Chapter 35: A Creature with Extremely Strong Reproductive Abilities…

Wen Chu struggled helplessly in Xiu’s tears.

He knew how to swim and wouldn’t have drowned in water, but Xiu was crying.

Seeing the tears hanging from Xiu’s eyelashes, Wen Chu completely forgot how to use his tentacles to keep himself afloat.

Would a god shed tears for him?

Wen Chu stared blankly at Xiu, his heart stinging with pain.

Just like that, he drifted aimlessly and sank to the bottom.

Fortunately, there were gaps between Xiu’s fingers. Wen Chu hadn’t been drowning for long before the sea of tears drained away.

Terrified that Xiu might flood him again, he used several tentacles at once to painstakingly climb onto Xiu’s wrist.

Xiu was no longer crying; he just looked at him coldly.

“Explanation?”

Wen Chu shook the water off his body, observed Xiu’s expression, and explained carefully, “Because you said your wish was for the ocean to recover, and I had saved up ninety-nine years of lifespan, which was exactly enough to revive the ocean…”

Xiu let out a cold laugh. “Oh, so you just went to die like that, wanting me to remain a widower for the rest of my life?”

“No, no,” Wen Chu shook his head repeatedly.

As soon as he shook his head, his center of gravity became unstable, and he rolled gulu-gulu from Xiu’s wrist back into his palm, looking like a round little strawberry-filled gummy candy.

Even while rolling, Wen Chu didn’t forget to explain: “I didn’t want to die; I still want to be your lover.”

Xiu: “…”

Looking at the fingernail-sized jellyfish in his palm, Xiu felt a mix of lingering fear and anger, but in the end, he couldn’t bear to truly get mad at Wen Chu.

But he couldn’t give in too quickly. Maintaining an expressionless face, Xiu simply repeated, “Explain.”

Wen Chu twisted his little tentacles together. “It’s just… because I’m a lighthouse jellyfish. I heard from a doctor before that once my lifespan naturally reaches its end, I will be reborn.”

He couldn’t reveal the existence of the System, so he could only shift the blame onto a doctor.

“So I guessed that if I saved up ninety-nine years of lifespan—if that counts as one complete life—then giving up those life points should count as my lifespan naturally reaching its end, and I could be reborn.”

Wen Chu silently added in his heart: Even if I hadn’t saved enough, I might have still been able to respawn; the mission just would have failed.

Previously, he had wanted to directly abandon the mission to help Xiu realize his wish, but he hadn’t expected Xiu to forcibly drag him back from the line of death.

Since he had been dragged back, he just acted recklessly.

And then it turned into the current situation…

Wen Chu looked up at Xiu uneasily, afraid he would start shedding tears again.

Xiu didn’t cry anymore. He just lowered his eyes to look at him, his expression icy, his voice sounding through gritted teeth. “Couldn’t you have discussed it with me beforehand? ‘Should count’? What if you had really died?”

Watching helplessly as Wen Chu turned into a puddle of water and completely vanished in his hands—at that moment, Xiu had even felt a trace of resentment toward the ocean beneath him.

He shouldn’t be this selfish, but this was Wen Chu.

It was the little jellyfish he had saved and raised bit by bit.

Even a god has selfishness.

Wen Chu spoke the truth: “If I really died, then I’d just come find you in the next world.”

There were still three worlds left. Wen Chu felt he had learned how to get close to Xiu, and he would only do better next time.

“Jellyfish don’t have reincarnation.” Xiu really wanted to flick this stupid jellyfish on the head.

But the jellyfish in his palm was so tiny now. Let alone flicking his head, Xiu suspected that if he spoke any louder, he might blow Wen Chu away.

Wen Chu lay prone in Xiu’s palm and thought seriously for a moment. “It doesn’t matter if there isn’t. We made a pinky promise.”

Xiu can’t leave him behind; they agreed.

Xiu: “…”

Clearly, it was Wen Chu who wanted to leave him behind. How could Wen Chu say something that reversed their roles so naturally?

Xiu took a deep breath and lectured Wen Chu strictly: “From now on, before making any decision, you must discuss it with me first. Do you understand?”

