After Being Parasitized by a Monster 10

Chapter 10: Don’t go over there, it’s dangerous.

In a large underground bunker.

The metal walls, coated with activated alumina as a desiccant, slid open to the sides. Qu Ying arrived late.

Five or six people were already gathered at the scene. Most were adults, either standing or leaning. The youngest, a little girl with her hands in her pockets, was blowing bubble gum, looking mature beyond her years.

They were all “elites” specially cultivated by the department.

In front of them was a huge glass enclosure, filled with a transparent liquid. Everyone looked at the filamentous entity that had crawled all over the experimental area inside, their expressions varied.

This was the fungal monster that had triggered the district-wide public mission two weeks ago.

It was the most promising “embryo” in their department to date.

“Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come. I’ll be brief.”

A female researcher in a white lab coat with two pigtails held an electronic notebook. After a short opening, she swiped her stylus, and a growth curve and a dense array of experimental data appeared on the light screen in front of everyone.

One day’s growth record was interrupted, followed by a sharp drop in values.

“As you all know, on the night of the 17th, it broke through the Class A protective shield and escaped to the coordinates 32.01, 11 outside the quarantine line. It was discovered by the Investigation Department after hiding for four hours, and then the Thermal Weapons Department arrived and nearly destroyed it.”

Contrary to her girl-next-door appearance, her voice was stiff and mechanical, like an AI reading data.

“The nutrient mycelia have now been fully repaired, but there is currently no conscious response.” She circled the data from the 17th, “We suspect that it has developed a high level of intelligence, no less than that of primates.”

After all the information was presented, a new light screen popped up with a list of selectable tasks.

“Now, based on what you have learned, we hope that you will use your expertise to brainstorm and assist in the advancement of the project.”

Qu Ying was slouching, having reached for her lighter several times, but after glancing at the dry, flammable walls, she put it back and laughed lazily, “All the plans were kept secret from us. Now that you can’t handle it, you remember us.”

When she saw the public mission, she had secretly mocked which department was so careless and unlucky.

Who would have thought the clown was herself.

As her words fell, a few scattered chuckles rippled through the crowd. Clearly, she was not the only one who thought so.

To this, the researcher maintained a gentle curve on her lips from beginning to end.

After expressing their dissatisfaction, the huge circular base returned to silence. Looking at the list of tasks, after a moment, another woman asked:

“No symbiosis experiment was done?”

If the symbiosis was successful, the project would be considered to have achieved its expected goal, and the final product would most likely become their “teammate”—although, based on past data, this possibility was no higher than 30%.

“Symbiosis is not possible. It will kill the host. The danger level has been assessed as HR-rank,” the researcher replied.

“How did it escape?”

“A staff member privately opened a drainage valve, and it escaped along the pipeline. The person responsible is dead. The preliminary judgment is that it can invade the cranial nerves.”

“What’s this one about?” A slender finger tapped on the virtual light screen, and a bolded task appeared—Search for MF204’s target of interest.

MF was the abbreviation for the species of the fungus, and 204 was its project number.

“According to feedback from the Thermal Weapons Department, it was entangled with another unknown object when it was intercepted. We suspect that there is another female strain nearby, of unknown origin.”

Qu Ying tilted her head, “Why female?”

“A simple inference, biological instinct.”

“How do we search?” Qu Ying withdrew her hand and let out a light, inexplicable scoff. “Some fungi are inherently parasitic. If it hides in some human body, it’s impossible to find unless we screen the entire district…”

The person next to her clicked their tongue in agreement, “These damn things are getting more and more audacious.”

“What about the Biological Research Institute?” The little girl, who looked to be only six or seven, was listening to the adults’ conversation. Pop. She burst a bubble.

Amidst the gazes of those around her, she spoke, her voice light and childish, “They’re bound to get hungry, right? Aren’t there lots and lots of ‘food’ in the institute’s basement?”

…

The building was quiet at night.

The nearly thousand-meter-tall structure pierced into the galaxy, cutting off the clouds and the moon. At first sight, it was grand and shocking, but on second look, it often felt oppressive.

The Defense Center, which was meant to resist monsters, was itself like a monstrous beast that had brutally invaded human society.

Cheng Ming was at the foot of this giant beast.

Basement level two. After countless infiltrations, she knew this place like the back of her hand. With the added bonus of her mollusk-like traits, she could walk on walls, hang from the ceiling, and squeeze through narrow gaps into pipes… While master thieves could scale walls and enter places as if they were unmanned, she was like a slug in a drainpipe, crawling in the dark.

“One day, I’m going to be disgusted to death by myself.” Finally jumping down from the ventilation pipe and arriving at her destination, Cheng Ming spread her hands in self-mockery and flicked off the unknown mucus with disgust.

This was an almost unsolvable reality—

She was unwilling to easily hand over control of her body, so she had to do everything herself, forced to familiarize herself with various skills. But once the fusion deepened, and she mastered those strange abilities and got used to her non-human appearance, she was infinitely approaching the monster she was most reluctant to accept.

The nutrient and inhibitor supplements were for emergencies. Unsure if the Security Department still had eyes on the scene, she actually wanted to continue fooling it with the nutrient supplement.

