“Give it up!”

“There are countless parasites behind me, Sister Ye, you’ll never break through. But if you surrender and become my host, at least your corpse will remain whole.”

Zhao Yao’s eyes flickered in surprise. She hadn’t expected a mere human player to hold out against her for this long; anyone else would have stupidly run straight into the so-called sanctuary. But… how did she know? Was it the insects on the perimeter that gave it all away? If Ye Shu had known from the start that the sanctuary was an insect nest, she never would’ve come.

“Tch—”

“Become a disgusting parasite like you? That’s truly a fate worse than death! If it were me, I might just—slit my own throat.”

Ye Shu glanced swiftly at the encirclement meters away, searching for a gap—indeed, as Zhao Yao said, parasites crowded every direction; escape would be nearly impossible. But…

“How would you know unless you try?”

Ye Shu feared nothing less than death itself. Besides, she hadn’t even played all her cards yet.

Seizing the moment as Zhao Yao was distracted, Ye Shu raised the peachwood sword and thrust it—straight through her foe’s chest.

“Huh—huh…”

Caught entirely off guard, Zhao Yao staggered back a step, wounded. “Such a high-level artifact!” A burning pain ignited her innards. If not for her extraordinary regenerative powers, granted by the parasite, she’d have perished then and there.

Just as Ye Shu had guessed, Zhao Yao’s wound was nearly eighty percent healed within a few minutes. Worse, more parasites swarmed close.

Ye Shu decided to strike first—lopping off the heads of several closing parasites, then pulling a rocket launcher from her inventory and firing in every direction. The weaker parasites were blown to minced flesh by the blasts. Zhao Yao—slower to react—took a shell to the chest, leaving a bloody hole. To her high-level parasite body, however, it was no more than a trivial wound and would soon heal.

“Humans really don’t play fair!”

“Madwoman, I’ll kill you.” Zhao Yao seethed. However, even with two sets of memories—one of this body’s original owner and one of her own—she hadn’t expected this crazy woman to attack so desperately despite their overwhelming difference in power. In the game, Ye Shu was just a shameless girl clinging to others; in reality, just an ordinary person amid millions… Now, recalling those so-called memories made Zhao Yao’s head throb unbearably.

Zhao Yao glared venomously at Ye Shu’s defiant face and spat a curse.

“Thanks for the compliment.”

Ye Shu accepted the words with pride, not a hint of modesty in her demeanor. She coolly surveyed the rings of parasites on all sides, tossing out several bundles of dynamite. With an earth-shaking “boom,” the very soil beneath her feet erupted into deep craters. Yet Ye Shu stood untouched, not even her clothes so much as singed. All thanks to the shield she’d drawn from the system last time. Pity it was a single-use item, now entirely spent.

She exhaled, “Are they all dead?”

“Seems these parasites aren’t so indestructible after all. As long as you’ve got enough firepower, it’s possible to kill them.” Calmly taking in the mutilated limbs strewn about, Ye Shu opened her holoscreen to report to Su Bai and the others.

“What about Zhao Yao? Wasn’t she supposed to be a high-level parasite? Don’t tell me she died that easily?”

She dismissed the screen, eyes scanning her strange, unnervingly silent surroundings. The silence made her uneasy.

“Xiao Bai, can you smell Zhao Yao?”

The jiao-ren’s blue face turned crimson as he stammered, “I—I can’t… Last time I barely picked up her scent. Now she’s hiding it on purpose.” Would the master think he was useless? Next time, she might bring that ugly, stupid cat instead. Lost in thought, the merfolk didn’t miss the faint, bloody tang in the air. He paused, sending the anomaly to Ye Shu via psychic link.

Ye Shu gave a noncommittal grunt, her face impassive.

Suddenly, a tentacle burst from underground, stabbing toward her heart. Her peachwood blade twisted in midair, severing it cleanly. Hundreds more tendrils surged from the soil, each one aiming to drag her down—but every last one met the sword’s edge.

Ye Shu lobbed several grenades at the ground. She’d stocked up on small grenades at the game’s start; their explosive power was no joke, perfect for situations like this. System-made, tough as they came—a handful of thumb-sized grenades tore the earth to tatters, leaving the landscape pocked with craters.

After a stretch, Zhao Yao was forced to emerge from the soil. No longer human, she was now a monstrous black flesh-worm: a dozen glossy, sinister eyes, the bulky body of a silkworm pockmarked with hundreds of stumpy legs, rippling as she reared up.

“Ye Shu, are you not afraid I’ll kill you?”

Ye Shu had seen her fair share of horrors, but Zhao Yao’s true form made her skin crawl. This… this was revolting! So that’s why she’d always used a human body. Parasites could inherit their host’s memories…

Though Ye Shu hesitated only for a second, Zhao Yao caught the look of shock in her eye. It stung like a barb. Zhao Yao called out in ultrasonic frequencies, summoning even more parasites.

The jiao-ren’s nose was keen—within moments, he caught the overwhelming stench barreling toward them. “Master… a lot of bugs are coming our way!” He gagged, “Ugh, smells like rotting fish… I’ve never smelled anything so foul in my life.”

Transformed into his original form, the mermaid blocked Ye Shu with his body.

A parasite spat out human words—a girl’s childish voice issuing from the hulking, grotesque flesh-worm: “Tch, I really underestimated you. Turns out that useless ornamental fish is actually a monster!”

Ye Shu said nothing, hoisting her peachwood sword and launching into battle with Zhao Yao. As an advanced beast, the jiao-ren’s combat prowess was unrivaled; fighting normal parasites posed little problem. But over time, weariness set in, and scars multiplied along his tail. The transformed parasite’s hide and terrifying healing meant even Ye Shu’s sword could not easily end it.

Channeling her skills drained half her strength; soon, even gripping her sword became a struggle. Zhao Yao’s multitude of eyes watched her with twisted amusement. “If you’d just been my test subject from the start, all this could’ve been avoided. Now, you’ve inhaled my toxin… soon, you’ll end up a loathsome bug like me.”

There had to be a weakness! Ye Shu tried a sneak attack, blinding several of Zhao Yao’s eyes—but not only was it in vain, she inhaled a noxious parasite mist: white, thick fog, exactly like that at the game’s beginning. Her consciousness wavered.

With a gasp, she slashed her own arm, the pain sharpening her mind for a few fleeting seconds. She hurled handfuls of grenades with reckless abandon. A single grenade could turn all life within a kilometer to dust—she had a whole arsenal.

Seeing those micro-grenades, Zhao Yao broke out in a cold sweat. Her body was tough, but could not withstand this relentless barrage. “Madwoman—damn you, just let me go, stop throwing those!”

Half-blind, Ye Shu unloaded the entire contents of her storage armory, unleashing havoc upon Zhao Yao.

“Boom—”

Dozens of mushroom clouds erupted on the horizon. The meat-worm was blasted into gristly pieces, and Ye Shu was buried beneath the churned up earth.

Of course, Zhao Yao didn’t die. Her body disintegrated, but as a high-ranking parasite, with time she could recover—though it would take a very, very long time.

…

On the cramped truck, Su Bai’s heart started to race with dread. “Fatty, let’s go back. Shu-shu’s not back this late; something must have happened.”

A terrible premonition gnawed at Su Bai. She was certain—something had happened to Ye Shu.

“No way. That girl crawled out of the abyss alive once; this is just a regular dungeon, she won’t die.”

Still trembling, Su Bai opened her holoscreen. Her pinned friend—showed offline.