Wandering Meteor-Chapter 207 - 206: Cleanup Operation

Scientists have discovered through the dissection of dead parasitic creatures that the body structure of the Parasitic Civilization is quite peculiar; where their heads should be, they have a circular mouth (oral apparatus) as large as their bodies, with a row of sharp triangular teeth at the edge.

These teeth are not only sharp but can also tilt outwards at a ninety-degree angle, turning into a sharp circular saw that can easily cut through the skin of most organisms.

This is also one of the key abilities for the parasitic creatures to parasitize their hosts.

The circular saw teeth were used earlier to bite open an incision on the back of a rat and the use of the parasitic creatures’ sharp teeth is more frequent during the parasitism process than one might imagine.

In addition to a circular mouth, the parasitic creatures lack common human sensory organs such as eyes, ears, and a nose; thus, they do not need to breathe. This is why parasitic creatures can survive regardless of Earth’s environment. In fact, if temperature and bodily pressure are not considered, parasitic creatures would not suffocate even in space.

The parasitic creatures do not have eyes, but their body tissue contains many photoreceptor cells. It wasn’t until further research that scientists were startled to find that parasitic creatures have even more photoreceptor cells than human eyes do, which means they can receive a wider range of electromagnetic wave signals than humans.

Perhaps as a balance of creation by God, the parasitic creatures, despite having an abundance of photoreceptor cells, are devoid of hearing. That is to say, they cannot hear any sounds. However, organs within their bodies can detect vibrations. If the host they are parasitizing can hear, then they can also hear through the host’s auditory system.

Furthermore, the inner body of the parasitic creatures has evolved elongated neural suction cups, similar to jellyfish tentacles, that shoot out from the mouth when needed to connect with the nerves of other organisms. The primitive communication between parasitic creatures themselves is conducted through the touching of these neural suction cups.

It can be said that parasitic creatures are a very peculiar kind of organism.

Although they can survive without parasitizing a host, such existence is merely in a limp state. The stronger the host organism, the stronger the parasitic creature becomes, which can be summed up as "they grow stronger when they encounter a stronger host."

The advancement of the Parasitic Civilization to Civilization Level II wasn’t achieved on their own.

This civilization fundamentally lacks the ability to perform tasks themselves; they can only parasitize other organisms, utilizing the bodies of these organisms to carry out various labor and research activities.

This is somewhat akin to how fungi cells on Earth parasitize on the bodies of ants, using the ants to carry them to suitable places for reproduction and growth, except parasitic creatures are just a more advanced version.

For example, on the Mother Star of the Parasitic Civilization, parasitic creatures parasitize on bodies similar to monkeys, using the monkeys to conduct various scientific research and store knowledge in the memory cells of the monkeys’ brains. They retrieve this accumulated knowledge only when they leave the body, effectively treating the host as an advanced composite tool.

Even though the parasitic creatures have designed ideal mechanical bodies for themselves after the advancement of their Civilization Level, during the early stages of Primitive Civilization, they relied on other organisms on the planet.

In addition to the aforementioned information, scientists have determined several other points through experimental observation of the parasitism.

One is that the time process of parasitism will increase correspondingly with the complexity of the host’s body structure.

Two is that after the parasitism is successful, all the physical conditions of the host remain normal except for the brain, which becomes dead, similar to what is commonly referred to as brain death. If the parasitic creature leaves the body, the host will also die, and as the body loses nutrients, the organs will slowly fail.

However, if the parasitic creature re-parasitizes before the organs fail, then the host would regain mobility. From this process, it can be seen that the parasitic creature essentially replaces some of the functions of the host’s brain.

Three is that during the parasitism process, parasitic creatures absorb blood from the blood vessels to sustain their lives; due to the low nutritional demands of the parasitic creatures, this does not heavily impact the health of the host. The duration of life the host could have lived before parasitism is almost the same as how long it can live after being parasitized.

Of course, this is under the condition that the parasitic creatures have been continuously parasitizing.

After understanding the basic situation and habits of the parasitic creatures, scientists immediately began planning a sweeping operation.

They developed X-ray glasses based on the principle of X-ray imaging, mainly to detect parasitic creatures hidden inside human bodies.

Every soldier in the special emergency team was equipped with a pair of X-ray glasses and began a meticulous inspection through the streets and alleys. Any parasitized individuals discovered would be instantly killed with a high-voltage stun gun.

The strategy adopted by the special emergency team was to sweep from the outside in, first establishing a boundary line along the coastline to prevent anyone from approaching the shore and then screening the residents from the seaside towards the inland of the city, establishing a safety line after each area was checked.

The reason for this was to prevent the parasitic creatures from escaping back into the sea.

While there might still be a large number of parasitic creatures in the sea, at least those ashore should not be allowed to retreat safely.

...

After returning home, Ma Shaoyu rested for a few days.

Then, as if he had changed his behavior, he dressed himself neatly and formally, and drove to his father’s company—Ma Group.

Ma Tengyun was very surprised by his son’s sudden arrival and even more delighted after hearing his son’s thoughts. He had always wanted his son to join the company, but his son thought that, in the age of Eternal Life, there was plenty of time to enjoy life before saying he would settle down. Now, his son had finally made up his mind, and Ma Tengyun was completely reassured.

Consequently, Ma Tengyun immediately arranged for his son to join the company in a suitable position to gain some experience.

After Ma Shaoyu successfully joined Ma Group, he took advantage of his job to begin contacting the core business of Ma Group.

Ma Group primarily focused on the robot business, especially the manufacturing of robots and the development of software systems for intelligent robots. Their strength in this area was among the top five globally, which was very formidable.

At this time, Ma Shaoyu, of course, was no longer the real Ma Shaoyu.

He had been parasitized by a parasitic creature during the previous tsunami incident. After the parasitic creature read Ma Shaoyu’s brain information and learned of his identity, it decided to use Ma Shaoyu’s identity to access Ma Group’s robot business, intending to use robots to create chaos and launch a dual strike against Earth Civilization.

However, just at this time.

Earth had already begun its purge operation. Thanks to the precision detection with X-ray glasses, a large number of parasitic creatures dwelling in humans and Light Synthesis People were killed, and the painstakingly planned covert operations by the Parasitic Civilization were thoroughly exposed.

The Parasitic Civilization wasn’t going to let it go so easily. In order to turn the situation around, parasitic creatures lurking in the sea started to generate massive waves again. Unfortunately, Earth Civilization was well-prepared with detailed satellite surveillance over the entire ocean. Any anomalies detected would immediately trigger fighter jets to bomb the source, preventing the waves from gathering, and during tense moments, tens of thousands of fighter jets would patrol the sea, eliminating any potential danger.

Under such circumstances, parasitic creatures on land had to rely on themselves. They realized that Earth Civilization was mainly detecting their presence and location using X-ray glasses, so they thought of several methods to evade detection by the X-ray glasses.