MASG chapter 4

 

The real world is noisy.

The ear fins stretched out and then retracted. Mermaids’ hearing develops first, and it’s incredibly sensitive. In the deep sea, they rely on their hearing to detect sounds in the water and the presence of enemies. However, the depths are so quiet that any movement is intense for Mo An.

Since being captured, he has been kept in a glass observation tank. Now, all he can feel is pain in his ears. Has he left the tank? What’s happening in the outside world?

The outside world is full of danger.

This is Xia Yu’s only thought at the moment. All he can do is run to safety. But where is safety? He has no answer.

Before this sudden change, he hadn’t even considered the concept of safety. The institute was boring, but it had never experienced a catastrophic event. Xia Yu had always been safe and couldn’t discern the meaning of “danger.” Furthermore, the institute was filled with robots that were accessible when humans weren’t. They patiently answered questions and resolved difficulties.

Without their help, Xia Yu felt terribly lost. The thought of them trying to kill him filled him with fear.

As he ran, the tears he had been holding back finally fell, and before he knew it, they flowed freely. Unlike normal people, whose eyes don’t show signs of weakness when they cry, the whites of Xia Yu’s eyes instantly turned red. Xia Yu thought of Professor Wang Qin. She must be dead. She must be. With so many robots and her serious injuries, there was no way she could have survived.

She had given him his last hope to live, and she had told him something… If Xia Yu had been frozen in fear while taking the elevator to escape, now his emotions were melting like ice, seeping into his body bit by bit. Despair and grief threatened to overwhelm him. For a few seconds, Xia Yu considered not escaping at all.

The only person in the world who cared about him was dead, and he couldn’t survive on his own. How long could he survive hiding out there?

His tears suddenly turned to broken strings. Perhaps it was his jellyfish genes, but Xia Yu had always been a tearful person. He cried a lot. Now, he didn’t dare say a word, fearing his tears would make too much noise.

Countless aircraft flew overhead, seemingly aimlessly. Yet, in reality, they wove a web of destruction across the city. Desperate wails echoed intermittently. Fires ignited, glass shattered, and debris rained from the sky.

Xia Yu raised his head and looked at the shattered, transparent object, as if watching countless shimmering butterflies die. Then, someone leaped from the tallest building in sight, crashing to the ground.

“Ah!” Xia Yu cried out in fear and quickly covered his mouth. Tears streamed down the back of his hand and dripped onto the ground.

Why did this person jump? Did he realize that he had no chance of survival, hunted by machines until his last breath? Xia Yu couldn’t help but speculate. Soon, however, he had no time, as the loud noise of the falling building attracted a robot.

It was unlike anything Xia Yu had ever seen and different from the robots at the research institute. The robots at the research institute were tall and thin with long limbs that facilitated their work. They usually handled metal tools.

But the robot before him was shorter, and its limbs weren’t slender but strong and powerful. Its head was triangular with bright red spots on each side that served as “eyes.”

It could see in every direction!

Xia Yu understood immediately. He crouched down and tumbled and crawled to a nearby trash can with the fish eggs on his back. The outside world was completely different from the research facility. Xia Yu had never seen a trash can this tall, but that didn’t stop him from putting the eggs inside it.

His good friend Mo An was still inside, and Xia Yu had to protect him.

Mo An was heavy, to be sure, but not entirely due to his own weight. The fish eggs were filled with seawater, much like amniotic fluid. Xia Yu hadn’t eaten since he woke up, and the sudden escape had exhausted him. He could clearly feel his arms trembling as he lifted the eggs.

I can hardly lift it. I need to hurry. Faster… Xia Yu stood on tiptoe and tossed the fish eggs into the trash can with all his might. But that wasn’t enough. To ensure Mo An’s safety, Xia Yu lowered the trash can lid. However, he misjudged the weight of the metal lid. Before he could lower it securely, his hands made a loud noise.

It’s over, it’s over. I’m going to die.

That was the only thought in Xia Yu’s mind.

