Chapter 7 - Corpse Parasite

As the light came again, the cement-coloured room was as bright as day. Shu Jun, whose fighting instinct had been carved into his bones, grabbed Zhu Yanchen and jumped onto the pipes above their heads. The pipes creaked and sprayed out steam, blurring their shadows and giving them a fantastic hiding spot.

Although Shu Jun had regained his consciousness and was feeling a lot better, the strange sensation of being eroded by the marsh still remained on his skin.

The situation had turned incredibly odd. While Zhu Yanchen’s earlier explanation sounded logical, Shu Jun didn’t intend to buy it right away — All this new information was too horrifying, and he hadn’t gotten to understand the real motive behind Zhu Yanchen’s actions. He wouldn’t just straight away believe whatever the guy was telling him.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t rush to say anything either. He put on his face mask and let Shu Jun silently grab him.

The corpse handler paced back and forth along the edge of the pit that contained Erosion Marsh, and the sound of the marsh’s air bubbles echoed in the space. He, or she, shed light on a few secluded corners of the room with a torchlight, but didn’t search the pipes, which were located at a height of more than two meters. Unable to find anything after a while, the corpse handler gave up walking around, but they didn’t seem to want to leave either.

Shu Jun was a little nervous. He was counting on that person to leave quickly, so that he could have the time to properly question Zhu Yanchen. This extremely gloomy place’s erosion was so severe that even the naked eye could see it, and Shu Jun wondered if there was any good reason to remain here.

The two patiently waited for a long moment, but instead of the corpse handler leaving, a loud knock came from the building’s front door.

Really, what I fear is what I always get. It was already so late at night. Was there going to be a party at this corpse disposal place?

The knocking became faster and faster, even mixed in with the sounds of someone screaming. Shu Jun immediately put all his questions at the back of his mind and straightened his back. It was now late at night in a desolate and heavily eroded zone, where plenty of mutated monsters wandered nearby, many of which could mimic human voice.

He had no idea what plan Zhu Yanchen had in mind at the moment, but he himself was defenseless without a single weapon in hands. He shouldn’t act rashly.

The corpse handler also looked astonished. They took out the gun from their waist and slowly leaned against the door.

The knock on the door became weaker and weaker as the screams became louder and louder, carrying with them an unbearable sense of despair. Through the observation window on the heavy metal door, the corpse handler looked out. No one knew what they saw, but they paused for a few seconds and eventually decided to open the door.

Three wounded soldiers rushed in. Their faces were fully concealed behind gas masks and their expressions couldn’t be seen. The leading man looked like an officer, and the other two behind him was dragging the body of a mutated monster that was full of bullet holes. As the corpse handler saluted them, the leading officer panted and opened his mouth: “If we didn’t kill this thing, would you not plan to open this door?”

“We’re in bad times now, I hope you can understand…” The corpse handler feebly responded. Surprisingly, that was the voice of a woman — Her arms and legs were long and her body was tall and sturdy, making it difficult to distinguish her gender under the protective clothing.

“The signal earlier couldn’t go through, so we have to rush here to give you urgent information. Who wants to run into an eroded zone this late into the night? Please do not misunderstand our intention.” Seeing the corpse handler’s stupefied expression, the officer only let out a few complaints and had no further intention to burden her. “It’s just nice that we’re here. Xiao Sun, you and Xiao Li go dispose of that thing’s body.” 

The corpse handler’s body stiffened, as if she was trying to say something, but in the end no words came out.

The two wounded soldiers continued to drag the monster towards the mini Erosion Marsh. Shu Jun narrowed his eyes. As the instinct of a combatant flashed in his mind, Shu Jun could feel the abnormality in the scene in front of him — The two wounded soldiers were limping and pulling the monster’s body away, while the leading officer was walking behind them, keeping a consistently close distance. Looking closely, although the three of them had irregular steps, their movements and frequencies were exactly the same.

All the hairs on Shu Jun’s body stood up.

That was Corpse Parasite, one of the monsters that players hated the most. It was essentially a ball of straw-like limbs that stealthily moved around eroded zones. This thing liked to get inside the bodies of normal mutated monsters, control them to attack humans, then pretend to be defeated. When humans thought that they had won, it would leave the monsters’ bodies and jump into the humans through the gaps on their protective clothing.

It would inject the human bodies with a anaesthetising venom, gnaw on their flesh silently, then use its straw-like limbs to replace the eaten flesh and fill up the space below the clothing. Since humans were always entirely covered behind thick layers of clothing inside eroded zones, it was difficult to detect the presence of Corpse Parasite.

By the time the victims noticed, their bodies would be left with only the skeleton and a little bit of nerves, and only the head would still be intact.

