Chapter 101: Shen Lianqi and His Friends
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
"Actually, I'm embarrassed to admit that I have no directional sense."
Red flames danced, casting a wavering light on Lin Sanjiu’s face. Roasted over the flames, the fats in the fish melted and oozed out like oil, which made a tantalizing sizzling sound. Every now and then, a few precious drops would fall into the fire, stirring the red flames.
"Besides, I’m unfamiliar with this place so I didn’t know I would end up at the bottom of the ocean after jumping 300km south." Shen Lianqi laughed wryly as he touched the pair of shoes in his hand as if out of pity." Even though The Munitions Factory has already stopped the production of this old model, this still costs a lot on the black market. I didn’t expect that it would be damaged by seawater. Sigh… The Munitions Factory probably didn’t design this anticipating that someone would jump into the ocean."
Lin Sanjiu also didn’t expect that she would meet Shen Lianqi, a few thousand meters under sea level. Moreover, a Shen Lianqi… like that.
She wondered if it would be too impolite if she asked him about "that" since they were only acquaintances.
Lin Sanjiu took some time to compose herself and finally pulled her eyes away from his body. She started turning over the half-cooked meat in her hands, acting nonchalant. As she didn’t have metal skewers or a wooden stick, she had chosen a few long bones from the fish and threaded the pieces of meat with the makeshift bone skewers. "You have been living here, in the deep sea, for a month?" she asked as she focused her attention on the skewers.
"Yes," Shen Lianqi answered openly, "this is a very deep marine trench. Without those Escape Boots, I thought of climbing out, but it is a few thousand meters, and it was too hard. Luckily, there are still some mutated sea creatures here, so I didn’t starve to death. As time went by, I started feeling that living here, in the bottom of the sea, was quite carefree."
"So, the weird gigantic fish is one of the mutated creatures?" Lin Sanjiu frowned, pondering about it. "But, why did I see a McDonald’s?"
"Do you know what a Deep-sea Dragonfish is? It is a species of fish which have a light-producing appendage, a photophore, on their lower jaw to lure their preys toward them…" Shen Lianqi explained while he gestured around his own lower jaw, "When I first arrived, I was lucky. The dragonfish did not notice me but instead focused its attention on another mutated… Cough... who knows what that was. The fish’s photophore glowed, and the unknown creature foolishly walked into the dragonfish’s mouth, as if hypnotized. That unknown creature looked really happy, so I guess that, to that creature, the dragonfish’s head must have looked like females’ nest. It probably entered the fish’s mouth seeking for a mate, but the dragonfish closed its mouth and bit it into two.
Once she heard his explanation, Lin Sanjiu recalled hearing about how some deep sea creatures use their photophores for hunting. She suddenly shivered. She was probably smaller than the other mutated creatures here, so the dragonfish did not even care to bite her. If it did, she would have probably died, considering the daze she was in previously.
"Talking about this, Miss Lin, you are incredible! The gigantic dragonfish died within a few seconds…" Shen Lianqi sighed. "You said that it died from… Versu Poison?"
[Yup.] Lin Sanjiu nodded.
When Lin Sanjiu entered the "Mcdonald’s", the door opened automatically for her. When she walked in, she didn’t touch anything. However, when the floor started tilting, Lin Sanjiu fell on the floor, and that was when her skin came in contact with the "McDonald’s" — more accurately, the dragonfish’s mouth. Once there was a direct contact, the dragonfish died from [Versu Poison] six seconds later.
"It happened too quickly, so I haven’t really recovered from it," she smiled, feeling slightly embarrassed by his praise.
"Haha! But, you sure are quick when it comes to barbecuing that fish!" Shen Lianqi commented, laughing. Then, he smacked his lips looking enviously at the fish. "Sigh, since you poisoned it, only you can consume it…"
Lin Sanjiu shifted a little uncomfortably.
[How can you still think of eating fish with the way you are right now?] Lin Sanjiu thought silently to herself, she struggled to keep herself from muttering that thought.
"Oh, I’ll give you my shirt. Even though there isn’t anyone around, a lady shouldn’t walk around all day without a top." Shen Lianqi took off his shirt and smiled. "Anyway, I don’t need it."
Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a while, but she finally took it from him and wore it. A fishy stench instantly assaulted her nose.
When the fish was almost fully cooked, Lin Sanjiu sprinkled some salt on it. She immediately smelled the fragrance from the cooked fish meat with a hint of sea salt. The deep-sea dragonfish was hideous, and its meat was coarse and hard to chew. But to someone like Lin Sanjiu, who had not eaten meat for such a long time, the fish tasted flavorful and extremely delicious.
After eating 1kg of that fish meat, Lin Sanjiu finally stopped. It wasn’t because she was full, but she found it a little difficult to continue eating looking at Shen Lianqi’s current appearance.
After some consideration, she decided to ask the question that had been on her mind.
"Shen Lianqi, how... did you become a fish?"
