Paradigm Parasite - Chapter 187: "Nostalgia"

The thing that crawled out of the old man’s belly was a piece of squishy, whitish flesh with one large eyeball.

They were strange creatures with insect-like legs.

The creatures crawled out of his belly and shuddered, their white bodies stained in spots of blood.

The name is globster.

It comes from the unidentified lumps of flesh that have washed up on beaches all over the world.

It is made from the fat of dead old men, so it is full of collagen.

… only fat!

Hahaha …… haha… Boring.

The number is six. Same number as the kids.

Now, what can these guys do? …… Well, we’ll see if we let them try.

Let’s go with the first one for now.

The Globster, who receives my order, jumps on the dog-eared kid with agile movements that you can’t imagine from his appearance.

“Kya…”

“P… is…?”

The angry kid was about to say something, but his collar tightened and his words were interrupted.

The globster stuck to the kid’s belly and assimilated directly into it.

It sinks into the belly and parasitises into the body.

The kid is stiff, as if he can’t get his head around what has just happened. Well, at this stage there is no pain.

The next moment, the kid’s whole body pulses and bubbles – it explodes.

The other kids are bathed in the stuff splattered all over their bodies, and their eyes widen in astonishment.

…Huh?

I tilt my head.

Why did it explode?

The Globster’s ability is supposed to mutate the body of the parasitised opponent, but -.

I beckon the globster to come out of the unformed corpse.

The lump of flesh came closer with a crunching sound.

Gently, I hold out my hand and hold up a finger.

The globster gently touches my finger and stretches out the roots stuck inside.

Make contact and look at the information. Doore, the cause is …… Oh, I see.

This was a mistake.

Mutant forms reflect the host’s ideal image and thoughts, so it seems that the ones who are thin in both cases are not shaped and become like that the moment the mutation starts.

If that’s the case, it means that the kids who died were living without much thought.

He had no idea what he wanted to be, and his ideals were weak.

If he was thinking, it was only about the immediate future at best.

It’s a sad story that at his age, all he can think about is making a few pennies.

…Then I can’t use this ability.

The Globster has two abilities.

He has almost no combat ability, but he’s a moderately useful guy.

One ability was unfortunately a dud, but the other should be fine.

Originally, it was troublesome to brainwash people by shooting them with roots one by one, so I came up with the idea of having him do it for me.

One is a parasite, then mutation and brainwashing of the target.

I myself don’t know how it will work, as the shape and other details vary from host to host.

If the mutation is successful, the brain and the nucleus in the globster’s body will eventually fuse and be replaced by the thoughts of my household, making it impossible for them to resist me. The process is different, but the brainwashing is also complete.

The other is a taking over of control of the body without mutation. This one only takes over the body, but the thoughts etc. remain the same.

The drawback is that this one cannot be brainwashed, but it can take over the body completely, so the result is not so different.

The Globsters attach themselves to the rest of the kids, sink into their bodies and become parasites, making wet sounds.

They take control of the kids’ bodies.

OK, now we have the experiment and the food.

Now all that’s left is…

The mutation failed, and the remaining globsters are staring at us, waiting for instructions.

We’ve got a surplus. What shall we do with it?

After taking care of some business, I headed out of town with the kids, who could no longer even breathe on their own volition.

Aspizal and Yonomori were waiting for me outside the city.

“Hey, what’s up? That was quicker than I thought, wasn’t it? You said something about food, is that the one you have with you?”

Aspizal looks at the kids behind me.

The kids are expressionless. They stood there with empty eyes.

I know inwardly you’re struggling to control your immobile body, but you can’t help it because you’ve completely suppressed the nerves and whatnot and the parts of your body that control it.

“…… What do you want these kids to do… no, what have you done?”

There is a suspicious mixture of things in Yonomori’s tone.

“Slaves. I bought them.”

I answer simply, without giving any details. I didn’t lie… no, I didn’t buy them because the deal was broken?

With that, I throw back the bag of money that was entrusted to me.

“How much – is that? Is it down?”

“Their ex-owner tried to take the money, so I took it back.”

“Hey, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

I fed the rest of the old man’s body to the Globster and had the kids clean the room.

It won’t be easy to find out.

“We’ll take them all. Can you get them on the carpet?”

“Five kids won’t be a problem.”

“Then do it.”

Aspizal rolls out the carpet and prepares it.

Yonomori takes one look at me and gets on the carpet, as if she is not convinced.

I get on the carpet with the kids.

“Are you sure you want to go to Uzbek Animos?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m going in this time because the noise should have cleared up by now and we need to have a little chat.”

“All right.”

Nothing much happened during the trip and we spent some time talking with Aspizal about other things.

We took a carpet back to Uzbekanimos and landed a little way out of the city.

By then the sky was white and we could see the sun was rising.

Smoke was rising from the town, but there was no sign of a battle. Apparently, the monsters that had attacked them had been repulsed.

“Mm, what are you people?”

