Coveted After Becoming a Monster [Quick Transmigration] 75

Chapter 75:

In the struggle between the big octopus and the strange bird, Li An seemed to have entered a long corridor of memories. Those chaotic and mixed memories finally met at the very beginning.

[Beep… crackle… crackle… next quick transmigration mission begins. This mission is to redeem the blackened protagonist, correct the world line… crackle…]

[Plot transfer… first encounter…]

In the still-messy electronic sound, the scene cut to a familiar sea area. The seemingly cute and harmless little octopus appeared again. Without Li An’s previous panic and helplessness, after hiding in mimicry, she took the opportunity to slip into Ji Yulin’s arms.

“What are you?” the woman with cold features asked in a cold voice.

The little octopus did not answer, just kept hiding in every corner of her body, until the darkness woke up, and a terrifying pressure appeared, and everyone fled in a panic.

Ji Yulin took a few steps back and lowered her head, just in time to see its cunning eyes when it lifted its head, as if to say, “Run, human.”

Although she didn’t understand, Ji Yulin turned and ran. An inexplicable intuition popped into her mind. That creature was after the little octopus in her arms.

On the way, she had tried to shake off the little octopus several times but had been dodged again and again, and it had even stuck to her tighter.

“What on earth are you?!”

In the panic, blood spread, and the churned-up waves pushed people out.

When she woke up on a deserted island, the little octopus beside her tried to be attentive but was pushed away by the woman.

“I don’t care what you are. We’ve already escaped that monster’s attack range. You can stay away from me now.”

“Get out of the way. Don’t follow me.”

“I don’t want your coconut. Stay away from me.”

The sun was setting, and the entire sea was dyed orange. Footprints appeared on the beach and were then crushed by the little octopus’s tentacles.

In this way, you chase, I push, for half a month.

Under the sunlight, Ji Yulin’s attitude softened a little. She still had a stern face but silently took the torch that the little octopus handed over.

“I can light a fire myself. You don’t have to rub it for half a day.”

“Even with many tentacles, it’s not enough.”

“I can’t eat the rest of the fish. You can deal with it.”

With that, Ji Yulin leaned back against a coconut tree. When she closed her eyes to rest, the sneaky octopus took a bite of the grilled fish, her eyes squinting in satisfaction.

Ji Yulin looked up and saw it but looked away to the other side.

After an unknown amount of time, she asked the question that had been puzzling her for a long time.

“What on earth are you?”

“According to my investigation during this period, there are no more tentacled beasts in this sea,” she paused, and then said, “Even on this planet, there are no tentacled beasts.”

“They seem to have suddenly gone extinct, and only exist in human memory.”

The little octopus opposite her was chewing on the grilled fish, and her innocent azure eyes reflected Ji Yulin’s serious face. This contrast made Ji Yulin seem to be overthinking.

She was silent for a moment. The eyes that were fixed on the little octopus were silent, but it was as if she wanted to see into the other’s heart and tear off that hypocritical mask.

But after a moment, she sighed and said helplessly, “After they find me, don’t follow me.”

Her sentimentality did not move the octopus. The creature just flicked the fish bone she had finished eating and blinked at Ji Yulin.

“You want more?”

“Then you have to help me.”

A tentacle rested on her palm, hooked her fingertip, and covered the faint red mole.

Ji Yulin lowered her eyes to look and said, “Deal.”

No one had expected that this time on the deserted island would be so long, a full few months. It wasn’t until she saw the familiar yet unfamiliar ship that Ji Yulin and the little octopus both showed a dazed expression.

Her emotions were inexplicably complicated. Although she had been looking forward to the rescue every day, at this moment, she was not happy.

“You go. I’m from the Research Institute. Do you know what the Research Institute is?”

“Don’t play dumb. I know you understand.”

“Hurry up and go.”

Ji Yulin lowered her eyes but saw that the octopus on her shoulder was motionless, and the suckers under her tentacles were secretly sticking to her tighter.

Ji Yulin thought and thought, and still sighed, “You’d better think it through. I may not be able to protect you.”

The octopus waved her tentacles at her, showing a puppy-like expression.

Her cold and distant features softened, but she still said stubbornly, “Don’t you regret it.”

The little octopus rubbed her head against the other.

These past few months, a lot had happened around her. A plant crisis had suddenly erupted in Anding Town, and the team that had come to find her had been completely wiped out. Even the most powerful Captain Qi Fu, who had a golden eagle’s left eye transplanted, had died because of it.

The only thing to be thankful for was probably that Ling Yun and the others, in order to find her, had been drifting at sea with the rescue ship, so they had not been affected by the crisis.

