Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Translation Checker: 7qqy
Editor: yuki_shuichi
Engineers entered the ship’s power compartment to repair the engine damaged by the plesiosaur. It wasn’t long before the ship restarted and headed toward Greenfly Harbor, which was the closest to them, in order to escort the fishermen ashore.
Rimbaud sat on the railing of PBB’s Mad Shark ship, holding a can of beer given by the crew members of the ship. He looked at the sea level in the distance, his long tail hung on the hull. Wei Lan was also holding a beer while his back leaned on the railing, bumping his own can against Rimbaud’s. “Thank you, da-ge for the help.”
Rimbaud slightly tilted his head and looked at him. “Where’s the child I gave you?”
Wei Lan raised the beer and pointed at the cooler not far away for cooling beer. The little mer baby was happily flopping among the pile of beer cans, with their mouth wide open and only one baby tooth growing.
The injured merfolks were all resting on the deck at the moment. When the logistic members were handing out tinfoil meal boxes, they also gave each of them one. The merfolks lost their wariness, carefully accepting the tin boxes with both hands, and the sound of eating burst out on deck.
The fishermen, who survived the disaster, held the meal box in fear. They ate two bites but couldn’t help but choke on the food, using their fishy-smelling sleeves to wipe their tears. The evening light illuminated their tan and shiny skin, and the grains of salt left by the dried-up seawater covered their arms and rain boots.
An elderly used both hands to wipe the tears off his face and looked at the remains of the fishing boat floating on the sea. Besides being a dock city and having developed transportation and trade, Greenfly City was also rich in top-quality seafood. The import and export of seafood every year were astonishing. Many hard-to-catch seafood rely on these fishermen to go to the open sea to find them. And many people have been engaged in fishing for generations. A well-engineered fishing boat was a valuable asset as a house to them.
Not long ago, when the Greenfly Sea was closed, the IOA allocated a huge sum of money as a subsidy for coastal fishermen, but they couldn’t survive on these meager subsidies. The days when they looked up and were unable to see the way out frightened them.
Although they survived, the fishermen weren’t happy about it. They all held a sad expression.
The elderly man was even worried about his daughter’s marriage. He and his wife wanted to give her a nice car as a dowry. When he was fretting over what to say once he got home, sharp, damp, and ice-cold fingers touched him lightly
The elderly man raised his head, facing a merfolk’s blank, confused look. The merfolk supported themselves with both hands, tilted their head, and pointed at the meal box in the elderly’s hands, and their emerald-like tail gently hit the deck.
“Kimo, jijimua jeo? (Are you going to eat it?)”
The elderly man dazedly gave the meal in his hand to them, and the merfolk swallowed the entire tinfoil box in one gulp.
The merfolk burped and asked, “Kimo, glarbo wei? (Why are you sad?)”
The elderly man didn’t understand the merfolk, so he shook his head helplessly.
The merfolk pointed at his eyes. “Kimo, wah wah.”
The elderly man was even more confused.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Ktf wfgobix olcjiis ofia atja tf ecvfgrabbv ktja atf biv wjc kjr rjslcu. Ktfs milwyfv atf gjlilcu, aegcfv jgbecv, mjiifv bea j ofk alwfr, jcv vlnfv lcab atf rfj. Ktflg ofiibk mbwqjclbcr tfjgv atflg mjii jcv pewqfv lc bcf ys bcf klat atfw, jcv atflg mbibgoei rmjifr rqijrtfv atf rfj regojmf.
Fifteen minutes later, a merfolk with a green tail emerged to the surface first, with a ball of aquatic plant in its mouth. They climbed up the hull with their sharp claws, crawled back on deck dripping wet, and spit the dirty aquatic plant in front of the elderly man.
The elderly unwrapped the dirty and slippery plant with trembling hands, and his eyes suddenly widened—in it revealed gold and fine gems.
The merfolks came up one by one with plants in their mouths, spitting them out in front of the military doctors and fishermen who helped them. The people were in shock.
Wei Lan also had his mouth opened in astonishment. He picked up his walkie-talkie and told the military doctors not to accept such expensive presents, then he turned back and asked Rimbaud, “Will there be any issues if they bring up so many things?”
“They’re just trash picked up from sunken ships, just accept them.” Rimbaud didn’t care about those things. He casually took the pistol from Wei Lan’s waist, removed the silencer, and fired up in the air.
The merfolks held their heads and screamed in fright. Rimbaud continued firing five more shots. The terrified merfolks jumped from the deck back into the sea one after another and fled in all directions.
“Just do this whenever you meet merfolks.” Rimbaud threw back the gun to Wei Lan. “They’re stupid and can’t tell the difference between good and bad people, so don’t give them the illusion that humans are easy to get along with, understand?”
