MASG chapter 143

 

“Come sit down and talk,” Xia Yu beckoned to her.

Aside from the same face, Xia Xiaoxiao and her virtual image were completely different. Even sitting by Xia Yu’s bedside, she still carried a strong “test subject” aura. Mo An couldn’t think of anything to say to her, unsure whether she remembered him or that “home.”

Their dad, their mom, their boat, and their school. Du Meng and Chen Minghao, who they often spent time with.

Unexpectedly, Xia Xiaoxiao was the first to relax and let out a light sigh. “You two haven’t changed at all. You’re exactly the same as in the ‘dream.’”

“You… still remember me?” Mo An pointed at himself.

“Of course I remember. We lived together for so long. Don’t tell me you forgot everything completely?” Xia Xiaoxiao asked in return.

Mo An laughed at that, and his whole body relaxed. The awkwardness of breaking the ice faded away. “Of course I remember. It’s just that…”

“I’m just very different from the me in the dream, right?” Xia Xiaoxiao raised her arm. Her upper arm muscles had atrophied slightly, making her forearm and upper arm look almost the same thickness.

“That was probably my perfect projection. I’ve been trapped in laboratories since I was little. I hardly ever saw enough sunlight and never really moved freely. The version of myself I imagined was like that…free.” Xia Xiaoxiao looked at her legs. She couldn’t stand for long, let alone ride a bicycle. “I’m so pale… it’s really ugly, like underbaked bread.”

“Don’t say that.” Xia Yu let go of Mo An’s hand and grabbed hers.

Mo An glanced at the suddenly empty back of his hand. Hm?

“It’s my fault for arriving too late. I never knew you existed until I visited the laboratory on Frozen Island…” Xia Yu had a hard time describing how he felt. Although this was his first face-to-face conversation with his younger sister, he had carried eighteen years of false memories with her. He remembered what Xiaoxiao looked like as a child, and all the things they did together: going to school, learning to ride bikes, baking bread, and taking exams. These sincere feelings were built on virtual data created by artificial intelligence—half real and half fake—yet impossible to let go of.

“It’s okay. Actually, I only found out on Frozen Island too. Maybe I wasn’t alone after all.” Xia Xiaoxiao was even calmer than him. Compared to being a younger sister, she was more like a mature older sister. So many years of torment hadn’t driven her insane. “People from Rijianmei Plastic Surgery Hospital let it slip.”

It had been a long time since anyone had heard that name. Now, there was deep resistance toward that hospital in everyone’s heart.

“The Blooming Project has always been their specialty,” said Xia Xiaoxiao, looking at her hands. “To be honest, there’s one thing I’ve never understood.”

As she spoke, the door was pushed open again. Unexpectedly, it was Silver Fang. “Guys, have you seen—” He swept a glance toward the bedside. “Alright, so you’re here. I thought you’d wandered off.”

“I can’t wander off, in every sense of the word ‘wander,’” Xia Xiaoxiao said, pointing at her thigh and joking openly. Then she got back to the point. “Honestly, I don’t understand what Rijianmei was researching me for. They did countless experiments studying my regeneration, toxicity, and lack of pain. They achieved all kinds of experimental goals, yet the project leader was still frowning all the time. I knew he couldn’t submit a satisfactory result.”

Mo An took Xia Yu’s hand again and said, “That’s right. On Frozen Island, we only found Xiaoxiao’s files, not the corresponding data. That’s not Rijianmei’s style. They’re very goal-oriented—once they make a move, they must obtain firsthand data.”

Xia Yu nodded, but he was worried about something else. Xiaoxiao wasn’t as sturdy as he was, and her body couldn’t handle long conversations. “Xiaoxiao, take it slow. Or drink something first, then talk.”

“No need. I don’t need to talk—you just need to share my memories.” Unexpectedly, Xiaoxiao extended her right hand toward Xia Yu.

“Me? Share yours?” Xia Yu stared at the hand in confusion.

