After Being Parasitized by a Monster 82

Chapter 82: “Don’t let her run.”

“Are you trying to leave me?” Cheng Ming turned her head to look at the other pair of eyes. “If you had the chance, would you completely leave me and go to another body?”

The light and shadow in the bedroom alternated, and their gazes met. Following her words, it was as if a firework was being transmitted along this invisible channel, burning coldly and fiercely between them.

“No, impossible,” Xiao Ming said without thinking. “It’s just for fun. You’re so unromantic.”

The calm and rational denial was mixed with a coquettish and complaining tone.

The face that should have only appeared in the mirror was now vividly blinking its eyes and looking at her. The confrontation and the dialogue were all like a flower in the water, talking to itself.

Cheng Ming inexplicably couldn’t bear to look at it.

Did she have to make these expressions with her face?

Her peripheral vision went down, and she saw it secretly moving 221’s little finger, brushing past the dark mycelia, and rubbing a revealing concave track on the bedsheet. Then it quietly raised it and placed it on her little finger… it was even more indescribable.

Your so-called fun and romance is to try to put on a different skin and cheat on yourself?

Even with one consciousness and synchronized perception, it was really hard to say whether this was cheating or self-cuckolding.

Actually, she could also control the other’s limbs, to free herself from the restriction of a single body, and to play the role of the mastermind who controlled all living beings, which was a god-like power… but in this way, the non-human feeling would be even stronger, and she would be very uncomfortable psychologically.

She would rather treat it as another individual.

Cheng Ming took a deep breath and gave up thinking about these too-philosophical questions with it, and let herself focus on the matter at hand.

The white grid paper recorded all the known information about Cheng Ran, some from Little Seashell, and some from her own memory.

Only it knew what she was hesitating about.

Compared to facing her mother’s disgrace, she was more afraid of facing this unknown, true or false mother-daughter relationship, and facing her mother’s judgment.

She was afraid that Cheng Ran would hate her, and she was also afraid that Cheng Ran would not hate her. She was afraid that Cheng Ran did not love her, and even more afraid that Cheng Ran had once loved her.

She had come into this world from her embrace, and for her whole life, she didn’t know if she could cut the umbilical cord that was pulling her.

“Do you think Cheng Ran doesn’t know your true face?”

Xiao Ming followed her and her gaze fell on the paper.

Perhaps it finally couldn’t stand the indecisiveness that she would have whenever she faced Cheng Ran, and its words gradually became harsh.

“She taught you so many universal principles. Did she do it herself? From the beginning of the fusion project, from the beginning of your birth, do you really think she is a good person?”

…

June 2nd, 10 PM.

Near the quarantine line, at an unknown coordinate point.

In the space surrounded by countless hard structures in the No. 6 animal experimental base, the ice-blue light was cold.

All the staff who entered and exited here had biological chips implanted and needed to be regularly reviewed. It was not so much an experimental site that condensed advanced wisdom as it was a prison. The environment was beautiful, peaceful, and quiet, a very deceptive prison.

“No need to set up an access control.”

Before Qu Ying walked out of this sealed cage, she heard someone behind her say this.

She turned her head. Not far away stood a metal gate with a cold texture, like an indestructible railing. Separated by just a single line were freedom and its opposite.

Cheng Ran was inside, and she was outside.

“What?” she slightly curled her lips, with a contemptuous sneer. “Do you want me to leave a door for my ‘sister’?”

In the past few days, the evolution department base had been thoroughly searched, and they had found a discarded biotechnology device in the periphery.

She had reservations about whether MM221 would come back.

A soul that has experienced freedom, would it voluntarily enter a cage?

Even if it were to die on the road to the wilderness, who knew if it would not be a kind of happiness.

Facing her mocking question, Cheng Ran just said faintly, “She’s outside.”

Almost at the same time, Qu Ying turned her head, and her bracelet beeped lightly. A message was transmitted from the security checkpoint high up—

“Unauthorized personnel have been detected approaching. Please verify immediately.”

…

A straight-line distance of one hundred and forty-seven meters.

The painted black sky was like an inverted cover, with scattered stars leaking from above, and spots of light echoing below.

It was very lively here, and also very desolate.

Far from the main traffic lines and densely populated areas, many transfer facilities, defense projects, and warehouse buildings stretched at the junction of the tall buildings and the wilderness. Monitoring stations, survey towers, and take-off and landing platforms… formed the final line of defense between ocean and land, encircling it like a flowing embankment.

The most confidential department of the Defense Center, the most unspeakable research base, was perfectly hidden under this steel forest, which was embedded with countless surveillance cameras and infrared sensors.

The location of the evolution department was a secret. Even internal personnel could not get the specific coordinates when they entered and exited, only a temporary route map. But for the “monsters” that were born here, there were usually other ways to locate them.

For example, they could also be identified by smell.

The huge, densely packed cargo containers concealed the passage into this fortress.

Cheng Ming could see the shimmering cold light that was reflected by the metal surface, and she could also feel the stinging pain of the night wind hitting her skin. Her thoughts were slightly blank.

She knew that this place looked like an unattended distribution center, but in reality, the weapons in every hidden corner were loaded, and she was being watched from all directions.

Not long after, the danger that was aimed at her in the dark quietly moved away.

The barrier in front of her changed, and in a short moment, the opaque metal had changed into a transparent, glass-like material, revealing the real scene behind it.

The entrance was opened to her.

