After Being Parasitized by a Monster 58

Chapter 58: “I don’t accept it.”

Thump—

A dull splash.

The combat suit was quite sturdy and pressure-resistant, and it was also equipped with a wealth of equipment, enough to deal with most dangers.

The only price to pay was that it was too heavy.

And so in this situation, her own equipment had become a burden.

Without the human-faced sea snake continuing to coil around her, Cheng Ming sank uncontrollably like an iron ingot. The cave was dark, and the sediment was stirred up. Even with a searchlight, the real-time projection of the helmet was affected, and her vision was completely blurred. The thermal imaging mode, however, continued to operate, presenting the scene in front of her in a black and white picture.

The biological marker was a nearly transparent white, and the radiation sensing device would mark the target with a red light warning. And so, on the imaging screen, one after another, red-furred white scarves brushed past her eyes, accompanying her as she floated and sank in a randomly twisted and deformed posture. The primitive fear of humans told her that those were all snakes… had she entered a snake’s nest?

Splash. Cheng Ming was pulled by something again and was out of the sticky water.

She kicked her feet hard, not knowing if she had hit the target. She turned over, messy but swift, and lay on the protruding rock wall next to her.

This was a cave air chamber a few meters long. The helmet display showed that there were some pale white substances in the cracks, densely packed together.

With a slight movement, the muddy and sticky touch was accurately transmitted to the skin that was in contact with the rock through the protective material and the sensor.

A small patch of white, oval-shaped objects had been crushed by her.

They were all snake eggs.

Oviparous.

The amphibious, flat-tailed sea snake genus, a transitional state from terrestrial to marine, lived in the shallow waters of the coast and needed to return to land to lay eggs.

This was an underwater passage that connected to the bottom of the sea.

After recovering from her dizziness, the sealed hood was filled with her own heavy breathing. Cheng Ming grabbed the bell-shaped rock that had been rounded by the flowing water and supported herself up.

She was a little confused. The human-faced snake was gone, and Xiao Ming had not made a sound. She had already left the team’s line of sight, but it had let her be dragged into the depths of the cave.

What was it planning?

She tensed her body and subconsciously reached for the weapon on her waist, but found nothing.

Her gun had been taken.

Intelligent monsters were really troublesome.

She bent over and stuck to the wall, readjusted the helmet’s field of view, and after waiting quietly for three seconds, the monster reappeared.

Water suddenly splashed in front of her, and a strange creature rushed onto the rock. It was crawling quickly with its slender limbs, its body twisting from side to side, very much like a lizard on land.

But, that incomparably long and incomparably thick cylindrical body, that flat, paddle-like tail that had evolved through secondary aquatic adaptation, that large, cracked mouth that extended out with front-grooved teeth similar to those of the cobra family…

“Ah,” Xiao Ming finally spoke. “Is this called, drawing a snake and adding feet?”

Cheng Ming: “This is not the time for cold jokes!”

The fine hairs on her back stood on end. The attack just now had happened too suddenly, and this thing had darted out from under a rock. She hadn’t noticed that besides a human face, it also had an incomparable pair of hands and feet.

Yes, hands and feet.

They extended from the ventral side of its body. Because of its deformity, they had become atrophied, and the front and back lengths were the same. It didn’t seem to be any different from a lizard, but Cheng Ming still recognized that they were undoubtedly human hands and feet.

This, was it a chimera of a human and a sea snake?

The picture was too abstract and terrifying. Cheng Ming had seen a lot of things, but at this moment, her face was a little pale.

And this thing was crawling too fast! She pulled out the only tactical dagger she had left and was hesitating whether to trust the protective suit or Xiao Ming. The monster didn’t give her any time to react and pounced on her.

Cheng Ming also moved abruptly, ducking to the side to dodge. At the same time, her arm muscles stretched and exploded, and swish—the metal blade tip drew a deep mark on the rock surface, and sparks flew, flashing like a brilliant firework on the imaging interface.

It had not hit the target.

She had misjudged the distance, and the ferocious snake head had suddenly stopped.

It was right in front of her.

