by N. Heller
Within a few minutes, Dale came back with a large, human-sized, snow-white prawn. He left a muddy black footprint everywhere he walked so the prawn he pulled behind him was basically covered with the same black substance from his body. Shen Lianqi didn’t seem to notice that as he cheered and took a knife to remove the prawn’s shell — this was obviously not the first time he ate such a prawn. Without much effort, he removed the shell cleanly off the prawn, then its innards and cut it into strips before putting the meat in the pot.
He even cut a few large pieces of raw prawn and mixed them with its blood and innards. Then, he served this mixture to the duoluozhongs for their consumption.
This prawn was way more delicious than that dragonfish. However, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t muster any appetite watching the three inhuman faces in front of her. Under this strange atmosphere, she put down her bowl very quickly.
"Do you find it hard to stomach because it is cooked in salt water? Do you want some mineral water?" After she said that, she handed Lin Sanjiu a bottle of mineral water. It was the same type of mineral water as the one she drank previously. It was also taken from the bridge. The ruby red bottle had a very sleek design. Lin Sanjiu felt very conflicted after being treated with such consideration by a duoluozhong. She suppressed the intense feeling of suspicion and twisted opened the cap. The cap opened with a soft "click" proving that no one had opened it before. Sensing that Shen Lianqi was watching her, she slowly drank a mouthful.
[That’s right. Didn’t she find it a little weird just now…] she thought to herself, frowning as she drank the water.
At that moment, the three duoluozhongs and Shen Lianqi were happily chatting away. They began discussing what they might find deeper in the ocean. This gave Lin Sanjiu the opportunity to think. While Lin Sanjiu pondered about her uneasiness, she took out the previous card containing the half-full bottle of water without anyone’s notice. She examined it half-heartedly.
When she saw the words: [Another/Way - A Mermaid Cultivation Drink], a large refreshing gulp of water was sliding down her esophagus and into her body. That was it! When she took a quick glance at the card just now, she felt that the name of the bottle of water was too long! Shocked, Lin Sanjiu coughed violently till her face turned red. She was trying her best to cough out that mouthful of water.
[Does Shen Lianqi know the truth behind this water?]
Hannah, who was beside her, seemed startled by her reaction. The duoluozhong wanted to rush over to pat Lin Sanjiu’s back, but before she touched her, Shen Lianqi held Hannah’s arm. "Don’t touch her!"
Hannah and the other two duoluozhongs were confused by his action. Holding on to Hannah’s wet, rotting swollen arm, Shen Lianqi blushed again before he explained in an affected manner about the [Versu Poison] on Lin Sanjiu’s body, "That… That’s why you will die if you come in direct contact with her skin."
Lin Sanjiu coughed so hard that she couldn’t say a word, but she was silently cursing Shen Lianqi in her heart for being such a loudmouth. Despite the half-peeling, soggy skin on Hannah’s face, Lin Sanjiu could see her expression changing. The duoluozhong stood up, shocked and almost a little dazed.
Lin Sanjiu didn’t know what Hannah was thinking, but Lin Sanjiu had a quick idea. She tried to ignore the itch in her throat and smiled at them, "Yup. You must be careful. Don’t touch me accidentally. [Versu Poison] only take a few seconds to act."
Hank gave her a curt affirmation and kept quiet. Dale couldn’t say a word, perhaps due to the state of decomposition his face was in. Thus, the situation around the fire was suddenly taken over by a subtle silence. The only person who seemed rather indifferent about it was Lian Shenqi. He held his bowl again and laughed, "Today’s prawn taste better than usual." With that, he emptied his bowl, stuffing the prawn meat into his mouth.
Lin Sanjiu eyed the other without saying anything. She waited patiently trying to catch a moment to read the card. She grasped her card tightly, her palms were starting to sweat.
[Should I just make up an excuse to leave?] Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
But at that moment, Hank started to move instead. He went to get another bottle of water and passed it to Shen Lianqi, "Hey, why don’t you drink some water."
Lin Sanjiu’s heart froze for a second, as she instinctively held her hand to block him from passing the water to Shen Lianqi. She smiled at Hank and asked, "Um, why don’t all of you drink some water?"