How a Corpse Parasite hunted down its prey was certainly creepy, but that wasn’t the worst thing about it — Corpse Parasite didn’t actually always have to eat humans; it specifically attacked humans for a reason.

Compared with normal mutated monsters, the severely mutated Corpse Parasite was particularly dependent on Erosion Marsh, and there was even a symbiotic relationship between the two. It deliberately left behind the human head and let this unknowing human live on for a while to bring the parasite to places where the extent of erosion wasn’t too high — Then, as soon as the victim died, it would report these locations to Erosion Marsh.

It basically acted like Erosion Marsh’s hunting hound.

In this way, Erosion Marsh could spread further and worsen the extent of erosion in various areas, which could provide Corpse Parasite with more environments to live. This became a perfect win-win situation for both of them, but it was undoubtedly a disaster for mankind.

In the past ten years, Shu Jun might not have killed a thousand, but at least a few hundreds of these Corpse Parasites. He was very familiar with this kind of thing — When it controlled multiple bodies at once, it wouldn’t be able to simulate a completely different pace of actions for each body. In order to cover up this defect, it would control the mutated monsters to injure its human victims, making them unable to walk normally. But upon careful observation, the defect could be detected.

This is bad.

Although the heads of the three soldiers were still alive, they could only hold on for a while more. Without any weapons and with only his abilities, he could at best disperse the ‘straws’ but wouldn’t be able to kill it completely. Their current hiding place could only deceive human eyes, and when the Corpse Parasite emerged from those soldiers’ bodies, everyone in the room would become a target.

If he wound up a hurricane, he might be able to break through the window in the corner of the wall. If the speed was fast enough, he could run away with Zhu Yanchen in one hand and the corpse handler in the other. But he was unsure what was going on with his body now, or whether he could successfully carry out this series of actions.

Zhu Yanchen, who had been silent all this while, also started moving. He took out his gun and stared at the three soldiers below.

“Marshal Zhu Yanchen is missing. If anything happens nearby, you must report it immediately.” The officer was totally oblivious of his imminent death.

“Then what about the Erosion Marsh here? Marshal Zhu has always been in charge of this place…” The corpse handler raised her head.

“Just monitor this Erosion Marsh’s stats as usual and report any abnormalities at once. Marshal Yi Ning will arrange for someone to deal with it…” The officer nodded, then his voice suddenly became laggy like a broken audio tape: “Deal with it, with it, with it……”

The two wounded soldiers next to him also fell down, and a grey straw-like object poked out from under their protective clothing, making the three suits collapse entirely. The three persons slumped on the ground as their suits started crumpling like deflated balloons, and the outlines of their rib cages could vaguely be seen.

The corpse handler screamed, dropping the gun she was loosely holding in her hands to the ground. From not far away, the mini Erosion Marsh began to boil, making a soft howl that sounded as though it was calling out.

Zhu Yanchen’s body tensed up: “This is troublesome.”

It was indeed troublesome, because Corpse Parasite shouldn’t act so quickly. Shu Jun firmly grabbed Zhu Yanchen, studied the position of the corpse handler and got ready to take the two of them to run away. But as soon as he rushed out, he directly came face to face with the Corpse Parasite. Shu Jun stretched out one hand at the rotting pile of ‘straws’, trying to blow it away to buy more time.

The Erosion Marsh’s howl was getting louder and louder, as if calling to something.

As soon as he tried to mutter some strength, Shu Jun’s originally clear mind became blurry again, and he could hardly think.

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Amid the eerie howl, he suddenly felt that the Corpse Parasite in front of him was pleasing to the eye, just like a domestic puppy that was playing around and showing its belly to the owner. The mini Erosion Marsh on his side also no longer seemed that disturbing, rather, it was the light above his head that felt overly bright and very irritating for some reason.

As for the person next to him, Shu Jun thought he seemed to be… delicious.

He was feeling hungry.

So he pressed the person to the ground. The moment Shu Jun leaned down, a cold muzzle was pressed against his glabella.

“Hold it in.” Zhu Yanchen’s tone wasn’t so distant, instead, it sounded a little cautious, as if he was coaxing an injured animal. “You have survived twice and won’t lose this time. Don’t let it take over you.”

These words could penetrate Shu Jun’s mind, but he couldn’t understand their meaning.

Just as he couldn’t understand the meaning of the coldness between his eyebrows.

Shu Jun leaned his head downwards, trying to sniff Zhu Yanchen’s neck. Zhu Yanchen neither trembled nor pulled the trigger; he just pressed the muzzle a little harder.

“Shu Jun.” The way he called out the name sounded like a long sigh.

Shu Jun swallowed and began to tear Zhu Yanchen’s protective clothing with his claws. He was slightly confused about his current state.