She tried her best to steady her breathing. Before she could attack again, her vision returned to clarity, and she realized that it had opened its mouth not to bite her.

It was holding something between its sharp teeth.

A round, very familiar-looking thing.

Cheng Ming did not move, and it did not move either.

After a long stalemate, she finally moved her fingers, held the dagger, and turned on the low-light searchlight.

The cold white halo swayed, and the bright red, round object swayed with it, branding a burning pain in her eyes.

So much so that her pupils couldn’t help but start to tremble.

A red seashell.

Like a lingering curse, in the third month after she had thrown it into the sea, in this unprepared place, in this unprepared scene, it had appeared in front of her without any warning.

The human-snake monster was lying prone in a comical posture, its head held high, and the human face below was stretched and even more distorted. It was said to be a human face, but in reality, the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were all fine slits, and the finer structures could not be seen clearly. The corners of its mouth were raised, as if it were smiling.

Inexplicably, as if it were a tacit understanding between monsters, Cheng Ming was sure of one thing—

It had no ill intentions.

It was even, one might say, expectant.

She stretched out her stiff fingers and slowly, she took the seashell from the snake’s mouth.

There was no mistake. She had confirmed this with difficulty.

Besides a crack that had probably been caused by the impact of the tsunami, there was still a drilled hole and a small section of a silver chain on the round head of the seashell.

It was the pendant that she had warmed on her chest for six years.

If this were a horror movie, this seashell would be like a disaster-carrying object that the protagonist could never get rid of. She didn’t know what kind of life-changing changes it would bring in the next second.

The dark cave, the psychedelic water ripples. Cheng Ming stared at the ugly and terrifying monster in front of her in a daze.

This cave was connected to the ocean. Had it specially picked it up from the bottom of the sea and brought it here?

Why did it do this? Was it a member of the monster organization, and had it determined that she was too, so it was conducting a ceremony of recognizing a companion?

But how did it know that this was hers?

Was this monster special, or could all the members of the monster organization find her with this?

Layers of questions piled up in her chest, putting a heavy load on her heart, and it could barely beat.

The mycelia were a little restless.

An itchy sensation crawled past her ear. She suddenly came back to her senses and saw that the abdomen of the long monster opposite her was bulging, and it was making a strange whooshing sound.

The sound collection equipment transmitted an abnormal sound wave reminder.

This scene was very much like what she had experienced in Redstone Bay.

Cheng Ming belatedly realized one thing—it was talking to her.

“What did it say?” she immediately asked Xiao Ming.

“I can’t hear clearly,” Xiao Ming said. “Take off your helmet.”

The head protective cover of the combat suit and the clothes were very tightly sealed, and were attached by magnetic attraction and mechanical biting. Normally, a password or biometric identification was required to open it. The last time she had dismantled Yan Li’s helmet on the shore, there was no complicated process. It was the smart life detection device that had determined that the wearer was unconscious and had unlocked it for emergency rescue.

Cheng Ming steadied her fingers, moved the buckle, and click, she took off her helmet.

As soon as she was free, the mycelia grew without any wind.

They suddenly scattered and rushed forward, expanding wildly in this small cave, and in the blink of an eye, they had wrapped around the human-snake chimera monster opposite her.

Not to mention the prey, even Cheng Ming, the master, did not react.

She held the red seashell in a daze. The creature that had brought her this old object had been strangled and devoured in an instant.

The black fungal tide surged and merged with the lightless darkness into a chaotic mass. If it weren’t for the round, hard object that was pricking her palm, it was as if that strange, human-faced sea snake had never existed, and she had just had a bizarre and terrifying nightmare.

…

Lanjiang Port.

The nearby reconnaissance station was dispatched in full force, and the entire port area was sealed off.

The experimental area had become an iron box that even a microorganism could not drill out of. Outside the round, transparent cover, countless people were sweating and waiting in formation. Even the researcher who loved to smile the most could not smile anymore.

Chen Ke stood by the huge metal gate, her expression faint and emotionless.

This trip was really not smooth.

Halfway through, she had received bad news. The rare creature that they had worked so hard to bring back, the mermaid, was dead.