Sure enough, the triangle-headed robot must have heard the noise and immediately headed over. Xia Yu had never handled a weapon before, but that gun was more than enough to kill him. Time was running out. He couldn’t hesitate. Every second counted. He hadn’t figured out this world yet, so he had to quickly learn how to survive.

He turned and ran toward the side alley, his bare feet treading through filthy puddles. Water splashed, and the sound continued. However, once he entered the alley, he realized with despair that there was no exit.

It was a dead end. There was no escape route on the other side, only a high wall.

The triangular-headed robot, which was originally heading for the trash can, detected the movement in less than half a second. Two seconds later, it was deep in the alley. If its speed was “searching” before, then after sensing the movement, it became “hunting.”

A red light shone on the high wall at the entrance of the alley, illuminating every brick. The walls on either side were bare, leaving few places to hide. The robot’s head began to spin, its three red “eyes” searching. Its last beam of red light settled on a pile of debris.

Waste is a common sight on the streets, so it’s naturally the easiest place to hide. The robot walked toward the debris, its metal feet sinking into a pool of mud.

Xia Yu clenched his teeth to keep from making a sound. The footsteps grew closer, and Xia Yu closed his eyes.

A gunshot rang out, and the robot opened fire before reaching the debris. It wasn’t an ordinary bullet but a gas-blast gun. The barrel compressed the gas and rapidly ejected it, creating a gas bomb capable of destroying a human body. Not only that, but the top layer of the waste was also shattered and scattered into a pile of debris several meters high.

There was no possibility of survival beneath the wreckage.

Once it had finished, the robot turned and walked out of the dead end. It didn’t bother to recheck the pile of debris because it had already shattered it. Crumbs of debris fell from the sky, burning like fallen leaves and easily turning to ash upon landing.

No living thing could survive such an attack.

The air smelled like metal and burning. Towering skyscrapers jutted out like tree branches, having been manipulated by brutal forces. As the rain fell, the ever-changing neon lights seemed to change color in the blink of an eye. When the raindrops hit Xia Yu’s small body squeezed in the cracks, he realized something was wrong.

This rain seemed to be acid rain.

He had heard of it, but never expected to encounter it so soon after escaping the research institute. As the fine raindrops fell on his skin, his complexion changed. Had he been sensitive to pain, it would have burned him. Just half a minute ago, he had chosen the crack in the wall over the pile of debris. Knowing the robots, Xia Yu knew they would have swept the pile.

The crack was too small to hide one of his legs, but fortunately, he could make it transparent.

Jellyfish have a high water content, and Xia Yu’s blood turned transparent, making his exposed calf seem airy. However, as the color of the flesh emerged, the fracture on his slender ankle became apparent, revealing the severity of the injury.

The metal that had just flown into the air had injured his calf. His ankle was broken and bent inward at a strange angle. It seemed as if he could only walk on the instep of his left foot. Acid rain poured down overhead. His tiny feet were deformed. Outside, there was nowhere to go. Xia Yu had no way to escape.

Tears streamed down his face, and his shoulders trembled. He hid in his crib and cried for a while before thinking about giving up again.

Before he could understand what had happened, the incident had taken everything away from him. Without Professor Wang, he didn’t know who he could rely on. The outside world was far more dangerous than the research institute. One wrong step could mean death. Even worse, he was just a small jellyfish with nowhere to go.

He couldn’t hide in this crack forever. Stepping out would expose him to acid rain. Xia Yu couldn’t understand why Professor Wang had rushed him out. He might as well have died in the lab. Besides, he wasn’t afraid of pain. Being shot or chopped into pieces wouldn’t hurt, it would be over in a flash. Death wouldn’t be a cause for alarm.

But as he thought about it, he remembered Wang Qin’s last request: Save the world. Raise Mo An. See the ocean.

“Save the world…raise Mo An…” Xia Yu thought Professor Wang was joking. How could he possibly save the world? And what about Mo An? How was Mo An now?