Maybe I shouldn’t do this, but I’m really hungry.

Zhu Yanchen raised his hand that wasn’t holding the gun, as if he wanted to give Shu Jun a hug, but his motion stopped in mid-air.

“I don’t want to say ‘I am sorry’ anymore.” His voice was very low, and he didn’t know whether it was for Shu Jun or for himself.

For some reason, the Corpse Parasite was obediently waiting by the side, and the mini Erosion Marsh not far away from them was still howling. Zhu Yanchen closed his eyes and yelled at the corpse handler that had been scared stiff: “Turn on the purifier and suppress the Erosion Marsh!” 

The corpse handler obviously didn’t intend to ask where these two men appeared from. Her body shook up, then she started running towards the nearest control console. Activating the purifier wasn’t a task that could be done by just pressing a button, and she was so nervous that she couldn’t even get the first step right even after a some time.

Zhu Yanchen stared intently at Shu Jun, his finger never leaving the trigger.

Shu Jun knew he mustn’t bite down. At this distance, he could feel the other person’s body temperature. This temperature was like a basin of cold water that was keeping his last piece of consciousness. He knew that he shouldn’t hurt this guy, but a force seemed to be twisting his head and burning his stomach. Shu Jun tried to open his eyes, attempting to make his blurred vision clearer.

It felt a bit like he was struggling inside the Erosion Marsh.

His hand was pressing on Zhu Yanchen’s chest, whose sturdy protective clothing had been torn apart by him. His opaque black claws left very thin scratches on the guy’s skin, where a little blood was dripping out. Luckily, he hadn’t applied too much force. Shu Jun tried to suppress the impulse to attack and stabilised his breathing.

The distinct sound of some erosive substance flowing was ringing in his ears. Together with the scream of the corpse handler and the howl of the Erosion Marsh, all these sounds were becoming louder and louder.

“What is that?” The woman’s voice was drenched with fear. She even ignored the Corpse Parasite and just looked straight: “What did you bring here?!”

What is she talking about?

Shu Jun shifted his gaze and he saw his other arm — His left arm was in a half-melted state, and the dark erosive substance streamed down his skin, forming a tiny marsh next to Zhu Yanchen.

“Shu Jun.” Zhu Yanchen called him again.

Shu Jun moved the half-melted arm, and the erosive substance that was scattered on the ground just a moment ago floated back into place, forming a normal arm again.

With this recovery, even though the corpse handler had failed to activate the purifier, the Erosion Marsh’s howl slowly came to a stop.

“…Are you awake now?” Zhu Yanchen sounded relieved.

Then he smoothly pressed Shu Jun’s head into his arms, slid the muzzle upwards and fired several shots behind Shu Jun’s back. Zhu Yanchen’s bullets were obviously specially made, which immediately turned the Corpse Parasite’s parts that came into contact with the bullets into powder.

After a few shots, the Corpse Parasite lost its obedient look just now. With a disfigured body, it frantically rushed towards the two of them.

Shu Jun didn’t stay still. He lightly pushed his body up and rolled off Zhu Yanchen. The moment his ability was activated, a storm came up and the straw-like monster was blown onto the wall at the other end of the building.

Sure enough, his power was much stronger than before, but it was also very difficult to control. The monster was blown away and the whole wall collapsed. The night fog quickly filled the room as the interior of the building was instantly lit up with the blood-red shade of alert lights.

“Assuming that what you’re saying is true, it’s just a hypothesis. I guess the concentration of erosive substance in my body can no longer be measured by ‘concentration’.” 

Shu Jun glanced at his arm. The discomfort of his consciousness being drowned just now hadn’t fully subsided.

He had fought with Erosion Marsh and mutated monsters for ten years, and was very familiar with various erosion conditions. Looking at the condition of his arm just now, it didn’t seem to be eroded at all, rather, it was more like the erosive substance spontaneously came together to form his arm.

“Earlier, you said ‘Don’t let it take over you.’ Corpse Parasite of course cannot take over me, and neither can the corpse handler. Although I hope you were referring to the mini Erosion Marsh, I have another guess.”

Back then, when he woke up after being swallowed by Erosion Marsh in the championship round, the mutated monster that passed by didn’t attack him. The same thing happened again with the Corpse Parasite just now — this thing should only submit to Erosion Marsh and never show any kindness to its own kins. If Shu Jun had only become a new mutated monster, it wouldn’t be so polite.

He started to feel something wrong after hearing the sounds made by the tiny Erosion Marsh. The howl at the time sounded more like a confirmation of his identity, rather than an attempt to control him.

“…Is there an Erosion Marsh hidden inside me?”

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