IWOL Chapter 134: Sinister Thoughts

Dong Zheng stared into Allen’s eyes, hoping that he’d heard wrong.

Not able to control….

Dong Linhai panicked, and he said incoherently, “Maybe you’re just too tired after walking for such a long time. Let’s rest for a while.”

“No, I’m sure there is something wrong with my body.” Allen pointed to his brain, and with a wry smile, he said, “I just wanted to kill Dong Zheng.”

Everyone grew silent.

Wang Que held Allen’s hand, unconsciously gripping his fingers too tightly. Dong Linhai bit his lip hard and looked at Dong Zheng as if asking for help.

And what could Dong Zheng do?

The last thing he wanted to see happen was finally happening. Something had taken advantage of the rip in Allen’s glove and gotten inside.

Dong Zheng took a deep breath, closed his eyes, forced himself to calm down, and asked, “When did you start to feel that something was wrong?”

“About half an hour ago, I became a little dizzy. At that time, I thought it might be hypoxia, so I just increased the oxygen flow. But it didn’t get better and instead my whole body started to feel warm.”

Allen’s sight suddenly blurred again. He shook his head, and his vision became clear.

The fear and panic in his heart grew even worse.

Fighting for so long in the Pure White Realm had only made him cherish life more and fear death.

He could probably foresee what would happen afterwards. His eye sockets became uncontrollably moist. Allen couldn’t remember the last time he had cried. Due to an acute drug allergy, he was rushed to the intensive care unit and died on the way there. At that time, he’d almost lost all consciousness and hadn’t felt his impending death.

Now, Allen knew very well that something had entered his body through his wound. It was trying to control his body and thoughts little by little, and it even wanted him to kill Dong Zheng.

This was the first good brother he’d met in the Pure White Realm.

Allen forced his tears back. He took a deep breath and held back his anguish. But his trembling voice exposed the turbulence in his heart, “At that time, I wanted to tell you, but I found that I couldn’t make a sound at all. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t control my behavior. It was like… it was like a ghost sitting in your chest while you were sleeping.”

Wang Que held his hand tightly, her eyes closed. She tried with all her strength to reach out with her perception, trying to sense whether there were any traces of an insect in Allen’s body. But there were too many insects around, which interfered with her search. She probed for a long time but still couldn’t find anything abnormal.

“No, it must be because I wasn’t thorough enough.” Wang Que went back to look at the wound on Allen’s hand again. It was a small circular hole on the pad of his index finger.

Victor came out of Dong Linhai’s summoning space. The cold, rustling wind blew the cat’s white hair all over his body. He placed his paws on Allen’s hand and anxiously shifted back and forth a few times. He could get rid of negative effects, but if an insect really did enter Allen’s body, he could only heal the “passage” that the insect had burrowed into Allen’s flesh. He couldn’t do anything more than that.

Victor knows the symptoms of many parasitic diseases. He’d listened to Allen talking about how he’d felt, and he pondered for a long time. At present, the parasites known to control biological thinking were primarily nematomorpha (horsehair worm), toxoplasma gondii (single-cell microscopic parasite), and leucochloridium paradoxum (parasitic flatworm). Leucochloridium paradoxum had no effects on humans. Toxoplasma gondii was mainly parasitic in cats, though it could spread to humans. Under normal circumstances, it would only be a major health issue to fetuses.

Allen’s symptoms weren’t like any of them.

On the other side, Lin Hangzhi heard everyone’s words and asked anxiously, “What’s going on? What’s going on?”

“Allen’s protective suit is broken. It seems that something has gotten inside.” Dong Zheng skipped the part about Allen trying to kill him just moments ago and added, “His actions and thinking were controlled to a certain extent, and we’re trying to figure out what it is.”

Lin Hangzhi let out an incredulous “Ah!”

With a cry, he hurriedly stopped Cui Zuojing, who was leading the way. “Cui’er, something has happened!”

“Huh?” Cui Zuojing turned his head.

After listening to Lin Hangzhi’s retelling of Dong Zheng’s words, even Cui Zuojing was surprised.

