MASG chapter 76

 

“Are you serious?” Mo An became serious.

Now, it was obvious what Rijianmei wanted to do. They had been killing fish for more than a decade. Mo An had never thought that one day they and humans would go to war. It was impossible.

War is nothing more than fighting over resources, be it territory or wealth. That was the fundamental purpose of war. However, the deep sea was a place humans could not reach. Even if they won, the ocean would not belong to them.

The sea was just the sea, and mermaids were merely creatures living there. Mo An saw a glimmer of hope in this crisis. “Can you really weaken the toxicity? How are you so amazing?”

“I don’t like how you said that. Sounds weird.” Mi Dou became unhappy immediately. “I’m just short. I’m not as impressive-looking as you guys. Knowledge is my secret weapon, it’s all in my head.”

“No, I didn’t mean to look down on you.” Mo An rubbed his little curls and said, “I mean, didn’t you used to follow Silver Fang to develop weapons? How do you still know how to do these things?”

Mi Dou unfolded the blueprint again. “Because Rijianmei is already close to succeeding. They did the exploration first, and I’m harvesting the experimental results directly. But I’m not sure if I can succeed. Everything depends on trial and error.”

“It looks like we can only let you explore. I believe you can figure it out!” Mo An pinned his hopes on him, then turned to look at the sleeping Xia Yu again. If Mi Dou’s plan succeeded, could he hold Xia Yu again?

The temperature kept dropping, especially in the second half of the night.

When Xia Yu woke up, his forehead was back to normal temperature. After satisfying his drowsy sleepiness, his whole body felt comfortable. Thanks to his ultra-fast metabolism, he had almost no aftereffects from being sick—only a growling stomach remained.

“You’re awake?” Mo An asked as he wiped his gun beside him. Seeing him move, Mo An quickly handed him a glass of honey water.

Xia Yu drank it and felt as if his throat were melting sugar—it was so sweet. Too lazy to move, he leaned on the sofa and watched Mo An. His outer ear fins were folded away, but his inner ear fins were spread outward like small transparent fans. They moved occasionally as he listened to the sounds outside.

“How do you feel?” Mo An sensed his gaze and turned around.

Their roles seemed to have switched. Xia Yu had always been the protector and had never considered the opposite perspective. First, he escaped with fish eggs; then, he brought Mo An along and they grew up together, experiencing all sorts of strange incidents. Then, one day, Mo An stood in front of him, ready to handle things alone.

He even said he liked him.

Oh my god. Xia Yu buried his face in the blanket again, pretending to inhale the relaxing scent of the fabric.

“Still a bit dizzy?” Mo An knew, so he took the initiative to start a conversation. “Don’t worry. The thing I told you was just something I needed to say. If I keep it in, it’ll suffocate me. You don’t need to figure it out right away. I can wait.”

“Oh.” Xia Yu replied weakly.

Mo An pressed his lips together. “Just don’t avoid me. If you avoid me, I’ll be really sad.”

“I won’t, don’t worry.” Damn, he got seen through again. Xia Yu sighed.

Right now, he was like a transparent jellyfish drifting in the water. Forget mind reading—his skin was transparent, his organs exposed. A predator could scan all his thoughts with a single glance.

“Silver Fang is right. Now is definitely not the time to be in a relationship. Sigh. Really? I made the wrong choice after all this.” Mo An sighed heavily.

In a relationship! Xia Yu slid further down. He was the older brother. How could he be in a relationship with the younger brother he raised? If they were, what would their relationship be like? Mi Dou grew up with them, too. What would he think? Would he laugh at them for their relationship becoming… improper?

If an older brother and younger brother… were together… marriage? Then… sleeping together… how?

Kissing Mo An? If they were together, wouldn’t they have to kiss?

Xia Yu closed his eyes, wanting to be sick a little longer for the first time. But he couldn’t help but peek secretly. With Mo An beside him, no difficulty seemed impossible. Raising that little fish to this size—that sense of accomplishment—was like a seed that took root in his heart, sprouted, and finally turned into an elephant.

The elephant stomped on his chest.

As time passed, the exploration of the prison castle gradually unfolded. Mi Dou and Xiang Xing entered the laboratory, with Xiang Xing serving as his assistant. Silver Fang was responsible for ensuring the area’s safety. He detached four small, robot-like devices from his body and placed them in the southeast, southwest, northwest, and northeast corners of the castle so that he could instantly sense if anything living appeared.

The others followed 107 back to the underground pool.

“All right, I’m mentally prepared. I’m not afraid.” 107 kept psyching itself up, pointing at the water. “It’s right there. I’ve always lived there.” The water is a constant temperature. The surrounding sewage can’t mix with the seawater.”

“It looks like the components of this sewage are also an extremely important secret.” Xi Ban wanted to go down and check it out, but Mo An stopped him.

“What are you doing?” Mo An already had an idea.

“I need to experience it. The existence of this sewage is crucial to the survival of our species—I have to understand it.” Xi Ban had already taken off his shoes.

“Even if a fish has to go down, it won’t be you.” Mo An pulled him back several meters. “I’ll go.”

Before Xia Yu could react, Mo An had already jumped into the water. He quickly undressed underwater, throwing his clothes and shoes ashore before his tail transformed. The closer he got to adulthood, the larger his tail became. Compared to 107’s slender fog-white tail, his was three times thicker.

His approaching adulthood meant that his first mating season was approaching. Every scale on his body sparkled like a peacock displaying its tail. Male mermaids were responsible for their own beauty—if their tail wasn’t beautiful, they couldn’t find a lover.

