Chapter 12

Ever since that jellyfish showed up, everything started to feel off.

Lance was a bit worried.

First of all, Wensir—he didn’t know why, but Wensir had been sleeping all the time. Even when he tried to wake Wensir up forcefully, Wensir just looked dazed and confused.

The tentacles were also much more cautious than before. It seemed like they had noticed the giant jellyfish outside trying to feed, so they wrapped around the coral bone tightly.

Like this, it could show off its unparalleled possessiveness, and once the jellyfish got too close, it would slap it away, sending the jellyfish spinning.

So, Lance could only peer through the holes in the coral bone, gloomily watching the jellyfish outside.

A person and a jellyfish were separated by hundreds of meters, gazing at each other from afar.

It made them look like the heartbroken Cowherd and Weaver Girl, torn apart by some cruel fate.

Jellyfish: [Wuwuwu, my little cutie, I can’t touch my little cutie anymore.]

Lance: [……]

He was really curious—can jellyfish actually cry?

Since they’re made of water, would they shrink if they cried?

But, even though he couldn’t eat jellyfish skin anymore, he could still chat with the jellyfish.

Taking advantage of Wensir’s sleep, Lance learned how to chat with the jellyfish through a private channel under the jellyfish’s vague guidance:

[So you’ve been in the shallow sea all along?]

While chatting, Lance crawled into the tunnel he had dug earlier and started digging down into the mud.

The mud here was relatively soft. Although it was a bit laborious for Lance to dig, he thought it was bearable.

[Yeah.]

The jellyfish didn’t notice that Lance was trying to pry information from it. It was swirling around in the seawater, having a great time.

[I’ve been in the shallow sea for a long, long time.]

[Have you seen humans?]

[Humans? You mean those little guys sitting in big steel things? They look a lot like you.]

[That’s right.]

Lance’s eyes widened in surprise. In the darkness, he instinctively looked up, only to bump his head and wince in pain.

[Did that steel thing sink?]

Lance had thought it through. Just like Wensir said, after he went out, he needed to think about what he was going to do. So, what Lance was thinking about was figuring out how he had turned into a mermaid.

And to do that, he definitely needed to start from the source—

That cruise ship.

Lance keenly sensed that there might be something wrong with his memory, and finding that cruise ship would at least help him figure out whether he had died and his soul had been reborn into a mermaid…

Or if he had transformed into a mermaid himself.

[There are many, which one are you talking about?]

Lance suddenly stopped moving, incredulously repeating the question:

[Many?!]

[Yeah, a lot.]

The jellyfish said nonchalantly, [In Sunset Bay, there are tons of them… especially that day, all the big guys in the sea were sunk by the storm.]

All the sea monsters had a vivid memory of that day.

For them, that day was when they officially revealed their existence to the world.

It was a massive solar flare storm, and no one knew why it was so huge—so huge that all electronic devices on Earth failed within a day.

The seal that had once kept the sea monsters hidden from the surface world vanished at that moment, and countless sea monsters swam out from the deep sea, curiously looking at all the things above the water.

And for humans, it was a huge disaster.

No one knew why their proud technology suddenly failed. Without those technological devices, the remaining humans were so fragile that nature could only laugh.

It was the first time the sea monsters encountered humans and their ships. Some curious and bolder sea monsters approached to see what those floating things on the water were—

Humans began to despair.

That day, almost all the ships on the surface were capsized by the overly curious sea monsters.

From then on, a deep-seated hatred was formed between humans and sea monsters.

Were the sea monsters wrong?

Of course, they were.

But could they be blamed? Who knows.

But that didn’t stop the humans on land from still treating the sea monsters as their enemies.

Of course, Lance knew nothing about all this.

He only learned one thing from the jellyfish: a strange storm had caused all the ships that day to malfunction.

And his cruise ship was very likely in the Sunset Bay that the jellyfish mentioned.

Sunset Bay was to the west, so after he went out, he just needed to swim west and find the bay in the shallow sea.

As they chatted, Lance suddenly saw a glimmer of light in the dark tunnel.

This glimmer stunned Lance for a moment, and then he was overjoyed—

He had succeeded! He had finally dug out a small hole, a hole that led outside.

Lance quickly told the jellyfish:

[I did it!]

The jellyfish hadn’t reacted yet:

[What are you talking about?]

[I dug out the tunnel! As long as I crawl out from there, I’ll be free!]

Lance excitedly cleared away the last bit of dirt and used his tail to sweep the surrounding mud outside.

[That’s great!]

The jellyfish was also very happy, [If you come out, we can go to the shallow sea together!]

Lance felt a surge of energy at that moment. He worked on the final touches, then suddenly thought of a problem:

[Wait, the tentacles are wrapped around outside. How am I supposed to escape?]

