Kapis Dimension, Alliance K division quarter, laboratory.
In an isolated room, Chris is examining and researching the silver stringy parasite in detail all by himself as Sky, Blair, and K observed him from the outside. Then, with just a thin layer of gloves, he pulled out one of the string parasites and put it on his right palm. The parasite that was squirming aggressively a moment ago turned sluggish as soon as it placed Chris's palm and eventually stopped moving when it accidentally contacted to Chris's bare skin that is not covered by the gloves. Chris stared at the parasite and thought for a while before disinfecting himself and walking out of the closed room
"Chris, how is it?" Sky anxiously asked, while the other two are equally anxious.
"Hmm... I guess we can consider this as a bless of luck, it could have been worse." said Chris, with a short consideration.
"Care to explain more in detail?" K asked, rather serious and concerned.
"Well, this is indeed a nerve control parasite, but luckily it's not that deadliest type as mentioned by Ben, it's a milder and less aggressive version of it." said Chris.
"Heh? You mean like that slime parasite in Null Dimension?" Sky asked.
"Not really, it's not as deadly as that. But still, we need to be extra careful since it can be quite..."
"Aaahhhhh!!!"
An agonized scream from the other room interrupted Chris before he can finish his words.
"Uhm... Yes, as you can hear from the other room, it can still be quite destructive if not handled properly." Chris continued his words as soon as the scream faded.
Both Sky and Blair are startled by that scream.
"Colonel... If I am not mistaken, that scream just now was from one of your subordinates, right?" said Blair.
"Yes. That sounds like T-527." said K, in a surprisingly calm tone.
"Ah... Why the hell do you sound like it's not a big deal? Do you even realize what's the meaning of that scream?" Sky asked, rather surprised by that reaction of K.
"Yes I know. He was in the stamina test that day, so... It's not very surprising. But that doesn't mean I am not concerned. It's just that we are having a much more serious issue right now." said K.
"Yes, just as K said. If that soldier gets infected just by participating in the stamina test, these parasites might have spread out in the Town since the town people went to Ninth Divine Mountain quite frequent even during the tournament period, and might also get infected through the participating contestants. And this can be quite troublesome." said Chris.
"I have sent a special squad to track down all the contestants that participated in the stamina test, they should be able to gather all of them within an hour." said K.
"Mmm... It's a wise decision for the organizers to keep all those contestants in town until the tournament ends." said Chris, rather thoughtful.
Then, without any warning, they heard a glass breaking sound from that other room.
"Uhm... I think we should go have a look at the other room, Dr. Ben sounds a bit busy." said Blair.
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The 'other' room. Which is actually the infirmary.
"Itsuki, Junior, hold him tightly, don't let him hurt himself!" Ben shouted, rather panicked.
There is a hideous deep long cut from his left upper arm to his forearm. In front of him is T-527 who seems to be losing his own mind as Itsuki and Junior hold him tightly, several broken pieces of glasses can be seen on the floor around him, one of the broken glass pieces is stained in blood.
"Dr. Ben, the sedative doesn't work on him!" Silvia exclaimed, yes, she followed him here.
"Tsk... At this state, I don't think sleep magic would work either. That thing in his body seems to have taken over his nerve system." said Ben, a bit frustrated.
"Ben-chan, we need to handle that injury on your arm first, it looks really bad..." said Maria, rather concerned.
"We don't have time for that. Seriously... I already expected the possibility of this, which is why I used a milder method to... But still... Ugh..."
All of the sudden, Ben felt an acute pain in his chest, which caused him to flinch and slightly lose his balance.
"Ben-chan!"
"Ben!"
Chris who just stepped into the room shouted while rushing to Ben immediately and holding him with his right arm preventing Ben from collapsing to the ground. Without any delay, Chris applied soothing and healing magic on Ben, while Maria is totally panicked and doesn't know how to react to this sudden situation.
"That soldier... The parasite in him was trying to make him commit suicide just now..." said Ben, rather strenuous.
Hearing this, Chris turned this eyes to T-527, just as Ben said, he is struggling very hard to escape Itsuki's and Junior's grips. His neck keeps bending to a weird and dangerous angle and his hands are twitching so badly in the firm grip of Itsuki and Junior, it gives a feeling that if he successfully breaks through the grips, he will brutally snap his own neck. Then, Chris saw the empty syringe in Silvia's hand, he realized that even Ben's special sedative drug wouldn't work. Chris thought for a while before looking to K.
"K, would you mind if I poke some holes on him, in order to save his life?" Chris asked.
"It's alright, do whatever you need to." said K. Chris nodded before staring hard at T-527 as his eyes started glowing.
Then, without any signs beforehand, T-527 limps gets pierced through by an unknown force, and in an instant, T-527 collapsed like a puppet that lost all of its strings with only the neck still moving in a disturbing motion...
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*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
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