“F**k you!”
The female Alpha shot up from where she stood, the muscles in her arm tensing as she suddenly exerted a burst of force, trying to slam the dormitory’s security door shut.
But brute strength had always been the Zerg’s advantage. The infected Song Yang gave a despairing yet eerie smile, his two dark red eye sockets fixed on Jiang Yue.
Clusters of pitch-black compound eyes had already sprouted in his sockets, packed together like black pomegranate seeds.
Jiang Yue screamed at the top of her lungs, “Help! Aaaaah!”
Xi Boyu was the first to react. His expression was cold and focused as he pulled a gleaming thermal blade from under his bed. With a graceful leap, he landed in front of the door and swung the blade fiercely at Song Yang.
A hard, blue-black limb suddenly sprouted from Song Yang’s back. About a meter and a half long, its tip was razor-sharp. The supposedly reinforced security door crumpled like paper in front of it—crack!—a clean, brutal puncture right through.
The razor-sharp limb collided with the long blade, and in an instant, the gleaming sword heated up like a red-hot branding iron as it came crashing down on the limb.
Sizzle— With a sound like searing flesh and a wave of foul, burnt stench, Xi Boyu cleaved the limb clean off. The acrid, charred smell in the room was nauseating.
Jiang Yue was paralyzed with fear, retreating step by step until she backed into the corner of the wall. Suddenly, someone shoved a thermal dagger into her hand.
She turned, trembling, and found herself face-to-face with Xiang Sui and his buzz cut. He, too, was holding a thermal blade. One by one, the other roommates pulled their weapons out from under their beds, each of them pale as a sheet.
Why do they all have weapons!?
Song Yang, whose limb had been severed, let out a shrill cry of pain. His back arched as two pitch-black limbs burst from either side of his ribs, suddenly lashing out toward Xi Boyu.
In an instant, the dormitory’s reinforced security door shattered into pieces. Xiang Sui grabbed a chair and hurled it at Song Yang’s head, but the razor-sharp limbs, like twin black blades, sliced the chair clean in half.
“Jiang… Jiang… J-Jiang…”
Song Yang turned his head in an unnaturally twisted motion. The flesh around his eye sockets had been completely eaten away, and a dense cluster of compound eyes now covered a third of his face. These eyes, glowing faintly with an eerie blue light, locked onto Jiang Yue with a chilling intensity.
“Jiang… Jiang… J-Jiang…”
Jiang Yue had poor combat instincts, but this body reacted fast, before she could even think, she was already diving into a roll across the floor, gripping the short blade tightly as she drove it toward Song Yang’s spine.
The short blade plunged into the spine, and Jiang Yue instinctively gave it a twist, hooking out a pale blue, translucent nerve fiber.
Her movements were so quick that her roommates barely saw what happened, it was just a blur before their eyes.
Xiang Sui, gripping his own short blade, sucked in a sharp breath. “Holy shit, that move was insane!”
Even Xi Boyu gave her a slightly surprised glance.
As soon as the nerve fiber was pulled out, the flailing limbs on Song Yang’s body froze, as if someone had hit a pause button. After two seconds of stiffness, they collapsed limply.
His mutated body crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Jiang Yue, hands trembling, used the thermal dagger to sever the nerve. She looked up at her roommates and asked, “What do we do now?”
There was a moment of silence. Then Xi Boyu spoke: “I’ve already sent a message to the security office and the teachers.”
Jiang Yue glanced at Song Yang’s mangled, unrecognizable body and asked, “Can he still be saved?”
Jiang Sen replied uncertainly, “He might be… but we have to deal with the infected parts immediately.”
By “deal with”, he meant cutting them off.
Their limited knowledge of anatomy only allowed them to go that far. After all, students in the combat division learned anatomy not for medicine, but to fight more effectively, and, when necessary, to treat wounds on themselves or their teammates.
Xi Boyu used the thermal blade to sever Song Yang’s mutated leg. With the high heat of the blade, cutting through human flesh was no harder than slicing through butter. A sickly smell of roasted meat filled the air, making Jiang Yue gag and retch.
Xi Boyu glanced at her, then began giving instructions: “Jiang Yue, you handle the compound eyes, dig out the ones parasitizing his face.”
Jiang Yue, hands trembling, immediately handed the short blade to Xiang Sui.
Xiang Sui let out a dramatic squawk. “Jiang Yue, come on! That’s so not cool of you. Digging out compound eyes? That’s disgusting!”
