After Being Parasitized by a Monster 14

Chapter 14: A good opportunity to get killed.

Yangmei sat on the edge of the ruined laboratory bench, not looking at her “teammate”—the mutated fungus that was already under strict control.

Instead, she stared at the candy that had unfortunately fallen into the water just after she had unwrapped it, and sighed pitifully.

In front of such an aggressive circle of adults, this little girl, who was even smaller and whose clothes were all wet, huddled into a ball, looked particularly harmless.

However, she was the culprit behind it all.

And a culprit who was not at all repentant, only regretting her bad luck.

“Sister Qu, didn’t you say you would buy me candy?” she looked up, her eyes silently accusing the person opposite her of not keeping her word.

Qu Ying narrowed her eyes warily and didn’t reply.

She was said to be on vacation during this period, which was why she was helping out in the Investigation Department. But in reality, she was responsible for a long-term mission that had never been interrupted.

It had just merged with the Internal Security Group’s line of action.

The Investigation Department’s Internal Security Group, as its name implied, was responsible for the internal stability of the Defense Center. To be more direct, their scope of work was not only to protect their own people, but also to root out hidden traitors.

With Qu Ying in control at the front, the members of the armed forces slowly tightened the encirclement.

Kang Ming switched to intercom mode and turned on the loudspeaker, “DE127, you are under major suspicion. Please accept interrogation.”

A long-unheard designation.

Yangmei slowly looked up. After a moment of hesitation, she still picked up the candy, rinsed it in the not-so-clean water, and put it in her mouth.

DE stood for dolphin. She was project number 127.

“How will you investigate?” she looked at them, her eyes curving into a smile, with a sense of innocent naivety. “A fusion experiment?”

The split between childishness and maturity, kneaded into such a small body, seemed all the more cruel.

Being so close, several members couldn’t help but look away.

As enemies, they could not be soft-hearted, but as humans, it was hard not to be moved at all.

That was not an interrogation at all, but an erasure of consciousness.

Fusing her with another mutated creature, randomly obtaining a new monster, or dying on the spot—and the latter was far more likely than the former.

Once a fusion experiment was proposed, it was a complete abandonment, tantamount to a death sentence.

“I heard my name is because my mom loved to eat bayberries when she was pregnant with me.” Little Yangmei rested her chin on her hand. “But I’ve never tasted a bayberry… Sister Qu, do you know what a bayberry tastes like?”

Her life was too short.

Her apparent age was not fake; she was really only seven years old. Although her psychological age had long been stretched to a length unattainable by ordinary people through repeated experiments and endless indoctrination, it was a case of pulling up the seedling to help it grow.

People would blame her for defecting, for being a spy, a traitor. But for her, was she human or a monster? Her self-awareness had always been vague.

Qu Ying looked at her, her gloved hand in her pocket, her expression unchanged, appearing exceptionally cold.

She had been in the Security Department for a long time, and thanks to Professor Cheng Ran, higher-level figures naturally received preferential treatment and had a greater degree of authority and freedom.

But Yangmei was too young and was in a critical monitoring stage, so she was deprived of her childhood, deprived of the initial experience of being human, and had to remember principles she didn’t understand at all, serving humanity with all her heart.

She didn’t understand, so she didn’t know if her actions were right or wrong.

With countless eyes focused on her, Yangmei sighed like a little adult and shook her head.

She slowly opened her mouth again, as if she wanted to say something more.

But no sound came out.

Or, more accurately, it was a sound that human ears could not hear.

But it could affect the human body.

Extremely high-intensity ultrasound waves traveled through the air and collided with the helmets. Everyone just felt a buzz in their ears, subcutaneous edema, and bloodshot eyes, temporarily losing their vision.

When it hit the human body directly, the blood vessels contracted abnormally, and the muscles were paralyzed for a moment. Some people fell into the water on the spot.

However, the liquid environment was an even more dangerous place.

The power of ultrasound waves doubled when traveling through water, creating a cavitation effect. Countless tiny bubbles collapsed and expanded, then exploded. In addition to the terrifying shock waves, the water temperature also rose to its peak in an instant due to the accumulation of thermal energy, and the entire body of water within sight began to boil.

They were like being soaked in a large pot of boiling water, and steam enveloped the entire area.

Team leader Kang Ming shouted, “Turn off the sound collection!”

In order to collect environmental data in real time, the helmets automatically transmitted full-frequency sound waves, which became a weakness that was exploited by this kind of enemy.

Fortunately, the protective measures were in place, and most of the energy was absorbed by their clothes. They were also well-trained veterans, and each of them held their positions without panicking.

Qu Ying, on the other hand, was simply “thick-skinned,” taking the hit directly and calmly pinpointing the enemy’s tracks amidst the chaos.

Those who have read some cold knowledge trivia might have heard that octopuses are said to have nine brains. The tentacles that quietly snaked along the bottom of the water were her omnipresent eyes.

Almost no one saw her move. She was one step ahead, blocking Yangmei’s path of retreat.

The gloves had a built-in neural sensory device. When she bent down and pressed on the girl’s forehead, a micro-needle popped out, pierced through her skull and into the cortex, and forcibly connected to her neurons.

