Chapter 15: You like her body very much, don’t you?
Bedroom… it’s the bedroom again.
Is there really nothing wrong with the layout of the bedrooms in this apartment building?
As her nerves were stretched to the limit, facing this terrifying and absurd scene, Cheng Ming actually felt a little like laughing.
Albeit a bitter laugh.
For a moment, she thought it was Qu Ying, but less than a second later, her brain automatically denied this only positive possibility.
It wasn’t a woman.
The red and white lights from outside intertwined and shone into the room. Her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness. In the not-so-dim light, Cheng Ming could clearly see the stranger’s appearance.
His entire body was shrouded in heavy combat gear, a gun in his hand, his head covered by a black helmet. The torn curtains compressed the light and shadows, and the metal glinted with an inorganic, cold light. He stood like an oppressive, gloomy, and insurmountable mountain.
This? Her eyes slowly widened.
As a citizen who had always “abided by the law,” such an intimidating attire could appear in the media, in a passerby’s snapshot, or at the cordon of a large event… but definitely not standing alive in front of her bedroom window.
Until her gaze moved to the very top, she found the answer.
The full-view transparent helmet had several cracks, and from the cracks grew dark, slender filaments that swayed in the wind. They were not hair, but—
—mycelia.
And in that second, a fierce flame burst from the other’s hand.
Boom! The sound was drowned out by the rumbling of guns and cannons outside, not at all abrupt in the noisy night.
But to Cheng Ming’s ears, it was undoubtedly a deafening roar, the horn of death at her doorstep.
A shotgun, also known as a scattergun, was characterized by its “scattered” bullets. At close range, its lethality was particularly exaggerated.
Her pupils reflected the scene of a falling galaxy, magnificent and terrifyingly beautiful.
Dozens of small pellets flew out of the muzzle, forming a silver barrage that tore through the air, accurately grazing past obstacles in its path—it even had an automatic aiming system!
There was no time to dodge. The Fish-Fungus mycelia quickly tangled into a dense net, prioritizing the protection of her head and chest.
A cloud of blood mist exploded from her waist and abdomen. Cheng Ming fell backward onto the floor and, under the huge impact, crashed into the coffee table in the center of the living room.
Crash! The glass shattered into pieces all over the floor.
She rolled over and lay prone on the floor, clutching her bleeding left abdomen, gasping for breath like a dying fish, only able to uselessly inhale some useless air.
Experiencing the charm of modern thermal weapons at point-blank range for the first time, a sharp pain shot through her entire body, making her unable to move, and she lost the ability to resist.
Fortunately, in order not to damage the building, the ammunition loaded in the gun was of lower power. But unfortunately, it was a special type of shotgun shell—from her current feeling, it at least had the effect of inhibiting healing.
Cheng Ming’s vision doubled, and her thoughts almost came to a standstill.
Was it here to kill her?
Why?
“Cheng Ming!” Xiao Ming called out to her, its voice so urgent that it was a little sharp.
The roar of the gun barrel still echoed in her ears. It was only after a moment of dizziness and emptiness that she understood what it meant—it wanted her to hand over control of her body.
Watching the figure slowly walk out of the bedroom, it was clear that because “he” was not yet familiar with a human body, “he” walked in a stumbling, chaotic manner, the very peak of the uncanny valley effect. Cheng Ming broke out in goosebumps.
But the stiffness of his limbs did not prevent him from using his weapon.
Boom! The second shotgun blast followed closely.
She gritted her teeth against the intense pain and dodged to the side. At the same time, she relaxed her mind, allowing the parasite to invade her consciousness and take over this battered body.
The tendrils connected to her nerves, blocking the electrical signals from the receptors to the central system. The pain was blocked, and the body’s energy was reallocated.
In the blink of an eye, her vision returned.
The trajectory of everything became slow. The shotgun pellets were still in mid-air. She saw “herself” stand up, catch the scattered pellets with her bare hands, and the sparks extinguished. Her five fingers, covered in fine scales, glowed faintly in the dark.
The mycelia surging around her were like a cluster of crawling snakes, hissing and releasing dangerous signals, gathering, spreading, and growing, inch by inch, reclaiming their territory.
Both used mycelia to perceive the outside world, and both parasitized and controlled a human body. It seemed that this very rare conflict between monsters was inevitable and about to erupt.
However, the other’s attack stopped.
The power of the broken helmet had not yet run out. The sensor flickered on and off, reminding the wearer to change the mask in time. The communication system occasionally leaked a faint static, as if the teammate on the other end was still trying to make contact.
But “he” just stood there motionless, in a strange posture, staring fixedly at Cheng Ming. The facial features behind the transparent protective cover slowly twisted, and a male voice, mixed with a harsh electric current, sounded—
“Hello, my friend.”
…
On the way to Backup Base No. 18, inside the ecological armored vehicle.
Everyone except the driver had gathered in front of the biosafety pod, their expressions grim. The team leader in charge of this material escort asked in disbelief, “How did it escape?”
“We were deceived. It’s a dimorphic fungus. It can exist in both filamentous and single-celled forms.” The latter undoubtedly indicated its strong ability to spread, but this fungus had deliberately concealed this from them.
“It’s very smart,” the researcher Chen Ke said with a smile of admiration.
