding the tactical dagger was as if it had been stuck by an unoiled gear, and it abruptly stopped its downward momentum.
The information was not equal. She had held back, but Qu Ying had not.
Her hand was on her shoulder, and she twisted it and brought it to the front. Cheng Ming saw the approaching eyes, and her pupils were sharp. Her arm was behind her neck, and with a push, she had pressed her closer. It was almost like an intimate hug.
Xiao Ming exploded, and the mycelia quickly turned from attack to defense, and they were interspersed between them.
Cheng Ming’s eyes also widened. She struggled to break free and ducked down, but she was still half a step too late. The strong impact threw her away, and she hit a pile of boxes two or three meters behind her with a thump. Her side was in sharp pain.
If she hadn’t dodged that just now, the bullet would have almost hit her abdomen.
She curled up and fell to the ground, but she didn’t cover her wound, but covered her forehead with her hand.
The dizziness was secondary. A strong, dangerous intuition was like a supernova in a galaxy exploding in her neural network, and it was completely impossible to ignore. It was not from in front of her, but from the experimental base a kilometer away—
The conidia and the main body were connected. What was Cheng Ran doing to 221?
She was at a loss, and Xiao Ming quickly responded, “She seems to want to dissect and study us.”
Cheng Ming gritted her teeth, and her head hurt even more. No, the threat was still in front of her. This way, she was attacked from both front and back. She had to break the connection over there.
After making a decision, at such a critical moment, she still couldn’t help but take one last look.
The specific situation was unknown. Perhaps she was lying on an experimental table. The dome of the base was high and bright, which was in sharp contrast to the gloomy and dangerous situation here. The spore mycelia were spontaneously undergoing apoptosis. In the countless, feather-like, fluttering streams of light, Cheng Ran, who was wearing a mask, was standing on the side, quietly watching all this.
That white, faded lab coat, hazy, and desolate, was like an untouchable, illusory dream.
Qu Ying did not notice her abnormality.
She stared at the melting and inactive fungal mass on the ground. This very familiar scene did not take her long to recall the prey she had missed in Area A of the biology department.
Crack. The hard boot sole stepped on the fragments. She walked forward and looked at her with interest, “You’re the VOM47 that has never been found?”
The surviving chandelier dozens of meters away was swaying, and it couldn’t illuminate this corner. The smooth and rough surfaces of the various metal structures around reflected a light of unequal quality.
The gloomy shadow was approaching. Cheng Ming’s gaze passed over the tip of her combat boots, and she looked up, “Sister Yingying…”
She was panting rapidly, and her respiratory system was carrying out the exchange of internal and external gases. She only felt that every muscle cell in her was expanding, and her lungs were working beyond their limit, and a large amount of moisture was being sprayed out, and then the waste gas that she hadn’t had time to replace was re-inhaled, so much so that the oxygen content was getting lower and lower, and it was getting harder and harder to get oxygen.
Her voice was trembling, and this call was like a whimpering, trapped beast. She tried her best to be docile and retract her claws and fangs, which was a sign of a truce.
However, it was an illusion. She couldn’t be caught by the Security Department, and she expected Qu Ying to let her go, or to throw out some interference signals to force her to let her go.
No matter what the other’s final position was, at least for now, it could buy her some time.
Qu Ying’s footsteps stopped. A few scattered pieces of broken glass were crushed even more, and the light sound of cracking made the environment even more deep and quiet.
Only one person in this world called her that.
For a few seconds, a wanted monster that was about to be caught, and a senior officer who had come to capture her, they looked at each other, as if time had stopped, and everything was silent.
She was against the light, and her tall figure blocked the little bit of brightness. Cheng Ming couldn’t see her expression clearly.
Until she took two more steps, and after about ten seconds, she bent down in front of her and reached for her shoulder.
Cheng Ming turned her face, and only then did she see clearly that she was flicking her “hair.”
Qu Ying held the long and short, dark green tendrils in her hand, as if she were trying to distinguish something, but they were twisting and turning, and they would not cooperate.
No, it was more than not cooperating. Xiao Ming was furious. It was angry that Cheng Ming was not living up to expectations, and it was angry that Qu Ying was merciless. Its anger was so obvious that it was burning, and even Cheng Ming’s thoughts were affected.
She paused for a moment. In the very close distance, she saw this hand of the person in front of her, with bloodstains winding from her forearm to the back of her hand, which had solidified like a tattoo—it was the one she had just cut.
“I fell into the sea, and Xiao Ming saved me,” Cheng Ming looked up and, observing her reaction, she tried to pick out the key points. “It’s not that I didn’t want to find you, it’s just that I was afraid… that you wouldn’t be able to accept it.”
When she first knew of Xiao Ming’s existence, Qu Ying’s reaction had been abnormally fierce. She had wanted to drag her back to the department and to eliminate Xiao Ming. Then she had tirelessly brought her inhibitors, for fear that this Fish-Fungus would be bad for her.
Cheng Ran had once asked her to help suppress Xiao Ming’s consciousness, and she had done it very well. She herself was a trump card that the Security Department had created to deal with monster infiltration. All her work revolved around distinguishing between humans and mutated creatures. She hated monsters that occupied other people’s bodies so much.
But now, she knew that she and Xiao Ming were no different.
Xiao Ming was her, the monster was her, and the parasite was her.
I am not Professor Cheng Ran’s biological daughter, I am not a pure, clean human sister that needs your protection, and I am not a perfect fusion experimental product like you. I… don’t know what I am.
“Sister Yingying…”
Enduring the pain and keeping her voice flat, there was a faint light in her eyes. She asked softly, “Can you accept me?”
