Weapons are the one thing I’m least lacking.
Yan Mei quietly swept her gaze around the area but couldn’t spot where any weapons were hidden. Could it be… that the weapon itself was this young woman’s special ability?
“May I ask what kind of weapon it is…?”
“No rush. I’ll tell you in a bit,” Jiang Qi replied with a smile.
“Alright.”
Yan Mei didn’t press further and continued her introduction. “This is my granddaughter. She’s nine this year. Her ability is Wound Healing. Unlike mine, she can use her ability once every day, and each use lasts ten seconds.”
To prove her granddaughter’s ability, Yan Mei even took the initiative to pull open her clothes and reveal the wound where a monster had pierced her not long ago.
“Even though the healing only lasts ten seconds, my wound has already scabbed over.”
Jiang Qi looked at Duan Xue in surprise. This child’s Wound Healing was practically as broken as Qi Zhaozhao’s Time Stop. If she had someone like this as a teammate, then as long as they weren’t killed on the spot or suffered a fatal injury, they’d probably survive.
Of course, that was assuming they were the only injured person that day.
“Why are the two of you clearing the instance together? Where are the child’s parents?”
Ever since meeting Duan Xue and Yan Mei, Jiang Qi had been curious about this. Could it be that the child’s parents thought she was too much of a burden and refused to take care of her?
Knowing this question would come up, Yan Mei answered in an extremely calm tone, “My son and daughter-in-law died in a car accident five years ago. Back then I thought it was tragic, but now that I think about it… perhaps it was another kind of good fortune.”
Not having to struggle to survive in the apocalypse was, in a way, a release.
“All of that is in the past now. Right now, I only hope my granddaughter can grow up safely.”
The pain of an old person burying their own child had already become an unchangeable part of Yan Mei’s past. She could have chosen to end it all and leave together with them, but her granddaughter was only nine years old, far too young.
Yan Mei couldn’t bear to abandon her, nor could she let go. So no matter what, she had to support her granddaughter, lift her up, and help her grow until she could survive in this apocalypse on her own.
Even if life was hard, there was still hope.
Still holding a glass of milk in her hands, Duan Xue heard this and immediately wrapped her arms around her grandmother’s waist, leaning against her shoulder as she said seriously, “Grandma, I’ll grow up quickly. Then I’ll protect you.”
Of course, Duan Xue missed her parents, but the memories had already become blurry. She was practically raised by her grandmother’s own hands, and her grandmother was the person closest to her. She couldn’t even imagine what she would become in this apocalypse if her grandmother weren’t by her side.
“Silly child. It’s okay if you grow up a little slower.”
Yan Mei gently stroked Duan Xue’s hair. Back in the real world, she had planned to live at least until her granddaughter graduated from university. Who could have expected the apocalypse to suddenly descend?
Sigh, life really was unpredictable.
At sixty years old, she was somehow getting to experience the kind of thrilling plotline you only saw in movies…
Jiang Qi looked awkwardly at the warm scene between the grandmother and granddaughter. “Sorry, I think I asked something I shouldn’t have. But…”
“Grandma Yan, you might not necessarily die, right?”
What kind of thing was that to say?
She was already sixty years old. Wasn’t birth, aging, sickness, and death perfectly normal?
Jiang Qi scratched her head and said directly, “There are pills in the Survival Apartment’s special shop that can extend your lifespan. I remember one pill can add ten years to your life. Not only that, there are even cultivation techniques for immortality. So I was thinking… as long as you’re willing to work hard, maybe you could live another five hundred years?”
Back when she’d spent points to strengthen herself, she had wandered around the special shop for quite a while, so she still remembered clearly the kinds of special items it sold.
Among them, cultivation-type items were not only rare but also outrageously expensive.
Even the most basic ones cost a million points. Jiang Qi had once thought the Survival Apartment System was just dangling an impossible dream in front of players. Clearing an instance only earned at most ten thousand points. How many years would it take to save up a million?
Jiang Qi’s words left Grandma Yan stunned for a long while. She had never thought about things from that perspective before.
But apparently…
Maybe it wasn’t impossible to strive for it?
After all, she truly couldn’t rest easy leaving her granddaughter all alone in the world.
“Ahem, we’ve gone off topic. Let’s get back to the main point.”
Only then did Jiang Qi begin introducing herself properly. “My name is Jiang Qi. Grandma Yan can call me Xiao Qi, and Duan Xue can call me Big Sister. I won’t bother with empty politeness. Would you two be willing to team up with me to clear this instance?”
“Of course we would.”
Yan Mei immediately nodded in agreement. “It would be our honor.”
To begin with, Jiang Qi had already saved the lives of both grandmother and granddaughter. Now she was even taking the initiative to invite them to join her team. There was no way Yan Mei would refuse. She had truly incurred a debt of gratitude this time, and in the future she would definitely find an opportunity to repay it.
Duan Xue also nodded seriously. “Big Sister, I’ll be very obedient. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. I definitely won’t hold you back.”
Jiang Qi had never expected that one day she herself would become someone others admired and looked up to, and she immediately felt embarrassed. “Don’t say it like that. I’m really just an ordinary player.”
If not for the fact that she’d been lucky enough to draw useful items this time, there was no way she could have handled the monsters so easily. If the items she’d drawn had been space-type tools again like last time, then she’d definitely still be hiding and running around right now, with no ability to save other players at all.
The part where the new teammates got to know each other quickly passed.
The three of them sat down and officially began discussing their plan for clearing the Parasite Instance.
“Grandma Yan, do you really know where the Parasite Host Moster is?”
This was the question Jiang Qi cared about most.