“Shut up,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

Yangmei’s pupils dilated in shock, her terrified expression reflecting the face that was right in front of her. Then, her whole body trembled, her mouth closed, and her limbs slowly drooped, losing their vitality.

“Who made you do this?”

As this question was asked, countless electrical signals that passed between the neurons changed rapidly like a revolving lantern, and were reorganized and refined under the operation of hundreds of millions of powerful cranial nerves to obtain the desired information.

The so-called “Inquisitor.”

The so-called “human PC.”

However, this information was often mixed with the strong emotions of the interrogated person before their death. Even with nine brains to process and dilute it, it was inevitable to be affected.

It was a long time before Qu Ying withdrew her hand.

“Sour, not tasty,” she said faintly in the end.

…

The alarm blared over the Defense Center.

There was a shelter under each apartment area, and this was in the safety regulations, but this was the first time Cheng Ming had experienced it personally.

And even the alarm couldn’t cover up the faint explosions that came from time to time, shaking the building and causing small ripples in the water in her cup.

In the distance, cold white lights occasionally crisscrossed, and a large number of vehicles drove in a certain direction. The night was mixed with a psychedelic glow, and the specific details could not be seen clearly. But it could be guessed that it was most likely the Security Department in action.

Something seemed a little unusual.

Were there a large number of monsters coming ashore?

Pulling open the curtains, Cheng Ming stared into the distance. The edge of the building revealed a scattered and broken black sea, its full view unseen.

She asked the parasite inside her, “Do you feel anything?”

“I do,” Xiao Ming said. “Lots of food.”

It sounded a little excited.

Cheng Ming: …?

She said no more, closed the window, and turned to pick up her jacket, intending to go to the shelter as instructed.

“Don’t you think this is a good opportunity to hunt for food?” Xiao Ming spoke again.

A good opportunity to get killed.

Cheng Ming resolutely kept her mouth shut and ignored it, quickening her pace to go outside.

At the same time.

Five kilometers from the coastline.

Countless vehicles loaded with weapons drove out of the gate, and support troops were ready to go. The first batch that had gone out had already engaged in a firefight. A mutated creature had destroyed the primary power grid, and the sparks, flashes of lightning, and huge roars were isolated outside the hundred-meter-high protective wall.

The Internal Security Group, which had just completed its previous mission, sent the injured to the hospital and re-equipped themselves, then quickly set off for the next target point.

The Investigation Department did not go to the front lines, but at times like this, they would act as a temporary patrol team to ensure that no mutated creatures infiltrated the safe zone.

The area to be investigated was large, and there were casualties. The members were divided into smaller groups and could only rely on communication equipment to communicate. As the indicator lights on their helmets and earpieces flashed, the messages on the team channel were constantly refreshed and covered.

“Reporting to the team leader, we have arrived at the designated coordinates. Please advise.”

…

“Reporting to the team leader, the suspicious target has moved.”

…

“Reporting to the general team, Group 4 leader Kang Ming is missing.”

…

Experimental Base No. 1 was damaged and needed repairs. The ecological pods containing important living experimental subjects were loaded onto transport vehicles, preparing to be transferred to a nearby backup small base.

In one of the large transport vehicles, the central biosafety pod was completely transparent. A clump of seaweed-like fungus was motionless, soaked in a nutrient solution, looking half-dead.

The researcher Chen Ke, who had been called in to clean up the mess, stood in front of the control panel, constantly adjusting the parameters to give new stimuli, but she never got the expected reaction. She stared for a while, then reached out and pressed a button, opening the observation window on the top of the pod.

This was a very risky move. Since it had been confirmed that MF204 was intelligent, there was no way to tell if its current state was real or fake.

The person next to her immediately reminded her, “Dr. Chen—”

But the researcher had even taken off her protective gloves and looked up, “No need for rescue. Report, MF204’s main body has escaped.”

…

When Cheng Ming reached the door, she remembered a serious problem.

She had carefully read the relevant content in the safety manual, knew the way to go, and remembered the infrastructure.

A shelter, naturally, was mainly to protect against monsters.

With this parasite inside her, could she pass through the security gate?

In the research institute, she was a respected scientific researcher. Even when the Security Department conducted screenings, the people who came would be polite to her, so she could find loopholes. But entering a shelter, facing those “battle-hardened” soldiers, there was only the distinction between ordinary people and enemies. Any abnormality would definitely be infinitely magnified.

Realizing this, cold sweat seeped from her back, and the emotion of fear rushed into her sinoatrial node like a torrent, even stopping her heartbeat for a moment.

She dared not take the risk. She could not take the risk.

Cheng Ming let go of the doorknob and retreated into the room.

Kitchen, bathroom, living room, balcony… she carefully checked every door and window, locking them all. She drew the curtains, sealed the vents and drains, and turned off the lights.

After dealing with the outside, she fumbled in the dark and pushed open the bedroom door.

Then, with one foot inside and one foot on the doorframe, she froze in that position, like a wax figure that had solidified in an instant, her eyes wide as she stared into the room.

She was sure she had closed the window before she left.

But now, a cold wind was blowing in, and the sheer curtain rose and fell slowly, like the blade of a guillotine.

In front of the windowsill, there was a towering black figure.