The Fallen Merman

The person who came to open the door was an omega maid dressed in a blue and white uniform. The omega welcomed Bai Chunian into the mansion and invited him to sit in the reception room with a cup of coffee as he went to call the master over.

Bai Chunian sat down on the soft sofa. He had changed into a new black vest, showing that he attached importance to this meeting. 

Shao Jin mansion’s architectural style was grand and magnificent. Its back faced the sea, it and had fashionable decorations. Bai Chunian touched the surface of the Fendi tea table in front of him and couldn’t help comparing it with the President and Uncle Jin’s vacation home. The taste of this mansion’s owner was only average. If one were to talk about the style, Uncle Jin’s vision was still better.

The master didn’t let him wait too long and pushed open the door after a short while. Bai Chunian set down his cup of coffee and saw that the people who came were the Crawler omega and the black panther alpha.

Bai Chunian naturally asked, “Domino is not here ah? I initially wanted to thank him for helping me cover up at the detention center.”

Black panther looked at him coldly, slowly sat down on the sofa, and asked the maid to bring him a new cup of coffee.

“Domino’s schedule has been busy lately with his book signing sessions.” Crawler had a lollipop in his mouth, still wearing the fluorescent yellow sweatshirt with a black worm printed on the front.

“Oh right,” Bai Chunian said. “I recently read all his works. One of them, ‘Water-Colored Grave,’ was well-written. It was very immersive and substitutionary.”

Domino was actually a pen name. “Water-Colored Grave” was a kind of science fiction novel. Its word count was less than 10,000. It was the story of a baby born from a one-human-tall rectangular fish tank that grew, reproduced, and eventually died. Their child inherited their memories and repeated the cycle in the fish tank. After repeating for countless years, the last child eventually grew up, broke the fish tank, and stepped on the shattered glass to leave the silent room.

The book was extremely popular and was sought after by a large number of science fiction readers. Six months ago, the book even won the Milky Way Award for its sincere emotions and vivid details. Those avid readers were completely convinced that Domino had lived in a fish tank for a month in order to create such a masterpiece. 

“A signing tour? Too bad I couldn’t make it. I’d love to have his signature on the title page of my copy of the book.” Bai Chunian laughed.

Black panther looked at Bai Chunian with hostility in his eyes.

Crawler bit his lollipop and said, “I’ll tell him.” He realized that Bai Chunian had already found something strange. Of course, no secret could be hidden from the Divine Envoy.

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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Crawler gritted his teeth secretly. How could somebody be so intangible in another person’s territory?

“Fine, I told them your location, but that’s about it.” Crawler could only confess. “That was because we didn’t dare go near Rimbaud’s territory, so we wanted to use the terrorist organization to get some information. As a result, they were so timid that they didn’t even dare to fart after you killed the octopus Kraken.” 

Bai Chunian sneered sarcastically, “They’re not an ordinary terrorist organization. There’s no shortage of intelligent, high-positioned people in it. If you want information, then you should come to me directly. I even have a reasonable price, so ask me directly, what information do you want?”

Crawler sighed in his heart and thought to himself: ‘What we want the most is information about you, dammit.’

“The information you’ve given me is practical, but I can’t give you information about what I saw in the Caribbean for nothing.”

Crawler leaned forward, waiting for Bai Chunian to speak earnestly. After listening to his love life with Rimbaud for half an hour, he finally got a slightly useful clue. 

Bai Chunian told the truth about the discovery of the massive number of clones of himself in the sea. The matter was no longer a secret. All the agents of the South American branch saw them. The incident could no longer be kept hidden. Finally, Bai Chunian chose to report everything to the President before the branch could report it upward, so that was the reason why the President consoled him that he was unique.

The confidentiality of the division wasn’t very trustworthy. Rather than letting Crawler find out about it himself, it would be better for Bai Chunian to push the boat along in the water and send information as a favor.

The news surprised Crawler: “This, I’ll look into it again. I’ll let you know if I find any new information.”

“Okay. We’re all in the same boat after all,” Bai Chunian smiled faintly and agreed, “At least the general direction of our goal is about the same.” 

“We are all experimental subjects.” Bai Chunian bent his eyes, “Destroying the 109 Research Institute should be the wish of each of us. I don’t really care about what you want to do to counteract humanity after that.”

Crawler’s mood relaxed after he was bluntly exposed. It was no use putting in the effort to talk skillfully to the Divine Envoy since he didn’t even beat around the bushes while dealing with the matter.

During the 109 Research Institute’s explosion incident, countless experimental subjects escaped. To cover up the crime to reduce the impact, the Research Institute claimed to have lost only a handful and that they had basically completed the capture and recovery. This wasn’t the case at all. Numerous experimental subjects were now roaming around society. Things looked peaceful on the surface, but the situation was actually completely uncontrollable.

Ordinary people could not distinguish between experimental subjects and humans. You could only detect it with rare instruments, but there was only a small number of such equipment. The detection range was small, and the effect was minimal. 

“All right.” Crawler confessed to show sincerity. “Invisible Stalker and Samael are our members. We were the ones who sponsored Invisible Stalker’s Triangular Pyramid Cabin. We’ve also sent Samuel to rescue Professor Lin Deng, but his ability is too special. People who will be infected by the virus any place he is at, which will expose us easily. Samael knew that he would die long ago, so he was willing to exchange his life for Professor Lin Deng’s.”

