The mermaid lifted his head, his silvery white long hair making his beautiful face seem like that of a siren, his cold, lifeless gaze met Shu Tang’s. Being stared at with such eyes gave Shu Tang a chilling sense of being targeted by a terrifying presence.
They were too close, so close that no matter which direction she ran, she would instantly die at his hands.
Even the sound of breathing seemed to become very clear.
The mermaid was taller than she had imagined, even with his fishtail submerged in water. Standing in front of Shu Tang, he still seemed very tall, and this difference in size brought a sense of absolute oppression as he slowly approached Shu Tang.
The mermaid’s approach was extremely slow, until he breached the safe distance, until his cold breath caused a shiver to run down her neck.
This action was akin to a wild monster sniffing.
Shu Tang didn’t move, holding her breath.
The people in the monitoring room breathed a sigh of relief, as Shu Tang had stumbled upon the best response by accident. Running away at such a time was the dumbest thing to do. In a severe mental outbreak, rationality would disappear, and behavior would become more animalistic. Only by using the method suitable for dealing with wild monsters—holding one’s breath and playing dead—could one have a chance of survival.
Shu Tang’s mind went blank, her heartbeat quickening.
The blind date was set in a corner of what seemed like an abandoned sanatorium; her date had eyes devoid of pupils, pitch black, just staring at her without speaking.
The mermaid’s silvery white hair brushed against her cheek as he drew near, cool to the touch; surrounded entirely by his presence, her most vulnerable neck under the gaze of the monster.
Shu Tang’s brain should have been sounding alarms at this point, commanding her body to run away fast.
But in reality—
Shu Tang’s mind: What? That smells good, take a deep breath!
The scent made her head dizzy, her heart racing.
It took a while before her blank mind started working again, only to find that the mermaid had stopped moving after getting close to her, maintaining that posture motionlessly. If it weren’t for his breathing, Shu Tang might have thought he was dead.
She carefully turned her head to take a look at him.
Shu Tang: Is he glitching?
The first thing she noticed was his long eyelashes, adorned with sparkling droplets of water. Yet what was even more striking were his eyes, pitch black, looking very eerie.
Before Shu Tang arrived, she already knew that her matchmaking prospect was in poor health and had suffered mental damage. Her mind quickly provided a reasonable explanation: he must still be ill, with some complications not yet subsided.
He was also exceptionally pale, the kind of abnormal, nearly transparent whiteness that rivaled that of a vampire, devoid of any hint of color.
Generally speaking, omegas are very fragile. Without proper care, a cold rain or a chill could easily be fatal.
Shu Tang’s mother had once stayed in the hospital for a week because the bath water was 0.5° cooler than usual.
Yet, this mermaid was immersed in the bone-chilling cold water. Now in spring, the sea temperature was probably only around seven or eight degrees Celsius, cold enough to easily knock out ten fragile little omegas like him.
The mermaid lay motionless on the rocks, maintaining a posture as if he was sniffing her.
Shu Tang looked at the rocks and surmised that the mermaid must have been stranded or, rather, stuck among the rocks.
The mermaid slowly turned his head to look at her. His movements were sluggish, almost as if he hadn’t used his body in ten years, each motion seeming unfamiliar with his own limbs, thus slow.
Three months ago, in the restricted area, the mermaid awoke.
After ten years, the newly awakened mermaid had lost his sanity, remembering neither who he was nor why he was there. In legends, mermaids used their singing to lure passing ships and then dragged their prey to drown in the deep sea. In reality, mermaids were fierce deep-sea butchers.
This monster possessed a strong territorial instinct and exclusivity. Over these three months, all intruders into this sea area were torn apart by its overlord—whether they were exploration vessels or helicopters. Due to frequent intrusions, the deep-sea butcher was gradually losing patience.
The psychic turmoil allowed the mermaid to constantly feel a needle-like pain, which made this deep-sea butcher increasingly irritable.
When Shu Tang appeared, it took nearly a second for the deep-sea butcher to judge that she was weaker than all previous intruders.
If a tens of tons exploration vessel could be compared to a shark that tears apart easily in the sea; then today’s alphas were like crabs; and Shu Tang, a threat akin to plankton in the sea.
Shu Tang was tentatively approaching the mermaid.
As a trainee therapist, she of course knew that omegas with mental damage could easily become stressed, so she was very careful.
The mermaid’s hands were pale and slender, with blue veins that were completely different from normal humans, and they were cold to the touch.
Shu Tang grabbed his hand; the mermaid didn’t react;
Shu Tang then grabbed his arm; the mermaid still did not react;
The mermaid just quietly watched her movements.
Indeed, Shu Tang intended to carry the stranded mermaid ashore.
