He and It Chapter 6: The King’s Pearl (6)

Chapter 6: The King’s Pearl (6)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

Ted took a risk and delivered this real-time information for him, behind a dialog box, marked with a stark orange patch.

It was one of the unspoken rules of private communication within the Institute, and the orange mark wasn’t as critical as the red, but it still meant that it was a serious message.

Jiang Mian stared at the dialog box, his hair disheveled, his eyes dazed and drowsy, suspecting that he was still dreaming.

…How?

Raperth is still able to move? He wasn’t electrocuted? Could it be that the German showed mercy?

No… That’s not possible, then the device is malfunctioning?

Jiang Mian didn’t doubt the authenticity of this information, because Ted wouldn’t make up such an outrageous lie to deceive him. Therefore, this realization confused his thoughts even more.

He remembered very clearly that yesterday’s Raperth wasn’t like this at all. The mermaid was curious about humans, and even though he couldn’t speak the language, he was able to ask and answer questions with him in a fierce manner. Except for the last moment when he lost control, Raperth’s mood had been stable and even a bit laid back.

How could this happen?

Jiang Mian asked himself once again, he wouldn’t make a fool of himself and think that Raperth was actually treating him differently, but what had gone wrong to end up in such a vastly different result?

It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t afraid, Jiang Mian had mixed emotions, his chest rose up with a sense of regret for the new handler. He knew that the man had died for Fabian, and mermaid vengeance always came with a ferocious force, leaving no room for error.

What to do next?

If he could, Jiang Mian would really rather Raperth not kill anyone. He knew how many resources and means the Sigma Institute had at its disposal, and he had seen just how far his own kind could go with ideas about torture and torment. Raperth’s tough physique allowed him to survive the first day of electroshock, but that didn’t relieve him, it made him more worried.

Strong, tough, unyielding — according to the knowledge and common sense that Jiang Mian had accumulated since childhood, these traits were good things to boast about in the outside world, or the normal world; but here, between the cold lab, the restraint table, the precision instruments and the real data, they meant only one thing.

——The experiment could withstand harsher treatment, the experiment had higher utilization, the experiment was a sturdier consumable.

The worst may be happening: Raperth has already attracted the attention of the Fabian-led faction of researchers, the beast with its deadly claws and teeth in nature, but what about when it was held in a cage surrounded by humans with torches and tools?

Jiang Mian was too scared to think about it.

—

The situation began to get interesting, and Raperth watched indifferently.

Raperth watched them dance, jump, and render in the water until they lingered around him pervasively.

He raised his arms and flicked his fish tail, letting the unpleasantly colored gadgets flow around him, neither flinching nor dodging.

So, this was a new round of punishment, in return for him hunting and killing strange land dwellers?

Strangely, Raperth smiled faintly, his copper-gold eyes glittering strikingly in the fog. The kingdom of the sea had never heard of such a funny anecdote, that the land dwellers wanted to use poison mixed in the water to punish the abyssal king who could control the water… 

Speaking of which, where did that little human go?

Thinking of the human he saw when he first opened his eyes, the human with a beautiful voice, lovely demeanor and appearance, Raperth’s thoughts wandered for a moment.

He didn’t forget that the human was terrified, shouting with open arms and making gestures of protection, but he was too small, so he was quickly grabbed by two dark, much taller land dwellers.

Raperth should’ve been indifferent, but somehow, seeing this scene, he felt only a burst of anger, unable to contain the threatening roar that erupted in his chest. But the psychology of fear overwhelmed the revenge of the mermaid, so he didn’t let the two land dwellers’ brains explode.

For the past two days, Raperth’s arms and shoulders had been aching vaguely, and his lumbar spine was killing him, which must have been from the effects of his soulmate. After coming to land, he could feel his soulmate’s situation more vividly, but he was stuck in a confusing ocean current, unable to judge the exact direction.

Is he close to me?

—Yes, he must be very close to me.

But how much has the distance been reduced?

——As if caught in a swirling fog of confusion, he looked to the right and left, but he just couldn’t be sure.

It was unheard of, unseen, and at the same time greatly provoked his anger. Before waiting for a new conversation, in addition to puzzling over the location of his soulmate, Raperth kept his face expressionless, wondering if the little human was safe, and if, when they met again tomorrow, he would sing a song to him and agree to be his guide for the trip… Well, maybe I’ll reluctantly consider it and stop scaring him.

So the next day, seeing a new, fresh-faced land dweller standing above him, full of self-righteous contempt, clumsily disguised as a harmless cowardly look — the expectation fell short, Raperth long-suppressed anger burst out at once with it.