Calling him a fish might not be the proper term.
Even though there were two things like gills on the cheeks of his face — his pair of feets were like two fins, with greenish-white fish scales extending from his calves, making his legs look as if a mermaid’s lower body had been split — he still retained his overall human form.
"Haha!" Shen Lianqi laughed as he touched his head, a little abashed. "At the start, I wasn’t used to it. But as time went by, I realized that being this way is quite convenient!"
[No, this isn’t an issue about convenience…] Lin Sanjiu looked blankly at him as he revealed a fin sprouting from his arm.
[He is almost half a fish… But why do I keep feeling that has his personality changed so much from when we were at the pier.] Lin Sanjiu felt that Shen Lianqi had become more optimistic and calm, he seemed very different from the first impression she had of him, a quick-witted but extremely timid man.
"Great, your question reminded me of something. Come with me, I’ll bring you to the place where I’m staying. Maybe, you could even meet my friends." Shen Lianqi suddenly stood up, his fish tail legs seemed very strong, and they easily supported his body.
[Friends? We are in the deep ocean, where do your friends come from?]
Lin Sanjiu was puzzled, but she stood up and kept some huge slices of meat she had cut from the dragonfish into her cards. Then, she walked with Shen Lianqi to the side of the water.
"Beyond this waters, there is a shipwreck. The ship is stuck in between two rocks, so the hull is largely undamaged. I am living there now."
Lin Sanjiu jumped into the water with a splash and started dog paddling with both her arms and legs. She was bad at swimming, so she started struggling after swimming for a short while, and even swallowed a few mouthfuls of water. Shen Lianqi couldn’t bear to see it any longer, so he told Lin Sanjiu to tie his shirt around his waist. She held onto the other end of the shirt, as he flicked his fins and pulled her along easily in the water.
"See, I told you it is convenient." He laughed delightfully.
Lin Sanjiu simply did not know how to respond.
Shen Lianqi seemed comfortable with his own body. [Perhaps, he chose to become a mermaid out of his own accord. Maybe he is using a special equipment from that Twelve Worlds Centrum?] Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
Amidst the darkness, there was only the sound of water parting as both of them glided through the seawater. After Lin Sanjiu half swam for a while, pulled along by Shen Lianqi, he suddenly announced, "We’re here!"
She took out her Ability Polishing Agent and held it high above her head. The silver light from the bottle spilled all around them.
Under the cold light, she saw a large, white passenger ship stuck between two rocks as described. Half of it was above the surface of the water while the other half was underwater. The passenger ship probably sunk during the tsunami. Even though its outer paint had already deteriorated, it still looked new.
Both of them stopped under the rock. They climbed to the tip of the rock and jumped onto the deck of the passenger ship. As Shen Lianqi had lived on the ship for a month, he was more than familiar with the interior. He guided Lin Sanjiu around, moving his two fish tails.
"The guest cabins are all underwater, but the captain’s room and galley can be accessed. Oh, I also found a lot of bottled water on the bridge of the ship. There’s enough for both of us."
"That’s fantastic! I was feeling worried about it just now. I thought I might need to drink fish blood to survive," Lin Sanjiu exclaimed as her eyes lit up.
Shen Lianqi had already moved the valuable bottles of potable water into the captain’s room. As the passenger ship was from another country, the bottled water seemed to be from overseas. The design of the bottle was unique, but the seawater had disintegrated all the labels on the bottle. Lin Sanjiu twisted open a bottle impatiently and poured the refreshing mineral water down her throat. Gulping down that water, she felt as though her whole body was hydrated.
She had not drunk clean water for such a long time that she was reluctant to put down the bottle of water after she finished half of it, so she converted it into a card before following Shen Lianqi to the deck.
"You can look around here first." He smiled. "I’ll go look for my friends."
Seeing her expression, he quickly added, "You don’t have to worry. They’re good people. After I came here, they helped me out a lot. You can walk around, I’m leaving, okay?"
[Are they people who ended up in the bottom of the ocean for some reason?] Lin Sanjiu wanted to ask, but Shen Lianqi had already dived into the water. Without much of a choice, she decided to look around. Lin Sanjiu held her [Ability Polishing Agent] and walked two rounds around the ship.
Her initial excitement about the ship gradually faded. Without another person accompanying her, the surroundings fell into a dead silence, and darkness enveloped her like a tangible essence. Her footsteps made long and dull echoes as she walked around the empty steel ship. Each time she thought about the fact that she was a few thousand meters below sea level, Lin Sanjiu would feel empty and lonely.
[Shen Lianqi must have some willpower, being able to live here alone for a month.]
When she felt that she was tired of exploring, she kept her [Ability Polishing Agent] and took out her card with the bottled water. "Huh?" Lin Sanjiu muttered after she changed the card into its original form. She suddenly felt that something was wrong. But before she could think about it, she heard Shen Lianqi’s slightly excited voice: "Miss Lin, here are my friends!"