Shu Tang, although not a strictly trained alpha, was still a female alpha and had made great improvements over her frail physique from her previous life. However, after tugging for a while, she realized that this omega not only looked large but was also solid and particularly heavy; she pulled and pulled, yet he did not budge an inch.
She failed to notice that the mermaid’s gaze was like watching a child play with sand on the ground, or like watching the small fish frolic by his tail in the sea. Since there was no threat, he merely watched without reacting.
Shu Tang exclaimed, “He’s so heavy! Is he made of stone?”
Finally, Shu Tang sat down on the ground, out of breath.
She wiped her sweat while looking at the mermaid, thinking about how to get him ashore: perhaps she should seek help, find an excavator to break the rocks around him and drag him out, or go back to the ruins to look for tools to try and lever him.
She racked her brains.
Suddenly, the mermaid stood up, his fish tail transforming into human legs, and he gracefully walked away from the rocks.
Shu Tang was stunned, “Wait, wasn’t he beached?”
“Wasn’t he stuck?”
Then, Shu Tang remembered a factoid about marine life, like orcas, who particularly enjoy stranding themselves on beaches for fun, often accidentally beaching themselves for real. She hadn’t realized that mermaid also had this hobby.
She watched the mermaid’s retreating figure and chased after him.
“Wait for me!”
Shu Tang hurried after him, wanting to shade this peculiar omega with an umbrella, but he was really tall.
The mermaid stopped, looked down at Shu Tang’s umbrella, his long eyelashes stunningly beautiful with tiny droplets of water on them.
The mermaid’s movements were still a bit stiff, then he shifted his gaze to Shu Tang, grabbed the back of her collar, and continued walking forward.
The atmosphere in the surveillance room remained tense, yet there was a hint of confusion.
Because Shu Tang hadn’t died instantly, they were eager to know what she had done, but with her small stature and the mermaid’s figure blocking the view, they could see nothing.
However, everyone in the surveillance room saw when the mermaid stopped his action of grabbing Shu Tang.
Everyone immediately recalled that terrifying video.
The video featured a blurry figure, also dragging a massive, several-ton armored ship with the same motion!
Undoubtedly, she would be torn apart, pulled into the deep sea to drown!
The mermaid was not very familiar with his own limbs, stiff and slow as if he hadn’t used them in ten years, and naturally, he could not control his strength well.
Originally, when the deep-sea butcher dragged sharks and other large prey, he used this posture. However, Shu Tang’s weight was quite normal, measured in kilograms, not tons.
He grabbed Shu Tang’s collar with the same force.
The next second, Shu Tang was airborne.
Her feet left the ground as she was completely lifted.
Shu Tang: ?
Shu Tang: ? Why did he lift her up upon their first meeting?
The mermaid’s head movement was a bit stiff, and his face was expressionless, which was understandable since expressing “emotions” was difficult for a mermaid overwhelmed by psychic powers.
But Shu Tang could read body language:
After quietly staring at her for a while, the mermaid casually shook Shu Tang, as easily as one would shake a noisy plastic bag.
Shu Tang: ?
If it were a normal alpha, being casually picked up by an omega might have been quite a shock, leading to drastic actions. Fortunately, Shu Tang lacked the typical alpha pride; she struggled briefly, then calmed down upon realizing she couldn’t free herself.
Shu Tang really wanted to know what the mermaid intended to do, but apart from shaking her like a plastic bag, he did nothing else but carry her towards the so-called “Bastille,” without making any moves to harm Shu Tang physically.
Just as she noticed how tall the mermaid was when they first met under the umbrella.
Being lifted up made this feeling even more intense.
She estimated the mermaid’s height to be over 1.9 meters, even taller, definitely taller than any alpha Shu Tang had ever seen. Such a towering figure wasn’t obvious in the water, but on land, it was quite imposing.
— Why hadn’t she been told he was this tall before the arranged meeting!
Shu Tang tried to communicate with the mermaid, but he didn’t look at her or respond, just silently dragged (or rather, carried) her through the rainy night towards the fortress, leaving a trail of water stains.
As they walked, the mermaid suddenly stopped and looked in a direction.
Then, with a sizzling sound, there was a snap in the control room, and the signal went out.
The screen went completely black.
What happened in the forbidden area was no longer broadcasted. At least until the signal was restored tomorrow, no one would know what had happened there.
However, being dragged into the lair by the fearsome deep-sea butcher, there was only one fate left: to be torn apart.
No one would come to Shu Tang’s rescue, not because the alphas present were indifferent to human life, but because they were well aware it would be futile. They had already noticed some unusual changes in the mermaid’s mental power when he first awoke. He could even generate a bizarre magnetic field that had cut off signals countless times before.
This also meant that many modern weapons were ineffective against “him.”
Chen Sheng was silent for a while, then said, “Have all the experts from Yan City withdraw.”
He looked out at the heavy rain—
At least, the crisis in the forbidden area was resolved for today.