Wei Lan caught his gun, nodded with pursed lips, and leaned back against the railing, drinking a sip of beer. “Rest assured, if they encounter an issue again in the future, they can seek the maritime patrol’s help.”
After the ship had sailed for almost two hours, they could vaguely see the outline of the city. During this period, they met the rescue boat team that came to assist them. Since they already resolved the crisis on their side, the rescue boat went to search other sea areas for the stranded fishermen.
It was already night time, and the tranquil sea surface reflected the pitch-black night sky. Rimbaud was extremely sleepy, and being blown by the cool sea breeze made him even more drowsy. Exhaustion came over him, he wrapped his tail around the railing, lowered himself, and slept.
The serene seawater abruptly surged with undercurrents. Rimbaud felt something strange about the sea and suddenly opened his eyes.
The sea surface under the ship was like ice, and as if a cold current were invading it, a layer of smooth mirror instantly spread out, which reflected the starry sky.
A pitch-black ghost hand rushed out of the mirror, grabbed Rimbaud’s tail, and pulled it downward. Rimbaud was startled, swinging his fishtail harshly to separate him from the ghost hand.
The ghost hand also quickly retracted as if electrocuted.
But there wasn’t only one of them—they drifted upward like crazily growing seaweed, punctured the steel hull, and made a teeth-rattling, ear-splitting scraping sound.
“Eternal Undead.” Rimbaud looked closely at the mirror sea surface, looking for Eternal Undead’s figure.
The ship’s alarm rang, and the sailors on deck awoke from their rest, quickly put on their equipment, grabbed their rifles, and lined up in order. Under Wei Lan and Feng Lang’s command, a tight cordon was set up around the ship, with the civilians guarded at the center. The military doctors and logistic members were in the cabin, protecting the wounded who couldn’t move.
All of a sudden, a fully armed soldier let out a blood-curdling scream. A ghost hand had attacked, holding their neckline and dragging them offboard. However, the soldier did not fall into the water, rather, he crashed into the mirror surface formed by the water. His skull was smashed into pieces and blood splashed all over the mirror. The corpse was wrapped and taken into the mirror by countless ghost hands. When the soldier’s body sank, the part of the flesh that went below the mirror dissipated, only leaving behind their bones.
The seawater hardened, obstructing the ship from sailing, and the speed slowed down to a point it was visible to the naked eye. Rimbaud was unable to draw out water to make a hydrated steel weapon. Wei Lan vigilantly leaned next to him and handed him a SCAR-L.
“Don’t resist, escape.” Rimbaud took the rifle and used his tail to sweep the soldiers toward the center of the deck. “He isn’t someone you guys can handle.”
Wei Lan watched as Rimbaud’s expression changed; his cold and indifferent expression changed to that of extreme seriousness. As if meeting a great enemy—an opponent that could make such a strong omega change expression and speak of them, it could be imagined how terrifying they would be. Their understanding of Eternal Undead was still in the discussion stage. They haven’t fought an out-of-control experimental subject in the deterioration stage.
Rimbaud bowed his head and went toward the mirror. The clean mirror reflected himself upside down, and the unfeeling and handsome face slowly rotted. The rotting flesh melted horrifyingly, coming off from the bones.
This kind of ploy didn’t make Rimbaud feel even an ounce of fear.
However, Rimbaud saw through the depths of the mirror and saw that many swimming fish became skeletons. The fishes that approached this area became wandering ghost skeletons, strangely swimming in the middle of the mirror.
This immediately infuriated Rimbaud. He used one hand to support himself on the railing and leapt off the ship. When he landed, there was an electromagnetic bzzt sound. And when he came into contact with the mirror, the innumerable ghost hands crawling up retreated like ants.
Rimbaud raised his tail high and slammed it down heavily with dazzling lightning, and the mirror split with chaotic thunder, causing a crack in the sturdy mirror.
The seawater came flowing out of the crack. Rimbaud drew out the water and formed a hydrated steel light machine gun. An ear-piercing shooting sound chased after the black shadow drifting inside the mirror.
The seawater fell like a rainstorm, and the dense mist dispersed, revealing a ghost with a white cloth over them drifting in the air. The ghost had a smiley face and let out a psychedelic and sharp laugh.
Rimbaud was soaking in the water, raised his head to look at him, and lightly questioned, “What exactly do you want?”
Eternal Undead loomed in the air, wandering here and there, and his high-pitched voice sounded as if he were smiling but not actually. “Did you give orders to those stupid fishes? Whenever I get close to the sea, they’ll chase after me like their life depended on it.”
“I did give them orders,” Rimbaud said.
“Then I can only get rid of you first to make my path easier in the future.”
“You can try if you have the ability to.” Although Rimbaud was looking up, his expression had nothing but contempt.
Eternal Undead suddenly burst out into a fit of laughter. “I won’t fight with you, of course. There’s always going to be someone who could control you.”
