C42 Xiacheng District was a delicate area, a gray zone connecting the civilian region with the affluent sector.
Walking through the lower part of C42, a casual passerby could be anyone—a slum-dwelling poor, a high-ranking official from the wealthy district, or even a wanted fugitive from the entire Survivor League.
It was a place where fish and dragons mixed, a chaotic blend of all kinds.
Wen Yu arrived at the location Dr. Mu Ran had specified—
A love hotel.
The hotel was small and had already been seized by Dr. Mu Ran. Wen Yu stood outside, glancing at the inconspicuous building tucked into a remote corner of the street. His brow furrowed.
Even without entering, the pink neon lights and the suggestive fragrance wafting from inside made Wen Yu visibly uncomfortable.
Avoiding the soldiers stationed outside, Wen Yu stepped in. Guided by staff along the way, he finally found Dr. Mu Ran.
More precisely, he found him inside a small "fun room."
The room's decor was unmistakable. A large heart-shaped bed stood in the center, red roses meticulously arranged across it.
Not far away, a small stage with a steel pole stood erect.
From the entrance, a trail of discarded clothing led deeper inside. It was clear that whoever had come here last had been in quite a rush.
Wen Yu looked down at the scattered garments, following the trail until he reached the bathroom at the back of the room.
The scene inside was anything but romantic.
Blood splattered across the walls and floor. In the bathtub, a severed arm floated in the murky water.
A forensic specialist worked nearby, carefully retrieving human tissue and strands of hair from the corners.
The most striking feature was in the upper right corner of the ceiling: a large, flesh-colored cocoon.
Near the top, the cocoon had a black cavity where the edges were corroded, indicating that whatever creature had formed it had already escaped.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and decay, but Wen Yu walked in without flinching. His only concern seemed to be whether his shoes were getting dirty.
"Wen Yu?"
Dr. Mu Ran stood inside the bathroom, clad in protective gear. He had been examining the cocoon before Wen Yu entered. Spotting him, he quickly stepped over.
"I thought you wouldn't come," he said with a sigh.
His tone carried a teasing sarcasm that made Wen Yu glance at him for a moment before responding in a calm, flat voice.
"What happened?"
The scene before him might as well have been mundane.
"Tsk. You're really cold."
Dr. Mu Ran muttered from behind his mask. "Do you even have a sense of smell? This place reeks."
Wen Yu stared at him blankly and began walking toward the door, making it clear he would leave if Mu Ran kept wasting time.
"Alright, alright. I'll explain."
Dr. Mu Ran exhaled.
As he had mentioned in his earlier communication, this case was caused by one of the fake mermaids that had escaped from the laboratory.
For years, the Doomsday Laboratory had been searching for a solution to the end of the world. Over time, the scientists had split into two camps.
One group, the conservatives, believed Earth was a lost cause. They proposed selecting a few humans to act as a seed population and fly to a "second Earth" over ten light-years away aboard an advanced spacecraft.
But the journey would be perilous. Choosing who would board was a logistical nightmare, and no one could even confirm whether the second planet could support life.
The other camp was led by radicals like Dr. Mu Ran. They advocated reclaiming Earth and began conducting numerous biological experiments aimed at modifying human bodies to survive the apocalyptic environment.
Because the conservatives' spacecraft project had consumed enormous funding and remained controversial, the radicals gradually gained more influence in the Doomsday Laboratory.
This allowed Dr. Mu Ran's experiments to grow bolder and more extreme.
At the root of this incident was his long-abandoned project: the Poseidon Project.
"I really can't bring myself to call those things in the tanks 'merfolk,'" Dr. Mu Ran said, recalling the grotesque specimens floating in the lab's aquariums.
Fifty years ago, the Poseidon Project had been deemed a failure and shelved. But Dr. Mu Ran refused to give up. He continued to blend sea monster DNA with human genes.
Eventually, he created ten strange creatures.
They lacked basic human features and the mythical beauty of mermaids. Instead, they had human torsos and arms, but with snake-like, fish-tailed lower bodies.
Dr. Mu Ran referred to them as "pseudo mermen."
Privately, most researchers just called them "murlocs."
Over several years, only four of the ten survived. But Dr. Mu Ran had long lost interest. He locked the remaining ones in tanks deep within the laboratory.