But obviously, Xiao Ming would not accept such a perfunctory gesture.

“Why can’t you live on a daily glucose drip?” it had retorted at the time.

It was strange. She could actually hear a hint of sarcasm in that sentence.

Cheng Ming really wanted to nod and say that if it could eliminate it, she wouldn’t mind suffering a little. But unfortunately, she and it were now inseparable. She had to live, so she had to reluctantly accept that it lived too.

Radiation would affect electronic equipment. The cameras in the storage room had been damaged long ago, but since the surveillance here wasn’t very important and no one cared, the relevant departments had been lazy and hadn’t sent anyone to repair them, unless a safety inspection was imminent.

The temperature was very low. She pulled the zipper of her jacket all the way up, tightly wrapping her neck.

Although it was casual wear, it was issued by the Defense Center. The outer layer had a special coating with a certain degree of radiation protection.

On one side was a cold storage for fragile and perishable sea creatures. On the other side were sealed jars and hibernation pods, mostly for shallow-sea fish.

Rare specimens or those that had already been studied and labeled could not be touched. The rest of the samples were mostly redundant, and because of the constant influx and outflux due to experimental consumption over the years, the numbers were no longer recorded. It was like a large seafood buffet market.

Xiao Ming clearly preferred live food. The mycelia, like opening a can of meat, eagerly unscrewed the huge sealed lids, crawled into the human-height glass containers, randomly selected a lucky one, and feasted on it. Minced meat and blood filled the container, and finally, even the red blood cells were absorbed, and the culture medium returned to its clear and calm state.

Crunch, crunch, squish, squish… Although she wasn’t chewing with her mouth, the sense of immersion was so strong that it was as if a certain Fish-Fungus was having a gluttonous feast in her brain.

Cheng Ming frowned in discomfort. She still couldn’t stand the barbaric scene and turned around to do her own thing. She took out the pen and paper she carried with her and walked along the specimen shelves, observing and recording as she went.

By recording which materials had changed significantly recently, she could get a certain idea of the recent experimental focus of the research institute. In any case, it wouldn’t hurt her to have more information.

Huh?

When she reached a new row of metal shelves and saw the first jar of alcohol, Cheng Ming felt that something was wrong.

If she remembered correctly, there should have been an animal here before, but now it was a large clump of seaweed, dark and oily, pressed against the wall, filling her entire field of vision.

Wait… was it algae, or fungus?

She flipped back to her previous record and found that there had indeed been a change.

Had the entire area been replaced? She looked into the distance, but her view was blocked by containers of various sizes, and the light was distorted, making it dark and unclear. Deep-sea creatures didn’t rely on vision, so being parasitized hadn’t improved her eyesight.

But her other senses had unknowingly undergone some changes.

Something over there was attracting her.

“Don’t go over there.”

The mycelia had retracted at some point, and some of it was resting on her shoulder. Xiao Ming suddenly spoke.

Its voice was even more eerie in this gloomy atmosphere.

She composed herself, gripped her notebook, and asked, “Why?”

“Dangerous.”

It only said those two words and refused to explain further.

With the previous lesson still fresh in her mind, Cheng Ming was very sharp. “Dangerous for you, or dangerous for me?”

“It’s dangerous for us.”

This conversation was very familiar.

To believe, or not to believe?

The glass separated light and dark, a chaotic graffiti. Cheng Ming looked at the hazy, overlapping shadows, as if she were standing at a huge crossroads. If she made the wrong choice, she might be crushed into a pulp by the oncoming traffic.

Was it kindly reminding her for the safety of their shared body, or was there some information there that was detrimental to it, and it didn’t want her to see it?

After a moment, Cheng Ming lowered her brow and smiled lightly, “Xiao Ming, did you know? For humans, saying things halfway and being secretive is a deliberate enticement.”

She was trying to get more information, so she was particularly frank. “If you don’t explain it clearly, it will only make me more curious about what’s over there…”

As she spoke, she took a step forward.

It was a threat.

And it fell silent.

Cheng Ming deliberately slowed her steps, paying close attention to every movement around her—was this a tacit admission? Or was it speechless after being exposed?

But, before she could think further, a loud bang exploded less than three meters away from her!

There was no need to press Xiao Ming further, nor did she need to risk the unknown danger. In the flickering light above her, she could already see the true face of the mysterious collection.

Clumps of coiled and entangled algae-like fungi, along with a dark green culture medium, washed onto the floor, expanded, and unfolded, “vomiting” out the animal specimen that had been devoured to a mere skeleton.

The sewage splashed onto her chest, and Cheng Ming’s legs were soaked from the knees down. Facing the menacing mycelia and the indescribable smell, she held her breath, her pupils slowly contracting behind her protective goggles.

An old acquaintance… ah no, an old “fungus.”

But it felt a little different.

Each strand of mycelia seemed to be a little fluffy.

…

“Of course. This idea has already been implemented.”

Regarding the little girl’s prediction, the researcher nodded in full affirmation. “It’s just that it’s probably too early to expect results. Therefore, we still need your full support from all aspects.”

Qu Ying turned her head and frowned, “What did you do?”

The researcher smiled, “We took some of its conidia and stored them in every underground storage room of the research institute.”