Volume 1 - CH 11
The merman’s self-healing mechanism was unique. His whole body would roll up into a translucent ball, and it could roll smoothly on the ground until it found a water source, then it’d plunge deep into the water, burying itself within the sand and mud. If it was lucky enough not to die, it’d go into a long-dormant stage and slowly recover until the body returned back to normal. If it died from excessive injuries during dormancy, it would be like a whale sinking in the sand,the corpse would nourish the creatures of the sea.
This self-healing mechanism was the merman’s associated ability called “Rupert’s Drop”. It would passively activate when strongly stimulated by the outside world or when he was about to die. In his fish-ball state, others couldn’t cause any harm to him.
But Bai Chunian knew the weakness of this associative ability. He could be forcibly awakened. All it took was a heavy blow to the exposed tip of his tail, or directly cutting off the end of his fishtail, then this indestructible protection mechanism would be forcibly terminated.
However, this violent wake-up method was extremely traumatic to the merman and could easily cause psychological disorders and mental disturbances.
Bai Chunian gently squeezed the tip of Rimbaud’s tail. It already felt a bit dry. He took some water from the water fountain to wet the tail and squeezed it again.
He didn’t know if Rimbaud’s body could handle being away from water for too long. Even if he was wrapped in a moisturizing bandage, it wouldn’t be comfortable to stay on land for 48 hours straight.
Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing went to search for supplies on the Shrill Winds Rise three dead team members. Only Bai Chunian was breathing in the quiet dance hall. He patiently released his soothing pheromones while stroking the balled-up Rimbaud, his fingertips gently pinching the tip of his shivering tail.
The merman in his arms finally had a slight reaction. The tail that was entwining itself loosened a little, but it trembled so badly, and the tip of the tail cowered in fear of further harm.
“It’s okay, open up.” Bai Chunian released a higher concentration of soothing pheromone, half-coaxingly and half-forcibly peeling Rimbaud’s tail away from his body.
Rimbaud seemed even more resistant, even showing his sharp canine teeth in a low growl making a harsh high-decibel noise.
He thought for a long time about how to explain to Rimbaud that this was just a test, the pain and injury were all tactile transmissions simulated by the system. These terms were too difficult to understand and Rimbaud couldn’t get them.
Then he could only do the roundabout way.
Bai Chunian hugged him and touched his blonde hair lightly with his lips: “Do you know that doctors use artificial respiration to save people in an emergency?”
Rimbaud’s eyes moved stiffly and he looked weakly at Bai Chunian.
Bai Chunian lowered his head, printed his lips on Rimbaud’s thin lips, and gently let out a breath.
“Okay, you’re alive.” Bai Chunian curled his eyes, “Do you feel more comfortable?”
Rimbaud’s eyelids were half-open, his sapphire eyes flickered faintly, seemingly shining.
Bai Chunian couldn’t help but take a few more glances, rubbing his hair: “Get up, don’t pretend to be dead.”
Rimbaud slowly got up, looked at his hands, and then at the bullet hole that stopped bleeding and had healed in his collarbone. After quite a long time of confusion, he suddenly saw that the blue scales on his butt were bald. His snow-white cheeks turned red. Snatching the scales back from Bai Chu Nian’s hand, he dabbed some saliva and glued them back onto his butt, piece by piece.
Bai Chunian clutched the remaining pieces in his hand to prevent him from taking them and leaned against the wall, teasing: “You want them?”
Rimbaud pursed his lips, raised his hand to cover his flushed cheeks, and fled down the steel seat beam like a bolt of lightning.
Bai Chunian leaned his head back against the wall and laughed, then he suddenly curbed his laughter and stacked the three or four remaining blue translucent fish scales according to their sizes, picked up a piece of paper to wrap them up and folded it into a proper square, sniffed them close to the tip of his nose, then silently put them into his left chest pocket to protect it.
The two teams were wiped out at once, and the kill number on Lu Yan’s chest had jumped to “10”. After the fight, they seized 8 more anti-detonators, then each of their safe times increased by two hours. Combined with the previous time, they each had a total of more than four hours of safe time. And they also took five recovery injections from the corpse’s pocket.
Bai Chunian sat alone in the empty dance hall, facing a dozen rows of empty staircase seats, spinning the pistol with the tip of his index finger out of boredom.
Another alpha scent suddenly appeared in the room. Bai Chunian came back to his senses, “Huh?”
Bi Lanxing sat next to him and pushed a recovery injection into Bai Chunian’s hand: “They’re in the cafeteria on the third floor. “
Bai Chunian hummed.
Bi Lanxing asked calmly, “Uncle Jin called you to help Lu Yan with his exam, right?”
“Nonsense, I’ve come to get points.” Bai Chunian lit a cigarette.
It didn’t take too much time to talk to smart people, and Bi Lanxing didn’t need Bai Chunian’s answer to be too clear. He continued, “You’re one of Uncle Jin’s people, so you must be a trustworthy senior. I want to know if you know Rimbaud well? How long have you known each other?”
Bai Chunian exhaled two smoke rings at Bi Lanxing “Three years, six months, and five days.”
Bi Lanxing frowned, fanning away the smoke rings in front of him. He pondered for a while and said softly, “Three years ago, I followed my dad for army field training. In the middle, a visit was organized to a biochemical weapons depot called 109 Research Institute. At that time, I was too young to run around, so I was left behind. I thought I could find the team if I followed the ones in white coats, but I ended up accidentally following them into a lab.”
“While no one spotted me, I ran around in the lab, and then I saw a ball soaking in the lab’s incubator just like the one Rimbaud had just rolled into, with a piece of its tail showing.”
Bai Chunian’s face darkened and he asked casually, “Then what?”
