Xenoparasitism - Chapter 4

After his vision focused, the first thing Wei Chen saw was a shelf stocked with candy across from him. He stood there, dazed, for a moment before raising a hand to touch his chest. Apart from a hole in his outer garment over his heart, he had no other visible injuries. Yet beside him lay a set of clothes: a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, and a pair of sneakers. The sight was puzzling, but Wei Chen was grateful to be alive again.

The girl had stabbed him in the heart with a blade—a fatal wound. Fortunately, Wei Chen’s Undying Body, acquired from some unknown source, had saved him once more. As he touched his chest, his mind began to race. Recalling how Nan Liyue had appeared in the Supermarket, he realized there were indeed many puzzling aspects about her.

First, she had completely ignored the corpse at the checkout counter. Even after all the horrors Wei Chen had witnessed, the sight of such a body still made him uneasy. No matter how brave a girl might be, she couldn’t possibly remain so indifferent, could she? That left only one possibility: she had seen such scenes far more often than he had—so often that she had become numb to them.

Secondly, before attacking, she called herself an “Imposter.” This sounded like a term used by those monsters, meaning she considered herself one of them. But what criteria did she use to make that judgment? And since the girl seemed to know quite a bit, these “Imposter” monsters likely hadn’t just appeared last night.

Wei Chen scratched his head. “So, another plot to conceal the truth from the public, huh?”

He looked up and sighed, suddenly noticing a security camera directly facing his position. Wei Chen flinched, his heart pounding wildly. He had finally found a way to uncover the truth behind his Undying Body: that camera. This time, his blackout had been brief, and he had remained within the Supermarket. By reviewing the surveillance footage, he could see what happened during his unconscious moments—the critical period when he died and was resurrected.

Wei Chen rushed to the cashier’s counter, used a mop to push the male corpse aside, and squeezed behind it. The computer next to the register was still running, displaying the security footage as expected. He opened the playback interface and rewound the footage until he saw himself and Nan Liyue appearing beneath the shelves. Then he resumed normal playback speed.

In the footage, Wei Chen was turning around when Nan Liyue suddenly produced a weapon from nowhere and stabbed him in the back. Even though he had already come back to life, Wei Chen still bared his teeth at the sight. “That vicious girl didn’t even let me explain!”

Though he said this, Wei Chen could roughly understand the girl’s actions. If he were in her place, once he had determined someone was a monster, he likely wouldn’t hesitate to strike a fatal blow. Even so, Wei Chen still felt uneasy.

Looking back at the screen, he saw his on-screen self had already collapsed. The girl kicked him a few more times to confirm he was dead before picking up his backpack and walking away. It seemed she was still fixated on the canned luncheon meat inside.

“Greedy little glutton,” Wei Chen muttered. He was starting to lose his grasp on the girl’s personality, but he knew it was best to avoid such a dangerous creature.

As the footage continued, he lay motionless on the ground. After about five minutes, a shadow appeared on the left side of the frame. Then someone emerged—no, more accurately, it was one of those monsters called Imposters. Though it had a human-like form, its arms ended in mantis-like scythes, just like the monster police officer from the detention center earlier that day. The Imposter in the footage glanced at the surveillance camera, its eyes reflecting sharply in the lens like an animal’s. It approached Wei Chen’s prone body, plunged one of its scythe-like arms into his back, and lifted him upward.

Wei Chen slumped, his head and hands hanging limp, utterly still. The Imposter lunged forward, sinking its teeth into Wei Chen’s shoulder, sending blood spraying.

Wei Chen instinctively reached up to touch his shoulder, only to find his outer garment torn, yet his skin remained unscathed. Suddenly, his left hand in the footage lifted. Wei Chen’s heart leaped, and a voice screamed in his mind: It’s coming!

In the footage, the five fingers of his left hand began twitching erratically. Abruptly, the skin split open, erupting in a crimson mist. Within the bloody haze, Wei Chen’s left hand rapidly regenerated, his arm elongating violently. Dark red scales erupted from his elbow, spreading upward to encase his forearm. His palm swelled, bones and muscles reshaping into a Demonic Claw as large as a chair seat. The five fingers sprouted blood-red, metallic claws that gleamed with a lethal sheen. In the footage, Wei Chen swept this Demonic Claw across the Imposter’s body in a single motion. Even as five faint streaks of blood still hung in the air, the monster’s head and limbs were severed into pieces, its body collapsing to the ground simultaneously with Wei Chen.

Wei Chen gasped for breath, his image on the screen still lying motionless on the ground. Yet his left hand reached out to the Imposter’s body, pressing down on it. Moments later, the Imposter’s corpse began to collapse, like a withered eggplant. Soon, even its scattered limbs, blood, and the body beneath its clothes dissolved into black particles that swirled upward and vanished beneath the Demonic Claw. Watching this, Wei Chen finally understood how the clothes he’d found when he woke up had come to be—clearly left behind by a monster that had been annihilated without a trace.

