Thanks for Asking, I'm on Terra, and I'm a Parasite

"I told you, didn't I? Within this narrow little world, I have absolute control—even over... adjusting the difference in the flow of time."

"Your self-awareness and emotions aren't actually important to me. What I need is merely a mechanical consciousness that can repeatedly and loyally carry out the actions I require."

"Grind away the excess within your consciousness, then carve what I need into your subconscious—the vessel."

"Wait... could it be...?"

Lai Ke's eyes widened sharply. He suddenly understood something.

"From now on, all your body can do is repeatedly absorb nutrients from the soil, bloom, and bear fruit."

"Other than that, you can do nothing."

"As for time—"

Lai Ke suddenly felt that the monster before him was like a demon from some story.

"Consciousness has a shelf life. I don't know how long it'll last, but—"

"Will around two thousand years be enough for you to peacefully be a plant?"

Crimson flesh gathered over Zuo Jian's head, and a demonic smile slowly emerged upon it. Then he shut the door, not even giving Lai Ke time to react.

Click...

In reality, the nun opened his eyes.

He raised a hand and looked at the seed in his palm.

At that moment, it seemed as though a lifelike face had been carved into it.

Zuo Jian silently counted the seconds. When he reached twenty, he held the seed before him and stared at its vacant face.

"Seems like the wear was a little severe."

"I wonder whether you can hold on until the second fruiting."

"But fortunately, you seem to remember only everything I need you to do now."

He smiled as he watched the mouth on the seed twitch and slowly spit out distorted syllables.

"Absorb... soil... bloom... bear fruit..."

As for Quintus—his judgment would have to wait a while longer.

"Zuo Jian?"

Laurentina's sleepy call suddenly came from behind him.

"What is it?"

Turning around, Zuo Jian saw his shark looking at him with an odd expression.

"Why are you... smiling so coldly...?"

(Someone said they wanted the group number—here it is.)

(941683389. You can team up in the group to pioneer Monster Hunter, find me to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, or even discuss Arknights!)

(The answer to the group-entry question is: no.)

Saintess

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

He stepped forward and stroked Laurentina's fluffy hair.

"Mmm... no, it's just..."

Her eyes were somewhat unfocused, and under his touch, she slowly drifted back into sleep.

Zuo Jian lowered his head and watched the girl's steady breathing against his chest.

"Good night, Laurentina."

He whispered against her lips, then lifted her whole body and gently placed her by the bed.

Then he raised a hand, reached into his left eye socket, and placed that azure pupil in the corner of the room.

"Almost done. Now, it's time to go solve the second problem."

After saying that, Zuo Jian pushed open the battered door and quietly slipped outside.

At the same time, his face began to writhe and change.

The softness and delicacy belonging to a young girl gradually vanished, replaced by masculine firmness and ruggedness.

The muscles of his body swelled, and his limbs were no longer slender.

As for his face, his left eye socket remained empty. Zuo Jian closed his left eye and mimicked a startlingly long scar around it.

He had now turned into an ordinary middle-aged man who looked utterly unremarkable, except for the vicious facial wound and missing eye left behind by some misfortune.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, he further adjusted his face into a gaunt shape. Thus, a face resembling a famine-stricken refugee was born.

"Good enough."

..

"I told you already. Go home quietly, lie down in bed, and get some sleep. By tomorrow, hunger will no longer trouble you."

Beneath the boundless night sky, Terra's twin moons cast down their faint glow, illuminating the thin figure walking alone through the fields.

Squelch...

Squelch...

"Unless something unexpected happens, the residents around Saltwind City have all relied on ocean fishing for a living ever since the Seaborn altered the nearby marine ecosystem."

"It isn't that they don't want to farm. The surrounding soil simply doesn't meet the conditions required for vegetation to grow."

The middle-aged man muttered softly while his body continuously churned and writhed.

Numerous holes began appearing all over his body.

From within those holes, countless slender red creatures resembling worms continuously fell out.

Onto the ground.

The instant they landed and touched the soil, they seemed to awaken some instinct, rapidly seeking cracks—or burrowing their own—to enter the earth.

This was the second time Zuo Jian regretted that he was merely a Painter, not some geographer or agricultural expert.

To change this area's extreme environment, all he could do was use a simple, clumsy method.

Besides substances resembling the alkaline materials from his memories, he also had to devour all the materials that even he judged difficult to absorb.

Therefore... the biological mimicry capable of perfectly fulfilling those conditions was... earthworms.

With every step he took, more Blood Earthworms carried away nutrients from this body, then burrowed into the soil to complete the complex project Zuo Jian had arranged.

Until...

Thud...

"?"

He froze and looked at his severed legs.

The flesh at the joints had long since disappeared, while more red worms writhed and rolled from the cross-sections into the ground.

"I forgot that constantly using the flesh of my legs to mimic those worms would cause those parts to disappear."

Zuo Jian sighed.

Then, after confirming that no villagers could possibly pass by, he removed both arms and used them to fill the missing portions of his legs.

Then, with an armless torso, he continued onward while scattering his flesh-born creatures.

He kept walking like that, walking and walking...

Until his body collapsed once more. This time, there was almost no flesh left on any other part of his body to replenish the feet he needed for movement.

Zuo Jian looked more wretched than ever.

His arms were gone. His two legs looked severely atrophied, and the bones in his chest were completely exposed.

Only half of his lips remained on his head, while his blue single eye hung there by several tiny tentacles.

He looked at the many swollen crimson earthworms covering the surface of his body. They were the first batch of mimics to enter the soil, and after devouring their assigned areas, they were gradually returning to his body...

"...It seems I look more like a monster this way."

His current appearance reminded him of all those grotesque films he had once watched.

He used to feel deeply uncomfortable at the intensely shocking imagery of flesh and blood in them.

If he had known beforehand that his reincarnation would turn him into something like this, then no matter what anyone said, his former self would never have agreed.

"How disgusting..."

As if mocking himself, Zuo Jian shook the half of his head that remained.

"But... disgusting as it is."

More and more mimic earthworms returned.

Zuo Jian could stand again now.

His battered body slowly rose as he looked over the vast expanse of soil before him.

And... the red seed clenched in his hand.

"But I have no complaints."

He spoke softly, as though speaking to himself.

"Wood Frame! Wood Frame, get up! No sleeping! Go, church, church! The priest's back and he's giving out food!"

"Wood Frame, wake up—"

Anita's morning was shattered by children shoving and shouting at her.

She opened her eyes and discovered that Bench had somehow found his way to her side.

"Bench, why are you here? Oh, right, there's porridge here. It was too late yesterday, so I forgot to come find you all. Painter and the others got this. I'll heat some up for you—"

As she spoke, just as she was about to look for something to start a fire with, Bench grabbed her skirt and forcibly dragged her out of the ruined house.

"Wait... Bench... I'll heat up something for you to eat right away..."

"No, church, more food! Wood Frame! We go!"

"Okay, okay, but I need to tell Painter first. Huh?"

"Where's Painter?"

Anita turned around and only then realized that there were only her and Bench in the room.

"Where did he go?!"

"Zuo Jian, where are you?"

Laurentina had never been so panicked. Almost the moment she opened her eyes, the familiar voice at her side no longer answered her.

For an instant, she felt as though she had been abandoned, dragged once again into the mire of loneliness.

"Zuo Jian... where are you??"

Just as helplessness seemed to envelop her like ocean tides, something seemed to guide her for a moment, making her turn toward the church.

"Found him. Is he at the church?"

As the hunter rushed wildly forward, another pair had arrived at the church even earlier.