I’m willing to stay in this lowly cage, only to wait for the only human qualified to give me relief, and now not only is my pearl gone, this group of land dwellers also put a fish dung in front of me?

The mermaid vented his anger swiftly and tyrannically, sniffing at the human blood churning in the water, he made a disgusted comment: the smell of land dwellers is worse than even the most bony jellyfish.

“Doctor,” standing behind the floor-to-ceiling viewport, the assistant was very nervous, “this doesn’t work fundamentally…”

Fabian’s expression was cold, like some kind of sophisticated mechanical composition, he watched the mermaid indifferently wiggle its tail fins in the strong acid, spread its finger claws and continued to give orders, “Drain the water, open the freezing valve and drop liquid nitrogen.”

“I beg you to stop, Dr. Fabian.” One of the aging group of scholars put aside his busy research and looked up, “The experiment isn’t your personal property, it’s the precious property of the Institute, and the Sigma Group. We appreciate your courage in fighting to bring us such an illustrious trophy, but — please stop, will you? Please let us get on with our work.”

“Forgive me, but it must be punished.” Fabian said with a soft voice and a dangerous tone, “It killed one of our men.”

“One person.” Dr. Brown closed his notebook and sighed helplessly, “We have plenty of people, Dr. Fabian, but how many mermaids do we have? When the time comes, we’ll use liquid nitrogen and crack some parts on it for further study. How hard would it be to find a new gopher now that you’re in charge of the project?”

His assistant spoke dismissively, “If you ask me, that young man yesterday was pretty good. He is Dr. Jiang’s adopted son, and I heard that six years ago, he was the one responsible for nursing that female subject.”

Hearing the name of the glass beauty, Fabian raised his eyebrows and smiled meaningfully, “Well, let’s try to recruit a third handler first. In any case, something must have gone wrong with today’s candidate.”

“Ah, that’s right!” One of the scholars brightened up and said excitedly, “There must be something wrong with this… What’s the difference between yesterday’s handler and today’s? Which of them, or which ones, became the source of stress for the mermaid? We need to figure this out!”

“We can start with the assumption that the variable is the height and size of the handler, perhaps the disparity in appearance is an important exposure condition for mermaids…”

The discussion heated up and the assistant asked in a low voice, “Doctor, for the sake of safety, shouldn’t the length of the chains in the observation room be shortened further?”

“As you heard. That would interfere with the experiment.” Fabian mused, “Get another person, as they discussed the requirements.”

Day 3.

New strange humans, new sounds and smells, new cowering and caution.

Raperth stared at the short, dark-haired, dark-eyed land dweller, who was shivering as he stood by the feeding spout, spooning down some spiked raw meat.

He couldn’t help but tilt his head.

The handler’s lips quirked, not knowing whether it was a silent curse or a silent prayer.

“Now, test the effect of different kinds of baited food on the experimental body.” The communication channel, the tone of cold command, “Handler, please reach underwater about 30 centimeters.”

The handler froze, he hesitated for half a day before grabbing a piece of raw fish and dipping his arm a little into the bone chilling water.

The mermaid’s gaze was dark but it didn’t move.

Just when he was relieved, intended to slowly let go, but suddenly before his eyes was black—

——The sound of flesh and bone breaking apart, like the sudden corking of a champagne cork, making your teeth sore. The man’s scream was also extremely short, it could almost be called a hasty choking hiccup.

By the time the guards brought the body down, the unlucky man had ended up exactly like his predecessor, both dragged to their deaths by the tyrannical mermaid.

This time, Fabian chose to drain the observation room and activate the small CIWS placed in the alloy walls, a close-range defense weapon system normally assigned only to naval ships to detect and destroy threatening flying objects, but now it was used against the unruly and brutal Storm King’s heir, a prisoner of the human race that was extremely difficult to tame.

The quasar tracked the mermaid’s vitals, the spine, the heart, the back of the neck, the fissures crisscrossing the fish’s tail… A series of twelve tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds exploded with light and heat no less than high-voltage electrical sparks, and the research scholar on the sidelines was so shocked that he lunged to hold Fabian’s hand. 

“Dr. Fabian, what are you doing?! Are you trying to kill it?!”

He stopped too late, however, the imagined scene of blood and flesh didn’t appear.

The mermaid didn’t dodge — he couldn’t dodge the speed of the bullets either — he just flipped over in a flash of lightning, shielding the wound that was more likely to be breached. A moment of killing passed, he then re-stretched his taut body, ink-black long hair with the winding flow.

