Chapter 189: Humans are Vats

Chapter 189: People Are Like Water Tanks

The shrill alarm sirens echoed sharply, accompanied by the chaotic scene of overturned tables and scattered items across the floor. Shen Yuan felt dazed, as if she had been thrown into an apocalyptic scenario overrun by unknown parasitic creatures.

The mysterious visitor who had pulled her back from the brink of destruction now looked down at her with blood-red eyes, gentle and sorrowful.

Light streamed from above, gliding through his golden hair, the unnaturally soft glow making the moment feel eternal. The ominous "gurgling" sounds faded away, leaving only a long-lost tranquility and peace.

—Like an angel.

The thought struck her suddenly and inappropriately in Shen Yuan's mind.

So, what did an angel look like?

In children's stories, angels were humanoid beings with wings and halos, guiding good people through trials to a blissful end.

In some older religious texts, angels were sometimes described as otherworldly beings with the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle, their bodies covered in eyes, using their grotesque forms to terrify and expel demons.

Yet the golden-haired man before her had no holy wings, no radiant halo, nor the fearsome majesty of countless eyes—he fit none of the legendary descriptions of an "angel."

But at this moment, Shen Yuan was strangely convinced:

This was what an angel should look like.

Heaven's messenger, the tongue of the gods, a holy spirit of salvation and protection—

This was how they should be, coming with the light, serene as water.

Then, the door was flung open with force.

Meng Siyou appeared behind it, his expression urgent, as if he had rushed over the moment he sensed something amiss with Shen Yuan.

"Shen Yuan! No matter what clues you've found, you can't keep—" "experimenting on yourself with contamination."

His words cut off abruptly the moment he spotted the figure in the room.

According to the surveillance feed, the door had never opened, and Shen Yuan had been alone inside the entire time.

Yet now, a figure had materialized out of thin air—no, perhaps "someone" wasn't the right term.

Meng Siyou stood stunned, blinking, cautiously observing the golden-haired stranger in gray robes. A few distinctive features quickly brought to mind reports about the Lord of Fate.

He realized he likely knew whose presence had triggered the Anomalous Affairs Bureau's alarms.

"Fate Apostle, Your Grace," Meng Siyou bowed respectfully. "We welcome your arrival."

Bryce smiled faintly and nodded. "No formalities necessary—I am here only at the invitation of an old friend."

Meng Siyou paused momentarily.

An old friend... Considering the hierarchy and seniority here, the only one who could be addressed as an equal by an Apostle was likely the prophet.

He stood profoundly touched, momentarily at a loss for words.

That sharp-tongued yet kind-hearted prophet had already offered him so much help.

Meng Siyou even felt that if all this accumulated kindness were to one day cost him his life, he might not resist much.

If the demons and evil spirits from myths, the ones that tempted mortals, were all like Wu Suer... it would truly be hard not to gradually walk into the trap.

The Apostle's voice filled the room, ever calm and serene:

"Move forward. Fate will always protect you."

"When necessary, you may also invoke my name—the wandering bard who traverses realms, the monument that witnesses history, the gray thorns that guard the past."

Here, Bryce seemed to hesitate almost unnoticeably, a flicker of nostalgia crossing his face as he added one last line:

"The ever-pure holy spirit who walks in memories."

The Apostle's voice seemed to resonate directly in their minds, embedding itself deep into the depths of Meng Siyou and Shen Yuan's memories, planting seeds in the fragments of the past that sprouted delicate, thorned vines.

—This was the anchor point of Bryce's manifestation.

From now on, as long as the two of them repeatedly visualized Bryce in their memories or spoken his name, he would sense it and emerge from their recollections into reality to offer aid.

With those words, the golden-haired Apostle vanished like the wind, as silent and intangible as a phantom.

Simultaneously, the alarms that had been blaring throughout the Anomalous Affairs Bureau abruptly ceased.

The sudden absence of the deafening alarms left Meng Siyou and Shen Yuan momentarily disoriented, their ears ringing with a dull buzz, as if the sense of hearing itself had deserted them.

Coming to their senses, Meng Siyou immediately moved to help Shen Yuan up, only for her to grab his sleeve desperately.

Her pupils were still unnaturally dilated and trembling, her agitation making her words disjointed:

"The thing in the capsule... I know what it is now!"

"They're fish eggs! The largest are only the size of a grain of rice, smooth and round, seemingly transparent—invisible to the naked eye..."

