The Parasite wasn’t too happy with the slow replication process, forced to idly wait while the steps came through. Watching through the eyes of Tom, the mass of flesh was made to sit through days of repetition, nothing new or particularly interesting happening. The day was spent on menial work, only the afternoons opening themselves for research.

There was no basis for understanding, after all. The Parasite understood the language that the people spoke, could read the letters they wrote in, but it had no real understanding of their culture, their way of acting, and the way that they handled power schemes. It was a miracle that the replication process on the brain had allowed for a shadow of sorts to be made. While it severely limited the amount of control that the Parasite had over the body, it allowed Tom to act out his regular conversations and activities, the Parasite learning the details the more it watched.

It had no way to access the memories of the main host as well. It was a point that made using the recreational tablets quite hard, electronic devices having a lot of functions that the Parasite only found by pure chance. The sheer amount of geographical information which could be accessed was incredible, though its intended use of path-finding limited how the Parasite could engage with it. More time needed to be spent on figuring out the application.

Stage 2 of Replication completed!

Starting Stage 3 of Replication

Already at the second stage of the replication, after the debacle of infecting Arthur with the egg, the Parasite had been able to pick up initial communications with the new version of itself. They were loosely connected, for now, merely working as nothing more than a proof of existence.

Stage 3 of Replication completed!

Starting Stage 4 of Replication

It was after the third stage had been completed and the fourth started that the results truly started to show themselves. While severely limited at the start, the Parasite became able to influence the actions of the body. It wasn’t direct control, being closer to loose orders. If it was against the moral code of the individual, the Parasite could do nothing but be a compulsive thought.

Stage 4 of Replication completed!

Vessel is ready for use

Only after total replication had been completed was when the Parasite had full control, able to manipulate the body and mind without limitations. The concept of controlling two bodies at once, seeing the world from two pairs of eyes, was… peculiar. The Parasite didn’t feel uncomfortable during it, though it did note the stronger connection to its [Main-Host]. It doubted that would change as more bodies were inserted into the fold.

The actual connection to the new body was quite strong, the signal bouncing through the air with extreme range. Even during stress tests, the two bodies could be on the two opposite ends of the farm without any issues. The Parasite did wish to find the actual limit but leaving the farm was currently impossible. The current vessels were apparently under contractual obligation to not leave the site.

“You’re on the third strike already, Arthur,” one of the men said near the gates. The man had been called in when the Parasite had tried to further the distance for testing. From what the Parasite had been able to tell from context, it was the co-leader of the farm, an old friend of the vessel. “I don’t want to let you go but I might have to do that if you continue doing this.”

“Ah, I am sorry about this,” Arthur said, the Parasite using the shadow of the vessel’s mind to set some form of apology in place. “I have been growing a bit sick with all the same plants recently. My mind just needed a quick walk around.”

It was incredible how the mind could excuse any behaviour, no matter how little it made sense. The shadow acted like the former self no matter what, yet it also never questioned how it came into the situation it was in. The Parasite had nothing against it, though it did see the flaw in such an formatting. It was no wonder human brains were so easy to replicate.

“And that’s fine! But, you need to send in a permit before you go running around, Arthur. Weren’t you meant to take that nature hike with your friend… Tim, I think his name was?” the co-leader questioned. Even now, the Parasite didn’t know his name, yet it knew that it would need to gain control of them soon. Having a vessel in a higher position would do the future plans well.

“Tom,” the vessel offered. “His name is Tom.”

“Of course,” the co-leader said. “When you do want to take a walk, or something else, get Tom in on the idea, schedule it properly with the administration, and then the two of you can leave the site. Until then, you have to stay inside.”

“If it really has to be that way,” the vessel said with an accepting tone. “I will see you around, Markus.”

“If you see me, it means you messed up. So… I suppose I’ll see you in the next month or so.”

The Parasite didn’t understand the need to laugh or the contextual clues left in the conversation. It had another name for the database and another potential vessel it needed to look into. Converting the [Arthur] vessel had been rather easy, the ability to lure the human into a contained space without any higher chance of discoverability helping immensely. How it would do that with the co-leader was rather challenging. A plan for another time. For now, the Parasite had discovered a new list of information surrounding the vessel in question.

