Chapter 71: Since you’re here.
It was indeed a waste transport channel.
Seven or eight minutes later, from the feeding port, through several deceleration devices, and finally, without any mishaps, Cheng Ming arrived at the bottom collection warehouse, far away from the dangerous core experimental area.
The mycelia were restored from their cocoon-like state, and the thick, dark hair was like a surging biological armor. After identifying the safe environment, it was deconstructed into slender and harmless fine threads, and she was released.
Cheng Ming did not stay and quickly jumped out of the exit. The metal gate behind her closed with a click, like a guillotine, and re-established a barrier.
In order to prevent the stored solid waste from having a negative impact, the main pipeline avoided the densely populated areas and was built along the periphery. The discharge port was opened in a remote warehouse with an unknown location. The cold wind blew through the empty space of the ceiling, dispersing the strong smell of chemical agents.
Looking back up, her heart was still beating violently in her chest. She unconsciously pressed her chest and touched the small, hard object under her clothes.
The power of the monsters was a bit beyond her imagination. Was the researcher from the biology department also a member of this organization?
She had suspected that the pattern on the seashell was the key. As for the seashell itself, it was just a memorable material that Cheng Ran had chosen for her.
But from the looks of it, it was also possible that the seashell was an important token for this group of monsters to meet?
The pipes were interconnected, and the fluorescent indicators on the metal edges were faintly lurking like fireflies. It was very quiet here, but she could not get rid of the oppressive shadow that was following her from behind.
She couldn’t help but think of those eyes.
The light was not good, and she couldn’t see the other’s appearance clearly, but those eyes always gave her a familiar feeling, making her heart beat in a panic and unable to calm down.
She was still in a state of shock and uncertainty when Xiao Ming called her, “Cheng Ming~” in a very ominous, fawning tone.
The end of her voice rose coquettishly, without any sense of tension from just having escaped danger, and she said:
“Let’s go to the research institute again. Since we’re here.”
Since. We’re. Here.
It had adapted to the local customs too naturally. Cheng Ming paused, and almost couldn’t stop herself from screaming, “What did you do again!”
Those chaotic thoughts were as if they had been washed away by a torrent of water. She immediately thought of the large number of conidia that had been buried in the sea cockroaches, besides the worms.
As her emotions were stirred up, this Fish-Fungus said in a wronged voice, “Hungry—”
“…”
Cheng Ming took a deep breath and looked up in despair.
She suddenly missed the “symbiotic” period when they had only talked about benefits and not feelings. At least she could have said to it clearly: the timing is not right, you’re not allowed to be hungry.
…
3:37 AM.
Area A laboratory.
The key area was still sealed off. The people who had received the message rushed back, and Qiu Ju confirmed the result, “Where’s the worm?”
“I don’t know where the second monster came from, and I don’t know if they’re a group. It might have been eaten, or they might have escaped together,” Qu Ying threw the thing in her hand to her. “There’s still biological information on it. Extract it as soon as possible. It might still be useful.”
Qiu Ju took it and saw that it was a sub-parasite, a young fish, and it was already dead.
“It’s like this again,” she was not too surprised and sighed. “This organization is really too arrogant.”
Hearing this, Chu Lanying glanced at a certain Professor Cheng who had returned, with a hint of a smile. “It seems that your place is not very safe either.”
“Everyone, since there are no objections, I’ll take the things with me.”
She had already taken out the Jiao egg from the sealed pod, and was holding the portable capsule that had been specially made by the biology department in her hand.
She was the number one person to rob in the chaos.
Team Leader Qiu looked at her, and then at the rare sample in her hand, and could only smile bitterly and helplessly.
What could she do if she had an opinion? The upper echelons of the Security Department remained silent, so of course, the person with the highest authority had the final say here.
Although the other had the rigorous and calm temperament of a researcher, Qiu Ju felt that this lady was more like a shrewd businessman, who did not care about rules and regulations, but only weighed the gains and losses.
The Defense Center was still in a state of alert, and the public facilities were shut down. Non-combat personnel were escorted by armed forces when they went out.
