He and It Chapter 27: The King’s Pearl (27)

Chapter 27: The King’s Pearl (27)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

“Forget about the guards and the people outside,” Jiang Mian decided at once, “time is of the essence, let’s take the living staff and leave. Pretty much all the research masters on the Immortal Waters are here…”

He paused for a moment, wondering if this was one of the reasons why Jiang Pingyang would take such drastic measures, having planned the end of the day the moment he resolved not to drink the Immortal Water — to have the Sigma Institute blown to pieces along with his legacy, sinking into the dark river of the Earth’s core where it would never see the light of day.

“…It’s a good death to die with those people.”

He stepped towards Fabian’s direction and saw the sight of him still struggling to die.

Jiang Mian ripped the protective suit off him, dragged his weak wrists and tied a dead-end knot in a nearby alloy information rack.

“You too,” Jiang Mian said, “that slap, I just returned it to you; now this knot, I return to you for Lady Red.”

Looking at Fabian’s grim, desperate expression, he smiled and whispered, “Happy hunting.”

Jiang Mian stood up, without looking at Fabian again, and rushed into Raperth’s arms, “Quick, run!”

The mermaid king heir caught him firmly, extending an arm, and suddenly a wave of water swept in through the doorway of the main room with a roar, and Raperth rode the raging tide of kings, sweeping out of the corridor, and above their heads, the warning red light flashed incessantly, and a mechanical beep sounded throughout the station.

“Two minutes and 24 seconds until emergency self-destruct mechanism activation.”

“You really don’t need to bring anything?” Raperth asked seriously.

Even after spending some time on land, mermaids still have little intuitive understanding of the destructive power of anti-personnel tools, Jiang Mian cried and laughed, “What a time to talk about this, it’s better to get people out!”

He nervously wrapped his arms around Raperth’s neck and asked urgently, “How many living staff are left in the institute?”

“Not many, don’t be afraid.” According to the memory he had absorbed, Raperth’s fingers whirled and the water in the observation room poured out, swept up the attendants on the floor and followed them like a tail, cooks, recorders, cleaners… The more people Raperth took with him, the more the water surged behind him. The Institute was like an intricate maze, and they were like homing bees scrambling through it, desperate to find a way out.

“One minute and two seconds until emergency self-destruct mechanism activation.”

The red light above their heads was no longer flashing, and the electrical gates inside the Sigma Institute were disconnecting in turn, layer by layer, extinguishing the iconic cold white lights, clanging and booming down one valve after another. Behind them, the darkness was close behind them, engulfing the road they passed.

Jiang Mian’s eyes were dazzled, he couldn’t see either side of him, and he couldn’t tell which route Raperth was speeding along, but he could only feel that they were getting closer and closer to the submarine-only waterway, based on his instincts after more than twenty years of living here.

“Emergency self-destruct mechanism activated… in: thirty-six seconds.”

The steep weightlessness almost made Jiang Mian’s heart dislike him upward to his throat. Abolishing the elevator option, Raperth leapt up in a single bound, powerful bundles of muscle firing brazenly, and plunged down three or four levels at the speed of a falling object, winding up on the ground floor of the Institute.

“There’s a door ahead.” Raperth was succinct.

“I should have the code, let me try to open it!” Against the strong wind and cutting water spray, Jiang Mian struggled to lift his face from Raperth’s arms and shouted.

The response from the mermaid king’s son was a deep vibration in his chest, “No, it’s already open.”

The lowest level of the composite water-filled dock had indeed already opened a slit for passage, even though the slit was as small as a line of sight compared to the total volume of the gate, but enough to allow a deep-sea mermaid to pass through in one piece.

Raperth no longer hesitated, he rushed into the dock, the water waves wrapped behind those living staff, began to consciously swell, surrounded, wrapped more air, as if a large space capsule, enclosing those people in it.

The water pump rumbled to start, the construction of the water-filled dock, which was originally two layers of high and low, and now once the valve was opened, the man-made waterway issued a ferocious whistling sound, the power of the bottom light was not yet cut off, and at once a circle was lit up at first, leading all the way to the other side of the distance.

“Until the emergency self-destruct mechanism is activated, there are: twenty-seven seconds.”

“How fast do you want it?” Raperth asked, in a hushed voice.

Jiang Mian’s heart was pounding so hard it was about to pop out of his throat. The freedom he had longed for was so desperate, so close to being forced into his arms, that he couldn’t catch his breath and asked aloud, “What?!”

