The Fallen Merman

The white shark omega stared at him with cold eyes. He got up from the throne and swam towards Rimbaud.

Rimbaud extended the dark blue sharp nails of his hands and swiftly drew an arc in front of the white shark’s chest, but the white shark’s skin did not get injured. Only a light mark was left on the hard surface. 

White Shark’s gland J1 ability, Scales Shield: The whole body would become a shield of fine scales. Even blades couldn’t tear through it.

Within the ocean, almost all ferocious fish could only depend on their teeths to attack others, while the white shark omega was able to be the most invincible in the entire ocean by relying on only his J1 ability.

All experimental subjects were artificially implanted with a combatting program in their brains; Rimbaud was no exception to this. He rushed straight up and then plunged deep down again. His slender tail coiled around the white shark’s body, his fist struck at the white shark merman’s breastbone, and his tail flung the white shark backwards, slamming his body against the reef on the seafloor.

The subtle sound of bone breaking was concealed by the ocean current. The white shark groaned in pain, and his fishtail swung vigorously. The churned bubbles awakened a large school of cuttlefishes that were hidden in the sunken ship. The cuttlefishes frantically released ink, dying the surrounding area jet-black.

The law of survival handed down from generation to generation had its truth—the fish that shone in the deep sea were clearly at a disadvantage.

Within the jet-black, Rimbaud’s fishtail stored with electricity was exceptionally noticeable, while the white shark’s figure was perfectly hidden in the darkness.

White sharks possess a strong and powerful tail fin, so they could swim extremely fast. The back of their tail had a sharp-edged dorsal fin, which reflected the dark light in the deep sea.

Rimbaud was lost in the darkness. Suddenly, there was sharp pain on his back—a bloody cut tore through his back. The white shark’s sharp dorsal fin cut off the bandages wrapped around his body, and it slowly fell to the seafloor. 

When the bandages gradually came off, it revealed Rimbaud’s mottled back. The ghoul face scar on his back, which symbolized exile, was malevolent and terrifying. At this moment, there was a deep and long wound caused by the white shark, and a large amount of blood spilled into the water.

Rimbaud’s line of sight was blocked, thus he drew back to get away from the ink-stained area. His wounded back was visibly healing.

A large school of sharks swam over after smelling the blood, surrounding the two of them and completely blocking Rimbaud’s escape route. Under the white shark omega’s command, the sharks, starved for several months, slammed into Rimbaud and bit him. Their rough and sharp skin rubbed his body to the point of leaving bleeding marks.

The white shark didn’t give Rimbaud time to take a breather. He immediately used his M2 ability, Bloodbath—for every 1% increase of the surrounding area’s blood concentration, the whole body’s attribute would increase by 1%, with 300% being the max. 

The white shark merman’s gland had long since reached M2 differentiation, and he was the most outstanding in the merfolk clan. Within the merfolk clan, the omegas’ differentiation rate was fast. Moreover, the carnivorous merfolks were more belligerent in nature and better in combat.

He achieved second-order differentiation earlier than Rimbaud, way before Rimbaud had succeeded as the leader.

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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“It was me who told the clansmen that you ran away when the volcano erupted. I said that you betrayed us, but this was just a reason to drive you away. I obviously could’ve killed you, but I didn’t.”

“Glowing scales are just a kind of mutation.” The white shark stared crazily into Rimbaud’s eyes from above. “I have also met those humans who asked me for you. They told me that glowing scales are just a mutation, that every clan in this world has it. There’s nothing special about you, so I should break this bullshit custom and become king.”

“I tossed you into their net, because I don’t want you to come back.” The white shark gritted his sharp teeth and asked, “When they brought tridents and torpedoes with them, only I was able to hold them back, can you?”

Rimbaud held onto the white shark’s blue-veined hands and blankly stared at him. 

The bleached coral that he was lying on slowly took on color. Like a sea of ​​flowers blooming from the center, a golden sea anemone gradually bloomed beside Rimbaud’s cheeks.

“Bigi war milayer, boliea nowa (People are made for war, merfolks are not).”

