“Since that’s the case, let’s call it a draw.” The golden haired merman no longer dwelled on it. Upon seeing his long-lost clan members, the rare youthful spirit in his eyes receded, and he returned to his usual calm composure.
The merman’s gaze fell on the elderly mermaid in front of him. “Elder, you’ve worked hard these two years. The other captured clan members will arrive later.”
The elderly mermaid’s hand holding the harpoon trembled slightly. “It was not hard at all. Thanks to the sea god’s favor, allowing you to return safely.”
“Thanks to the sea god,” Dijia’s sharp gaze turned to the young man beside him. “but I want to thank him even more. Without him, I wouldn’t have come back so soon.”
Amidst the merfolk’s salute, Dijia briefly told them about what had happened during this period. However, he focused more on the escape, and avoided discussing the torture the merfolk endured at the research institute.
The clan members started discussing after listening.
“It turns out the missing mermaid from our clan left offspring.”
“Things turned out to be so bizarre with many twists and turns. What about the offspring of that mermaid?”
“This young man looks so much like our ancestor, but we’ve never seen him in the sea before. Could it be that the Sea God saw our plight and deliberately summoned our ancestor back to help us?”
Dijia patiently answered one question after another, “That mermaid’s offspring is right behind, you’ll see him shortly.”
“As for other matters, we’ll discuss them later. Elder, I leave the arrangements for the other merfolk to you. I have some things to attend to, so I’ll go ahead.”
After receiving an affirmative response from the mermaid elder, the golden haired merman took the young man who had been standing silently and swiftly swam upward.
It wasn’t until they left the merfolk’s lair that their pace slowed down.
Bai Lixin: “What did you say to the merfolk just now?”
He couldn’t understand the merfolk language; all he heard was “Yiya” sounds from the beginning.
Dijia: “I just briefly mentioned what happened in these two years. Those things aren’t important. I want to take you somewhere.”
Bai Lixin: “Okay, let’s go.”
…
In the tranquil and mysterious depths of the ocean, a large group of bioluminescent jellyfish floated by.
If one looked closely, they would notice that in this dreamy paradise of jellyfish, two merfolk were swimming through it, one in front and one behind.
Bai Lixin had been following Dijia for a long time. During this time, they crossed several different zones.
He occasionally saw vast schools of migrating fish, colorful underwater worlds, and areas frozen by the flowing hot magma on the sea floor.
Gradually, Bai Lixin felt a strange familiarity with the surroundings.
It seemed like he had been here before, but he couldn’t remember when.
It wasn’t until he saw the building in the distance that had been buried deep in his memories that Bai Lixin’s mind suddenly cleared.
He knew where this was. This was Dijia’s palace during the “Deep Sea Mermaid” copy.
This once splendid and magnificent palace had long been changed beyond recognition without its master. All that remained were ruins and desolation.
It had lost its former vitality, standing desolately in the depths of this lonely deep-sea.
Dijia stopped in front of this palace. “When I saw your merfolk form earlier, I remembered some things.”
“Now that you’re back, do you want to revisit this old place?”
“Sure,” with just a few words, Bai Lixin already understood.
He revisiting the old grounds, and the surrounding buildings brought a rush of memories. His fingers touched the broken walls, but memories remained fresh.
“Are you leaving soon this time?” Unlike Bai Lixin, who was immersed in memories, the golden haired merman’s focus had always been on the young merman beside him. “How many days are left?”
Bai Lixin: “About four days.”
Dijia looked stunned for a moment, then muttered to himself, “Only four days?”
The next moment, he raised his head again. “There has been nearly ten thousand years between the times you came here. I imagine if you appear again, it will be a long, long time later. Since you’re leaving in four days, do you have any wishes?”
“If I have a wish,” Bai Lixin withdrew his gaze from the familiar yet unfamiliar abandoned structure, focusing on the golden haired merman, “I want to see what the ocean I once saved looks like after tens of thousands of years.”