But after hearing the news of Qi Fu’s death, Ling Yun had been silent for a long time and seemed to want to go to the Thirteenth District.

Although Ji Yulin had a cold personality, she was not an inconsiderate person. She had wanted to say that they should rest there for a while before returning to the Research Institute.

But the Research Institute was pressing hard, and Liu Hu’s parents were seriously ill and were eager to go back.

Ji Yulin had no choice but to give up and immediately led her people back.

So the trip to the Thirteenth District was reluctantly canceled.

In a flash, she was back in the Research Institute. An old and stern voice echoed in the office, and the dim light made the already cold and hard decoration even more oppressive.

“Ji Yulin, what are you hesitating about?”

“You saw that the octopus was different long ago. Why didn’t you report it?”

“It was the Research Institute that raised you, cultivated you. Your life is to repay the Research Institute and save humanity. Can a single trip out shake you?”

“Haven’t you seen how the people outside are threatened by the mutated beasts, and are always on guard and worried?”

“The tragic situation in Anding Town has not only happened once. It is happening all the time on this continent. Your momentary hesitation will lead to the appearance of thousands of Anding Towns.”

“Ji Yulin, you have a talent that ordinary people cannot compare to. These should be used to save humanity, not to waste your talent because of a little bit of soft-heartedness that shouldn’t exist.”

“Humans and mutated beasts are on opposite sides.”

“It is using your kindness.”

The woman standing in front of the desk, her back was straight but stiff. The hand hanging by her side was clenched into a fist. She wanted to speak several times but was interrupted.

The old man slapped the table and said in an unquestionable voice, “Feed it, use it.”

“Don’t have that bit of womanly kindness that shouldn’t exist.”

The scolding disappeared with the closing of the door. In the dark room, Ji Yulin fell to the ground helplessly. A cold tentacle was silent but hooked Ji Yulin’s fingertip.

[You can use me, Professor.]

Ji Yulin was obviously stunned for a moment, and in the next second, she blurted out, “It’s you?”

“You can communicate with me?”

A tentacle wrapped around her tighter but could not warm her increasingly cold fingertips.

Ji Yulin’s mind flashed with thousands of thoughts, and her face grew heavier and heavier, so much so that a questioning voice sounded, “Are you really using me?”

The low voice sounded in her heart, and she repeated, [You can use me.]

[But you have to understand who is really using you.]

But Ji Yulin’s mind was filled with the little octopus’s deception. She did not notice the deep meaning in it at all, and her back was resolute as she turned around.

When the scene appeared again, the octopus was locked in the laboratory.

Feeding, experimenting, and transplanting failed.

Luring, probing, and pulling back and forth.

Many scenes flashed by, and the sound of conversation sounded again.

“What on earth are you?”

The familiar question appeared again after more than ten years.

A tentacle that had probed out from the water pressed against the glass wall, and her deep and azure eyes reflected Ji Yulin’s face, confused and bewildered.

“Why did I drink your blood and…”

“What did you do to me?”

“What is it?”

The suckers of her tentacles were tightly stuck to the glass, trying to wrap around Ji Yulin’s fingertips through the barrier, but the distance between them was too great, not just this piece of glass.

[Have you felt it? Your ability, or in your human world’s terms, your special ability.]

[The brain domain… it’s quite suitable for you, and it’s not easy to be discovered by those people from the Research Institute.]

“What special ability, what brain domain?”

“What do you know?”

[Special ability? It’s the thing that those guys from the Research Institute have been trying to hide from you. As for the brain domain, that’s your ability. Only you can understand it.]

[Ji Yulin, you still have time. Hide it, study it, and…]

[Move the laboratory to the Thirteenth District.]

“Why do you always want to go to the Thirteenth District?”

[Because there’s something very important to me there.]

“How important? What is it?”

A hint of a smile appeared in the low voice, and she said jokingly, [The darkness, the monster that was hunting us.]

“Are you kidding me?” Ji Yulin was still suspicious.

The conversation had not ended before it had faded, and then it had switched to another scene.

Under the pursuit of the Research Institute, the octopus and Ji Yulin had fled everywhere but were no match for the Research Institute’s speed. In the end, the octopus had died in front of Ji Yulin.

At this moment, the human and the octopus were both in a wretched state. The former had fallen into the mud, and the latter was covered in blue blood.

Ji Yulin tried to lift her hand, and with an unrealistic method, she blocked the blood that was constantly gushing out, her expression panicked and broken.

The octopus, on the contrary, did not care and gently pressed her head against Ji Yulin’s forehead.

[What a pity. Until now, you still won’t believe me.]

A huge tentacle climbed onto Ji Yulin’s cheek, wanting to wipe away the mud that had stained her, but she had smeared Ji Yulin’s face with blood.