Raperth repeated, “How fast do you want me to go?”

Jiang Mian’s eyes squeezed shut and he shouted, “As fast as you can!”

“Twenty-four seconds until emergency self-destruct mechanism activation.”

The mermaid’s long hair, which used to be so loose, was now twisted into several strands, like sharp tentacles, clinging to Raperth’s spine, and then scattered along the tail fins. The lid membrane was completely closed, and the mermaid plunged into the water, his body was huge, the sound of entering the waterway, but as silent as a dark arrow.

Jiang Mian was shielded in his arms, all the sounds in his ears were far away, the loud seconds became hazy and silent, he felt the heavy cold water pressure, like the invisible hands squeezing from all sides, as if to squeeze out his internal organs as well.

[Breathe through your mouth!] The mermaid made a sharp sound underwater, and Jiang Mian understood the meaning of this sentence, he stretched his neck as far as possible, opened his lips, and sucked hard on the oxygen in the empty bubble.

One of Raperth’s hands stopped at his neck and the back of his head, and the other hand went down to seal the back of Jiang Mian, who curled up in front of him, knowing that the mermaid was trying to protect his spine and internal organs.

The deep-sea mermaid began to speed up.

He was a confined king on land, but underwater, his power was completely magnificent. He set off hurricanes and tsunamis, with fierce power over this, this dark river enough to accommodate the passage of submarines, are in front of him so stretched and confined.

Twenty-one seconds to countdown.

The fastest fish in the world are the sailfish, with an average speed of 109 kilometers per hour, the fastest could reach a gruesome level of 190 kilometers per hour, however, the superior physical ability of the mermaid far exceeded that of the sailfish, which was only in the middle and lower reaches. Thousands of muscle bundles tightened, tougher than steel, Jiang Mian had to force his eyes closed, buried his face in the mermaid’s arms.

His head was protected by the oxygen-filled water bubble, but his ears still had a sharp buzz. If the mermaid blood in Jiang Mian’s body didn’t develop twice, then even with Raperth’s protection, his bones would have been twisted and cracked by the combined thrust and water pressure the moment he started.

Countdown to nineteen seconds.

Raperth bursts out resonant sound waves, discerning the path ahead by the frequency with which they reverberate repeatedly in the waterway. Behind him and Jiang Mian, trailing a series of huge bright bubbles of indeterminate shape, like insoluble oil droplets, despite being flattened and long by the excessive dragging speed, none of them showed signs of breaking.

The mermaid’s fins collapsed, the fins contracted in clumps on the fin bones, and it was estimated that the artificial waterway was at least three kilometers long, and if he couldn’t reach the exit before detonation, the force of the explosion and impact would cause the entire dark river to collapse, or worse.

The countdown was fifteen seconds.

The mermaid king picked a shorter, smoother, and superior route by calculation. The waterway wasn’t naturally formed, so it was not a curved pattern, it had smooth curves, clean and unobstructed surface, however, this didn’t mean that the escape route couldn’t be more streamlined. This was the nature of hunting, the past countless runs, the mermaid must compete with the prey, and the terrain for every cent. Every turn, every straightaway — they were not unjustified show-offs.

Without Jiang Mian noticing, he has closed his nasal passages to breathe, his lips still open, only to stop the process of exhalation and intake, replaced by the dark gill lines on the sides of his jaws, which were breaking free of the dead skin with incredible vigor and began to open and close with effort and rawness.

The countdown was twelve seconds.

Raperth’s speed was so fast that it even made a thunderous pop underwater, and in his arms, Jiang Mian was so cold that he couldn’t feel the texture and flow of the water.

However, this cold wasn’t bone chilling, he was able to withstand it, because Jiang Mian could perceive that there was something warm and alive, as in strands of his blood flowing in the slab of ice.

Countdown ten seconds.

The exit of the waterway was close at hand, and even though he kept his eyes closed, Jiang Mian’s senses became sharper underwater. Ahead of him, a sudden opening and clarity — Raperth had led them out of the dark river!

[Leave!]

The roar of the mermaid ordering the expulsion spread through the nearby sea at a speed of 1.5 kilometers per second, reaching down to the ears of living creatures. The shrimp, crab and fish all fled in terror, Raperth changed his position, holding Jiang Mian more firmly, not slowing down the acceleration, but diving headlong into the invisible currents, following the trajectory of the sea.

The countdown was eight seconds.

