MASG chapter 98

 

Since they temporarily couldn’t break through, Yan Xia’s group had to retreat to the safe area they had just left.

“Is it a carnivorous fungus?” she asked Mi Dou.

Mi Dou wasn’t sure, so he looked to his teacher, Lao Gui, for guidance. Lao Gui lowered his voice and said, “It’s very similar to a kind of fungus I’ve seen before, but that fungus wasn’t this big.”

“Has it mutated? Could it be caused by the fragments?” Silver Fang took out another detection device. “So far, no magnetic field influence from eco-electricity has been detected.”

“It’s a mutation, but it might not be caused by the fragments. Living organisms evolve along their own paths, and the influencing factors are varied and strange.” Lao Gui poked Mi Dou. “Dou Dou, what are you thinking about?”

Mi Dou put down the binoculars he was holding. “I didn’t find any offspring bodies.”

“I observed it earlier as well. That fungus is the parent body and has already reached sexual maturity.” Lao Gui wiped a handful of sweat off his forehead. “For safety, I suggest that we all wear face shields from now on.”

The face shields were prepared by Silver Fang. Unlike ordinary gas masks, they only required wearing a device similar to a headband. Once activated, the headband unfolded a laser disinfection protection field, creating a faint purple light over everyone’s face. This was their filter.

“Maturity means it will produce spores. We haven’t found them yet, but since it has already separated into independent bodies, it can spread through spores and mycelium. Its danger level is very high. If we can’t take it out in one go, my suggestion is…” Lao Gui weighed his words. “Go around it.”

“How do we do that?” Yan Xia immediately opened the map.

“Of course, the old method.” Lao Gui pointed at the ceiling. “This building is decades old. Check the ventilation system.”

“I knew it…” Silver Fang hated crawling through ventilation ducts, not only because they were narrow, but also because there might be something inside them and it would be difficult to escape. However, facing a fungal parent body that could release spores at any time, taking a detour was really the best option.

After all, their goal was to obtain samples.

Ling Shi: [I can find a safe passage for you and screen in advance for signs of biological activity.]

“That would be great.” Yan Xia was worried. “Ling Shi, are there still robots in the institute?”

Ling Shi: [According to current calculations, there are still 1,063 cleaning-type robots. They are in a dormant state. I estimate that their internal power levels are insufficient and they will not pose a fatal threat to you. Moreover, I can cut off their signal towers in advance through terminal control.]

“Then cut them off. We don’t want unnecessary complications,” Silver Fang decided immediately. “Do you know anything about that fungus?”

Ling Shi: [Searching.]

Ling Shi: [Unfortunately, it does not exist in my database. Please proceed carefully. Be careful.]

Lao Gui put away his weapons. “All right, that’s really discouraging. Isn’t there any good news at all?”

Ling Shi: [The good news is that I just infiltrated the cold storage room of the X-series laboratory and took a photo. But I was disconnected after only one second. I’ve sent the photo to Yan Xia.]

Three seconds later, Yan Xia received the photo delivered by Ling Shi. The photo floated in the air and enlarged. It wasn’t very clear, but it was enough to make Mi Dou hold his breath.

Inside the cold storage room were all kinds of samples. Countless organs soaked in solution were visible, and behind them was a wall of freezers.

“These organs… are they all Xia Yu’s?” Mi Dou sucked in a breath of cold air.

Ling Shi: [Yes, the X-series cold storage room only stores X-series samples. These are all the organs and partial limbs that Xia Yu left behind from birth until his escape. I haven’t yet detected the contents of the freezers at the back, but I have reason to believe that Xia Yu’s blood samples are stored inside.]

“How many surgeries did they perform on him?” Silver Fang was stunned. Pieced together, these organs could probably amount to hundreds of people, yet they all came from the body of a single child.

Ling Shi: [I am unable to find that information for now, but you need to move faster.]

“Let’s go. We’ll look for the ventilation ducts.” Yan Xia closed the photo. Because of the overwhelming shock, it felt especially brutal. “Ling Shi, help us.”

Ling Shi: [I am always here.]

Inside the trench, Nixida carried Kuni on his back and swam forward continuously. Aituoda and Aibaoyin followed behind him, constantly observing their surroundings through their tear membranes.

“What is this?” Nixida suddenly stopped.

Ahead lay the remains of an undersea volcano. After the eruption, the seabed was left with a ring-shaped geological formation. The crater that had erupted had become permanent history, but cracks still ran throughout it, constantly emitting heat. Dark green sea grass grew on both sides of these cracks.

