Chapter 24: Big Disaster!

Xiu was still in a trance, unaware of the discordance in Wen Chu’s actions, but the system, as a bystander, clearly realized it.

[You know what that scale is.] The system’s voice was calm.

[Don’t know.] Wen Chu answered with a smile.

The system had seen Wen Chu’s human form. Even though the other was currently a silly-looking jellyfish on the outside, he inexplicably felt he saw that beautiful youth with long white hair.

Beautiful beyond gender, an objective beauty indistinguishable. Those round eyes curved slightly on that face, hiding a natural slyness under innocence.

The jellyfish felt innocent: [I’m just earning Lifespan points.]

And rubbing against Xiu by the way.

He and Xiu were both male. Rubbing like this was already the most intimate behavior he knew.

There was a little selfishness, but not much. Wen Chu felt that just this bit of selfishness was entirely forgivable.

The system scoffed coldly: [You better be just earning Lifespan points. You should think about how to deal with your Lifespan points, which are about to accelerate sixteen times.]

Wen Chu: …

For the first time, Wen Chu was speechless in front of the system.

Because he really hadn’t thought of how to explain it.

Actually, according to the methods of earning Lifespan points he mastered now, as long as he confessed to Xiu and let Xiu kiss him a bit longer every day, or let Xiu’s scales eat his tentacles a few more times, it could completely balance the plummeting Lifespan points.

But, this time it was sixteen times, next time thirty-two times, then sixty-four times.

He couldn’t possibly do nothing in the future but stick to Xiu, right?

Moreover, he didn’t want to see Xiu’s anxious expression for him anymore.

Wen Chu fell silent for a while. Only the squelching sound of tentacles touching scales remained at the bottom of the sea.

Just when the system felt Wen Chu’s silence was a bit wrong, Wen Chu spoke slowly: [Then can I only accelerate the drop in the future? Can I heal myself?]

[No.] The system answered indifferently, [But your Lifespan point drop speed will return to normal in the next plane.]

Meaning there was no room for negotiation in this plane.

Wen Chu let out an “Ah,” then whispered: [Then forget it. I’ll think of another way. I don’t want to trouble Xiu.]

The system was very cold: [Suit yourself. I won’t save you.]

Determining there was no room for mediation, Wen Chu stopped pestering the system and continued to seriously help Xiu solve the trouble on his scales.

The merfolk was no longer sober, completely unaware that the jellyfish had spaced out right under his nose.

Stimulated, he desperately wanted to curl his tail and escape, yet feared hurting the fragile jellyfish. The huge blue fishtail curled up and straightened out, presenting an extremely conflicted struggling posture.

Wen Chu stroked the tips of the scales very lightly with his tentacles.

Xiu’s tail tip trembled with a shrink, once again succumbing under the jellyfish’s tentacles.

[Lifespan +36h]
[Remaining Lifespan: 27 Days 1 Hour 06 Minutes]

This time, Xiu didn’t recover until Wen Chu swam slowly in front of him, even forgetting to retract his scales.

Being forcibly extracted twice in a row by tentacles, the scales were no better off than the flesh on his chest, perhaps even more pitiful, also flushing with overuse.

Xiu was the only merfolk in the ocean and had never mated with humans or fish. His scales were hidden inside most of the time.

For scales that had never been used, this was too much.

Wen Chu extended a tentacle to tuck Xiu’s messy golden hair behind his ear, and sure enough, saw Xiu’s bright red earlobes.

Although he had begun to doubt whether Xiu’s red ears were truly from anger, seeing Xiu’s earlobes really made Wen Chu flinch.

He said carefully, “Xiu…”

Don’t tell me he’s going to ignore me again quq

Xiu slowly came back to his senses.

Looking at the big jellyfish in front of him, his first reaction was: Why hasn’t he grown back to his original size yet.

Then, Xiu realized what had just been done to him, curling his tail almost reflexively.

“You…”

As soon as Xiu spoke, he realized his voice was hoarse from overstimulation.

