Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Lu Yan returned to the hotel at six in the morning.

Xu Guanyue still looked uneasy. "You just killed those guards… what if someone finds out?"

"They won't." Lu Yan’s expression was utterly calm.

Due to the coastal terrain, surveillance cameras were sparse to begin with. And thanks to the system, Lu Yan had moved exclusively through their blind spots.

Xu Guanyue hesitated. "Did headquarters only send you?"

He had no idea of Lu Yan's actual capabilities. That overly beautiful face just filled Xu Guanyue with anxiety.

Lu Yan smiled. "Don't worry. Destroying this place is a one-man job."

He rarely smiled, so the expression seemed a little false when it came.

By all standard metrics, Lu Yan was a winner in life: handsome, highly educated, professionally competent. Logically, his life should have been smooth. But Lu Yan knew the truth—he was just following a human template, living by the rules.

He was merely completing tasks. Happiness didn't enter into it.

Moments of genuine joy had been scarce in his life. Otherwise, in the mermaid's song, the vision that surfaced wouldn't have been… Tang Xian'an's tail.

Lu Yan slid the glass door open and stepped back into the guest room.

From his luggage, he retrieved the piece of human parchment scavenged from Chen Anzhi.

This small skin fragment could temporarily grant Lu Yan the ability to enter dreams, though the process of applying it was slightly gruesome.

Fortunately, he possessed Talent 167: Regeneration. Skin tissue sliced from the back of his hand would regenerate in under thirty seconds.

The pattern on the parchment had changed. Where once was a bizarre star map, now lay a slender, black eye.

[The pattern is always random. The Holy Spirit has multiple personalities. Different patterns represent which personality is currently dominant.]

Once more, Lu Yan pressed the skin against the back of his hand.

Compared to the last time he’d used it, a faint, sinister chill seeped into his flesh.

He closed his eyes. Entered the dream. Simultaneously, the eye on his hand began to roll wildly, transforming into a real, physical eyeball.

The system noted, [You're late, brother. He's already got another parasite on him.]

But the eyeball couldn't hear. Or perhaps, even if it could, it wouldn't care.

After all, it was a fragment stripped from the body of an S-Class pollutant. An ordinary parasite stood no chance against it.

It bulged from the back of Lu Yan's hand, eager to wander.

Instantly, Lu Yan's palm split open. A long, red tongue coiled into a fist and backhanded the wandering eyeball with a solid smack.

The eyeball reeled, stars dancing in its vision, the sclera flooding with blood. It could only retreat, sulking, to its place on Lu Yan's hand.

Wang Yu, still unsatisfied, unleashed a furious flurry of combo punches. It pummeled the physical eyeball back into a mere tattoo before finally withdrawing, thoroughly pleased with itself.

The system couldn't help a shiver. [...A petty fish is a terrifying thing.]

In the dream, Lu Yan saw a gloom of oppressive black.

A candle flame ignited in his palm. This light was also the key to gathering other souls.

From this floor, every white soul still sleeping drifted toward the warm glow.

Entering the dreams of ordinary people was far easier than invading those of Awakened.

The white souls chattered, full of curiosity. "Who are you?"

"Where is this?"

"Wow, my hands are see-through!"

Lu Yan placed the candlelight on the table before him. He extended a hand and saw the color of his own soul. Black. Yet inexplicably bright, edged with a warm, yellow halo. Like burning fire.

He thought of Chen Anzhi, and his demeanor and tone shifted. "I am the island god of Mermaid Isle. This place was once isolated, where mermaids lived happily along the shore. But one day, the establishment of the Mermaid Club changed everything."

"Your very lives are at stake. I need you to remember this well…"

Lu Yan spun his tale like a seasoned charlatan.

Dozens of white souls listened to the sordid truths of the Mermaid Club. Flames of anger ignited in many. "This is despicable! We'll leave the island tomorrow and expose them!"

