MASG chapter 174: Extra 14

◎ It seemed that the full moon, the tides, and the mantle all needed to work together. Xia Yu firmly remembered this point. ◎

The door flew apart into pieces.

Mi Dou was quite proud. Weren’t you looking down on my height and build? Weren’t you mocking me for being a short-legged Mini Bear? Look, look—when it comes to strength, I’m not lacking at all. The door was gone just like that!

Boden was covered in wine, and the elegance he had maintained so steadily before was gone, making him look especially funny. “I didn’t expect you to be willing to sacrifice yourself to this extent for scientific research. Heh, interesting. More and more interesting.”

“What sacrifice? I just came here to sleep!” Mi Dou didn’t care. Anyway, you told me to come, and I came, so you have to give us the equipment. “Tomorrow at noon, I’m going to use your equipment, so get ready. If I can use it well, I want to apply to Nuwa for funding to conduct research on a new project and then publish my own paper worldwide.”

“If you use my equipment, then the first authorship of the paper has to go to me.” Boden said with a smile.

Mi Dou glared at him fiercely. “In your dreams!”

“If you won’t give me first authorship, I won’t make any exceptions.” Boden wiped the wine off his body, unable to stop smiling. Human society had gone through too much turmoil, especially over the past ten-plus years, when Ling Shi had thrown everything into chaos. It wasn’t just Qingyao City—every city had become a testing ground for her, so humans lived in a constant state of tension.

He had seen people greedy for money and points, people greedy for connections, and even people deluded enough to seek immortality through biological research. But a purely dedicated researcher… this was the first time he had seen one. If he really tried to do something, Mi Dou might actually agree, silly little bear.

Mi Dou was equally straightforward. He tossed his pillow onto the bed and placed his communication device on top of it. “Connect the equipment to my device first.”

“Why are you in such a hurry? You haven’t even slept here yet.” Boden was in no rush.

“Because I think you’re not a good person at all. If I don’t hurry up and connect the equipment, you’ll regret it the moment you turn your back.” Mi Dou honestly said what was on his mind. In any case, Boden’s score in his heart could not possibly get any higher. This person had already been stamped with the seal of ‘bad guy.’

“All right then. I’ll go take a shower first.” Boden pointed at the wine on his clothes. As he walked toward the bathroom, the door that Mi Dou had kicked flying open was twisting and contorted as it healed itself. By the time Boden came out of the bathroom, the door was standing intact by the wall, carefully moving toward the doorframe.

As expected of a mechanical mutant species. Boden became greatly interested. There were still many things in this world waiting to be explored. So he walked over to the door and personally put it back in place.

The door seemed to sense something and stiffly squeezed itself back into its working position, counting as closed.

When Boden returned to the bedroom, the little bear who had been showing off his power just moments ago had actually already… fallen asleep, snoring. His whole body was curled up under the blanket, his furry head tucked inward, with the two bear ears on top of his head turned backward.

One of those ears bore a very obvious old injury, with a piece missing. On the way to Qingyao City, Nuwa had already explained everything. It was hard for Boden to connect these people with the brave warriors of the apocalypse. Back then, if these people had received his technical support, they certainly would not have ended up in such a miserable state. But thinking about it now, Boden found that their actions did match up.

Perhaps saving the world required people like them—young and fearless, never considering failure.

Boden sat by the bed and connected his research device, which was truly worth 65 million points, to Mi Dou’s communication device.

The next day was the fifteenth day of the lunar month that Nuwa had mentioned, the night of the full moon.

A burst of commotion rose over the misty sea. When Xia Yu opened his eyes and reached to his side, the bed was empty. The window, however, was open. Clearly, Mo An had leaped out from there instead of taking the spiral staircase. He immediately walked to the window to look. The surface of the sea was like a drumhead being struck, black fish tails churning one after another.

“It’s Meng Qingqing!” Xia Yu cried out involuntarily.