Looking at the innocent and nervous jellyfish in front of him, words of reprimand reached his lips but ultimately turned into a sigh.

“…Forget it. Don’t do this next time. I have something to tell you tomorrow.”

Just after the act, he really didn’t know how to start educating Wen Chu on sexual knowledge, so he chose to push this matter to tomorrow.

“Okay!” Wen Chu agreed very readily.

Xiu couldn’t be bothered to ask if Wen Chu misunderstood it as some messy other meaning again. He flicked his tail and started swimming: “It’s late. Let’s go back first. I’ll make time for you to kiss tomorrow—by the way, your tentacle.”

Xiu looked closely and saw the bite mark was still clearly visible on Wen Chu’s semi-transparent tentacle.

Xiu frowned: “Can’t you recover after being injured?”

It had been so many days. He remembered to apply medicine and bandage Wen Chu all the time. Why hadn’t the bite mark on Wen Chu’s tentacle changed at all?

Wen Chu had forgotten about the bite mark on his tentacle himself. Reminded by Xiu, he looked down at his tentacle, unconcerned: “It’s okay. It’s just a bite mark. Other injuries heal very quickly.”

Actually, Wen Chu wished the bite mark would disappear slower.

This was a mark left by Xiu.

Xiu was still worried and pressed: “Are your Lifespan points enough now? No problem getting through the night, right?”

“No problem,” Wen Chu answered obediently.

Now he had a full twenty-seven days of Lifespan. Even dropping at eight times the speed wouldn’t be a problem.

Xiu breathed a sigh of relief: “That’s good. Next, we have to pass through a submarine mountain range and pass by Atlantis. The path there isn’t easy to swim, and mines are densely distributed, easy to get lost or have accidents. I’ll handle checking directions in the future. You obediently wait for me with the narwhal.”

At least in the deep sea, the jellyfish wouldn’t inexplicably be on the verge of death.

Wen Chu knew Xiu made sense and agreed: “Okay.”

Xiu looked Wen Chu up and down, confirming the jellyfish looked normal, before picking him up to swim back.

Wen Chu, deprived of the right to act alone on his first solo outing, sighed.

[Jellyfish are so fragile; they die if you’re not careful.] He said to the system, [Can you give me an identity that doesn’t die so easily in future worlds?]

[Depends on the situation. Comparatively speaking, you are already a not-so-fragile jellyfish.] The system said.

Normal jellyfish would have died eight hundred times already.

Wen Chu continued to sigh: [That’s still very fragile. Or letting me maintain human form is fine too. My human form is very powerful. Wouldn’t that be better for completing tasks?]

Wen Chu revealed his true intentions. The system finally realized something was wrong and hit the nail on the head: [You just want to look a bit better to approach Xiu.]

Wen Chu: …

Such a merciless system.

System: [No negotiation. I can’t control your identity either. Besides—your human form looks messy and isn’t good-looking either.]

Wen Chu whispered: [The doctors all said I look good.]

The system asked back: [Is Xiu the same as the doctors?]

Not the same. Of course not the same.

The doctors rarely spoke to him. Xiu was the first person to hold him while sleeping, who wouldn’t stay away knowing he was dangerous, who would get nervous for him.

Wen Chu fell silent. He was truly questioned by the system until he doubted life.

He hadn’t looked in the mirror many times. Most of the time, he knew himself through reflections on glass and images in people’s pupils. At this moment, he fell into deep self-doubt.

——Could it be that the doctors said he looked good just to coax him before?

Is he beautiful or ugly?

Wen Chu looked up at Xiu. Xiu’s appearance was completely different from his, extremely sharp. High nose bridge, distinct angles, long platinum eyelashes, indifferent and distant, looking very fierce and unapproachable.

Evaluating him by Xiu’s appearance standards, he seemed to be ugly.

Wen Chu choked up.

It’s over. Turns out he’s an ugly monster.

The jellyfish withered entirely, hanging on the merfolk’s hand like a jellyfish streamer that lost its dreams.

