After Being Parasitized by a Monster 40

Chapter 40: Can you give me some nutrients?

Whoosh—

In the isolation room, Cheng Ming pressed her forehead against the transparent glass and exhaled a puff of hot air. The hazy white mist obscured her vision and her expression.

The ordeal was simply too long.

She wasn’t sure if she could hold on. If she couldn’t…

She lightly bit her stinging lower lip. Her body didn’t move, but her eyes quietly looked up at the locked door.

Her brow also furrowed.

If it really came to that, perhaps she would have to consider conidia…

On the other side of the wall.

The observation room was filled with various electronic equipment, metal parts, and data cables on three sides. One side was a monitoring wall, and one side was a data wall.

Yan Li stood in the center, staring at the jumping green screen on the black display. Under her short hair, a certain device worn on her right ear was flashing intermittently.

Although it was completely sealed and there was no monitoring, she still habitually lowered her voice:

“I’ve encrypted and transmitted the data to you. But to be honest, there are no obvious problems. After the isolation is over, I have no reason to detain her any longer…”

“The data can be tampered with, and problems can be artificially created. Team Leader Yan, aren’t you being too rigid?”

The flat and featureless voice on the other end had a light, mocking tone.

Angering the person they were talking to at any time was really a skill of these people.

Yan Li’s face turned cold. “I don’t want to lose my job yet.”

No, it was more than that.

Her identity was here. Framing, corruption, abuse of power, and knowingly breaking the law… if any of these were to be pinned on her, the consequences would be far more than just losing her job.

As soon as her voice fell, beep, beep, her bracelet vibrated.

Before she could pay attention to what the person on the other end was saying, she looked down and, instantly, she couldn’t hear any sound in her ears.

She just stared at the information displayed on the screen, her eyes wide, her gaze frozen, as if she had seen something incredible.

…

She didn’t know whether to say it was lucky or unlucky—

Cheng Ming had lost an opportunity to test conidia on a living person.

“The isolation is over. You can go out.”

The double-layered metal isolation door suddenly opened. Cheng Ming had just changed into dry clothes. Hearing this notice, she looked at the figure standing at the door in surprise.

Yan Li’s face was as calm as usual, and she didn’t explain, just said, “I’ll take you back to Redstone Bay by car tomorrow. You can stay here tonight…”

“I’m going back to my apartment,” Cheng Ming immediately interrupted.

She had been tortured for a full four days, and her voice was still rough and hoarse. No matter how gentle and polite her tone was, it couldn’t hide the faint sarcasm—

I don’t dare to spend another night here.

“Alright.”

Yan Li understood her resentment and was not dissatisfied.

However, this was actually not the main reason.

Cheng Ming was in no mood to argue with her about anything right now.

Her top priority was to immediately rehydrate herself, and—

—replenish the parasite’s nutrients.

…

10th floor, Building 2, North Apartment, Research Institute.

Returning to her long-lost bedroom, ignoring the dust-covered dust cover, Cheng Ming propped herself up on the corner of the cabinet and squatted down by the bed. She endured her fatigue and pulled out a nutrient supplement from the pile of miscellaneous items, and with difficulty, injected a dose into her vein.

After being dehydrated for three days, the blood vessels in her wrist had shrunk and become brittle to a certain extent. She didn’t dare to use too much force, for fear of causing an accident.

The food provided during the isolation period was, after all, only to supplement a person’s nutrition. After four days without water and nutrients, it was an emergency measure of cutting flesh to mend a sore. The parasite must have been severely damaged.

Although she really wanted to fall asleep, her throat was still as dry as if it were on fire. She walked into the bathroom, filled the tub with water, and soaked herself in it.

Her whole body was submerged, and gurgle, gurgle, bubbles rose to the surface.

Twenty minutes later, Cheng Ming sat up with a splash, choked on two mouthfuls of water, and after a few coughs, her throat felt much better.

“How are you?” she called out to Xiao Ming. “Are you okay?”

Her head, neck, and shoulders broke the surface of the water, and her wet “hair” naturally stuck to her cheeks.

The inactive mycelia were like withered grass. After a sudden downpour, after a brief adaptation, they grew explosively, and soon spread out, floating and swaying, like seaweed filling the entire body of water, until her body was completely covered.

Now, at a glance, the bathtub was only filled with a black tide that was about to overflow, and a section of her round knee was barely exposed, occasionally swallowed by the waves, appearing and disappearing in the swaying “fungal solution.”

The extreme contrast between the dark black and the bright white.

She still preferred to talk to it directly.

On the one hand, this could follow the principle of one “person” one sentence, so it wouldn’t be so noisy in her head, and the room wouldn’t be so quiet.

On the other hand, it was more human-like.

She had to maintain her humanity, and at the same time, force this Fish-Fungus to abide by human rules.

“I’m fine,” Xiao Ming replied in time, not letting her worry. “I’m just a little hungry.”

“Do you want me to go and find food for you?”

Cheng Ming also felt that she had recovered a lot of her strength.

She leaned her upper body out and reached for the phone next to her—these smart devices had been sent to her on the second day of her isolation. Otherwise, these few days would have been even more difficult, and she wouldn’t have been able to follow up on the experiment.

She lit up the screen and took a look. It was one in the morning.

Good, it was a suitable time to do some sneaky things.

“It’s a little far…” However, Xiao Ming said tactfully, “I’m very hungry right now.”

Cheng Ming paused for a moment and thought, “Then I’ll inject another nutrient supplement?”

Actually, a certain Fish-Fungus was acting spoiled.

But obviously, she didn’t hear it, and thought it was looking for trouble.

But she was rarely patient.