Jiang Yue pointed to her stomach, then ran to the corner and bent over—hurk—throwing up loudly.
She had been nauseous for a while already.
This was just too much. For a delicate little fairy like her to be dealing with things like this every day…
Which god had she offended to deserve this!?
While she vomited violently, Xiang Sui was busy digging out the compound eyes, still trying to joke around as if he were funny. “These things kinda look like blueberry gummies!”
“Ugh~” Jiang Yue dry-heaved again.
“Finish throwing up and get over here. There are too many infection nodes,” Xi Boyu said flatly, devoid of emotion.
After she was done, Jiang Yue wiped her mouth, forced down her nausea, picked up the short blade, and began slicing and digging at the infected areas.
A fully matured Blue-Eyed Millipede could spray neurotoxins. If the one parasitizing Song Yang matured, everyone on the 27th floor would be in serious danger.
Besides, Song Yang had only grown a few tentacles, compared to a fully developed Blue-Eyed Millipede, which could reach up to fifteen meters in length, he wasn’t actually all that terrifying.
This was Jiang Yue’s first time seeing a human body parasitized by the Zerg.
There were human organs, and Zerg organs.
Song Yang’s stomach was covered by a thick layer of blue flesh membrane. Xi Boyu peeled it back with his blade and, expressionless, tossed it at Jiang Sen’s feet.
Jiang Sen fired up the flamethrower, reducing the infection nodes to ashes.
Zerg bodies carried numerous deadly strains of bacteria, so the infected areas had to be completely incinerated.
The scene was utterly brutal, for anyone walking in unaware, it would look like the aftermath of a dismemberment.
Fortunately, Song Yang’s brain hadn’t been fully infected… though they still had to remove part of it.
Their methods were anything but gentle.
Jiang Yue was completely dazed. In fact, the moment Xi Boyu sliced open Song Yang’s skull and exposed his brain, her soul had already left her body.
Xi Boyu’s expression was no different from someone lifting the lid off a pot.
Jiang Yue couldn’t help but think of the pig brain she once put into hot pot, and immediately started dry-heaving again.
“Can he even be saved at this point?” she asked, full of doubt.
Xi Boyu replied, “Our job is just to remove the infection nodes. Time’s not on our side.”
There was no choice, Zerg parasites spread too quickly. If they waited for professional medical personnel to arrive, Song Yang might have fully transformed into a mature Blue-Eyed Millipede.
Fifteen minutes later, the group, now fully geared up, arrived at dorm 2708. Faced with the utter wreckage of the room, their instructor, Fu Yan, widened his deep, narrow eyes in shock.
The medics carried the mangled remains of Song Yang onto a stretcher, and as they left, one of them couldn’t help but complain, “This is way too rough and barbaric! You combat division students are all like this, dissection is a delicate art, you know!”
Jiang Yue trembled with fear, not daring to say a word.
The combat division’s instructor was named Fu Yan, an Alpha as steady and unyielding as stone.
Before leaving the dorm, he gave them all a firm round of praise: “Kids, you’ve done well. On the battlefield of the future, you’ll be the finest warriors out there!”
“Alright, go get yourselves checked out later. Someone will perform a full-body decontamination for each of you, and your dorm will be thoroughly disinfected by professionals. These Zergs are filthy.”
The six of them lay sprawled out on the floor of the observation room, completely exhausted.
Jiang Yue had a cut on her finger from one of the limb blades, and Xi Boyu had a minor injury on the inside of his forearm.
After having their wounds cleaned and receiving antibiotic injections, they were told they had to stay in the observation room for 24 hours to prevent bacterial infection.
The room was small and barebones. No matter how pampered the Alphas had once been or what kind of luxurious life they used to enjoy, time at the military academy had already made them rough around the edges.
At the very least, Jiang Yue was gradually getting used to this rough way of living.
The rest of the roommates had fallen asleep. Only Jiang Yue and Xi Boyu remained awake.
Xi Boyu leaned against the wall, and so did Jiang Yue. Still feeling nauseous, she didn’t dare lie down, so she sat upright, enduring the churning in her stomach.
Compared to everyone else’s exhaustion, Xi Boyu remained eerily calm, his eyes disturbingly serene.
Jiang Yue asked softly, “Aren’t you scared?”
Xi Boyu glanced at her, then subtly shifted his shoulder away.
Jiang Yue knew Xi Boyu didn’t like people getting too close. But she desperately needed some comfort, so she scooted over anyway, pressing right up against him.