Wen Chu nodded repeatedly.

Xiu paused, then asked, “Do you still need lifespan now?”

As he spoke, Xiu looked at the tiny jellyfish with some hesitation.

It wasn’t that he was unwilling, but he didn’t know how to give Wen Chu lifespan.

Wen Chu was so small. If put in his mouth, he feared Wen Chu might accidentally slide down his throat; and if Wen Chu spread his entire body out, he probably couldn’t even cover his nipple.

Unexpectedly, Wen Chu shook his head repeatedly.

“No need. I don’t have a lifespan countdown anymore, so I don’t need to trouble you.”

Wen Chu said this with a bit of happiness. “Xiu, will you like me a little more this way?”

He isn’t troublesome anymore.

Xiu’s expression suddenly became very complex. He gave a vague “Mmh,” and then said, “Then shall I take you to find some krill to eat?”

Wen Chu hadn’t tasted krill yet and agreed cheerfully, “Okay!”

---

By this time, the sun had risen high into the sky. From behind the massive icebergs of the Arctic Ocean came the rising and falling calls of whale pods.

It was summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the season when life in the Arctic Ocean was most active.

Led by a huge narwhal, a pod of whales formed an encirclement, trapping tens of thousands of Arctic cod. The narwhal’s horn shone purely white in the sunlight.

So, there are such massive schools of fish just in the Arctic.

Wen Chu wondered, Is Grandma Narwhal on her way too?

Seeing Wen Chu staring at the narwhal pod, Xiu thought he was witnessing the law of the jungle in the ocean for the first time and couldn’t bear it, so he took the initiative to explain, “This is normal life activity for narwhals. They need to feed to sustain their lives.”

“I know.” Wen Chu knew it from deep experience; he had been fed and raised by Xiu.

He wrapped around Xiu’s finger and looked at him.

The other’s long golden hair was dazzlingly bright under the sun, and those glacial blue eyes were looking at him with focus.

Not in the pitch-black seawater, but in the noisy, pristine Arctic.

Wen Chu asked, “Xiu, are you happy?”

Xiu protected him as he swam forward. “I would be happier if you could grow a bit bigger and stop disappearing at the drop of a hat in the future.”

That means he is happy. He hadn’t done wrong by fulfilling Xiu’s wish.

Wen Chu felt relieved.

He struggled to circle Xiu’s finger and said seriously, “I will work hard to grow up. You have to remember to raise me in the future too.”

The System said Xiu wouldn’t have his memories in the new world.

But what if Xiu could remember him just a little bit?

Thinking this, Wen Chu saw the tooth mark on his tentacle.

He had a flash of inspiration and tried hard to sting Xiu’s finger with his tentacle.

Wen Chu was simply too small. Even stinging someone didn’t cause much damage; Xiu didn’t even feel pain. It wasn’t until Wen Chu called out to him that he realized there was a red mark on his ring finger.

The tiny jellyfish lay beside the red mark, looking up at him. “You bit me once, and I bit you once. We have marks now; you have to raise me until I grow up.”

So childish.

Xiu laughed involuntarily and whispered, “Mmh.”

Holding the jellyfish and facing the rising sun, he pondered before speaking, “Wen Chu, actually, I feel about you…”

[Stay duration ended. Extracting you from the world.]

Wen Chu, who was waiting for the rest of Xiu’s sentence: ???

[Wait—]

Before his words could fall, he saw the entire world suddenly freeze.

The fluctuation of the seawater, the hunting whales, the fleeing cod—everything seemed to have been paused. Even Xiu remained in the posture of speaking halfway, looking down at him.

In the next moment, both the mermaid and the jellyfish disappeared.

---

Wen Chu appeared, soaking wet, on a chair in the System Space.

It was still the familiar pure white space. This time, there were two cups of hot water on the table. It took Wen Chu several seconds to come back to his senses.

“I hadn’t finished listening to what Xiu was saying!!” he complained aggrievedly.

