After Being Parasitized by a Monster 86

Chapter 86: “I am your mother.”

After a long while, a reply came from the bathroom, “I’m fine.”

The voice was not high or low, and it could barely be heard through the door. It was the limit that Cheng Ming could reach.

She had no strength.

So Yan Rong was still waiting at the door, very worried.

The sound of rushing water was muffled and rolled into the sewer. After a while, click, the door was pulled open, and a neatly dressed person walked out from inside. Her long hair was wet and stuck to her cheeks, and was pressed under her collar. There were still un-wiped water droplets in the hollow of her neck, and her face was a little pale.

It was summer, and she was dressed without a single leak. She was wearing a long-sleeved coat over her inner shirt. As she walked, water droplets fell to the floor, staining it with a slightly darker mark.

“Rongrong, I have to go out. I won’t be back tonight… If I’m not back tomorrow, it means I haven’t dealt with it yet. Please ask for leave for me from the department. Don’t worry.”

As she spoke, before Yan Rong could get close, she went over and hugged her. In the night, her subtle expression could not be seen clearly. Her body was a little heavy and pressed against her. As they were close, the water vapor spread out, cool and moist.

And in this second, Yan Rong smelled a strange smell.

It was a little fishy, and also had a rich, sweet fragrance.

This action was very unusual, and she subconsciously felt that something was wrong. Ever since that time they had talked it out, Cheng Ming had had a hard time being as natural as Yan Li when she faced her. The too-intimate actions had naturally been reduced, and unless it was necessary, she had not hugged her like this again.

She opened her mouth in a daze, wanting to ask, but Cheng Ming had quickly let go of her and repeated, “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

After saying that, she tightened her clothes and walked quickly through the living room. As she passed the storage cabinet at the entrance, she took a flashlight with her.

As she opened the door, the wide corner of her coat was rolled up by the airflow, like a fluttering butterfly, and with a light flip, it flew into the dim night.

…

There was a thin fog tonight, and the high-altitude dark clouds were hanging low.

A pair of red signal lights on the top of the biology department’s experimental building were flashing symmetrically, and they were blurred by the fog, and the bright red was magnified countless times, like the eyes of a giant beast in the clouds, quietly looking down at the borderline between the continent and the ocean.

Cheng Ming glanced up, and the illusion of being deeply watched had magnified her unease. She adjusted her tense emotions and quickened her pace.

As Xiao Ming had said, she needed seawater.

It was a fantasy to go to the sea from here. Not to mention the protective wall, just the long distance, she was afraid that she would not be able to hold on until then.

Besides the ocean, then, the suitable place she could think of was the abandoned experimental area here. Below the sixth basement level, the reason for the sharp increase in radiation was that seawater was accumulated below.

Following the path she had figured out, she did not spend too much time to enter the sealed underground. Fortunately, there were no cameras here. When needed, she would break down the wall and open a path, and pass through the smoke and dust that blocked her vision. The moist air, with its unique, cold smell, rushed to her nose.

She was actually a little worried that the Security Department would tighten its supervision here and that she would be noticed. But the pain from her abdomen was twisting her nerves and constantly exerting force. Just controlling her limbs had used up all her strength, and she couldn’t care about anything else.

Fungal spores often had an extremely strong ability to adapt to the environment, and they could survive for a very long time in a dormant state. The conidia she had left when they had come here in April had played a role. They had parasitized all the monsters they had encountered on the way, had obtained information, and had made it convenient to make the best use of everything.

She went all the way down to her destination. Theoretically, it was impossible for anyone to clean up here. The only type of “person” in the Defense Center who was relatively resistant to radiation were the members of the evolution department who had come to collect data. Cheng Ming had been prepared to face the natural, fully polluted accumulated water, but in the many different perspectives of the conidia, she had unexpectedly found a clean pool.

The bottom and the four walls were fine and round. When the light shone on it, the unknown, smooth material emitted a faint blue halo. It was about two meters square, and the water was half a meter deep, just right for her to soak in.

“Is it their drinking pool?” Xiao Ming guessed.

She recalled the strange-shaped fusion creatures and was quiet for two seconds, “…”

Were monsters so particular?

But regardless of whether they were particular or not, she had no time to be particular.

Although it was filled with the radioactive seawater of a life-restricted area, the thing in her uterine cavity seemed to have felt the comfortable environment and had immediately become active. It was writhing in her abdomen, and had a tendency to swell and fall, which had intensified the endless pain.

Some people said that a fetus was a kind of parasite to the mother, and would constantly deprive the mother of her nutrients and control her behavior. Cheng Ming had personally experienced this.

