Hey! Control Yourself! - Chapter 21

The Red Mist Forest, as the name implies, is perpetually shrouded in a crimson fog. The trees are towering, the waters deep, and it is a desolate place teeming with wild beasts.

Beneath the tangled, gnarled root systems of the giant trees lies a densely packed network of laboratories and hidden outposts. It is a fully self-sustaining experimental city, encompassing various biological, chemical, and human experiments—including the most brutal mermaid trials.

Shen Ji had originally planned to enter the underground experimental city alone, leaving the others outside as backup.

However, Lei Yi stopped him: “You’re the combat powerhouse of our team; we have to follow you.”

“Besides, this place is so heavily fortified that no matter how powerful you are, you can’t get in alone,” Royce added.

Shen Ji found this reasonable: “Fine. If there’s any danger, call for help via the light-brain.” He turned to enter.

Royce, feeling he was far too much of a man of action, grabbed him helplessly: “Wait! Don’t you have an entry plan? Are you planning to just lead us into a fortified bunker by brute force?”

Shen Ji had high mental energy and could basically ignore most risks and obstacles in Gaya, but Lei Yi and Sha Mo couldn’t. Royce, meanwhile, required detailed planning for everything.

“We need at least the internal map of the experimental city and the guard distribution,” he said.

Shen Ji replied: “I have it.”

“Where?”

Then, right there, Shen Ji drew the entire map of the experimental city on his light-brain’s canvas. It was detailed down to the power stations, access points, and even the number of waste disposal sites.

The others looked at him as if he were a monster. This was a space of at least ten thousand square meters. If he had only drawn the general layout, it might have been plausible, but Shen Ji marked the structure and specific dimensions of every single sector without a moment’s hesitation or pause.

“How did you do that?” Royce and Sha Mo looked at him in shock.

Only Lei Yi remained calm. Having known Shen Ji the longest, he had already transitioned from shock to worship to total composure. To put it in a cliché way: being handsome was the least of this man’s virtues.

Shen Ji didn’t hide the truth: “Last time in Gaya, someone showed it to me, and I memorized it. I’m not sure about the guard distribution, but as long as we know the entrance, that’s enough.”

Those two short sentences left everyone in silence.

“To ensure nothing goes wrong, we need at least two hours to plan ahead,” Royce stated. Royce was the expert in these matters, and Shen Ji had no objection.

Two hours later.

“Let’s start here,” Royce pointed to a water filtration and treatment center in the experimental city. It was the most inconspicuous spot in the entire facility. “Moreover, this place is near the external reservoir, so it should have the weakest guard presence. If we pass through the tunnel successfully, Lei Yi and Sha Mo need to enter the entertainment room and reach the power station. I’ll be responsible for pulling the alarm in the fire station to distract the guards…”

“Shen Ji only needs to find the items he needs and leave.”

Although Royce said that, Shen Ji didn’t plan on leaving so simply. Since returning from Shen Yi’s place, Shen Ji had a constant thought: he had to go to the mermaid laboratory.

While he didn’t have a clear plan to sabotage or rescue, he was certain he should go take a look. Obtaining the special spacecraft hull material wasn’t particularly difficult. Likely because the apocalypse hadn’t truly arrived yet, the experimental city was somewhat lax regarding this long-standing project.

Perhaps because Royce had pulled the alarm, a large portion of the guards had headed toward the fire station.

Following his memory of the mermaid lab’s location, Shen Ji walked through the rough underground tunnels of the experimental city, stepping down the stairs one by one. The further down he went, the more he felt the sweltering, slightly damp air. They had hidden the mermaids at least twenty meters underground.

Approaching the mermaid sector, he felt the defenses grow increasingly strict. This tunnel was different from the others; the walls were as smooth as mirrors, mechanical eyes were everywhere, and the ceiling was covered in sophisticated lidar. Once a stranger was identified, the system could immediately slice them into pieces.

