CH 36.3

Although the body of the electric eel monster was elongated, slippery, and slimy, it was still a little wider than the tunnel.

The fat merman commanded the mermen to throw the electric eel monster aside. They left two mermen to watch the electric eel monster while the rest went back and called for help in cutting the electric eel up.

Bai Lixin, as the master crossbow maker, was the first to be invited into the tunnel.

A few minutes later, they entered the merfolk’s cave without incident. The community was still orderly, with female mermaids nurturing their children; the older ones were in pairs polishing fish bones……quietly?

“It’s supposed to be polished here! That’s what the little one said!”

“But why do I remember it being like this?”

“You must be remembering it wrong. I remember it right!”

“Mine is the right one!”

As soon as Bai Lixin entered, he heard the two old mermen arguing.

The other elderly mermen had gathered around to watch the drama, and everyone was eating melons.

As soon as the fat merman came in, he tried to arrange for the wounded to be treated. He had them put their things down before they started to prepare cutting tools.

At the fat merman’s command, a dozen young merfolk came forward and followed the fat merman with their daggers.

These merfolk were the young ones who had not yet reached adulthood and who had not even differentiated between the sexes. As for the minors in the pack who no longer needed care but were not old enough to assume a certain status, helping with the food was all they could do.

Bai Lixin came to those elderly mermen with the fish tendrils on their backs, asking curiously, “What’s going on here?”

The two mermen who were arguing were none other than Scar and Baldy.

The scarred merman saw Bai Lixin close to him and beckoned, “Come and see, who did it right between the two of us?”

The scarred merman and the bald merman simultaneously brought the two crossbows to him.

Bai Lixin looked at them and frowned slightly.

Neither one was done quite right.

But it shouldn’t be.

In yesterday’s study, the Scarred Merman was the faster learner and the one who had done it best.

How could he make a mistake when doing something as simple as splicing?

Bai Lixin looked at Scar and Baldy suspiciously, and both of them looked at him earnestly.

Could it be that a fish’s seven-second memory extended to merfolk as well?

Bai Lixin pursed his lips, not knowing how to explain it.

Soon, whispers came to his ear.

“They’ve also become like that.”

“Yes, how did they become like that too?”

“They were obviously very strong when they were young.”

“We’ll have scattered memories too, won’t we.”

“Isn’t that a part of getting old? It’s scary though.”

Becoming like what? Like someone with Alzheimer’s?

Bai Lixin looked at the source of the voices and saw two mermen, still slightly younger in their old age, whispering in the corner. He looked around and noticed that the elderly mermen, whom he had previously thought were enjoying the show, were looking at the two mermen with a slight sympathy in their eyes.

“Give me the crossbows first,” something occurred to Bai Lixin, and he took their crossbows. “You all seem to have assembled them without a problem, but I’ll take a closer look.”

With that, he swam over to the two mermen in the corner.

After the previous two copies, he was almost certain that each of them was not a simple pile of computer data.

And the NPCs inside weren’t just avatars either.

Bai Lixin swam over to the two mermen in the corner and asked, “What do you mean by scattered memories?”

The two mermen were whispering when Bai Lixin suddenly came up and startled them. One of the mermen lowered his voice and said, “It means dying.”

“How strong a merman is when he is young, how wretched he is before he dies.”

“The first sign of death is the loss of memory, then the loss of nails, the loss of hair, and finally the loss of all the teeth.”

“By the time all of the teeth have fallen out, the merman will have forgotten everything and can only lie there dying.”

Bai Lixin’s face changed slightly.

He thought of the split turtles.

Would the split turtles, which chase after death, find the two mermen?

Death was a process that every creature was bound to accept, and in the face of normal death, it was fine to face it openly.

But, with the presence of the split turtles, death, which should be accepted openly, is turned into a different kind of despair.

Seeing that Bai Lixin’s face didn’t look too good, the two mermen thought it was because he was worried that they would die, and were busy reassuring him, “Actually, you don’t have to worry so much; it’s all normal. Besides, they won’t die so soon. The memory loss is only intermittent at the start, and it will be restored after a nap. It will be years from the start of the memory to death.”

Bai Lixin pursed his lips.

He couldn’t stay here for years; he was leaving in two days.

Even if those split turtles didn’t find the two mermen before he left, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t in the future.

The split turtles had already spread from the Northern Sea area to all directions. There were split turtles in the South Sea area, and it wouldn’t be long before they came to the Middle Sea area.

If this world was simply data, he could have let it go and left, but he was 95% sure that this was a world that actually existed. He couldn’t think of anyone but  him who could save these sea creatures.

Whether it was the lantern beast, the electric eel monsters, or even the Hundred-Eyed monster, all creatures were either hunting or being hunted, but not the split turtles. They were abnormal creatures.

They were invincible; not even lava can kill them. Those split turtles in the lava chose to die because they realized, through repeated attempts, that even splitting and rebirth was a futile exercise.

It wasn’t that he had killed them with the lava, but that they had given up on life themselves.

Which was a little scary to think of.

Creatures need nutrients to grow, but what about split turtles?

Where does this energy to grow wildly and split infinitely in a short period of time come from?

Even the “ancient gods” of the Northern Sea area were in an embarrassing position because of this incongruous setup.

The Red Spider in the Trial copy was also a monster that was very unreasonable compared to that world.

When he killed the Evil spirit, those red spiders disappeared with it.

Then what of this copy? Is it possible that these unreasonable split turtles are actually the derivation of some kind of obsession?

It was useless to kill the split turtles, so one had to find the obsession itselF?

As Bai Lixin was pondering, the fat merman who had left hurriedly swam back again.

He looked a little flustered, and there was shock in his eyes.

“Outside…something’s happened.”

The merfolk immediately came forward, and Bai Lixin pricked up his ears.

“We left the electric eel monster outside the tunnel and had two mermen watch it while I came in to call for help in splitting it.”

“But in just moments, that electric eel monster, nearly a hundred metres in length, is gone! All that’s left is a pile of bones!” The fat merman’s face was a little pale as he looked back and said, “Let them speak! I can’t say it clearly! I met them in the tunnel, and I didn’t believe them when they told me, but when I went out to see, there were really only bones left!”

The fat merman was followed by two small mermen who were shaking like sieves, “Yes, it was a bunch of strange-looking creatures. They were like, like…”

The mermen thought for a moment, then put both palms together at the base and spread both hands outwards, “Something like this.”

“We then saw this group of things suddenly come out of the ground, lie on top of the electric eel monster and eat furiously. They ate away most of the flesh in the blink of an eye.”

“We were so scared that we ran back in a hurry for fear of being eaten too.”