After Being Parasitized by a Monster 68

Chapter 68: You’re so wet…

5:35 AM on October 23rd.

The far, far east was already faintly lit.

It was destined to be a long, sleepless night.

The mermaid experimental area was destroyed, two staff members were dead, one adult Jiao was lost, the leader of the 7th squad of the Investigation Department was dead, one immature fish egg was recovered, one mutated worm was captured, and several hidden sea cockroaches were found…

After confirming that the situation was under control, everyone gathered in the conference room on the ground floor.

As one of the important witnesses at the scene, Cheng Ming was naturally also present.

The combat personnel of the Security Department were still patrolling and searching below with live ammunition, while they, the leaders and decision-makers, held an emergency meeting.

With such a big incident, after a busy night, some of the people present were tired, some were dejected, and some were so anxious that they kept wiping their sweat.

Sleeping was impossible. At most, they would take a shower and check their radiation levels, then change into a protective suit and continue to work.

Qu Ying had just taken out a cigarette. She glanced at Cheng Ming’s gaze and seemed to recall the feat of snatching the cigarette from the tiger’s mouth in the cemetery before. She frowned slightly, pulled over a chair, and sat down far away by the door.

Qiu Ju, who had come in later, looked at her, then turned to look at the empty main seat, and with a helpless, bitter smile, she could only take it.

The crisis response team and the person in charge of Redstone Bay were all watching with eager eyes, and the endless stream of materials was piled up in front of her like a mountain.

Then, the clerical staff who were integrating the data withdrew, leaving the core members with sufficient authority to contact the command and control center and wait for instructions.

Cheng Ming also withdrew.

The specific results of the discussion were their business.

Later, everyone would have to go back to the health monitoring center for a control and screening to prevent any more mutated creatures from lurking.

However, everyone else had left, but Cheng Ming was still there, and was called back to the conference room.

There were only two people left in the room.

The desk was piled with newly printed papers. Qu Ying was leaning against the back of her chair and looked at her with an ambiguous expression. “Team Leader Yan is a smart person, and her biological knowledge is also very rich. She seems to have her own ideas about monsters.”

But Qiu Ju was smiling, and her tone was less serious than in the meeting just now, and more amiable and sincere. “Team Leader Yan, are you interested in coming to our biology department?”

Cheng Ming, who had pushed the door open, paused.

She almost thought that Qu Ying’s words had a hidden meaning and were mocking her, but then she realized that she was talking to Qiu Ju.

This corner was dug so unexpectedly.

The door closed behind her, and she considered her words. “Is it a lateral transfer or—”

“On the surface, it’s a lateral transfer, but in reality, it’s a promotion,” Qiu Ju replied. “I’ve seen your trauma assessment report. It’s hard to say if you can fully recover. The use of many weapons will have to be learned from scratch. It’s better to come to the biology department.”

“The weapons of the biology department are not that difficult to master. They just require some knowledge, and… courage,” she paused for a second and threw out this word. “Team Leader Yan, do you think you can do it?”

This was said as if it were a challenge.

Cheng Ming thought for a moment and said with a smile, “Then I think no one would refuse.”

The third branch of the Security Department, the department that studied the characteristics of monsters and developed biological weapons, was closely related to the research institute and the fourth branch. Its confidentiality was not low, and there were many secrets worth digging into. Indeed, it was a good choice.

She had no reason, and no need to refuse.

“Welcome,” Qiu Ju showed a sincere smile.

At the same time, she put on her protective gloves and, with a click, she bent down and opened a liquid nitrogen freezer next to her. “As a welcome gift, I guess you still need this—”

In the curling white smoke, she took out a square box, brand new, silver-gray metal, and pushed it in front of her.

“What is this?” Cheng Ming looked at this palm-sized small box in confusion.

“Mermaid scales. The things the foundation wants you to bring.”

Qiu Ju said it nonchalantly.

But to Cheng Ming’s ears, it was no less than a bolt from the blue. She froze on the spot, and her whole person was as if it had been frozen by the endless cold air.

On the one hand, she was surprised that what they wanted was actually mermaid body tissue, and on the other hand, she was surprised—how did Qiu Ju know?

She suddenly glanced at Qu Ying with her peripheral vision, but the latter’s expression was faint, and she did not look at her.