Soldiers who were on guard near the destroyed gate noticed us and pointed their weapons at us.

“Wait, we are not enemies. We have this from Hieda-san in Torkulu Sarb.”

I slowly pull out a piece of paper given to me by Hie from my pocket and hold it out to the soldiers.

The soldier looks at the paperwork quizzically, then relaxes his shoulders in relief.

“Reinforcements? You’re very late. It’s all over now.”

“I’d appreciate it if you could give me an update on the damage, etc., if you don’t mind.”

The soldier looked around and then told us about what had happened here.

It happened yesterday, he said, when the sun was beginning to set.

Suddenly, they said, they came in droves from the sea and from the ground.

The soldiers’ faces were bitter as they said that the land here had not been tampered with as much as in Torkulu Sarb, and that after they had moved underground, there was a great deal of sinking and other things.

I heard that his house was half sunk into the ground.

That’s a pity.

The ones from the sea are said to have caught the nearest beastman with their tentacles, thrown him into a huge hole in the head and abducted him.

The destination is of course the sea, so the survival of those caught is doomed.

It’s not like they’re going to the bottom of the sea.

…At this point, it is almost certain that the head is in the sea.

The people of this country naturally have no reason to remain silent and seem to have launched an immediate counter-attack.

The monster that attacked them was a new species that had never been seen before, and it is said that they struggled considerably because they were unable to attack effectively.

Its resilient outer skin and tentacles were impervious to blows and bounced back slashes.

These two types of attacks are just impenetrable, making them a difficult enemy from a beastman’s point of view.

The magical aptitude of beastmen is surprisingly low compared to humans and is not yet technically established.

For these reasons, it seems that there are few people in the vicinity who can use magic properly.

In fact, when asked about magic, the beastmen seem to recognise it as something like “I hear there is such a thing”.

They are a race that has the ability to change their bodies, so they may not be able to use magic at a cost.

For that reason, beastmen basically rely on their physical abilities for hand-to-hand combat.

They don’t seem to be a good match.

However, they are not the kind of people who would give in to such a thing, and they twisted their compatibility with forceful techniques.

They have repeatedly hit them with weapons and even fed them Molotov cocktails.

The fact that Molotov cocktails are usually an attack option is something that can only be done in this area, where there is a lot of oil available.

Well, Ursula Laguna would have used magic to wipe them out.

Fire seems to have had an effect on them, and as a result, it seems to have played a role in their repulsion.

After all, they are aquatic creatures and are vulnerable to fire.

At present, the battle is over, and the troops are engaged in extinguishing the houses burnt in the aftermath of the attack, checking the damage, and taking precautions in preparation for another attack.

The reinforcements sent by Hieda were only able to participate in the final stages of the battle, but they seem to be working energetically.

“Thank you. I understand very well.”

“That’s good to hear. And now what? You guys are going to be…”

“I’d like to ask you for some help with that. Are there any places near here by the sea where we can have a big fight?”

The soldier looks at me quizzically, not understanding the intent of my question.

“What the hell is that?”

It’s nothing to hide, and I decide to put it plainly and simply.

“I’m going to lure them out and finish them off, so you’ll have to give me the place. I’ll show the letter to the top, will that be a problem?”

The soldier’s eyes widen.

“Can you do that?”

“Well, we won’t know if it works until we try it.”

“Okay, okay. Do you mind if I discuss it with my superiors?”

When I nodded, the soldier took the letter and hurriedly went to the other soldiers and started talking to them about something.

Will this be a bit of a wait?

Itchy.

That’s the only way to describe his thoughts.

He feels his woken dependents being slaughtered one after another.

The fact that his own household members were being killed by small fry, which normally would not be a problem, placed a tremendous burden on his psyche.

The itchiness gradually turned into anger, and the anger shifted to hatred.

Wounded, he returns and his dependents bring him the prey they have captured.

He eats the prey he has caught and the food brought to him by his family members, and gains vitality.

Compared to exhaustion, the amount of recovery is meagre, but it is far better than nothing.

To recover significantly, you need a master of signs.

The number of masters of signs found by the dependents is four.

With that many, they should be able to move freely to some extent.

At the same time, I also obtained information about my surroundings via my dependents.

I felt that the place where I used to live had changed, and my hatred deepened further.

His throne, where only calm and tranquillity existed, had been transformed into a place of noise and vermin.

Thinking with clouded thoughts. He wants to destroy everyone who lives in that land.

He swore an oath to himself.

Afterwards, he would take revenge on those who called themselves the Watchers.

Although he was unaware of it, the long sleep had done a lot of damage to his body and mind.

He burns with anger with defective thinking.

There is only one thing to think about. Remind me how expensive it was to destroy my paradise.

So he suddenly releases his anger slightly.

-When it’s over, I’ll set out on my journey. In search of a new home.

Now he thinks of his lost homeland and uses it to power his senses.

I feel it.

The presence of prey. More than one of them.

They are small but close.

In order to regain his strength, he gives orders to his dependents.

Give me an offering.