MASG chapter 163: Extra 3

◎ Mo An flipped his tear membrane and threw the head into the seawater. ◎

 

Xia Yu felt fatigue and nausea the moment he woke up.

It was similar to how he felt when he left the virtual world: he clearly knew he had just lost consciousness, yet he was unable to gather his thoughts.

Xia Yu was pinned down by someone. If he were his former self, it wouldn’t matter, but now his body was small, and the unbearable fatigue was doubled. Dazed, he first reached for the bracelet on his left wrist. His heart sank when he realized that the people who captured them were not stupid, knowing to remove the tracking device first.

Now, anyone could apply for a bracelet, and communicating with artificial intelligence was no longer as frightening as before. Xia Yu felt that his own bracelet was gone, so he immediately reached for the one belonging to the person pressing him down.

The arm was chubby and soft—one touch and it was clearly a child’s skin.

Sigh, as expected… there was no bracelet on this arm either. Xia Yu accepted the situation and waited until he was fully awake through the shaking. It was dark all around, and he habitually began to review everything: What exactly had happened?

Someone had kidnapped them, that much was clear. Was this an indiscriminate terror attack or a targeted action aimed specifically at him that also involved others?

Could the perpetrators be believers of the Machine Omnipotence Church? Although Ling Shi had already been erased, traces of its followers were still active. Could they hate him for restarting Nuwa and Jingwei and decide to avenge their great cult leader?

Ah, that was not impossible either. After resting enough, Xia Yu slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He adapted to the darkness as quickly as possible. His temples ached faintly, reminding him that he was in danger.

“Little Nut? Little Nut?” It was only then that Xia Yu clearly saw who was pressing on top of him.

Little Nut was worse off than he was, with a huge, swollen bump on his head. Xia Yu quickly touched his own forehead. He suspected that he had hit it too, but his healing and swelling reduction had been too fast.

Under Xia Yu’s gentle calling, Little Nut slowly woke up. The two children were tied together. Xia Yu was a fake child, but this one was real—he started crying the moment he opened his eyes.

As soon as he cried, Xia Yu thought of young Mo An, and a sense of helplessness spread through his heart. “Alright, alright. Don’t cry. We’ll be fine.”

“Mom… I want my mom, I’m scared.” With rope tied around his arm, Little Nut moved closer to Xia Yu in fear. They curled up together, legs tightly pressed against each other for warmth. Xia Yu warmed up and carefully made a shushing sound toward Little Nut, ordering, “Don’t cry first. If you cry, I won’t be able to hear what the people outside are saying.”

“But I’m scared.” Little Nut’s crying slowed by one beat. “I want my mom. I want to go home.”

“We’ll go home. Don’t worry. I guarantee that we’ll be back in one hour.” Xia Yu raised his head and looked outside. It was dark outside and inside, so the scattered starlight in the sky was especially clear and flashed rhythmically. Little Nut tightened his arms and trembled nonstop while speaking. “But I want to go home.”

“Shh.” Xia Yu quickly covered his mouth with his small hand. He suddenly realized how brave Mo An had been when he was little in this comparison.

It became quiet beside his ears for a moment. Xia Yu occasionally patted Little Nut’s shoulder, but his heavy thoughts had already drifted away. A 20-year-old mind in a child’s body made the contrast between his eyes and Little Nut’s very obvious. There was no movement outside, so he kept listening until he heard loud laughter.

Right after that, he heard people talking. However, the language they spoke left him completely confused—he could not understand it at all. It was a foreign language.

At first glance, there seemed to be no flaw. Xia Yu worried over finding no clue to solve the problem, but the natural environment always provided him with a path to survival. Soon, Xia Yu heard the most familiar sound: waves.

Splash, splash, splash. It was nothing else—it was an existence comparable to home.

“Sigh…” He could not help sighing.

“Did you hear something?” Little Nut, not yet ten years old, had tear marks covering his face.

“I heard it. They kidnapped us, and now we’re at sea.” Xia Yu withdrew his hand and flexed his numb joints.

Little Nut, who had just stopped crying, looked ready to cry again. “Ah? We’re at sea? Then how can we go home?”

“Yeah, how could we be at sea again so coincidentally? These guys are really seeking death themselves.” That sigh had been for them. As soon as he finished speaking, the cabin lights suddenly lit up, and unfamiliar people arrived with footsteps.

Xia Yu became extremely alert and shielded the pale-faced Little Nut behind him. However, he felt that his posture was too mature, so he simply pretended to be scared too. “Who are you people? Please don’t hurt us; we’re small.”

Several men ignored them completely, each busy with his own task and not looking up once. They communicated right in front of Xia Yu, not worrying at all that important information would be overheard because they spoke a foreign language.

Xia Yu felt discouraged. It looks like he still has to learn several more languages. Otherwise, if something really happens, he will become mute and deaf, unable to move a step.

Another half hour passed, and then a white-haired, middle-aged man walked in. He threw his cigarette on the floor, crushed it out, and stepped toward them, leaving a trail of nicotine smell behind him.

The smell was awful! Xia Yu covered his nose.

“When did you wake up?” His voice was hoarse.

This one could communicate. Xia Yu immediately had an idea and shrank back in fear. “I want my mom. I want to go home.”

“Stop crying!” The man seemed extremely annoyed by the sound of crying children. He took a gun off his belt and held it in front of them threateningly. Xia Yu recognized the model of the laser gun at once. This weapon was prohibited for cities because it was too dangerous—once fired, it would cause widespread devastation.