But as he stared at his left arm on the screen, now resembling a demonic limb, Wei Chen couldn’t tell who was the greater monster: himself or the Imposter.

After the Imposter vanished, Wei Chen’s left arm slowly returned to its normal state. Moments later, his body twitched violently on the ground before he gradually sat up, leaning against a shelf. He remained motionless for about ten minutes before regaining consciousness.

At last, Wei Chen had uncovered the secret of his resurrection. The secret lay within his left arm, though many details remained unclear. What had the Demonic Claw done to the Imposter? How had it revived him? And most importantly, where had this Demonic Claw come from in the first place? The only certainty was that something extraordinary had occurred during the period between when he’d struck Lu Yinglan with his car and when the police woke him up.

At that moment, Wei Chen noticed three figures appearing outside the supermarket on the surveillance monitor. One of them looked directly at the camera, their eyes reflecting a strong glare.

Imposters!

Wei Chen scrambled into a Jeep Wrangler parked by the roadside. Fortunately, the keys were still in the ignition. He slammed the door shut, rolled up the windows, and fastened his seatbelt. After spotting the Imposters on the supermarket’s surveillance feed, he dared not exit through the main entrance and instead fled to the back of the building. He climbed out through the bathroom window and now had a vehicle at his disposal. With a car, getting around would be much easier. His plan remained unchanged, but without the backpack containing his food, he would have to rely on finding another supermarket along the way to replenish his supplies.

He turned the key, and the engine roared to life. Wei Chen wasn’t an experienced driver, let alone licensed. He had only practiced a few times with Big Head’s car back home. This was his first proper drive, and while excitement surged through him, a knot of nervousness tightened in his stomach. Thankfully, he remembered how to start the car. But as soon as the engine roared to life, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw several figures closing in behind him. One of them leaped onto a car, tentacles like an octopus sprouting from its back, swaying like a clump of seaweed.

Wei Chen cursed under his breath, spun the steering wheel, pressed the clutch, shifted gears, and steered the car forward. Behind him, several Imposters were closing in. Two ran on two legs like humans, while the third, with tentacles sprouting from its back, used all four limbs to sprint across the ground like a wild beast. Among the three monsters, Tentacle Man was the fastest. He periodically hooked his tentacles onto objects along the street, then yanked himself forward in a blur, rivaling Spider-Man in agility. Moments later, Wei Chen heard a thump on the car roof. The monster leaned down to peer at him through the windshield, its blood-red, pupil-less eyes burning into Wei Chen’s. With a violent surge, it slammed its head against the glass, shattering it into a spiderweb pattern. Gritting his teeth, Wei Chen stomped on the accelerator, the car surging forward. Just as they were about to crash into an ambulance parked sideways ahead, Wei Chen slammed on the brakes. The tires screeched against the Xinjiang Highway as the car skidded to a halt. The Imposter on the roof was flung off by the sudden stop, crashing into the ambulance and collapsing, unable to rise for the moment.

Seizing the opportunity, Wei Chen quickly turned the steering wheel and sped away down the street before the two Imposters behind him could catch up.

Dusk was approaching, and the setting sun cast a golden glow across the city. Wei Chen drove along a highway lined with parked vehicles. The city was eerily silent; he wondered where everyone had gone. Suddenly, a whistling sound filled the air. He stopped the car and leaned out the window to look up. Moments later, a helicopter appeared from the west, its loudspeaker broadcasting a message. As the helicopter flew over the highway where Wei Chen was stopped, he finally made out the words:

“Repeating: Residents remaining in the city, please proceed immediately to the Rescue Station at Xingli Reservoir. The government has arranged evacuation plans.”

The broadcast continued to repeat. Just as the helicopter passed a commercial building, several figures leaped from the rooftop and lunged at the aircraft. Gunfire erupted immediately. Moments later, the helicopter crashed into the building at an angle, its tail exploding in a fireball. The aircraft then swung around the building. A few seconds later, an explosion boomed from behind the structure.

Wei Chen scrambled into his car and started the engine. He pulled out a map he’d grabbed from a bookstore earlier and, while driving, located Xingli Reservoir. Quickly plotting a route, he steered the car toward the reservoir.

Now that the authorities were involved, there was no need to go to Spring God Mountain. The best course of action was to leave Chunshui City as soon as possible. Wei Chen had no desire to stay and play hide-and-seek with those monsters.

Xingli Reservoir was located in the western suburbs of Chunshui City. The Xinjiang Highway, which led to the reservoir, could be accessed via the western exit of the Dafeng Viaduct. By the time Wei Chen reached the viaduct, darkness had fallen. He switched on his headlights, and suddenly a figure darted into the beam. Wei Chen jolted in surprise!