Yan Mei nodded. “I can’t say I know for certain, but I’m eighty or ninety percent sure. Miss Jiang, when you first entered the instance, did you ever try leaving Yu City?”
Jiang Qi froze. She truly had never considered that possibility.
Because there were only two ways to clear the instance: either survive in Yu City for thirty days or successfully kill the Parasite Host Moster. So she had never thought in any other direction, nor had she planned to leave Yu City at all.
“My granddaughter and I actually tried.”
***
When Yan Mei and Duan Xue first entered the Parasite Instance, they appeared inside the high-speed rail station. The moment they regained consciousness, they heard the station broadcast announcing the suspension of Yu City’s rail services.
The broadcast informed them that all high-speed trains leaving Yu City were under emergency repair due to flooding on the tracks. Passengers could either refund their tickets or wait patiently inside the station for operations to resume.
It was at that moment that Yan Mei suddenly wanted to test whether the instance had hidden rules, such as leaving Yu City on the very first day after entering the instance.
But she discovered that whether it was high-speed rail, regular trains, airplanes, or long-distance buses, every method of leaving Yu City was impossible. Tickets simply couldn’t be bought. Even most of the city’s subway lines had been suspended.
Yan Mei’s expression turned serious. “Later, we tried leaving by driving ourselves. But the closer we got to the outskirts of Yu City, the deeper the floodwater by the roadside became.”
“In some places, the water had already submerged the first and second floors of buildings.”
Duan Xue continued in a trembling voice, “We saw monsters there!”
“They looked different from the monsters we encountered in the residential buildings!”
“Their skin was extremely pale. Really, really pale. They looked a lot like white dolphins. Their whole bodies were slick and slippery, and they weren’t wearing any clothes at all. Their hands and feet even had webbing like duck flippers. They kept dragging living people out from nearby apartment buildings and pulling them into the water!”
“About two hours later… maybe longer?”
“We saw those people who had been dragged into the water crawl back out again.”
“They acted as if nothing had happened at all!”
“It was terrifying!”
Just imagining the scene Duan Xue described made Jiang Qi feel uneasy as well. “And then?”
Yan Mei answered, “Then we drove back to the city center.”
“During that trip, I also noticed something. The terrain in Yu City gets higher the closer you are to the city center, and lower the farther away you get.”
Jiang Qi understood immediately.
“So the real ‘monsters’ are actually living on the outskirts of the city?”
“No. All of them are real monsters. It’s just that the degree of parasitization is different.”
Yan Mei explained, “Based on my observations, I think there are four stages of parasitization. In the first stage, the monster has only just been infected. At that point, they still retain their consciousness. They can move like normal people and even communicate normally.”
“The second stage is what we encountered tonight. They’ve already lost their human consciousness. Although they still look human on the outside, their behavior has become beast-like. All they know is hunting and feeding.”
Hearing that, Jiang Qi realized that the monsters she had encountered when she first entered the instance were probably all first-stage monsters, while the ones she encountered after dark were second-stage monsters.
“So the third stage is the web-footed monsters you encountered?”
“Yes.”
Yan Mei nodded. “Third-stage monsters are much stronger than second-stage ones. Each of them looked over two meters tall, and they’re also excellent swimmers. I suspect that once second-stage monsters consume enough humans, they evolve into third-stage monsters.”
Jiang Qi took out a pen and paper and began jotting things down on the table. “The first stage is controlling the human body, the second stage is hunting and growing, and the third stage can tentatively be considered the mature form. Then what about the fourth stage? Is it responsible for parasitizing? Or reproduction?”
Yan Mei shared the same line of thinking.
“I haven’t encountered any third-stage monsters in the city center yet, but the way they behave makes it seem like they’re delivering food to something. And whatever that thing is, it lives underwater.”
Jiang Qi suddenly understood. “So you suspect the fourth stage is the parasite mother?”
“Yes.”
Yan Mei nodded. “I’m fairly certain that deduction is correct.”
Unless there was even a fifth stage beyond the fourth.
“It sounds a bit like a hive hierarchy,” Jiang Qi muttered. “A queen bee, drones, and worker bees.”
Jiang Qi lowered her head in thought.
Those humans who were dragged away and later crawled back out of the water had already become parasitized monsters. And the growth process of these creatures seemed to be this: first infect a body, then use that body to hunt and gather more nutrients, and finally completely replace the human and transform into an entirely different species.
Just thinking about it made goosebumps rise on Jiang Qi’s skin. “Ugh… that’s disgusting.”
Even zombies were better than this.
“If Grandma Yan’s theory is correct, then the parasite mother should currently be living somewhere on the outskirts of Yu City where the floodwater is deep enough.”
Would quicklime powder still work in deep water?
Jiang Qi hoped it would, but they would definitely need to test it first.
“Let me talk about my side of things.”
Jiang Qi briefly explained how she had entered the instance and how she discovered that the monsters were afraid of quicklime powder.
“I also have a bound item called the Photo Materialization Camera. Its ability is to turn photographs into real objects. It can be used three times a day, but only for objects. Anything too outrageous won’t work.”
Both Grandma Yan and Duan Xue couldn’t help showing shocked expressions after hearing that.
“What an amazing item!”
It really was amazing. Too bad it could only be used in this Parasite Instance, Jiang Qi thought regretfully.
“So you don’t need to worry about weapons at all. Right now, the important thing is to discuss what we should do tomorrow after we wake up.”
“Okay!”
Yan Mei and Duan Xue, who had originally been worried that the instance’s difficulty was too high to clear, instantly felt a surge of hope.
So this is what it feels like to have someone powerful to rely on?
They loved it.