Xiu looked at him strangely: “What’s wrong? Uncomfortable?”

Wen Chu asked sadly: “If I were an ugly monster, would you still like me?”

Xiu: …

How did Wen Chu’s thinking jump to this matter?

Xiu didn’t perfunctory him. He thought carefully along Wen Chu’s words, then said: “I’m not sure either, because I don’t like you right now.”

Wen Chu became even sadder.

“—However, even though you are a jellyfish now, I don’t reject you. Even if you look weird, you shouldn’t be weirder than a jellyfish, right?”

Xiu looked down at him and smiled very faintly.

“What messy things are you thinking about blindly?”

Wen Chu froze halfway through being sad.

He stared blankly at the fleeting smile at the corner of Xiu’s lips, his heart starting to race uncooperatively.

Jellyfish have no hearts, but his soul did.

Thump thump, thump thump.

Wen Chu extended two tentacles to cover his umbrella cap.

He whispered: “Then I won’t turn into a human. I want to be a jellyfish forever.”

Xiu poked him amusedly: “You, turn into a human? Are you the Little Mermaid?”

“What is the Little Mermaid?” Wen Chu became alert. “Are there other pretty mermaids?”

Xiu: …

Xiu deeply realized once again how ignorant the jellyfish in front of him was: “It’s a fairy tale. Just like The Princess and the Pea before, it’s just a story.”

Wen Chu repeated in confusion: “Fairy tale?”

“Mn.” Xiu looked at the return journey and simply slowed down his swimming speed.

Surviving a disaster, carrying some emotion he couldn’t explain himself, Xiu began: “It’s a story about a mermaid. Long ago, in the undersea kingdom, the mermaid king’s youngest daughter floated to the surface on the day she came of age. She saw a prince on a ship…”

In the pitch-black seawater, the silent ocean, the last merfolk told the magnificent story left by humans to the only jellyfish.

“…In the end, the Little Mermaid threw the witch’s dagger on the ground, jumped into the sea from the ship, and turned into foam.”

“The foam rose under the sunlight, reflecting colorful luster, then burst suddenly.”

As soon as Xiu finished speaking, he suddenly heard patter patter water sounds from the jellyfish on his hand.

It was the jellyfish anthropomorphically wiping his umbrella cap with tentacles, then separating two tentacles to cling to his arm, choking with sobs: “Humans are bad. I don’t allow you to fall in love with other humans.”

Xiu: …

He seemed to have said Wen Chu was like the Little Mermaid earlier.

Wen Chu was moved to pieces. It was his first time hearing such a poignant, world-shaking love story. Although he couldn’t shed tears, he put on a full display of being moved.

Besides being moved, he finally realized that Xiu seemed to be talking about him earlier.

Wen Chu became more determined: “I won’t fall in love with a human prince. I only like Xiu.”

Xiu was expressionless: “Do you know what lesson this story teaches us?”

“What?” Wen Chu asked.

“Don’t be a love brain, otherwise you’ll only suffer and turn into foam,” Xiu said.

At this moment, Wen Chu could understand the Little Mermaid again and argued based on reason: “It doesn’t matter. Compared to killing the prince, dying for the person you like doesn’t matter.”

Xiu raised an eyebrow: “Even if that person you like married another princess?”

Wen Chu fell silent.

Wen Chu said silently: “The Little Mermaid did it wrong. She should have killed the prince too, then died together. That way, even if the prince had a change of heart, it wouldn’t matter. They could be together forever, and the prince would only belong to her.”

This time it was Xiu who fell silent.

What kind of dark fairy tale was this?

Fortunately, Wen Chu didn’t dwell on this story for long. After digesting the Little Mermaid’s story, he pulled Xiu to ask: “What about The Princess and the Pea? What is The Princess and the Pea?”

This must also be a poignant love story.

Just as Xiu wanted to speak, he saw the narwhal from afar.

He stopped talking.

“We’ve arrived.”