“Don’t be nervous,” Qiu Ju said. “The department is still very humane and understands your helplessness for your relatives. Since no actual losses have been caused, we can let bygones be bygones.”

“Now, this is an opportunity for you to make up for your mistakes,” this biology department team leader still had a good-natured look and said patiently, “Do you understand what we mean?”

…

“I understand. Don’t you just want us to be double agents,” Yan Rong said nonchalantly.

After returning from Redstone Bay, it took another hour of tossing and turning to finish the physical examination. When she returned to the apartment building, Cheng Ming didn’t have time to catch up on sleep and exchanged her experience with Yan Rong.

And so this girl pointed it out sharply.

“The relationship between these two sides…” Cheng Ming frowned and asked, “What do you think?”

“They probably use each other and also restrain each other,” Yan Rong tilted her head and said the same view as her.

There were contradictions and conflicts, but in such a situation where humans needed to unite against a common enemy, and with the monster organization still writhing, no one dared to break this peace that was like walking on thin ice.

If the end of the world could not teach everyone to unite, then this race was indeed not worth saving.

“But we are separated by a strip of water. Who is more noble than whom?” she said with a gentle smile like water, but with a sharp, light snort.

It was clear that because she had experienced unfair treatment since she was a child, she had an equal dissatisfaction with all power classes.

If it were before, Cheng Ming might have argued a little. At least the Defense Center was established to resist monsters and protect human society. But now, she was just silent.

What was the Security Department raising mermaids for? What did the foundation want mermaids for?

Cheng Ran had first devoted herself to the experiment under the fundraising of the foundation, and then had become a member of the research institute to continue the experiment, until she had created this experimental subject of hers, which was a fusion of half-mermaid genes… what did she want to do?

It seemed that no one had any good intentions. She had come into this world in a daze, and just as she had tasted a little happiness, it was brutally taken away.

She closed her eyes, and her deep and shallow breathing was a little chaotic.

“Sister, you look terrible,” Yan Rong came over and hugged her, her voice lowered. “Go and rest first. I’ll go and cook.”

It was only at one in the afternoon that she had arrived at the Security Department with the car. The remains of the victims were collected and stored in a warehouse to await autopsy, and the monster samples were sent to the biology department. There was nothing she could do for the time being.

She hadn’t slept for a day and a night, and had only had a light sleep for four hours in the car. Her whole body was sore from the bumps, and she had to force herself to cooperate with the physical examination after getting out of the car.

The accident had broken out suddenly, and the command and control center had urgently raised the parasitic hazard to the primary hidden danger. All personnel had to be screened, and the first batch was them, the high-risk group who had been in Redstone Bay.

At that time, in the examination room, just as Cheng Ming was about to lie down in the isolation pod, she heard a loud thump. Through the thick white wall and the explosion-proof glass, several security personnel flashed past the window and rushed into the next room. Along with a shrill scream that pierced through the ceiling, and a few gunshots, the entire floor returned to silence—a potential monster had really been discovered and quickly executed.

Looking at the staff who were preparing to do an imaging for her, their strict protective measures could not hide their ashen faces.

And so, although she knew that it was impossible to detect anything in her condition, Cheng Ming was still made nervous by this atmosphere. She had thought that she could take a short nap during the scan, but she had been in agony for another hour.

Until three in the afternoon, the test was passed, and after many twists and turns, she finally returned to the apartment.

To be on the safe side, she had always maintained Yan Li’s appearance. Even when she entered this home and talked to Yan Rong, she was used to speaking in Yan Li’s tone. So much so that although Yan Rong knew in her heart, she would still be in a daze from time to time.

For example, at this moment, Cheng Ming felt that the other had raised her hand after hugging her and had gently rubbed her right ear. The warm fingertips grazed the skin of her earlobe, sending a tingling, electrifying numbness through her.

Before she could react, a cool breeze suddenly swept past her ear, and Yan Rong let go of her.

Cheng Ming looked up in confusion. Her sister had almost retreated to the balcony with her chair. She touched her smooth cheek, pointed to her head, and said with a wronged expression:

“Sister, your hair is fanning me.”

