Thanks for the Invite, I'm on Terra, and I'm a Parasite

However, before someone with absolute control like him, those chaotic consciousnesses could only be suppressed, letting out overlapping wails.

"...The nightmare is over. Rest in peace."

With some regret, he suppressed that tangled mass of consciousness. There was no saving them anymore; it was almost impossible for those minds to return to normal.

If he'd arrived earlier, perhaps he could've stopped all this from happening. But there were no ifs.

At this moment, all Zuo Jian could do was erase them from this body one by one—or rather, set them free.

But then, he discovered some unusual presences.

"Lai Ke and... Quintus?!"

Zuo Jian froze.

Wait, how had this guy gotten swallowed too??

If he remembered correctly, wasn't Quintus supposed to have died directly in that cave with the Seaborn?

After thinking for a moment, he began reading the subconsciousness of this body.

Tracking. Blood.

Devouring... complete...

Tracking... still... leftovers...

Retrieve...

Huh?

Wait, those three dogs had gone back to the cave they'd originally left and collected Quintus's corpse—the shriveled remains that had been burned to ashes by the fire he'd set before leaving?

Besides, after Quintus had been assimilated and contaminated by flesh and blood, Zuo Jian hadn't left him much nourishment to survive on. He'd simply withered to death.

After being slowly roasted in that fire until he was practically ash, he could still be absorbed back?

What kind of absurd vitality did I have?

Uh...

Ah...

He lowered his head and discovered that two grotesque faces had suddenly surfaced on his arm.

Quintus's and Lai Ke's faces had reappeared on his body just like that.

Their mouths writhed as they let out wave after wave of mournful wails.

Clearly, the state of being assimilated together with their consciousness had made them wish they were dead.

Zuo Jian watched the two faces on his wrist continue wailing as he erased the consciousnesses of the other innocent victims one by one, granting them release.

Soon, only the consciousnesses of the two people before him remained, still wailing within the body.

Should he help set them free too...?

The expressions on the two faces grew increasingly pained. At the same time, crimson liquid flowed from their hollow eye sockets like tears.

They had already paid for it with their lives...

Then...

Zuo Jian fell silent. His pale blue eye stared at the faces of Quintus and Lai Ke, then he placed his other hand over them, as though he truly intended to close their eyes for them.

The blue gemstone brooch was like a calm sea, the afterglow of the setting sun laying a thin golden sheen over it.

Through it, Zuo Jian watched Laurentina hold Anita's thin, heartbreaking hand. Anita was still chattering away, but Laurentina seemed to have grown accustomed to talking with the child.

..

"Release...?"

Below the single eye, the bloody maw opened and released a low growl.

"Paid with their lives... as the price????"

The hand Zuo Jian had raised to close their eyes suddenly split open, and two claws stabbed directly into the eye sockets of the two wailing faces!

Even more blood sprayed from their eye sockets!

"You think the lives of two pieces of human trash, mongrels, beasts like you can make up for the lives of those innocent men, women, elderly people, and children tortured to death by your so-called experiments?"

"For your own selfish desires, you trampled on the lives of others as you pleased, yet still fancied yourselves superior."

That beautiful blue eye had dimmed, like a lightless dead sea capable of swallowing everything.

"Release? You think you deserve it?"

"This shell, born from flesh and blood fed by the greed that devoured countless innocents, will become the prison you forged with your own hands."

As Zuo Jian spoke, no expression could be seen on his face, which had nothing but a pupil.

Yet in the next moment, Laurentina's call rang out again.

"Zuo Jian?"

I'm here. What's wrong?

His voice remained gentle, as though those vicious words just now hadn't come from his mouth at all.

Food

As he responded to Laurentina, Zuo Jian drew the two grotesque faces on his body back into his flesh.

He still had more important matters to figure out.

First of all, according to Laurentina, the inhabitants of this world were divided into numerous different races, with differences in physiology and environmental tolerance.

Not to mention the various aspects shaped by their upbringing, such as culture.

Just as Laurentina had noticed the difficult lives of Saltwind City's residents without finding anything strange about it.

She wasn't one of the races from the continent, so she couldn't notice some obvious problems.

No matter how one looked at it, a human settlement in a coastal region that had previously used a "city" as its administrative unit could not possibly be this impoverished.

And nearly all the buildings along the streets were sturdy structures resembling concrete.

From time to time, industrial byproducts could be found amid the trash heaps in the corners.

Simply being by the sea meant possessing a treasure trove of resources.

Even without developing agriculture, they shouldn't have ended up like this merely by relying on the region's characteristics and undersea resources.

Why?

He walked to the shore and watched as the setting sun was about to be swallowed by the boundless blue.

Zuo Jian raised a hand.

The flesh on his arm wriggled, and then a pair of wings separated from the muscular structure as though breaking free from a cocoon.

A red bird appeared on his arm, then detached from its host and flew toward the sea.

Then, while still in midair, it transformed into a fish and splashed into the water.

.

"?"

"What... is this?"

The branch of flesh was enveloped by the ocean.

These were Seaborn?

The creatures beneath the sea caught his attention. That wasn't surprising; judging from their composition and form, it was only natural for Seaborn to belong to the ocean.

It was just that they were far too close to the shoreline.

And...

Why?

Aside from the Seaborn, there wasn't a single trace of life to be sensed in this ocean.

Forget ordinary fish—even seaweed and other aquatic plants were nowhere to be found.

The roaming incarnation swam toward the seabed.

Night fell, and darkness swallowed his vision.

Zuo Jian controlled that portion of flesh, growing a bulb-like structure above its head.

Under the faint light, part of the seabed was revealed.

"This is..."

He frowned. The seabed, which should have been made up of sand and seaweed, was instead carpeted in deep blue flesh.

At the same time, a protrusion in the distance drew his attention.

It was a shipwreck broken in half.

It wasn't some grand, massive vessel, just an ordinary wooden boat.

He moved closer and saw rotten fibrous material still remaining inside the fractured cabin.

A fishing net?

Zuo Jian turned his head and looked at the Seaborn crawling across the blue motherbed.

The fishing boat's structure was simple. Any fisherman could operate it and take it out to sea.

But heading out to sea with fishing nets?

To catch these Seaborn?

How could that be possible?

Then there was only one conclusion.

This sea hadn't always been like this.

Early Saltwind City might not have been an especially prosperous place.

But with the gifts and resources of the sea, it should at least have been self-sufficient.

At the same time, the traces of industrialized products showed that, no matter how bad things had been, they shouldn't have become like Anita and the others.

As though confirming Zuo Jian's deduction, a great number of tiny living organisms suddenly spread through the seawater.

Then, as though some shadow had enveloped it, the separated consciousness suddenly returned.

"Was it eaten?"

"Looks like the probing ends here."

In almost an instant, the tiny fish formed from flesh and blood was torn into pieces, then swallowed into the belly of some creature.

Yet even though the consciousness connection had been severed, he could still sense that portion of flesh from afar.

And... issue some basic commands, such as beginning assimilation.