Lu Yan said, "You may not remember upon waking. This is the only way I can deliver the warning. Be wary of the Mermaid Club."

He wasn't a psychic-type Awakened. A single dream invasion drained him far more than expected.

Thus, several dozen minutes later, as the dream ended, Lu Yan fell into a dead, motionless sleep.

……

……

The two guards' bodies were eventually discovered in the fish pond.

The first to find them was a tourist out for a morning jog along the bay.

He spotted two sets of clothing, soaked and plastered to the beach in the distance.

Mistaking them for laundry left out to dry, he walked over and lifted a corner. Half his soul fled in terror.

The corpses' pants hung around their knees. Everything else had been bitten down to the bone. Flecks of pink flesh still clung to the stark white skeletons.

On nearby rocks, mermaids wore gentle smiles. Their fingernails seemed to hold traces of blood.

The tourist fumbled for his phone with trembling hands, but there was no signal.

Here, the only numbers that connected were the Mermaid Club's service center and the landline phones in the guest rooms.

The captain of the Mermaid Club's security team received the notification and felt an immediate headache. "What happened to these two? Two men with a combined spiritual power threshold of 3000, killed by mermaids with pollution levels under 500?"

A threshold over a thousand might only earn an E or D junior rank at headquarters. But remember, Lin Sinan, captain of a minor Seventh Division special operations team, hadn't even broken 2000 yet.

Back then, the three-meter-tall fish-man Lu Yan encountered on the street had a pollution value just over 500.

The captain reviewed the surveillance. The two men had walked from the hotel to the shore alone.

All he saw was a group of mermaids, as if in a frenzy, biting and tearing at the guards' corpses, even twisting off a head to kick around like a ball.

If no tourist had found them, it would have been a minor incident. Just two worthless fools who couldn't control themselves, killed by pollutants. Compensate the families, case closed.

But a tourist had found them. And called a crowd to gawk.

Word spread quickly among the first-floor guests. Many lost their appetite for admiring beautiful mermaids, demanding refunds and immediate departure.

The lobby manager stepped forward with an apologetic smile. "We deeply regret this unfortunate accident. However, our mermaids do not harm guests. These guards violated regulations by attempting to steal mermaids in the middle of the night and suffered the consequences."

"Please rest assured, from now on, all mermaid viewings will be conducted with staff supervision. We urge our valued clients to relax and enjoy your two-week stay. We have been authorized to waive all tour fees for this trip. One million will be refunded to your payment accounts within seven working days after your return voyage."

The staff weren't worried about what the tourists would do once home.

Bathed in the mermaids' song, they would only remember a pleasant fortnight's holiday.

Logically, after getting a free million, most would accept this outcome. Maybe one or two might protest. This time, however, even after the manager's speech, several dozen people surrounded him, insisting on leaving immediately.

These few dozen were, without exception, the people Lu Yan had visited in the dream.

They didn't remember the dream's contents upon waking, but they harbored a profound, inexplicable hostility toward the Mermaid Club. Among them were even potential mermaids like Shang Zhou and Ma Jie.

The manager's face darkened. "Do you have any idea how many tens of thousands a round trip for the cruise ship costs? If you can produce fifty million right now, I'll have the crew prepare to depart."

The grey-tier clients were successful people in the normal world. Otherwise, they wouldn't have spared a million for a vacation.

But producing fifty million on the spot was beyond their means.

"You're using your size to bully customers! A round trip isn't that expensive!"

The manager lifted his chin arrogantly. "Then find another ship. Or swim out yourselves."

In their eyes, grey-tier clients were merely future meat-fish. Maintaining surface-level respect was already an effort.

This scene left even the previously satisfied tourists feeling uneasy.

The incident displeased the boss on the seventh floor.

"Tell those idiots on the security team to control themselves. I don't want a repeat."

With that, he dove into the expansive swimming pool.

Twenty large screens lined the pool's edge, tracking the performances of the potential mermaids.

