Chapter 14: Monstrous Tentacles

The system space was the same as last time: a pure white expanse with countless bookshelves behind it.

The only difference was that the unfinished book on the table was gone, replaced by a glass of steaming water.

This time, Wen Chu didn’t lie趴 on the table but sat on the chair.

He was a bit dazed, still replaying the sight of Xiu’s worried eyes in the final second before he lost consciousness.

It was the first time he had seen such a vivid emotion in Xiu’s eyes. Even if he didn’t understand much, he could grasp what that gaze meant—

Xiu was worried about him.

Why? Hadn’t he told Xiu he was just going to sleep for a bit? And shouldn’t Xiu still be angry with him?

Or was he just worried that if he died, there would be no one to revive the creatures in the ocean?

A dull ache throbbed in Wen Chu’s heart, but he couldn’t put a name to his discomfort.

He pursed his lips. Just as he was about to ask the system when he could get out, he felt himself sinking bit by bit.

It was as if he were slowly getting shorter.

Wen Chu looked down at his wet, sticky jellyfish tentacles sliding continuously down the seat—the culprits behind his “shrinking.”

He used two tentacles to grab the chair’s armrests and pull himself back up.

Why had he appeared in the system space in this half-human, half-jellyfish form this time?

Wen Chu asked in confusion, “Does it not consume lifespan like this either?”

The system’s cold voice appeared: [No, your lifespan is paused here—Just who did you learn that from?]

“Learn what?” Wen Chu hadn’t caught on yet.

The system found it hard to say: [That… form of address.]

“Oh.” Wen Chu had a flash of insight and repeated his logic. “Because Xiu told me that the one who gave me life is my mama, and the clownfish said males can also become female, so I thought I could call you Mama. Is there something wrong with that?”

System: […]

For the sake of Wen Chu’s face, he held back the cold scoff that was on the tip of his tongue.

[I am male, and not a fish. Please do not use such ridiculous addresses for me.]

Wen Chu, his mind full of Xiu, followed up on the system’s words, “Then Xiu is a fish. Will he become female?”

[Ab-so-lute-ly not,] the system said, enunciating each syllable.

Wen Chu: “Then what about me? Can I?”

[You can’t either,] the system said, its patience worn thin. [Why are you so obsessed with becoming female?]

“Because… I want to be lovers with Xiu,” Wen Chu said weakly. “If I have a baby with Xiu, can we become lovers then?”

The system was rendered speechless by Wen Chu’s chaotic logic.

Wen Chu waited for a long time but got no answer. He thought for a moment, then asked: [By the way, last night I touched Xiu’s scale and my lifespan went up by twenty-four hours, but you didn’t appear. Can I touch it again in the future? Is that also a place only lovers can touch?]

System: […]

Wen Chu: “System? Are you still there?”

[You should be glad you have a decent face,] the system said out of the blue. [Otherwise, I would throw you out of the system space right now.]

Wen Chu: quq?

I get thrown out even for completing the mission properly?

He wanted to ask more, but the system quickly cut him off.

[You have been exposed to heavily polluted water twice in a row. Although Xiu got you out in time and I pulled you into this space, the damage from the water pollution is irreversible, and the seawater around you is still harming you.]

[After you leave the system space, your lifespan won’t drop by an hour every second anymore, but the rate of decrease will begin to accelerate.]

[At first, the rate will double. Then, it will double again every five days. You’d better get to the North Pole as quickly as possible and save up more lifespan, or this world will soon end in failure.]

Wen Chu also realized the gravity of the situation. His expression grew serious, and after the system finished speaking, he nodded earnestly. “Okay, I’ll remember. Thank you.”

“I’m sorry. I keep disobeying you and causing you trouble.”

The youth didn’t know where to look, so he directed his apology towards the glass of water beside him.

He had round eyes, soft features, and a beautiful, slender build, which easily gave a first impression of being gentle and harmless.

But now, with his lower body transformed into monstrous, transparent tentacles, this delicate beauty had become a grotesque and bizarre sight.

An excessively beautiful monster.

The system’s voice paused for a beat: […Oh. It’s fine.]

Wen Chu smiled at the glass of water, his eyes lingering beside it for a moment as he naturally rested a hand on the table, secretly picking something up.

“Then can I keep touching Xiu’s scale? It gives a lot of lifespan.”

Bang—

Whoosh—

Accompanied by the sound of surging waves, Wen Chu’s vision went black again.

He had been thrown out of the system space.

Under the fine, azure sunlight, the first thing Wen Chu saw was a head of long, golden hair.

“Wen Chu.”

He slowly raised his eyes and met a pair of clear blue ones.

They were cold, emotionless eyes, yet they were the gaze that brought him the most peace.