It seemed the mermaid experiments were the most important project in this city.

Shen Ji grabbed a passing man in a white lab coat and held him up to the door’s iris scanner. Despite this, when the first door opened, the cunning identification system still registered it as a forced entry.

Laser beams flashed blindingly into Shen Ji’s widening pupils. He tried to retreat, but the lab assistant he had grabbed had already broken free and closed the door behind him, cutting off his escape.

The laser lines approached rapidly, looking as though they were about to slice Shen Ji into potato chips. Just then, the surroundings suddenly went dark. Nothing happened. It seemed Lei Yi and the others had pulled the main power switch at the station.

For the first time, Shen Ji felt a sense of relief.

However, he didn’t dare relax. His mental energy perception immediately expanded to the surroundings. Sure enough, not long after the first layer of lasers failed, an even denser grid of laser cutting lines followed.

It appeared the mermaid laboratory had its own independent generator and defense system, completely immune to external interference. Dozens of laser lines approached irregularly and without pattern, giving no time to react.

In that terrifying 0.01 second, Shen Ji’s mental threads found the narrowest gaps, weaving rapidly through the overlapping lasers until they reached the alarm equipment at the far door. An instant before the first laser could sever his head and eyes, he finally destroyed the alarm device, which emitted a faint electrical sizzle.

The tunnel, which had just been blindingly bright, instantly plunged into darkness as the laser beams vanished. Only then did Shen Ji realize his back was covered in a thin sweat, and his heart was pounding violently. In that moment, he hadn’t even had time to deploy a mental shield; he could only stake everything on his mental threads.

Fortunately, he had succeeded by a hair’s breadth.

Shen Ji opened the second door. In the dim lab, amidst glass instruments, he saw all kinds of mermaid glands and organs. The cold storage room was lined with body bags. Shen Ji saw mermaids who had died after their tails were brutally severed and human legs were forcibly attached—a failed experiment.

Judging by the labels on the bags, this was the cause of death for most mermaids in the lab.

Shen Ji frowned, walking through this horrific living hell step by step, a bone-chilling cold rising from his spine. Not a single one was whole; some were even pregnant. Shen Ji remembered the Alpha mermaid gland auctioned in the Twin Cities—a gland from a mermaid who had been pregnant. Perhaps it had been “wholesaled” out of this very experimental city.

The further Shen Ji went, the more he felt a deep, piercing sorrow. Once, he had felt lucky to be a descendant of the Gaya people; now, that pride and luck turned into a blade in the face of reality, stuck in his throat and impossible to swallow. This sorrow was close to shame.

When he walked into the third door, his dark pupils reflected the vast “deep lake” before him. It appeared to be a deep lake, but it was actually a man-made tank nearly twenty meters deep, separated from the outside by transparent material.

Behind the transparent glass, the depth and distance of the water were indiscernible. Ripples swayed, and schools of fish swam within. As Shen Ji approached the “lake bed” exterior, the small fish behind the glass were startled and scattered. In the lake water, a cerulean figure approached from afar, gradually nearing him behind the reflection of the glass.

Long white hair floated in the water. Pointed ears, heterochromatic blood-red eyes, ear fins like turquoise waves, and skin that was deathly pale.

It was none other than his fated nemesis, the Great Demon Sheng Lu.

Shen Ji looked at him with a mix of surprise and helplessness: “I really run into you everywhere, don’t I?”

However, Sheng Lu looked at him with cold, stranger’s eyes—indifferent and rippleless through the glass. It wasn’t the pathological, doting, or cold gaze Shen Ji was used to seeing. With a lifeless look, the mermaid glanced at him once and then swam away into the distance.

Shen Ji watched the mermaid’s departing back. That beautiful tail floated in the water, rippling out like moonlight scattered across the ocean. The omnipotent Sheng Lu had once been trapped in a man-made lake surrounded by glass.