She had thrown her flashlight and waterproof coat on the shore. Ignoring the possible harm from the nuclear pollution, she had unbuttoned her clothes one by one and had gone down into the reservoir, which was full of a salty and astringent smell.

In the flickering light, the water, which was thicker than fresh water, gradually wrapped around her body. The squeezing feeling was mixed with pain, and she felt that she was being swallowed by a liquid monster.

The contractions were getting more and more intense. The egg sac was moving down and was stuck at the opening of the birth canal. She could only deliver it herself. At first, it was a lubricating mucus, wet and slippery, a little sticky, and a little astringent.

In an abnormally difficult situation, the only helper was the Fish-Fungus that was in the same body.

“Not here, down, in… a little further in, a little further in…” Xiao Ming commanded.

Cheng Ming supported herself with one hand on the edge of the hard pit, and struggled to support her body. She explored and moved her right hand, and after several attempts, she still couldn’t take it out.

The night was silent, and she could only hear her own increasingly heavy breathing, and an occasional, dull whimper. The light was weak, and the transparent liquid that was flowing down her thigh was slowly mixed with bright red blood.

The equally smooth mycelia were lingering in that area, preventing her from losing too much nutrients.

Her physical strength was rapidly draining, and she was dizzy. At first, there were waves of sharp pain that stimulated her to stay awake, but now her whole body was cold, her nerves were numb, and she was about to lose consciousness.

“Hand over your body to me, let me do it,” Xiao Ming persuaded.

It was a solution that was proposed out of pity for her, but the voice was so light and low that it was also like a devil in the abyss, pretending to be harmless and luring a lost lamb to be sacrificed.

Cheng Ming gritted her teeth and did not make a sound, and was still making a futile effort.

In the past, she might have been worried that this was a trick for it to try to take over her body, but now, she just had a resentment towards it. Although she knew that she shouldn’t, and she knew that it was unreasonable and useless to blame it, in the endless torment, her brain was dominated by her emotions, and her soul was as if it had been pulled away along with her consciousness, and her emotions had lost their autonomy.

To make matters worse, she remembered one thing—death and reproduction seemed to be one and the same for mermaids. The mermaid she had seen under Redstone Bay had died after giving birth.

This was not uncommon in nature.

For example, the famous “born in the morning and dies at night” mayfly would accumulate nutrients in its larval stage for several months or even several years, and then one day, it would emerge from the water in a swarm, and would die in a very short period of time after completing its reproductive mission. Its body would float on the water, and it would end a magnificent life cycle.

But this was the way of survival for other creatures.

Humans, who prided themselves on being advanced, would naturally not be willing to live in this world just for the continuation of the species. Countless people had held up branches and lit torches to illuminate the road ahead. The continuation of civilization was higher than the blind expansion of the race. In this situation, the value of an individual was no longer limited to giving birth to a new individual.

Therefore, Cheng Ming, who had a human way of thinking, naturally had an indescribable fear—would she die here?

The desire to live was a biological instinct.

Even though she understood that she was being dominated by her instincts, the panic and confusion were still as rampant as a wildfire, and the calmness she was trying to fight for was difficult to sustain.

“Cheng Ming, let me do it.”

Seeing that she was having more and more trouble supporting herself, Xiao Ming was also anxious and finally forced her to accept it without any room for argument. It was just a daze, and it had immediately taken advantage of the opportunity.

The authority of her body was transferred.

She could see, hear, and feel, but she could not actively make any changes.

A large number of mycelia spread out like flowers from hell. The tendrils, with the help of her fingertips, went deep, and they were flexible and soft, and they were entangled. After a moment of extreme pain, as if her body cavity and organs had been scraped, along with the indescribable feeling of flesh and blood separating and the empty and weightless feeling of energy loss, splash, the whole egg sac slid out.

Perhaps it was because the mycelia were sharp, or perhaps it was because the birth canal was squeezing it, but it had shattered with a boom, like a water balloon filled with chia seeds, and a large amount of soft, elastic, and wet contents had burst out, and had quickly spread to fill the small body of water.

The thin membrane, which was like a fetal membrane, dissolved, and the egg spores inside suddenly gushed out, densely packed, and they were emitting a faint fluorescence, and they were floating and swaying, and they were surrounding her.

The mycelia were pulled out and scattered, trying to hook and retract those “offspring” that were floating and scattering.

Stars exploded in front of her eyes. Cheng Ming fell into the water, exhausted. In her chaotic vision, her eyes were filled with a faint blue, which was gradually thinning, and it was also pulling her remaining thoughts far away.

