Vampirzahn

Kapitel 20

"Mariko, wake up! Get up!"

Anzai shouted loudly, shaking Mariko's shoulders. This was dangerous! Anzai desperately called out in Mariko's ear, "Mariko! Mariko!"

Mariko stopped abruptly and slowly opened her eyes.

"Very good!"

Anzai couldn't help but hug Mariko tightly.

"dad……"

Mariko finally spoke, putting her arm around Anzai's back.

"Okay...okay..."

Section 49

Anqi breathed a sigh of relief and stroked Mariko's head.

"...Dad...you saved me..."

"You've been talking in your sleep, and I was worried about what was wrong with you."

"...That person...has that person left?"

"Which person?"

"It's that guy who just came here..."

Mariko didn't seem to be fully awake yet; she couldn't distinguish between reality and dreams.

"No one has ever been here. Only your father is here."

"real?……"

Yes, really.

After a series of footsteps, the nurse came in.

"What's wrong? I think I heard a sound."

“Mariko is talking in her sleep,” Anzai explained. “She probably had a nightmare…”

"Having another nightmare?" The nurse's expression was slightly impatient.

"Again? Is Mariko always like this?"

"Yes, he often talks in his sleep at night. Didn't the doctor tell you that?"

"I had heard a little about it... but I didn't expect it to be this serious."

"For a while, her condition improved, but it seems to have worsened again this week... She even had to pull out her IV line once."

"Isn't anyone supervising you at night?"

“Right after the surgery, nurses took turns on duty every night. Recently… well, we still come to the ward regularly to check on you.”

"That won't do! I'll keep watch, is that alright?"

"Oh no, that won't do, it will affect the other patients."

Anqi was somewhat agitated. "Are you just going to let this go? I had no idea you would do this. This is outrageous!"

The nurse sighed helplessly.

"In short, please go home first today. The designated visiting hours have passed... Everything will be alright. We will report the situation to the doctor and will be more careful in the future, so please don't worry."

"But……"

Anqi glanced at the nurse, then at Mariko. Mariko lay listlessly on the bed, looking completely exhausted.

In the end, Anzai gave in. But Mariko cast an uneasy glance at her father, who was packing his things to leave.

"I'm scared..."

"Mariko said softly. Instantly, Anzai felt a pang of heartache."

"It's alright, I'll come again tomorrow." It took Anqi a long time to say this.

"……real?"

"Oh, really?"

Anzai smiled at Mariko.

"...Previously, we had already discovered that the peroxisomal proliferator clopidogrel could induce mitochondrial unsaturated fatty acid β-oxidase in mouse hepatocytes..."

Sachiko Asakura was repeatedly reciting the manuscript in her research room. It was to be presented at the academic society tomorrow, and she had to memorize it today, no matter what.

The association will hold a three-day event at the city's activity center starting tomorrow. Asakura's speech is scheduled to begin at 5:20 PM on the first day, and will be the last speech of the day. Toshiaki's speech will begin at 2:00 PM.

Liming had already arranged to meet Asakura for a few drinks after her presentation. Before leaving home, Liming listened to Asakura's rehearsal; Asakura recited it fluently, almost without pausing, but Asakura still felt unsure. After Liming left, Asakura practiced repeatedly for nearly two hours in the empty seminar room. She timed herself while reciting, finding it took about fourteen minutes to memorize once. This way, even if she stumbled over her words, she estimated she could still keep her speech within the allotted time. Asakura's voice was a little hoarse, so she sat down to rest for a while. It was already late at night.

Asakura stretched. Lately, she'd been so tired, like she was doing two days' work in one day. She didn't want to relax, but as soon as she got home and into the bathtub, the accumulated fatigue seeped out. Asakura felt these feelings were all due to her becoming forgetful.

For the past ten days or so, Asakura has been unable to recall what she's been doing. She was originally working on a PowerPoint presentation in the lab, but strangely, she found herself sitting at the sterile workbench. Even more incredibly, she found herself inexplicably carrying a radioactive isotope from the isotope lab building. When she came to her senses again, she was back in the lab, the PowerPoint presentation already finished. This seems to happen frequently in the dead of night, but sometimes she also loses her memory during the day. She heard that after the last rehearsal, everyone ate cake together, but Asakura has no recollection of that. She has no idea what's going on.

Asakura shook her head heavily. These were all trivial matters, and there was nothing wrong with her body. Although she felt a little nauseous, Asakura still felt that such a small thing didn't need to be discussed with others.

"oops!"

Asakura suddenly stood up. She had forgotten to passage the cells.

It's not "Eve1," but the experimental cells used for this conference presentation. Because I thought those cells might still be useful after the conference, I've been subculturing them. Around today, the flask should be full of cells. I'm attending the conference tomorrow, and if I don't subculture them by today, all the cells will die.

Asakura, with renewed focus, left the seminar room and headed towards the incubation room. The streetlights in the corridor were off, and there was no one in sight.

Asakura entered the culture room, opened the refrigerator, and took out the culture medium necessary for subculture.

"...?"

Asakura felt something was off.

Why is the volume of the culture medium so much smaller?

Section 50

The culture medium prepared a week ago is now almost empty. Asakura has been busy preparing for the conference this week and hasn't done much cell-related experiments, yet the medium is being used up so quickly. To prevent bacterial contamination, the culture medium is stored in individual bottles for each researcher, and no one else uses Asakura's medium. However, the fact is that the volume has decreased significantly. Unless it's a large-scale cell culture, it's impossible to consume nearly 500 milliliters of medium in such a short time. How could it have decreased?

Although it seemed unbelievable, Asakura placed the bottle on the sterile workbench and continued with the preparations. The amount of other reagents, such as trypsin and EDTA, did not decrease.

