MASG chapter 66

 

The people waiting for them on the ship were Silver Fang and Xiban.

“Why did you come too?” Xia Yu quickly took the warm water and gulped it down.

“Yanxia asked me to come.” Xiban took out a hair tie and tied up Xia Yu’s hair through his gloves. “She told me everything. She said it’s a very difficult road, and the more people who can help you, the better.”

As expected, Yanxia was fully aware of their escape plan. Xia Yu was so grateful that he didn’t know what to say. Xiban shook his head. “Don’t thank me. There’s no need for that between companions. We mermaids are like this—sisters and companions matter more than anything. So, where are we going next?”

“Frozen Island,” Silver Fang said abruptly.

The screen opened before them, displaying the complete map. The mechanical half of Silver Fang’s body stood out sharply under the cold light. “This is the decision Yanxia and I made. Frozen Island is just a temporary stop. Once we’re there, we can discuss our next plans.”

“Why Frozen Island?” Mo An sat in the chair, staring at the screen.

“Why is your face so red?” Silver Fang asked in surprise. It was way too red to be normal.

Xia Yu burned with shame, unable to face the truth. How could he possibly admit that he had just sat on Mo An like that? Mo An bravely looked back at Silver Fang, his young face flushed a deep red. “Because I’m really hot.”

“What’s there to be hot about?” Silver Fang glanced outside. It was the coldest moment before dawn, and they were at sea. “Young people are always restless. Learn to calm your mind.”

“I’d love to calm my mind, but that depends on whether I can calm down.” Mo An’s tone implied something, accompanied by a faint smile. Xia Yu caught a hint of lingering satisfaction in his tone somehow, but he couldn’t understand what there was to blush about.

If anyone should be blushing, it should be the one who has been bare-ass naked.

He was completely naked, holding onto his little brother. They didn’t see it, but he remembered every detail clearly. Besides, even if Mo An couldn’t see, the skin-to-skin contact, the warmth transferred, and the closeness were all real. He had been like that… Xia Yu didn’t even dare to recall it.

This made it even stranger—what was Mo An blushing for?

“Ahem, all right, let’s talk business.” Mo An’s face had been red for a long time, but he finally put on his “handling business” expression as if everything earlier had just been someone else’s hallucination. “Why Frozen Island? Is it safe?”

“That’s a long story.” Silver Fang enlarged the map with his fully mechanical hand. “Frozen Island was built 500 years ago. It’s a lonely island far from Qingyao City. At first, its purpose was simple: a place to dump criminals.

“Criminals?” Mi Dou looked up. He had just sent an encrypted message home to tell his mother he was safe.

Silver Fang took a deep breath. “They were all death-row inmates. They were thrown there and left to fend for themselves. When winter arrives, Frozen Island freezes over and ice drifts down from the north. Without heating or electricity, no one can survive the winter. Back then, it was a no-man’s land—a place where you go in and never come out. It was a disadvantage in the past, but now it’s an advantage. Nuwa doesn’t have much surveillance there, so it won’t be easy for her to track us.”

“That makes sense. Since the place has no value anymore, the AI didn’t develop that region.” Xiban mused. “Is anyone living there now?”

Silver Fang shook his head. “There are definitely no living people. We’re expected to arrive in eight hours. Everyone should get some sleep and eat something.”

The brief meeting ended. Xia Yu sat there looking dazed, but his mind was racing. After a while, Mo An took the wristband off his wrist and tossed it to Xia Yu. “Jingwei wants you.”

“Huh? Oh.” Xia Yu took the wristband, still too embarrassed to look his younger brother in the eye. “Jingwei?”

Jingwei: [Are you at sea now?]

“Yes, we’ve already escaped. For now, we’re safe.” Xia Yu checked the electronic display. At that moment, the disguised Xiang Xing was being escorted away. He didn’t know what was happening over there.

Jingwei: [Good. It seems all of you have really grown up. I still clearly remember how helpless you used to be. Of course, back then, I also hadn’t developed very mature reactions. But now it’s different. Everyone is doing wonderfully.]

Xia Yu and Mo An agreed. This was a collective, premeditated escape. From Yanxia to Mi Dou, everyone contributed their share. If even one link had broken, the entire plan would have collapsed.

Jingwei: [Ling Shi has retrieved detailed records on Ma Jiayuan. That so-called church of his was actually established very recently. Before that, Ma Jiayuan was just a supermarket deliveryman. He was born, grew up, attended school, and worked in Huti City. He never left once.

“It’s unbelievable,” Mi Dou said. “Logically speaking, for him to cause such a huge mess in Qingyao City and become full of evil, he should’ve been some kind of scammer, drifting from city to city. Why does he sound… so ordinary?”

“Don’t underestimate this kind of ordinary,” Mo An corrected him. “I’ve read no less than five thousand case reports in the Control Center, and plenty of so-called honest people committed crimes among them. Jingwei, who did Ma Jiayuan stay closely connected with in Huti City?”