A splash sounded, and Mo An swished his now marriageable-tail and dove into the water. However, he didn’t swim quickly; instead, he showed off every detail of his tail from all angles, spreading his entire tail fin and dorsal fin while spinning underwater.

Xi Ban couldn’t help but cover his mouth to suppress his laughter. A male mermaid in his first mating season had to act silly.

“Mo An!” Xia Yu was late again. By the time he rushed to the shore, Mo An was already gone. “He’s so reckless. He’s not a child anymore. How can he still be so impulsive?”

“That’s just Mo An. He always does what he wants. It’s quite interesting.” Xi Ban lifted Mo An’s wet clothes. “How do you feel?”

“Much better. I was just a little hungry.” Xia Yu took small bites of apple pie. “107, don’t get too close to me.”

“Oh, oh, okay.” 107 unknowingly stood next to Xia Yu once again, always forgetting that they were natural enemies. Xia Yu’s complexion still wasn’t very good. In just a few days, he seemed to have lost several pounds. Although he always acted like it was fine, the exhaustion and weakness in his eyes were obvious.

“You should have a nice-sounding name.” While eating, Xia Yu tore the apple pie into small pieces and threw them into the pool to see if there were any other fish.

107 shook his head. “I don’t remember my original name. Maybe when my memory recovers, I’ll remember my name and the sea area where I was born.”

“What if we give you a completely new name before you remember?” Xia Yu threw another small piece of apple pie into the water.

107 shook his head again. “No, I don’t need a new name. To me, a name is just a code that can’t prove my worth or richness. I think the number 107 is very good. It represents the painful imprisonment I once experienced. When I truly remember my name, 107 will no longer exist. ‘I’ will return.”

These words sounded simple, but Xia Yu felt they were full of meaning and philosophy. He didn’t force it again and threw the last piece of pie crust into the water.

Strangely, the two pieces from earlier were already gone.

He didn’t know what kind of fish ate the food he threw down right under his nose. Xia Yu looked down alertly and saw a pitch-black fishtail flicking.
The third piece of pie crust was also gone.

“Mo An!” Xia Yu shouted at him again. “Don’t eat the things I throw into the water. It’s not sanitary!”

Xi Ban and 107 looked at him at the same time, their expressions subtle. Wasn’t Xia Yu way too worried? Mo An was a mermaid; mermaids could eat raw fish in the sea, so why couldn’t he eat a few bites of bread? Mo An was 18, not 8.

At the same time, however, they both smiled without speaking.
Three feedings, ah—Mo An must be happy.

Indeed, Mo An was delighted. After coming ashore, he wouldn’t stop talking. “Was it thrown by your own hand, the bread earlier?”

“Yes, I wanted to see if there were other fish in the water and ended up attracting you instead.” Xia Yu got him a towel to dry his hair.

“Were all three thrown by your own hand?” Mo An seemed obsessed with this matter and needed personal confirmation.

“Yes, I threw them myself. What’s wrong?” Xia Yu tossed the big, dry towel to him. “Hurry and wipe your hair. How’s the situation below?”

But before he could receive an answer from Mo An, he only received a smile. He wasn’t just smiling; he was also exchanging looks with Xi Ban and 107. It was as if their eyes could transmit brainwaves between mermaids, turning their thoughts into actual words.

Good boy, you’ve been proposed to! Xi Ban thought. Among mermaids, only mates feed each other frequently. Accepting the other party’s food means having goodwill. Once one receives three consecutive feedings and all are accepted, it represents one thing—
a marriage proposal.

What Xia Yu just did in mermaid society was propose marriage to Mo An. He had unintentionally stirred the heart of a male mermaid during his mating season.

Mo An happily accepted.

107 secretly blinked at Mo An. It seemed this romance had to be pursued. Now, the two are engaged. Next, they would build a love nest, share their vows with their sisters, and then wait for their first baby.

However, it looked like… Mo An and Xia Yu wouldn’t have any fish eggs. What a pity.

“What’s with those expressions?” Xia Yu was sure they were hiding something.

“No, no.” The three fish spoke in unison.

“Definitely have.”

“Really don’t…” Mo An lied with open eyes, a smile on his face. “But the situation below isn’t optimistic. Not even I could get through that layer of polluted seawater, let alone 107. But… I don’t know if it’s because the pollution is too dense. Instead, I smelled a very familiar scent.”

“Yes, the polluted seawater is indeed a bit strange.” 107 nodded.

“I’m very familiar with that smell. It’s like the smell of electronic fragments.” Mo An often collected residual fragments in Electronic Corruption zones, so he recognized the smell immediately. “Definitely not wrong, it’s that smell.”

“You mean the pollution source of this seawater is actually fragments? Caused by Electronic Corruption?” Xi Ban thought. “If that’s the case, that’s bad. Think about it. With so many recycling teams around the world, how many fragments are collected each day? If all these fragments were used to pollute seawater…”

Jing Wei: [If this is Nuwa’s scheme, it also makes sense. Nuwa gave some electronic chips autonomous consciousness. The goal is to generate eco-electricity and carry out global pollution.]

“But why kill the mermaids?” Xia Yu tensed again when he heard nearby footsteps and panting—huff, huff. They turned to the stairway exit. Xiang Xing just ran there. “Big discovery! Big discovery! There’s a brand-new device in the lab. Mi Dou said it might be able to decode the secrets of the fragments. A lot of fragments were also found beside the instrument.”

“Let’s go take a look!” Xia Yu followed Xiang Xing. Uncovering another secret—coming to Frozen Island was definitely the right decision!