NABC Chapter 32 Parasite
Chapter 32 Parasite
In late autumn, the night wind carries a damp chill that cuts to the bone.
The neon signs on the street hummed in the cold wind. Kenichi Sato staggered along the empty street, his breath mixed with a strong smell of alcohol, which was instantly dispersed by the night wind.
"Uh... I'm not drunk! Who said I'm drunk? I can... drink three more bottles!"
Sato, his tongue lolling out, waved his arms in the air, trying to maintain the last shred of his manly dignity. But his unsteady gait betrayed him.
Tonight is a gathering of several old comrades from the Metropolitan Police Department, and also a rare moment of relaxation for him, a former shooting champion who has been retired for many years.
Originally, his old friend Yamamoto insisted on arranging a patrol car to take him back, but Sato's stubbornness pushed him away.
"Are you kidding me! My home is just around here... only a few kilometers away! I'm... a former SWAT team instructor!"
However, as that heroic spirit gradually faded with the cold wind, Sato sobered up a bit.
He stopped, pulled his trench coat tighter around himself, and glanced at the alleyway leading to the apartment building.
One of the streetlights seemed to be broken, and the flickering light stretched the shadow of the utility pole into a long, distorted, and eerie shape.
For some reason, the warning my old friend Yamamoto had given me at the dinner table, spoken in a low voice, suddenly became clear in my mind.
"Kenichi, try not to take side streets at night lately... and don't wander around outside alone."
"The recent cases... are very strange. They're not ordinary murder cases, they're... dismemberment cases."
"The victims were like they'd been put into a meat grinder; there wasn't even a single intact bone to be found at the scene."
"We're being pressured not to report this, but the pressure is immense. That killer... he's not human at all."
At the time, Sato thought his old friend was just telling ghost stories because he had drunk too much, but now, looking at the deathly darkness in front of him, a chill that came from his biological instincts crept up his spine.
Recently, the TV news has indeed reported several vicious incidents of "stray dogs attacking passersby," but whose stray dog could dismember a person?
"Damn it... what am I thinking? There are no monsters in the world."
Sato slapped his cheeks hard, trying to dispel the fear in his heart.
"Go home quickly, take a hot shower, and get some sleep, and you'll be fine."
He quickened his pace and plunged into the deep alley.
The alley was quiet, with only the old street lamp overhead making a buzzing sound and casting a pale halo.
Just as Sato was about to cross the alleyway, a strange sound made him suddenly stop in his tracks.
"Gurgle... Slurp..."
It was a chewing sound, like someone wearing rain boots stepping in mud, or like a wild animal tearing apart raw meat.
Sato instinctively held his breath and looked in the direction of the sound.
In the shadows of the alleyway, where miscellaneous items were piled up, he saw two figures by the faint moonlight.
A person was lying on the ground, motionless, with what appeared to be a puddle of liquid spreading beneath him.
Another person was squatting next to him, with his back to Sato and his head lowered, seemingly... performing artificial respiration?
"Hey! You over there! Need any help?"
Out of professional instinct as a former police officer, Sato instinctively shouted.
But he didn't approach rashly. Years of experience fighting amidst gunfire made his right hand instinctively reach for his waist.
Hidden there was a custom-made Glock 17 that he carried with him as the owner of a shooting club.
Upon hearing the sound, the crouching figure paused for a moment.
"Lost...food?"
A male voice, devoid of any emotion and even carrying a metallic quality, rang out.
The person slowly stood up and turned around.
The moment Sato saw that face clearly, he felt his blood freeze.
He was a man wearing an ordinary suit, but his face... was "blooming".
The facial features that were originally human were torn apart like ripped cloth, revealing the bright red muscle fibers and bare white bones beneath.
Immediately afterwards, the flesh and blood seemed to come alive and rapidly reorganized, transforming into several sharp, blade-like tentacles that waved wildly in the air.
At the end of that tentacle hung half of a human ear that hadn't been eaten.
"vomit……"
The intense visual impact and the stench of blood almost made Sato vomit, but his survival instinct kicked in before reason could react.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Without any hesitation, almost out of muscle memory, Sato completed the series of actions of drawing his gun, loading it, and firing. Three 9mm bullets were fired in a triangular pattern towards the monster's chest and head.
This is the "Mozambique shooting method" that he practiced countless times at the club—fast, accurate, and ruthless.
However, reality dealt him a devastating blow.
"Too slow."
The monster didn't even flinch. It simply swung one of its tentacles casually, and three sparks burst into the air.
That was the sound of a high-speed bone blade precisely cutting through a bullet.
"How is this possible..." Sato's hands began to tremble violently. It can even slice through bullets? What kind of biological weapon is this?!
"There is no threat."
The monster seemed to lose interest, and its blood-stained tentacles instantly lengthened, enveloping Sato.
Sato wanted to change the magazine, but extreme fear made his fingers stiff. In that instant of hesitation, a cold glint flashed.
"Smack."
A sharp pain shot through him. The Glock pistol in his hand, along with half of his palm, was cleanly severed and fell to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, a leather shoe stomped down heavily, crushing the fine pistol and the severed hand into a bloody pulp.
"Since we're here, let's have this as dessert."
The monster raised its sharp tentacles high, aiming at Sato's neck.
"Sizzle... sizzle..."
The air in the alley suddenly became eerily distorted, and countless purplish-black pixel particles appeared out of thin air, as if a huge bad spot had appeared in the data of the real world.
Immediately afterwards, a heavy and abrupt figure, like clipping through a game screen, "refreshed" between Sato and the monster without warning.
"clang--!!!"
A loud metallic clang echoed through the night sky.
Sato did not live to see death.
Blocking his way was a man covered in dark purple heavy armor.
The tentacle blade, powerful enough to slice through bullets, struck the man's shoulder armor with a fierce blow, but only produced a string of dazzling sparks, leaving not even a scratch.
"Um?"
Pei Qi, hidden beneath the armor, let out a puzzled nasal sound.
He had just stepped through the abnormal portal, and before his vision had fully recovered from the purplish-black gibberish, he felt a gust of wind rush towards him.
Instinctively, he did not dodge, but chose to withstand the attack.
"A welcome gift right after landing? What grudge do they hold against me?"
Pei Qi shook his slightly numb shoulders, raised his head, and looked at the attacker in front of him through the gap in his helmet.