“C-Rank Variant — Human-Faced Mosquito”
“Professor Zhu, how is the child recovering?”
On the other side, Han Jianhong, who had just finished receiving thanks from the family of another infected person, noticed the commotion here.
He walked over and subtly stopped slightly in front of Wendy at an angle. The girl’s father’s attention naturally shifted toward him.
“Oh, Doctor Han! I noticed you were busy earlier, so I didn’t want to bother you.” The girl’s father hurried forward and shook his hand. “Xiaoran is doing very well. Thank you so much. Having such a professional and responsible doctor like you aboard is truly a blessing for us evacuees.”
“Don’t say that. It’s simply what I’m supposed to do.”
Han Jianhong smiled faintly and steadied the girl’s father, who kept thanking him.
“A doctor’s duty is to save lives. My specialty is parasitology, so I couldn’t simply stand by and watch a patient’s life or death be casually decided by an outsider.”
“Fortunately, all that effort wasn’t wasted. The outcome is good, and that’s all that matters. The child is safe.”
The girl’s father’s expression changed.
He gave the guard who had just been expressing concern a strange glance.
He had actually heard something about what happened earlier. Apparently, the guards had initially wanted to kill the infected people immediately, but Doctor Han had stopped them.
He hadn’t believed it at first, assuming it was nothing more than a rumor.
After all, how could the People’s Army simply disregard human lives like that?
But hearing what Doctor Han was saying now…
He unconsciously edged closer to the person he trusted more, Han Jianhong, and began discussing the girl’s subsequent treatment.
Through her protective suit, Wendy watched Han Jianhong’s every move.
Seeing this, she shook her head and smiled faintly.
Humans were truly strange.
Even when faced with a crisis, hypocrites whose minds had been completely corrupted by fame and profit still cared most about their own image and reputation.
Still, Han Jianhong’s behavior happened to suit her perfectly.
The seemingly refined and gentle resident doctor continued explaining the treatment process to the girl’s father, completely drawing his attention toward himself.
The guard girl stood silently beside the hospital bed.
No one noticed the blue light that flashed rapidly across her dark eyes beneath the protective suit.
The next second, the girl on the hospital bed suddenly screamed in agony.
She trembled and clutched her head, repeatedly scanning the surroundings with a mixture of hostility and fear.
“Baby, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? Don’t scare Daddy!”
The girl’s father was startled by the sudden change and hurried back to the bed, pulling his daughter into his arms.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Or did you get frightened? Don’t be afraid. Daddy’s here. Doctor Han is here too. If anywhere hurts, tell Doctor Han.”
The little girl’s face was deathly pale, cold sweat continuously running down her temples.
She trembled as she looked around, fear and hostility intertwined in her eyes.
It was as though she were searching for some existence that posed an enormous threat to her.
Wendy silently watched her behavior, her eyes darkening.
Originally, she had only wanted to see whether human medical technology could deal with parasitic variants.
Since it had failed, she merely needed to wait for the differentiation to complete, then kill the fully developed variant and obtain her action points.
But the little girl before her and her father inexplicably reminded her of Tong Yu and her teacher.
If Tong Yu were infected, her teacher and his wife would undoubtedly be devastated.
When Wendy approached the girl, no warning sound indicating close contact with a variant had sounded.
So she tried to use her psionic energy to force the variant inside the girl’s body out.
But unexpectedly, the variant wasn’t expelled.
Instead, the girl experienced excruciating pain and displayed obvious hostility.
She had already become a variant.
The absence of a warning notification could only mean that the thing parasitizing her had not yet completed its differentiation.
But the girl herself had already fused with the variant.
Liao Chengyu also noticed the disturbance and hurried over with a frown.
“Doctor Han, what’s going on?”
The power that could harm it seemed to have disappeared.
The girl scanned the surroundings several more times. Seeing nothing unusual, she gradually calmed down.
“Perhaps… perhaps she was simply frightened earlier. She should be fine.”
Han Jianhong was stunned as well.
Realizing that everyone was looking at him, he hurriedly examined the girl again.
Her consciousness was clear, and her physical readings showed nothing abnormal…
Everything seemed fine.
But the girl’s condition just now had definitely been abnormal, so even Han Jianhong’s answer lacked his usual confidence.
Liao Chengyu’s brows furrowed even deeper.
“Captain Liao, it seems there are still uncontrollable factors among the infected. To prevent any accidents, perhaps we should assign a squad of guards to remain stationed at the medical department for the next few days.”
“After all, these are variants. There may be some aftereffects that we don’t understand.”
At that moment, a familiar voice caught Liao Chengyu’s attention.
She turned her head.
The young guard looked worried, as though the recent disturbance had reminded her of something.
After thinking for a moment, Liao Chengyu nodded and assigned the task.
Wendy hurried along the corridor back toward the dormitory.
She had volunteered to take on the task of guarding the medical department, but before that, there were still a few things she needed to arrange.
When she pushed open the dormitory door, Feng Jianan was sitting inside reading a book.
Wendy glanced at it.
It was about artificial intelligence—a digital book provided by the ship to help the evacuees pass the time, connected to the 028 AI database.
When Feng Jianan saw Wendy enter, she excitedly stood up.
“Lieutenant Jiang, you’re back! How are things outside?”
When the alarm sounded, Feng Jianan had been alone in the dormitory.
Although she hadn’t dared to leave, the guards had searched the ship cabin by cabin, so she had sensed how serious the situation outside was.
She had been constantly listening for sounds outside.
Although it seemed that the incident had been resolved, neither Lieutenant Ming nor Lieutenant Jiang had returned, so she didn’t know whether everything was truly all right.
To calm herself, she could only distract herself by reading.
Now that she saw Lieutenant Jiang return, the worry weighing on her heart finally eased.