Her expression shifted as she recalled, then she quickly corrected herself: "No, no, they're not completely transparent. When they move, they refract a milky luminescence, like tiny, delicate pearls..."

"They're... they're in my muscles, my blood vessels, my organs, spreading from my stomach, clinging to the inner walls like a layer of pale fungal growth."

"Once ingested, they exist everywhere bodily fluids flow—they're everywhere! Gurgling, multiplying, circulating through the entire body..."

As she spoke, Shen Yuan trembled uncontrollably, as if drenched in ice water, her teeth chattering.

The sensation of her body—even her consciousness—being invaded by another creature still made her hair stand on end. She feared the grotesque fish eggs, but also the mutated version of herself under their contamination.

Meng Siyou soothed her and escorted her to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau's dedicated psych ward for rest.

As they passed a corner, the faint sound of bubbling "gurgles" made Shen Yuan flinch like a startled bird, her head snapping toward the source.

"Don't worry, don't worry! That's just a decorative aquarium—it's filled with ordinary tropical fish," Meng Siyou reassured her quickly. "If it makes you uncomfortable, we'll stay away from it!"

But Shen Yuan stared at the fish tank, lost in thought, before suddenly interrupting him: "No... I've realized something."

"What?"

"I've realized why the fish eggs react differently in different people's bodies," Shen Yuan murmured.

She tried to explain, but the overwhelming mental shock left her incoherent. In the end, she could only desperately point at the aquarium's aerator, hoping Meng Siyou would grasp her meaning on his own.

The aerator...

Meng Siyou also looked at the fish swimming freely among the bubbling streams in the glass tank, a spark of inspiration flashing through his mind.

Yes, the aerator! Every fish species has different living conditions. Ornamental tropical fish like these have specific needs for water temperature, oxygen levels, and pH balance. If the water parameters stray beyond their ideal range, they might even leap out of the tank, thrashing on the ground until they dry out and die.

The fish eggs within the Universal Capsules parasitize humans essentially for survival.

They treat human bodies as living water containers, breeding and thriving inside them—but each human body provides slightly different conditions!

Muscle, fat, age, blood pressure…

There are too many variables that can affect the fish eggs' survival conditions.

When they encounter a suitable environment, they lurk unseen inside the host, gradually warping their thoughts and behaviors, perhaps preparing for their eventual maturation period return to the ocean.

But when they encounter an unsuitable environment, the fish eggs thrash like suffocating tropical fish, violently inside the body—while fish collide with aquarium walls, the eggs assault human blood vessels and organs.

The grotesque transformations seen in Resident 602 were essentially the fish eggs’ dissatisfaction with their living conditions, a primal instinct rebelling against a hostile environment.

From this perspective, most healthy, average-sized women are likely the optimal hosts for the fish eggs?

The more Meng Siyou pondered, the more his skin crawled.

He felt that humans, in the face of these fish eggs, were like unseen aquariums lined up on shelves, awaiting colonization and selection.

Walking down the street, if some among the passing crowd had taken the capsules, it meant he had also passed inches from countless eggs clinging to their blood vessel walls and cell surfaces…

"Ugh."

Unable to suppress a gag reflex, Meng Siyou muttered, "So, the reason Universal Capsules can 'cure all diseases'… is because the fish eggs reshape their habitat, temporarily benefiting the host?"

From the fish eggs’ perspective:

Host’s blood pressure too high, threatening their survival?

Then regulate the hypertension, making the host "healthier."

Host’s fat content too high, water content too low, leaving them dehydrated?

Then drive the host to emaciation—no matter the cost, shed pounds rapidly…

—But what price must humans pay for this violently enforced "wellness"?

That wasn’t a question the fish eggs needed to consider.

They only sought a stable and comfortable environment to inhabit and develop during their juvenile stage. As for the humans they parasitized, their bodies remade capriciously by this mysterious force would inevitably face reckoning later…

And this unknown "price" might be catastrophic.

After settling Shen Yuan, Meng Siyou opened the case file and continued updating the information:

"The main component of the capsules is the eggs of a certain 'oceanic' divine being. They multiply and mature in human bodily fluids, awaiting maturity."

"They instinctively modify the host’s internal environment to make it more habitable, creating the illusion of 'curing all diseases.' If the host’s internal environment deviates too far from the eggs’ ideal conditions, severe rejection may occur, causing extreme mutations in the host."

"Once the fish eggs are directly exposed to air, they dissolve into ordinary seawater, without a trace."

System verdict—Correct.