Her reason seemed to have been exhausted and cleared, and the fear that had reached its peak had now returned to zero. Her body was cold, and her spiritual world was also so cold that it was empty.

The pain floated away lightly. Soaked in the dangerous and deadly water, and wrapped by an unknown, surreal, and personally born life form, there was only a strange tranquility.

Although it was an extremely sanity-shattering image, at this moment, looking at this bizarre scene that was like a starry sky, she suddenly had a strange feeling—

These, were they her children?

She had no self-awareness of being a “mother,” but facing this scene at this second, she did have an indescribable daze.

“Cheng Ming—”

The last scene she could perceive was a call from Xiao Ming in the quiet water. Her eyes closed, and her consciousness was drowsy.

…

“Cheng Ming…”

Another call that seemed to have come from the depths of her consciousness. The connected nerves were like zither strings that had been plucked, and the buzzing echo was endless, and it had woken her up.

She opened her eyes in a daze.

Her vision turned from dark to bright, and an unexpected scene came into view. In the instant it was clear, whoosh! Cheng Ming sat up and stared straight at the other side, and an endless fear engulfed her.

She saw herself—

Like a parallel space that had been twisted and folded, overlapping, countless of herself.

No matter which direction she turned, whether she was looking sideways or straight, all the “they” were staring straight at her, without blinking, without deviating.

She was being observed by herself.

Cheng Ming’s limbs were stiff, and her breathing was about to stop. A few seconds later, finally, the breath that had almost burst her diaphragm was let out.

It was a mirror. There were mirrors on all six sides of her, front, back, up, down, left, and right.

All-round, all-encompassing.

As expected, there was a scientific basis for not having a mirror facing the bed. This scene that had appeared so unexpectedly had almost scared her to death, and her heart rate had almost soared to one hundred and eighty.

The fear slowly receded, and confusion and vigilance welled up.

The environment had changed greatly. Undoubtedly, she was no longer in the position she had been in before she had closed her eyes. The dark and damp underground pool was gone, and the egg spores that had drilled out of her body were gone. In their place was a spacious space, soft light, and a comfortable seat under her that seemed to have been tailor-made for her. After she had sat up, it had followed and had raised, supporting her sore back.

What was going on? She almost suspected that she had just had a nightmare, or that she was still in a dream at this moment.

Swish. A faint, light sound came from the opposite wall. It seemed to be pneumatically controlled, and that mirror had “cracked.”

Following the regular and neat arc in the center, an even more dense and snow-bright light seeped in. Like a scene from a science fiction movie, another world was opened to her—

“You’re awake?” The voice came before the figure. A woman walked in. “Don’t worry, it’s very safe here.”

Like an angel from heaven who had walked out of a holy light, the bright light first outlined her silhouette, and then, the wrinkles and shadows on her clothes, the smooth hair by her ears, and the slightly shining pearl jewelry. More details were outlined, and it became clearer and clearer, and more and more vivid, from non-human to an extraordinary person.

There was a gold-stamped nameplate on her chest, and she should also be a researcher from the research institute. But her uniform was different from the common style, and the design was more complex and beautiful. It was clearly not for practical use, but a symbol of status.

This lady, who looked elegant and noble, was smiling, but she was exceptionally approachable. She said to her with concern, “You’ve just given birth, you need to rest.”

No matter how kind her expression was, these words were very terrifying and illogical. However, Cheng Ming looked at her, and along with her gentle words, she only felt an inexplicable sense of intimacy growing and circling, telling her that the other was worthy of trust and reliance.

This feeling had no reason, no logic, and it was as if it were out of instinct, and it made her subconsciously relax. But after she had come back to her senses, her rational consciousness was frantically warning her, and her heart, which had just calmed down, was pounding.

Cheng Ming looked at her and asked, “Who are you?”

“Me?” she seemed a little surprised that she had asked this, but she still answered patiently, and her smiling gaze became even more gentle and warm. “From a genetic point of view, I am your mother.”

Cheng Ming was confused and at a loss, but she naturally felt a sense of disgust when such a too-rigorous and meaningful word as “mother” was spoken by a stranger.

Just as she was about to refute, she heard the person opposite her continue, “Xiao Ming.”

She casually raised her hand and touched the top of her head. Her fingers were also very gentle and warm, but the writhing force was like a researcher’s meticulous way of checking the integrity of a sample. Cheng Ming suspected that what she really wanted to do was to tear open her scalp, insert it into her brain, and caress the other consciousness below.

In the reflection of her horrifyingly enlarged pupils, Chu Lanying smiled—

“That’s what it’s called, right?”