Brain-Hugging Neural Worm

A sleepless night.

It was their first patrol, and the entire shift passed without incident.

But it was only their first patrol. Stand by the river long enough, and eventually your shoes would get wet. With more patrols ahead, there was no telling what might happen.

Zhang Shou drove the car to a parking lot near the school, then went to get breakfast. Yu Xian did not need breakfast, so he headed to school early.

"Salty Fish, you're early today."

Chen Ling was scrolling through gossip on her phone in the classroom. When she saw Yu Xian enter, she asked in surprise.

"Morning. You're early too."

Yu Xian sat down at his desk and replied with a faint smile.

He placed his hand inside the drawer. With a thought, silver threads swiftly appeared, weaving themselves into a glove in the blink of an eye.

Compared to using yarn to knit sweaters, the silver threads created by Blood of Silver were far easier to control. As long as he mastered the proper weaving method, he could create whatever protective gear he wanted with a single thought.

He practiced over and over. Silver gloves continuously appeared on both hands, vanished, then reappeared, growing faster and faster.

After he could weave a glove in 0.1 seconds, he began extending its length.

"Salty Fish, did you know?"

Chen Ling suddenly turned around. After speaking, she blinked and looked at Yu Xian curiously.

Yu Xian had clearly been wearing the blue school uniform when he entered. Their uniforms were all blue, yet he was now wearing a silver trench coat, with a silver vest underneath.

"You weren't changing clothes behind me, were you?" Chen Ling asked with a stunned expression.

The instant Chen Ling blinked, Yu Xian withdrew all the silver threads. Her vision blurred for a moment, and when she looked at him again, he was wearing his school uniform.

"Did I not sleep well last night?" Chen Ling muttered to herself.

Yu Xian smiled and asked, "What were you about to say?"

"Oh, right. Did you know? The East Sea Dragon King announced that he would enter the protective gear market for ordinary people and create equipment that could protect them from attacks by superhumans," Chen Ling said, still eyeing Yu Xian's clothes suspiciously despite being unable to resist sharing the gossip.

East Sea Dragon King was actually just a nickname.

His real name was Li Donghai. He was one of Dragon Ancestor's direct descendants and also a wealthy tycoon.

The famous East Sea Dragon Palace Group belonged to Li Donghai. In the past, he had only done business with superhumans, but it seemed he now intended to make money from ordinary people as well.

"He's probably just blowing hot air again," Yu Xian commented.

The East Sea Dragon King had always been a loudmouth. Netizens jokingly called him the Big-Mouthed Dragon because he chased every trending topic.

Without a doubt, he had made this grand announcement solely to ride Silver City's wave of attention.

"So it's fake." Chen Ling sounded disappointed.

She really did want to buy useful protective gear. Her parents had bought her pepper spray, bear spray, and even a stun gun.

Those things were fine against ordinary people, but they probably would not do much against superhumans. If equipment capable of defending against attacks by supernatural creatures went on sale, she would definitely be willing to buy it.

"Supernatural equipment would definitely be expensive. Even if they cut costs, it would probably still cost millions."

"The cost of the materials is right there. What do you think?"

Yu Xian knew very well how precious supernatural materials were. Not even every superhuman owned a piece of equipment, much less every ordinary person.

"Fine, I was being naive. I shouldn't have believed anything the Big-Mouthed Dragon said."

After hearing Yu Xian's words, Chen Ling completely gave up hope. She spoke while typing on her phone, clearly preparing to unleash a tirade under Li Donghai's account.

Yu Xian merely smiled. He took out his phone and continued practicing his sweater-knitting technique while opening the Qilin App to see if there was any real major news.

[A Flying Hopping Corpse has appeared at Twin West Mountain. A search is currently underway. Members below Eagle Rank are advised not to approach Twin West Mountain.]

[Internal ranking assessments will begin on the first of next month. Members confident they can improve their ranking should register as soon as possible.]

[The Qilin Research Department has found a method to detect the Aberrant Insect variant—Brain-Hugging Neural Worm. A nationwide investigation will begin in three days.]

When Yu Xian saw the third highly trending post, his eyes immediately lit up.

About two days earlier, he had seen related reports. At the time, Qilin's internal scientists had already thoroughly studied this new form of Aberrant Insect and named it the "Brain-Hugging Neural Worm."

This Aberrant Insect variant transformed its body into a structure extremely similar to human cranial nerves, then infiltrated its target's brain and replaced their nerves, like countless tentacles tightly embracing the brain.

At that point, the host's brain had not died. However, all information received by it would first be filtered by the Brain-Hugging Neural Worm. Simply put, whatever it wanted the host to see, the host saw; whatever it wanted the host to hear, the host heard.

The host became a complete puppet of the Brain-Hugging Neural Worm, with no room for resistance whatsoever.

Moreover, once someone was successfully parasitized by a Brain-Hugging Neural Worm, although they remained alive, there was effectively no difference from death. With most current methods, there was no way to ensure the host's survival after separating the Brain-Hugging Neural Worm.

After all, the Brain-Hugging Neural Worm had consumed the host's cranial nerves. Without those nerves, a person naturally could not survive.

Yu Xian was currently both relieved and worried. He was relieved because the country finally had a way to prevent the invasion of Aberrant Insects and Brain-Hugging Neural Worms.

Gold Nugget Mountain.

The mountain got its name because someone had once discovered an enormous gold nugget there.

However, as supernatural creatures became increasingly numerous, the humans living near Gold Nugget Mountain had long since relocated to the cities. It had now become an animal paradise.

Inside a man-made cave halfway up the mountain, all kinds of animals had gathered together—wolves, bears, tigers, and even many humans.

Clearly, this was not normal. These creatures could not possibly coexist peacefully.

The ground suddenly shook.

A massive white ape three meters tall dropped from the mountaintop onto the flat ground halfway up the mountain. It turned and tore open one wall of the cave, then grinned at all the creatures. "This body is seriously powerful. Feels amazing."

"Third Brother, don't wreck that body. It's an important tool for us," Zhou Tai said as he sat on a rock, swinging his legs.

A tiger nodded. "That's right. It wasn't easy to get hold of a supernatural creature. If you ruin it, you're dead."

Supernatural creatures were more sensitive. They could detect any foreign object invading their bodies, which made it extremely difficult for Aberrant Insects to parasitize them.

However, after his disastrous defeat in Silver City, Zhou Tai understood that Aberrant Insects would never develop if they relied solely on parasitizing ordinary humans.

Therefore, after discovering that this giant ape was alone, he sacrificed a large number of Aberrant Insects and gradually exhausted the ape until it was completely spent. Only then did they successfully parasitize it and seize its body.

After gaining human intelligence, Aberrant Insects had actually become afraid of death as well, making it extremely difficult for them to unite.

Now that Zhou Tai was their leader, the Aberrant Insects could act in unison. Even if they feared death, they still had to charge forward. At last, they had achieved a breakthrough from zero to one.

Once they parasitized more supernatural creatures, perhaps they could surround the cities from the wilderness and ultimately rule the world.