Fear of food

Chapter 79 The Truth in the Corpse Storage Cabinet (4k views, please subscribe)
Chen Qi stared at the guy who had suddenly appeared. The guy looked exactly like him, but it made him instinctively feel wary and on guard.

His eyes darkened: "You are... the Nightmare hiding inside my body?"

Nightmare Eater Chen Qi smiled and said, "You still haven't answered me. Do you want to know what's in cabinet number 9?"

"Do not want to."

Why deceive yourself?

"I do want to know, but I don't want to hear it from you."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Qi suddenly launched an attack, slamming a punch into the Nightmare Eater!
The two sides are inherently hostile, and this guy even wants to parasitize him. Chen Qi doesn't think there's anything to talk about with him.

Did they intend to extract intelligence from the enemy?
If the enemy reveals something on their own initiative, it's definitely something they want you to know. Never let them lead you by the nose!
boom!
Chen Qi easily knocked the Nightmare to the ground with a single punch. He rushed forward and attacked with both hands, each punch landing hard, quickly beating the Nightmare until its face was bruised and swollen.

Chen Qi frowned; the other party was weaker than he had expected.

He was nothing like Xia Huiyun or the other students he had encountered in the illusion—those guys were all incredibly strong, but this Nightmare in front of him seemed to have muscular dystrophy, a perfect replica of him when he was at his weakest.

Even though he was beaten badly, Nightmare Eater still had a smile on his face: "Aren't you curious why I'm so weak?"

"We Nightmare Clan are just like you humans, born weak. The only way to become stronger is to merge with you humans!"

"Otherwise, in the real world, we wouldn't even be able to pick up a piece of paper."

Sun Xuechao did indeed say that Nightmare Eaters have no physical form and are extremely fragile in their early stages, requiring them to parasitize and consume strange food in order to begin growing.

Those powerful Nightmares all appear in the form of parasites, meaning they have already merged with humans.

The Nightmare Eater wasn't lying about this.

Of course, Sun Xuechao also emphasized that the Nightmare Eater’s most powerful ability is to bewitch people’s hearts!

Chen Qi's eyes were icy: "Are you telling me all this to lower my guard?"

"You're such a waste, it seems you haven't gained any growth from me. What happened, did something go wrong during your parasitism? Did the fusion fail?"

Clearly, he and the Nightmare Eater had not yet begun to merge; otherwise, they should have appeared as one entity in this illusion.

At the very least, they should be conjoined twins or something.

But now they are two distinct individuals.

Although the reason is unknown, there must have been something wrong with the Nightmare's parasitism on him.

Nightmare Eater shook his head and said, "Why use the word 'parasite'? You have too much prejudice against us. Why can't we see it as cooperation between us?"

"We, the Nightmare Clan, and you humans are a match made in heaven."

“When you and I merge, I gain a body that can walk in the world, and you can break free from the shackles of flesh and blood. This is clearly a win-win situation.”

"Shut up!" Chen Qi swung his fist again and slammed it hard into Nightmare's face.

The Nightmare Eater remained unresisted, muttering to itself, "You don't understand us Nightmare Clan. We can coexist, we can live together."

"Go tell that to my mother, you bastard!"

Chen Qi stood up and stepped on the Nightmare Eater's face, repeatedly crushing the face that looked exactly like his own with the sole of his shoe.

He never imagined that his face could be so hideous!

"Cough cough!" Blood flowed from the Nightmare's mouth and nose, choking him and causing him to cough. However, he still had a strange smile on his face. "You can kill me, but it won't change anything. I will still be resurrected. You will never get rid of me."

His tone was seductive: "Why not cooperate with me? You help me do what I want to do, and I will naturally help you do what you want to do."

"But..." Chen Qi sneered, "What I want most is for you all to die!"

"You bastards deserve to die!"

Chen Qi picked up the Nightmare with one hand, pressed him against the corpse cabinet, and grabbed his thin neck.

"I'd like to see if you really can't die."

As Chen Qi increased the force in his hands, the Nightmare Eater's face turned red, and its breathing became noticeably heavy, like a broken bellows.

He still grinned and said, "But we already exist. The strong adapt to their environment. If you can't change the established facts, you should learn to accept coexisting with us."

"If you don't cooperate with me, you won't even be able to get out of this illusion; you'll be trapped here and die."

"Don't you understand? I came here to save you."

“We are one, if you die, I will die too.”

"Similarly, if you don't die, I won't die. If you want to kill me, you'll have to kill yourself first!"