Going down, one after another, geometric bodies were piled up to form this exhibition hall that was like a science education place, with long corridors, short regional modules, square steps and wall tiles, and round domes and aquariums.

This was the place where Cheng Ran had stayed for all these years.

The night was crushed and dispersed by the light from above, bit by bit.

She passed by many cultivation containers on her side, where dark shadows swam and swayed within the dim, rippling water. Perhaps there were real creatures mixed in, but more were simulated sea fish, with 24-hour recording cameras, and as long as she was in the experimental area, she could not escape them for a moment.

221 had walked this road many times, and she was very familiar with it. So much so that Cheng Ming was also a little dazed.

She was like a sinner on a pilgrimage, from gray to white, from monotonous to the richness of heaven, from the slightly cool human world, into the ice-like, transparent, and endless cold night.

Until she reached the woman in a snow-white lab coat and with gray-black hair.

She was in the bright light, and she had come from the darkness.

…

A straight-line distance of five meters.

This road, she had walked for seven years.

“Mom—”

Staring at Cheng Ran, she called out this title.

Two very light, very ordinary words.

It was as if she were afraid of breaking this dream, or perhaps she was timid about returning home, and did not dare to go any further.

In her thirteen years of memories, she had seen her gentle, stern, joking, and loving… but never so indifferent.

The shadow on the ground moved.

Cheng Ran walked over, and her cold five fingers were embedded in her wrist. She grabbed her arm and looked at it.

The dissociative damage caused by dehydration was even more serious. Without enough nutritional support, her self-healing ability had greatly decreased, and there were many scratches and cracks on her wounds. Without the scales, the dry cracks on her skin had spontaneously formed a puzzle, reminding one of those poorly repaired walls, where a slight vibration would cause the dust to peel off.

But she seemed to be unable to feel the pain of dehydration and the strain of organ failure.

In the second the researcher had approached, she had suddenly raised her other hand, wanting to take off her mask.

But before she could touch her, Cheng Ran had first touched the top of her head, a gesture that was not one of love and comfort.

The top of her head… those thick, spore-like mycelia that were disguised as hair.

“A fungal parasite that can replicate its main body.”

Her tone was flat. To the round intercom on her collar, she gave a light instruction, “Don’t let her run.”

In a different space, and in sync with this sound, another cold and low female voice sounded by her ear, touching Cheng Ming’s auditory nerves, and it was as sinister as a night fog—

“I know.”

…

Nine hundred and forty-three meters away, in the open warehouse, among the countless containers, the premonition of a crisis exploded like a clear and bright note. Cheng Ming opened her eyes at once.

Like a zither string that had been plucked by an invisible giant hand in the dark night, her whole person was also tense to the extreme. She twisted her waist and sat up, and the surrounding air and the metal plate under her feet vibrated with a buzzing sound.

Actually, her movements were light enough, and her reaction was fast enough.

But it was too late.

The sound she had made was mixed with the vibration from another creature. It was as if she were sailing on the surface of the water, and every ripple was affecting each other, and every ripple was exposing her position to the enemy.

When the waves met and overlapped, they interfered and canceled each other out, or they were superimposed and enlarged. The back and forth oscillations were like an uneasy heartbeat, and also like an intimate expression of longing.

An enemy was just one stroke more than an old friend.

“You’re here.”

As this cool and silky tone fell, a rich color surged like a translucent tide, and it hung down from the steel beam above. It was as if the start button of a horror game had been pressed, and the strange and sinister opening animation had a zero-frame transition, and it was a close-up jump scare without any warning.

The wind was whistling. A second before she was about to be surrounded, Cheng Ming pushed off with her feet, and she rolled down from a high place, using the stacked cargo containers below to buffer the force, and hit the uneven anti-shock pad.

Then she let the remaining inertia carry her to the other side of the container, and she curled up to hide.

Boom! The corrugated steel plate made a loud clang, and the ground and the ceiling seemed to be trembling. The top was shaking with scattered gray dust, and crackle, the already weak signal light on the edge of the shelf was unstable, and it flickered. The position that had been directly hit was even dented into a big pit.

She was almost swept into that vortex of death.

Her chest was thundering. She held her breath and looked up. A figure poked out from the edge of the top of the container. It was tall and upright, and all the details such as her clothes and appearance were blurred by the night. Her long hair was flying behind her, and her aura was shockingly strong.

From Cheng Ran’s intercom device, and also from this first scene, Cheng Ming had recognized her voice.

The one who had come was Qu Ying.

Knowing that Cheng Ran’s situation was unclear and her position was subtle, she would naturally not be so reckless as to go into battle herself and directly face the fourth department, which had the strongest defense in the Defense Center. She had cautiously left it to 221.

Fortunately, that body was indeed about to give out and needed to be sent back for “overhaul.”

Living parasitism was not devouring. 221’s situation was continuously deteriorating, and the growth of the spores had increased the burden.

Her spiritual tendrils had shifted. She could feel what that body was feeling, and the continuous pain had made her frown constantly during this process.

And she couldn’t be too far away from controlling the conidia. She had to choose a cargo inspection point nearby, and the conjoined building complex that had been built from the old factory site was a good place to hide.

It was just that she had not expected to be seen through by Cheng Ran at a glance.

And she had not expected how Qu Ying had so quickly found her coordinates.

The pale white light was on and off, and the vast warehouse was lined with trough-shaped walls, forming a quiet, natural maze.

“Interesting,” she heard Qu Ying let out a light laugh. “You and the one in the base, who is the main body?”