MASG chapter 13

 

The two rushed toward Mo An and adjusted the fish egg so that it was upright.

“He can jump!” Mi Dou saw the fish egg bounce twice.

“Nonsense! How is that possible? Mo An is still so small.” Xia Yu shook his head and squatted down to comfort Mo An. “Did you accidentally fall, Mo An? Does it hurt?”

Mo An was playing happily. He was getting better at controlling his tail, which was a good thing. As for whether it hurt, he didn’t care at all. However, the little jellyfish’s concern was irresistible, and he quickly flickered twice, pretending to be hurt.

“See? It hurts.” Xia Yu immediately understood. “It’s all my fault. I forgot to put him down.”

Mi Dou scratched the back of his head in disbelief. Clearly, the fish egg had rolled down by itself. Strange creatures are dangerous. How could it get hurt so easily?

“Let’s put him back on the bed first.” Xia Yu felt guilty. Although Mo An was a strange species, he had no ability to protect himself. Mo An had barely rolled down, but he was easily put back in place. The little jellyfish seemed to be discussing something, but he couldn’t hear them clearly.

“What!” Mi Dou reacted strongly. “Are you really going in? It’s so dangerous!”

“Yes! I want to try! Anyway, I…” Xia Yu wanted to find a safer hiding place for the three of them. At least before Mo An hatches, they had to hide properly. He hesitated, unsure whether to tell the truth. In the end, he gritted his teeth and said it all: “Anyway, I won’t die. I recover from injuries very quickly.”

“I know that, but that’s the acid water pool.” Mi Dou had already noticed, but he didn’t ask. Genetically modified humans care a lot about their abilities and usually don’t share them casually. Once revealed, a survival secret is no longer secret.

The last time Xia Yu injured his chin, Mi Dou watched the wound heal with his own eyes.

“Not only that, but my limbs can grow back, too. Even if they are cut off, they will grow back.” Xia Yu touched his wrist. “Also, I’m not very afraid of pain. Honestly, it doesn’t hurt.”

“Ah? What?” This shocked Mi Dou greatly!

“I’m different from ordinary people. Even if my limbs are burned off, I won’t be in danger.” Xia Yu continued to comfort him. There was no other way; he had to go through it.

Mi Dou briefly immersed himself in awe. He had seen many types of modified humans, but never someone as powerful—and inexplicably strange—as Xia Yu. Can injured limbs regrow? Was this the power of jellyfish?

Xia Yu was ready. He left his oversized work clothes and Mi Dou’s shoes on the shore, wearing only a metal bracelet. The lab bracelet had undergone special treatment and could withstand acid water.

Next came entering the water. Mi Dou didn’t dare watch, but his worry for Xia Yu overcame his fear. He went to the shore. “If you feel something’s wrong, shout loudly. I will save you!”

“Just take care of Mo An. I’ll be back soon.” Xia Yu hugged Mi Dou one last time, then jumped into the water without hesitation.

Shortly after entering the water, it turned red.

It was Xia Yu’s blood. The acid was already burning his skin. Mi Dou nervously crouched down and looked into the water. He didn’t notice that the fish egg had rolled onto the floor again.

What are they saying? What are they going to do? Mo An slowly approached.

Xia Yu didn’t dare open his eyes fully in the acid water, fearing it would burn his eyes and he would be unable to see. He squinted occasionally, but even so, his vision gradually blurred.

He could feel his body being corroded by the acid, but it only stung slightly.

This didn’t mean it was safe, though. Xia Yu had to be careful not to drink the water and find a way out quickly. Fortunately, the passageway only went forward. When he felt all ten of his fingernails peel off, he touched the wall.

Was it here, on the opposite shore? Xia Yu squinted to look.

On the other side were Mi Dou and Mo An, who were so anxious that they were almost rolling into the water. Mi Dou stared at the pale red water and felt the pain as if he were in it. When he noticed movement behind him, the fish egg was just a little way from the shore.

He panicked and held it down. “See? I told you it would jump. Xia Yu didn’t believe me.”

But this wasn’t the little jellyfish’s voice. Mo An frowned slightly and bared his teeth threateningly.

Mi Dou didn’t have time to comfort Mo An, he was fully focused on the water. If Xia Yu discovered that the passage had no end and swam back — even if he was burned by the acid — Mi Dou would pull him out. He waited until the water was completely calm and the red blood had diluted to transparent, yet his little friend still hadn’t returned.

Mi Dou became anxious.

“Xia Yu…” he whispered, trying to call him back. Mo An couldn’t hear clearly, but he sensed the unease outside and became restless.

“Xia Yu.” Mi Dou called again, straining to see into the water. Why was there no movement? Could he be drowning? If he ran out of breath and passed out, who would find him? Could he have been burned by acid and lost his limbs? Mi Dou wanted to save him, but he couldn’t call out.

What should he do? Mi Dou bit his lower lip hard.

The rumbling sound scared him, causing him to jump. Until the sound came, he had been watching the water, not the door. Suddenly, he noticed the door moving! The tall, heavy metal door opened, kicking up dust and echoing in the sewer like a beast’s roar. It raised the hairs on the back of one’s neck!

When the door was fully open, a pink-skinned boy stood on the other side, smiling and waving.

“Xia Yu!” Mi Dou cried out, running inside with Mo An on his back. Xia Yu hadn’t died, he had opened the door himself. At first, a single tear fell. By the time Mi Dou reached Xia Yu, however, he was sobbing uncontrollably because he had never seen someone so injured.