Chen Qi's eyes turned cold, and he snapped his neck.

The world fell silent.

The Nightmare's corpse slid to the ground and vanished like a wisp of smoke.

But what followed was a sudden wave of weakness.

Chen Qi felt as if something was draining his energy.

A wave of exhaustion washed over him. He leaned against a nearby morgue cabinet, took a few deep breaths, and finally recovered.

Then he saw the Nightmare Eater that had just died reappear beside him, completely unharmed!

"I told you long ago that we are one, and killing me is just depleting your own resources."

The seductive tone in the Nightmare Eater's voice became even more pronounced: "Actually, you're wrong about one thing. We did merge, but I already merged with a part of you!"
-
Outside the laboratory at Jinghai Medical College.

Following Coffee's instructions, Garbage took off his coat, wrapped one sleeve tightly around his arm, and handed the other sleeve to Coffee.

In this way, the jacket acts as a rope, and the swill is like being tethered by the coffee.

The two kept as far apart as possible, with Swill walking in front and Coffee following behind, like walking a dog.

As they walked, they continued their meaningless conversation.

As they walked, nearing the laboratory entrance, the swill that had been spouting nonsense suddenly stopped.

Not only did the talking stop, but even their footsteps stopped!

He paused for a moment, then began to move forward unconsciously.

Coffee hurriedly pulled at the clothes in her hands, and Xu An'an, who was standing next to her, also rushed forward to help. The two of them worked together and finally managed to pull the swill back!

At this moment, the swill had closed its eyes and looked completely dazed, but it quickly regained its senses, though its eyes still held a hint of confusion.

"What did you see?" Coffee asked.

"I saw... a brightly lit lab, and Big Pancake! And lots of corpses!" "And then? Were there any other people? Did Big Pancake say anything?"

“I didn’t see anyone else.” Gan Shui shook his head. “Da Bing just saw me, and before he could come over and talk to me, you guys pulled me back.”

Coffee seemed to be deep in thought, then took out his phone and contacted Chasing Wind: "Go to the car and carry Big Pancake's body over there. I'll have Garlic go with you."

She took a few steps forward, poured her coffee into the concrete to draw a line, and said, "It seems that once you cross this line, you'll see a different scene, perhaps something like an illusion."

"But as long as you pull your body out of this area, you can get rid of the illusion."

"Biscuits and pancakes are clearly trapped in the illusion. The way to rescue them is simple: just pull their bodies out of the illusion area."

Swill suddenly realized: "So that's why you asked us to bring Big Pancake's body over?"

The pancake possessed the dog's body to enter, but if we turn the pancake's original body around, it might be able to carry its consciousness out!
Xu An'an frowned and asked, "What about the cookies?"

The pancake is easy to solve because his body is on the outside.

However, Chen Qi's body had already been controlled by the Nightmare and entered the depths of the laboratory.

They would be pulled into the illusion if they crossed the line, so how could they possibly take Chen Qi's body out of the laboratory?
“That’s where Big Pancake comes in.” Coffee pointed to the stray dogs around them. “These dogs are unaffected by the illusion, and only Big Pancake can command them.”
-
Inside the morgue.

The Nightmare continued to chatter in Chen Qi's ear, and Chen Qi couldn't help but clench his fists, but eventually calmed down.

Once you've tried something that's a waste of energy, that's enough. There's one thing the Nightmare Eater was right about: he really couldn't do anything about the Nightmare Eater.

Killing him again would only make me weaker.

"Let's think about how to get out..."

"Although Nightmare Eater said that only by cooperating with him can we escape the illusion, we should just take his words with a grain of salt."

"There must be a way to escape this illusion, I just haven't discovered it yet!"

Just then, a commotion broke out outside the morgue, and Xia Huiyun arrived with a group of teachers and students!
They rushed into the morgue, but were all stunned when they saw the two Chen Qis.

The next moment, everyone, including Xia Huiyun, humbly lowered their heads!
The Nightmare Eater waved his hand and said indifferently, "You can leave now. Don't bother me."

All the teachers and students silently left the morgue and waited in neat rows outside.

Chen Qi's pupils contracted slightly. In his eyes, the Nightmare that was parasitizing him was weaker than any of the teachers and students in the group.

Yet he can make all his parasites submit to him and obey his commands.

If the other parasites do not submit to his power, then they must submit to his identity!
Clearly, there are different ranks among the Nightmare Clan.

The Nightmare Eater pointed at the crowd outside and said arrogantly, "Do you see these people outside? They would die for me without hesitation."