Jingwei: [His social relationships are extremely simple and ordinary. Work and home, just two points in a straight line. He has no entertainment activities.

“In today’s society, real-world entertainment might be something he can’t afford,” Silver Fang said.

“All right, we’ll rest for a few hours on Frozen Island, then enter Huti City anonymously. We can start by investigating Ma Jiayuan’s work environment; his coworkers are the primary suspects.” Xia Yu finished speaking and yawned.

“You’re sleepy?” Mo An grabbed a blanket from the side and tossed it over.

“A little.” Xia Yu didn’t try to hide his fatigue—doing so might drag them down further. “I’ll sleep first. Once I wake up, we can switch shifts and take turns resting.”

None of them had slept well the night before. Everyone needed to catch up on sleep—except Silver Fang. His body was already over sixty percent mechanical, so he didn’t tire easily. Sleeping once every three or four days was enough for him. The boat had no proper sleeping quarters, so Xia Yu and Mi Dou went to sleep first.

Napping on the sofa wasn’t comfortable, but perhaps they were too tired. Or maybe the fading tension allowed their bodies to relax. Or maybe it was the gentle rocking of the boat on the sea. Whatever the reason, once they closed their eyes, they slept deeply. They didn’t dream. When Xia Yu woke up, he felt full of energy, though his heart felt heavy, weighed down by many things.

He had finally raised Mo An and Mi Dou safely and peacefully, only to run into something like this.

His wishes were simple: to see the sea and raise Mo An. Saving the world had nothing to do with him. His life was enough. He had finally become a team captain and received monthly allocation points. His housing had improved… but because of this incident, everything was shattered beyond repair.

Sighing, Xia Yu touched the wristband. Professor Wang Qin, growing up is so hard. If he had known it would be like this, he might as well have stayed a child in the research institute forever.

“You’re awake?” Xi Ban saw him rise and poured a cup of hot milk.

“Mm, thanks.” Xia Yu lowered his head, thinking of the past. Then, he raised his eyes and decided to accept reality. “You sleep.”

“I’m not sleepy. Besides, we mermaids have better stamina.” Xi Ban smiled, put on gloves, and gently patted Xia Yu on the head. He still treated Xia Yu like a child. “In the blink of an eye, you’ve grown this big.”

“No way! You make it sound like you’re much older.” Xia Yu finished the milk in one go. When he first met Xi Ban, he never expected him to stay so long.

But Xi Ban pinched his cheek. “I’m already an adult mermaid. I’ve been older than you for a long time.”

“Then, have you ever thought about returning to the sea?” Xia Yu had always wondered.

Xi Ban looked out at the scenery. “I have, so I go back once in a while. But I couldn’t rest easy unless I finished raising Mo An.”

“He’s grown up,” Xia Yu said, trying to comfort him.

Unexpectedly, Xi Ban shook his head. “He’s grown up, yes, but he’s not an adult yet. I have to wait until he becomes an adult.”

The news struck Xia Yu like a blow. “He… isn’t an adult?”

“Just a few days left. This is the ability of our double-tailed race. So long as he’s a juvenile mermaid, he will always live under our protection. The same ability exists in Leviathan as well. As long as Mo An hasn’t reached adulthood, Leviathan could assassinate him.” Xi Ban’s voice was gentle, like distant waves brushing against Xia Yu’s ears—soothing and light.

Xia Yu thought this must be another ability of the double-tails. Being near them brought comfort and safety, as well as the feeling of being cared for.

“Mo An will soon change from ‘Ā Nì Xī Dá’ to ‘Nì Xī Dá.'” Xi Ban seemed to already envision that day: the sun rising over the horizon, its first beam shining on Mo An’s black scales and sparkling brighter than obsidian.

Xia Yu held the glass cup and asked again, “There’s something I’ve always been curious about. What does Leviathan really look like? I heard there are three of them. Why must they hunt mermaids children?”

“Leviathan is something unspeakable and unseeable. Not even we have seen their full form. Only a few have seen their human form. They can walk on land, trade with humans, and even marry and reproduce. However, Leviathan’s children can’t be born—that’s the curse of the ‘Serpent Woman.’ Leviathan has no descendants.” Xi Ban said, “The ‘Serpent Woman’ is a branch among the mermaids. Legend says that tens of thousands of years ago, the Serpent Woman defeated Leviathan. Leviathan vowed to hunt down all of her descendants, so the Serpent Woman cast a curse to ensure that they would never have children.

“That sounds so ancient,” said Xia Yu, blinking. “Can mermaids and humans have children?”

“Yes.” Xi Ban nodded. It was time they fully understood the underwater world. “Mermaid and human offspring are called ‘mixed-bloods.’ Mixed-bloods are the only mermaid branch that cannot walk on land. They never grow legs and must live in the sea their entire lives. They are also the ones who love luring sailors with song the most. Their singing is the best, but hearing too much of it can drive humans mad.”

Boom! A loud sound came from outside.