Dijia: “Okay!”
“I’ll fulfill your wish. Four days are enough, I’ll take you to explore the entire sea. See with your own eyes if the ocean you once defended has become as you wished.”
…
In the next four days, Dijia took Bai Lixin to explore the underwater world of this planet.
They had been to the planet’s northernmost point, and enjoyed the green auroras filling the sky. They also visited the zone with the warm ocean currents, and admired the glimmering sea under the ultimate sunset.
They also ventured to the deepest part of the sea, embracing each other to the brink of suffocating from lack of oxygen. They had also gone to the most dangerous shark-infested area and experienced the thrill of life in a battle of wits and courage with sharks.
It wasn’t until the time for Bai Lixin to leave approached that they gradually stopped their swimming.
Bai Lixin looked at the time displayed in the task bar. There were only a few minutes left until departure.
The golden haired merman looked at his lover who was about to leave, and said with the utmost seriousness, “Do you have any more wishes?”
In these four days, they had traversed the entire ocean.
Even though Bai Lixin knew this temporary parting was for a future reunion, he still felt a bit sad. He shook his head, “No, I’ve seen the beauty of the ocean in these four days. Thank you.”
Golden haired merman: “The current parting is only temporary. Wait for me.”
Bai Lixin nodded seriously, “Okay!”
[Ding! Congratulations to the player for successfully completing the [Special Species Laboratory] copy. The mission time is about to end, and the game lobby is opening a teleportation channel. The player will be teleported to the game lobby player dormitory in three seconds.]
[The following is an introduction to the players’ status.]
[Special Species Laboratory, 10 players participated in the game, 6 players successfully cleared the game.]
[Due to the destruction of the task anchor point of this copy, it is impossible to rebuild the game environment. Therefore, the system has decided to permanently close the [Special Species Laboratory] copy.]
[The rewards for completing the copy tasks will be distributed individually after the players return to the dormitory and the follow-up plot for the copy has been completed.]
[The teleportation begins now. Please be aware of discomfort during the teleportation process.]
A vortex appeared behind Bai Lixin out of thin air, instantly pulling him away under the merman’s eyes…
——————————–
After a moment of dizziness, Bai Lixin opened his eyes again and found himself back in the familiar bedroom.
The voice of the escape system immediately rang out in Bai Lixin’s mind, [Hello, Master Bai Lixin. Now, let’s distribute the task rewards.]
[Due to your outstanding performance in this copy, you have received a considerable amount of rewards.]
[Congratulations to the player for gaining 400,000 performance points. Congratulations to the player for upgrading from the 670th floor to the 690th floor!]
[Congratulations to the player for gaining 400,000 mall points. You are now a tycoon among players! Quickly use your little hands to purchase the goods you desire from the mall!]
[Master Bai Lixin, you’re amazing. You are just a little bit away from reaching the 700th floor!] After distributing the rewards, the escape system, which had just been serious, instantly returned to its previous cheerfulness, [I am so lucky to become your system. Meeting you is my fortune!]
Bai Lixin opened the friend list and glanced at it. Xia Chi’s avatar had changed from red, which indicated he is inside a copy, to white, which is a safe state in the game lobby.
Just when he was about to get up and tidy up, a private chat window popped up.
He thought it was Xia Chi, but when he opened it and saw the jumping name, Bai Lixin couldn’t help but stare for a moment.
Unexpectedly, it was Lin Xiao who sent a private message.
The Lin Xiao who always had his hair meticulously combed to the back, never had any wrinkles on his suit, and had a Kowloon Coffin tattoo on his back.
The two had added each other as friends when they left Xia Chi’s dormitory at that time, but after that, they hadn’t exchanged a single word and Bai Lixin had relegated this person to the bottom of his friend list.
Bai Lixin stared at the name for two seconds before opening the dialogue box.
Lin Xiao: [Song Yun is not dead.]