Three, white rotting face stared at her at the same time. As her heart raced anxiously, Shen Lianqi had already started to gulping down mineral water. After a few large gulps of water, he put down the bottle and laughed, "Hank and the others don’t need water. Isn’t that convenient? They are not like us. Haha! If Hank didn’t help me find for those bottles of water, I would have died of thirst a long time ago…"
The middle-aged obese man turned to Lin Sanjiu and offered, "Miss Lin, why don’t you drink some water. Drink more."
Chapter 105 - Lin Sanjiu’s Contingency
Without the illumination from the fire, the oceanic trench returned to its original serene silence, enveloped by a darkness where one could not even see their fingers in front of them. It was as if it had always been this dark since the beginning of time, and the sound of gentle waves from a distance seemed to emphasize the deathly stillness in the air… until a soft voice broke the silence.
"You took such a long time, I nearly fell asleep."
Once the calm, collected, female voice abated, a silver light lit up the surroundings and the woman who just spoke. The woman had slightly disheveled short hair and a pair of emotionless amber eyes. She exuded a faint aura of ruthlessness that perhaps was created by her expression or that white bandage around her neck.
The sound of footsteps heading her way paused immediately as if startled by this unexpected encounter. Lin Sanjiu stood up looking at the people before her, a faint smile appeared on her face. "Don’t you find this strange? You must be wondering why I knew that you guys would take action tonight, right?"
The three ghastly white, bloated faces remained expressionless under the silver light.
"Miss Lin, you’ve never trusted us all along?" Hannah said softly after a while.
"It’s because of this." Lin Sanjiu smiled, shaking the bottle of mineral water in her hand.
[Another/Way - A Mermaid Cultivation Drink]
"Are you tired of squeezing with others in the public bus like a can of packed sardines? Are you tired of working like a dog till 7 pm?
"As you sit among the ruins, gnawing on your moldy biscuit, thinking about your dead family and wondering why you’re the only survivor struggling to live each day and overwhelmed by existential angst?
"Being human is painful, and you don’t have much control over your life.
"If someone offered you another way of living — a simpler, happier, and more relaxing path — would you accept it?"
This was the sales pitch that the Mad Scientist A thought up for the promotion of his newest experimental product. As hinted by the slogan, this bottle of Mermaid Cultivation Drink would cause a mutation on a genetic level, changing a human’s body cells gradually into that of a mermaid’s. Long-term consumption or consumption of a large amount of this drink would eventually change a human into a mermaid completely.
"Additional description: Mermaids are more advanced and better than humans (Mad Scientist A, 6958). Unlike humans, mermaids have abandoned all forms of negative thinking and negative emotions. Therefore, mermaids are living beings who are always peaceful, always happy, never suspicious, never doubtful, and do not know greed. Once you become a mermaid, you can live freely in the deep sea without nary a worry in the world.
"History: The mermaid cultivation drink was banned two years after the product had been successfully developed. Thereafter, it is only seen occasionally in remote places, far from civilization.
"PS: If you eat a fully transformed mermaid, you will either gain a more powerful and nimble body, extend your lifespan by
a hundred years, or gain a more efficient brain. You will gain these attributes entirely by chance. If you would like to obtain all three attributes, please consume three different mermaids."
"This thing is obviously a special item generated by this New World and not water that was stored aboard this ship. As previous passengers of this ship, you should have known this fact a long time ago. Aren’t you his good friends? Why didn’t you tell him the truth? Instead, you guys kept encouraging him to drink more of this water?" Lin Sanjiu laughed mockingly. "Well, that’s because all of you can’t wait for him to turn into a mermaid completely so that you can eat his flesh, right?"
The three duoluozhongs remained silent for a few seconds. After a while, Hank, who found all this very puzzling, asked, "How did you know about this? I purposely soaked the labels in water so that the labels would disintegrate…"
[So, these mermaid cultivation drinks were all originally labeled in the past? This would explain why these duoluozhongs understand the effect of the drink…] Lin Sanjiu sneered at him and didn’t reply.
"D*mn it. If I’d known earlier, we wouldn’t have drag this out. We could have just forced him to drink the entire crate. If we did that, we would have already eaten that precious mermaid flesh!" Hank grumbled.
