Chapter 75
Editor: SimoB
It was the middle of the night. Shi Qing started to examine his memories while playing with his tail.
Actually, there wasn’t much to go over. The original host might have had a tail and resembled the kind mermaid found in fairy tales, but how could such an idealistic creature survive in the dangerous deep sea?
He was more like a siren than a mermaid. According to his inherited memories, sirens liked to lounge on reefs and sing to attract ships. Causing said ships to crash into the reefs was one of their favourite pastimes.
Sirens were also notorious for their great fighting strength underwater and their skin, which appeared delicate but couldn’t be cut by even the sharpest object. They were almost invincible in the deep sea.
In a sea where the weak were the prey of the strong, it was natural to hunt others for their meat. As long as you have the strength, no one would object even if you clear out the entire area.
But the wicked sirens didn’t kill their prey for food, they killed them for the thrill of the hunt.
Cruelty seemed to be engraved in every siren’s bones. They had an innate instinct to provoke anything that wandered into sight. They thrived off the misery of others.
Many people believed the creatures of the sea to be simple minded beasts that only knew how to swim around, but they too had a strong desire to survive. This was reflected in the way they played dead after catching a glimpse of a siren from afar, if they couldn’t sneak away in time.
The shallower areas were a different story. Because the attention of the sirens were focused on humans everytime they surfaced, the schools of pretty little fishes in the shallow areas were not very afraid of them. They would even chase after the sirens’ tails or arms and gently nibble on the appendages, painting a truly beautiful image to behold.
Shi Qing chuckled once he finished checking his memories.
Shi Qing: [Tongtong, what kind of protagonist could possibly screw me over now that I’m this strong?]
No matter if it was on the sh.o.r.e or in the deep sea, a siren could kill whoever they wished just by opening their mouth. And they had even more options if they were underwater.
The system offered a cautious reminder: [Host, the body you’re in hasn’t matured yet.]
Shi Qing: [What’s the difference? I can still go wherever I wish in the sea.]
He stretched his pale arms out to the large and bright moon hanging in the sky. With a slight motion, his originally harmlessly pink and round fingernails split to reveal claws that were sharper than knives beneath.
He idly extended and retracted them again and again.
The action was reminiscent of felines on land. Their paws might look pink, fuzzy and tender, but there were razor sharp nails hidden within, ready to tear anything or anyone to pieces at will.
Then Shi Qing turned to look at his tail. The long fish tail was a silvery white that seemed to glitter with a light of its own under the gentle moonlight.
It was hard to believe that something as beautiful as a piece of art was actually a deadly weapon.
For example, if he were to just swish his tail, he could bludgeon a shark or an orca to death.
Just think about how much more powerful such an attack would be on land, without water resistance.
Even if he was in the body of a child, there was basically no one who could beat him.
Even if the protagonist had the protection of plot armour, killing a siren would be no small feat.
With this certainty in mind, Shi Qing began to check the original storyline.
He confirmed his suspicions very quickly.
As expected, he was the villain who ended up killing the protagonist.
He wasn’t surprised at all. If the protagonist could win against someone like him then they would undoubtedly be a monster.
This world had just gone through a Great Cleansing.
The gist of the Great Cleansing was that this planet was approaching the point where it could no longer support life, so it started cleaning out the ones at the top of the food chain, humans, to stop their overexploitation of the Earth.
The human advantage was nothing more than technology. Therefore, the planet took the most efficient path to save itself and cut off all electricity.
At the same time, as humans developed more advanced technologies and gradually encroached into the sea, all kinds of creatures emerged in the Great Purge.
Sirens, for example.
Sirens were solitary creatures, and the original host was no exception. He had always lived alone. However, thanks to his inherited memories, he knew that humans were the most delicious prey. Therefore he swam to the surface right after noticing the planet’s abnormal behaviour.
In the process of surfacing, the siren spotted a deep sea beast he had never seen before, not even in his inherited memories.
It was very strange looking, at least to the siren.
In the deep sea, other than the sirens who evolved delicate features to lure humans, creatures were generally not very good looking.
After all, the deep sea was pitch black. Except for some creatures that could see at night (like the sirens), everything was basically blind.
Their appearance generally hovered around “no one will see me anyway so I’ll just grow whatever”.
There were oddities aplenty.
Anything you can think of and more.
Just not any good looking ones.
Yet the creature the siren had never seen before was more than good looking. It had big and sharp claws, golden scales each bigger than the siren’s face, and a long beard that floated in the dark sea.
It was the most beautiful creature the siren has ever seen.
But it was also dangerous.
The creature resembled a giant sea serpent the siren had seen before, but that snake was like a hatchling in front of this behemoth.
The siren had never seen such a giant beast before. It was even larger than the creature called a dinosaur in its inherited memories.
If any other creature had stumbled upon such a beast, they would have long since fled. But the siren was different. It was in his nature to toy with his prey, and even if the behemoth was too large for him to play with he still wanted to try.
So the siren skulked around and found that the beast’s eyes were shut. He approached its face.
The next thing he noticed was the round pearl that was half the size of his body resting in the beast’s mouth. It shined with a l.u.s.trous light even in the deep sea.
The siren, who loved everything that shone, leaped into the beast’s mouth and ran away with the pearl in his arms.
After hiding the pearl, he went back to the sh.o.r.e to play with the humans.
Then the beast woke up while he was playing with the protagonist.
Originally, the author never intended for the protagonist to die here. The behemoth was supposed to be the protagonist’s unlikely saviour from the brink of death. It would return to the depths of the ocean after killing the siren. In addition, for some (author-given gold finger) reason, the behemoth took a liking to humans and helped the protagonist a few times later on.
Unfortunately, the storyline fell apart.
Before the behemoth could come to the rescue, the protagonist was toyed with to death by the siren.
He died a very, very miserable death.
With the death of the protagonist, the plot couldn’t go on and the world collapsed.
Shi Qing affirmed: [This world’s protagonist definitely isn’t the person I’m looking for.]
The System was at a loss; [How does the Host know that?]
Shi Qing: [Because the protagonist in this world is a woman.]
System: [???]
System: [……]
It looked at the short haired woman with a scarred face and a cigarette in her mouth in the profile and pondered.
Shi Qing: [There’s only two other living creatures other than me involved in the plot here. If it’s not the protagonist then it can only be that giant beast.]
The current timeline was that he’s already stolen the large pearl. He was also starting to seduce the protagonist.
In other words, it wasn’t long before that behemoth woke up.
The beautiful mermaid dove into the sea and swam deeper.
Mermaids were able to see at night, so everything was as clear as day to Shi Qing. He saw all kinds of coral bushes, small fish with beautiful patterns, and large crabs holding up pincers.
He was very fast and quickly reached the deep sea.
The further he descended, the more bizarre the surrounding creatures became.
Hideous and fierce looking with exposed fangs everywhere.
They were so ugly that it was almost cute.
The siren kept going down. All the creatures with a modic.u.m of intelligence dove out of his way.
Finally, Shi Qing found the behemoth in his memory.
He stopped swimming and looked at the creature in front of him. It was as tall as a building and covered with beautiful light yellow scales.
[It’s not as big as the original owner remembered it to be. There’s plenty of creatures this big in the deep sea.]
The System shut down its visual sensors and notified the Host in a wavering voice.
[Host, that’s its d***.]
Shi Qing: [???]
He flicked his big beautiful tail as he looked up.
[d.a.m.n… What a stimulating sight!]