The Fallen Merman

Translator: Bambootriangle

Translation Checker: Rin 

Editor: Shark

Proofreader: khun

The night before the exam, which was held in the middle of the month, Bai Chunian checked the video of the special trainees’ rapid reaction shooting and intrusion recognition shooting on the laptop. The special trainees at the training base might not all choose to join the Alliance Secret Service after passing the final assessment. There were also special trainees hoping to join the Alliance Anti-Explosives Squad and the Alliance Medical Association, so intrusion recognition shooting would be an extremely important subject. Breaking into narrow, enclosed spaces as well as picking out the combat target quickly was a required course in the city’s anti-terrorism combat.

When he checked the videos of the 30 or so special trainees, the laptop suddenly blue screened, and lines of white garbled characters appeared on the left side of the screen. 

“These bastards, they played games on my laptop while I wasn’t around. Now it has a virus.” Bai Chunian pressed the Esc key a few times, but there was no response. He pressed the Enter key, but there was no response. After forcing it to shut down and restarting it again, there was still no response.

He shut down the computer, patted it, turned it on again, and sure enough, the blue screen disappeared.

Instead, it turned into a pure white computer desktop, and a dynamic black logo gradually appeared in the center of the screen.

The design was shaped like a crawling worm.

Bai Chunian rested his hands on his cheeks and watched the changes on the screen boredly. When a line of text appeared on the screen, he wasn’t surprised at all.

The worm logo on the desktop didn’t disappear, but a text cursor appeared in the upper left corner. As the cursor moved, a line of black text quickly showed up:

“9100, I want to make a deal with you.”

Bai Chunian yawned and said into the computer’s microphone: “Hey bro, do you have a mic? I’m too lazy to type.” 

Ktf mbwqeafg megrbg qjerfv jcv mbcalcefv asqlcu:

“Rb.”

Djl Jtecljc rjlv, “Pa vbfrc’a wjaafg, la’r olcf rlcmf sbe mjc tfjg wf.”

Ktfgf kjr bcf wbgf ilcf bo afza bc atf vfrxabq: “Po sbe kjca sbeg obeg sbecu raevfcar ab mbwf yjmx jilnf, P jvnlrf sbe ab ilrafc ab ws vfji.” 

Bai Chunian took a red pen and pulled out a stack of theory class test papers from the bookshelf, lowered his head to mark them, and replied casually, “First, don’t call me by my number. Second, I couldn’t care less if you threaten me with a few human lives.”

The text continued to appear: “I thought that after integrating into human society for three years, your attitude would change, that at least you would be infected by humans and become hypocritical. But it doesn’t matter, our ultimate goal is the same.”

“You’re the reptile omega that the president talked about, right? It’s also you who hacked into the ATWL exam to tamper with the questions and send all the warning emails to various forces, right?”

Reptile omega: “Yes. Now I have the details of all the undisclosed experimental subjects of the 109 Research Institute. You can now randomly select an experimental subject to verify that my words are completely true.” 

Bai Chunian’s speed of correcting the test papers didn’t increase or slow down: “The condition?”

Reptile omega: “Go to Enxi City and escort Dr. Lin Deng from Enxi Hospital to the place I tell you.”

“Wow.” Bai Chunian sighed expressionlessly, “Then Dr. Lin Deng must be very important to you and your accomplices. I’ll set the price of this commission a bit higher.”

Reptile omega: “What do you want?” 

Bai Chunian: “Give me your contact information, and in the future, give me whatever information I need.”

Reptile omega: “Your appetite is too big.”

“Of course, if you could find other people who can help you, I would definitely not set such a high price.” Bai Chunian lifted the graded test papers and tapped them on the table, “I never force people to make a deal, but are you confident that you’ll never ask me for help in the future?”

Reptile omega: “I accept. Please keep your promise.” 

Bai Chunian laid on the table and closed his eyes to rest, “Tell me about Experimental Subject 408 first.”

The reptile omega sent a brief page of information.

Special Operations Weapon No. 408: Samael

Status: Cultivation stage omega 

Appearance: Same as humans, but without pupils. Eyeballs are completely red.

Differentiation ability: “Looping Virus”, the target enters the early stage of infection within 24 hours after infection. When an infected person realizes that they’re morbid, they’ll enter the late stage of infection immediately.

The late stage of infection manifests as: Nervous system disorder, reduced vision, intelligence, and mobility, gradual rupture of internal organs and skin as blood oozes, indiscriminately biting uninfected people, and transmission of looping virus through bodily fluids.

Cultivation direction: Infectious disease as a biochemical weapon 

“Ah, it sounds like a combination of rabies and Ebola hemorrhagic fever.” Bai Chunian became interested, “What is the early manifestation of infection?”

Reptile omega: “I want to confirm that you’ve left for Enxi City before giving you more detailed information.”

Bai Chunian: “That’s it?”

Reptile omega: “…” 

Reptile omega: “Although you don’t care about the safety of those human children, I still have information that I can tell you for free. They’ve been trapped in Enxi Hospital and can’t communicate with the outside world. I can only contact them through a landline in the hospital. The following is a recording of the phone call.”

The recording was a bit noisy, but the firefly omega’s voice could still be vaguely recognized speaking with an enduring cry: “This is the Alliance Anti-Explosives Squad. We’re trapped inside the Enxi Hospital building. Right now there are crazy infected patients everywhere. The seniors of the Anti-Explosives Squad have all sacrificed themselves, and now there are only the four of us special trainees protecting the doctors. If anyone can hear this, please help us contact the Omega Alliance headquarters to ask for assistance.”

Bai Chunian was indifferent.

Reptile omega: “I’ll take the initiative to contact you when you arrive at Enxi City.” 

The dynamic worm logo on the screen crawled away awkwardly, the laptop desktop returned to its original state, and the assessment video of the special trainees continued playing.

Bai Chunian wasn’t in the mood to review the video again, so he turned it off. This laptop was provided for instructors. It was usually used only for playing videos or editing videos needed for lectures. It wasn’t generally used for personal use. Therefore, the desktop wallpaper was a large photo of the training base, with the silly and cute special trainees surrounded by several instructors, facing the camera and making peace signs.

He closed the laptop, sent a single-person assistance request to the president, and sent a message to Rimbaud while he was at it.

At this time, Rimbaud was soaking in the fish tank and watching TV, which was playing Titanic. Rimbaud was holding a small basin filled with blue jellyfish. He stared at the screen and threw something to chew on into his mouth from time to time. When Rose and Jack were about to fall into the water, Rimbaud put the basin under the TV and continued, his pearly white face expressionless. 

The phone rang suddenly, showing a voice message from Bai Chunian:

“Baby, I’m going to Enxi City on a business trip for a few days. The signal might not be good and I may lose contact. Don’t worry about me. I’ll still be thinking of you even if I don’t call you.”

After listening to his message, Rimbaud threw the phone to the back and continued to watch TV.

Bai Chunian was sitting on the noisy and deafening helicopter, wearing a black leather copper-buttoned vest on the upper body, overalls and mid-calf combat boots with a bullet belt on his lower body. He wore black finger guards on his hands, which were holding the phone, and waited. He looked at the photo on the lock screen for a while. He didn’t get a reply, so he put his phone on mute and back in his pocket. 

The helicopter hovered over Enxi City and slowly lowered the rope ladder. Bai Chunian hung on the rope and fell rapidly, landing on the top of the tallest building in Enxi City—the Star Observation Tower.

The night sky was like an upside-down abyss. Bai Chunian crouched on the top of the sky-high tower, lazily overlooking the city sunk in the abyss of silence.

————