Basic Information

Name

Arthur

Species

Human

Age

58

Stats

Strength

11

Speed

8

Dexterity

8

The Parasite was unsure of how the three lower numbers were quantified, though it was easy to guess that ten was the standard baseline for humans. Having researched the life expectancy of humans, it seemed that the vessel was about halfway to being useless for the Parasite, an estimate of fifty years left before it would succumb to natural causes. If possible, the Parasite hoped to stop such a thing, the potential waste of resources bringing it great inner pain.

Yet with the information that the vessels had a detailed list surrounding their abilities and basic information, the Parasite was quick to try and conjure one for itself.

Basic Information

Name

1310-HM

Species

Hivemind

Stats

Resolution

1

Regeneration

1

Analyzation

1

Resources

Integrity

100/100

Ether

32/40

Ether-Regeneration

0.02/min

Vessels

1

[1310-HM]... the Parasite couldn’t say the name brought it any memories. Who had decided that such a name would be its designation? It didn’t seem to fit the naming schemes already in place in the world, names like Markus, Arthur, and Tom not having any numbers in them. Moving on, the Parasite wasn’t surprised to see the name of its species. Having already researched the topic, there was no real shock at seeing the species listed as [Hivemind]. It only reinforced the idea it had of its future purpose, the need to grow wider only becoming bigger.

In the way of stats, everything seemed to be as low as possible. Yet… the names themselves didn’t bring along much information. Focusing on the stats, another three tables opened up.

Resolution

Allows for more minds to be processed.

Increases capacity for Ether.

Regeneration

Allows for heightened processing speed of physical upgrades.

Increases speed of Ether Production.

Analyzation

Allows for a more in-depth analysis of physical beings.

Increases chances of discovering mutations.

From the start, [Resolution] seemed to be the obvious choice in the way of upgrades, the Parasite wanting more vessels more than anything. [Regeneration] seemed to increase the speed at which the Parasite would be able to do it, [Ether] being the resource used to create the eggs. [Analyzation] was more of a wild-card, clearly able to have some form of effect on vessels, though the Parasite didn’t have the faintest clue what that was.

It was already able to pick up the signals granted by the nervous system. The Parasite supposed that an upgrade on the stat would allow for a more detailed listing of where the specific sensory data was coming. It did not seem incredibly effective in bringing short-term gain, making the Parasite deem [Resolution] to be the intended upgrade, [Regeneration] being the second priority if limits were found.

The Parasite noted the larger amount of noise coming from the main host, the vessel sitting during the lunch break. A plan to test out the different food choices had been orchestrated ever since the [Arthur] vessel had bought itself the sugar-filled bread. The Parasite had still been unable to locate the reasoning for such an expensive choice, though it did find the potential positives with the purchase.

Unexpectedly, sugar seemed to be very energy-rich for the Parasite. The carbohydrate increased [Ether-Production] inside the Parasite to an extreme degree, allowing for energy to be stored for [Evolution]. It was a detail that the Parasite had been unable to locate during its first days moving around, the prominence of the feature only showing itself once the being had filled up its [Ether] to the full, letting it regenerate continuously while in such a state.

Ether-Storage has been filled

All Ether after this point will be allocated for [Evolution]

The message had been attached to a counter of sorts, the Parasite being able to watch it fill up in recent days.

Evolution

Current [Ether]

Required [Ether]

187.3

2500

Passively, it would take eighty-seven days to fill the counter up fully. With the constant consumption of sugar? Much less than that. At optimal efficiency, the Parasite had noted the speed of [Ether-Production] quadrupling in speed for several hours. The obvious choice from the information was to consume the sugar-bread at every possible moment but the Parasite wasn’t currently able to do such a thing due to poor financing. While the vessels at its disposal did have some income from their work, there was little to no savings currently present. The Parasite would have to wait another fourteen days before payday would come around, something that it detested above anything else. Since it already had enough energy to create an egg, it needed to find the next potential vessel.

“Weren’t you the one complaining about eating that bread?” Arthur questioned vehemently, the old man sounding as tired as ever.

“Weren’t you the one eating it with tearful eyes two weeks ago?” Tom questioned right back with an infectious grin, taking an extra-large bite of his lunch as an act of defiance.

The Parasite allowed the act to play out without interruption. It wasn’t entirely happy with how long a time was spent on eating their food, the Hivemind preferring the idea of them working their allocated hours and moving on to more prioritised tasks.