“It wasn’t anything important; don’t worry about it,” the System said coldly. “Drink some hot water first. There is a towel on the back of your chair; wipe the water off your body.”

Wen Chu’s attention was diverted by the System’s words. He looked behind him and, sure enough, a large towel was hanging on the back of the chair, which he had already marked with a wet streak.

Wen Chu had never used a towel. He looked at it, thought for a moment, then lowered his head and rubbed against the towel.

Since the System hung the towel on the chair back, there must be a reason. It probably isn’t meant to be taken down.

System: “…”

“Stupid.” With a light scoff, the towel flew into the air.

The large towel unfolded, landed on Wen Chu, and messily rubbed his hair to demonstrate.

“Wipe like this. Understand?”

“Oh…” Wen Chu dazedly held the towel on top of his head.

He suddenly asked, “So is the water on my body Xiu’s tears?”

The System gave a very quiet “Mmh.”

Wen Chu immediately stopped wiping his head. He carefully cupped his wet hair to look at it, then leaned in to sniff.

It only had a salty smell similar to seawater.

Is this what tears are like?

The System couldn’t bear it anymore. “How long are you going to look? Wipe it dry quickly; it’s filthy.”

Wen Chu said “Oh” and obediently continued wiping his hair.

He was finally no longer appearing in the System Space as a half-human, half-jellyfish. Instead, he had changed into clean clothes: a white shirt and black shorts, revealing a pair of slender, long legs.

This was his true form.

As Wen Chu wiped, a pair of small white wings popped out from the sides of his head near his ears.

They were only palm-sized, timid-looking, resembling the wings of some bird or an angel, and currently soaking wet.

Wen Chu wiped his little wings dry, then retracted them.

The white wings vanished into his long hair without a trace.

Wiping further down, a pair of lop-eared rabbit ears popped out of his white hair, fluffy and wet. Wen Chu continued patiently wiping his ears.

Wiping further down, several segments of transparent tentacles popped out from his tailbone…

The white-haired youth looked like a humanoid creature cobbled together from various organisms. One moment ears would pop out, the next a tail. Finally, a small white halo popped directly out of the top of his head.

Wen Chu was used to this and treated them all equally, wiping them dry.

He even took off the small halo on his head to wipe it.

Just as Wen Chu was holding his halo and wiping it earnestly, he heard the System give a light laugh. “You look like a mess.”

Wen Chu’s movements paused.

He remembered that when the System said he wasn’t good-looking, it also said he looked like a mess.

Wen Chu looked at the halo in his hand.

QAQ

He couldn’t help it.

Wen Chu silently put the halo back on his head. The small wings by his ears reappeared and curved toward his face, covering his eyes like two eye patches.

He was shutting down.

The System coughed lightly, put away his amusement, and said to Wen Chu, who was playing ostrich, “There’s water on the table. Drink some hot water.”

Wen Chu moved his wings slightly, revealing a slit to look at the table.

There were two water cups on it.

Wen Chu picked up the cup closer to him, held it with both hands, and said obediently, “I finished the mission.”

He still remembered the System’s furious tone at the end, so naturally, he was being as well-behaved as possible now.

But unexpectedly, the System didn’t continue to get angry at him. Instead, after a pause, he said, “Mmh, you completed it very well.”

“Sorry, I was a bit anxious before, and my words were a bit harsh. If you have similar decisions in the future, you should at least discuss them with me.”

“…You don’t have to be so afraid of me, either.”

Wen Chu was confused. He wasn’t afraid of the System.

He had no idea that his act of covering his eyes with his wings was interpreted by the System as fear. He continued to huddle in the towel holding the hot water.

Like a small animal bullied into curling up into a ball.

The System’s voice became even gentler. “Before entering the next world, you can rest for a day, or you can read books and study here for a while. I can provide whatever you want.”

Swish. Wen Chu opened the wings covering his eyes.

He didn’t know where the System was, so he could only look at the other cup on the table and refuse very quickly, “No! I want to enter the next world now. Xiu is still waiting for me.”

System: “…”

Wen Chu didn’t even drink the water. He put the cup down directly and said firmly, “I want to go see Xiu.”