Then, in the silence of a circle of frontline berserkers looking at a cutting-edge science madman, she returned to the main topic, “Most importantly, it’s not a unisexual strain that can only produce conidia.”
“What does that mean?” This knowledge was undoubtedly beyond the scope of non-professionals.
“It means that this was its original main body.” Chen Ke picked up a strand of inactive mycelia with a glass rod. “But now, it has replicated another self through zygospores, shed its skin, and pop, escaped.”
As the onomatopoeia fell, the mycelia broke into two pieces. The broken part melted into the water, first becoming fine threads, then powder, and finally disappearing.
“Alright, report it as soon as possible. Let’s see who is missing.”
…
The situation had developed beyond imagination.
The expected life-and-death struggle did not occur. Instead, the two monsters, both wearing human skin, were in friendly consultation.
“I know, humans are very cunning, forcing you to coexist with her.
“I have found a more suitable host for you.
“His cerebral cortex has been digested by me, but his brainstem is normal and he can still survive for a long time. It won’t hinder your actions.”
Under the control of the fungal monster MF204, the human voice gradually became fluent and clear from its initial strange stutter.
It sincerely invited its new partner to join it in a dash for freedom.
Xiao Ming: “Why are you helping me?”
If they could establish a mycelial link, their communication would be much faster, but it was clear that it didn’t trust it yet and was unwilling to extend its mycelia.
“Because we are the same kind,” MF204 said so matter-of-factly. It even seemed a little puzzled that it had asked such a question.
Xiao Ming: “That sounds very human.”
“They expected us to be like humans when they created us.”
Xiao Ming: “Where are you going?”
“Have you ever seen the sea? That is our paradise.”
Cheng Ming, who could not move or speak, listened to their conversation as if no one else was there, and was so angry that she almost laughed out loud.
What paradise? A paradise of radiation? If it were really habitable, so many mutated creatures wouldn’t be trying to come ashore all the time.
Unfortunately, she had voluntarily handed over control of her body. Now, she couldn’t even interject, and was indescribably anxious. And what was even more unfair was that she couldn’t feel Xiao Ming’s emotions—or this parasite simply had no emotions.
So, she couldn’t figure out its thoughts. With every question it asked, her heart sank further.
Many questions were now clear. The first time they met, the fungal monster opposite her had probably discovered the Fish-Fungus inside her and thought she was imprisoning it—although to some extent, that was true. So it wanted to kill her and rescue Xiao Ming. Then, the second time they met in the underground storage room, it was clearly a setup by the Security Department, but there was no follow-up action. It was probably this fungus that had concealed their whereabouts.
It could truly be called “loyal and righteous”… if she herself hadn’t become their enemy.
Especially when the conversation came to the most practical point—
Xiao Ming said, “I can’t change hosts at will.”
This meant that it was indeed tempted, but was hindered by reality.
“Don’t worry, I brought a fusion agent.”
The fungus manipulated the human body to raise its upper limbs. With a light click, a metal buckle popped open, revealing something shining inside the chest rig.
Cheng Ming couldn’t move. But following her body’s line of sight, she saw the ice-blue fluorescence floating in the glass tube. No matter how bad her vision was, she could recognize it at a glance—
Wave-Born Floating Flower Algaefungus!
If she could still control her body, at this second, she would probably have stopped breathing.
Fusion… fusion, fusion?
Is this the function of the algaefungus?
Her thoughts were in turmoil. As her mind was being pulled in different directions, Xiao Ming was also silent.
Realizing this, she felt as if she had been squeezed tightly. Her heart froze and shattered, losing its ability to beat. She almost screamed in her heart, didn’t you say you hated it, that it reeked? Can you accept it now?
But her language system was taken away, and she couldn’t speak, unable to influence its choice at all. For the first time, she regretted not having established a neural communication method with Xiao Ming.
“I hate males.” Their thoughts seemed to be on the same frequency for a second. Xiao Ming said.
“If you’re not satisfied, we can find a better host,” the other replied immediately. “Or do you want me to help you kill the human you’re currently inhabiting? You like her body very much, don’t you?”
Xiao Ming did not respond. But it extended its mycelia and climbed onto the helmet opposite it. Cheng Ming watched as the two different “hairs” gently touched and greeted each other.
And so, the next moment, she got her answer.
The symbiont inside her used her vocal organs, its voice tinged with surprise, “You’re not male?”
This slight emotional fluctuation made Cheng Ming momentarily unable to tell who was speaking.
MF204 answered every question, “Female strains are far more precious than male strains. I deliberately disguised myself as a male.”
It was indeed an extremely intelligent creature. It not only concealed its form and gender, but also its reproductive potential. It could reproduce sexually on its own and transfer its main body, but it had always acted submissively, greatly reducing its perceived danger in people’s eyes, and at the same time, its mutation potential was also low, forcing the relevant departments to desperately search for a female strain.
Thinking of this, Cheng Ming’s mind went blank, and waves of despair tore at her soul.
“I don’t want to share a host with you. Will you die if you leave the human body?”
Hearing Xiao Ming’s persistent and tricky questions, she held her breath and couldn’t help but reignite a little hope. For the first time, she felt that it was a good thing that her parasite was so picky.
However, reality was far more cruel than she had imagined.
“No. I don’t need a symbiont.”
MF204 ruthlessly extinguished her last spark of hope.