“What about now? What’s the situation now?” he asked into Lin Hangzhi’s communicator.

Allen said, “I’m clear-headed now and can control my behavior. I just feel a little hot. I don’t know when I’ll lose control again.”

Wang Que knelt beside Allen, holding his hand tightly. Her forehead was covered with sweat as she worked to block the voices all around her. She forgot she was on the cliff path of some snow-covered mountain and enclosed herself in darkness.

She didn’t know how long she took. Maybe it was only a few minutes, or maybe it was half an hour. But, a translucent bug appeared in the darkness. It’s cluster of tentacles from its breathing hole swayed, and it finally pointed in a certain direction.

“Found it!”

Wang Que’s eyes snapped open. She stretched her hand out behind Allen and pressed it against a certain section of his spine.

She only touched it with a very light pressure, but in the moment when she pressed down, Allen felt a sharp pain whipped along his nerves and straight into his brain. His vision turned black, and it hurt enough to make him want to jump up. “Ahhh–”

Everyone was taken aback.

Wang Que was deeply worried and sick at heart as she said, “It’s a parasite.”

Although they’d suspect this to be the case, when they heard Wang Que’s judgement, everyone still found it hard to breathe. There was a parasite in Allen’s body. At this moment, with their ability, they absolutely won’t be able to get it out!

Hearing this answer, Allen gave a bitter smile, but his heart lifted a little. Since it was because a parasitic insect was in his body, it proved that the idea of pushing Dong Zheng off the cliff wasn’t really his.

Why did the insect want him to kill Dong Zheng, but not others?

Victor said in a low voice, “Since it wants to control your body, it will definitely move to your brain in the end. If we can take out the insect before then, nothing will happen.”

Dong Zheng said, “The Institute of Biochemistry will definitely have a test lab. Once we’re there, Que’er can determine the insect’s location, and Uncle and Hangzhi will operate on you and take it out.”

Dong Zheng spoke very positively. He’d always been a serious person, and his position as captain made everyone want to believe him, even Allen.

“Yes, it’s definitely possible!” Dong Linhai nodded. “We just need to speed up our progress a bit and hurry to the biochemistry base!”

Wang Que said, “Brother Lun, don’t worry. I will pay close attention to the insect’s location. You’ll be fine.”

Victor’s hairy paw touched Allen’s face and he said, “Don’t worry too much. Everyone will take care of you.”

Allen took a deep breath, feeling touched. But the warmth was overcome by a bitter cold realization. “I’m afraid I’ll have those thoughts again.”

Dong Zheng said, “I will protect myself.”

Cui Zuojing quietly listened but didn’t interrupt what was going on over there. He told Lin Hangzhi, “Let’s speed up too. Allen’s situation isn’t too good.”

Lin Hangzhi nodded. Their progress had been a bit poor, but now he and Cui Zuojing had to rush to the research institute in time with Dong Zheng and Allen. After all, among all of them, the only person who could take out the parasite was him.

Sure, surely nothing will happen!

Victor relieved Allen’s fever a little. Because it was nightfall, there was no sunlight and the temperature had dropped to a terrifying -20℃. The only thing that allowed Victor to withstand the cold and stay outside was his fur. However, in less than five minutes, he began to shiver uncontrollably, and Dong Linhai hurriedly told him to go back.

Dong Zheng tied all of them together with a rope. The order of the team changed to Dong Linhai leading the line, followed by Allen, Wang Que, and Dong Zheng. If he stayed behind Allen, Dong Zheng would have enough time to react if Allen wanted to make a move against him. It would also make it more convenient for Wang Que to monitor the parasite’s movements in Allen’s body.

The distant horizon gradually showed a hint of light. After 10 hours of dark night, dawn was finally about to arrive.

There were still 52 hours left before the end of the instance.

Along the way, everyone was silent. Only Lin Hangzhi’s voice came through from time to time, reporting their current location in order to determine the distance between the two groups.

After they’d moved away from the site of the avalanche, the fluctuation of time at the highest mountain top had disappeared from Cui Zuojing’s perception. But he still had some doubts: Who was it? Other than him, who else held the power of time?