He raised a hand, gripping a pure white and lustrous pearl in his hand, then threw the pearl into the sea with great force. He pulled at the white cloth on him and threw it along with the pearl.
The pearl was covered by the white cloth, and the moment it fell into the water, a pure white tail grew out, and a pair of blue eyes sparkled in the dark night.
Under the control of Eternal Undead’s controller, Undead Cloak, the pearl appeared in the summoned form of a fully mimicked humanoid body. And when he entered the water, he resumed the form of a half-leucistic manta ray youth.
On the youth’s tail was a bright scale that symbolized the Siren, appearing and disappearing in the dark.
Rimbaud watched him and slowly shook his head gently. “Kimo nowa. (You can’t.)”
The youth also sluggishly looked up at him, his movements stiff and slow, his lips trembling, and he backed away helplessly.
Eternal Undead was happily watching this good show. There was a sudden shockwave coming out from within him, and the ripples and tremors hit the pearl youth. The youth’s eyes immediately lost focus, and a hydrated steel rocket launcher formed in his hands. A transparent rocket fired at Rimbaud.
As his M2 ability, his Steel Hydration had a higher range of capabilities compared to Rimbaud’s associated ability, Steel Hydration. A fragment of hydrated steel could cause large area damage, and changing between weapon forms could be done very quickly. After two rockets were fired, he changed the rocket launcher into a transparent Gatling gun in an instant.
Rimbaud was unable to get close to him, he could only look for opportunities in the gaps between dodging rockets and bullets. The Gatling fired quickly and had dense bullets, and the bullets were all made of hydrated steel, making them endless. Rimbaud was getting increasingly weary and powerless, and even his swimming was getting slower.
He went into the water, seeing the child’s spotless and lustrous white tail glimmering and the Siren scale on it attracting the surrounding aquatic animals toward him. However, as long as all the fish that were attracted got close to the child at a certain distance, their flesh would fall off their bones, and they would become swimming skeleton fishes.
The amount of skeleton fish beside the youth was increasing. Everyone was getting tricked by the Siren’s glowing scale and died silently within his aura.
The youth turned his head, saw the majestic ship next to him, and looked at his own hands.
After getting experimented on, the combat chip in him made him familiar with the core blueprints of armaments and weapons. He cupped some seawater and sprinkled it toward the sky. The seawater was attracted by him, gathered, and rose.
The seawater formed a huge whirlpool, briefly dropping the water level. The ship shook violently, and the soldiers on the deck staggered. They watched as a transparent, hydrated steel ship slowly rose from the sea in front of them, with the power room in the inner cabin clearly visible. The skull and fish bones that were sucked into the hydrated steel by the sea water were also cast into the ship, swimming slowly in the transparent steel outer wall of the ship.
Eternal Undead sat on the ghost ship and laughed from time to time.
Rimbaud watched blankly as the transparent ship rose from the ground, with densely packed skeleton fishes being cast into it, like a ghost corpse casket.
He held his left chest, feeling extreme pain in his heart.
Continuous battles have exhausted his energy. He wanted to use his A3 ability but his gland was already heating up and couldn’t be overdrawn. He was also dealing with Eternal Undead and a manipulated Siren heir at the same time. Rimbaud closed his eyes.
There were too many dead fish. Their souls gathered and formed into the Dead Sea Heart Stone, flowed into the youth’s hand, and stretched into a black scythe.
A baby’s cry broke the stalemate. The golden mer baby crawled out of the beer cooler with its chubby hands and babbled toward the pearl youth.
Because the youth had Siren’s scale, the baby would get close to him. The Siren was the sea’s mother, protecting all lives within the water. Aquatic animals had an instinctive dependence on the Siren.
Wei Lan was already rushing to the baby. He jumped, but was a step too late; only grabbing air. The baby had fallen from the gap in the railing.
Rimbaud became blue lightning in the waters, disappeared from his original position, and appeared below the ship. He jumped up from the water and caught the baby before going back into the water, blocking the aura of death coming off of Pearl with his body. He released soothing pheromones to console the frightened baby. Only in the seawater with Rimbaud as the center, the fish that approached were not turned into skeletons, but the area was getting smaller and smaller. Rimbaud only felt a wave of sleepiness that made his body numb.
The baby didn’t cry or struggle, his hands curled up in front of his chest, and the short golden tail also didn’t move. The baby was so obedient it was terrifying.
Rimbaud moved his gaze downward, but all he saw was blood red. A black knife stabbed the baby’s tender body, blood spurting outward.
Rimbaud’s heart shook. His fingers touched the baby’s soft chest, and the meniscal beating stopped abruptly.
Rimbaud went stiff for a long time before he realized that the black knife had also penetrated him from behind and burst out of his chest.
Thank You for the new chapter ♡٩(•౪•٩)
*dying rn
aaa didn’t mean to reply 😆😆