After all, it had been cooperative enough for the past four days.

Dehydration was much more harmful to it, but it had suppressed its nature and had neither been exposed in the second stage nor had it obtained supplements by extracting them from the host, so her physiological values had not fluctuated seriously.

It was so well-behaved that she felt a little guilty.

“No need. Can you give me some nutrients?” It was unclear if it was because of its weakness, but it sounded pitiful, which was very rare.

Cheng Ming finally understood.

Did it want to directly absorb the nutrients from her body?

They were one body, and she didn’t know why it was suddenly so ceremonial.

“Alright,” she was a little amused. “What do you want? Sugar? Protein? Fat? Or can you also absorb inorganic salts?”

“Mucin,” Xiao Ming replied.

Huh?

Cheng Ming hesitated for a moment, making sure she hadn’t misheard.

The so-called mucin was a glycoprotein that existed on the surface of various “passages” in the human body, such as the respiratory tract and digestive tract. Its main functions were to act as a protective barrier against pathogen infection, to maintain a humid environment, and to lubricate to prevent foreign objects from causing scratches.

She was puzzled and couldn’t help but raise the corners of her lips. It was a rare opportunity, and she wanted to ask this Fish-Fungus, who loved to show off its knowledge, if it had learned too much and had made a mistake.

But the next second, the skin that was embraced by the warm water felt a little numb and itchy.

Realizing that the mycelia, which had originally just been drifting with the current, had begun to crawl on her with a purpose, the curve of Cheng Ming’s lips disappeared—

Parasitic fungi were often able to branch out from their mycelia to invade the host’s cells and obtain nutrients.

This special structure was called a haustorium.

And now, the mycelia with their swollen tips were being used to their full potential. Like tentacles, they slowly coiled, spread, wrapped, and went deep… searching for and absorbing the nutrients they wanted.

She was naked at the moment, and had even saved the step of taking off her clothes. The undulating water was the perfect carrier. The mycelia climbed up her body, and she was so shocked that she closed her legs and curled up, but this could not stop the hair-thin them.

She wanted to open her mouth, but the other half of the mycelia was on her upper body. They took advantage of the opportunity and came from her chest to block her mouth, turning her intended reprimand into a muffled “mmph.”

“Your body fluids are also a good nutrient.”

After acting first and reporting later, Xiao Ming finally took the time to explain, with a cheerful and satisfied aftertaste.

What was it saying?

…

What was it saying!

This hooligan’s words were like a thunderclap on a clear day. Cheng Ming’s mind was as if it were filled with a swarm of buzzing bees, and it seemed that the water around her was about to boil and evaporate.

She grabbed the edge of the bathtub and struggled to stand up, but the water environment was the main field of a sea creature. Her feet were unsteady, and her elbows were slippery. Just as she had propped herself up, she fell down.

And it wouldn’t even let her get hurt. When she fell back into the bathtub, there were mycelia like a mat woven from green algae to catch her.

The water splashed, and the waves that were stirred up made everything seem even more chaotic.

Cheng Ming fell into the ink that was mixed with fungal hair. Her vision was submerged, and the overturned waves rolled up its tendrils and covered her face, like a falling veil, from the top of her forehead to her lips, or a lingering kiss, soft and wet.

Up, down, left, and right were all its divided threads, a net that was inescapable, inside and out.

And, she inexplicably felt that the shape of each one was a little different.

Filamentous, coiling and connecting, spherical, rolling and moving, palm-shaped, separating and combining, changing and adsorbing…

“Hmph… ugh!”

Like crying, like choking, her mouth was blocked, and she couldn’t say a complete sentence. She could only make some meaningless sounds in a mess, as if she were angry, as if she were breaking down, and as if, it was an indescribable pleasure.

At first, there were some delicate, lingering sounds, but later, there was only a low panting, and the whimpering was sealed by the viscous water.

In the end, even the rapid breathing disappeared. She was pulled into the water by it, and her five fingers slipped from the edge of the bathtub. Splash. The continuous sound of water drowned everything.

…

Three in the morning.

It was just past the spring equinox, and the wind at night was still cold. The research institute building also seemed to be trembling slightly in the night wind.

Basement level two, the storage room.

Thump. The ventilation opening high up quietly opened a gap, and a slender figure hung down from above. It warily tested the surrounding environment, and with a light leap, thud, it landed like a soft nocturnal animal.

She stuck to the corner of the wall in the dark and waited quietly for a minute. After confirming that it was safe, she turned on the flashlight.

Whoosh. The bright white light dispelled the gloom and was scattered back by the wall, illuminating Cheng Ming’s slightly cold face.

Her cheeks were pale from the cold air on the way, but there was still a faint red on her cheekbones, giving her a strange, beautiful feeling.

When she should have been resting, she had sacrificed her sleep to sneak in.

What did it mean to lift a stone only to drop it on one’s own foot?

This was it.

After a long and tiring struggle, not only had she been licked clean by it, but she also had to brave the cold wind in the middle of the night to find food for it.

Cheng Ming walked through the rows of bottles and jars to the depths, and chose a suitable target in the “warehouse.” Her footsteps were slightly heavier than usual, and every step was filled with resentment.

“Cheng Ming, if you’re tired, actually, you can hand over your body to me. I’ll do it myself…”

Her emotions fluctuated slightly, and she couldn’t hide it from the parasite inside her.

Xiao Ming considerately and cautiously proposed a solution.

“Do you think I’ll fall for it!” Cheng Ming gritted her teeth and shouted back, not surprisingly.

Now even taking a bath had become a dangerous act. If it got control of her body, she couldn’t even imagine what it would do.