It really was Meng Qingqing. She and her sisters had swum back to Qingyao City that morning to visit their old friend. But as soon as they reached Port A, they smelled the scent. The sisters immediately became alert, afraid that some dangerous male fish was causing trouble nearby. If one truly had ill intentions, they would rise up and attack to protect their companions.

Now it turned out that the dangerous mermaid was Mo An, whom they had raised with their own hands since childhood.

“What is going on with you!” Meng Qingqing asked, grabbing Mo An by his ear fin.

Mo An had originally been asleep. Only when he was holding Xia Yu could he truly feel at ease, but when Meng Qingqing stirred up the waves, he still woke up instinctively and quickly jumped out the window to return to the group. “Ow, ow, ow, that hurts, be gentler…”

These words were not meant only for Meng Qingqing, but to the entire school. As the leader of the group, Meng Qingqing had always been strict with Mo An, afraid that this male siren would become arrogant and conceited. But the other sirens were not as stern as she was. They were all aunts or older sisters who had watched Mo An grow up. When he was little, Mo An often bought gifts from human society for them. In their hearts, he was simply a mischievous… grown siren.

“Qingqing, let go first. You’ll tear his ear fin.”

“Exactly. His tail fin is already damaged. If his ear fins become uneven too, he’ll be too pitiful.”

“At the very least, he didn’t run around during his breeding period. As long as he doesn’t go into the sea, it’s fine.”

As one sentence after another was spoken, Mo An felt more and more relieved. Stable, stable. But Meng Qingqing still twisted his ear once before letting go. “In your current state, don’t go into the sea. Go back and hide.”

“I can’t hide… Xi Ban said this is instinct.” Mo An rubbed his ear fin. Even though he was already powerful enough, his fish tail was still not as long as Meng Qingqing’s.

Meng Qingqing could only shake her head. There was nothing the group could do. They could only stand by helplessly.

“Whenever I leave Xia Yu, I feel very sad.” Mo An pointed to his chest. “It’s cold inside here.”

Meng Qingqing corrected him. “You’re just in a bad mood. Don’t use the same lines you use to bewitch Xia Yu to fool us…”

At that moment, an older siren swam up behind her. “Should I ask my partner?”

The next generation of sirens was always mixed-blood. Her partner was a Double tail. However, Double tails remained in their habitat year-round, usually at depths of around 3,000 to 4,000 meters, while sirens were surface-dwelling mermaid who preferred leaping into the air above the sea, so they were more often apart than together.

“If there are any abandoned eggs in the habitat…”

“No!” Meng Qingqing rejected the idea without hesitation. “Even if the parents abandon it, a Double tail will still cherish it. After hatching, the mermaid will have the love of its sisters, and its future branch will love it too. Eggs are meant to hatch in the sea and must not be interfered with by humans.”

“All right.” The older siren gave up on the idea. After all, she was not a Double tail and did not understand how deeply they cared for the hatching grounds.

Because today was the crucial moment, no one left Port A. They waited constantly for the mantle movement data. Looking at line after line of information, Xia Yu was filled with emotion. “The Earth is far more profound than I imagined.”

“Yes.” Xia Xiaoxiao stayed beside him. “I heard from Jingwei that even now, artificial intelligence still cannot accurately predict earthquakes. It can only estimate them. Now we can only hope that what 107 said works.”

“I wish it were nighttime already.” Xia Yu looked up at the bright blue sky, hoping it would not rain heavily that night.

According to normal weather patterns, it really should have rained heavily that night, but Nuwa thoughtfully arranged an early rainfall, using the weather system to move the rain clouds away in advance. Although Nuwa could not predict mantle movement, she could calculate the exact time when the moon would reach the sky above the lighthouse. It would coincide perfectly with the rising tide at 10:05 p.m.

It seemed that the full moon, the tides, and the mantle all needed to work together. Xia Yu firmly remembered this point.

Time passed second by second, and soon it was ten o’clock.

