EDEH Chapter 19

[007 Diary Entry 9]

 

[Love and hate are traits only humans possess—neither I nor the little evil dragon have ever had them. Even when Dr. Millie was so terrible back then, he never thought of revenge.

 

But Dr. Millie was right about one thing—the little evil dragon has too many secrets.

 

His origins and destination are both uncertain factors.]

 

·

 

It hurt so much.

 

As if countless forces from all directions were pulling and tearing at him, every inch of skin and every cell began to reshape, mold, and reorganize…

 

Sang Jue suddenly woke up, breathing heavily.

 

But air didn’t enter his respiratory tract through his mouth and nose. Instead, it invaded every inch of his body from all directions, giving him a refreshing sensation of becoming one with nature.

 

Hmm…?

 

Something seemed wrong.

 

He was still in the sewer, with rusty iron pipes carrying foul sewage. There was no sign of the green fungal masses around, but everything before his eyes was interwoven with a faint green tint, as if covered by a filter.

 

…He seemed to no longer be human.

 

No, he had never been human to begin with.

 

The surrounding environment wasn’t what he saw with his eyes, but what he sensed. Most wonderfully, Sang Jue discovered he could control every part of his body.

 

Whether human or evil dragon, both were creatures that couldn’t fully control their own bodies. What they could truly manipulate was actually only their limbs and a very small part of their brain.

 

Evil dragons were more advanced—they could also control their tails and wings.

 

But now, having transformed into green fungus, he was completely different, as if his entire body was composed of sensory nerves—

 

If he had to describe it, it was as if his current body was made up of countless hands, and he could make these hands form any shape, touch anywhere.

 

Flat, round, long… or irregularly strange forms.

 

—He had become a green fungus version of a ‘slime.’

 

Fortunately, 007’s chip was still in his current body: “Very miraculous. After you were infected by the green fungus, your body’s instinctive survival consciousness caused you to also transform into a mass of green fungus, which is why they didn’t digest you.”

 

Sang Jue was somewhat puzzled. A few days ago, when he was suffocated by the fungal clusters, he hadn’t transformed.

 

Was it because he had been wearing a protective mask then… did he need to be infected to transform?

 

“You don’t have more time to think. After you were dragged into the sewer, General Huo Yanji appeared. After searching fruitlessly, he believed you and Colonel Colin had lost all possibility of survival and issued the fire order.”

 

As soon as the words fell, a patch of fiery red light suddenly attacked from the end of the sewer.

 

They came fiercely and fast. Sang Jue took off running—no, took off crawling.

 

The limbless fungus rushed toward the distance, relying entirely on fungal filaments extending from its body to crawl.

 

007: “Fire magma has been deployed at all sewer openings within District Seven. Only one location was missed. Please listen carefully to what I say now—”

 

Twenty minutes later, somewhere in the ruins south of District Seven.

 

Night had fallen. Dark clouds squeezed the sky, and torrential rain crashed onto the ground, splashing mud everywhere.

 

A green tentacle rolled away a rusty iron cover, and a green humanoid slime crawled out of the sewer.

 

Behind him, flames shot up to the sky. One step later and he would have been burned to ash.

 

Sang Jue lowered his round head and discovered that the humanoid form he had shaped wasn’t perfect. Not only was it only the size of a seven or eight-year-old child, but his torso and limbs were all round and plump, entirely green, lacking details, missing fingers and facial features.

 

A pure little green man.

 

The little green man shaped a mouth for himself, but no matter how he opened and closed it, he couldn’t speak.

 

Sang Jue: It’s over.

 

Could he still transform back into an evil dragon? He didn’t want to be a speechless slime!

 

007 seemed to know what he was thinking: “You don’t need to panic. This is actually very similar to your ability to become human. Do you remember what happened then?”

 

“…”

 

Sang Jue had an excellent memory, possessing all memories from his birth until now, so he had always known he wasn’t human—nor was he truly just an evil dragon.

 

At the very beginning, he was nothing, shapeless, strange and odd… somewhat like his current fungal state, contained in a glass vessel.

 

In the researchers’ eyes, he was just a mass of thoughtless unknown matter. No one knew he could think.

 

He remembered having a friend back then—a little baby who could only giggle and babble.

 

Sang Jue unilaterally considered the other his friend. Who told the little baby to always smile so sweetly at him?