Wen Chu looked up and also saw the narwhal counting sand not far away. This time, the sand in front of the narwhal had piled into a high mountain.

He greeted the narwhal cheerfully: “Granny Narwhal!”

The narwhal looked up, saw the shrunk Wen Chu, then looked at Xiu, and said very movingly: “So you guys still remember me.”

She thought Wen Chu and Xiu ran off chasing each other and just forgot her there.

Xiu smiled helplessly: “Sorry, didn’t mean to leave you behind. Just had a small accident on the way.”

He briefly explained the oil leak on the surface, skipping the part about Wen Chu’s sharp Lifespan decline and recovery, then summarized: “It should be yesterday’s sea storm causing a leak in the oil rig we passed. Let’s move faster this afternoon.”

“Okay.” The narwhal had no objections.

Wen Chu was very conscientious, continuing to ball himself up on top of the narwhal’s head, temporarily putting aside asking Xiu for the next story.

Xiu needed to concentrate on traveling; he was very busy.

He couldn’t trouble Xiu anymore.

The narwhal set off. Wen Chu looked at the swaying shell nest beside him. Relying on his good memory, he told himself the story of the Little Mermaid again in his heart.

Just like countless times in the hospital, repeating conversations of doctors and nurses to coax himself to sleep.

Only this time, the bedtime story changed to a fairy tale.

The jellyfish fell asleep again.

.
When he woke up again, it was night.

Wen Chu’s day consisted of waking up, eating, eating Xiu, and sleeping. Now it was time for him to give himself an extra meal.

Watching Xiu make the bed for him as usual, without his treatment, Xiu’s chest was still bright red. Only because the narwhal was colorblind did she not notice the change here.

Wen Chu swallowed, climbed onto the seaweed bed, and keenly sensed something wrong.

“Xiu, it’s a bit uneven here.” Wen Chu extended a tentacle to tap the ground beside the seaweed.

It was slanted.

“Mn.” Xiu didn’t deny it. “We are near the submarine mountain range now. We’ll arrive at Atlantis the day after tomorrow at the latest. The terrain here undulates greatly, and the valleys are full of human mines, prone to collapse. We might not find flat plains to rest in the future; make do with it.”

Wen Chu agreed: “Okay.”

Just a bit slanted; not a big problem.

Xiu made the seaweed bed for him and rested not far away as usual. Wen Chu took the opportunity to observe the surrounding environment.

The submarine mountain range was truly towering and continuous mountains. They were on a relatively flat ridge, located on high ground. Wen Chu could see endless high mountains as soon as he poked his head out.

Below the high mountains was blinding white light, allowing Wen Chu to see the robotic mines still operating in the valley and the submarine pipelines used to transport minerals.

Xiu probably deliberately chose a place far from the mines. Wen Chu couldn’t hear the sound of machines operating here, only sensing slight vibrations from the ground under extreme concentration.

Wen Chu wasn’t surprised by the scene before him, retracted his head, and continued watching Xiu.

The data given by the system clearly stated that there were many rare resources in the deep sea. Just oil alone was exploited on such a large scale; presumably, rare metals on the seabed wouldn’t be spared either.

Wen Chu thought of the cold spring again.

The cold spring was still there, even continuously spitting bubbles containing methane, but the creatures living dependent on the cold spring were nowhere to be seen.

Only oil extraction machines remained, still operating, operating even through the oil leak.

Right, Lifespan points.

Wen Chu quickly looked at his Lifespan panel.

[Remaining Lifespan: 25 Days 0 Hours 21 Minutes]

The eight-times drop speed materialized at this moment. In just one afternoon, Wen Chu’s Lifespan decreased by more than two days.

In a few minutes, his Lifespan would drop below twenty-five days.

Wen Chu dared not delay anymore, carefully observing Xiu’s condition.

Xiu rested after making his bed as usual, only unknown if it was because he was repeatedly touched on the scales today, Xiu slept curled up tonight.