Perhaps it was just her imagination. Asakura tried not to think about it too much.

After the sterile operating table was prepared, Asakura went to the incubator and took out the cells from it.

She closed the trunk and walked back.

"..."

Asakura felt something was off, so he stopped in his tracks.

Looking back, the door was tightly closed; it was still the familiar incubator.

Asakura looked at the culture flask in his hand, then at the incubator, but couldn't see any changes. Yet, something just felt off.

What's inside the incubator?

How could this be? Asakura shook his head. Hadn't he just taken the flask out of the incubator?

However, no matter how hard Asakura racked his brains, he couldn't figure out what was happening inside the incubator.

...I don't know what's wrong with it.

Asakura gave a wry smile.

It seems necessary to finish the succession work as soon as possible and go back. I need to relax my tired nerves; I have to give a presentation at the academic conference tomorrow.

Asakura sat down at the sterile workbench and began to disinfect her hands with alcohol.

She is very satisfied with the current situation.

When she was first immersed in the culture medium, her rate of evolution was incomparable to what it is now. Now, she can control her host at will. More importantly, she used to need external help to receive nerve signals, but now she can produce them herself. The neurotransmitters biologists call FOS or Jun, and the protein kinases necessary for receiving signals, all obey her commands. She mutated most of them, so they remain active even without external stimulation. Now, she can induce the necessary proteins in appropriate amounts and make them function as needed. Nothing is more enjoyable than controlling her host at will. She is satisfied with the laboratory environment, which contains everything necessary for evolution. However, things didn't go smoothly at first. She divided into many colonies and subjected them to different stimuli; some colonies were exposed to fluorescent light, while others were surrounded by carcinogens such as methylcholanthrene or DAB. Most of the colonies died. Some, even if alive, failed to produce the mutations she desired. For a week, "she" experimented repeatedly, trying every possible combination. Once a slightly better cell line appeared, "she" proliferated it and gave it further stimulation.

During this period, with no one in the lab at night, "she" boldly conducted various experiments. A part of "her" parasitized the body of a woman named Asakura, and this part greatly aided "her" evolution. This week, the lab and cultivation room became experimental grounds for sacred evolution.

She endured billions of years of time, always dreaming of this day.

For a long time, "she" obeyed her host's commands, engaging in simple labor to produce energy. The host firmly believed that as long as "she" was given food, "she" could generate energy for herself at any time. The host had no doubt that she controlled "she." However, the host did not realize that from the very beginning, her self-satisfaction was actually playing right into "her" trap. The host had been evolving. They had abandoned single-celled organisms and chosen the evolutionary path of multicellular organisms. Due to the differentiation of cell functions, the host could move efficiently to ingest more food. In order to capture food, the host evolved rapid nerve conduction. Soon, the host set foot on land, gained intelligence, and built its own civilization. They believed that all of this had evolved through their own efforts. What a simple genome! "She" chuckled to herself.

The reason the host was able to evolve to this point is because "she" parasitized the host's body, isn't it because "she" provided the host with a large amount of energy? Originally, the host was just a creature that dared not even touch oxygen, silently eking out a living in this world. Later, "she" transformed the host into an aerobic organism and endowed them with the powerful weapon of locomotion.

"She" is merely disguised as a submissive slave until the host completes the necessary evolution.

She was merely putting on an act of being controlled by her host.

She was simply waiting for a man who truly understood her to appear.

And now, finally, such a man has appeared before her.

Toshiaki Nagashima.

No scholar understands "her" better than him. In the near future, he will surely become an authority on "her." He will lead the research trend on "her" worldwide. He will reveal the truth about "her" to the world. "She" firmly believes this. Only he is the man suitable to be with "her."

She retrieved Shengmei's memories from that time, recalling the fleeting pleasure she felt during her encounter with Liming, and couldn't help but tremble. Yes, at that time, Liming certainly didn't love Shengmei.

It's not that they love me, but that they love me!

That's what "she" thought.

For a moment, she was completely infatuated.

She couldn't help but let out a satisfied cry. Hearing her own voice filled her with immense pleasure, which intensified her ecstasy, and she cried out continuously. At first, there were only slight vibrations in the culture medium, but soon the sound became a clear human voice, then Japanese. The rapid breathing rose to a high-pitched scream.

She thought it was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic!

Everything is ready.

Next, all that's needed is to unite with Liming.

She exerted all her strength, maximizing the use of nuclear genes to proliferate the host cell. In a very short time, the entire flask was filled with proliferating cells. Feeling bored, she unscrewed the lid and went outside. The incubator was warm and humid. Although not as comfortable as culture medium, the host's body was enveloped in a gentle, moderate temperature and humidity.

To improve her voice, "she" first created a throat and mouth, then two lungs. She took a deep breath, the inhaled oxygen activating her electron transport system. Slowly, and deliberately, she uttered the words she most wanted to say: "Li-ming..."

Being able to call out the name of the man she loved filled her with immense excitement. Previously, she could only rely on her "sisters" living within Li Ming's body, who would mimic her voice within Li Ming's brain cells. But now, things were different. She could now speak clearly on her own. The name she uttered for Li Ming even caused the air to vibrate.

"She" continued to proliferate, completing her own face—the face of her former host, Saint Mei, the one that would most please Liming. "She" made some modifications to the host's form, solely to please Liming. To Liming, this was the perfect woman. The proliferating cells had already engulfed the flask. "She" was undergoing complex differentiation of the host cells' morphology. "She" wanted to achieve that feeling.

For "her", the part of her body that received Li Ming's caresses was the part she most wanted to be repaired as soon as possible.