[After his scheme was exposed, he secretly repeated his actions when we weren’t paying attention and transferred his curse to other players on the ship.]
[Originally, according to the growth rate of his curse, the curse was to reach a critical 100% progress on the last day. However, because he redirected the curse onto other players, he managed to last until the final day.]
[He is still alive, and that’s not good news for you.]
Bai Lixin: [Whether he’s alive or dead doesn’t affect the attitude of the Shentian Guild toward me.]
[But I still want to thank you for reminding me of these.]
Lin Xiao: [No problem, there’s no need to thank me, it would be troublesome if you died.]
Bai Lixin: [? What do you mean?]
Lin Xiao: [Song Yun’s ability to transfer the curse to other players should be his special skill. I observed him on the ship for the past few days; it seems to be an ability to transfer negative buffs from himself.]
[Although Song Yun transferred his curse to other players, fortunately, the spread of the curse on those players is not fast. The players he used as sacrifices fortunately survived.]
Lin Xiao: [I want to remind you that the Shentian Guild is not that frightening. What’s frightening is the power behind the Shentian Guild, a power with the aura of a god.]
Bai Lixin stared at Lin Xiao’s last sentence: [The aura of a god? Lin Xiao, who are you exactly? Previously, you said you are an Orderly, an orderly governing what? What is your relationship with the Shentian Guild? Also, what did you mean by ‘it would be troublesome if I died’?]
*I’m innocent! I don’t remember the part where he mentioned this! (╥﹏╥)
Lin Xiao: [We will meet again in the future.]
Lin Xiao continued his monologue as usual. He didn’t answer any of Bai Lixin’s questions but left behind this sentence.
Bai Lixin wanted to say something more to Lin Xiao. However, when he searched for the chat conversation, he suddenly found that the name “Lin Xiao” had disappeared from his friend list.
Thinking that he might be mistaken, he searched carefully from top to bottom twice but still couldn’t find Lin Xiao’s name.
Bai Lixin thought of something and opened Xia Chi’s chat window: [Xia Chi, did you add Lin Xiao as a friend? Check if he’s still there.]
Xia Chi replied instantly: [Lin Xiao? Who’s that?]
Bai Lixin was stunned for a moment. After thinking for two seconds, he asked: [How many players entered the Special Species Laboratory copy we just cleared? ]
Xia Chi: [9, what’s wrong? Brother, are you testing me? Or did you discover something? ]
‘Nine…
Only nine.
But there were ten players who entered the copy, so the one who disappeared is probably Lin Xiao.’
Bai Lixin: [Who was there when we when we first explored the sewer in the Special Species Laboratory copy?]
Xia Chi: [? There were you, me, and that little guy Song Yun. At that time, Song Yun said he wanted to guard the entrance, so only the two of us went down. Why are you asking this, Brother? Did something happen?]
Bai Lixin: [No, nothing. I just wanted to test your memory, see if it’s deteriorated. Weren’t you worried about the other personality? How do you feel now?]
Xia Chi: [It’s fine now. After listening to your words, I no longer reject the other personality so much. I can say I’ve accepted it calmly.]
Bai Lixin: [That’s good.]
After ending the private chat with Xia Chi, the voice of the escape system rang out again, [Master Bai Lixin, the subsequent plot of the Special Species Laboratory has been unlocked. Do you want to take a look?]
Bai Lixin temporarily set aside the question of “Who is Lin Xiao” in his mind, [Yeah, let’s take a look.]
[Ding! Now, let’s play the subsequent plot of the copy.]
As the system voice fell silent, a real image appeared in Bai Lixin’s mind.
After he left, the merfolk quickly returned to normal.
Before leaving, he handed the human-faced monster’s body to the little merman and, together with the little merman, buried the human-faced monster next to his wife, the mermaid.
When the little merman entered the sea for the first time, there was a brief mental panic. He had never seen such a vast and mysterious ocean, and he was afraid of this sea.
