Nancy slowly walked around her small wooden bed. As she got closer, she saw something white wriggling within her mother’s golden curls.

She stopped in her tracks again, her voice trembling as she asked,

“M-Mom, w-what’s in your hair?”

“Nancy, come here and help me… I have no strength left.” The hunched woman seemed unable to sit upright and was toppling off the bed, about to crash into the flower rack by the window.

Nancy panicked and instinctively reached out to support her. But the moment she grasped the woman’s hand, what she felt wasn’t the familiar warmth of her mother’s touch—it was an icy, slippery sensation.

A shiver ran down Nancy’s spine. Her hair stood on end, and she tried to yank her hand back as quickly as possible. But the woman who was already so close to her suddenly turned its* head, revealing her mother’s face—eyes half-closed, devoid of life.

*T/N: I'll be using 'it' instead of 'she' for the mother to avoid confusion.

“AHHHHHH!!!”

Nancy let out a piercing scream and stumbled backward. But the woman suddenly lunged forward, its noodle-like arms draping directly over Nancy’s shoulders.

Nancy was so terrified that she couldn’t even make a sound anymore, only letting out choked sobs as she scrambled backward in a panic. Then, she watched in horror as a mass of flesh-colored, writhing, tentacle-like things emerged from her mother’s golden curls, crawling toward her.

The woman’s noodle-like arms still clung tightly to Nancy, who thrashed wildly and struggled like mad. Her foot suddenly landed on a slipper lying sideways on the floor, causing her to lose balance and fall backward with a heavy crash. The hunched woman was dragged down with her, landing directly on top of Nancy.

“Help! H-Help…”

Nancy’s voice trembled with sheer terror, distorted by fear, as she saw the bluish-gray face pressing closer to her neck.

Panicking, she kicked and flailed desperately. But in doing so, she accidentally shook loose the flesh-colored mass from the woman’s golden curls. With a sickening plop, it landed right on her collarbone.

“AHHHHHH!!!”

A slimy, wriggling sensation spread across her skin. It felt as if the horrifying creature was about to burrow through her flesh at any moment.

'I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!'

Nancy shrieked and sprang to her feet, desperately grabbing the sticky mass clinging to her neck and flinging it to the floor.

Nancy grabbed the thermos flask by the windowsill and smashed it down!

With a loud crash, the inner lining of the thermos shattered, spilling scalding hot water all over the flesh-colored mass.

"Ahhh! Ahhh!" Nancy continued screaming as she watched the writhing tendrils curl up as if they were being cooked alive. Within seconds, the entire fleshy mass had turned into something that looked like thinly sliced meat dropped into a hotpot—its death marked by the rising scent of cooked flesh…

.

"I’ll repeat: you don’t need to rush in and help every time you see a parasite attacking someone!" The black-haired youth spoke through his wrist-mounted smart brain with a tone of exasperation, addressing all the ability users currently on duty. "I’ve told you before that the core body of a parasite is ridiculously weak! Even a three-year-old could trample it to death if they stepped on it several times. The only reason they managed to spread across so many planets before was due to their stealth and camouflage, giving them the ability to blend in."

A moment later, C2001's slightly concerned voice came through the smart brain, "2d14, what if these parasites start lurking inside humans again, slowly biding their time before switching to a new host? We can’t just ignore them!"

"Host-switching and initial parasitism are two completely different things," Xiao Yi replied impatiently. "Before spreading, parasites within their hosts require several months to nurture a new parasitic beast before they can spread it. But cases like this—where they were forced out prematurely from a dying, infected host—leave them in an even weaker state than their initial form."

C2001: “So we really don’t need to stop detached parasites from attacking humans?”

“Nope!” the black-haired young man said impatiently. “Let me put it this way—even if you place a newly detached parasite on an infant, it wouldn’t be able to burrow in for at least four hours. And even if it did, it’s already an infected parasite! It’ll die within forty days and will be expelled from the human body!”

.

Nancy sat on the bed, still in shock, helplessly staring at the curled-up white mass of cooked flesh on the floor.

A wave of dizziness washed over her. She steadied herself for a moment before recovering, then hurriedly got up and stumbled to the bedside table, where she grabbed a portable thermometer and pressed it to her forehead.

38.5°C!

Tears streamed down her face. 'I’m sick too… Am I going to be devoured by those flesh-colored tendrils like Mom? But I don’t want to die!'

She thought of the ambulances she had seen rushing past on the way here.

'Yes! Philip Central Hospital! It’s the best hospital in the world. I won’t die!'

Nancy cast one final glance at her mother’s lifeless body on the floor. Struggling to hold back her tears and dizziness, she hurried to the kitchen, stuffed the remaining bread, ham, and five raw eggs into her backpack, and grabbed two kitchen knives from the rack—one to put in her bag and the other clutched tightly in her hands.

Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and rushed out the door.