After leaving the biology department, she took the armored vehicle back. Chu Lanying sat in the back row, which was padded with soft cushions.
Without asking for help, she opened the portable capsule and took a look. The lighting in the car was very dim, and only the brightness reflected by the signal lights was left. The Jiao egg in it was shining in the thick, black fog-like night, so small, yet so dazzling.
Without much effort, she found two extra things: one was the locator placed by the Security Department, and the other was a conidium.
She destroyed the locator at will. As for the other, it was almost invisible to the naked eye, but Chu Lanying picked it up with precision, rubbed it between her fingertips, and smiled as she kneaded this hard, dormant spore.
She moved her lips, and two silent words—naughty.
…
The new calendar turned to February of 2175.
Half a year had passed since that disaster.
On July 8th of last year, the Defense Center had activated a level one alert, the highest emergency response, and all departments had entered a state of war.
After that, there were three months of tireless post-disaster prevention and control. On October 18th, the protective wall was repaired, the radioactive pollution detection returned to a normal level, the artificial rain ended, and the Defense Center was downgraded to a level two alert.
Then, on November 28th, the large-scale screening was over, and the command and control center announced that all alert states were lifted.
However, the atmosphere of the Security Department’s external action team had not been able to relax.
Intelligence Center Building, Conference Room 403.
This was already the third special meeting.
“On October 24th, we lost 1 strong acid worm sample and 5 large sea cockroach samples. On November 7th, we lost 12 large sea cockroach samples… On December 16th, we lost 1 fluorescent giant squid and several blue-light jellyfish… On January 23rd, we lost several mutated seaweed samples and mutated coral samples.
“If the above are confirmed to be the work of the same target, then, as you can see, its appetite is getting bigger.”
The data analyst stood in front of the large digital screen and listed the key points. The special team members below were silent.
From the incident in Redstone Bay in October until now, for nearly four months, with high-intensity investigations, countless hidden mutated creatures had been found, but this monster with a super strong presence had never been found.
The file recorded “VOM47,” which meant “Mutated Ocean Monster No. 47″—an unknown landing species, and “VOM” was used as a code name for the convenience of information recording and intelligence exchange.
Due to the continuous crimes and the lack of effective information, its danger level was constantly rising. But because there were no clear records of casualties, the rating could not be raised. Only the informed departments were in a panic, and they were helpless to come up empty-handed every time. The heads of the various security teams were half-dead with anger, and felt that this No. 47 was simply stepping on the face of the Security Department and provoking them without any restraint.
“The inventory of the research institute has also been checked. It has been basically confirmed that the samples stored in the past have been damaged to varying degrees. VOM47 did not appear recently. It is in the Defense Center, right under our noses, and we don’t know how long it has been eating and drinking for free.”
Hearing this, the members of the Security Department, whose careers had suffered a Waterloo, were almost ashamed of themselves.
“In addition, there is also news that a department had lost an experimental fungus a year ago, which had already developed high intelligence and had colluded with the monster organization to escape, and its whereabouts have been unknown. Based on our observations for so long, this possibility cannot be ruled out.”
“Arrogant, too arrogant!” The person in front slammed the table with a great atmosphere.
And the protagonist who was actually being discussed—Cheng Ming was sitting in the back row with a red face and red ears, listening to these comments with unusual calmness, without any desire to express her opinion, and was even a little sleepy.
She felt that they were all right.
Xiao Ming’s appetite was indeed getting bigger and bigger. In addition, the Security Department’s monitoring was getting stricter with each action, and the more abilities it had to use, the greater the consumption, and then the more the body needed… it was a vicious cycle.
She was also gradually feeling the strain.
Unfortunately, Xiao Ming was not really a parasite, nor was it a pet. It was her other half—the other half of her body, the other half of her soul, and the other half of her intimate relationship. She couldn’t just not raise it.
After committing crimes for several months without interruption, she was completely targeted by the Security Department.
