JOJO, this is my last ripple...

By the time he woke again, at least several hours had passed.

The groggy, blacked-out state caused by some chemical substance probably secreted by the Facehugger itself was quickly driven away bit by bit by the subtle influence of the Force.

When his consciousness cleared, he noticed that he was still a solitary "large cocoon," "stuck" alone in this vast space that had once seemed to be some kind of reservoir. Even the enormous Alien Queen was crouched nearby, watching him without leaving a single step.

Li Ce was truly numb.

At this point, how could he not understand? This extraterrestrial creature, which burst from its host's chest after incubation and could steal the host's genes, had clearly sensed his Force-sensitive constitution! Or rather, it had set its sights on the Fiber Protoplasm Enhancement he had exchanged for!

There was no need for further words. Especially when he felt another "heartbeat" slowly growing stronger within his chest, and even barely saw through his Force vision that a tumor-like mass inside was constantly drawing nutrients from his bloodstream—

—Even though he was tightly restrained inside this gelatinous "straitjacket cocoon," to the point that even making his chest rise and fall was difficult, he still let out a long sigh, then breathed a sigh of relief!

The audible sound of his breathing even made the Queen turn her head, glaring fiercely at his face.

This powerful, towering creature was pitch-black all over. Aside from two pairs of tyrannosaur-like arms, it had a pair of relatively slender "appendages" on its chest. Its body was covered in shell-like structures, with numerous protrusions along its spine.

Especially that savage face, which showed no sign of any "eyes" whatsoever—it was truly hard to call it friendly!

Yet for some reason, as though he had gone mad,