Fear of food

Chapter 56 Am I Parasitized?
"On my first day in the hospital, the 29th, I was caught stealing a wild orange."

"On the afternoon of the 30th, I chatted with my mom for a while, and then played games with Yang Keji. He got caught by his boss and went AFK, leaving me to fight two opponents in the bottom lane..."

"What exactly was I doing on the morning of the 30th?"

Chen Qi thought and thought, but he really couldn't recall anything about the morning of August 30th.

However, in his memory, he spent every morning in the hospital ward, occasionally going for treatment or various examinations, but it would never exceed two hours.

If something really took up the whole morning, it should be a significant memory, not something that could be completely forgotten in just ten days.

Thinking about it that way, something really doesn't seem right!
If Sun Xuechao wasn't lying, then his memory is indeed faulty.

Chen Qi couldn't help but feel nervous: "Is it only by being parasitized by the Nightmare Eater that one loses their memory? Could it be that I've already been parasitized?"

"But... this isn't right! Shouldn't parasitism require contaminating me first? But I can still tell the food is abnormal, which means I haven't been contaminated!"

Sun Xuechao opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak.

"Brother Sun, please feel free to speak your mind."

Sun Xuechao organized his thoughts and said, "Normally that's true, but are you normal?"

These words immediately made Chen Qiwen lose confidence.

Is he normal?

The answer is obvious.

Ordinary people say he's mentally ill, pica eaters say they suspect they're not the same species as him, and now even Sun Xuechao, the parasite, says he's special.

It would be a miracle if he were normal!

Sun Xuechao analyzed, "I don't know exactly what happened to you, but I'm certain that they must have done something to you, otherwise your memory wouldn't have been lost for no reason."

"Hiding a memory of yours is not a simple matter; it requires a Nightmare Eater parasitizing your body to do so."

Chen Qi looked down at his body, a chill running down his spine: "So, there's a very likely monster hiding inside my body right now?"

Sun Xuechao nodded slowly: "The Nightmare Eater within me sensed a trace of its own kind in you."

As soon as Sun Xuechao said those words, Chen Qi got goosebumps all over his body. For a moment, he felt a little dizzy. He blinked and suddenly realized that the world in front of him seemed to have undergone some indescribable changes.

It was as if... as if the world he saw before had been filtered through a subtle lens.

So much so that he didn't even notice the existence of the filter.

But now that the filter has been removed, he has discovered the difference.

At the same time, it felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head, giving him a jolt, but he also felt a long-lost clarity!
"Why do I feel like my thinking has become...more active? No, more free, more like myself!"

Sun Xuechao nodded slightly and said, "When I regained that memory and learned that I had been parasitized, I felt the same way."

"Nightmare Eater has the ability to bewitch people. It will influence you silently, interfering with your thinking and judgment. At first, this effect is very slight and only affects some minor things."

"For example, when you enter a room, you might subconsciously step in with your left leg first, but it will influence you to step in with your right leg first; when you eat, you're used to chewing four times before swallowing, but it will make you chew five times; when you're used to setting the air conditioner to 25 degrees Celsius, it will make you set it to 26 degrees Celsius..."

"Exerting influence on these details will not arouse your vigilance or resistance at all."

"And gradually, as you get used to this influence, it will gradually increase its impact." "For example, it will affect your sleeping posture, change your favorite flavors... and then diminish your feelings for others, and deprive you of your former hobbies..."

"In the end, it won't be difficult for it to twist your personality or change your sexual orientation. By then, you'll be completely puppets of the Nightmare Eater, utterly controlled by it, with no chance of ever turning things around!"

Chen Qi felt a chill run down his spine. If Sun Xuechao hadn't reminded him, would he have become less and less like himself without even realizing it?

Have his many decisions and choices been affected over the past ten days or so?
Chen Qi asked, "So what's going on now? Has it stopped affecting me?"

Sun Xuechao nodded: "Because I exposed its existence, it temporarily restrained itself in order to avoid confronting you."

"Nightmare Eaters prefer to exert influence from the shadows rather than confront their hosts directly, as this would not only deplete their resources but also hinder the progress of their parasitism."

Chen Qi chuckled self-deprecatingly: "I was thinking about how to save my mother, but it turns out I've been parasitized myself."

Sun Xuechao comforted him, saying, "You are different from me; you still have hope."

"From the current perspective, its impact on you should be negligible, which is actually quite abnormal. If you were parasitized on August 30th, it has been 11 days since then, and it shouldn't be only this extent."

"Given that your perception hasn't changed and you can still see the existence of bizarre food, it seems to me that you have a good chance of getting rid of the Nightmare's parasite."

Chen Qi asked, "Am I in the early or middle stage of parasitism now?"

Sun Xuechao looked thoughtful: "In terms of time, it should be in the middle stage, but in terms of the degree of impact on you, it is only in the early stage."

"But if it were in the early stages, when you already knew you were being parasitized, your resistance should have had an effect on it. But it didn't."

"So I can't say for sure about your situation, it's hard to make a judgment."

Chen Qi took a deep breath: "If I want to save myself, I at least need to figure out what happened to me first, so how do I recover my missing memories?"

Sun Xuechao said, "When the Nightmare first parasitized you, it was also very weak. It needed to borrow external power to hide your memories."

Chen Qi's heart skipped a beat: "You mean using a high-level source of pollution like a cream cake?"

Sun Xuechao nodded: "You can refer to my situation."

Chen Qi looked enlightened.

Sun Xuechao regained his memories after the cream cake was eaten.

The fact that Chen Qi's memories were hidden must have been achieved by using some high-level source of pollution, namely, high-grade wild food.

So as long as he eats that high-quality wild food, he can regain his lost memories.

To find that high-class food, he needs to figure out where he went on August 30th!

At this moment, Xu An'an suddenly warned, "Be careful, someone is approaching!"

Within the realm, an elderly man with gray hair walked steadily toward them.

Xu An'an had been observing the old man until he walked from the outpatient department into the field, still walking with the same pace. At that moment, she finally alerted everyone.

Those who can move freely within a domain are either parasites or pagans.

(End of this chapter)