Xi Ban and Xia Yu stopped talking and rushed to the deck. It was winter, and ice sheets had drifted south from the north into their path. As far as the eye could see were icebergs. The translucent, deep-blue ice giants almost looked like land. It was Xia Yu’s first time seeing such massive floating ice. For a moment, he couldn’t find the words.

They…were like ancient life forms of the Earth, existing long before humans, silently listening to the world.

And it was Mo An who was making the sound, moving up and down between the broken ice. In the sea, he resembled both a fish and a snake because he was probably more than three meters long. The extremely low seawater temperature frightened humans, but Mo An swam freely among the ice chunks without a care—truly a free fish.

“Mo An!” Xia Yu, however, wasn’t happy. “Get on the boat now!”

“Huh?” Mo An turned his head, still holding a fish in his mouth.

“Get on the boat!” Xia Yu couldn’t sit still anymore. He walked from one end of the boat to the other. He had thought that Mo An had already reached adulthood and that there was no need to worry about the Leviathan anymore, but it turned out that there were still a few days left. He stared at Mo An’s wrist again. Fortunately, the Siren’s protection was still there.

Mo An was enjoying the swim immensely. The icy seawater felt comfortable to him; he didn’t feel cold at all. Compared to the sea, which was thousands of meters deep, this temperature was simply too warm. The fish population was also rich and diverse. He submerged again, his fin spines flaring like majestic flags. The sharp tips of his fin spines sliced the thick ice layer cleanly in half. Three pairs of gill slits lined his collarbone area, and three pairs of ventral fins lined his belly. When he flicked his tail, countless unpredictable whirlpools formed on the surface of the water.

Even more remarkable was that, as a male siren, his dorsal fin had finally grown.

The dorsal tail fin on the back of his black fish tail, along the central axis, signified that he was about to reach adulthood. This was an important trait of male mermaids. Mo An surfaced to take a breath, then dove again. As his upper body slipped under the water, the dorsal fin curved into an S-shape with the movement of his tail muscles.

“Get up here, now!” Xia Yu urged anxiously. “If you don’t come up, I’m going down!”

“No, don’t come down.” Mo An poked his head out instantly, his silver hair dripping and making him look pitiful, like someone who had been drenched in rain. “The water is too cold for you.”

“Then come up,” said Xia Yu, lowering the rope ladder from the boat.

Mo An hadn’t had his fill of swimming yet, but he was afraid that Xia Yu might dive down on impulse. So, he obediently grabbed the ladder and waited to be pulled up. Mi Dou had also woken up and was standing on the deck, laughing. “It looks like we’re catching fish.”

“Don’t laugh. We’re literally running for our lives,” Silver Fang warned. These kids were far too carefree.

“But it really looks like that,” Mi Dou insisted, pointing at Mo An.

Mo An had already emerged from the water, looking just like a big fish that had been hauled onto the boat. He held the soft ladder with one hand and covered a certain part of his body with the other, looking embarrassed. Now that he had fully grown, such an expression looked very out of place on him, and Xia Yu was even more confused. “What’s wrong? What are you covering? Did you get hurt? Let me see!”

“No injury. There’s no need to look.” Mo An kept covering it.

“Move your hand.” If touching him weren’t forbidden, Xia Yu would’ve already done it himself.

“It’s nothing, really.” Mo An flicked his tail and leaped onto the boat, standing on the deck. When he was young, he couldn’t stand properly. Now, he could not only stand, but also move around steadily. His bones and muscles could support his body. His tail arched into a powerful curve like a wave, allowing him to “walk around.” Before Xia Yu could ask any more questions, Mo An darted into the cabin, still covering that area tightly, afraid of exposing anything.

Xia Yu could only ask Xi Ban, “What’s wrong with him?”

Xi Ban only laughed. “He grew up.”

“Grew up? Does growing up make him like this?” Xia Yu was even more puzzled.

“The mermaid’s cloacal opening is equivalent to your ‘down there.’ Of course he’s embarrassed and won’t let you see.” Xi Ban laughed so hard he nearly bent over.

C-cloacal… cloacal opening? What was that supposed to be? Xia Yu simply didn’t understand. When Mo An was little, he never hid anything like that. Out at sea, they spotted a faint island silhouette—their destination, Frozen Island. Clearly, no one had visited in a long time because the island was covered in snow and ice.

“Wait—something’s not right.” Mo An emerged again, grown big and strong with a bath towel wrapped around his waist, looking rather ridiculous.

“What’s wrong?” Xi Ban asked.

“The seawater.” Mo An slid to the railing with his tail. “I felt something was off earlier. Now, smell it. Is there a strange scent?”

Xi Ban sniffed the air. “It seems like…is that the smell of seawater?”

“It is, and it’s getting stronger.” Mo An looked toward the clear ocean. “The seawater is polluted. It’s as if it’s intentionally surrounding Frozen Island to keep aquatic creatures from approaching. It looks like this island really isn’t simple. There might be secrets up there.”