Even on the day Bai Lixin left, the little merman still hadn’t recovered from the fear.
However, in the time that followed, with the care of the surrounding merfolk and the appearance of companions, the little merman gradually emerged from his self-contained environment.
He embraced the vast ocean, just as the ocean gently embraced him.
He learned how to communicate with his companions and also learned how to listen.
Later, the little merman discovered the truth about his parents’ death and realized Bai Lixin wasn’t his enemy; quite the opposite, Bai Lixin was his savior.
Since then, the little merman knelt before Bai Lixin’s statue in the temple to express gratitude. In just a few years, he swiftly transformed and completed a remarkable metamorphosis after enduring tragic hardships.
As for the red-tailed mermaid, because she wasn’t informed when the bracelet was removed, her bracelet remained intact until the end.
Fortunately, although her power was restricted, she still had ample abilities for hunting and escaping. With the care of other merfolk, her life wasn’t significantly hindered.
The images in his mind kept changing, and gradually, things seemed to take an unusual turn.
He noticed a strange new style of singing among the merfolk.
This singing abandoned all the advantages of melodious merfolk songs and opted for sharp, unpleasant tones.
Oddly, despite its unpleasantness, this singing had powerful attacking capabilities.
As the singing began, all the surrounding marine creatures scattered, and those unable to escape were directly stunned on the spot.
This singing initially originated from the merfolk who escaped from the research institute. Soon after, there was a phenomenon of merfolk passing it on to one another.
In the end, the entire merfolk race adopted this sharp and grating style of singing.
Bai Lixin almost covered his ears after watching this scene.
His impression of these merfolk was that they had enchanting voices. Now, they traded their captivating voices for attack power. Could this be the precursor to merfolk using sonic attacks in the future ?
Why did the group of merfolk from the research institute start singing like that?
Did the Frankensteins in the institute conduct experiments on them that he was unaware of?
Bai Lixin was filled with doubts and he shared his speculations with the two systems in his mind.
The escape system quickly explained: [Master Bai Lixin, you are overestimating those research institute experimenters. They don’t have the ability to alter the aesthetic sense of merfolk. The only thing that can change the aesthetic sense of mermaids is one word—the emergence of a new fashion!]
[I have a few video clips here, and I’ve added subtitles for you. After watching them, you should understand what’s going on.]
The mental image in his mind flickered, quickly transitioning to another scene.
In the footage, many merfolk had gathered together, chattering incessantly.
Subtitles immediately synchronized with the scene.
“Did you heard the God of Beauty’s singing? It was truly divine. That kind of singing is unprecedented and unheard of!”
“I also heard it at the institute. At first, I was shocked, I felt a force vigorously striking my mind. It was as if two giant awls were desperately drilling into my ears. Initially, it felt strange, but upon careful examination, I realized the profoundness within.”
“Yes, yes! Surprisingly, merfolk songs can also be used as an attack weapon. How did we not think of this before? The God of Beauty deliberately chose the highest frequency band and utilized the strength of his entire body to destroy our stereotypes and bring out all the advantages of our voices.”
“This is the correct development path for the evolution of our voices. It must be that the God of Beauty heard our singing and wanted to guide us, so he demonstrated the true potential of our voices.”
“Ahem, ahem, I’ve studied for several days and have already learned it. Let me perform it for you now.”
“Yyyiiiiyyyyyyaaa!!!!!!”
Bai Lixin in the game lobby was so frightened, “…”
This “God of Beauty” should be him. Could that “Yiya” just now be an imitation… of him?
After finishing the song, the mermaid in the video asked, “Ahem, ahem, how was it?”
The surrounding merfolk covered their ears, their expressions grim.
“Although it’s not a tenth as good as the God of Beauty, it’s already impressive.”
“We need to work hard too. We should strive to learn the precious treasure God bestowed upon us as soon as possible!”
