My Stunning Beauty Special Agent Wife

Chapter 1347: Chapter 1345: The True Nature of the Parasite

"Can wiping them out solve the problem at the root? After all, as long as each of their parasites gets a chance to latch on, they can replicate infinitely!" Yang Chen asked in a low voice.

What he cared about wasn’t how powerful these parasites could become, but how to exterminate this thing completely.

After all, the mere existence of this thing was a threat to all humankind.

Yang Cao laughed. "Boss, we were a bit overly worried before. Everything has to obey the law of conservation. If they want to gain massive enhancements and keep mutating, they need enough energy to trade for it. Which means they have to take in sufficient energy to keep mutating and evolving further. Without that, they’ll just end up killing themselves instead!"

Yang Chen’s eyes lit up.

Yang Cao led Yang Chen to an experiment pod and pointed to the rabbit inside. "Take this parasitized rabbit for example. If we keep giving it strong stimuli, it’ll ramp up its mutation. But the faster it burns through energy, the quicker it dies!"

As he spoke, Yang Chen activated the machine, sending a constant electric current to shock the parasite.

The parasite immediately began to mutate, becoming hideous. It bared its teeth at Yang Chen and Yang Cao outside the pod, attacking like a maniac.

The experiment pod boomed and shook under its blows, as if it was going to be smashed to pieces.

This strength had completely surpassed what a rabbit should have.

With continuous stimulation, the parasite’s body kept expanding, turning more and more grotesque and aggressive.

"That’s about enough." Yang Cao said, then hit another button. A jet inside the pod instantly sprayed out a burst of flame.

The flame wasn’t big, but the sudden burst still seared the parasite badly.

The parasite let out a sharp scream, sprang up, and leapt away from the fire.

That instant made it feel a threat to its life, because it was born with a fear of fire, like it was etched into its bones. It thrashed around in panic.

The mutation kicked in again.

Even Yang Chen had to admit the mutation speed of this thing was insane.

A tentacle whipped around wildly, lashing at the flame, but kept getting burned off.

The relationship between the parasite and fire was like ice and hot water—once you pour it on, it just melts.

Seeing it was about enough, Yang Cao shut off the flame jet.

Without the threat of fire, the parasite instantly collapsed like its bones had been pulled out, flopping weakly to the ground, motionless.

"This is the current situation. It’s burned through all its energy and is in severe overdraft. Its remaining lifespan is extremely short, and even if we replenish energy now, it won’t change anything." As he spoke, Yang Cao tossed another rabbit inside.

The parasite pounced like a starving ghost, directly swallowing the rabbit whole.

The situation seemed to improve a little.

But the parasite still looked listless and drained.

Then its body twisted violently.

Pfah!

It spat the rabbit back out again.

Yang Cao said, "It’s exhausted all its energy. It doesn’t even have the ability to absorb and digest anymore!"

Yang Chen’s lips curled into a smile. "So that means it’s lost its ability to infect as well?"

Yang Cao nodded. "This rabbit it swallowed wasn’t infected."

"Good." Yang Chen secretly let out a breath of relief.

"And another thing: parasites may look like they can mutate crazily, but a lot of it is just for show. You know how, in the animal kingdom, many creatures use terrifying appearances to scare off others and protect themselves."

Yang Chen nodded.

"The principle behind the parasites’ mutations is pretty similar. They mutate like crazy, twist their bodies into bizarre shapes, grow tentacles and such, like their whole body is covered in weapons that could attack you at any time. But in truth, that’s basically a self-preservation strategy, meant to intimidate the opponent. Of course, I won’t deny they do have very strong offensive power. But it’s still mostly superficial. Take this tentacle, for example." Yang Cao controlled a mechanical arm, sliced off one of the parasite’s tentacles with a knife, and picked it up for Yang Chen to see.

"Look, it’s all just muscle, the simplest structure, rapidly forced to grow. Once the crisis is over, they’ll automatically shed it, because it doesn’t really fit their body at all. And the speed at which they grow bone isn’t that fast. They can’t just sprout bony structures like these tentacles at will. After all, producing bone tissue consumes much more energy."

Listening to Yang Cao’s explanation, the knot that had been hanging in Yang Chen’s chest finally loosened completely.

"Also, we’ve already sent people to Wowo Mountain to capture a live parasite for research. I’ve noticed those ones require very little energy intake, and their bodies haven’t undergone such large-scale mutations. They seem different from the ones we’re working on now. If nothing unexpected happens, that might give our research a breakthrough."

Yang Chen slowly nodded, then reminded him, "Make sure the defenses are solid. The maze inside is hard to navigate—don’t let the team get separated. And I don’t want anyone getting infected in there."

"Yes, sir! Don’t worry, I’ll make all the arrangements."

...

After everything was arranged, Yang Chen left the base with Ye Xin.

Jin Chen.

Yang Chen sat in the passenger seat, staring at Ye Xin in silence.

Eventually, the car stopped in a hidden parking room.

It was a shabby, unremarkable old ground-floor residential block.

The original storefront units had been converted into a garage.

The doors, however, were all automatic. As the car approached, they opened on their own, and once the car drove in, they closed automatically behind it.

As Ye Xin got out of the car, Yang Chen saw a sweep of red light scan over her.

"Scan complete. Identity verified. Welcome!"

Click.

The floor split open, and a staircase leading downward appeared in front of Yang Chen.

"Let’s go." Ye Xin gave Yang Chen a mysterious look.

Yang Chen was a bit surprised.

He hadn’t expected Ye Xin’s secret room to be built here.

As they walked down, Ye Xin said, "This is one of my safe houses. You know how it is in our line of work—you have to be like a cunning rabbit with three burrows, or you’ll have nowhere to hide when things go south."

Yang Chen nodded slightly, because not only agents, but people in their line of work also set up multiple safe houses. Otherwise, they’d have nowhere to run when danger hit.

Reaching the underground level, Yang Chen couldn’t help his eyes lighting up.

The decor was pure futuristic industrial.

Everything was steel fixtures. A few plasma balls kept arcing continuously, and the chain-link walls were lined with weapons hanging in neat rows, all looking brand new. It was clear the room had an air purification system—there wasn’t a speck of dust.

"Look around as you like." Ye Xin said, then walked over to a computer, booted it up, and started pulling data.

Yang Chen just gave the place a quick once-over and already had the general idea. He didn’t bother exploring further and instead came up behind Ye Xin, watching her work.

Ye Xin’s fingers flew over the keyboard. She pulled up Pang Bingchen’s profile, and then the files of everyone connected to Pang Bingchen began popping up one after another, along with detailed records of their lives and backgrounds, all laid out clearly!