However, it had turned out that the daily showing off at the cafeteria room was expected from the due, the workers eating their lunch at the same time being greatly distressed when the Parasite had turned off high-volume conversation. Not wanting to put their personality into question, and in hopes of making sure no extra attention would be put onto it, the daily squabbles had continued in their full glory. The two vessels were meant to show off a high amount of compassion while in front of others and that they would do without fail.

“I wasn’t tearful and I don’t see how that matters,” Arthur said back. “Since I was with you when visiting the dietician, we both know you aren’t meant to change your intake so rapidly. I know you remember what happened last time you tried out those nachos with-”

“No need to remind me of that weekend.”

“If it means you remember to watch your diet, I will remind you of everything you have ever done,” Arthur stated, with some hint of sadism in his facial features. The Parasite was utterly unable to comprehend how the social interactions were meant to work. Threats, negatives, and a lack of real conversation were clear yet they seemed to be good friends at all other times. There was something the Parasite was missing, something it knew it could use in the future. “Now, we need to find Oak after this. It’s been two weeks and he still hasn’t done it.”

“Didn’t you say that he had been ordered to fix the tractor?”

“Well, he found it in his heart to ignore my words and go waste my time instead,” Arthur responded with an annoyed look. The Parasite couldn’t say it wasted too much time on the sources of irritation of human beings, instead reconsidering the information given. Oak…

In the world that the Parasite had entered, some of the humans had powers. From what it had been able to procure online, the average rate of powers in the populace was at two percent, one out of every fifty humans able to display some form of inhuman ability. The actual abilities possible were virtually endless, though the humans had decided to categorise them into two main blocks for the sake of convenience.

The first version of inhuman abilities was the Augmentation ability. These affected the user’s body directly, creating mutations not normally found in the human body. This could be anything from an extra tail to being completely covered by scales. The Parasite had been able to find several articles about apparent Augmentation users having been turned into monstrous beasts but other sources had claimed them to be the work of digital forgery. With how little the Parasite knew about digital manipulation, the current archives about the type of abilities present in Augmentation weren’t to be trusted fully. Augmentation users mainly used close combat while fighting, though some could fire various pieces of their body toward an enemy.

Then there were the Manipulation abilities. Contrary to the mutations of Augmentation users, Manipulation users were near-impossible to discern from physical traits alone. Their abilities were focused entirely on mental will, being able to wield a varied amount of forces using thoughts. Videos of users bending light to blind the enemies, turning gravity off and making attackers float in the air, and a particularly fast user immobilising a group of armoured personnel in a split second were prevalent in the digital space. As a general statement, Manipulation users seemed to stay in the back as they fought, working much better at long-range.

With the receiver connected to such videos, the Parasite noted one specific detail. The public at large seemed to prefer Manipulation users above Augmentation users. The Parasite wasn’t entirely sure why this was, each seeming to be preferable in different combat situations. With how illogical it seemed, the creature surmised that there was another factor at play.

Getting back to the situation at hand, however, the Biomancer that the vessels seemed so interested in was one of the Manipulation users. Having already searched the term up online, the ability allowed for the user to manipulate the growth pattern of nearby non-sentient biological matter. If the Parasite hadn’t wanted the ability user before, it certainly did now. The potential of such an ability was nearly without limits, the creature able to imagine many scenarios where the manipulation of plants could come in useful. And the hierarchical position that the body was in wasn’t too bad either…

It was decided. With an egg already prepared for a new vessel, all the Parasite needed to do was to insert it into the ability-user. How it was to do such a thing without notice, however, was the question at hand. A minute was spent brainstorming before a general idea was formed.

“How about we get him in an empty place and give him a stern lecture?” the Parasite asked through Tom’s body, the creature getting a raised eyebrow from its other vessel. “Somewhere people won’t be around for most of the day.”

“You mean the old warehouse?” Arthur questioned, not seeming to follow the Parasite’s ideas. The creature had no care, putting Tom back in control as it searched through its memory. The old warehouse… It was on the edge of the farm, not used for much else but storage of emergency grain and illegal trading with outsiders. There had apparently been a severe rise of drugs being circulated through the building, making it fully evacuated at all-day hours. In other words, it was perfect.