"Unfortunately, Miss Lin, you’re poisoned. Otherwise, we would have let you live a little longer as a mermaid. Once you go to the afterlife, please don’t blame us," Hannah said with a soft voice which would have sounded as soothing as a gentle breeze if it had not been accompanied by her face.
"Thud." Once Hannah finished a sentence, a noise of someone hitting into something came from somewhere far in the darkness. Hannah immediately turned to look causing some of the tissues from her neck to fall to the ground. She saw Shen Lianqi’s pale face in the vast darkness. None of the duoluozhongs expected that he would hear them so they couldn’t react momentarily when they saw his face. Lin Sanjiu laughed out and shouted to him, "Did you hear that?"
Standing at a dimly lit spot, Shen Lianqi nodded his head, but it was difficult for Lin Sanjiu to make out his current expression.
"Sigh. Haha!" Hank squinted his eyes and laughed out with his deep voice. Lin Sanjiu could not even imagine that he would react in this manner. Shen Lianqi’s transformation was not complete, and now that their plans had been revealed, Lin Sanjiu did not understand how it would be even remotely funny. As she was just pondering about it, she knew the answer the very next second.
"Miss Lin, there must be some misunderstanding. Please don’t criticize Hank and the others so harshly…" Shen Lianqi tried explaining to Lin Sanjiu as he hurried over. He actually sounded firm about his opinion yet gentle in his delivery.
"Didn’t you hear our conversation?" Lin Sanjiu stared at him wide-eyed.
"I heard it." Shen Lianqi nodded and turned to look at Hannah tenderly. "Firstly, I trust that Hank and the others are not those types of people. I know better than anyone about their characters. In the worst case scenario, if they really want to eat my flesh, I would just cut a piece and give it to them. I won’t die just like that…"
"Haha!" Hank laughed again with a loathsome tone. "Miss Lin, whatever you do is useless. Just give up. He’s already 70% mermaid. By this point, his way of thinking is no different from a mermaid."
Lin Sanjiu had to admit that those words were probably true because once Hank had said that directly in front of Shen Lianqi, the latter did not react in a normal manner. Instead, Shen Lianqi nodded his head, as if he fully agreed with Hank. He even smiled and said, "I really like my current condition."
[This f*cked up mermaid cultivation drink can actually brainwash someone till this point!] Lin Sanjiu cursed inwardly.
"Xiao Qi, Miss Lin told us that she wants to leave. We will send her out, so why don’t you go back inside and sleep? Wait for us, we’ll return soon, okay?" Hannah said softly and gently, holding Shen Lianqi’s hand.
Shen Lianqi nodded obediently as if his brain had been stolen by someone and answered with a tender "Yes." Next, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and said, "Miss Lin, if you want to leave, I wish you all the best. Stay safe. Look, Hank and the others are good to yo—"
Before he had finished his sentence, a black shadow flew toward him. It was too sudden for Shen Lianqi to dodge. A heavy boot backed by a violent strength struck the back of his head, and he was kicked to the ground. When his body hit the floor of the deck, Lin Sanjiu yelled out, infuriated, "It makes me mad just hearing you speak!"
As that kick was brutally strong, Shen Lianqi quickly fainted after feeling a sharp pain and a second of dizziness.
"This simplifies matters." Hannah eyed him and laughed out gently. Her words acted like a signal for the other duoluozhongs. Hank immediately aimed a direct attack at Lin Sanjiu. Lin Sanjiu wanted to retreat backward, but she heard a gelatinous sound behind her. Dale, with his terrible stench, was behind her. While they were talking just now, he had stealthily moved there.
If that was the case, Lin Sanjiu decided that she wouldn’t even try to dodge. Since a duoluozhong’s mouthpart was also part of its body, so if it touched her skin, Hank would still die...
However, Lin Sanjiu immediately noticed that something was amiss when the mouthpart approached her. She twisted her body and slid past Dale. Dale swiftly reacted with a follow-up attack. Lin Sanjiu dove to the ground and rolled away, barely dodging that attack.
She paused for a moment to take a closer look at the duoluozhongs’ mouthparts. They were different now. Apart from the small section closest to their face, their entire mouthpart was wrapped by something black. It looked like the shell of some creature, and there were even knife-like spines on the edges of that thing.