A hard and slender tube with the same temperature as the seawater pressed against the white shark’s abdomen. Suddenly, there was something penetrating his fragile abdomen; it was blazing hot, then a chilling cold.

The white shark held his pierced lower abdomen, the thick blood gushed out of the wound. He flipped over from on top of Rimbaud, retreated several steps back, and used his fish tail to maintain his balance. 

Rimbaud’s hand held a transparent hydrated steel Desert Eagle pistol.

The white shark’s expression changed from surprise to anger.

He held his gurgling bleeding abdomen and once again charged at Rimbaud. If one only weighed the pros and cons of their J1 and M2 differentiation abilities, the two differentiation abilities of the white shark were suitable for close combat. On the other hand, Rimbaud’s two differentiation abilities needed time to store up electricity, so he would definitely be at a disadvantage in close combat.

However, Rimbaud possessed the associated ability, Steel Hydration. At first, he could only use Steel Hydration to make knives and forks he saw in sunken ships, so for a long time, this associated ability performed mediocre. While right now, his brain had been implanted with a large amount of precise blueprints of weapons. 

The white shark swam around the ocean, aiming at the gland on Rimbaud’s nape. He swooped down from above, about to kill Rimbaud in one strike.

But all of a sudden, he stopped abruptly in the water; coming to a screeching halt some distance away from Rimbaud.

The Desert Eagle in Rimbaud’s hands dispersed, and the seawater converged to form a M134 Gatling gun. He lifted the transparent gun with one hand, the muzzle pressing against the white shark’s chest.

“No matter who it is, they cannot hold off on this kind of thing, Skylla.” Rimbaud said, “You understand?” 

The white shark slowly closed his eyes.

The transparent machine gun once again turned into a stream of water flowing from Rimbaud’s hand. A short transparent dagger fell into Rimbaud’s palm. He stabbed the blade into the bullet hole in the white shark’s abdomen and pulled it out harshly.

The sharks scrambled to devour the piece of mincemeat that fell. The group of alpha sharks who were trembling while hiding behind the throne saw Rimbaud unhurriedly swim over.

They kneeled down and kissed the tip of Rimbaud’s tail to show their loyalty. 

“Clean this place up.” Rimbaud said while looking at the carved words on his arm.

A group of colorful merfolks swam over and stopped far away from the sunken ship. They trembled with fear as they looked towards Rimbaud. The blood in the water had yet to dissipate, and the minced meat fell to the ground like rain. Hundreds of sharks were fighting over it, making Rimbaud look like a tyrant.

Hiding in the shoal of merfolks far away, an infant that was swimming wobbly squeezed his way out. He twisted his golden fishtail and swam towards Rimbaud in an exasperatedly slow manner. The infant took the jellyfish feelers and seashell conch on his blankie and hung it on Rimbaud’s head.

Rimbaud stretched out his hands. The infant happily turned into his arms, sucked his finger, and shook his tail. 

His omega mother was hiding behind a reef and hesitantly swam out. The mother first kneeled beside Rimbaud, then kissed the tip of his tail.

Rimbaud returned the infant in his arms to his mother, swam back to the throne, and sat down with his head in one hand.

The corals on the throne gradually turned from an ash-color to a bright red, the circle of golden sea anemones resembled luxurious tassels on the throne, and the pearl oyster inlaid on the backrest opened up, revealing the resplendent pearls inside its flesh.

The large group of merfolks swam out from behind the reef, surrounded Rimbaud, and kneeled down to kiss his tail. Although their fears were greater than their reverence towards him, Rimbaud did not care at all. 

Rimbaud strayed from the throne and paced back and forth on the seafloor. He lowered his head towards the seafloor to look for something. One by one, he picked up the bandages that had been cut off and tried to piece it back onto his back in an attempt to cover the ugly scars. However, the bandages were cut into far too many little pieces, so he kept failing.

He dispiritedly sat on the sand for a while and then looked at the memos on his arm. It’s better to get down to business first.

He put a tick before the first task with his fingernails. The second task was a huge project—cleaning up the imperial palace to welcome the queen.

The entire shipwreck area was where the merfolk clan inhabited, and at the moment, it was utterly dirty. The merfolks busied themselves with sweeping the seafloor while Rimbaud dragged a huge clam, swimming to a nearby sunken ship. 

