MASG chapter 176: Extra 16

◎ “Powerful mermaid…” the little fry munch munch munch, “obtain everything.” ◎

The lingering fishy smell.

The smell of the sea, the smell of blood, plus the stench of all kinds of rotting corpses in this room mixed together made Mo An think of the pool of cooling liquid from when he had just hatched. The torn egg membrane, the spreading blue blood, the tail fin that had not broken off in time… everything pointed to one thing.

This was another prematurely hatched mermaid.

Ha, ha, ha… the panting of the mermaid infant was especially heavy. His lungs had not fully expanded yet, and the amniotic fluid was still blocking his throat. Xia Yu was already stunned. Just now, holding the gun, he had been calm and composed, but now he was at a loss, only feeling as though his chest were soaked in warm water. Lowering his head, he saw a fluffy black head.

“Jingwei, Jingwei.” In his panic, Xia Yu subconsciously wanted to rely on his old friend, the artificial intelligence that had accompanied him since childhood.

Jingwei: [I’m here the whole time. What happened? My drone is on the way over… I found you. What is on your body… my god!]

Xia Yu did not dare move at all: “What should I do now? What do I do now?”

Jingwei: [I’m immediately sending another rescue team over. Hold on! Xia Yu, hold on!]

“Of course I can hold on! The problem is that he might not make it…” Xia Yu scooped up a handful of fish eggs. The eggs that had been full moments ago had already shriveled up, leaving only a thin membrane. Back then, Mo An breaking out of the egg had already been terrifying enough, but this time it was even closer, practically happening right in front of him. Could he even touch him? Would he die? He looked like he could not breathe… all kinds of questions flooded Xia Yu’s mind, until Mo An walked over to his side and temporarily relieved his predicament.

The way he relieved the predicament was by first lifting the little fish off Xia Yu.

This was also Mo An’s first time seeing a juvenile little fry. When he was in the deep sea, he had never encountered a hatching ground, because hatching grounds were not that deep. And all the groups in the deep sea were fully grown mermaids. The youngest was probably someone like Aituoda, who had only recently become an adult.

This little fry was even smaller than he had been back then. Mo An’s first reaction was that he would not survive.

His lungs probably had not developed properly yet, but that was not the most urgent issue. The connection between his tail fin and the fish egg was extremely thick and simply could not be pulled apart. If they were forcibly separated, it would definitely tear somewhere. Mo An naturally chose to give up the egg membrane. The fish was already out, so the egg membrane no longer had any use.

“Give me more light.” Mo An’s gaze was very calm.

The bloody smell of their own kind would only make mermaid irritable. The drones that had rushed over for support surrounded Mo An, shining their lights at them. The little fry was still breathing with difficulty, his eyes not even open yet, water continuously spraying out of his nostrils. His fish tail, however, had been straightened out by Mo An, clearly revealing the connection point.

The first thing Mo An did was remove his umbilical cord. But this thing could not be thrown away, so he simply placed it to the side.

“Brighter!” Mo An ordered.

The drones moved closer. At this moment, nobody dared speak. Talos and Jennifer were rescuing the other mutant species, but there was too little they could do. Many of the mutant species looked very similar to humans, and when they died, their eyes were still open. What Mo An was rescuing was not just a fish, but also precious life aboard this death smuggling ship.

The fry was very thin.

That was certain. Mermaid fry required an enormous amount of nutrition. Back then, Mo An had been so chubby because he had never lacked nutrient injections. As the light grew brighter, Mo An carefully tore open the egg membrane. The first thing he did was free the little fry’s tail.

It was the first time he had seen a fish tail of this color. Quite beautiful. But perhaps it was precisely because he was beautiful that he had become a decorative fish for humans. Blue blood covered Mo An’s hands. The misfortune of his own kind made Mo An deeply uneasy. By the time he had completely peeled the fry’s tail fin free, the little fish still had not figured out how to breathe.