“How could there be sea grass in a place like this?” Nixida swam over.

Although he had forgotten many things, he still had basic common sense. Sea grass needs sunlight. On the seabed, sunlight and the oxygen it relies on to survive don’t exist, and the temperature is low. Desolation should be the norm here, so why had grass suddenly grown?

“Deep Ghosts, we’ve entered their territory.” After saying this, Kuni patted Nixida on the back of the neck. “Put me down.”

“Deep Ghosts? They live here?” Nixida gently put Kuni down. “How is your injury?”

“It’s fine. It’ll slowly get better.” Kuni lowered her fishtail and used her injured fin to paddle. “This is Deep Ghosts food. It’s their wartime reserve. Deep Ghosts like to live near volcanic craters. They cultivate this special kind of undersea grass.”

“That’s right. This belongs to them,” said Aibaoyin. “But why are they preparing for war? To go to war with humans?”

“No matter who it’s with, they’re preparing to fight.” Kuni pulled up a strand of undersea grass. “Let’s go. We’ll follow the volcano crater and see what we can find.”

The seawater near the crater was relatively warm and carried the scent of magma. Strangely, this scent didn’t pollute the seawater; instead, it was beneficial to the survival of mermaids. Their gills felt especially comfortable in this area, as if being soothed by soft feathers. Ni Xida swam slowly, wondering what the Deep Ghosts would look like. Could they look like ghosts?

But who really knows what ghosts look like in this world?

“Deep Ghosts have the strongest territorial awareness of all the branches. They don’t like fighting, but they do tend to start conflicts in order to protect the volcano crater.” Aituoda quietly gave Nixida a crash course. “If you see them, don’t mention that you touched their undersea grass.”

“Then why did Kuni grab one? Isn’t she afraid of dying?” Nixida whispered.

Aituoda shook his head. “Since Kuni dared to do it, she must have her reasons.” After swimming more than twenty thousand meters, the undersea grass disappeared and they arrived at an open area.

“Qiuman, are you there?” Kuni asked, stopping at the center of the open space.

“You know the Deep Ghosts?” Nixida asked. No wonder she dared to pick it—they were friends.

“I know them more than just a little. Qiuman is my sister. We grew up together from childhood until we differentiated at eighteen. During that time, her eyesight began to decline, and I was always the one holding her hand while swimming. After she fully differentiated, we separated, but our territories are fairly close, so we still meet occasionally. Once, I was injured by a human submarine and bled. Qiuman went to find me. It was she who brought me back.” Kuni recalled her youth.

Nixida immediately caught the key point. “Wait, her eyesight declined?”

“That’s right, because all Deep Ghosts are—” Before Kuni could finish, a strange movement of seawater made everyone raise their heads. A whole stretch of mermaids seemed to cover them.

A whole stretch? In fact, there was only one!

“Why did you come here? Are you injured?” The mermaid asked, slowly fanning her back fins.

Nixida couldn’t close his mouth for a moment. The Deep Ghost’s back fins were actually two pieces, like huge wings extending from the shoulder blades — like a butterfly in the sea. This mermaid, Deep Ghost, had a pale pink upper body that looked covered in scars. Her fishtail was a bright red and her tail fins were transparent.

Her hair was very long and slightly yellowish, possibly due to the poor water quality. If you didn’t look carefully, it was hard to make out her facial features, which gave mermaids the chills. Only her especially large eyes stood out, and she barely blinked.

“Yes, I was burned.” Kuni shook the undersea grass in her hand. “Why are you preparing to fight again? Who is infringing on your territory?”

“What are they?” Qiuman didn’t descend directly. Instead, she fanned her back fins as if she were flying in the sea. “Hmm, two Black Sirens and one… you are… you are… what are you?”

“I am a male siren. I am a hybrid.” Nixida introduced himself.

Qiuman shook her head. “As expected, something done by sirens. Sirens are most likely to give birth to hybrid offspring—they are truly amorous.” She finally descended. “Kuni, when did your tail get injured? Why didn’t I sense it?”

“Strange, right? I don’t know what that burn was about either. It seemed to seal my wound all at once and prevent blood from spreading. It’s as if someone didn’t want information to circulate among mermaids.” Kuni introduced them. “These two are the young Aibaoyin and Aituoda. Their territory is far from here. They came in search of Haisiruola.”