After passing the job evaluation and being transferred to the biology department’s field team, she had formed a special squad with the Investigation Department to specifically deal with the follow-up tracking of this “unknown mutated species.”
That is to say, she was asked to investigate herself.
So far, there had been no progress.
Looking at her own “crimes” in black and white on the record board, she had gotten used to this magical world. She yawned and just wanted a cup of tea to refresh herself.
After all, what could she do? As soon as they had a plan for her, she, as an internal staff member with a not-so-low authority, would know immediately.
However, she knew why the biology department had made such an arrangement.
The special team was relatively free, so she was still relatively mobile, which was convenient for the foundation to take on missions at any time.
And so, after being an unknown, escaped experimental subject, a fallen researcher from the research institute, a wanted monster on the Security Department’s list, a defector from the foundation, and an undercover agent of the monster organization (perhaps), she was now also a spy that the biology department had planted in the foundation.
Her identity was too complicated, which had caused her to run around in all directions and fight with herself these days.
On the one hand, she was passing on information about items for the foundation, and on the other hand, she was selling out the foundation to the Security Department. On the one hand, she was actively hunting monsters during the day, and on the other hand, she was turning into a monster at night and causing trouble in the Defense Center… although in essence, she just wanted to fill her stomach.
It was like a prey that had turned the tables on the hunter, constantly extending its front legs at the edge of the spider’s web to pluck the silk threads, attracting the hunter to reveal information fluctuations. Every step was a rhythm of courting death.
It was not easy to be an undercover agent, and it was even harder to be a multiple undercover agent.
Not to mention that she would also try to stuff conidia into the brains of other monsters from time to time to experience the God’s perspective, and was always thinking about whether animals could completely evolve away from the need for sleep.
There was another thing that was bothering her.
The last time she had accidentally entered the core area of the biology department and had almost been trapped, the researcher who had rescued her, she had wanted to contact her again, but the other did not seem to be a member of the biology department’s headquarters, and she had not run into her in the past four months.
The other team members were filled with righteous indignation. A certain person who was closest to Cheng Ming nudged her with her elbow, “Team leader, a second-class merit.”
She turned her head and saw Han Xuhua sighing and starting to count on her fingers. “If we accumulate enough merits, we can retire early.”
She didn’t know if it was because she had repeatedly experienced life and death that she had a detached view of life and death, but Cheng Ming found it hard to understand how she could say such old-fashioned words at such a young age.
This person had been brought over from the Investigation Department by her. At least she was an old classmate to her, and an old comrade-in-arms to Yan Li.
When she was summoned to Redstone Bay, the other was following the 2nd squad on a patrol mission. It was uncertain if it was the monster organization’s cooperation with the coastal operation, but the inside of the protective wall was not peaceful that night. They had encountered a fish monster hiding in the warehouse, and Han Xuhua’s right arm had been bitten.
Fortunately, her life was not in danger. Unfortunately, like Cheng Ming, her combat power was damaged and she was facing a transfer.
At that time, when she had brought the documents to find Qiu Ju, Qiu Ju had asked her the reason. Cheng Ming had thought for a moment and had said a very honest truth:
“Her biology is very poor.”
Qiu Ju: “…So?”
She clearly didn’t understand the logical relationship.
Cheng Ming said, “So I guess she won’t be afraid of those biological weapons.”
Ignorance is bliss.
Although the words were harsh, the facts proved that it was true.
During the job evaluation, Han Xuhua had touched a strange weapon and was told that she needed to control it through a mycelial link to her arm’s nerves. Not only was she not afraid, but she was also very fresh.
And so Cheng Ming, no, “Yan Li” had become her team leader again.
Cheng Ming was so sleepy that she was not thinking straight. “Alright. When I’m tired of living—”
I’ll give myself to you to apply for a merit.
The words that followed were urgently stopped by Xiao Ming.
While her thoughts were briefly offline, it had controlled her hand and had slapped the person who was too close away, and it had hit the right arm that had just healed.
Fortunately, Han Xuhua did not realize that anything was wrong and just looked at her with concern. “Team leader, are you not feeling well?”
