Chapter 207 - 134: Parasitism Experiment 2
Just as the two were conversing in their minds, the plant-man behind them prepared to attack the Eye Demon.
Lin Kong suddenly turned his head and said, "Wait! Don’t attack yet!"
’What the hell, you’re actually controlling my body!’ Lin Kong raged.
’Hmph, just controlling your body? The slaves of us Eye Demons have their very brains controlled. You can still think for yourself, and you’re still not satisfied?’ The Eye Demon dropped its pitiful act. It had no idea what this man was thinking, daring to let it possess him, but now that he was its host, he was no longer in control.
"Go. Search again and see if there are any more eyeballs. I want to take a look and run some other tests," Lin Kong said again.
This time, the plant-man clearly sensed something was wrong with the command. It shifted slightly but did not act.
Lin Yu thought for a moment, then sent a command to the plant-man through his mental link.
’Listen to him. Find any surviving Eye Demons. Capture them and keep them secure!’
The plant-man immediately began rummaging through the pool of blood.
The Eye Demon inside Lin Kong’s body finally relaxed, settling in to wait as it wrestled with Lin Kong for control.
Soon, the plant-man found two more damaged Eye Demons. These two seemed to know that Lin Kong was already possessed, so they weren’t the least bit panicked—unlike the one on Lin Kong’s back, which had been terrified at first.
"Put them on yourself! I want to see what happens," the Eye Demon inside Lin Kong said, pleased by the plant-man’s competence.
This time, however, the plant-man did not obey.
"What’s going on? I told you to put them on yourself!"
The plant-man remained motionless. Instead, it used its vines to bind the two damaged Eye Demons.
’You!!!’ The Eye Demon tried to make Lin Kong’s body move, but Lin Kong fought to keep it immobile.
Although the nerves in his body had been completely replaced by the Eye Demon’s tendrils, Lin Kong could still control his internal energy. This energy helped him lock his own body in place.
’Hehehe, trying to move? No chance,’ Lin Kong laughed in his mind. ’We can just stay deadlocked like this!’
’You bastard! So what if you stop me now? You and I are one being. Once your energy runs out, I’ll be able to move! And what’s wrong with this underling of yours? Can’t it understand my commands?’
’Hahaha, forget about my follower for now. The invasion period ends in just a few minutes. You’re about to be forcibly sent back to your territory. Whatever you want to do, it’s useless!’
’So that’s your game! No wonder you dared to let me on you for an experiment. This was your plan all along?’
’You bastard!! @#%$&...!’
A stream of curses from the Eye Demon echoed in Lin Kong’s mind. This Eye Demon was surprisingly good at swearing. Though he couldn’t understand some of it, Lin Kong was actually rather impressed that it could curse for several minutes straight without repeating itself.
After that, Lin Kong stopped replying, letting the Eye Demon scream and curse in his mind as it pleased.
At four in the afternoon, the Teleportation Gate closed. The two damaged Eye Demons captured by the plant-man vanished into thin air, and the voice in Lin Kong’s mind disappeared along with them.
Lin Kong tried to move but found he still couldn’t control his body. Then, a burst of wild laughter echoed in his mind.
’Hahaha~ Surprised? Feeling the shock? How about a little despair?’
The Eye Demon’s voice was full of derision.
’The abilities of my kind are more than simple parasitism. We are now truly a single being. In the eyes of the tournament organizers, we are considered both human and Eye Demon.’
’You can’t get rid of me, so stop struggling!’
’Just obediently merge with me. If you do, I can let you move freely. I’ll only take direct control of your body for very brief periods.’
’Besides, with me here, your tier can be raised by one level. Isn’t that a good deal?’
The Eye Demon once again tried a mix of threats and promises, hoping to make Lin Kong give up his resistance.
Hearing the Eye Demon’s words, Lin Kong calmly replied, ’Is that so? I don’t think so!’
After he said this, Lin Kong’s body dissolved into a mass of energy and vanished into thin air.