How did they have such advanced equipment? Xia Yu’s mind began to race.

“If you don’t cry, I guarantee you can stay alive. But if either of you cries again, you will be thrown into the sea.” The man viciously yanked the rope and Little Nut was pulled over in a tumble. Xia Yu hurriedly moved between them, replacing Little Nut with himself.

“Please don’t hurt us; we’re just children.” Xia Yu acted again. “Where are we? We’re small, we won’t run around.”

“You don’t need to know where this is. We’re taking you to another country. Wherever you get off the ship is where you belong.” The man pinched Xia Yu’s ear and twisted it. “If you don’t behave, I’ll tear it off!”

It didn’t hurt at all, but Xia Yu screamed, kicked his legs, and shrank back, vividly and completely performing a child’s fear. Little Nut could not tell if Xia Yu was pretending; either way, he was truly terrified. The thought of never going home again made him want to cry, but the thought of being thrown into the sea made him afraid to make a sound.

The two children hid with their heads pressed together, completely lacking any ability to resist or pose danger. The man was very satisfied. He gave a few instructions to the people around him in a foreign language, then left the cabin. Only then did Xia Yu secretly raise his head. His expression was completely different from before; there was not a trace of fear or nervousness in his eyes.

Very good, just ordinary human trafficking—this should be easy to catch.

As long as it didn’t involve the Machine Omnipotence Church, he was fine with it. He and Little Nut had simply been unlucky, caught up in a smuggling operation. They couldn’t have acted only to capture two children, so there must be other children on this ship, too. Then they could all be rescued together. Also, the fact that they were carrying out such a large criminal operation showed a loophole in management.

“Xia Yu, Xia Yu…” Little Nut was frightened and weak. “Can we really go home?”

Xia Yu held Little Nut in his arms, just as he used to hold Mo An. “Of course. Mo An will find us very soon.”

“Really?” Little Nut trembled in fear. “They have guns. I know guns are powerful.”

“Really. Mo An will definitely come. He’s very brave and smart. These guns are nothing to him.” Xia Yu was completely certain.

The clouds over the sea changed in an instant, as if the weather were about to change.

The white-haired man stood on the ship’s deck, using the communicator to contact the buyer. Several foreign men stood behind him, arrogantly asking, “You’re sure there’s no problem?”

“Of course.” He answered in a foreign language. “You still don’t trust me?”

The foreign men had unusually vicious eyes, and their developed muscles were alarming. “Among this batch of children, there are descendants of mutants and parasite people. I’m afraid they won’t sell.”

“How is that possible? Every child can be sold for a high price.” The white-haired man looked rather proud. “You should know that the world has only just returned to peace. Many cities lack population.”

“Only fully natural humans sell well. Don’t play tricks.” The foreigner warned him.

“How could I dare?” The white-haired man shrugged, seeming to be at a disadvantage, but actually holding the advantage firmly. In these past ten-plus years, too many fully natural humans had died, and even semi-mechanical humans did not live especially well. If countries and cities wanted to develop, they first needed people.

The foreign men did not want to argue with him, arrogantly raising their brows while keeping their hands on their gun holsters. “No problem with entering the information into the system?”

“No problem. We have people arranging it there. Every child can get a new identity.” Just as the white-haired man finished speaking, the ship suddenly stopped moving.

It had originally been advancing at full speed, but in an instant, they were fixed on the vast sea surface. The ocean at night had long ceased to symbolize gentleness and romance, instead opening a bloody mouth that gave endless fear. He immediately picked up the communicator and asked, “Captain’s room! What happened?”

Normally, any movement would have prompted a response from the captain’s room, but at that moment, it was silent.

“You’re playing tricks!” All the foreign men immediately raised their guns, aiming every dark muzzle at him. “Trying to do the black-eat-black trick[mfn]This comes from Chinese slang: 黑吃黑 (hēi chī hēi), meaning: criminals cheating / robbing / betraying other criminals[/mfn]?”

“Wait! Everyone, wait! Calm down!” The white-haired man was panicking, too. This was international waters, with no jurisdiction—if something happened, none of them would survive. “Maybe the communication signal isn’t very good. How about one of you goes to the captain’s room?”

It wasn’t a bad method, but the abnormal shaking of the ship dismissed the idea immediately. It seemed as if the wind had picked up on the sea, but the wind did not blow in their faces—it stirred the seawater instead. Within the range of the searchlight, a streamlined body slid past quickly and reflected light that hurt all their eyes.

“What is that? What is that?” The foreign men’s guns immediately changed direction, pointing angrily and shockingly toward the sea.

How could the white-haired man know what it was? He had never seen such a monster. Right now, he just wanted to hide in the cabin quickly, hoping that the creature had only accidentally struck their ship and would soon swim away.

However, the luck of the sea god did not bless them. After a faint electric current sound, the whole ship fell into darkness—power outage.

Zzzla, zzzla, zzzla. Strange sounds surrounded them, evoking a fear of the deep sea. It sounded as if countless metal sheets were scraping the hull, as if the ship were being thrown into a meat grinder.

In this darkness, Mo An, who was already on board, carried the head of a man from the captain’s room, silently wrapping one man with his black, powerful fishtail.

Xla.

Mo An flipped his tear membrane and threw the head into the seawater.

Inside the cabin, as if through telepathy, Xia Yu opened his eyes.

“Mo An is here,” he said to Little Nut. “My hero is here.”