Qiuman took the handful of undersea grass from her hand and said in a low voice, “You need to leave here immediately. We’re about to fight.”

“With whom?” Nixida blurted out.

“When an adult leader is speaking, a newly adult male mermaid like you is not allowed to interrupt.” Qiuman suddenly swam right up to Nixida. His gill slits opened and closed rapidly, and he tensed up. Nixida had to admit that the skin of the Deep Ghosts was indeed frightening. Even knowing that these weren’t wounds, he still didn’t want to look directly at them.

But when Qiuman stopped in front of him, Nixida noticed something else. Although her eyes were large, they were dull, as if she couldn’t see clearly.

“All right, don’t scare him. This child saved our lives. Tell us what’s going on in your territory.” Kuni pulled Qiuman back and said to Nixida, “Deep Ghosts have very poor eyesight. Don’t stare directly into her eyes.”

“Very poor eyesight?” Ni Xida thought to himself. As expected, she probably couldn’t see anything at all.

“Yes, our eyesight is poor, but we can vaguely see outlines. That’s not important because we can emit a kind of wave. When the wave is retrieved, I actually see more clearly than you.” After speaking, Qiuman changed her tone; anger was mixed within it. “My dear Nini, take these three children away from here quickly. We are going to war with the hybrids.”

Kuni pressed on with questions. “How would hybrids dare provoke you? They’ve never really interacted much with pure-blood mermaids.”

Hybrids were the offspring of mermaids and humans. Nixida already knew about them. They had forked fish tails like human legs, but they could never go ashore. Even if they reached land, their tails wouldn’t transform into legs. They liked appearing on the sea surface to lure young sailors, and they were endlessly longing for land.

“But this time, they provoked us.” Qiuman had made up her mind. “A hybrid killed one of our companions.”

“How is that possible?” Kuni tried to persuade her again. “How could hybrids have the strength to fight you?”

“Because they rely on human power!” As soon as Qiuman finished speaking, an impassioned song rose from the seabed. Unlike the chants of the Black Sirens, the Deep Ghosts song sounded like a heavy battle horn. “You must leave now! They’re coming!”

With that, Qiuman fanned her back fins and swam out of the open area. Deep Ghosts preferred to push water with their back fins rather than their tail fins. At such a critical moment, Nixida naturally wanted to follow and see what was happening. Carrying Kuni on his back, he swam several hundred meters behind Qiuman, keeping a secret distance.

Qiuman finally stopped in front of a volcanic fissure.

The fissure divided the territory into two sides like a line. The Deep Ghosts inhabited this side, while the other side was entirely filled with legendary hybrids. Countless double-finned back fins spread out on this side like imposing battle flags. Qiuman swam at the highest point; her bright red scales were especially eye-catching.

On the other side, it looked like a crowd of people were standing there.

The hybrids were far too similar to humans in terms of fish tails and body shape, so mermaids easily rejected them. They stood at the edge of the fissure on their fish tails. Their upper bodies had human skin tones—some were whiter, some were more yellow, and some were brown or black; they were not all the same.

“You still dare to come?” Qiuman asked.

“You’re the ones who want to go to war with us. Why wouldn’t we dare come?” The leader of the hybrid mermaids was also female. She swam up to Qiuman’s height. “You fight for the sake of fighting.

“Fight for the sake of fighting? You killed my clansman. Otherwise, do you think I wanted to start a war?” Qiuman said fiercely. “The deceased Yanbo had a partner. You’ve condemned his partner to a lifetime of grief.”

“We don’t know any Yanbo. We didn’t do it. You’re just using this as an excuse to eradicate the hybrids completely. Don’t think we don’t know that. Haven’t we already suffered enough harm and cold stares?” The hybrid leader didn’t back down either. “Everything is just an excuse for you, but we won’t retreat.

“Lies!” Qiuman cut her off. “You’re just as despicable as humans. More than a dozen mermaids saw Yanbo’s death—not just one fish. Did I mislead you? You communicated with humans and used terrifying weapons. You turned into high-temperature bubbles in front of Yanbo—insidious and vicious.”

High-temperature bubbles? Nixida couldn’t help but swim forward. “Wait! It might be a misunderstanding! I saw a human in the sea!”

“Hybrid mermaid, get out of my way or I’ll tear you apart too.” Qiuman was preparing to attack.

“Listen to me. I have evidence.” Nixida hurriedly called Aituoda over. “We encountered the same thing on the seabed. I have a human skull as proof.”