When the three duoluozhongs noticed that they missed their target, Hank kicked Shen Lianqi into the water. Then, they quickly surrounded Lin Sanjiu in a circle. Trapped in the middle, it almost impossible for Lin Sanjiu to evade their mouthparts and come in contact with their bodies.
"Come on! Just looking at you struggling makes me tired," Hannah taunted with a gentle voice.
Lin Sanjiu mumbled something.
"What?" Hank asked as he was unable to catch what she had just said. Together with Dale, they flanked Lin Sanjiu with their mouthparts. "You don’t have to beg for mercy. We have no use for you!"
Lin Sanjiu evaded that attack and smiled. "I’m not begging you to spare me, I only have one thing to say to you…" while she said that, she lowered her head dodging Hannah’s sneak attack from behind.
"You’re all too corny." Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help laughing out. "But I can’t blame you guys. When you first opened your eyes, all you could see must have been this deep, dank, bottom of the ocean!" As the duoluozhongs all looked at her suspiciously, Lin Sanjiu already pulled out a large tape recorder (like those in the 80s) with a quick gesture. This was another item she had gotten from the Red vs. White Challenge. It was called [Tape recorder].
"Description: You can record something on the cassette tape in this tape recorder. It can be operated without batteries. Other than that, there is nothing special to this."
Everyone in this world, except Lin Sanjiu, would find this item absolutely useless if they somehow acquired it. However, this was invaluable to Lin Sanjiu...
"Cough. Cough. Alright, I’ll be the first! Don’t snatch this from me!" B.Rabbit’s voice came out from the recorder when Lin Sanjiu pressed the PLAY button. All the duoluozhongs were stunned.
The recording continued with some static sounds and the sound of B.Rabbit’s hitting the mic with its paw, "Instant Freeze! Ice beams will shoot out from Lin Sanjiu’s eyes, and anyone that she sees will instantly become a frozen sculpture! HAHAHA! How’s that? You guys, my imagination is not bad, huh?" Lin Sanjiu held back a smile as her Pygmalion Choker started turning warm.
Chapter 106 - Connected, Finally
There was something annoying, but not life-threatening, about living in Hyperthermal Hell. Due to the high temperatures during the day, no one could do anything but
find a place to sleep. However, no matter where it was, the harsh brightness made it difficult for anyone to sleep well.
Thus, when Lin Sanjiu found herself in this dark, quiet environment, she suddenly found a happiness she had not felt for a long time. The surrounding darkness was like a mother’s w.o.m.b, gently wrapping around her, providing her a peaceful and restful sleep.
She slept so deeply that she could turn a deaf ear at the anxious "Guh, guh" sound beside her. Shen Lianqi had been tied up and was dangling from the ceiling of the passenger boat. As his mouth had also been stuffed, he couldn’t make a noise. He thrashed about noisily, hitting his pair of tails against the walls of the boat. The sounds reverberated far throughout the empty steel ship and echoed for quite some time before it finally woke Lin Sanjiu.
"Oh, you’re awake." Lin Sanjiu rubbed her eyes. She yawned while she took out the gag from his mouth but showed no sign of releasing him. As Shen Lianqi had gills on both sides of his cheek, he didn’t have any difficulties breathing even with something in his mouth. The first thing that he blurted from his mouth was, "Where are Miss Hannah and the others?"
Lin Sanjiu crossed her arms and stared at him for a long time before she slowly answered, "Shen Lianqi. Shen Lianqi… I’m really impressed by you. I really don’t know what to say. Even if you become a merman, do you lack the sense of aesthetics? I don’t understand how you could fall for that duoluozhong."
Shen Lianqi blushed even though he was hanging from a beam, "Don’t put it that way. Even though Miss Hannah’s skin is a little loose, she is very kind… Miss Lin, I’m not joking with you. Where are they? Really."
"They’re dead. They were frozen solid, I kicked them, and they shattered into a dozen big and small pieces." There was a hint of cruelty in her voice as she purposely described the entire process clearly. "After they became ice, they looked way better. At least, they no longer looked gooey and they stopped dripping their corpse gunk everywhere."