Lunch was finished and Tom was sent back to his room to prepare the supplies. Arthur was taken over to locate the Biomancer and bring him to the destination. It wasn’t a hard task, the ability-user having a general area they liked to stay in during working hours. It was a small area close to field two, relatively hidden from outsiders and stocked up with various liquors and picnic chairs. In essence, it was a location purely made to avoid working. The Parasite detested it and the large man that sat within it.

“What are you doing here?” the Biomancer by the name of Oak questioned. From the empty glass in the ability-users hand and the general taste of alcohol in the air, the creature surmised that the man had consumed more liquor than what was commonly acceptable during daylight hours. Normally, such a fact would’ve worked against the Parasite but it saw how such a thing might assist it in the next steps.

“Markus wants you to remove the growing vines at the old warehouse,” Arthur reported in a bored tone, the creature making sure to display the looks of disgust on the old man’s face. It worked flawlessly.

“Oh yeah? How do I know this isn’t you and whatever-his-name-is trying to get me to do your work? My time is important, you know.”

The slurred syllables in the last sentence made that very clear.

“We don’t deal with plant-related infestations,” Arthur replied evenly. “Tom and I are in charge of making sure the machines work and you’re meant to make sure that-”

“Yeah, yeah, I understand,” the Biomancer said, getting up from the picnic chair and nearly pushing the older man over as he left his small area of peace. The Parasite was quick to make Arthur follow, noting the size difference between the two’s bodies. The ability-user had nearly twenty centimetres on the vessel, almost having twice the total mass. It was a mix of fat and muscle that made the difference, the creature not being able to understand how any human could live through such a thing.

They went through the farm in quick fashion, nobody sparing them the slightest of glances. It helped that they took the long route, none of the cameras pointing their way. It would have been quite unlucky if Arthur would’ve been caught in such an ordeal, after all.

Arriving at the old warehouse, the Hivemind was ready for it all. The Biomancer pushed open the doors to the warehouse, grumbling about too much walking. The vessel that the Parasite was using to direct them followed as well, keeping quiet until they got into position.

“Where is this growth?” the Biomancer questioned. “Don’t tell me Markus is making me remove something that isn’t even important yet.”

“It’s a potential danger in a week or two,” the Parasite promised through Arthur’s body before pointing at one of the warehouse's corners. “It went through the metal over there. From what I know, you should be able to interact with it and-”

“I think I know how my abilities work, thank you very much,” the Biomancer said in a patronising tone before moving over to the corner.

Feeling on the floor, the ability-user was deep in thought, not noticing anything around him other than the energies of nearby plants. Tom was in position.

“I can’t feel anything. Are you sure your old mind hasn’t rotted too-”

The bat hit the back of the Biomancer’s skull, making the ability-user fall down onto the ground cold. The Parasite wasted no time in getting the unconscious body into position. Bringing out the prepared scalpel, the cut was made at the back of the Biomancer’s skull, the egg inserted perfectly.

Stage 1 of Replication completed!

Starting Stage 2 of Replication

It was a waiting game now. The Parasite moved the Biomancer’s unconscious body into the middle of the warehouse before starting to overturn the various containers around them. Too much time had been spent around the ability-user, making it impossible to simply refuse the vessels had had any interaction with him. Instead, the plan was to make sure it all looked accidental, the injuries the Biomancer had sustained being due to the storage units around them failing to support their own weight and tumbling down at the ability-user.

If only the current vessels could move faster. Older bodies could be less suspicious but they weren’t physically gifted. Maybe that was why the sound of their work began to attract others to the scene.

“Why is the warehouse’s door open?” a voice outside questioned out loud. By the footsteps, it was clear there was a small group. The scene hadn’t been completed yet, but there was no time. Using the energy remaining in the older bodies, the Parasite made them hide further inside the warehouse, impossible to see without thorough searching. “Oh, god. Somebody get the doctor!”

By the end of the next day, security had ramped up to a more extreme degree. While the vessels weren’t caught in the moment, and while the Biomancer hadn’t been able to recall what he’d been doing before he had been assaulted, the Parasite cursed its actions. Only a mix of heavy drinking and blunt trauma had stopped it from being caught.

And the additional cameras installed… there was little chance of the Parasite being able to repeat it without being noticed. At the very least, blame had been diverted and a new vessel was slowly being prepared.

Stage 2 of Replication completed!

Starting Stage 3 of Replication