“I initially tried to spread the Research Institute’s information in the ATWL exam, hoping to cause a major commotion, but there are a lot of outstanding hackers in the Institute. I tampered with the front while they repaired behind, so I only managed to spread half of the important information out.”

“Professor Lin Deng is our hope. I can’t say much about it now unless you agree to join us. If you and Rimbaud are willing to join us, it will be much easier to destroy 109 Research Institute.”

Bai Chunian spread his hands: “I’m a member of the IOA. Joining you would mean betraying the Alliance. You should know our President well; no experimental subject can compete with his grade, so I advise you to keep your aim pure and don’t mess with IOA.” 

“President Yan Yi… is good,” Crawler murmured softly. “I hacked into the international conference to listen. He really demanded the breeding of living Special Operations Weapons to be banned, existing experimental subjects to be recognized as independent and intelligent beings, and the indiscriminate killing of them to be stopped. Even an omega reaching the rare A3-grade would not dare to make such a request at the risk of being crushed by all forces sooner or later. While Yan Yi’s level is grade enough, he’s aggressive in what he does.”

The President had been staying in Westminster these days and had yet to return. Bai Chunian had also been quietly watching the progress. The President had expressed his stance by being willing to do these things. Regardless of the outcome, it would be up to the President’s attitude, and Bai Chunian was willing to follow him.

“All right,” said Crawler, shaking his head. “Promise me you won’t go against us again. Invisible Stalker going into an International Prison because of you wasn’t a small loss for us.”

Bai Chunian didn’t immediately agree: “I don’t know how many of your members are there, but still, please restrain yourself. Experimental subjects can live well by eating inorganic substances, so don’t eat people and don’t redirect your resentment for the 109 Institute toward ordinary people. The President is already tired. I’ll solve anything as long as it would cause him trouble. The President just brought us up in a meeting, and you guys would commit murders? Isn’t that a slap in his face?” 

Crawler thought for a moment, “I’ll promise you.”

Bai Chunian held out his hand. “Not bad, you’re sensible.”

Crawler shook hands with him.

“In that case, I’ll give you information to apologize for leaking your whereabouts,” Crawler said. “The Red-Throated Birds have always been hostile to the IOA. At first, this was because they’d made a fortune selling high-level omega glands. Ever since the IOA was established, the personal protection of omegas has been at an all-time high. Murders for gland removal and forced marriages have almost disappeared, making it difficult for the Red-Throated Birds to find expensive high-level omegas to sell. Now, President Yan Yi has put forward a request for the protection of experimental subjects at the international conference meeting, which has further damaged the weapons and ammunition interests of the Red-Throated Birds. This means President Yan has long become a thorn in their eyes.” 

“I intercepted internal information from the Red-Throated Bird that they are planning to launch a terrorist attack of a certain scale when President Yan’s plane stops at M Harbor to cause a commotion to undermine his prestige.”

“They desperately wish they could kill him, but no one can really beat him. Assassination is definitely not going to work. They can only achieve their goal in a roundabout way on the outskirts. Frankly, they’re just doing it to disgust you guys and create a terrifying atmosphere to reduce the weight of the President’s words.”

Bai Chunian’s smile faded a little, “But I can’t leave the country without a mission letter approved by the headquarters.”

Crawler replied, “That has nothing to do with me. Although I’m moved by the President’s actions, I will not sacrifice our members to stop the siege for him. Besides, we both know Yan Yi’s strength. He will certainly not be in danger.” 

They talked for a while before Bai Chunian got up to say goodbye. Before leaving, he leaned over and said to the black panther alpha sitting upright on the single sofa: “You haven’t moved at all. You might as well hang yourself up on the wall, then you’ll be a seal.”

The black panther alpha glared at him.

After Bai Chunian left, Black Panther indifferently said: “What a difficult guy.”

Crawler sat on the sofa, swinging his legs with the lollipop in his mouth. “Can’t help it. I’d be very crazy if I were the Divine Envoy.” 

“Do you think he’ll go to M Harbor?”

Crawler asked back, “Why not? I didn’t lie to him. It’s evident that his feelings for mankind are different from ours, and they mainly stem from that President of his. Ah, an experimental subject obtaining human feelings of affection and trust, I don’t know if I should envy him or despise him.”

“Now we’re working together. In the short term, we don’t have any conflicts of interest or crossed purposes. We’re friends as long as we have a common enemy,” he said.

“Inform the others to not attack living humans anymore and eat some proper food. What he said made sense, and this President is actually not bad.” 

The black panther alpha snorted lightly and got up to leave the reception room.

After Bai Chunian left the mansion, he returned to the dock and hung around there for a bit.

He didn’t believe everything Crawler said, but some situations had to be prevented.

He pressed his earpiece and contacted Han Xingqian. 

Han Xingqian was grading his students’ biochemical homework and asked without looking up: “I heard everything. Apply to the headquarters for the maintenance task of M Harbor’s monitoring station and nothing will go wrong by just taking a look. Just in case, every terrorist attack planned by the Red-Throated Bird is very tricky.”

“En, I thought so too.”

Han Xingqian asked, “Are you going to take Rimbaud with you?”

Bai Chunian said. “Yeah. You have to go too, preferably with three more trainees.” 

Han Xingqian frowned slightly, “Aren’t you overreacting?”

Bai Chunian said firmly, “No. Who were the ones that scored top three this year for the year-end assessment?”

Han Xingqian flipped through the report card: “Bi Lanxing, Lu Yan, and Xiao Xun.”

Bai Chunian: “Pack them up and bring them along.”