He crawled out from the escape tunnel, lying on the coral bone, gloomily watching the tentacles outside.

They were wrapped around tightly, as if they were holding onto a treasure.

Lance counted—there were at least five tentacles.

The previous tentacles hadn’t been so vigilant. During the day, there was always a time when the tentacles were out of sight, allowing Lance to move around freely.

But now, the tentacles were keeping a 24-hour watch on any movements outside, and it seemed that as soon as Lance went out, he would be spotted and shoved back in.

Both Lance and the jellyfish fell silent.

Then, the jellyfish shook and once again took on its “sacrificial hero” spirit:

[This is easy. I’ll help you distract the tentacles.]

Lance was startled:

[Aren’t you afraid of dying?]

[What is death?]

The jellyfish, being adorably clueless, didn’t understand fear at all.

[As long as I have a piece of me left, I can be reborn.]

Lance twitched the corner of his mouth.

No wonder this jellyfish was so fragile yet dared to frolic near the tentacles.

It had the capital to frolic.

The jellyfish took Lance’s unspoken words as his approval and immediately spun around, flinging its tentacles—

Each of its tentacles had stingers, and the jellyfish’s characteristic was that each tentacle was densely packed with tiny sacs, each containing a small hook. Once flung out, those poisonous little hooks would pierce into flesh.

And this jellyfish was an evolved super jellyfish. While it was difficult for the stingers to pierce through the tentacle’s skin, it wasn’t impossible.

The tentacle was pricked by the jellyfish.

Perhaps the tentacle hadn’t expected the jellyfish to openly provoke it, and it immediately got angry.

The tentacles that had been wrapped around the coral bone instantly released it and went after the jellyfish.

This jellyfish was also a peculiar one. Although it usually liked to drift with the current, appearing slow and weak, when it got serious, its round body would pulse and spray water forward, reaching speeds that could be described as rocket-like.

The tentacles couldn’t catch up for a moment.

After staying in place for a few seconds, as if enraged, it quickly wrapped around the jellyfish.

The jellyfish’s sharp scream echoed through the seabed:

[Aaaahhh—]

Lance lay on the coral bone, silently watching this battle of sea monsters.

Hearing the jellyfish’s scream, Lance slowly drew a cross over his chest in the direction the jellyfish had gone:

“Amen.”

Then, like a loach, he disregarded the dirt and immediately slipped out through the tunnel he had dug.

When Lance opened his eyes again, he was filled with excitement as he looked at the vast ocean outside.

Behind him was the coral bone, proving that he had truly escaped.

He was so excited that he forgot to call Wensir.

And just as Lance emerged from the coral bone, the tentacles that had been drawn away by the jellyfish suddenly came to their senses. They immediately turned back and “saw” Lance standing outside the coral bone from a distance.

The five tentacles were “shocked,” and then, with a thunderous force, they swept toward Lance.

Lance had just managed to get out, and before he could even take a breath of the free seawater, he saw five tentacles rushing toward him, instantly scaring him into dodging purely on instinct.

Now, Lance’s swimming skills were no longer like when he was “born,” unable to even flip over.

Thanks to the training over the past few days, Lance’s swimming skills had skyrocketed, reaching a basic level for marine creatures.

Facing the tentacles sweeping toward him, Lance quickly flicked his tail, swimming faster and faster, skillfully weaving through the gaps like an arrow shot from a bow.

The tentacles were huge, but unfortunately, they weren’t very agile. The confusion among the tentacles allowed the little fish to escape for the first time.

The white little fish shot straight into the open ocean like a sharp arrow—

The tentacles felt a bit desperate. After Lance left their range, for some reason, they didn’t pursue him but instead stayed in place, “watching” as their little fish successfully escaped.

However, strangely, the white little fish suddenly stopped.

It floated in the ocean, then turned around and called out softly to the tentacles.

The tentacles, which had been enveloped in a “sad” aura, trembled and quickly surrounded the little fish.

The white little fish didn’t escape; it obediently let the tentacles wrap around it.

Why didn’t it run away?

Even without speaking, the puzzled aura emanating from the tentacles made Lance unable to help but take a good look at them.

The tentacles gently touched the little fish they had wrapped up, and another thin tentacle wiggled happily, almost tying itself in knots.

Maybe, the little fish was just playing a joke on them.

This game was way more exciting than tossing pearls.

The white little fish blinked, showing no resistance, and allowed the tentacles to place it back into the coral bone.

……

Wensir watched as Lance was returned by the tentacles, his expression was quite complex:

“Why didn’t you escape?”

Clearly, Lance had a chance to run just now.

Lance blinked, smiled at Wensir, revealing two small dimples, and shyly said:

“I didn’t forget about you, did I?”