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Chapter 206: The Fog Returns (14)

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"Not just thick—the filth is incredible... It's made a mess of my sword."
Ye Shu muttered under her breath, her eyes drifting carelessly toward the heap of mangled flesh on the floor.
As long as it’s solid, I can deal with it. If it were still just mist, even I would be helpless.
"Huh, still kicking? Not quite dead yet."
Though Ye Shu’s sword had sliced its throat, the thing on the ground—no, it could hardly be called a person—twitched and heaved, blood oozing. Black, glistening egg cases spilled from empty sockets where eyes should have been.
"Snap..."
She wiped her wooden sword clean, then hacked the abomination into several pieces.
Yet even then, from the scattered lumps there came a soft, uncanny inhaling—faint, but unmistakably alive.
"Immortal and undying, is it?"
"Let’s see just how many lives you have."
Ye Shu spoke aloud, half to herself, her gaze flickering unintentionally toward Lin Qing behind her.
Was that a signal for him?
Had Little Shu seen through him? For a moment, Lin Qing tensed—but in the next, his composure returned, giving nothing away.
The Fu brothers had seen plenty of horrors before, and took it in stride. Fu Shiyi, in particular, wore an oddly excited smile, out of place yet genuine. "Sister Ye, this creature looks just like those parasitic entities I've seen before! I knew it—the white mist turns people into half-human, half-ghost hosts... Sister, can I dissect it? We might learn something useful for clearing the game."
Ye Shu had seen this side of Fu Shiyi too many times to be surprised. She spread her hands, gesturing toward the door. "Suit yourself. But take it outside."
"Urgh..."
Pang Pangzi wasn’t standing far off, and he had a clear view. Though he'd witnessed his share of grisly scenes, he couldn’t hold it in—watching Fu Shiyi drag the quivering mound, he gagged, only just managing to keep his composure when he saw the others’ unfazed expressions.
He had to admit, following someone competent... really was a good feeling.
"Shu, is the real nature of the white mist these parasitic things?"
Su Bai, bold as ever, moved to Ye Shu’s side, unflinching as she studied the dissected mass, noting the black, thread-like eggs embedded in the ruined flesh.
"You could say that," Ye Shu replied, uneasy as she examined the remains.
The monster... seemed to have once been human. When did it start?
From the very first day of the white mist’s appearance? No, there hadn’t been hosts like these then.
Was it after the rain?
Human hosts supplied the parasite with ample nourishment, but after lying dormant all this time, why reveal itself now?
What had changed?
Ye Shu was at a complete loss. With the entire web sealed, there was no way to investigate.
At least she was grateful for her whim to bring along the Jiaoren. Without it, even she might have been parasitized—after all, the human body couldn’t detect the fog’s scent, only shielding itself at best.
"Jiaoren, is that stench still lingering?"
Ye Shu kept her eyes warily on the meat scraps as she shuffled back a few steps. The air was heavy with a slimy, oceanic tang that set her on edge.
"Master, the scent is fading... but it hasn’t gone completely,"
The Jiaoren’s gaze lingered on the lump of flesh, half-man, half-monster, now shredded beyond recognition.
"Unbelievable—it's still not dead?!"
Everyone in the living room went rigid. Pang Pangzi, who was the very definition of ‘deadweight’ in combat, went white as a sheet and cried out on the spot.
"That’s one way to put it," replied the Jiaoren, his indifference directed at everyone save Ye Shu. He gave Su Bai a pointed, almost mocking look.
Su Bai, who was usually at odds with the Jiaoren, just shrugged, unfazed this time.
.............
Fu Shiyi spent most of the night poking at the abomination, but in the end, it was to no avail.
No matter how thoroughly he carved it up, the parasitic host maintained a tenuous hold on life.
Day sixteen, in the game.
Clear skies.
It was as if none of this ever happened.
Seventeenth day.
The wind was gentle, the sun blazed overhead.
No fog, no rain—everything seemed perfect.
The group kept to the villa district, undisturbed and, truth be told, not particularly eager for new excitement.
All except for Fu Shiyi—aside from his strange, life-extending venom, he had found no effective way to fell the parasites. The poison he extracted from himself each day was in minuscule supply—useless against the relentless tide of white fog or the parasite-laden rain.
Night.
Hai Tian Apartment Complex.
Xie Yan was deep in uneasy sleep when, muffled and persistent, she heard chewing sounds at her door.
Climbing groggily from bed, she opened the door—and saw two monsters, crouched in the living room, tearing into raw flesh with greedy, gory bites.
"Monsters... there are monsters..." Xie Yan jolted fully awake, barely stifling a scream.
"What do I do..."
A lover of sci-fi, Xie Yan had seen her share of alien horrors on screen, but never dreamed of encountering them in the real world. She froze, helpless.
Looking closer, she recognized the clothes—her parents’ clothes.
Xie Yan clamped a hand over her mouth, struggling to believe the scene before her eyes.
"How... is this possible?"
She tried to keep her voice down, but hadn’t realized the half-open door could be yanked wide at any moment. She tumbled over backward, staring straight at the monsters’ gaping mouths. In a panic, she scrambled up again, slamming the door and locking it with a trembling hand.
"This isn’t real!"
"It can’t be! This has to be a nightmare—I'm still asleep, I must be."
She tried desperately to convince herself.
But then, from behind the door, came the too-familiar sound of knocking, and her mother's gentle voice: "Yanyan, my dear girl, what's wrong? Come open the door for Mama, good girl..."
It sounded exactly like her mother always had.
Which meant everything she’d just witnessed was no dream. It was real.
Xie Yan’s face went pale as ash, as if something terrible had just dawned on her.
Ever since her parents returned from the hospital, they'd been strange. There were always half-raw meals at the table—she had chalked it up to memory loss. Never did she imagine her loving family would become monsters.
"Yanyan, I’m your mother..."
The knocking didn’t abate. It grew into pounding.
Xie Yan clamped her hands over her ears, shaking uncontrollably. She called friends for help, but they said she was delusional—no one believed her.
She lived on the 23rd floor. There was nowhere to run.
The flimsy door couldn’t withstand much more. In her panic she clutched the baseball bat she kept beneath her desk.
"BANG—"
The door exploded inward.
Two monsters lunged for her. In the split second before they reached her, Xie Yan remembered—those friends were all hospitalized after inhaling the white mist.
.............
Game, day eighteen.
Online, there were now countless claims from people who had seen ‘aliens’.
These posts were backed up with details and even videos. The monsters looked just like the ones from the movies—upper body monstrous, lower half unsettlingly human—the same species as the parasite Ye Shu had killed two days before.
One post claimed the creature was none other than the poster’s mother, who had raised them for eighteen years.
[Li Hun With 800 Kids: WTF! Is that video fake? Looks way too real!]
[Big Fat Orange: Tch, these days you see people making fake rumors about their own moms online. Filial my ass.]
[Big Yellow Lass: My parents have been getting weird too, just like the posts say. They love raw meat. Lately our meals are half-cooked, I can barely swallow it.]
[.........]
There were dozens of similar posts.
Ye Shu raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Su Bai, sprawled bored on the sofa with snacks.
Looked like things were about to get interesting after all.