The berry-colored beautiful giant clam was three meters wide; the largest in this sea area. It was especially strenuous for Rimbaud to drag it, carrying the shell into the sunken ship with his back.

Only half of this sunken ship was under sea level, the other half being exposed above the sea. It was the top most luxurious cruise ship in this entire shipwrecked area.

Rimbaud moved the giant clam to a suitable place. The giant clam was placed slanting in a hole, with half of it submerged in water while the other half was exposed to the air.

He casually grabbed a blue jellyfish, wrung it, used it as a rag to wipe the dirt inside the giant clam shell, and then electroplated it with a magnificent layer of color. 

He swam back to the bottom of the sea. He hauled up a huge sponge, placed it inside the giant clam shell, and earnestly laid it out flat. He swam off again, picking a seagrass that felt the most smooth and non-sticky among the bunch, then gently spread it out on top of the sponge.

Rimbaud laid on it to try it out, then knitted his brows in dissatisfaction. Thus, he tore it off and spread it out again. 

He picked up some bright and beautiful shells and conches to inlay on the clam edge, then grabbed a few blue jellyfishes and stuffed them inside to be used as nightlights hanging on the headboard.

The bedchamber was still a bit spacious and empty, so he swam off again and came back carrying a gigantic conch. He wrung a jellyfish dry to clean the inside of the conch and placed it beside the bed as a nightstand. Some condoms or snacks could be placed inside.

There was still something missing on top of the nightstand.

Rimbaud got into the sunken ship, picked out a round and beautiful skull from amongst the sailors’ corpses in the cabin, and sat on the clam bed to focus on polishing it with a shell. He polished the whole skull until it was shiny, rubbed the luminous substance from inside the jellyfish onto the skull, and then stuck the skull on top of the conch. He grabbed a red fish that was the size of a thumb and placed it inside to raise. 

It took two days just to decorate the bedchamber. Not to mention, the entire shipwrecked area and coral garden had to be taken care of one by one; Rimbaud had put a lot of effort into it.

Two merfolk swam near the bedchamber, tapped the outer wall of the sunken ship, and reported to the king, “Siren, boliea klafer (We have a new discovery).”

Together they swam over a strange little machine with a propeller in the shape of a fish, the outer walls covered with sensors. They handed it over to Rimbaud.

Rimbaud was already very familiar with human objects; he knew it was an underwater drone. However, whether it was principle or functions, he wasn’t too clear about either. 

When Rimbaud touched it, the weak electric current coming from his fingers went into it. He held up the machine and shook it. He raised it toward the sunlight and observed it for a while, and when he was about to put it in his mouth, the machine suddenly let out an electric current sound.

“Rimbaud, do you hear me?”

The voice couldn’t be anymore familiar. Rimbaud sat up at lightning speed in astonishment, and his tail rolled into a heart-shape and swayed. “Randi?”

He turned the machine upside down and shook it, then checked the ground to see if randi had been thrown out. 

Bai Chunian had been spending his days on a cruise ship and released a total of 100 underwater drones to detect Rimbaud. One of them suddenly went out of control when they passed by a certain area, and Bai Chunian’s field of vision on this side had also become completely black.

But a burst of electricity flashed through, the view suddenly became clear, and the camera was facing Rimbaud’s face.

It has been a long time since I’ve seen Rimbaud. Bai Chunian slightly choked up. He saw that Rimbaud was in good spirits and was not hurt.

“I’m on a ship.” Bai Chunian said, “You want me to go find you?” 

Rimbaud nodded. He raised the machine to show the bedroom he prepared for Bai Chunian.

“For randi, a bed to sleep on.”

Placed beside the giant clam, whose diameter could be recorded in the Guinness World Records, was a skull fish tank with a shadowy ghostly luminescence. The entire thing emitted a blue fluorescent light. Rimbaud hugged the drone and swam a bit farther, giving Bai Chunian the full view of the palace.

The enormous shipwrecked area accumulated a few centuries of luxurious cruise ships like a grand century museum built on a ghost island. 

Bai Chunian’s sadness choked back in.