Chapter 79: The Old Woman Who Looked Like Grandma

Chapter 79: The Old Woman Who Looked Like Grandma

While I waited for the custom-built parasitic host the base had made for me to emerge from its chamber, I spent the time catching up on nearly everything I’d missed as an elite person. I was always coming and going in a rush; a stretch of idle time like this was rare.

Without a parasitic host, I never dared go out in my true body—not with the risk of being killed outright hanging over me. If that happened, my consciousness would have nowhere to go but Shiqing, or I might truly die. That would be a terrible bargain.

The night before the host was due to emerge, I had a dream. It felt real enough that I woke up still tangled in its emotions. In the dream, I’d walked straight into a trap someone had laid for me, been hunted down, and beaten to death—the kind of death where someone high-ranked handles you with effortless ease.

It left me dejected for a long time afterward.

In real life, I’d always carried myself with confidence. My abilities always seemed to outstrip others at the same rank, and that had made me a little arrogant. But in that dream, vivid as it was, I finally understood how little my strength meant in front of someone truly high-ranked. In the end, all I managed before dying was biting a chunk of flesh off the other person, just to have something to show for my hatred.

That dream taught me something. Ability was the foundation for a person’s survival in this world. However solid your backing might be, it was still borrowed strength. You couldn’t carry a mountain on your back forever. Everyone had their weak moments.

So I found myself looking forward to this new host more than I expected.

Then I actually stood in front of it, and the embarrassment nearly did me in. He was naked, and there were female staff standing right there.

Uncle and Engineer Lin told me to parasitize into it with my consciousness.

The moment I opened those eyes, the first thing I did was turn invisible, then ask the staff to bring me some clothes—which left them caught somewhere between laughing and sighing. They’d long since grown numb to the sight of parasitic hosts in every state imaginable.

Once I’d settled into the host, everything felt almost indistinguishable from my true body. Martial-technique strikes, projecting force of consciousness, supernormal sensing, penetrating-wave ability, shape-shifting, illusion transformation—whatever I knew how to do, I tried nearly all of it. If anything, this host felt easier and freer to inhabit than when I had parasitized into Shiqing’s brain.

Uncle and Engineer Lin were clearly pleased with what they’d built. Lin had always been meticulous in his work—it was a quality both Mother and Uncle praised him for often.

I carried my true body out on the host’s back myself, just to test whether I could tell which one actually mattered more.

There was no difference. None at all.

Every sensation felt exactly the same as it did in my true body, to the point where I started wondering whether my “true” body might be bionic too. Of course, growing up in Liutan Town told me which one was real. But somehow that no longer felt like it mattered much.

So this was the secret behind why elite people didn’t die.

Given enough money, I could manufacture more of myself. Of course, that would become meaningless too. After all, the main consciousness was the foundation of a person’s self-recognition.

Uncle had prepared parasitic hosts for me before. Xuanhong had been the first, completing my schooling, work, and emotional tempering in my place. Shiqing came second—he’d talked me through no end of confusion, and more importantly, he was my safety net, my final survival trump card. This was the third, and its purpose was simpler: to give me real freedom to move through the world.

Wearing it, I felt that freedom settle into place. This would also be the first time I appeared in the Elite World in my own appearance.

He was me.

Stepping out of the base and…