“It’s not one-way sharing. Your memories will stay in my brain, too. We’re dual-bodied life forms. Didn’t anyone tell you?” Xia Xiaoxiao was even more confused than he was. Why didn’t Xia Yu know about their special nature?

“Wait, you two share memories?” Mo An grabbed Xia Xiaoxiao’s hand first. The three of them sat in a circle, holding hands like it was some strange, ridiculous ritual.

Xia Xiaoxiao looked at Mo An’s hand. “Don’t grab me. No matter how tightly you grab, we still can’t share memories. Even though we’re all from the sea, we’re different species. You should be glad I can control my toxins now; otherwise, you’d be in serious danger. Should I release a little toxin and put you into a coma?”

He wasn’t trying to share memories; he simply didn’t want anyone else holding Xia Yu’s hand—not even his sister. Meng Qingqing felt deep sense of self-blame. As a siren, she hadn’t taught Mo An proper views on love and courtship. This resulted in the male siren running around recklessly and clumsily.

Share with his sister? Xia Yu still doubted. Her hand was much smaller than his, and her fingers couldn’t be described as “slender and long.” “Slender and long” is a compliment meant to describe beautiful fingers. His sister’s fingers could only be described as “withered.”

A thin layer of skin clung to the bone, and the lines of the joints were abnormally distinct. Xia Yu felt a stab of pain in his heart and tightly grasped her hand. How many injections of the high-grade nutrient solution would it take to fatten her up? Would there be enough time?

The next instant, the world spun. His consciousness was pulled out of his body, and he no longer had the energy to think about nutrient solutions.

It was like falling into the sea again, but there was no buoyancy or suspension to be found. Xia Yu kept sinking downward. The color of the seawater deepened from light to dark, from translucent blue to indigo and finally to pitch black. The silence outside his ears filled him with fear. He kept telling himself that this wasn’t the real ocean but his sister’s subconscious.

The moment he had that thought, a small blue jellyfish lit up and floated before him.

Little Blue? Is that you?

That tiny bit of light was the only brightness he could see. Xia Yu mustered all his strength to chase after it. The little jellyfish seemed to be teasing him, dodging left and right. Thus began a not-too-fast, not-too-slow game of tug-of-war. The faster Xia Yu swam, the faster the jellyfish went—but it never left him behind. Instead, it guided him at a steady pace through the area, searching for an exit of light.

Following that point of light, Xia Yu swam toward the exit. But when he plunged headfirst into the core of the brightness, a piercing, stabbing pain greeted him instead. It felt as though he was seeing through his sister’s eyes. When Xia Yu looked at his arm involuntarily, he saw that more than a dozen electric needles were stuck in the inside his elbow.

“Prepare to conduct the current test. Adjust the current and voltage to maximum.”

A man said this.

What… what are you going to do to my sister? Xia Yu tried to struggle, but it was useless. He could only experience everything firsthand, unable to change anything. So he took the opportunity to carefully look over everyone around him, searching their faces, builds, and even their voices for traces of familiarity. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, the people preparing to operate on her were all strangers. On the curved screen in the laboratory, a video was playing, and the person in the video caught Xia Yu’s attention.

This is… Professor Wang Qin!

No, no—it wasn’t, it just looked very similar. Xia Yu blinked. This person couldn’t be Professor Wang Qin because she was much older with completely gray hair. However, she was wearing a white lab coat and had her hair neatly tied up. The wrinkles on her face were very obvious. Her intelligent eyes revealed a trace of sorrow and urgency, and the lines on her neck looked like a necklace.

Xia Yu really wanted to get closer to her, even though he didn’t know her background at all.

“We don’t have much time left. Its speed is far faster than we imagined.”

“Before this, I joined forces with Haisiruola and another great woman to sign the activation plan for the X series. That is our only path to survival. Once this path fails, it won’t just be humanity—mermaid will also face annihilation. It will be a global massacre.”

“Haisiruola’s wisdom is broader and deeper than we imagined. She is one of the oldest life forms on Earth. It loves the Earth and humanity deeply. It has witnessed many miracles of life. Tens of millions of years ago, some of its people left the ocean and walked onto land, and it gave them its blessing.”