This time, no one remained in the attic. Instead, they stayed on the reef path. Worried about an energy overload, Boden cleared the area in advance and only relaxed after making sure there was no one inside the lighthouse. Companions stood on the reef path that Talos often washed over, while a school of sirens swam in the waters below the lighthouse.

Everyone waited for that moment.

“How are things on Jennifer’s side?” Boden was in contact with his colleagues at the No. 3 Power Plant.

“We’re ready. We can activate both sides simultaneously,” his colleague replied.

Everything was prepared. All that remained was to wait for the time. 107 and A’Dairi floated in the water, both of them somewhat nervous.

“How about… we sing to calm ourselves down?” Mi Dou, who was nearest to them, suggested.

“If I sing, it would be fine, since I’m a black siren.” A’Dairi pointed to the one beside him. “But he’s a white siren. Do you want all of us to go mad?”

“Sorry, I almost forgot. I’m just too nervous.” Mi Dou rubbed his hands, then asked Meng Qingqing, “Can you sing?”

Meng Qingqing surfaced from time to time. “We sirens are very aloof. We are the only branch that cannot sing. We never sing.”

“Then sing a little for me. You’re the best. When I was little, you always held me.” Mi Dou acted spoiled with her. The countdown projection hung above their heads, and his whole body was stiff with fear that something might go wrong. Meng Qingqing hesitated for a moment before slowly opening her mouth. “All right, if you want…”

After a brief pause, Meng Qingqing opened her voice over the sea.

Sirens, as their name suggested, were spirits of the sea surface and the branch most frequently discovered by humans. They all had long black hair, moving like ghosts among the reefs, with pitch-black fish tails as dark as the unfathomable night. They were creatures of the sea and companions of the night. Their figures had inspired countless writers and painters…

No one expected her singing to be so awful.

“Ah… beautiful ocean, rising sun…” Meng Qingqing sang completely without rhythm, unable to find the correct pitch at all. Every word landed on an unexpected note, and her voice even cracked as she sang. Mi Dou went from being full of anticipation to utterly helpless, but he also forgot his nervousness. By the time he remembered the important matter, the countdown had reached zero!

10:05 p.m. had arrived!

“Begin!” Boden immediately gave the order.

The energy converters at the lighthouse and the power plant activated simultaneously, and the Earth data on the converters reached its peak. The moon caused the tides, the tides caused the movement of the waves, and the mantle became the cradle of the ocean.

The dark red artificial sun appeared above Talos’s head once again, and the same thing happened on Jennifer’s side. The light pierced through the darkness and spread outward with an unstoppable force. At that moment, the lighthouse and the power plant became the two brightest places in Qingyao City.

Around the outer ring of the dark red sphere, a distinct halo appeared. The light source and the lunar halo directly above mirrored each other, forming the most flawless shape in the world—a perfect circle.

A beam of light overflowed from the sphere and shot straight through Talos’s stone statue. Overloaded with energy, the statue toppled forward, snapping the protective chains, and plunged headfirst into the sea.

“Talos!” Meng Qingqing cried out as she leaped from the water. This was no joke. Falling from such a height into the sea, the stone statue would surely shatter!

After crying out in alarm, Xia Yu sucked in a sharp breath and instinctively ran forward to catch him. The mermaid in the sea rapidly swam toward the point where the statue was falling, all of them reaching out their hands. Meng Qingqing accelerated even more, her tail stirring up countless whirlpools as she shot into the air!

The moment she caught the statue, she discovered that the stone in her arms was soft.

“Hi, buddy.” The newly awakened Talos blinked clumsily. “Did you miss me?”

Before Meng Qingqing could answer, the two of them fell into the sea together, sending up splashes several meters high. More than ten seconds later, a figure flew out of the water—it was Talos, flung out by Meng Qingqing’s tail.

Talos rubbed his temples in midair. “Sigh, after all these years of friendship, she’s still shy. She must care about me a lot.”

 

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[Author’s Note]

Talos: Showing off as soon as I wake up!