System: “…Alright.”

Receiving the System’s affirmative reply, Wen Chu happily flapped his little wings. “Thank you.”

The System, however, was distracted for a moment looking at Wen Chu’s wings.

He was thinking: Could Wen Chu’s obsession with laying eggs be because Wen Chu could essentially be considered a little bird?

Uh… Bird + Rabbit + Tentacle + Angel?

Sounds like some kind of grotesque creature with extremely strong reproductive abilities.

This guess naturally had no basis, and the System didn’t dwell on it, proceeding to deploy Wen Chu to the next world as scheduled.

Before the deployment, he added one unnecessary question: “Do you still want your little seashell nest?”

Wen Chu thought for a moment, glanced at the two cups on the table, and the corner of his mouth hooked into an imperceptible faint smile. “Keep it here with you for safekeeping.”

“There is… something very important inside.”

Something very important?

Hearing this, the System checked the little seashell nest in the storage space. There was only a seaweed mattress inside.

But Wen Chu’s brain circuitry being weird wasn’t a new thing. The System didn’t ask further, and out of guilt for scaring him earlier, agreed. “Okay, I’ll deploy you now.”

After his words fell, Wen Chu disappeared from the System Space.

The pure white space became empty again.

The System looked at the untouched hot water on the table, then picked up the wet towel that had fallen to the floor when Wen Chu left.

Wash the towel, fold it, and put it in the storage space.

And inside the storage space, beside the little seashell nest, a white semi-transparent veil and a crudely made seashell necklace lay quietly.

---

.
[Category: Mist]
[Remaining Lifespan: 3 Days 12 Hours 20 Minutes]
[Hint: In this world, Haze is everywhere. As the degree of invasion by Haze deepens, your lifespan will decrease at an accelerated rate. You are very weak; please find a place with fresh air and sufficient food to grow.]

“Toot—!”

Accompanied by the whistle of a steam train, the tracks began to vibrate violently. A mixed sound of clang-clang and rumble-rumble approached from the distance.

Shovel after shovel of coal was fed into the cylinders. The train, emitting black smoke, drove over from the distance, fully loaded with blue ore. Beside it, countless steam robots gleaming with the cold light of brass stood guard, stepping through the dawn to break the silence.

A ball of white, shapeless mist floated quietly in the low air.

This was a newborn little mist, light and airy, only about the size of a palm, illusory and insubstantial. Because it was looking at the light screen, it missed the best time to escape and could only stare blankly as the train drove straight at it.

Poof—

The mist was smashed apart.

“Did I die?” Wen Chu asked in confusion.

System: [No, you just dispersed. Gather yourself back together and you’ll be fine.]

Wen Chu obediently gathered himself back together bit by bit. However, because he had been tainted by the black smoke, the white mist from before had turned into a little black smog.

At the same time, the world introduction popped up in front of him.

[A thousand years ago, the Steam Revolution erupted, and external combustion engines appeared. A god descended to the world, bringing a new energy source to humanity. The energy contained within it was ten thousand times that of coal. Steam industry developed rapidly. People praised the god, calling him the “God of Steam,” and the blue ore he brought was called the “Heart of Steam.”]

[Using the Heart of Steam as power, humanity achieved almost all impossible things—sky floating islands, flying devices, steam robots, steel prosthetics… The prosperity of technology brought wealth polarization and environmental degradation. The rich live in the Steam City floating in the sky, while the poor snail away on the heavily polluted ground accompanied by boiler rooms. Under class conflict, the Rebel Army began to quietly sprout.]

Wen Chu finally managed to collect all of himself, turning back into a complete ball of little mist.

Afraid of being smashed by a train again, he drifted unsteadily out of the train tunnel and found a sheltered corner to curl up into a small black ball, seriously reading the words on the screen.

Didn’t understand.

“What is a steam engine?” Wen Chu struggled to understand for a long time, but only understood “wealth polarization.”

System: […Illiterate. I told you to read some books in the System Space.]

In the end, he suffered from not studying physics.