After Worm of Mystery had split Fu Zhe’s soul into conscience, morality, and goodwill, each fragment of his soul would contain the power of space. But Cui Zuojing wasn’t like that. From the moment the power of time had selected him, it had fallen asleep in Cui Zuojing’s body.

So, this made him extremely puzzled.

If circumstances permitted it, he wanted to go up and see what was going on at the top of the mountain. But, he still had Lin Hangzhi with him. He needed to ensure Lin Hangzhi’s safety first. Leaving this doctor who lacked the strength to even truss a chicken by himself in the mountain range full of ice and snow…After months of friendship, Cui Zuojing wouldn’t do such a cruel thing.

Once the sky completely lit up, Cui Zuojing looked back at Lin Hangzhi, who was panting harshly. In all directions, where he looked, he could only see the monotonous white snow and gray-black rock wall.

Guessing that Lin Hangzhi won’t be able to hold on for much longer, Cui Zuojing said, “Let’s take a break.”

At the same time, Dong Zheng and his party also decided to take a break.

They found a wind-eroded cave on that mountain side and ate something.

Allen silently drank the water the Dong Linhai had slowly heated. On the way here, the ideas jumping through his mind became clearer. Countless times, he felt the urge to use various ways to kill Dong Zheng. Push him down the cliff. Shoot him to death. Even tackle him off the mountainside and die together.

Allen took the initiative to surrender all the weapons on his body, leaving only a dagger to defend himself. If he really couldn’t restrain himself from shooting Dong Zheng, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself even if he didn’t die.

Dong Zheng sat next to him and asked, “Are you okay?”

Allen shook his head and frowned, “Why does it only want to harm you? Is there anything in you that it wants?”

Dong Zheng was silent for a moment. He remembered that Cui Zuojing had said that there was a supercomputer named Kether among the queen’s heirs, and all the box scripts were calculated by it.

In addition to the J he hasn’t seen before, does Kether also want his life?

——————–

Xixi: Random book recommendation that I’m reading and really enjoyed: Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life


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Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Thank you for the chapters~

It's so heartwarming how much they all care for each other, and it only makes the parasitism all the more heartbreaking >.< And Dong Zheng's guess is a good one. It would be all too easy to slip in a parasitic bug in their path considering the circumstances. But at least there's a way!

Nabong_uwu
Nabong_uwu
4 years ago

Ahhhhhhh!!! You're reading Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life!!!!!! Wahhhh!!! That book is amazing T T

So it's Kether meddling now in their mission. I'm worried about them, first J and now Kether. Ay.
I feel proud every time Wang Que makes progress developing her ability, kind of, I want her to become powerful and confident about her own ability.

Loni
Loni
4 years ago

Waaah the melancholy hubbies~ that’s such a great story (≧∀≦) I absolutely loved it OwO

Dreamer
Dreamer
3 years ago

The situation is becoming more dire! Allen please make it out of here alive! (I blind guess but I think maybe Domingo will have something to do with saving Allen if all hope seems lost)

Aaaaaaah Mr. Melancholy! It’s so good and very unique! Unlike most novels, the main cp are already married here and they love each other. It’s filled with fun and great characters, and the plot is really interesting. Ah… If I could only read this story again for the first time.

theeggmonger
theeggmonger
2 years ago

Eww parasites. I love Mr. Melancholy!

thatonecat
thatonecat
1 year ago

One of the things that’s constantly been bugging me about this novel is how Cui Zuojing’s emotions seem normal. Somewhat muted, but not that much. He should be coldly analyzing if he should leave the guy and go check out the temporal energy spike, not deciding not to because of the power of friendship. The whole emotionless thing went out the window around the end of the very first box, it seems. Probably the only translated novel I’ve read where I wanted the MC to have less emotions and not more.

(The whole emotionless socio/psychopath MC thing seems like the writers and readers are stuck emotionally at 13 years old, and any MC that’s like that is edgy and cool. And not, you know, a complete cop out because they aren’t good enough writers to give any emotional resonance or have more than 1 dimensional characters. Things like reverend insanity where it’s praised to the moon for the writing depth of a puddle of mountain dew.)