"The Nightmare Clan that controls your mother is merely the lowest being in our race. With just one command from me, it can self-destruct and restore your mother to normal."

"Only if you agree to cooperate with me!"

Chen Qi scoffed, "So you're admitting now that it's 'control' instead of 'symbiosis'?"

The Nightmare Eater said without any hesitation, "Ordinary people like your mother don't have the right to coexist with our Nightmare Clan. Her only value to us is to influence you."

At this point, Nightmare's emotions began to rise: "But you are different! You are the most special one among all of you humans. You don't know how much potential you have!"

"And I am also the most noble being among the Nightmare Clan, possessing potential that no other Nightmare Clan member can match!"

His tone suddenly rose: "But look at your current situation. You have negligible strength and are trapped in an illusion from which you cannot escape."

"Even more so, I can only watch helplessly as my mother and friends become slaves of my Nightmare Clan!"

"And look at me, so noble as I am, I can only eke out a living inside you, unable to grow at all, so weak and vulnerable!"

"We are both exceptionally talented, and both have fallen into misery. Are you content with that?"

The Nightmare Eater suddenly took a step forward, its voice almost a roar, as if it wanted to force its will into Chen Qi's mind: "I am not reconciled!"

"That's why I'm standing here, trying to move you with all my sincerity!"

"Our two sessions are in such a sorry state simply because you refuse to cooperate with me."

"The key to changing all of this lies in your single thought! Chen Qi, let's join forces! Once we unite, what in this world can't we achieve?"

"Saving your mother and Sun Xuechao, helping your partners win back their families, and even turning the world upside down would all be a piece of cake!"

As he spoke, Nightmare couldn't help but clench his fists and wave them in front of his chest in unison with his tone of voice. His chest heaved violently with excitement, and his eyes burned with an almost fanatical flame, as if he were giving a passionate speech.

Chen Qi watched Nightmare Eater's performance quietly and had to admit that this guy was indeed eloquent and good at manipulating people's emotions.

He scoffed, "Your Nightmare Clan's innate abilities aren't just empty boasts, are they?"

"But no matter how eloquently you speak, I cannot hand over control of my body to you."

"You don't need to worry about that. I didn't just say I wanted to coexist with you. Out of respect for a genius like you, I can share control of your body with you." Nightmare Eater looked confident. "Next, I will show you my utmost sincerity!"

At this point, Nightmare pointed to the wall full of corpse storage cabinets: "What these cabinets actually contain is the humanity that has been stripped away from you humans!"

"Human nature?" Chen Qi's eyes flickered slightly, and he instantly understood many things.

So, are the patients in the hallucinations all the humanity of the parasites?
During the parasitic process, the awakening of humanity can hinder the progress of the parasitic process, which is why Xia Huiyun and her fellow teachers and students would "rescue" the awakened patients.

Only by completely losing one's humanity can one be completely controlled by the Nightmare Eater!
This also explains why he saw Madam Wu and Zhui Feng's younger brother at the same time in the delivery room and in the morgue, because they were being resurrected in the delivery room, while their humanity was being stored in the morgue!
Nightmare Eater nodded: "That's right! When humans are invaded by our Nightmare Clan, a trace of humanity is stripped away, becoming the 'patients' you see in the illusion."

"As time goes by, their humanity will gradually be lost and transferred to the 'patients' until they completely lose their humanity!"

"At this point, we will seal up the patients who embody their complete humanity and send them to the morgue."

At this point, Nightmare walked quickly to the No. 9 corpse storage cabinet, reached out and unlocked it, saying, "And you, Chen Qi, your humanity was once stored here!"

"Because you are so special, we specially made this cabinet for you to store a part of your original humanity."

Having said that, Nightmare suddenly pulled open the No. 9 corpse storage cabinet!

Chen Qi looked into the cabinet and saw yet another version of himself lying quietly inside.

However, upon closer inspection, it was discovered that it was merely an afterimage. The Nightmare blew a breath into the cabinet, and the afterimage vanished without a trace, disappearing into the darkness like stardust.

"But later, I absorbed your humanity." The Nightmare's smile grew unrestrained. "That's why I said I had already absorbed a part of you long ago!"

"Even if you don't merge with me, your humanity will gradually slip away towards me. When you completely lose your humanity, you will eventually choose to merge with me in pursuit of power."

"Everything I'm doing now is simply trying to bring forward this inevitable process."

"To merge with me is your inescapable destiny!"

(End of this chapter)