Cheng Ming: “…”

…

Returning to her room to rest, her body was already exhausted to the extreme, but her soul was as if it were being burned by a wildfire in the depths of a dream, and a pale smoke and ash rose, filling the sky.

The world was in a state of turmoil, and there was a restless and scorching unease.

Cheng Ming didn’t know where she had come.

She was stepping in a fog in a daze, a vast nothingness.

Run…

Run…

It was this voice again, repeating itself.

She couldn’t help but take a step forward. The tall and lofty shadow emerged from the man-made ocean, a natural relic that had emerged from a steel jungle. The most primitive life was trapped by modern machinery, an absurd collision.

It was a mermaid again.

Inseparable, as if it were her companion beast that would be with her in life and death.

Come here…

Come here…

The call changed its tone, with a bewitching quality, and it was close to her earlobe, a decadent and pleasant temptation, which once again ignited the flame of primitive desire, burning her internal organs, and piercing through her three souls and seven spirits.

T/N: “Three Hun Seven Po三魂七魄（Three Souls and Seven Spirits(Senses)）” is a concept in traditional Chinese culture that is believed to represent the core of the human soul and spirit within the body.

A hand broke through the turbid water and reached out. The scales that were emitting a shimmering ice-blue light were translucent, beautiful, and the light was flowing, as if it were resonating with her soul.

She approached in a daze.

Who was this? A mermaid? Was it Xiao Ming?

“She” wrapped around her and pressed against her forcefully, as if she wanted to pierce through her skin and drill into her flesh.

She had thought it was Xiao Ming, and couldn’t help but open her eyes to see more clearly. But when the other got closer, and her face gradually became clear from the fog, it was clearly her own face!

Cheng Ming was scared awake.

She turned over. The room was dark, and the quilt on her was still warm, but the bed under her was cold, and her breathing was rapid. She didn’t know if she was still in a delusion.

Xiao Ming also woke up. Its consciousness was still chaotic, but it felt something, and the mycelia couldn’t help but instinctively wrap around her thigh.

The moment she woke up was like a blackout. She couldn’t remember what had woken her up, but the lingering fear remained on her cerebral cortex. Cheng Ming was very uncomfortable, her body was uncomfortable, and her mental state was also indescribably uncomfortable.

Only the cool mycelia that were clinging to her skin could give her some real comfort.

“Do you want some nutrients?” she asked in a daze. “Go ahead.”

This was a tacit signal between them, an ambiguous invitation.

“What’s wrong with you?” After enduring for a long time, it immediately and impolitely manipulated those derivatives to probe over.

“Mmph…” Cheng Ming was lying on her side, curled up. Her mumble was mixed with a whimpering gasp. One hand was tightly gripping the fabric of the pillow, and more dark, short hair was pulled long, and it slid down from the wrinkles of the fabric to its destination.

The warm bedding, the wet body, the temperature was still a bit high, and her forehead and back were sweating profusely. But as soon as those crystal clear droplets appeared, they were licked clean by the mycelia that had rushed over.

Besides water, there were only inorganic salts or organic matter in sweat, and there was nothing that the Fish-Fungus didn’t need.

She was simply its most perfect culture dish.

The pleasure piled up layer by layer until it reached its peak. She tensed her back like a drawn bow, and her legs were tightly twisted under the covers. Her toes were shamefully and happily digging deep into the bed, and she couldn’t tell if this feeling was hers or if it was also mixed with its.

Her eyes were lost. She looked down, and her fingertips were sticky. She pulled out some fine threads, and her face turned red. But soon, the mycelia rolled up, like countless small suction cups, and licked her fingertips, knuckles, and the gaps between her fingers—a tingling, dull itch—sucking away the mucus.

Like a diligent after-care master.

Cheng Ming was very tired, but she struggled and said, “Go and wash—”

“No need, you sleep,” Xiao Ming said. “I’ll absorb it all.”

“You wait, wuwu…” she choked and panted.

The more it cleaned, the worse it got.

Xiao Ming let out a “huh,” and it was clear that it had also noticed this.

Before it could speak, Cheng Ming had anticipated it and interrupted in shame and anger, “Don’t speak!”

A physiological reaction, she couldn’t control it either…

“You… ugh, get out, don’t touch me again, I’m going to take a shower!”