61: parasite

Lu Jianchuan had just worked with his colleagues to completely subdue the last rioter who was desperately struggling, even trying to slam his head against the ground despite being handcuffed.

He pressed his knee firmly against the man's back, feeling the mechanical, involuntary twitching force emanating from the body beneath him. He deftly pulled out a pair of handcuffs and securely locked the wrists that were still unconsciously clawing at the ground.

After finishing this, he raised his head, slightly out of breath, and scanned the chaotic scene—people pinned to the ground, still staring blankly at the sky or the ground, their limbs occasionally twitching nervously.

Victims, still shaken and in tears, supporting each other; and colleagues, also looking alarmed and exhausted, maintaining order, calling for backup and ambulances.

His phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated with an extremely faint, non-System-default tremor. This special notification made his heart skip a beat.

He stood up calmly and whispered to Old Zhang beside him, "Brother Zhang, I'm going to catch my breath over there and see if there are any other clues we missed."

Old Zhang was busy reporting the situation over the walkie-talkie and just waved his hand, indicating for Lu Jianchuan to go ahead.

Lu Jianchuan quickly walked behind a police car, avoiding everyone's line of sight, before pulling out his phone. The screen lit up, revealing the familiar starry sky avatar and the period "." prominently displayed on the lock screen notification.

He took a deep breath, unlocked the phone, and tapped to open it.

".": "The people you just encountered were not acting of their own will. They were 'controlled' by something."

Lu Jianchuan's pupils contracted, and his fingers immediately began typing on the screen.

Lu Jianchuan: "Controlled? What do you mean? Like puppets on strings?"

".": "That's a fitting analogy. Preliminary judgment suggests a 'Swarm Control' method. Their actions were highly unified, lacking individual thought and fear, consistent with being driven by forced commands."

".": "Notably, this incident is completely different from the individuals you previously encountered who evolved due to survival instincts. The perpetrator's goal is clear, their methods precise, and the chaos they incited has a distinct destructive purpose, not driven by primitive desires like predation or self-preservation."

".": "This strongly suggests that the mastermind behind this possesses significant intelligence and harbors a specific objective."

Lu Jianchuan: "What's the objective? Who is it?"

".": "Unknown. The intelligence I currently possess is limited to this. Their true identity, specific abilities, and ultimate goals remain mysteries."

".": "I was unable to observe the controller's true form, nor could I trace the source of the control signal. He/She/It is deeply hidden."

".": "My intuition tells me this is definitely not an isolated incident, and it's certainly not good news. You must be on high alert and exercise extreme caution."

Reading the lines of calm yet grave text on the screen, Lu Jianchuan slowly tightened his grip on the phone, his knuckles turning white from the force. Sure enough, his instincts hadn't been wrong. This wasn't an ordinary public security case; it was a game of chess orchestrated by another, deeper-hidden black hand, using people as pawns.

He instinctively looked up, his gaze sharply scanning every potential hiding spot around him—the windows of tall buildings, the shadows of street corners, behind the chaotic crowd... Was that unseen opponent currently lurking among them, coldly admiring the farce they had directed?

"Xiao Lu! What are you spacing out for? Come help us get these ones into the vehicles!" Old Zhang's shout came from not far away, interrupting his scan. Several medical personnel were trying to lift a still slightly twitching "rioter" onto a stretcher, but the person's body occasionally stiffened and twisted, making the task difficult.

"Coming!" Lu Jianchuan responded, stuffed his phone back into his pocket, and quickly walked over. He reached out to help stabilize the stretcher, his fingertips once again touching the man's arm. Beneath the cold, lifeless skin, he seemed to feel a subtle, inhuman restlessness.

He forced himself to look away, focusing on the task at hand, but deep down, an unprecedented chill had taken root. An enemy with intelligence, capable of remotely controlling crowds, with an unknown purpose... This was far more terrifying and troublesome than facing a pure monster.

The chaos at the scene continued, the rotating lights of the police cars casting flickering shadows on his face.

Back at the Police Station, the atmosphere was noticeably tenser than usual. These "rioters" who had been brought in were placed in separate interrogation rooms, but their condition left even the most experienced officers feeling challenged. No matter how they were questioned, they remained deathly silent, their eyes vacant, showing no reaction to the police's inquiries or even intimidation, only their bodies occasionally twitching uncontrollably.