The suspicion had not yet been confirmed, and this clue was broken.

Terrible news.

And there was worse.

While they were repeatedly confirming the situation and reporting to the central upper echelons to wait for instructions, someone had broken into the containment experimental pod on the third basement level and had killed the hibernating, frozen young fish sub-parasite.

That is, the “hound” that had been used for tracking in this deep-sea mission.

Although it was highly likely that the sub-parasite would be destroyed or become inactive on its own after the mission was over, which was why it had been frozen, the concept of authorized destruction and man-made murder was different after all.

And what was particularly bad was that the one who had done it was of a special status.

Very special.

This person was now trapped in the glass room in front of her, with no intention of escaping. She was leaning leisurely on the control panel, her hands in her pants pockets. She was still in a tall, slender, and feminine human form, her long hair hanging down her back, and she was looking at everyone outside with a provocative smile.

Her expression was very casual, but her eyes were like unsheathed swords, showing a sharp, snow-bright, inorganic texture, cold and ruthless.

“Doctor, it’s dangerous here. You should go out first—” the person next to her said with a trembling voice.

This was the most powerful weapon created by the Security Department, but now, this weapon was out of control.

Then she would become their most terrifying enemy.

Chen Ke shook her head, “Let me talk to her.”

“Talk about what?” The person inside the containment pod was watching their performance with great interest, as if she were watching a play. “Stalling for time? Then just tell me, no need to trouble yourself.”

“Let’s talk about the ‘safety catch’ principle that you might be interested in,” Chen Ke was not provoked and looked at her seriously. “In the initial stage of the project, it was proposed by the first pioneer leader to ensure that while you fuse with the monster’s abilities, you maintain your human self-awareness.”

A goal that was too grand was meaningless to most people. After all, humans were social animals, and the motivation that supported a person’s life often fell on specific people, family, friends, and lovers.

This team of theirs had biological geneticists, neuroscientists, medical experts, psychologists, and sociologists… they were a professional team for creating special soldiers.

They did not hope to really create a cold and ruthless killing machine.

If they were so cold that they had no sense of identity with the human group, then who could guarantee that these “weapons” would not turn against them.

Yangmei was the best example.

Having selfish motives, having private feelings, that’s great.

“Yangmei originally had no mother. It was a small attempt we made for her mental health. The experimental results proved to be effective, although there were some accidents later.”

“And yours was carefully selected by us,” Chen Ke smiled again, and her voice gradually became very soft. “It’s not reasonable for you to hate us for this, is it? We have clearly provided you with a lot of convenience…”

She went from one example to another, and finally, she fell back on the other.

She was also like a social psychologist.

“There’s nothing to talk about with you,” Qu Ying suddenly interrupted. “Let the decision-makers come. Or—Dr. Chen Ke, are you willing to let me leave?”

She tilted her head and looked at her, her smile mocking.

“Don’t be impulsive,” Chen Ke paused with regret, and her tone turned loving and pitiful. She said, “It’s easy to have any accident at sea. You’re just a little contaminated. I suggest you receive psychological treatment first…”

It was as if she were actively seeking a reduced sentence for a criminal with a history of mental illness.

A powerful man-made weapon was not easy to obtain. Qu Ying was the most successful and most stable one, and they would not let her go easily. She would dedicate her life to the end, and even if she were to be destroyed by her own hands, she would never be allowed to leave.

“I don’t accept it,” Qu Ying smiled, with a carefree look. “I was personally created by Professor Cheng Ran. Otherwise, why don’t you let her ‘debug’ me?”

This was no different from being a rogue.

The two lines of sight clashed.

Perhaps it was a long confrontation, or perhaps it was just two or three seconds later, Chen Ke said, “Alright.”

This sound was abrupt.

So much so that after these two words fell, the inside and outside of the pod were dead silent. The experimental area was as if it were covered by a huge soundproof cloth.

Qu Ying’s sinister gaze suddenly shot out, like a bullet from a gun hitting the bull’s-eye, and it was nailed to her face.

Chen Ke looked at her and repeated, “Alright.”