At this thought, Xia Yu slowly stopped crying. He couldn’t die here yet because he had promised Professor Wang.

“I’m a… little jellyfish. I live in the depths of the ocean…” After an unknown amount of time, Xia Yu finally mustered the courage to leave the small crack in the dead-end alley. The acid rain continued to patter, soaking him red all over, and he expected blisters soon. The pain in his ankle continued to ache intermittently. With difficulty, Xia Yu bent down and picked up a long piece of metal, using it as a weapon.

He limped toward the trash can, stopping and starting. Fate had finally tipped in his favor, granting him a chance to survive and freeing him from another encounter with the dangerous triangular-headed robot. When he finally reached the trash can, he flipped open the lid, tiptoed, and dove inside. Without checking on Mo An, he closed the lid again to keep the acid rain out.

The stinking trash can became their temporary refuge. The space, barely big enough for two, was the safest place in Xia Yu’s eyes. Without light, his eyes shone like flowing mercury. He gently untied the knot of his white lab coat and checked on Mo An.

“It’s okay, you’re not hurt.” Exhausted, Xia Yu collapsed on top of the giant fish eggs. He was terrified, and he assumed Mo An must be too.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already… already found a way to stay alive. Once I’ve rested, I’ll take you away from here. We’ll find a safe place, make it our home, and settle down. We’ll never run into danger again.” Xia Yu comforted Mo An while also trying to comfort himself. He had no idea what to do next, and Mo An never responded.

Exhausted, Xia Yu fell into a deep sleep as he spoke. Raindrops fell onto the metal box, creating a soft pitter-patter. In the cramped space, they depended on each other for survival. Inside the fish egg, Mo An approached Xia Yu, who was outside the egg. His eyes remained closed.

Through the membrane of the egg, Mo An longed to lift his eyelids. Something must have happened outside. I need to hurry even faster.

Xia Yu had probably slept for over ten hours.

He was so tired and frightened that he woke up twice in his half-asleep state. However, the thought of facing a hopeless life with his eyes open forced him back to sleep. He wished he could stay asleep forever. However, hunger wouldn’t give him that chance, and he woke up. He didn’t dare move for a moment and subconsciously patted the eggs.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m awake now.” Xia Yu was worried about Mo An’s condition. He wondered if the eggs would survive outside the sea. “Let me see what’s going on outside.”

Knowing that Mo An wouldn’t respond, Xia Yu continued talking to him, trying to bolster his courage. He lifted the lid of the box and peered through the opening. Although the sky had brightened, it hadn’t cleared up yet. The good news was that the rain had stopped.

Once the rain stopped, it was time for them to leave.

“Where should I take you? We… We have nowhere else to go?” Xia Yu said, instantly disheartened. “Or I could leave you here and find a place on my own. I’ll come pick you up when I find one.”

The mermaid slumbering in the eggs remained motionless, his tail fin twitching slightly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely come pick you up. I… I’m already ten years old. I won’t abandon you,” said Xia Yu tremblingly. He didn’t want to leave this temporary safety. Suddenly, a beam of light illuminated the entire trash can, like a ray of sunlight piercing through the clouds—just for them.

[Leave here, walk 520 meters west, open the combination door, and you’ll be able to enter the sewers.]

A faint voice echoed from the glowing bracelet. Although the voice was mechanical and cold, Xia Yu shuddered when he heard it.

[You can’t stay here. The next cleanup is coming. The trash can’t guarantee your safety. Go to the sewers.]

“You—who are you? Who are you?” Xia Yu held Wang Qin’s bracelet in front of him. He wasn’t sure if he could trust it. After all, the machines had all rebelled. This could be a trap!

“Are you Nuwa?” Xia Yu asked again. He had seen many people communicate with Nuwa through their bracelets before.

After waiting half a minute, the bracelet lit up again.

[I’m not Nuwa, I’m Jingwei. You must leave this place. The next wave of cleansing is expected to reach your location in 14 minutes. Leave now.]