"The situation is wrong, very wrong," a senior detective said, emerging from an interrogation room with a grave expression. "This doesn't seem like a typical mental disorder; it's more like a physiological-level loss of control. They must be sent for medical examination immediately."

Given the extreme abnormality and potential risks of the situation, higher-ups quickly approved the decision to transfer the involved individuals in batches to a designated hospital with isolation capabilities, cooperating with the municipal bureau, for compulsory medical examinations. Lu Jianchuan and Old Zhang were responsible for escorting the first batch, which included the burly man Lu Jianchuan had initially subdued.

The ambulance stopped in front of the hospital's special access lane. Medical personnel and police worked together to transfer the still-vacant-eyed, stiff-limbed burly man onto a mobile stretcher and wheeled him into the brightly lit emergency isolation zone.

Doctors and Nurses in white coats immediately gathered around. "Blood pressure normal, heart rate slightly slow... Pupillary light reflex weak..." the doctor muttered while examining and recording, frowning. "Prepare for blood draw, conduct a comprehensive biochemical analysis and toxicology screening, and schedule a brain CT..."

Just then, a young Nurse preparing to disinfect the burly man's arm for a venous blood draw suddenly paused and let out a low gasp. "Doctor! Look at his skin!"

Under the bright shadowless lights of the isolation zone, countless extremely fine, hair-like shadows seemed to be slowly writhing beneath the skin of the burly man's arm, flickering in and out of sight!

"What is this?!" The attending doctor's face changed, and he immediately stepped forward for a closer look.

Almost as soon as he spoke, the burly man on the stretcher jolted violently, his eyes suddenly widening, and a strange gurgling sound came from his throat. His body temperature spiked sharply on the monitoring equipment, his skin instantly turning flushed!

"Patient in ventricular fibrillation! Quick! Prepare for resuscitation!" The doctor reacted swiftly, shouting loudly.

However, everything happened too fast. Before the Nurse could retrieve the medication, the burly man's body convulsed violently a few times, then suddenly stiffened before going completely limp. On the cardiac monitor, the line representing his heartbeat flattened into a cold, straight line, the piercing alarm tearing through the air of the isolation zone.

Resuscitation efforts began immediately but were already futile.

After declaring clinical death, the attending doctor, suppressing his shock, performed a preliminary external examination of the body under police supervision. When he carefully cut open the skin of the deceased's arm with a scalpel, the sight before him made everyone present gasp—clustered densely around the muscle tissue, nerves, and blood vessels were countless grayish-white, hair-thin, micro-arthropod-like creatures. They now seemed to have lost their vitality, entwined together like withered fibers.

"What... what are these things?!" A young Nurse covered her mouth, her face pale.

"Seal off the scene immediately! All personnel who made contact, remain here for isolation!" The officer in charge ordered sternly, his face ashen. He immediately picked up the phone to report this unimaginable discovery to his superiors and more specialized departments.

The information was relayed up the chain of command, causing extreme concern. Soon, the hospital received top-level instructions to conduct the strictest, most targeted biological scans and tests on all remaining detained "rioters." The results were shocking—abnormal biological signals, similar to those found earlier, were detected to varying degrees in everyone's spinal cord and brainstem regions!

Given the terror and potential risks of this unknown Parasite, all infected individuals were immediately transferred to the highest-level bio-isolation wards for strict lockdown and monitoring. Lu Jianchuan, Old Zhang, and several other colleagues were ordered to stand guard, fully armed, at the outer passage of the isolation zone. Their mission was clear: ensure absolute security of the area and prevent any accidents.

Through the thick blast-proof glass observation window, rows of isolation wards were visible. In each ward lay a "person" who had once rampaged violently on the streets. They were now secured to hospital beds with special restraints, hooked up to life-support lines, but what chilled the heart most were their still-wide-open, vacant eyes and the occasional, eerie writhing beneath their skin, like subtle electric currents passing through.

Standing on the Warning line (Police Line), Lu Jianchuan could clearly sense the tense nerves and suppressed breathing of his colleagues beside him. Through his gloves, he subconsciously touched the armband on his left wrist. The unimaginable scene before him was the materialization of The Forger's warning. An enemy capable of controlling human bodies with such precision posed a threat far beyond his previous imagination.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the "living corpses" lying in the isolation pods, then looking toward the tightly shut door at the end of the corridor. Inside were the recently deceased burly man and the extracted Parasite samples; outside was the seemingly calm world.