It was Lin Yu who had chosen to cancel the avatar ability, causing Lin Kong to return directly to his main body.
Before the plant-man’s eyes, the lord’s brother vanished in an instant. All that remained was the upper half of some eyeball-like tissue and an Eye Demon whose lower body looked like a tangle of roots.
"Capture it and take it to Acropolis 1."
(The Acropolis was the "mock city" Lin Yu had temporarily built. Because "mock city" sounded unpleasant, he had renamed it Acropolis. At this time, Acropolis 1 was entirely populated by plant-men; all normal creatures had been withdrawn.)
"No, how is this possible?! No one can escape the parasitic grip of an Eye Demon!"
The captured Eye Demon screamed endlessly, but it was completely unable to resist. It was still in its parasitic state, and without flesh and blood to absorb, it couldn’t switch back to its mobile form for some time.
...
[World Chat Channel (788211)]
[Cuiwei Star Experts Group]
Lin Yu: "Brothers, Opal Hass was right. That eyeball is a creature called an Eye Demon. It can possess living things, boosting the host’s power, but it takes control of them at the same time. It’s extremely dangerous!!!"
Lin Yu: "I’d like to thank Opal Hass for the intel here."
Opal Hass: "Don’t mention it. It’s the least I could do."
Ding Dong: "It’s that dangerous? Seems like cremation is the way to go!"
Zhang Jing: "Cremation +1"
...
Opal Hass watched as the group members declared one after another that they would give the Eye Demons the "cremation package" in the next invasion, and he was secretly overjoyed.
’These fucking idiots. I made up one sentence, and they all bought it.’
’And that guy, Lin Yu. He disappears for a while to go play around, then comes back and uses my words to scare people. He’s nothing but an opportunist looking for fame.’
’If he’d actually run the experiment, why would he be saying this? The system information is perfectly clear. The state of enhanced attributes is called ’symbiosis,’ yet here he is, calling it ’parasitism.’’
’And those idiots are dumb enough to believe him.’
’It’s hilarious!’
’And when the time was up, the tournament organizers didn’t even teleport the eyeball back. What does that tell you?’
’It proves the eyeball is tied to its host! Otherwise, my soldier and hero would have been teleported away!’
’Hahaha, I’m a freaking genius!’
’The credit for this discovery is as good as mine!’
Opal Hass was ecstatic. Lin Yu’s speech played right into his hands, saving him the trouble of figuring out how to dissuade everyone from studying the eyeballs.
The members of the experts’ group were mostly leaders of their respective lord factions. With them setting an example, the ordinary lords would probably not bother researching the eyeballs’ effects either.
’Hm, right. And then there’s that guy, Mei Yuan. I can’t let him keep running his mouth in the public channels. I wonder if Sibel Aishan has found his territory yet?’
...
After his preliminary research, Lin Yu was intrigued by the Eye Demon’s abilities. The way it could stack its own attributes onto a host was remarkably useful.
To capture more Eye Demons, he decided on a strategy to lure the enemy deep into his territory.
First, he had to entice the Eye Demons invading in the coming days to send more of their soldiers.
To that end, he had Lin Chenxi arrange for the Urban Planning Bureau to construct an Acropolis at each of the four cardinal directions of his territory.
In addition to providing a place for the territory’s patrol teams to rest, each Acropolis had a small number of resource buildings (relative to the territory as a whole). Outside the Acropolises, he also deployed defensive plants, primarily of the long-range, high-attack variety.
Inside the Acropolises, he also placed some catapult plants (Watermelon and Corn) as well as Squash.
With the addition of some combat-proficient denizens, these Acropolises looked quite substantial, comparable to the main cities of some ordinary lords.
This was guaranteed to make the Eye Demon scouts mistake them for the territory’s main city, or at the very least, an important stronghold.
After all, from what he’d seen so far, the Eye Demons didn’t care about casualties among their subordinates. All that mattered was capturing new "material." (According to the broken-down Eye Demon, their main mission was to capture strong creatures and bring them back to their territory as material.)