Her Tentacles 101

Chapter 101: Extra 3

In a dilapidated breakfast shop in an old alley, the voices of the coming and going diners were noisy. The steam from the steaming hot steamers emitted a strong soy sauce fragrance, mixed with the fragrance of the new tea brewed at each table.

The breakfast shop was a well-known old brand that had been on this street for decades. Even though the decoration was dilapidated, the tables and chairs had long since been placed outside the shop.

At this moment.

A beautiful woman who had occupied a large round table in the corner and had ordered several plates of breakfast was attracting the sidelong glances of the diners—

Not only because of the amount of breakfast on the table, which was obviously inconsistent with her appetite, but also because of her particularly stagnant expression after she had only moved her chopsticks once.

Her pure black long hair, as smooth as silk, was already uncommon in this era, like a piece of precious fabric. And her skin, as white as a pearl, and her delicate facial features, although the sun was only shining on the street outside, made people feel that this breakfast shop was also bright.

The owner had originally been greeting other familiar old customers in his local dialect. After looking at her a few times, he also rarely began to doubt the quality of his breakfast today, so he asked in a broken Mandarin:

“Pretty lady, are you from out of town? Do you think it’s too bland and not flavorful enough?”

She came back to her senses.

Her dark eyes met the owner’s concerned gaze.

However, there was no feedback on the tip of her tongue, which was completely different from the taste that other humans should have when enjoying delicious food, let alone the saltiness.

She was thinking about whether this was a technical problem with her surgery, or a defect after the fusion, or just that the monster’s sense of taste was different from that of humans, and that she did not eat these delicacies.

Now.

The owner was still patiently waiting for her feedback, so she curved her lips and showed a very beautiful smile—

This was the most beautiful smile she had practiced in front of a mirror, based on the appearance of female stars when they smiled, which she had accidentally seen in a magazine and on a television commercial.

According to her observation.

A smile was a way for humans to show a friendly attitude, and it was also conducive to showing charm and reducing aggression.

“No,” she replied in a gentle tone. “I was just thinking, some of my colleagues have just finished their night shift, and it’s just the right time for a change of shift. I’ve ordered a little too much, so I was wondering if I should just pack it up and eat it with them.”

The owner immediately smiled and said, “Okay, our takeaway is very cheap. Where do you work? Why do you have to work all night?”

Lin Ran stood up from the table and gestured for him to look at the hospital across the street.

The sign of Nanshan Hospital and the huge word “Emergency” on the first floor were equally conspicuous.

The owner then praised her, “Amazing. This is the most difficult hospital in our city to get an appointment for. You’re working here at such a young age. You must be a top student.”

Lin Ran smiled and waited for him to call someone from his family to come and give her a takeaway box.

As she left with the many breakfasts, a thought couldn’t help but pop into her mind:

It seems I’ve been tricked.

Even after coming ashore, I can’t taste anything delicious.

Unfortunately, the human with whom she had made the agreement, after leaving her with this memory, even her soul had shattered, as if she were unwilling to be a human for another second.

She would rather turn into wind and rain, and walk this mortal world once more.

…

The staff on duty in the emergency department of Nanshan Hospital had a delicious breakfast this morning, thanks to the intern. When she went to check on the condition of the patient she was in charge of in the ICU, while it was still quiet, a few nurses started chatting.

“That fierce couple who came to find her before, have they come recently?”

“What do you mean, come? The DNA has already been tested. There’s no blood relationship at all. Their blood types are different from hers. The police have come several times and said that if they continue to harass ordinary people like this, they will be detained. I estimate they’re scared.”

“Oh, I think Little Lin is also quite pitiful. Didn’t she get diagnosed with some tumor at the Second Affiliated Hospital of the neighboring city before? It turned out to be a mistake in the imaging, and she was also pestered by that crazy couple, which made her unable to continue her internship there, and she had to rest for a month…”

“That’s right. It’s already very difficult to study medicine these days. She also grew up in an orphanage, and she’s so smart. Whatever you tell her, she gets it right away. But she had to run into those two lunatics.”