A strange scene emerged: the long, sharp shells were stuck between the cast-iron muscles and were gradually expelled from the surface of the skin, clanking and crashing to the ground like a short shower of raindrops.

He was like a piece of steel so malleable that the armor-piercing bullets brought many unnaturally deep indentations to his flat, firm skin, but he didn’t even shed a drop of blood.

“Don’t worry, my dear friend,” Fabian said with a belated smile, “Look, it’s nothing, isn’t it?”

“What a miracle…” Seeing this scene, the scholars grouped around behind the viewport, unable to stop admiring and stammering, the gaze even implied a hint of envious salivation.

One of them turned his head toward Fabian and asked incredulously, “How on earth did you catch him then?”

The German’s smile was like a solid mask; he didn’t pull down the corners of his mouth, but he didn’t answer the question either.

Raperth turned his eyelids, he could resist the pressure of the deep sea, naturally, he could also resist the gunfire on land, this was clearly a reciprocal thing, why did the land people make such a surprised look?

If it weren’t for mobility problems and the need for a familiar land guide, he would have left long ago, without the need to play ticklish tricks here.

The mermaid made an impatient hissing sound, and the muscles that were rebounding itched and numbed, he didn’t bother to scratch it, but in such a moment of frustration, Raperth inevitably thought of that little pearl-like human.

Why hadn’t he come yet?

Day 4.

New strange humans, new sounds and smells, new fear and trepidation.

Food continued to be dropped, observing mermaid preferences and orientations, feeding frequencies and patterns, all important research topics, so a steady stream of new handlers continued to fill in the gaps.

Raperth casually tugged at the slightly brittle shackles — after a baptism of electricity, strong acid and the like, it was clear that the four heavy big guys didn’t have the same terrible toughness he had.

This meant that his little game became easier and more convenient at the same time.

“Now, test the effect of different kinds of baited food on the experimental body. Handler, please reach underwater for 30…”

Game over.

Day 5.

“Now, test the effect of different kinds of bait food on the experimental body…”

The game ended.

Days 6 and 7.

“Now, test the kinds not…”

Again, once more, the game ended.

Raperth tediously moved the fan fins at his elbow, controlling the current to clean the tissue debris from above.

Bizarre, was this all they had up their sleeve? How could such a weak creature presume to hold a monarch from the abyss?

This isn’t interesting anymore, Raperth thought to himself, I’d delayed too long, and the only thing worth doing right now is to find a way out of here to find my long-lost soulmate.

…No, let’s give them one more chance.

Tomorrow, if I can’t wait for the human I want tomorrow, I can start slaughtering the land folk who have been standing on the highest ground.

“It’s been a week, what’s gone wrong?” Palm pressed against the cold glass window, the scholar couldn’t help but whine, “Our time is precious, we can’t afford to waste it like this!”

“Race, age, gender, height, weight, behavior, smell… We’ve tested all of these, what else have we overlooked?”

“Maybe the environment of the day? Has the design of the restored scenes been considered?”

“Come on, the time period and environment were always perfectly controlled, okay? There’s no way we could have been negligent in that regard.”

“Actually… Have you guys ever thought about it?” An assistant timidly raised his hand, a few days had passed and he still hadn’t gotten used to the bloody killing action of the mermaids, “What if the experimental body’s perversity had nothing to do with any other disturbing factors, but rather it had identified the only subject?”

Fabian frowned imperceptibly, and the experiment station fell silent.

After a long time, someone whispered, “You mean… Something like an Indo-Following reaction?”

“…It’s not that it’s impossible.” A low echo came from next to them, “We’re just so focused on solving the puzzle that we’ve overlooked the speculation.”

Ted stopped what he was doing and cried out in his mind.

“Call the boy back,” the aged doctor decided, “We’ve wasted too many times for him to miss this one.”

The scholar of the same rank beside him mused, “But he is, after all, Dr. Jiang’s adopted son…”

“Then we will allow him to stand a little farther away.” The old man said impatiently, with a final word, “The Institute doesn’t keep idle men!”

Day 8.

Jiang Mian, wrapped in a blanket, his throat dry and his eyes astringent and sore, was in the midst of his anxious and hectic work when he suddenly heard a knock at the door.

“Hey, Jiang!” Ted’s tone sounded very relaxed, and even though Jiang Mian was exhausted, his lower back was sore, and his stomach was aching, he was sensitive to the strange feelings it implied.

“Open the door, will you? I… I want to discuss something with you.”