Xia Yu didn’t care much. His limbs were intact. Only a layer of skin had been burned off, exposing the tender flesh beneath. His fingernails were gone, leaving behind small bloody footprints. He shook the bracelet and said hoarsely: “I found the device and opened the door. There’s a place to rest inside. We…”

“Don’t speak. Don’t speak…” Mi Dou cried out.

“Okay, we’ll rest first.” Xia Yu said nothing. He needed a quiet environment to recover, similar to when Nuwa had once soothed him to sleep in a hibernation pod.

But now there was neither Nuwa nor a pod. However, fate hadn’t completely abandoned him. He had finally reached the outermost edge of Power Plant No. 3. It was very dark inside, and they didn’t dare go further. They followed the stairs and reached an underground resting room with beds, blankets, and food.

Xia Yu lay on a bed, temporarily ignoring Mo An. Mi Dou began moving their supplies, slowly transferring them from the safe house outside the main door to the basement. Everything except the bed had been moved. Mo An returned to the little jellyfish’s side. No matter how brightly he glowed, the little jellyfish didn’t wake up, speak, or sing.

What’s wrong? Mo An turned anxiously inside the egg.

Once Mi Dou had finished, Xia Yu had mostly recovered, though his nails hadn’t grown back yet. His hair had been burned short, and after he got up, he looked like a neat sea urchin.

“Wow!” Xia Yu looked around. “Mi Dou, you moved the house!”

“Yes, I moved our ‘home’ here!” Mi Dou was repairing a gadget. Upon hearing Xia Yu, he turned around with tears nearly shooting out and said, “You! You’re okay!”

Xia Yu slowly sat up. “Yes, I’m fully recovered. See? I wasn’t lying.”

“But you scared me to death!” Mi Dou patted Xia Yu on the shoulder. “How do you feel now?”

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt.” Xia Yu really didn’t feel any pain. “Did you give Mo An a nutrient injection? He should eat.”

Mi Dou’s mouth dropped. He had completely forgotten. Xia Yu picked up the syringe with his bare hands and tapped the fish egg. “Mo An, Mo An, are you sleeping?”

It’s the little jellyfish! Mo An immediately opened his eyes, which had been closed.

“Time to eat.” Xia Yu quickly removed the syringe cap and said, “Don’t worry. We’ve entered Power Plant No. 3. There’s a basemen, we’ll be safe there. You have enough time to hatch. Don’t rush!”

Mo An listened quietly. With proper nutrition, his scales began to glow again. However, he could not agree with Xia Yu’s words, he didn’t have enough time to hatch. He sensed danger.

Mermaids living in the deep sea have a strong sense of danger prediction. Before they mature, there are many dangers in the deep sea. Besides predators, mermaids sometimes kill each other.

Although he had been asleep for a long time, he never slept peacefully.

“Absorb quickly, little fry.” Xia Yu emptied one syringe and picked up a second. He felt something new: if Mo An could hatch, then Mo An would belong to him. They would never be separated or betrayed.

Unlike Nuwa, who betrayed humans, they would always stand together.

“Ah! I think I fixed this!” Mi Dou suddenly shouted while tinkering with a radio.

“What’s that?” Xia Yu asked, turning around.

“You don’t know what a radio is?” Mi Dou asked.

Xia Yu looked blank. “Don’t know. What’s a radio?”

He really didn’t know. The lab items were too advanced, nothing like this existed. Mi Dou knew, though. “This is a radio. We can hear sounds with it. You’ve definitely never seen one. There were many in the mine.”

“Why?” Xia Yu didn’t understand.

“Hahaha, because we don’t have any money,” Mi Dou laughed. “You don’t know what the outside world is like yet… It’s a truly amazing world. Mom said the tallest buildings are two or three hundred stories high. But there are also a lot of slums. Some floors are even made of garbage. Those floors are uncared for and built out of garbage. That’s where we live. Radios are things that rich adults discarded, so we only have them.”

Xia Yu started to receive new information. This is what the old world looked like. Under Nuwa’s management, the world was divided into unequal parts. He suddenly didn’t recognize the gentle Nuwa.

Why would she allow such a disparity? Wasn’t it supposed to be peaceful?

“Now that the radio is ready, let’s listen!” Mi Dou pressed a button and turned a knob. First came static, then strange da-da-da sounds.

Mo An pressed his non-human ears to the inner wall. What were they listening to?

Da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da…

“What sound is this? So weird. Never heard it.” Mi Dou tried to change the channel, but Xia Yu held his hand.

“I understand this.” Xia Yu shivered again, as if he were back to the day the lab was breached. He remembered countless red lights staring at him and sharp screwdrivers piercing Professor Wang Qin’s back.

He remembered the smell of blood that day.

“You understand? What is it?” Mi Dou asked.

Xia Yu listened and stammered, “This is…the language of robots. They spoke like this in the lab. They said the weather maintenance system will shut down for ten hours. Then there will be acid rain, followed by extreme cooling.”

Extreme cooling? Mi Dou felt drowsy in advance.

“Extreme cooling will freeze us to death.” Xia Yu raised the alarm again and looked around. A few blankets and sets of clothes might not be enough. Luckily, he understood, otherwise, they could freeze to death here.

“After the acid rain, we’ll go out and find things that can withstand the cold.” Xia Yu covered the fish egg with his jacket. He remembered that Mo An had lived in a temperature-controlled observation tank and probably feared the cold, too.

He didn’t know if Mo An was cold. Suddenly, it became dark. How did the little jellyfish turn off the light?

Mo An suddenly felt a strange sensation in his chest, as if he could sense another fish’s heartbeat.

There are others of his kind in this city!