Mo An grabbed his tail and swung him in midair.

Xia Yu was greatly shocked. “Wait, wait, won’t you swing him to death like that…”

“There’s water in his lungs, and they can’t open. This is the only thing I can try. If even this doesn’t work, he won’t survive.” Mo An sounded extremely coldhearted, but he was only stating the facts. Premature human babies born on land had incubators and ventilators, but mermaid did not care about such things. Survival of the fittest. If they could live, they lived.

Mo An hoped he would survive.

It was only at this point that Xia Yu stood up. The floor was too slippery, and he could not stand steadily at all. Mo An’s strength was astonishingly great, and he never seemed to tire. He swung the fry like that for nearly ten minutes. All the blood gathered in the upper half of the fry’s body, and his complexion became much rosier than before. More unexpectedly, he finally learned how to breathe through his nose, and his chest showed obvious rises and falls.

“Nuwa, we need rescue, quickly!” Xia Yu kept calling out.

The real rescue team arrived half an hour later. Nuwa had specially brought over aquariums. These were genuine clean laboratory aquariums filled with fresh natural seawater. The mutant species and bizarre fish that had luckily survived entered the aquariums as though they had returned home. Most sank to the bottom of the tanks and, with the help of the water pressure adjustment devices, drifted into peaceful sleep. The little fry was not placed into an aquarium. Mo An said he had to learn how to breathe as quickly as possible.

Perhaps he was too tired, or perhaps he was weak and powerless. Right now, he was sleeping deeply in Mo An’s arms, as if he had completely fainted. His underdeveloped tail had already turned into human legs, extremely thin and weak. Xia Yu suspected he could not walk at all.

Once aboard Talos’s ship, the first thing everyone did was bathe.

The smell on their bodies was awful. Xia Yu washed three times before he barely got rid of the fishy odor. Mo An washed faster than him. By the time Xia Yu came out of the bathroom drying his hair, he saw Mo An tore open an intestine and stuff it into the little fry’s mouth.

“What are you doing!” Xia Yu rushed over in a few quick steps.

“The umbilical cord.” To Mo An, this was completely normal. “After we’re born, we all eat our own umbilical cords and egg membranes. His egg membrane soaked in dirty water for too long and can’t be used anymore, but the umbilical cord stayed in the amniotic fluid and wasn’t contaminated.”

This… sounded like a simple yet brutal survival method. Xia Yu was not used to it but chose to respect it. “Can he eat it?”

“He still hasn’t woken up, but he can eat already.” Mo An pointed at the fry on the bed.

The fry was wrapped in a white bath towel. Judging by appearance alone, he looked like a little boy four or five years old, or perhaps older, just too thin. Black hair, black eyelashes. The skin that had originally been pale and wrinkled from soaking in water had also smoothed out, turning flesh-pink. His features were not as deep-set as Mo An’s had been at birth. Right now both his hands were curled into fists, tightly clutching the bath towel, motionless.

But when Mo An forced his little mouth open and shoved a small piece of the umbilical cord down his throat, he chewed and chewed.

“His teeth are exactly the same as yours when you had just broken out of the shell.” Xia Yu could not help extending his affection because of Mo An. “When mermaid are first born, their teeth are all this sharp, like piranhas.”

“Because we must quickly learn how to eat and hunt. We don’t have the stage humans have of drinking milk. We eat meat from birth.” Mo An continued what he was doing. “Nuwa, Jingwei, have you finished investigating?”

Jingwei: [The ship information is being tracked. We have already retrieved the records from the previous two dockings. Preliminary suspicion is that this is a smuggling route, possibly backed by technology companies and financial groups. Of course, I would prefer this matter to be simpler, merely wealthy people paying for smuggled goods.]

“When was this little guy captured? Can you trace it?” Xia Yu soothingly patted the little fry’s head. “He’s really suffered a lot.”