In 4211, the apocalypse had not yet arrived, and the abilities of Gaya humans had not yet awakened. The Sheng Lu here was merely an experimental subject in a mermaid trial…

Reflected by the mermaid’s departing figure and separated by the thick glass, Shen Ji turned to leave.

His ultimate goal in coming to Gaya was to kill Sheng Lu. The laboratory system had a self-destruct device. As long as he activated it upon leaving, all of this would be destroyed. Including Sheng Lu.

Everything would end. There would be no Great Demon, no Fourth Spark, and he wouldn’t have his energy and lifespan devoured.

Shen Ji walked out of the third door. As he passed the mermaid research station, he clicked open the experimental data.

Subject 0001: A mermaid born from the union of a mermaid and a human. Captured in the deep sea by professional mermaid hunters. Possesses an extremely low-probability ancestral mermaid bloodline; currently the only case found in the world.

Experiment Findings: Subject 0001 has awakened a 70% self-healing ability and can freely transform between a fish tail and human legs.

Through the 2nd repeated injury experiment, self-healing increased by 0.01%…

Through the 10th repeated injury experiment, self-healing increased by 0.01%…

Through the 1000th repeated injury, self-healing increased by 0.001%…

By inflicting pain and overriding brainwaves, the subject will eventually infinitely approach perfect self-healing…

Key Experiment: The pheromones in the gland will continuously increase in grade as self-healing repairs itself, eventually achieving the title of King of Pheromones.

Shen Ji closed the data report and walked past jars of mermaid glands soaking in glass.

King of Pheromones… 99.9% self-healing…

Thinking about it now, every time that guy was injured by mental energy—even if he was a bloody mess, he could smile at Shen Ji as if nothing had happened. Shen Ji had thought he was a demon born without the ability to feel pain.

Walking out of the second door, Shen Ji’s footsteps grew increasingly heavy. Behind the glass, that cold, lifeless gaze appeared repeatedly in his mind, refusing to leave. He saw the bodies of several juvenile mermaids in the freezer again. Perhaps these mermaids were the last hope of the mermaid race, but that hope had been extinguished.

Shen Ji’s footsteps halted. He turned back.

He walked quickly back to the third door, returning to the massive fish tank as deep as the sea. Shen Ji shouted: “Sheng Lu!”

His voice echoed in the empty laboratory. In the deep, clear water, only the startled fish responded. Sheng Lu did not come out.

Shen Ji found an elevator nearby that led directly to the top of the massive tank. Exiting the elevator onto a platform, he could just barely reach the top of the tank, where a massive mechanical harvesting arm was located. Presumably, these so-called scientists used the arm to grab the mermaid for experiments.

Shen Ji saw the mermaid hovering at the bottom of the water. His eyes, through the deep water, were completely unfocused. The pomegranate-red pupils had lost all light, and his white hair floated like a white narcissus.

He shouted: “Sheng Lu!”

The name sounded like that of a complete stranger, drawing no reaction from the mermaid.

Shen Ji jumped into the water, the surface splashing with ripples. He dove deeper and deeper, swimming toward the mermaid through patches of ecological water grass and schools of fish. As he dove, the pressure from the surrounding deep water became increasingly terrifying. Even with mental energy for protection, the crushing water pressure was difficult to endure.

Sheng Lu watched him motionlessly. Only when Shen Ji swam close did he instinctively swim down half a body length, then froze again.

Shen Ji swam toward him again. Without any equipment, entering this twenty-meter deep water with his physical body caused immediate, intense pain; his lungs felt as if they were on fire. Sheng Lu seemed to fear humans; he kept sinking to maintain distance.

Shen Ji endured the absolute limit of suffocation and, with one final surge, grabbed Sheng Lu.

He pulled him toward the surface. Just as they were about to break through, a massive glass cover suddenly appeared from the edges, sliding over the water’s surface as if putting a lid on the artificial lake, leaving almost no gap.

