Chapter 1 The Pink Worm

The worm was about as thick as a man's arm, plump, segmented, and pink all over. Two black dot eyes were embedded on either side of its head, with a triangular mouthpart filled with dense teeth below.

A layer of transparent mucus coated its body, and a dense clump of light red bristles grew on its back, like a steel wire ball for rich women. Underneath its body were pairs of thoracic legs, abdominal legs, and caudal legs. The tips of the legs had barbs that could firmly and stably hook onto Bob's clothes.

If this worm were on the ground, its plump body and pink appearance might let it blend into the ranks of cute creatures.

But when it hovered above Bob's head, aiming its black eyes and ferocious mouthparts at Bob's mouth, the only adjective left to describe it was horrifying.

"What are you going to do?!"

Bob struggled desperately, not even caring that he had broken a few more ribs in his chest. "Let me go!!!"

"Don't get excited."

Li Ang held the worm, smiling as he pressed down on Bob's forehead, slowly probing the worm towards Bob's mouth.

"Wait!"

John Joyce, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally couldn't help but step forward and asked urgently, "What are you going to do to him? What is that worm?"

"This is the legendary Sanshi Shen Nao Dan,"

Li Ang looked up and said seriously, "It's a highly yin and toxic poison refined by the evil organization Sun Moon Sect. It contains corpse worms, which don't usually act up and show no abnormalities.

But if it reaches noon on the Dragon Boat Festival every year, without medicine to restrain the corpse worms, the corpse worms will be like Sun Wukong drilling into a monster's belly, causing havoc.

Like, say, eating the internal organs."

""

John Joyce's eyes widened, and he really wanted to complain: "Do you think I haven't read *Xiao Ao Jianghu*? The Sanshi Shen Nao Dan is clearly a pill with a red coating, how could it be such a big worm? And can you really swallow this thing? It looks thicker than the esophagus, doesn't it?"

But the words came to his lips, and John Joyce swallowed them back, weakly saying, "Is this really okay?"

"What's not okay?"

Li Ang said indifferently, "He wanted to feed me cookies, so I'll feed him worms. It's only fair. Or maybe"

He turned his head, looked at the other teammates, and smiled, "Do you want one too? I have a lot more in my backpack."

In response to Li Ang's threat, Chai Da小姐 also raised her head and stared straight at the players' faces, as if thinking about how to pry open their mouths.

Faced with this vicious master and servant,

John Joyce subconsciously took half a step back,

Julia's face was pale, and she unobtrusively tightened her grip on her pistol,

Smoker swallowed and honestly raised his hands, retreating backwards to show that he was not hostile.

'This Dao Bro is really a madman.'

The three players thought in unison, pretending not to see Bob's pleading gaze as he lay on the ground.

"See, no one will help you. Even if you scream your head off, no one will come to save you."

Li Ang laughed wildly like a cruel and vicious villain boss in a literary work, and ignoring Bob's pleading eyes, forced the worm in bit by bit,

"Eat! Eat it, you!"

Bob's body trembled violently, but Chai Da小姐 firmly held down his hands and feet, and released a petrification effect on his joints, making him unable to move at all.

A moment later, the tail of the worm completely disappeared into his throat, and Bob's face was covered in tears and snot, with a collapsed and numb expression.

"Don't look so mournful. As long as you cooperate, this worm won't act up."

Li Ang squatted on the ground and comforted him, "It's currently curled up and lying in your stomach. Other than causing a feeling of fullness, it won't have much of an impact on you.

Cooperate well, and we can continue to be teammates."

Li Ang wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the whole truth either.

This worm was actually a mutated larva hatched by the Bee Queen under the effect of a biological template, codenamed 'Parasite'.

Its inspiration came from parasitic wasps such as the *Gasteruption jaculator* and *Trichogramma*, which actually exist in the real world.

Parasitic wasps can parasitize their eggs in the host's body, allowing the eggs to feed on the host, constantly absorbing the host's nutrients until they mature, and then the larvae break out of the eggs and leave the completely drained host shell.

The reproduction method of parasitic wasps is quite terrifying, and the Parasite created by Li Ang is even more bizarre.

The Parasite larva can firmly hook onto the host's body with its abdominal feet, and pierce the host's skin with its bristles.

The clumps of light pink bristles are actually hollow, slender tubes containing both anesthetic substances and tiny parasite eggs (equivalent to larval eggs, a fetus within a fetus).

When the bristles pierce the host's skin, the larva releases an anesthetic to stop the host from struggling,

And implant the eggs inside the bristles under the host's skin.

These eggs feed on the nutrients in the parasitic egg and quickly grow into larvae under the skin,

The larvae release an anesthetic on the surface of their bodies to numb the host's pain, and continue to drill deeper until they reach a certain depth, then stop drilling and lay a second generation of eggs in the same place.

According to Li Ang's estimation, the Parasite can implant an average of thousands of micro-eggs each time its bristles come into contact with the surface of cattle and sheep, and these larval eggs can produce ten times as many second-generation eggs.

And the larvae hatched from the second-generation eggs will continue to reproduce if the temperature and food are suitable.

Descendants upon descendants, endlessly.

According to Li Ang's calculations, even a mammal as large as an elephant would be eaten into an empty shell within a few days after being touched by the Parasite once.

The best thing is that the eggs laid by the Parasite are small in size and transparent in color, and they grow and reproduce extremely quickly. Even if medical treatment is sought immediately after a single contact,

It is difficult to guarantee that all the eggs can be completely found.

It is impossible for such an extreme species to be born in nature. Perhaps only Li Ang, who is bored to death, would create such a terrifying biological weapon.

Of course, Li Ang also put many restrictions on the Parasite,

For example, the larvae hatched from the second and third generation eggs have congenital defects, and it is impossible to grow to the size of the first generation larvae, nor do they have organs such as bristles that can be used to sow the next generation through contact.

The Bee Queen can also emit pheromones, causing all Parasite larvae and eggs that come into contact with the pheromones to stop parasitizing, automatically die, and melt into a puddle of mucus.

Li Ang's act of stuffing the Parasite into Bob's stomach actually delayed Bob's death—under Li Ang's instructions, the Parasite only implanted a portion of its eggs into Bob's stomach, and then entered a hibernation mode along with the first-generation eggs.

Only when Li Ang needs it, and triggers it through the imprint of the gods or the Bee Queen's pheromones, will the Parasite end its hibernation and continue to lay eggs, hollowing out Bob's body from the inside out.

This thing is actually more terrifying than the Sanshi Shen Nao Dan.