Wen Chu only agonized over it for a moment. He didn’t care at all about steam engines or external combustion engines. After memorizing the words on the screen, he pressed, “Then what about Xiu? Where is Xiu?”

The System silently provided a photo.

[This is Xiu.]

Wen Chu couldn’t help but let out a cry of surprise.

The man in the photo still had long golden hair, wore a black cloak, and his transparent blue eyes looked at the camera without any emotion.

Pale, gloomy, with no emotion in his eyes, only a dead silence, like a barren land shrouded in clouds all year round.

More indifferent and harsh than in the previous world; even that golden hair seemed much dimmer.

The System said concisely: [He is the God of Steam. His identity in the human world is the Mentor of the Rebel Army. He…]

“He wants to eliminate the wealth gap, improve the environment, and save this world?” Wen Chu chimed in as a matter of course.

[No.] The System paused subtly.

Then, when he spoke again, his voice carried a mocking tone, as if watching a good show: [After so many years, he has long since become an Evil God. He loathes all humans and wants to destroy this world.]

[And you must get close to him, devour his resentment, and obtain ninety-nine years of lifespan from him.]

The little black ball huddled in the corner was stunned.

The System sneered: [What? Disappointed? Or scared? Xiu wasn’t a good…]

“Wow, so cool,” Wen Chu whispered in admiration.

System: ?

Wen Chu said firmly, “Xiu must have his reasons for doing this. I want to help him destroy the world.”

System: ?

The System emphasized, unable to bear it: [Your mission is to collect lifespan, not to help Xiu complete some goal.]

By now, Wen Chu had adapted to his mist body and flew up unsteadily again.

He said seriously, “Marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog. I listen to Xiu.”

Even though it was morning, the place was still shrouded in haze. Pedestrians gradually appeared on the street, but no one noticed a small ball of black mist slowly rising amidst the black smoke of the boiler rooms.

Wen Chu got a shade darker.

As his field of view rose, he finally saw the massive floating island in the sky, operated by mechanical gears and propelled by countless steam engines.

The Steam City floating in the sky, the place where the upper class lived.

Wen Chu just glanced at this pinnacle crystal of human industry and art that could be called magnificent, then looked away with zero interest.

He poked the System: [Where is Xiu? Can you point the way for me?]

He already fully understood how to become lovers with Xiu; he would definitely succeed this time.

The System remained silent but pointed an arrow toward a certain direction on the ground.

Wen Chu looked over.

He saw a man in black robes standing in an inconspicuous shadow, wearing a hood, looking down and saying something to a boy of fifteen or sixteen.

The boy had chestnut hair, freckles on his face, and was excitedly rubbing his hands covered in black soot.

The man in black robes took a stack of banknotes from his clothes, revealing a hand that was pale to the point of sickness.

Slender, clean, and surrounded by a layer of ominous black aura.

And Wen Chu clearly saw a red sting mark on the other’s ring finger.

Black robes, a boy, a private meeting, a money transaction.

Wen Chu instantly thought of the scene he had once seen in a hospital restroom.

He didn’t even bother to think about why there was black aura on Xiu’s hand. tumbling and drifting, he flew toward the direction the arrow pointed at high speed.

He didn’t even care when he crashed into a streetlamp, picking himself back up while drifting toward Xiu.

[Watch where you’re going! Are you in such a rush to reincarnate?]

Wen Chu was very aggrieved. “But Xiu is cheating.”

The System let out a shocked “Ah.”

[Who is cheating??]

Wen Chu looked like he was about to cry. “Xiu is cheating. He’s carrying my mark yet engaging in a money transaction with someone else.”

Xiu violated their agreement. He’s going to take Xiu away and lock him up.

Wuwu, didn’t we just agree he would only raise me?

---

Author’s Note:

There is a “little black room” (confinement) in this world, lasting for 99 years, but not right now.
Also, a very cold pun (a life dedicated to telling bad puns):
Little Black Mist (Xiǎo Hēi Wù) = Little Black Room (Xiǎo Hēi Wū)
And regarding Steampunk, you can simply understand it as achieving all high technology using steam.