“Xiu.” Wen Chu curled his tentacles, rubbing against Xiu’s palm. “Are we out already?”

“Yes,” Xiu replied calmly, giving no hint of his earlier panic. “I brought you back.”

Wen Chu looked closely and saw his familiar little shell nest and the worried narwhal peeking out from behind Xiu.

The group of bizarrely-shaped clownfish were also gathered around him anxiously. Seeing him awake, they all started chattering at once. “You fainted just now. We almost thought you were dead.”

“Doesn’t the immortal jellyfish revert to its juvenile polyp stage before it dies, growing anew and never truly dying?”

“Idiot, that’s only if it dies of old age. He almost died from being poisoned.”

Wen Chu was dazed for a moment before he understood what the clownfish were discussing. He interrupted softly, “But aren’t I a puppy jellyfish? Xiu said I was a puppy.”

The clownfish fell silent for a second.

Then, they let out the exact same “Ewww” sound as the narwhal.

Heat rose in Xiu’s ears. He forced himself to ignore the stares from the clownfish and changed the subject. “Are you feeling better now?”

Wen Chu swam out of his palm, circled around him, then swam a lap between Xiu and the shell nest. “Much better! I’m all better now.”

“By the way, Xiu, before I fainted, I think I saw you…”

“You saw wrong,” Xiu interrupted him.

“Oh.” Wen Chu didn’t say whether he believed him or not, simply acknowledging it and draping himself over Xiu’s arm.

He looked at the clownfish and asked Xiu, “Why did you bring them back? Are they going to the North Pole too?”

While he didn’t mind bringing a few more fish along, he held a bit of a grudge.

This school of clownfish almost made him lose Xiu.

“No,” Xiu said, then looked at the lead clownfish. “On the way, you said you had a wish you wanted me to grant. What is it?”

“I would like to ask you to seal off the area polluted by nuclear wastewater, so no more fish can enter,” the lead clownfish said.

She was the one who most resembled a clownfish, with an orange-and-white body and black stripes. Her colors weren’t faded, nor was she deformed, but she was missing an eye.

Now, she looked at Xiu with her remaining eye and said sincerely, “I know this wish might be too abrupt, but we have already been irradiated into this state. We don’t want the remaining fish to become monsters like us, only to wait for death in the radiation.”

“Then what about you?” Wen Chu couldn’t help but ask. “If the area is sealed, where will you go?”

“We will stay there. Please seal us in along with it,” the clownfish said.

Wen Chu was stunned. He quickly thought of the parrotfish who wanted to be buried in the coral and asked uncertainly, “You… love coral too?”

“No, we love our leader,” a clownfish from the back chimed in. “We’re all going to die anyway, might as well do one last good deed with our leader.”

This reminded Wen Chu of the male-to-female transformation. He asked curiously, “The ‘leader’ you mentioned, was she also originally a male?”

A faded clownfish from the back replied matter-of-factly, “That’s right. If there are no female clownfish, the strongest among us will become female, and the second strongest will become male. A brother will grow up to become a wife or a husband.”

Wen Chu was shaken.

Wen Chu was baffled. “So are you considered male or female now?”

The clownfish couldn’t say for sure. “Both, I guess? Whatever is needed. You can’t hatch baby fish with only one gender.”

Wen Chu turned to look at Xiu.

He and Xiu were both male.

Xiu pushed away the jellyfish, whose mind was clearly wandering, and said seriously, “The polluted area is too large. I can’t possibly seal off tens of thousands of kilometers. But I can make warning signs for you to place yourselves.”

As he spoke, he nudged Wen Chu. “As you can see, I need to take him to the North Pole now. He doesn’t have much time.”

“I can live for a long time,” Wen Chu popped his head up defiantly.

Xiu pushed him back down. “Don’t interrupt when adults are talking.”

Wen Chu wanted to say he wasn’t interrupting Xiu’s mouth, but he was pressed so tightly into the crook of Xiu’s arm that he was nearly buried in the merman’s chest muscles, unable to say a word.

Fine, if you won’t let me talk.

Wen Chu melted into a limp puddle in Xiu’s embrace. While listening to Xiu and the clownfish discuss the details of the warning signs, he continued to ponder the questions he hadn’t finished thinking about.

Xiu’s gaze, the clownfish’s “leader,” and…

Wen Chu tilted his head up to look at Xiu.

Even from this unflattering death angle, Xiu was still perfect. His features were sharp, compellingly handsome. The long, golden hair did nothing to soften his appearance; instead, it made him seem more divine and unattainable.

The system had said Xiu would never fall in love with him. At first glance, Wen Chu had believed it, since Xiu had been so fierce when they first met.