Usually, Wen Chu waited a few hours to confirm Xiu was completely asleep before acting.

But now he only had three minutes left. In three minutes, he would continue shrinking.

Wen Chu called out tentatively: “Xiu?”

The merfolk didn’t respond, seemingly asleep.

Wen Chu waited another minute or so. Confirming Xiu made no movement, he carefully extended a tentacle.

He crawled towards Xiu again.

Pa-ji pa-ji.

The jellyfish’s tentacles touched the ground and left, making extremely slight sticky water sounds, leaving a water trail on the ground.

Wen Chu touched Xiu’s tail, paused to observe for a while, and continued only after confirming Xiu had no reaction.

He skillfully touched that scale.

Perhaps accustomed to the tentacle’s visit, the warm scale skillfully ate Wen Chu’s tentacle.

[Lifespan +24h]

Wen Chu watched the scale open a small mouth to eat him, suddenly feeling that becoming smaller was quite good too.

Another size larger, and his tentacles would be over four fingers wide; the scale wouldn’t be able to eat them.

Thinking of this, Wen Chu remembered his half-human half-jellyfish form with exceptionally massive tentacles, reaffirming his determination to be a jellyfish.

Squelch.

With previous experience, Wen Chu didn’t explore further inside but let the tentacle withdraw, feeding it shallowly to the scale again.

[Lifespan +24h]

Lifespan reached twenty-seven days. Wen Chu was temporarily out of danger.

If Lifespan only dropped at eight times speed, saving up to twenty-nine days tonight would be enough.

But starting from twelve o’clock tonight, the Lifespan drop speed would be sixteen times.

Meaning, it was very likely his Lifespan would drop below twenty days when he woke up.

Wen Chu withdrew the tentacle with extremely light movements while having a headache, letting Xiu’s scale eat once more.

[Lifespan +24h]

Anyway, save first…

“Boom——”

Wen Chu’s thoughts were interrupted by a roar like the earth shaking and mountains swaying.

A white light lit up in the distant valley, followed by a violent explosion sound. After a brief silence came sounds of collapsing one after another.

The ground shook violently. Wen Chu was tossed up directly.

He was originally lying on Xiu’s tail, with a tentacle inside Xiu’s scale. This toss sent him airborne for a moment, and when landing, the tentacle thrust directly into that familiar soft flesh inside the scale.

Too hot.

The tentacle was about to melt from the heat.

[Lifespan +48h]

As the Lifespan panel popped up, Wen Chu’s Lifespan went straight to thirty days. Xiu’s tail curled up as if stimulated, and Xiu let out a muffled, hoarse groan.

Those long platinum eyelashes trembled, finally waking up in the violent tremors of the valley collapse, still carrying bewildered lustful moisture.

Something exploded nearby causing a submarine landslide. Need to wake Wen Chu quickly.

This was Xiu’s first reaction.

He sat up quickly. Before a “Wen Chu” could leave his mouth, he felt a tingling numbness in his lower abdomen.

It was a completely different feeling from having his scales touched.

As if something had opened…

Xiu looked down.

Under the firelight of the explosion’s embers, he saw a semi-transparent jellyfish on his lower abdomen.

The jellyfish was as big as most of his body, tentacles fully over two fingers wide.

At this moment, a transparent tentacle was being eaten by his scale. Because it was transparent, he could even see how much of the tentacle was eaten.

Almost reaching the male merfolk’s degenerated brood pouch.

Xiu: …

The jellyfish obviously didn’t expect him to wake up suddenly and shifted his body carefully, but immediately another violent explosion sounded.

The ground shook again. With a ji sound, the jellyfish fell directly onto his tail, and that tentacle thrust into the degenerated brood pouch with the momentum.

Xiu’s scalp tingled for a moment, losing control of his tail.

He bit his lower lip hard to stop himself from making overly strange sounds.

“Wen—Chu——”

---

Author’s Note:

At this moment, Wen Chu listening to stories doesn’t know what earth-shattering things he will do in the fourth plane ()