“Maybe her luck was bad in the first half of the year, so now it’s turned for the better, right? Coming here for an internship, isn’t her resume more beautiful than at the Second Affiliated Hospital?”

“That’s true. The director’s family went on a trip before, and he forgot to bring his medicine and had a heart attack on the high-speed train. She just happened to save him. She didn’t want any bonus, just an internship opportunity. What a good child. Anyway, now the director of the emergency department, Lin, likes her very much—”

“Her papers are also beautifully written. Director Lin might not be able to keep her. She might want to focus on research in the future and enter a research institute.”

“So talented in clinical work? What kind of research? I’m not kidding. This batch of interns, their academic qualifications all look about the same, but none of them can compare to her. And she also has this life-saving grace with the director. She will definitely be able to stay here after her rotation, and she will be directly under the director.”

The nurses chatted idly, talking about the complex network of relationships in the hospital. Until a patient in the emergency infusion area rang the bell to change his medicine, and the ambulance that had just gone out also happened to bring back a new patient, they all dispersed and went about their own business.

Intern Lin Ran, twenty-five years old this year.

She had been at Nanshan Hospital for many years.

From internship rotation, to resident, attending physician, deputy chief physician to chief physician. Even though every step she took was much further than her peers, she was able to write papers with beautiful impact factors while working late shifts and seeing patients, and published them one after another.

But she found that human personalities were strange and varied, and so were their diseases. Ten years was indeed… not enough for her to complete that person’s highest dream.

Fortunately.

In her third year on shore, there happened to be a special low-level marine creature that was parasitizing a human body. It was hidden in the crowd of medical troublemakers, and when it rushed toward her, its hidden sharp pincers cut through the corner of her clothes.

The two of them were stunned at the same time.

The [Parasite] was puzzled why it had not succeeded in gouging out a piece of flesh from her to eat, while she stared straight ahead, smelling the unique fragrance released by the combination of human flesh and blood and the sea creature, as if they had been mutually marinated.

So fragrant.

It looks so delicious.

Lin Ran’s gaze was too direct. She had unconsciously released her own aura, which had actually made the man take a step back. And she had also followed forward.

For a moment, it was as if the doctor had forced the troublemaker to retreat step by step.

She smiled again.

A monster that had been in human society for many years had learned another meaning of a smile, to use friendliness to hide her true thoughts, and thus to let the other party let down their guard.

Just like the mimicry she was born with, it was a means of disguise.

Before the security guards could rush over, she had gathered her aura and returned to her pure human appearance. She said to the troublemaker, “I don’t mind communicating with you again. Is it convenient to change to another place?”

She had to know.

Was this guy just smelling good, or… was he really delicious?

The [Parasite] was originally afraid of the strange threat it had felt for a moment, but seeing that she had the heart to invite him to leave this crowded area, and would not let the strong security guards come over, it looked as if she were a meal that was insistently being served up.

The man licked his dry lower lip. “Okay, doctor.”

…

Lin Ran finally found a delicious food on shore.

She carefully wove Nancheng into her nest, never interfering with the choices of these [Parasites], and let them gradually grow stronger in her territory, and even released a signal to the ocean that “there is a lot of food here, everyone come quickly.”

She was a lone hunter.

She would only silently number each of the growing prey she found in her mind, and then, when they were mature, she would appear, harvest, and then try to describe the layers of their flesh and blood with the taste that humans described.

Until the seventh year.

This year, Lin Ran was thirty-two years old.

The varieties of mutated species in the deep sea were becoming more and more abundant, and more and more monsters were coming ashore. Even the more intelligent ones among the [Parasites] wanted to form a hunting alliance and treat Nancheng as their playground.

They agreed to meet at a particularly exquisite hotel.

Xiangshan South Road, Sheraton.

Accidentally reading this signal from the memory of a prey she was eating, Lin Ran was curious about it.

Her food seemed to have changed. From simply having an appetite for humans, to wanting to satisfy other, higher-level desires. She wanted to go and see if this was because the mutated creatures in the sea were constantly evolving, or if there were other influencing factors on them.

She naturally infiltrated that monster gathering.