She smiled helplessly, and in a broken tone, she said in a hoarse voice, [Professor, don’t be afraid.]

[It’s okay.]

[We will meet again, thousands of times.]

[We will meet again.]

[Remember my name, Ji Yulin.]

[My name is Li An.]

[Don’t be afraid. This life will be over soon…]

The faint voice was blown away by the wind, leaving only Ji Yulin’s completely gray eyes, without any luster or life.

Before she could think about it, the scene cut back to the beginning.

Perhaps.

It could also be called the very beginning.

A young octopus appeared on the seabed again, but this time there was no darkness, only a light blue but clear seawater, and in the sunlight, it was glistening with ripples.

The octopus looked at her mother’s broken body, and her tentacles pulled at the sand, and she went into the distance.

The story at the beginning was boring. Hunting, foraging, and being hunted.

The octopus grew bigger and bigger, and gradually became the overlord of this shallow sea.

Apart from the muddle-headed survival instinct in her mind, she vaguely heard another voice.

Devour… same species…

…Evolve.

Become a god.

A strong wind blew past, and the water was churned up. From the shallow sea to the deep sea, and even into the abyss, the octopus’s body grew bigger and bigger. From a distance, if one was not careful, one would think it was a small mountain. It was only when one got close that one would realize that the stone-pillar-like tentacles had already come crashing down.

From the same species to all creatures with tentacles, this sea was dead. She would switch to another sea. The octopus grew stronger and stronger, and more and more terrifying. Where she was close, no fish dared to swim within a hundred meters.

But she was still frantically devouring, constantly searching.

A newborn sea anemone that was attached to a shell had seen this scene. Because it was too weak and was hidden in a shell, it had luckily escaped.

The octopus grew stronger and stronger, and her murmurs could break through the seawater and be transmitted to the minds of every creature.

Become a god… become a god…

I want to become…

A god.

Its body grew bigger and bigger, and more and more clumsy, until one day, it suddenly fell into the sand.

The darkness appeared.

A young little octopus also appeared in the sand, just like its original appearance. Its azure, innocent eyes gazed at Li An.

[Do you understand?]

Do you understand?

Different yet the same voices sounded in her mind one after another.

[A person only has one heart.]

A person only has one heart.

Li An was suddenly pulled from her muddle-headedness. She lifted her eyelids and saw two octopuses standing on her left and right.

One was the octopus in the laboratory, with a large hole in her chest, and blue blood was still gushing out.

One was the former overlord of the seabed, who had devoured all her own kind.

They were all staring at her.

An octopus has three hearts.

They are her, she is them. They are one but cannot coexist.

A person only has one heart.

No matter how powerful, an octopus with three hearts can never become a person, nor can it become a god.

To become a god, one must become a person.

This was the shackle that the creator god had left for other species, and it was also the only hope left for the delayed evolution of humans.

So, the darkness was the octopus’s first heart.

It was born in the sea, devoured its own kind, and at its strongest, it chose to strip off its first heart and turn into a dark monster, in order to explore the path to becoming a person, to becoming a god.

The darkness had no intelligence but wanted to devour its own body. But it had let the little octopus escape with Ji Yulin, but it had also lost its second heart because of Ji Yulin.

Perhaps because it was the same body, although the heart was dead, the memory still remained in the brain, so that the consciousness remained, especially the consciousness of the second heart was the strongest, which was why the big octopus had appeared again and again.

But…

Consciousness is always limited.

The more times it is consumed, the thinner it becomes, until now.

“I, I only have one heart left,” Li An’s lips trembled, and she murmured.

“Is that strange bird Silver Feather’s darkness?”

Li An suddenly asked.

The chance to become a god was not just given to one creature.

This was the first heart’s answer.

“But it doesn’t have that many hearts either?”

[Every creature has its limits, things it needs to strip off and give up.]

This was the second heart’s answer.

“Then what am I now?” Li An opened her mouth and asked the question that Ji Yulin had repeated over and over again.

But this time, they did not answer, and their voices just sounded one after another.

Become a god.

This was the first heart’s obsession.

[Take good care of Ji Yulin.]

This was the second heart’s instruction.

Fulfill our long-cherished wish.

[Fulfill our long-cherished wish.]

Li An still wanted to struggle but was pushed away by a huge force. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Ji Yulin’s anxious face.

The lava was scorching hot, and the volcano seemed to be about to calm down, no longer spewing out.

In the distance, there were still people rushing over. Silver Feather had finished eating that section of the bird’s wing and was lying on her stomach, asleep.

Li An didn’t care about anything. She reached out and hugged Ji Yulin, and fell into the depths of the lava.