Nuwa: [We tracked the record of him boarding the ship. It was not domestic. The video footage is being retrieved. Preliminary suspicion is that this is already not the first time he has changed hands.]

“What?” Mo An did not understand.

Nuwa: [Cross-border smuggling. In the video records I can trace, this fish egg was transferred across three countries.]

“He’s so young, yet he’s already been moved through so many places? Then doesn’t that mean… doesn’t that mean he came ashore the moment he was born?” Xia Yu’s heart turned cold for half the day. Most likely another hatching ground had met with disaster.

Nuwa: [The investigation is still ongoing. We have already connected with the local public security system.]

“That ship must be allowed to enter the port normally and unload cargo normally.” Xia Yu planned the arrest in his mind. “Let’s see whether anyone comes to pick up the goods.”

Nuwa: [Don’t worry, arrangements have already been made. I will follow up on the criminal activity. Right now your task is… Xia Yu, Mo An, what are you planning to do with this mermaid?]

Jingwei: [Should we send him back to the sea?]

“I don’t know. He’s too weak right now. I’m afraid he can’t even withstand a few waves crashing over him.” Xia Yu said. It was not because he was softhearted and wanted to raise him, but because this fish truly could not be released at the moment. “At the very least, we have to raise him until he can eat and walk normally, like Mo An back then, able to pass Meng Qingqing’s test.”

“I think so too.” Mo An nodded.

“I… think… so too.” After those words, a childish voice sounded between him and Xia Yu. The two of them lowered their heads at the same time. The fry who had still been unconscious moments ago was already awake, and the fiery red pupils made their hearts tremble in shock.

Another hybrid? Xia Yu’s eyelids twitched involuntarily.

“He’s awake. His vital signs seem relatively stable, and he’s already learning human language.” Mo An immediately reported. The fry was learning rapidly. In just a few hours, he would be able to communicate fluently. There was still a lot of umbilical cord left. Mo An continued tearing it apart and feeding him bite by bite. Xia Yu did not dare move him carelessly and called Talos and Jennifer over.

“My god!” Talos cried out in shock after seeing him.

“My god…!” The fry also began learning, then opened his mouth and bit off a piece of umbilical cord from his own kind’s hand. His worldview was currently being built. He could clearly sense his own kind. The very large person in front of him was one—silver long hair, black eyes, smelled very nice… very large person.

Xia Yu quietly asked Jennifer, “I know you two are very knowledgeable. Have you ever seen a mermaid fry from any branch look like this? It would’ve been great if Xi Ban were here. Xi Ban could take him back to the hatching ground and take care of him along the way.”

Unfortunately, Xi Ban was not here, so all of this fell onto them.

Jennifer was also helpless. “Never seen one. He doesn’t look like an ordinary fish.”

“I suspect he’s a hybrid too.” Xia Yu hypothesized.

“I suspect… hybrid too.” The fry heard it again. After speaking, he kept chewing away while staring fixedly at the powerful member of his kind in front of him, baring his tiny sharp teeth.

“Hiss—” The fry looked at Mo An, showing a threat and declaring his existence!

Mo An slightly frowned. After lowering himself, he stared into the fry’s eyes, his gaze icy cold and his expression terrifying. Then he made the same action: “Hiss—”

“My god!” The fry was frightened by the power of his own kind. He immediately lowered his head and shrank into the bath towel, leaving only the top of his head exposed. Mo An grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him out, stuffing the remaining umbilical cord into his mouth. “Eat quickly. Weak mermaid have no survival advantage.”

When the little fry heard this, he became so frightened that he nodded frantically while chewing loudly. “Weak mermaid… no survival.”

“Powerful mermaid obtain everything.” Mo An said again.

“Powerful mermaid…” munch munch munch, “obtain everything.”

As soon as Xia Yu heard this, he immediately covered his eyes. Mo An, don’t teach him random things!

 

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[Author’s Note]

Mo An: What is our goal!

Fry: Become bigger and stronger!

Mo An: Very good!