 

The baby’s mother was a researcher named Millie.

 

She loved her child very much and often read fairy tales to the baby. Sang Jue also loved listening.

 

But Dr. Millie was too busy daily and inevitably had moments of negligence. One day, the little baby ate something he shouldn’t have and choked to death.

 

It really wasn’t Sang Jue who killed him.

 

But when Millie pushed the door open, she only saw that he had broken the glass container and burrowed into the little baby’s throat—he had only wanted to help his friend get the foreign object out.

 

Millie broke down and wanted to die from self-blame.

 

After all, Sang Jue at that time was just a mass of indescribable something. She couldn’t blame him.

 

But the next day, that indescribable thing that had choked her child to death transformed into her child’s appearance and called out crisply, “Mama.”

 

Hair-raising.

 

Sang Jue hadn’t meant to.

 

He wanted to become human, wanted to walk, wanted to giggle and babble, wanted to become Millie’s child, didn’t want to see her eyes rain every day.

 

So he consumed part of the dead baby’s genes and transformed into the baby’s appearance.

 

If he had known then that Millie didn’t want her child to return in this way, he wouldn’t have done it.

 

But he was too small then, whether as his true form or as a human—just a tiny mass, unable to understand such profound thoughts.

 

As for becoming an evil dragon… it was because Millie was really, really, really mean to him later.

 

He didn’t want to be human anymore.

 

Any creature would do, as long as it wasn’t human.

 

So he remembered the evil dragons that only existed in fairy tale books and, without consuming any genes, instinctively transformed into the imagined appearance of an evil dragon.

 

Other creatures wouldn’t work—he had to consume genes to transform. Only the evil dragon was different—so he had always considered the evil dragon his true form.

 

This state lasted a full year. If Dr. Anya hadn’t brought him to her side, he definitely would never have wanted to be human again.

 

…

 

Sang Jue tried very hard to transform back—human form would be fine too—but as soon as he moved, his green ‘body’ felt a tearing pain.

 

007 said: “The map of the Seventh Safe Zone has loaded to 100%. You’re very close to the spacecraft now. You can head toward the spacecraft first. Only within 300 meters can I connect to the main system.”

 

This was the only way.

 

Sang Jue looked around. It seemed to be ruins, with collapsed walls and debris everywhere. To the right was an overturned rail car, with rain pounding on the rusty metal, clanging loudly.

 

The rain was heavy, but green fungus should love rain, because Sang Jue felt full of joy.

 

007 said: “Follow this rail car straight ahead, and you’ll reach the spacecraft’s location.”

 

There was a lot of mud on the ground. Sang Jue walked carefully, afraid of sinking in.

 

A flashlight beam suddenly shone near Sang Jue: “Sir, there really is a missed sewer opening over there!!”

 

“Search!” It was Huo Yanji’s voice.

 

Sang Jue almost rushed toward the sound, but suddenly remembering his current appearance, he hurriedly controlled the slime to burrow into the rail car.

 

The sound of military boots stepping in the mud was obvious, carrying Huo Yanji’s unique composed rhythm.

 

Countless pale lights fell on this area, scattered fragments filtering into the rail car.

 

By the time Huo Yanji’s leather gloves pulled open the rail car door, Sang Jue had already slipped far away.

 

He quickly reached the end of the rail car, not expecting a huge drainage ditch below. Unable to brake in time, he fell straight in.

 

007: “You are now 600 meters from the spacecraft.”

 

The drainage ditch was filthy, with many dangerous steel bars. The little green man got up, and after just a few steps, locked eyes with a wrinkled corpse.

 

His breathing stopped… no wait, he wasn’t human now and didn’t breathe.

 

The corpse was pale, eyes wide open, the eye membranes filled with red blood vessels. But looking carefully, those blood vessels seemed to flow as if alive.

 

There were obvious sharp claw marks on the chest, clothes torn to shreds but not old. The right shoulder had been pecked to expose white bone, reeking of thick blood—probably a resident who had died in the bird attacks these past two days.

 

This person had likely committed suicide, the corpse pierced through by rusty steel bars for over a meter—most likely he had thrown himself onto them.

 

Sang Jue felt a deadly hunger… this horrifying corpse was a delicacy for the green fungal clusters.

 

He swallowed his nonexistent throat and hurriedly left. Digesting corpses was something he only needed to experience once in a lifetime.