These candidates were all ordinary people, only good-looking shells. Their laid-bare souls were dull.

Some craved fame and fortune, some were just tourists, some hadn't even woken up by 1 PM.

The boss was deeply disappointed, switching off the screens with a sigh of boredom.

Fortunately, to prevent the gold-tier clients on the seventh floor from getting bored, he had already arranged various scripts.

Besides, starting the second week, these potential mermaids would begin to aberrate. Watching their expressions of despair and helplessness then would be a truly delightful pastime.

*

Lu Yan was concerned the hotel housekeeping might search his room in his absence.

So, he simply carried the dagger on his person, locked the bow and other items in his suitcase, and hid it underwater.

Day Three, according to the script, featured a beachside bonfire party. The meat-fish would be herded to the shore by Xu Guanyue, allowing the lucky "potential mermaids" to see them.

Panic was excellent fuel for rapidly increasing lesion values.

Lu Yan rehearsed in his room several times before he managed to master the expression of terrified panic.

The bonfire party included a mermaid performance. Lu Yan's seat was positioned at the very edge of the audience area.

It was too close to the water. He could feel the waves lapping over his ankles.

Then he felt a hand close around his ankle.

He looked back. A few meters out, underwater, a meat-fish grinned at him.

The script called for him to fall to the ground, screaming for security in abject terror.

But the ground was filthy. Lu Yan stood frozen for nearly half a minute, unable to move, much to the frustration of Xu Guanyue, who was hiding behind a nearby rock.

The system tried to console him. [Endure it, host. You are a man destined for great deeds. Think of the lamppost capitalists! Think of the other suffering fish-people!]

Lu Yan steeled his heart and threw himself onto the ground, letting seawater and grit coat his clothes.

A wave of intense, unprecedented homicidal rage surged within him. He had never hated the lamppost capitalists more.

Security arrived swiftly, voices laced with concern. "What's wrong, sir?"

"A monster… there's a monster in the water." Lu Yan clutched the guard's arm, his face a mask of sheer panic as he pointed toward the sea. "A fish head, a human body. It must be a pollutant. It was horrible."

He tried several times, but couldn't muster any tears. He settled for bowing his head, hugging his arms, and shivering violently.

"There's nothing in the water, sir. You must have been mistaken." The guard's voice was gentle as he draped a windproof blanket over Lu Yan's shoulders. "You seem distressed. Perhaps I should escort you back to the hotel?"

Lu Yan nodded meekly.

A fragile, pitiable beauty was always more alluring than an icy, expressionless one. Especially when seawater soaked his thin shirt, tracing the contours of his skin beneath.

The boss leaned closer to his screen, running his tongue over his lips. His eyes glazed with obsession. "He's so beautiful, isn't he?"

This one would undoubtedly become this year's most perfect mermaid.

Thankfully, Lu Yan couldn't see him.

Escorted by security back to the hotel, Lu Yan closed his room door, immediately pulled out a bottle of disinfectant, and sprayed himself down.

The feeling was revolting. Nauseating.

If the room's water supply wasn't contaminated with that mermaid gene, he would have plunged into a shower immediately. He wanted to soak in clean water for days.

He lifted the glass panel beneath his bed and slipped into the sea. Scales emerged along his arms, creeping up to his cheeks.

He'd been helping the fish-people reduce their lesion levels these past days. Perhaps because of that, while his aberration remained controllable, it had become more pronounced.

Lately, he'd been waking to an itchy sensation along his waist. Lifting the covers revealed a dusting of golden scales.

The first fish-person he'd helped, after two days of rest, was almost fully human again in the head, though it retained its ability to live underwater.

These fish-people clung to him with a palpable dependence. It reminded him of the little dragon-girls' attachment to Longnu back at Dragon-Girl Lake.

From the bay, Mermaid Isle still appeared a picture of revelry and peace.

The thought that he would soon get to kill them all was the only thing that finally improved Lu Yan's mood.