“We are all descendants of those people. We are all descendants of the mermaid. Together, we formulated Plan 001. It was our first attempt. The approaching disaster before our eyes is imminent. It’s as if the sky is being pierced by human technology, and the waters above are pouring down onto the earth. The three of us women named Plan 001.”

“We are going to control the flood.”

“Mending the Heavens Plan.”

Mend the heaven? What Mending the Heavens Plan? Xia Yu thought, confused. He knew only that the grand plan of Power Plant No. 3 was Operation 002, the Reclamation Project. What did that mean? It meant that Plan 001, Mending the Heavens Plan, had failed completely, which is why there was a Plan 002, right?

But who exactly was she? Who were these three women?

Before Xia Yu could figure it out, the scene changed again. This time, he recognized the place—the gate of Power Plant No. 3.

“Is the bracelet not working?”

“Reporting, sir. Wang Ling’s bracelet is working. The gate of Power Plant No. 3 can be opened.”

“Then why haven’t you activated those energy storage towers yet? What are you waiting for?”

“Reporting, sir. Activating the energy storage towers requires a special electric current. It’s a problem we’ve never encountered before. Also, Wang Ling died during apprehension. Before her death, however, she revealed that she had signed a guardianship agreement with the gargoyles. Power Plant No. 3 will not be attacked by human weapons.”

“Gargoyles? What the hell are gargoyles? Blow it up!”

“It can’t be blown up. All the energy storage towers have protection layers that absorb external thermal weapon energy. The structure of the protection layer is something we cannot detect. It shouldn’t be part of human technology, but rather… an unknown life form. It is the protection of a rare species.”

“Fine. What other information did that woman reveal?”

“Her last words were, ‘You can never activate the Reclamation Project because it requires two jellyfish.'”

Two jellyfish? Me and my sister? Xia Yu couldn’t make sense of it anymore. Who exactly was Wang Ling? Why would she rather die than protect Power Plant No. 3? Did the name itself also have some special meaning?

“It’s fine. We still have other options. When Wang Ling was young, she selected suitable reproductive cells. She gave birth to a daughter. Now, initiate a global search for someone named Wang Qin. Screen all data on Wang Qin!”

Wait! Was Wang Ling actually Professor Wang Qin’s mother? That meant… the X series was not Professor Wang Qin’s project. Long before that, someone had already been researching him and Mo An? No wonder Wang Ling and Professor Wang looked so alike—they were mother and daughter!

Xia Yu woke up in a daze, his hand still clasped with his sister’s.

“You saw everything, didn’t you?” Xia Xiaoxiao asked.

“I did… There was once a woman named Wang Ling who signed a protection contract for Power Plant No. 3 with the gargoyles. Activating the Reclamation Plan requires the two of us—neither can be missing.” Xia Yu was still organizing his thoughts. “Professor Wang Ling also mentioned a very special person. In total, there were three women.”

“Take it slow,” Mo An said, patting his back to help him catch his breath.

“One was Wang Ling, one was Haisiruola, and there was another person she didn’t name. Mo An, the X series is a collaboration between humans and Haisiruola!” Xia Yu turned around rapidly. “You might not have been caught and brought ashore by humans. You might have been sent ashore by Haisiruola.”

At that moment, the door was pushed open again. Talos entered. He had only overheard a little, but he caught the key words. “What? Who signed a contract with the gargoyles?”

“Professor Wang Qin’s mother—Professor Wang Ling,” Xia Yu said, panting. More and more mysteries were unraveled.

“My God…” Talos was greatly shocked. “Did Wang Qin’s mother sign a contract with my mother? Is she the one who made us protect Power Plant No. 3 for generations? What secrets does Power Plant No. 3 actually hold?”

“That… we’ll only be able to find out once we get there,” Xia Yu thought for a moment. “Maybe once charging is complete and the current counterflows, it can shut down the Nuwa mainframe.”