“They chopped off the tail of that ball.” Bi Lanxing raised his hand and gestured, “They cut off such a long section. I was really frightened that I accidentally dropped something. Then the researcher inside caught me, picked me, and threw me outside the laboratory, but I could still hear the creature screaming along the way.”
This self-healing mechanism was the merman’s associated ability called “Rupert’s Drop”. It would passively activate when strongly stimulated by the outside world or when he was about to die. In his fish-ball state, others couldn’t cause any harm to him.
But Bai Chunian knew the weakness of this associative ability. He could be forcibly awakened. All it took was a heavy blow to the exposed tip of his tail, or directly cutting off the end of his fishtail, then this indestructible protection mechanism would be forcibly terminated.
However, this violent wake-up method was extremely traumatic to the merman and could easily cause psychological disorders and mental disturbances.
Bai Chunian gently squeezed the tip of Rimbaud’s tail. It already felt a bit dry. He took some water from the water fountain to wet the tail and squeezed it again.
He didn’t know if Rimbaud’s body could handle being away from water for too long. Even if he was wrapped in a moisturizing bandage, it wouldn’t be comfortable to stay on land for 48 hours straight.
Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing went to search for supplies on the Shrill Winds Rise three dead team members. Only Bai Chunian was breathing in the quiet dance hall. He patiently released his soothing pheromones while stroking the balled-up Rimbaud, his fingertips gently pinching the tip of his shivering tail.
The merman in his arms finally had a slight reaction. The tail that was entwining itself loosened a little, but it trembled so badly, and the tip of the tail cowered in fear of further harm.
“It’s okay, open up.” Bai Chunian released a higher concentration of soothing pheromone, half-coaxingly and half-forcibly peeling Rimbaud’s tail away from his body.
Rimbaud seemed even more resistant, even showing his sharp canine teeth in a low growl making a harsh high-decibel noise.
He thought for a long time about how to explain to Rimbaud that this was just a test, the pain and injury were all tactile transmissions simulated by the system. These terms were too difficult to understand and Rimbaud couldn’t get them.
Then he could only do the roundabout way.
Bai Chunian hugged him and touched his blonde hair lightly with his lips: “Do you know that doctors use artificial respiration to save people in an emergency?”
Rimbaud’s eyes moved stiffly and he looked weakly at Bai Chunian.
Bai Chunian lowered his head, printed his lips on Rimbaud’s thin lips, and gently let out a breath.
“Okay, you’re alive.” Bai Chunian curled his eyes, “Do you feel more comfortable?”
Rimbaud’s eyelids were half-open, his sapphire eyes flickered faintly, seemingly shining.
Bai Chunian couldn’t help but take a few more glances, rubbing his hair: “Get up, don’t pretend to be dead.”
Rimbaud slowly got up, looked at his hands, and then at the bullet hole that stopped bleeding and had healed in his collarbone. After quite a long time of confusion, he suddenly saw that the blue scales on his butt were bald. His snow-white cheeks turned red. Snatching the scales back from Bai Chu Nian’s hand, he dabbed some saliva and glued them back onto his butt, piece by piece.
Bai Chunian clutched the remaining pieces in his hand to prevent him from taking them and leaned against the wall, teasing: “You want them?”
Rimbaud pursed his lips, raised his hand to cover his flushed cheeks, and fled down the steel seat beam like a bolt of lightning.
Bai Chunian leaned his head back against the wall and laughed, then he suddenly curbed his laughter and stacked the three or four remaining blue translucent fish scales according to their sizes, picked up a piece of paper to wrap them up and folded it into a proper square, sniffed them close to the tip of his nose, then silently put them into his left chest pocket to protect it.
The two teams were wiped out at once, and the kill number on Lu Yan’s chest had jumped to “10”. After the fight, they seized 8 more anti-detonators, then each of their safe times increased by two hours. Combined with the previous time, they each had a total of more than four hours of safe time. And they also took five recovery injections from the corpse’s pocket.
Bai Chunian sat alone in the empty dance hall, facing a dozen rows of empty staircase seats, spinning the pistol with the tip of his index finger out of boredom.
Another alpha scent suddenly appeared in the room. Bai Chunian came back to his senses, “Huh?”
Bi Lanxing sat next to him and pushed a recovery injection into Bai Chunian’s hand: “They’re in the cafeteria on the third floor. “
Bai Chunian hummed.
Bi Lanxing asked calmly, “Uncle Jin called you to help Lu Yan with his exam, right?”
“Nonsense, I’ve come to get points.” Bai Chunian lit a cigarette.
It didn’t take too much time to talk to smart people, and Bi Lanxing didn’t need Bai Chunian’s answer to be too clear. He continued, “You’re one of Uncle Jin’s people, so you must be a trustworthy senior. I want to know if you know Rimbaud well? How long have you known each other?”
Bai Chunian exhaled two smoke rings at Bi Lanxing “Three years, six months, and five days.”
Bi Lanxing frowned, fanning away the smoke rings in front of him. He pondered for a while and said softly, “Three years ago, I followed my dad for army field training. In the middle, a visit was organized to a biochemical weapons depot called 109 Research Institute. At that time, I was too young to run around, so I was left behind. I thought I could find the team if I followed the ones in white coats, but I ended up accidentally following them into a lab.”
“While no one spotted me, I ran around in the lab, and then I saw a ball soaking in the lab’s incubator just like the one Rimbaud had just rolled into, with a piece of its tail showing.”
Bai Chunian’s face darkened and he asked casually, “Then what?”
“They chopped off the tail of that ball.” Bi Lanxing raised his hand and gestured, “They cut off such a long section. I was really frightened that I accidentally dropped something. Then the researcher inside caught me, picked me, and threw me outside the laboratory, but I could still hear the creature screaming along the way.”
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