"Hoh, hoh..." The parasite slithered across the floor, jaws locked around a chunk of bloody flesh, mumbling incoherently as it feasted.
"Stay away! Monster! Get away from me!"
He'd only gone out for a little while—how had a monster ended up in his own home?
Worse yet, this creature looked just like the synthesized videos he'd seen online—no, it was identical.
The young man tried to muster his courage, mumbling reassurances to himself, until he recognized the familiar clothing draped over the monster's writhing frame. His face drained of color.
"This... this can't be!"
"Mom..."
He didn't even have time to react; the creature pounced, its fangs closing around his throat in a flash.
............
It took barely half a day for things to spiral out of control. The parasites began surfacing one after another, impossible now to keep hidden from public view.
Discussion of the mutated people exploded across the internet, so much that even the authorities couldn't suppress it.
"Aagh... monster!"
A young woman screamed as her arm was savagely bitten off. Her terrified expression was all too real, but clueless netizens still joked about how realistic the video effects were.
[Shanmao: These composited vids are getting more and more common lately. Tsk, the officials already said they're staged, but people keep believing it's real! Unreal.]
[Hongshao Qiezi: Hold on before dismissing it—these don't look fake to me. If creatures like this really started showing up... Just thinking about it gives me nightmares!]
[Fandui Fengjian Mixin: Stop spreading rumors, people! What century is this? Trust the state, trust the army. Reporting this video.]
[...]
A howl of agony, and the recording cut off abruptly.
Had the locals still not noticed something wrong with their own families? Or... had they already become kin to the parasites themselves?
"Parasite"—that was the name everyone had agreed to call these monsters.
Ye Shu tossed her tablet onto the sofa and stretched out languidly.
It was the nineteenth day of the game. The sun was bright and clear.
Yet, uninvited guests now stalked the streets in broad daylight: the parasites, unable to restrain themselves any longer, had begun attacking citizens throughout the city.
"Someone! Call the police—there's another monster!"
A middle-aged man had not stepped far from his door before running into a half-human, half-beast parasite. The sight made his knees tremble so badly, he could barely stand.
"Hoh, hoh..."
Hearing the noise, the creature's fragmented face turned in the man's direction. Its gait was unsteady, but mercifully, he managed to slam the door and lock it outside.
"Bang, bang—"
Slumping against the door, drenched in cold sweat, the man fumbled for his phone and dialed the police, his voice shaking uncontrollably: "Hello... is this the police? I'm at the XX complex... there's a monster right outside my door... help me, please."
After a while, the pounding stopped.
Peeking through the spyhole, he saw nothing out there—no sign of the monster at all.
Panic-stricken, he flipped open the security feed.
As he'd feared— the creature hadn't left. It was simply hiding just out of sight from the peephole's angle.
The man's heart nearly stopped. The monster could scheme, too? If he hadn't installed that camera just a few days before, he would have walked right into its trap.
Reports of attacks by these aberrant creatures mounted rapidly.
The middle-aged man's footage soon made its way online as well. But by then, parasites had already begun to appear across the country—no one had the luxury to worry about internet videos anymore.
Day nineteen of the game.
The city’s alarms wailed.
Every household bolted its doors, staying locked inside. Not just in Jing City—the epidemic of parasites stalked the streets, nationwide.
Within a single day, people everywhere accepted the grim reality: parasites were here. The invasion had begun.
Ye Shu, ever vigilant, had once posted a warning to the game world's natives on the day it rained, urging them not to consume the water—yet, no one had paid her any heed.
The Mo Family.
Once resplendent, the Mo villa now lay in utter ruin, every inch of the floor strewn with shattered antiques and wilting flowers.
Mo Chengzhou’s face was ashen. Days before, he'd lavished fortunes for the sake of a beauty—welcoming Bai Xiaolian into the household. Not two days after, everything unraveled: Mo Jiugé sold off his company shares and barely escaped the city, nearly being devoured by monsters himself...
At the critical moment, he'd shoved Bai Xiaolian forward, using her as a human shield—only then had he managed to escape with his life.
Parasites roamed this part of town in force; all the household staff had long since fled. Now, only he remained.
For the first time, Mo Chengzhou found himself this desperate, this alone.
............
Ye Shu and her companions had chosen a rental in a sparsely populated district. The others were a little too interested in the parasites—everyone except Pang Pangzi, who desperately wished to lay low and survive until the game ended, even if it meant missing out on all the intrigue.
The group divided tasks amongst themselves, rotating daily patrols around the villa's perimeter.
Today was Su Bai's turn.
Fortunately, parasites in this area were rare. The few that did appear had been swiftly dispatched.
At least they had received venom from Fu Shiyi; ordinary weapons weren’t enough to kill the parasite spawn.
Peeling off her heavy protective suit and disinfecting herself thoroughly, Su Bai accepted a towel and a bottled water Pang Pangzi handed her. "Shushu, I'm back! Not many monsters here—and you were right about the rumors. There's a shelter being set up outside the suburbs, the military's begun clearing out those disgusting crawlers..."
Su Bai guzzled down half the water in one go. She couldn't shake the memory of hacking a parasite into several pieces—it still made her skin crawl.
She'd never seen monsters this revolting before.
No matter how many times she saw them, the revulsion never lessened.
Once the human body was parasitized, the creature wasted no time laying its eggs—dozens of thousands of them, in everyone she’d encountered. Su Bai wore her suit just to be safe.
"You did great."
Ye Shu didn't even bother to look up from her phone, her gaze glued to Fu Jingchuan's latest corrupted video.
Those who had checked out of the hospital all suffered from massive amnesia... but Ye Shu clearly remembered seeing some patients’ irises change color, as captured in a few videos.
Yet, based on the previous number of hospitalizations, there weren't nearly enough parasites roaming about. It just didn't add up.
She’d researched online: by official accounts, over a million people in Jing City alone had been released from hospitalizations for syncope—more than enough to overrun an entire city. Even their suburban location couldn’t explain the lack of parasites in their area.
There was something weird about it. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on what.
Could it be, inhaling the white fog only caused minor mutations, and didn't actually open the door to parasitic infection?
Was it only those who ingested rainwater who transformed into parasites...?
Ye Shu opened her light screen.
The world channel was still ablaze with activity.
[Xiaobaitu Naitang: Coordinates Q City. Every residential area nearby has fallen. I'm surrounded by mutants, can't leave my house at all. These monsters move slowly but are hyper-sensitive to sound. There's one right outside my door—help, I can't make a sound.]
[Kawaii: I hid out in the mountains from the start, but ended up having to fight over supplies with other players. Never thought those players would all be turned into mutants themselves.]
[Xiao Huanxiong: Anyone else noticed these mutants just won't die? I hacked one up, burned it, drowned it—it still keeps wriggling... It's insane!]
Ye Shu arched an eyebrow.
Of course. They'd run the tests themselves.
Parasites didn’t fear flame or water. As long as there was a water source, they’d regenerate, seemingly from nothing.
That was what vexed her most.
The number of players was dropping by the second. This dungeon was proving to be an ordeal beyond compare.