Jiang Mian knew in his heart that leaving the waterway was only the first step to escape. 14 tons of TNT, the power of which was equivalent to the concentrated detonation of 30 Tomahawk missiles. Even if the vicinity of the Institute was just a deserted security zone, it was buried deep underground, but the activation of the self-destruct device was still able to create a secondary tsunami with a wave crest of four to six meters in the vicinity.

Faster, he just hoped Raperth could go faster.

Countdown six seconds.

The sea was vast and calm, and the moment they left the dark river, the sky was bright with morning light, and a few reluctant evening stars shone late in the east, but the hopeful sun had already spread a corner of the magnificent tapestry. If not now, not this second, but any other moment, Jiang Mian would be willing to offer all the joy and admiration for this scene.

Unfortunately, at this time he didn’t care to appreciate the beauty of freedom, because of the tension, he was dead tense, white fingers embedded in Raperth’s shoulder, pressed ten deep indentations. Faint blood escaped the side of Jiang Mian’s face, out of instinct, he had been learning to breathe through his gills during the super-fast journey just now.

Raperth paused for a moment, slowing down immediately.

Counting down to five seconds.

“…Don’t slow down!” Jiang Mian hissed, “I’m fine, I’m fine!”

Raperth’s expression was icy cold, and he held Jiang Mian, unwilling to move further down toward the sea.

“No,” he said, “too much development… too many hidden dangers.”

He manipulated the bubbles filled with humans, throwing them quickly to the surface, replenishing them with oxygen and then pulling them down, leaving them floating not far from three or four meters underwater while he took Jiang Mian with him, sinking all the way down to a shallow area of nearly fifty meters.

He couldn’t go further down, this was the limit of water pressure Jiang Mian could currently withstand.

Countdown two seconds.

“You’re fine… hold on to me.” Raperth said.

The water in front of them gradually changed, as if a narrow, soft cocoon shell, covering him and Raperth inside.

“Okay.” He was slightly hasty, “What are you going to do?”

Countdown one second.

“Shh,” Raperth pressed against him tightly, like a big spoon alongside a small one, “It’s going to be okay, don’t be afraid.”

He covered Jiang Mian’s ears, the golden pupils of his eyes blazing, staring unblinkingly in the direction of the Institute.

——A thunderous explosion in the sea!

The first shockwave hit them as if they had been knocked out of control by a big truck through a barrier, and they couldn’t think of anything, couldn’t care about anything, and could only be described as spinning and dizzy.

After the shock wave passed, it was the moment of seawater stirring, several meters high waves rolled and churned, hitting overhead, like a pot of water boiling, steam mixed with water bubbles boiling, upside down Jiang Mian’s face was white, and he almost vomited out his heart.

But it wasn’t finished, the second round of shock waves, more violent than the first round, more terrifying, exhilarating tsunami directly lifted them up to a height of several dozen meters, straight out of the sea. As a child, Jiang Mian had never been to an amusement park, he could only experience what kind of joy it was through text and video descriptions, he saw someone say that the fastest roller coaster in the Ferrari theme park, where with just one ride, you could feel the moment of death in advance of the soul leaving the body.

At this point, when the drop reached a height of dozens of meters on the waves, Jiang Mian’s vision was completely black, all his thoughts were thrown away by the big bumpy waves.

The third round, the fourth round… Until the seventh round, the turbulent whistling seawater only gradually slowed down the momentum, to this moment, Jiang Mian’s five senses were numb, he didn’t know how much time had passed, and didn’t know the seawater pushed them down where or how far.

His ears were still buzzing, and from the chaos of the uncontrollable seawater, he detected the wailing and shaking of the distant earth — the power of fourteen tons of TNT, no less than a small-scale man-made earthquake.

The sky was completely bright.

Raperth had been holding him steadfastly, and now they were lying on their backs on the surface of the sea, Jiang Mian exhausted, leaning his drowsy body in front of him, one person and a fish just drifting aimlessly with the waves, no one spoke.

After a long time, Raperth carefully held his head and asked in a low voice, “Are you okay?”

Jiang Mian gasped for air, his ears ringing and his eyes dizzy, and gave a small laugh.

Gradually, his voice became louder and louder, and two unbearable nosebleeds dripped down, scaring Raperth enough, but Jiang Mian didn’t care, just laughed.

“…I’m fine, great.” Finally, Jiang Mian panted, “I’ve never been better in my life.”