Chapter 25: Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite
Neither of them slept a wink that night, though they didn't encounter any other danger or scares. However, this was merely their first patrol. Sooner or later, they were bound to run into trouble on one of their patrols.
Zhang Shou drove the car to a parking lot near the school and went to grab breakfast. Yu Xian did not need breakfast, so he headed to school first.
Chen Ling was already in the classroom, scrolling through gossip on her phone. When she saw Yu Xian, she was taken aback. "Salted Fish, you're early today."
Yu Xian went to his seat and smiled. "Morning. You're quite early yourself."
He placed his hand inside the drawer of his desk. With a flicker of his thought, silver threads appeared. In the blink of an eye, they wove themselves into a glove.
Compared to ordinary yarn used for knitting sweaters, the silver threads generated by Silver Blood were far easier to control. As long as he mastered the proper weaving techniques, he could create any armor he desired with a single thought.
Yu Xian practiced over and over again. Silver gloves materialized around his hands, disappeared, and then reformed, each cycle faster than the last. After reaching the point where he could weave a glove in 0.1 seconds, he extended it farther up his arm.
Chen Ling turned around. "Salted Fish, did you know—"
Stopping abruptly, she blinked and stared at Yu Xian. When Yu Xian had walked in just moments ago, he was clearly wearing their blue school uniform. But right now, he was clad in a silver trench coat, complete with a matching silver vest underneath.
A look of utter shock crossed Chen Ling's face. "You weren't changing clothes right behind my back, were you?"
The very instant Chen Ling blinked again, Yu Xian retracted all the silver threads. Chen Ling only felt her vision blur for a split second, and when she looked again, Yu Xian was back in his school uniform.
Confused, she muttered to herself, "Did I not sleep well last night?"
Yu Xian smiled. "What were you about to ask just now?"
Chen Ling glanced at his clothes with suspicion, but ultimately couldn't resist her urge to gossip. "Oh, right! Did you know? The Dragon King of the Eastern Sea has announced that he will enter the private armor manufacturing industry and produce equipment for ordinary humans that can resist attacks from supernatural beings."
The Dragon King of the Eastern Sea was merely a moniker. His real name was Li Donghai, a direct descendant of the progenitor of dragons and a wealthy tycoon. He owned the renowned Eastern Sea Dragon Palace Group. While he had previously dealt exclusively with supernatural beings, it now seemed he intended to expand his empire into the ordinary human market.
Yu Xian dismissively said, "Probably just making noise again."
The Dragon King of the Eastern Sea was notoriously loud-mouthed. Netizens mockingly dubbed him the "Big-Mouthed Dragon" because he would shamelessly clout-chase and latch onto any trending topic. Without a doubt, his announcement of this ambitious project was purely a ploy to ride the coattails of Silver City's incident.
Chen Ling sounded rather disappointed. "So, it's fake news."
She genuinely wanted to purchase some protective gear. Her parents had already bought her pepper spray, bear spray, and a taser. While those could suffice against ordinary humans, they would likely prove useless against supernatural beings. If there were protective gear on the market capable of defending against attacks from supernatural beings, she would be more than willing to buy it.
Yu Xian knew what was on her mind. "Supernatural gear would definitely be expensive. Even if they tried to cut costs, it would probably still run into the millions. The material costs alone already make that obvious, don't you think?"
Yu Xian knew precisely how precious supernatural materials were. Forget equipping every ordinary human, even supernatural beings didn't necessarily have a full set of equipment.
After hearing Yu Xian's explanation, Chen Ling gave up on the idea entirely. "Alright, fine. I was being naive. I never should've believed anything that Big-Mouth Dragon said."
She went back to her phone, clearly preparing to vent under Li Donghai's social media account.
Yu Xian merely smiled. He took out his phone and, while continuing to refine his knitting skills, opened the Qilin app to check for any major news updates.
A Flying Zombie Has Surfaced in the Twin Western Mountains. Active Search and Capture Operations Are Currently Underway. Members Below Eagle Rank Are Strictly Advised to Stay Away From the Area.
Internal-ranking Assessment Will Begin Next Month on the 1st. Members Confident of Raising Their Ranks Are Advised to Register As Soon As Possible.
The Qilin Research Department has discovered a detection method for a variant of the Aberrant Parasite, the Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite. A nationwide medical examination will be conducted in three days.
Yu Xian's eyes lit up the moment he saw the third trending headline. Roughly two days prior, he had seen related reports on the matter. By then, Qilin's researchers had already thoroughly researched this new variant of the Aberrant Parasite, officially naming it the "Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite."
This variant could transform into something highly similar to human cranial nerves before infiltrating a target's brain and replacing their neural structures. It tightly clasped the brain like a cluster of countless microscopic tentacles. At this stage, the host was not technically dead. However, the parasite filtered all incoming information to the brain. The host could only see and hear what the parasite allowed, reduced to a mere puppet of the Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite and stripped of any capacity to resist.
Moreover, once a Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite successfully infected a host, it was no different from death. At present, no reliable methods could remove the parasite and guarantee the host's survival. After all, the Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite devoured the host's neural structures. Once that portion of the brain was gone, the person could no longer truly live.
Yu Xian was feeling mixed emotions. He was relieved that the authorities had finally devised a method to prevent the infiltration of the Aberrant Parasites and Brain-Clinging Neural Parasites. But at the same time, he was worried that this nationwide medical examination would likely leave an unknown number of families shattered.
***
Gold Nugget Mountain got its name after someone once discovered a massive gold nugget here. However, with supernatural creatures steadily growing in number, humans who once lived around the Gold Nugget Mountain had long since relocated to the cities. The area had now become a paradise for wild animals.
Inside a man-made cave excavated halfway up the mountainside, a group consisting of wolves, bears, tigers, and a human had gathered. The scene was clearly unnatural. Under normal circumstances, they could never coexist in such harmony.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently. A massive white ape, over three meters tall, leaped down from the mountaintop and landed heavily on a flat ledge halfway up the mountainside. Turning around, it casually tore open one of the cave walls and grinned at the group inside. "This body is packed with raw power. Spectacular."
Zhou Tai was sitting atop a boulder with his legs dangling. "Old Third, make sure you don't break that body. It's an extremely important asset for us."
A tiger nodded. "Exactly. It wasn't easy to get hold of a supernatural animal. If you ruin it, you're dead."
Supernatural animals were far more sensitive than humans and could instantly detect any foreign intrusion into their bodies. Consequently, the parasites found it nearly impossible to infect them.
After their crushing defeat at Silver City, Zhou Tai had clearly understood that relying on infecting ordinary humans alone would never allow the parasites to grow into a real force.
Hence, after discovering that this giant ape was isolated with no allies, he had sacrificed a large number of Aberrant Parasites to wear it down until it was utterly exhausted. Only then did they successfully infect and take over its body.
After gaining human intelligence, the Aberrant Parasites had grown selfish and fearful of death. Thus, it had become extremely difficult for them to cooperate with each other.
Now, with Zhou Tai as their leader, they could finally act in unison. Even if they were fearful, they had no choice but to move forward and achieve a breakthrough. Once they infected more supernatural animals, they could definitely encircle the cities from the wilderness, before ultimately bringing the world under their control.