Xi Boyu kept inching away, and Jiang Yue kept following, until he had nowhere left to retreat, she had cornered him against the wall.
He was clearly a bit irritated and shot Jiang Yue a cold glance. “What are you trying to do?”
Jiang Yue whispered, “I’m a little cold. We’re both Alphas, right? What’s wrong with letting me lean on you? I’m telling you, I’m in a really fragile place right now, I really need some comfort.”
She scooted even closer to Xi Boyu, hugging herself tightly. “I don’t think anything in my life will ever be more intense than today. Do you think the academy will send in a psychological counselor to help us once our observation period’s over?”
“Psychological counseling? What kind of counseling do you need? You’re an Alpha,” Xi Boyu said bluntly.
“But Alphas can be scared too,” Jiang Yue muttered. “I’m just a cowardly, timid Alpha.”
“You sure didn’t look timid when you pulled the nerve fiber out of Song Yang’s spine.”
“That was just my body reacting on instinct. I was still terrified,” Jiang Yue confessed quietly. “Honestly, I’m all bark and no bite. I’m not nearly as brave as I look.”
In the dimly lit observation room, the female Alpha leaned against his shoulder, looking utterly dejected.
Xi Boyu glanced at Jiang Yue, her sharp, cold features were now dulled by fatigue, and she looked like a droopy, sulking leopard. Somehow, it was… oddly endearing.
She stayed gloomy for a while, then suddenly rested her head on his shoulder.
Xi Boyu’s expression turned cold, he was about to put her in her place when he realized she had fallen asleep. Even asleep, she looked miserable, lips pressed into a pout, her whole face full of quiet grievance.
Xi Boyu frowned. He raised his hand, but eventually let it drop without pushing her away.
Maybe this was the strong showing mercy to the weak.
The investigation results came out quickly. Electronic screens all over the campus began broadcasting the incident report on a rolling loop.
A cadet had stolen Zerg eggs from the dissection lab to sell on the black market. Due to improper storage, the eggs had reactivated and quietly parasitized the cadet’s body.
All anatomy labs in the combat division were ordered to seal their windows, and the anatomy instructor was penalized with six months’ salary.
Song Yang was still alive, but only the upper half of his body remained. Since Xi Boyu had removed part of his infected brain, he was no longer quite normal.
Jiang Yue didn’t really dare to look at him, but her instructor insisted she visit him.
“You both came out of the slums,” the instructor said. “Go see him.”
Jiang Yue arrived at the infirmary and saw Song Yang lying in bed. He was covered with a blanket, his eyes bandaged, and didn’t look all that frightening.
She stood at the doorway and placed a bag of casually bought fruit on the bedside table.
“Didn’t think you’d actually come see me,” Song Yang said.
“I was just passing by,” Jiang Yue replied.
Song Yang let out a dry laugh. “Seeing me like this… you must be feeling pretty satisfied inside.”
“I didn’t,” Jiang Yue said. “The instructor said you wanted to see me. Why did you ask for me?”
Song Yang replied, “I don’t want to keep living like this.”
Jiang Yue instinctively took a step back, her tone wary. “I don’t do anything illegal. Don’t even think about asking me to end your life.”
Song Yang chuckled again. “Jiang Yue, one day you’ll understand, death isn’t the end of life.”
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
Song Yang suddenly lowered his head, speaking with a touch of sorrow, “I want to eat braised beef instant noodles… I really miss the days at the relief center. Life was so simple back then, no temptations, no cruelty.”
Jiang Yue replied calmly, “That’s on you.”
“Yeah,” Song Yang said, smiling faintly. “So I’ll choose to exist in another way. Maybe someday… we’ll meet again.”
His head finally slumped forward completely.
All signs of life faded from his body. With her sharp ears, Jiang Yue could no longer hear a heartbeat.
This was Jiang Yue’s first time facing someone’s death.
She couldn’t quite tell what she was feeling.
It seemed like there were many emotions tangled together, but when she tried to sort them out, she realized, there was nothing at all.
After a moment of silence, she gently rubbed her eyes, stepped out of the room, and called for a doctor.
She returned to the dorm in a daze, absentmindedly making her way to the communal bathroom to wash her face.
As she turned on the tap, cold water splashed onto her hands. A vaguely familiar Alpha walked over to wash his hands as well. Just as he passed by her, Jiang Yue suddenly caught a faint scent.
It was the smell of a Blue-Eyed Millipede.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152