Shen Ji tried to push the glass, but despite using all his strength, the restraint above his head remained immovable. A heavy weight pressed against his palms. It seemed to be another mechanism of the defense system—to drown him alive in the water.

Shen Ji cursed inwardly. He struggled to tilt his head up, pressing his forehead against the glass so his nose and mouth could stay as high as possible. However, the water pressed tight against the glass cover, and the turbulent ripples knocked away the last remaining bit of air. Still, it was better than being completely submerged; it wouldn’t kill him by suffocation instantly.

Shen Ji placed one hand on the glass surface, mental threads extending along the smooth cover toward the edges, hoping to find a flaw. His other hand still held Sheng Lu. Feeling the other trying to break free, Shen Ji tightened his grip.

“I’m here to take you out.”

Sheng Lu indeed stopped moving. A Sheng Lu this quiet was truly something he wasn’t used to.

Finally, the mental threads reached the edge of the glass cover and found a tiny seam. Like a sprouting seed, the powerful threads forced open a small space through the gap, prying the glass cover up slightly.

“Let’s go,” Shen Ji said breathlessly but firmly, his face appearing and disappearing in the churning water. He followed the mental threads to the pried-open exit.

The moment he completely breached the surface, Shen Ji felt as though he had come back to life.

Likely because he couldn’t yet transform his tail into legs, Sheng Lu couldn’t walk on the ground. Shen Ji carried Sheng Lu out in his arms, taking the elevator down. While holding him, he had to coil the mermaid’s long hair around his own arms to keep it from dragging on the ground.

Water droplets wound through the mermaid’s hair, across Shen Ji’s arms, and onto the floor. Some dripped from the tail, down Shen Ji’s clothes, and pooled on the ground. Drip… drip… drip… It wouldn’t stop.

The world was terrifyingly silent.

Shen Ji looked at Sheng Lu’s wet face. His lips and complexion were extremely pale—the kind of white from years of never seeing the sun. He kept his eyes cast down, saying nothing as he was held, looking like a lifeless porcelain doll.

It was so strange. Today’s Sheng Lu had no pathological look in his eyes, no teasing tone, and no twisted harassment for him. He was a completely different person. Shen Ji even wondered if he had the wrong person—perhaps this was an identical twin.

In the systems control room at the other end of the experimental city, several scientists were worried: “Are these d*mn bastards here for the mermaid? They must not find Subject 0001.”

“We’ve notified the Great God Cult and the other shareholders. They’ll send more reinforcements soon.”

“I hope so. The gland of 0001 is only one step away from being handed to that guest. Now this trouble starts. If that guy destroys the gland, we’re all finished.”

Everyone fell silent.

At that moment, the lab assistant who had trapped Shen Ji in the tunnel said smugly: “Relax. That guy doesn’t know this place. Even if he isn’t sliced to pieces by the lasers, he’ll be drowned alive in the water. Besides, with the mermaid hidden in the water, how can a stranger get near him?”

One man, appearing to be the leader, said: “No, I’m still not at ease. I have to go see for myself if that guy is dead.”

Shen Ji wanted to prevent Sheng Lu from seeing the scenes in the lab, but it was the only way out.

As they walked through the third door, Sheng Lu inevitably saw the sights within the mermaid lab—the carved-out glands soaking in jars, the severed tails, the bodies of juvenile mermaids…

Shen Ji saw that lifeless gaze suddenly change, flashing with a terrifying light. His complexion turned from pale to an agitated red. He could feel Sheng Lu’s body trembling slightly.

He grabbed Shen Ji’s hand and opened his mouth: “Bite…”

“What?”

Sheng Lu’s hands climbed onto his shoulders, and he took a bite out of Shen Ji’s neck.

Shen Ji looked at him in pain: “Are you starting to be a psycho again?”

Sheng Lu’s lips moved as he leaned in close: “Bite… my gland.”