 

Sang Jue carefully crossed the steel bar area. After walking for who knows how long, he finally spotted a stone bridge spanning the drainage ditch in the distance.

 

Through the gap under the bridge, Sang Jue saw a silver-white spherical spacecraft sitting on distant flat ground.

 

About a hundred meters to the right of the spacecraft was a cold, imposing building that looked like a research institute.

 

Those damned humans really had stolen it!

 

There were soldiers standing guard. Sang Jue didn’t dare get too close. He crawled under the bridge and heard 007 say: “Current distance is sufficient. Please wait, connecting to the main system.”

 

Sang Jue didn’t quite understand—given this planet’s humans’ low technological level, how had they managed to transport the spacecraft back?

 

But the exhausted little green man had no extra energy to think. He hugged his jointless slime knees and fell into drowsy sleep accompanied by the pattering rain.

 

So slimes also needed rest.

 

If Dr. Anya were here, he could tell her about this amazing discovery.

 

…

 

“General, there are indeed traces of mutant multi-headed velvet bubble green fungus crawling out!” Saiya crouched down, grinding the wet, slippery marks beside the iron cover, his expression grave.

 

Despite all their calculations, they still hadn’t managed to completely eliminate the green fungal clusters.

 

Green fungus liked damp, dark environments and couldn’t survive long on the surface, but once the fires in the sewers died out, it could crawl back and continue reproducing.

 

Huo Yanji had just moved his foot when he heard a slight sound from the nearby rail car—

 

He braced against the carriage and tore apart the already half-ruined iron door, bending down to enter.

 

The already tilted rail car immediately swayed, ready to collapse to one side at any moment.

 

But there was a new discovery.

 

Though the seats and floor were covered in thick dust, the middle aisle of the rail car actually had a row of wet crawling marks.

 

Huo Yanji withdrew: “All personnel conduct carpet search southward!”

 

“Yes!”

 

Heavy rain poured down. Even wearing raincoats was useless—everyone was soaked through. The outline of tall buildings in the distance gradually became clear.

 

“General, we’re almost at the research institute!”

 

Everyone lingered at the end of the rail car without any discoveries.

 

Huo Yanji issued orders to continue forward. Below the rail car was a drainage ditch about two meters deep. Following the bank forward, he discovered a broken corpse pierced by steel bars.

 

Something was wrong.

 

Had they searched in the wrong direction… or had no green fungus escaped at all?

 

Feeding and reproduction were instincts of mutant multi-headed velvet bubble green fungus. Even from a hundred meters away, they could detect the presence of ‘food,’ yet this corpse showed no traces of green slime.

 

Before he could say the word “retreat,” a flashlight beam inadvertently swept across the bottom of the stone bridge and caught a flash of green.

 

“All personnel on alert!”

 

Rainwater slid down his sharp jawline. The heavy military boots didn’t affect Huo Yanji’s walking speed at all.

 

Until he discovered there was no shadow of green fungal clusters under the stone bridge, but instead an unexpected person appeared.

 

—Sang Jue, fast asleep and completely naked.

 

Sang Jue’s skin was spattered with mud from the rain, his thin chest rising and falling slightly, his sleeping face exceptionally peaceful. Probably due to the harsh environment, his long black eyelashes kept trembling restlessly.

 

Huo Yanji raised his hand, signaling the supervisors behind him to stop, his voice slightly hoarse: “All turn around.”

 

The supervisors didn’t understand but following orders had become instinct.

 

Only Saiya caught a glimpse and before recognizing who it was, saw the General beside him jump into the drainage ditch, cover the small figure under the stone bridge with his coat, and bend down to carry him out.

 

Saiya immediately realized—it was Sang Jue, whom the General had brought to District Seven!

 

Having survived such dangerous circumstances, Sang Jue not only hadn’t died but had found the only sewer exit they had missed. It was incredible.

 

The military coat wrapped around most of Sang Jue’s body, with only two pale calves hanging from Huo Yanji’s arms.

 

Carrying someone made it inconvenient to climb out of the drainage ditch. Saiya wanted to help take him, but Huo Yanji refused: “No need.”

 

Saiya had to settle for second best, extending his hand to give the General a boost.

 

He smiled: “It seems you threw away the ham sandwiches I prepared a bit too early.”

 

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