After Being Parasitized by a Monster 5

Chapter 5: While feeding the monster, she was also being assimilated by it.

Based on Cheng Ming’s years of observation at the institute, monsters were ultimately just special, new types of organisms resulting from genetic mutations, and they followed the rules of their corresponding ecological niches… Could they so easily change their diet?

“Do you know how much energy I consumed today to cooperate with your screening?” To this, the other party responded calmly, “If I get too hungry, I will unconsciously draw nutrients from you. It hasn’t happened yet, but only because I’ve suppressed my instincts.”

The calm, unwavering voice seemed to carry a hint of condemnation, a silent accusation of Cheng Ming’s irresponsibility as a host.

So, you’re already so hungry you’re not picky about what you eat? Cheng Ming raised an eyebrow. “Then I’ll go back now and grill a few more fish for you…”

The research institute was under the Security Department’s tightest surveillance. For at least the next two days, she absolutely could not risk entering the storage room to scavenge food for it again.

Earlier, there had been too many people, and she was worried this parasite would take the opportunity to cause trouble, so she had readily agreed. Now, after thinking it over, she still felt it wasn’t safe enough.

“The food you humans eat is not enough to supply my needs. You’d better think this through,” it warned, sensing Cheng Ming’s hesitation.

…

At ten o’clock at night, Qu Ying got off work.

She left the building, walked into the 24-hour store run by the Defense Center, and swiftly purchased a few daily necessities, along with an assortment of snacks.

She had just finished her last mission the night before. Her superior had said that to give her some time to rest, they were assigning her an easy job—assisting the Investigation Department’s operation.

This had directly led to her working nonstop for the past two days. Rest? Heh, what was that?

The intention was good, but it would have been even better if they hadn’t sent her at all.

At the self-checkout counter, she saw the green cigarette box lying conspicuously in her shopping bag. It was a bit of an eyesore. Qu Ying paused for a second, then pushed it to the bottom, covering it up with a pack of chewing gum on top in a futile attempt to conceal it.

Just as she was about to leave with her things, she happened to glance at the freezer, which was still full this month. She went back and picked out a red date ice cream bar to add to her bag.

She was going to find Cheng Ming.

A small bus was parked at the shuttle stop.

Qu Ying took a long stride onto the vehicle heading to the apartment building. Just as she was about to scan her personal device, a public message popped up—

“Shoreline coordinates: 32.01, 11. Target description: Humanoid, intelligence level unknown, suspected fungal parasite. Requesting backup.”

…

“Cheng Ming, retreat.” Amidst the whistling wind, the voice sounded particularly sharp and abrupt. “It’s coming for you.”

“I know!” Cheng Ming’s hands dug into the soil, trying to grab onto something to steady herself. Hearing those words, she gritted her teeth in frustration.

Her ankle was entangled by fungal filaments and she was being dragged.

More mycelia burst from the ground, swarming over her body, tearing at her clothes like octopus tentacles shooting out from a dark corner, trying to kill their chosen prey in a single blow.

This was a trap.

The hunter disguised itself as prey, the danger lurking quietly underground, waiting for the deceived prey to fall into its trap. As she followed the planned route, it would strike unexpectedly, a fatal blow.

The more intelligent the mutated creature, the harder it was to deal with. As the largest organism on Earth, its main body was still an unknown number of meters, perhaps even kilometers, away, yet its tendrils had already found her. They had targeted her hands and feet, prioritizing the removal of her ability to fight.

Crack. Cheng Ming heard the sound of her own joint dislocating.

Huff, huff… Her breathing was heavy, her pulse racing. Her skin became sticky and unbearable, she didn’t know if it was sweat or blood. Her nasal passages were also filled with a fishy stench.

The mycelia crawled onto her face, trying to drill into every orifice. But they hadn’t expected this nutritious life form to have already been occupied by another of its kind, making it difficult to invade. They had to settle for the next best thing: strangling her from the outside.

Cheng Ming’s entire body was almost completely wrapped up, and all of this happened in just a few seconds. She didn’t have time to react.

Nor did she have time to get any more response.

On the verge of suffocation, her fingers twisted past the obstructions and, at an incredible angle, squeezed into a hidden pocket inside her clothes—after devouring Wang Qi, she had gained the powerful shapeshifting ability of a mollusk.

While feeding the monster, she was also being assimilated by it.

Two slender fingers reached the hard object in the pocket and hooked out the frosted glass bottle. The mycelia sensed her small movement and followed closely. Under their violent pressure, with a loud bang, the sealed bottle shattered into pieces, and the liquid inside gushed out.

It ignited upon hitting the ground and continued to explode.

The mycelia touched by the high-concentration peracetic acid quickly shriveled into a withered mass. In the continuous shockwaves, they broke into countless fragments, losing their aggressiveness, twitching and writhing futilely like minced squid.

But more mycelia, seemingly enraged, continued to swarm up from the ground. However, sensing the irritating chemical, they hesitated for a moment, not daring to advance.

Cheng Ming took this opportunity to break free. She scrambled and rolled dozens of meters away, found a sharp rock protruding from the ground, and quickly secreted mucus from the contact area of her skin. Like a gecko, she flipped onto it, avoiding exposing her body to the area covered by the mycelia.