But Xiu was only fierce with his words.

Even when he was genuinely angered, Xiu would come back to find him, and even show such an anxious expression for his sake.

Xiu was listening intently to the clownfish’s explanation, a thoughtful look appearing on his face from time to time.

Wen Chu couldn’t help but think:

I like Xiu a lot, and I want Xiu to like me a little more.

But so far, my efforts seem to have backfired, always making Xiu angry.

This time was even worse. Not only did I make him angry, but I also made him worry. I saw his worried gaze clearly before I passed out.

No one would ever fall for a jellyfish that always brings them trouble, especially not someone like Xiu.

Wen Chu sighed.

Becoming lovers with Xiu is so hard.

He had to try harder not to cause any more trouble for Xiu.

---

After Xiu finished discussing the details with the clownfish, he looked down at the listless jellyfish in his arms.

Xiu grew nervous. “Are you still not feeling well?”

Wen Chu shook his head. Just as he said “I’m fine,” he suddenly shrank by a large margin.

The jellyfish, which had been a quarter of Xiu’s body size, had shrunk to a sixth.

Wen Chu glanced at his lifespan panel.

It turned out his lifespan had dropped below twenty days.

According to the pattern he’d discovered, he would grow a size for every five days of lifespan he gained. Now that his lifespan, dropping at double speed, had fallen to nineteen days, it was normal for him to shrink a size.

Xiu, however, looked like he was facing a great enemy. A panicked look appeared on his face again. Ignoring the clownfish who were still gawking at Wen Chu’s sudden shrinking, he hastily said, “Something’s come up with him,” and sped away with Wen Chu.

“How much did your lifespan drop? What’s going on?” Xiu asked rapidly as he swam.

Wen Chu had intended to tell the truth about his lifespan decreasing at an accelerated rate, but after seeing Xiu’s anxious profile, he paused and lied slowly, “Not much. I still have nineteen days. It just dropped a lot suddenly when I touched the nuclear wastewater. I still have a long time.”

He had played pitiful before because he was actually fine. Now was not a good time for that.

Xiu would genuinely worry.

But even though Wen Chu omitted part of the truth, Xiu still didn’t seem relieved. He took him straight to the surface and carefully fed him green algae.

“Eat a little first. After you’re full, I’ll let you… kiss.” The last word was still difficult for Xiu to say.

His long golden hair covered his ears. Wen Chu guessed the ears underneath must be red.

As Xiu kept feeding him, Wen Chu swallowed subconsciously. A few seconds later, he reacted, “You’re not angry at me anymore?”

Xiu fell silent for a moment.

He had almost forgotten about being angry with Wen Chu this morning.

Wen Chu was the one who lied, yet Wen Chu was also the one who got hurt. Now, he was the one feeling a moral burden.

Seeing Xiu’s silence, Wen Chu thought he was still angry. He wrapped his tentacles around Xiu’s arm and said softly, “I’m sorry. I’m always causing trouble for you. I’ll try to be less of a handful in the future.”

“Don’t leave me behind again. I’m afraid I won’t be able to find you.”

Xiu looked down at Wen Chu. “I never thought of leaving you. I was just…”

A little worried, a little scared.

This time, he had only accidentally gotten his tentacles cut off. What about next time?

Wen Chu was so weak and unaware of it, which had made him lose his temper.

As for the deeper emotions hidden beneath that fear, Xiu didn’t even dare to think about them too closely.

Wen Chu didn’t believe him. He hugged Xiu tighter.

Every doctor had said they wouldn’t abandon him, but in the end, they always disappeared and passed him on to the next one.

A worthless failure would always be thrown away.

He was useful to Xiu now. He didn’t want to be thrown away.

Wen Chu extended a tentacle towards Xiu. “I don’t believe you. It only counts if you pinky-swear with me.”

The jellyfish was clinging to his entire arm for dear life. Seeing Wen Chu’s “I won’t let go until you swear” stance, Xiu helplessly extended his pinky finger.

The merman’s long, slender finger hooked one of the jellyfish’s tentacles.

“Pinky-swear, hooked for a hundred years, no changing allowed.”

Xiu looked at the earnest jellyfish with amusement. Seeing that Wen Chu seemed to have regained some of his energy, he finally relaxed a little. “What if I do change?”

Wen Chu looked at him seriously. “You promised me. We pinky-swore. If you abandon me, I’ll haunt you even as a ghost.”

He’s the one who’s untrustworthy, yet he’s so demanding of others.

Xiu flicked his head. “Let’s see you live to a hundred first.”

A sickly jellyfish with only a dozen or so days left to live.

---

Author’s Note:
You’ve said something quite terrifying without even realizing it, Chu.