But unexpectedly, the guard who walked through the door showed no sign of happiness.
She raised her hand and held something out to Feng Jianan.
Feng Jianan froze.
It was a sharpened dagger.
“From now on, no matter what happens outside, don’t open the door or leave the dormitory.”
The guard girl stared directly into her eyes.
“If something breaks through the door, use this to defend yourself. Of course, this is only the worst-case scenario.”
“If everything goes well, you shouldn’t encounter anything unusual.”
Feng Jianan stared blankly at the dagger, then nodded.
After settling Feng Jianan in, Wendy left the dormitory.
Mingmei was already waiting at the stairwell.
She had also been assigned to guard the medical department.
The two walked side by side toward the medical department while Wendy stared into the distance, deep in thought.
The Fish-Scale Monsters created by parasitic Scale Leeches retained the intelligence of a six- or seven-year-old child and were capable of thinking about simple questions.
Then what about the fully developed variants created by parasitic mosquito larvae?
The girl who had already transformed into a variant showed no apparent decline in intelligence.
And among the infected this time was the entire Wang family.
To be safe, Wendy had prepared a dagger for Feng Jianan, who had absolutely no means of protecting herself.
The round trip took little more than ten minutes.
The medical department still appeared peaceful and orderly.
Wendy and Mingmei entered with their guns and joined the guards.
Twenty guards had been assigned to protect the medical department.
They stood outside and rotated inside for inspections every half hour.
As they conducted several rounds of inspections, time passed second by second.
The eleven infected people, including Wang Tianci, lay quietly on their beds, showing no unusual symptoms.
It was already past midnight.
Several family members who were still worried and hadn’t returned to their cabins were arranged in a family waiting room beside the treatment room in the inner hall.
Han Jianhong finished his work, clapped his hands together, and walked out of the medical department.
Seeing the guards still standing outside with their guns, he smiled faintly.
“Everyone’s still standing here? It’s been an entire day. If something were going to happen, it would’ve happened already. There’s no need to be so paranoid.”
As he spoke, he shook his head, seemingly very dissatisfied with the guards’ decision.
Wendy watched as he prepared to return to the treatment room.
“Doctor Han, I advise you not to stay in the treatment room tonight. Parasitic variants aren’t the same as the parasites you understand.”
Han Jianhong had already turned around, but stopped when he heard her.
He turned back with an amused expression.
“How are they different? The infected people have already been cured.”
“Don’t lecture me about my own field, little girl.”
He walked inside.
Wendy silently watched his figure disappear through the doorway.
Feeling the increasingly intense smell of rust coming from the inner hall, she stopped paying attention to him.
If he wanted to get himself killed, there was nothing she could do to stop him.
The time displayed on her wristband continued rolling forward.
It was now deep into the night, and the entire escape ship had fallen silent.
The guards protecting the medical department were all exhausted.
Mingmei yawned and leaned against the cabin wall, drifting into a brief nap.
Wendy lowered her head and glanced at her wristband.
02:38.
She frowned.
The next squad of guards would arrive to take over at three o’clock.
But the strange odor in the inner hall had already reached a critical threshold.
This meant that the differentiation would definitely be completed tonight.
If the transformation occurred during the latter half of the night, she wouldn’t be able to kill the variants immediately.
If the next squad of guards killed them, she would lose the action points.
If the next squad failed to hold the line and the variants broke through, the escape ship she had chosen might fall into chaos.
Wendy pursed her lips and stared intently at the time on her wristband, almost willing it to move more slowly.
“Buzz… buzz…”
At that moment, the sound of wings flapping came from inside the inner hall.
The sound wasn’t loud, but in the silent, empty escape ship, it was particularly jarring.
She abruptly raised her head.
“Buzz… buzz, buzz—”
After the first buzzing sound, more and more buzzing emerged from inside.
It grew louder…
And louder…
As though countless flying insects were emerging from their pupae at the exact same moment.
“AAAAAH!”
Suddenly, a shrill scream tore through the midnight silence.
The exhausted guards instantly woke up, immediately gripping their weapons.
Wendy rushed inside, with the others following close behind.
The instant they entered the inner hall, everyone’s pupils contracted.
More than a dozen figures were clinging to the walls.
The moment they heard the commotion, they all turned toward the doorway in unison.
No.
They could no longer be called human.
The things clinging to the walls were emaciated, their eyes bulging outward.
Their original human eyes had transformed into two enormous compound eyes protruding grotesquely from their sockets, rolling as they stared at the guards.
Their skin, which had appeared normal during the previous night’s patrol, was now covered with horrifying scales and fine hairs.
And behind them, pairs of long, narrow wings were constantly flapping.
“Buzz—”
“Buzz—”
It was the sound of their wings beating.
And in the middle of the medical room, the variant that still vaguely resembled the little girl’s face was straddling Han Jianhong.
A proboscis protruded from its mouth and was thrust directly into Han Jianhong’s mouth.
It was injecting something into his body.
Could it be…
Mosquito eggs?
【You have discovered a C-Rank Variant — Human-Faced Mosquito】
The moment the notification sounded, Wendy aimed at the little girl’s temple and fired several shots in rapid succession.
The bullets tore into it, leaving horrifying bloody holes as yellow-green fluid poured out.
The little girl convulsed several times, but did not collapse.
It turned its head.
Its compound eyes rolled as it stared at Wendy.
Then it looked toward the nearby family waiting room.
It opened its mouth.
A chilling sound—the cry of a little girl—came from within.
“It hurts! Daddy, save me! It hurts so much!”
Author’s Note:
Tomorrow is already the beginning of winter, so why are there still mosquitoes in Jiangsu?
I got bitten by one of those striped mosquitoes while waiting for the bus after class today while writing this chapter.
I feel like I’m about to mutate. QWQ