Looking at the still-eager, unretreating filaments, she grasped her various dislocated joints and, with a few cracking sounds, popped them back into place, restoring her mobility. She was sweating profusely from the pain but gritted her teeth and made no sound, her muscles tensed, not daring to relax for a moment.

Just as she was brainstorming her next move to escape, a flash of white light appeared in her peripheral vision.

The bright light swept over from the horizon, illuminating most of the countryside. From the blades of grass nearby to the tall buildings in the distance, everything was a dazzling white.

Cheng Ming squeezed her eyes shut and immediately dropped to the ground, but she couldn’t escape the stimulation of the intense light for that brief moment, and tears streamed down her face.

After a moment of temporary blindness, the light faded, and her deprived senses slowly returned.

The world was eerily quiet.

She carefully opened her eyes. The mycelia on the ground were flopping and struggling like dehydrated fish, then quickly melted into the soil and disappeared completely, as if their main body had suffered a fatal blow.

Cheng Ming had a realization—was the Logistics Security Department in action?

She pressed one hand to her throbbing temple and looked up at the figure on the lighthouse hundreds of meters away, her heart pounding in her throat.

The searchlight cast a slender, upright silhouette. Even from such a distance, she could clearly see the long hair flying wildly. Light and shadow intertwined, like a priestess from mythology, gazing at the stars and worshiping the moon.

Boom!

A flash of fire, and a crimson meteor spun out from the figure’s hand. It followed a predetermined trajectory and fell straight down, crashing into an open space less than a hundred meters from her. Like a meteorite falling, it boomed and shook the ground, and a storm of sand and gravel swept over—

A rocket launcher… Cheng Ming snapped back to her senses. This “priestess” was certainly keeping up with the times!

“Cheng Ming!”

The moment it spoke, she understood what it meant.

She had to admit, this was the first time she had heard it sound so urgent, so human.

After all, if it didn’t come out now, this place would likely be their shared grave.

“Go back to the apartment.”

Before handing over her body, Cheng Ming hastily left a sentence.

…

11:25 PM.

Downstairs from North Apartment, Building 2, in a corner untouched by the streetlights, a person stood quietly in the shadows. If one didn’t look closely, it would be hard to spot them even if they brushed past. Like a cheetah lying in wait in the grass, they had been waiting patiently, motionless, for a long time.

Until, on a certain floor of the long-silent apartment building, a faint sound was finally heard.

It was very subtle and quiet, but it couldn’t escape her ears.

The figure looked up, slightly shifting its posture. The bulging plastic bag in its hand rustled, scaring away a passing orange cat.

Beep, beep. The communicator’s red light flashed.

Maintaining her upward gaze towards the tenth-floor apartment, she raised a hand to her earpiece, listening to the voice on the other end, and replied faintly with two words:

“Received.”

…

By the time the unlucky orange cat had jumped into the flowerbed in a panic and looked back with curiosity, the spot was already empty.

Whoosh—

The sound of water filled the bathroom on the tenth floor of Building 2.

Thin strands of crimson peeled off with the water but were not washed down the drain. Cheng Ming was cleaning herself in the bathtub, carefully collecting all the traces.

After washing off the bloodstains, her hair grew automatically, slithering into the bathtub to break down the blood cells and other nutrients, making full use of everything, wasting nothing. Only when not a single bit of organic matter remained did she open the drain, letting the wastewater go where it should.

“Hiss…” Cheng Ming stood in front of the mirror, gasping for breath as she used tweezers to pull out the glass shards embedded in her flesh.

Her parasitic partner had not received any energy supplement tonight; instead, it had consumed even more, and her self-healing ability was affected.

But after all, her body had been modified several times by the mutated monster. At least by the time she had to go to work tomorrow morning, restoring the surface of her body to its original state shouldn’t be a problem.

The premise was that the other one agreed to cooperate, rather than taking advantage of her predicament.

Cheng Ming was very careful. The glass shards still had some peracetic acid on them, and a searing pain shot through her skin upon contact.

As a strong oxidant, peracetic acid was flammable, explosive, and highly corrosive. It was especially dangerous in high concentrations and had to be diluted before use. Its main purpose was for sterilization in laboratories, targeting fungi and their spores, among other things.

When another piece of glass was picked out, it clinked against the ceramic countertop, making a crisp, faint sound.

The “roommate” who had been silent for a long time, now that they were out of danger, finally raised the expected question:

“Why were you carrying something like that with you?”

Cheng Ming turned on the faucet, rinsing the tweezers under the running water, as if she hadn’t heard.

A long time passed. The woman in front of the mirror lifted her pale face. Water droplets still clung to her eyebrows and the corners of her eyes. She stared wetly at the person in the mirror—

“And why didn’t you help me at all when I was caught?”

She looked at “herself,” a faint smile even playing on her lips, but the gaze that connected the inside and outside of the flat mirror was icy cold.

Heh, monster…

She hadn’t wanted to tear off the facade with it. It could escape detection, and if she pushed it to the brink, mutual destruction was a foreseeable outcome.

But as things stood, the situation was out of her hands.

The peace of mutually beneficial symbiosis was just an illusion.

It was always a ticking time bomb, a Sword of Damocles hanging over her head.

Not a moment went by when she wasn’t thinking, how could she get rid of this parasite?

Cheng Ming believed it was thinking the same thing.