On her way, Nancy fearfully avoided pedestrians who looked unwell and were resting by the roadside. She didn’t dare get too close to those walking either, let alone take public transportation. Enduring the dizziness and the aching weakness in her limbs, she ran toward Philip Hospital.

The streets didn’t look any different from before. However, Nancy still gripped the kitchen knife tightly, staying on guard against anyone who got too close—terrified that those horrific flesh-colored tendrils might suddenly emerge from a stranger.

Her dizziness grew worse, and her legs felt weaker. 'No, I have to make it to the hospital. I don’t want to die! The doctors must have a way to deal with these things. They can get them out of my body!'

Nancy clung to these desperate thoughts, trying to push away the terrifying images of the tendrils spreading, growing, and multiplying inside her body…

And her father… he was probably already…

Tears streamed silently down her face, mixing with sweat that soaked her hair into damp strands. Just as she was about to collapse, she finally caught sight of Philip Hospital’s entrance. Staggering forward, she avoided the ambulances outside—afraid they might be carrying monsters—before rushing through the hospital doors.

"Doctor! Please save me… I’m sick, inside my body… there’s… there’s—!"

At the hospital entrance, a young nurse in a pink uniform greeted Nancy with a standard sweet smile. "Miss, are you feeling unwell?"

Nancy felt her dizziness worsen, her vision darkening in waves. In a panic, she threw herself into the nurse’s arms. "Help me! There’s… there’s those flesh-colored tendrils inside my body…!"

The nurse’s smile didn’t waver. "It’s okay, dear. Come with me."

With strength that didn’t match her small frame, she lifted Nancy—who had nearly collapsed—and half-carried her into an examination room.

Inside, a doctor greeted her with the same fixed smile. Before stepping in, Nancy vaguely saw him swiftly seal a lump of white matter inside a sample container. Then, before she could get a clear look, he tossed the container into an oversized plastic bin on the floor and kicked it under the bed with surprising force—despite the bin appearing to weigh hundreds of pounds.

Nancy’s body trembled. "W-What… what was that?"

"It’s nothing, dear. No need to worry," the Doctor said. "Now, just lie down inside this nanotheraphy machine."

Realizing the Doctor didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of her condition, Nancy hurriedly said, "Doctor! I have... There’s something inside my—"

"It’s okay, Miss," the Doctor interrupted with the same composed tone. "As long as you lie down in it, everything will be fine."

Nancy obediently lay down inside the nanotheraphy machine. After briefly losing consciousness, she slowly opened her eyes again and immediately grabbed the Doctor’s arm. “I—Can I still be saved? I still feel extremely dizzy… I can’t even see clearly…”

The patients waiting in line behind her turned their attention to the seemingly severe case, curious about what kind of illness she had.

The male Doctor maintained his smile. “It’s just a fever caused by the flu. Go get an IV drip.”

Nancy blinked. “Huh?”

The patients behind her burst into laughter.

Refusing to believe it, Nancy’s face turned red. “But I still can’t see properly, and I can’t even lift my hands…”

The Doctor smiled. “That’s because your blood sugar is too low. A glucose infusion will fix it. Did you go on a long run without eating breakfast?” Then, as if remembering something, he added, “Oh, and there are no flesh-colored tendrils inside your body. That condition you’re worried about does exist, but it’s extremely rare and not contagious.”

Nancy stared at him blankly. “Huh? But… but my mom died… Her body is still—still…”

The Doctor’s smile finally faded into a solemn expression. “I’m very sorry for your loss. The government will provide appropriate compensation to the families of the victims.”

After looking around at the hospital’s orderly and well-maintained environment, Nancy was finally convinced by the Doctor’s words.

Suddenly, her phone rang. She hurriedly grabbed her backpack while her hands were still trembling from low blood sugar. She clumsily dumped out the survival supplies she had packed—raw eggs, kitchen knives, and other doomsday essentials—before finally fishing out her phone from the bottom of the bag.

“Hello? Dad! You’re at the hospital too? It’s just a fever? That’s great… I’ll come find you right away…”

.

At the same time, Huo Li let out a sigh of relief on another planet. He turned to Xiao Yi and said, “I really thought an ordinary person had been infected by a detached parasite. Turns out it was a false alarm. Seriously, young people these days… It’s just low blood sugar. Was all that panic really necessary…”

The black-haired youth: “Now that the virus has fully spread, all the Philip hospitals need to do is collect samples of the detached parasites. There’s no need for the saviors to waste time playing volunteer workers at the hospital. Instead, let’s send them to verify the total number of ability users outside the Salvation Alliance.”

Huo Li was a little bit confused. “Xiao Yi, why?”

The black-haired boy replied casually, “They’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”

“…Fine then.” Huo Li said before heading off to gather the saviors.

As he disappeared from sight, the black-haired youth’s expression darkened slightly. A trace of worry flashed across his brow as he murmured to himself, “Let’s hope the numbers still match up…”