She watched as those well-dressed monsters tricked the waiters and managers of the hotel into coming in, knocking them out, and then hiding them in various shadows, as if they were going to treat these people as reserve food, or as new shells for their descendants to live in.

She was very interested, and was happy to see her menu become more and more abundant.

Until.

A slightly timid figure, exuding the aura of a harmless herbivore like a little white rabbit, also appeared at the door in a daze.

Her light-colored hair was carefully styled, curly, soft, and fell on the shoulders of her white dress. Even though she was not smiling, and looked difficult to approach—

But her aura could not deceive the [Parasites] who regarded her as food.

Her tightly pressed lips showed her timidity.

She looked as if she were very reluctant to enter.

Her sparkling silver high heels stopped in front of the brand-new red carpet, as if she had a vague premonition of her future fate. Perhaps in the near future, the flesh and blood of her delicate skin, after being cut open, could also be spread into such a bloody carpet.

And just standing at the door, a monster in human skin, who was unscrupulously coveting her, suddenly opened its mouth and invited her, “Won’t you come in?”

Lin Ran had not originally intended to interfere with her prey’s search for a buffet.

But the thing that the girl was carefully holding in her hand was more attractive to the [Monarch Slayer] than she herself.

In the transparent pink crystal bottle, there seemed to be a microscopic little world, with a little person made of colored clay inside, and a small artificial moon at the mouth of the bottle, its light gathering around it.

She suddenly remembered seeing the [Lighthouse] when she had first approached the ‘Eternity.’ At that time, she was also like the little person on the mountain rock in this bottle, and could only look up to be illuminated by this little bit of light.

Until she had come to land.

And had seen the real bright moon and sun.

She was still in a daze, but the voices of her tentacles pulled her back to reality:

【A bottle?】

【I want it! I want that!】

【Pretty! Pretty! I want a bottle!】

And it was at this moment.

The girl who had accidentally stepped into the monster’s hunting ground also seemed to be invisibly intimidated by the dark, surging danger in the shadows. Although she was walking on a flat carpet, she was tripped by the edge.

She was about to fall with the bottle.

If the bottle were to shatter, it would surely pierce her flesh and blood. At that time, the sweet smell of human flesh and blood would spread, and it would surely tempt the [Parasites], who were still barely maintaining their composure and were lurking, to reveal their ugly original forms.

And so.

By the time Lin Ran had reacted, she had already appeared in front of the other, and had steadily caught both the person and the bottle.

…Although just catching the bottle would have been fine.

She was puzzled by herself, but she caught a glimpse of the card that the other was holding along with the bottle. On it was written that this was a gift she had personally made and was going to give away.

So she had made it herself.

Then if she could make one, she could surely make a second one?

The tentacles heard her thoughts and were overjoyed, and all of them said: 【I want it, I want it!】

【This one! Mine!】

【One, two, three… nine! Nine bottles! Make nine bottles!】

Disturbed by their overly enthusiastic tone.

Lin Ran looked at the crystal bottle in the other’s hand again. It was indeed beautiful and exquisite, and the concept was also very clever.

And so she happily changed her mind.

She decided to temporarily fight with her prey for food.

“What a beautiful bottle,” her sparkling eyes went from the crystal bottle to its owner’s face, and met those light-colored eyes. She used her usual charming tone and asked, “Can you give it to me?”

The card was not signed.

But the content said, “I’m so lucky to have met you at this blind date.”

Lin Ran unilaterally declared that today’s gathering was a blind date, and familiarly brought herself into the new role of a blind date. When the other seemed to be bewitched by her voice and appearance, and was just staring at her blankly, she quickly took the initiative.

“Have you found a blind date?”

Probably not, right?

Because she was the first person she had met.

Sure enough, the girl shook her head slightly.

Unknowingly, Lin Ran’s smile deepened. She pulled the person up to stand. “Is this the gift you’re going to give?”

Since this gift could only be given to a blind date.

“I’ll be your blind date. My name is Lin Ran—”

“Can you give me the gift?”

She didn’t seem to have tried a relationship in human society yet.