"But what I didn't expect," Mu Ran said, "was that while one was building a nest, the other three escaped."
Apparently reaching maturity, the murlocs had begun nesting. One day, researchers discovered a massive cocoon at the bottom of the tank, along with an abnormal drop in water levels.
Dr. Mu Ran had dismissed the findings and sent in a cleanup team. To his shock, the team returned and reported that all four murlocs were gone.
An investigation revealed that the creatures had used acid secretions to corrode a hole in the tank wall. They'd escaped through it.
"The one building the nest was eaten," Dr. Mu Ran said with a grimace. "They're clever."
Some researchers believed the attack was due to territorial instincts. Others thought it was simple survival—when food ran low, one became a meal.
A full sweep of the facility later uncovered one of the murlocs' remains in the sewers, suggesting another internal conflict had occurred. Of the three that had escaped, the weakest was consumed.
Now, only two murloc specimens remain unaccounted for.
They are still out there.
"We checked the nearby surveillance. A beautiful woman and a man entered this room."
Dr. Mougin pointed at the blood splattered on the bathroom ceiling and said,"The man is still here. The woman is gone."
He paused, then added,"Or maybe it wasn't a woman."
Based on the evidence they had gathered, the two murlocs that escaped seemed to have undergone abnormal transformations.
To build a nest, their genes had automatically adjusted their bodies to the optimal state for that task—deformed.
At least one of the two murlocs could alter its grotesque face to match human standards of beauty. Then it would use this allure to seduce people with ill intentions, luring them to secluded places where it could devour them.
"There have actually been a few cases of missing men like this already," Dr. Mougin sighed."At the time, no one made the connection. People assumed they were just standard disappearances and didn't pay attention."
But this time was different. For some reason, the murloc had followed its prey into a hotel and created a scene during the feeding. When the cleaners came in, they were terrified. That's how the authorities became aware of the traces the creature left behind.
"Why do you think it followed that man in?" Dr. Mougin wondered aloud. "Wasn't it easier to find a quiet place, like before?"
Wen Yu didn't respond. He simply stared at Dr. Mougin.
"Oh, I know. Maybe the murloc wanted to learn from humans," Dr. Mougin continued, answering his own question. "And then it got disappointed when it realized the man just wanted to use it. So it reclassified him as food and ate him."
He seemed pleased with his theory and rambled on."Then, in its rage, it trashed the place."
Wen Yu's patience was wearing thin."I don't care why it eats people. What do you want from me?"
Seeing that Wen Yu wasn't even slightly curious, Dr. Mougin sighed in disappointment. He tilted his head and changed the topic.
"You bought a male fish at the auction house, didn't you?"
At that, Wen Yu turned around and walked away.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop," Dr. Mougin called after him.
Realizing Wen Yu wouldn't be baited into conversation, Dr. Mougin gave up on his subtle probing and spoke plainly.
"You're here because if we encounter this murloc again, the average soldier won't be able to handle it. Only you can."
Wen Yu turned his head coldly."Anything else?"
"Nope."
Dr. Mougin shrugged, trying to appear sincere through the layers of his protective suit.
"Ah," Wen Yu sneered. "You want me to be the bait."
Even if Dr. Mougin hadn't spelled it out, Wen Yu had already figured it out. Based on what Mougin said about murlocs being territorial, and considering that Wen Yu's body now carried sea monster genes, he posed the greatest competitive threat to them.
In other words, Wen Yu was the perfect lure to provoke the murloc into attacking.
Dr. Mougin only smiled in response. Hidden behind his protective gear, no one could see what kind of smile it was.
"I'll help you," Wen Yu said as he headed out the door. His voice drifted behind him, soft and indifferent.
"But you guessed one thing wrong. That murloc's target isn't just me."
Building a nest required an enormous amount of nutrients. Like brown bears fattening up for hibernation, murlocs had to build up reserves before construction could begin.
That was the true reason for the killings—nutritional hoarding, not simple territorial violence.
To accomplish this, murlocs had to be selective with their prey. Ordinary humans didn't have enough body fat. They weren't worth it. From the murloc's point of view, the ideal prey were creatures like Wen Yu—humans infused with sea monster genes.
And Wen Yu wasn't the only one. The entire residential zone was filled with such people, especially those who had survived the global disease outbreak years ago.
Wen Yu had a name for them. He called them "injectors."
In the city center.
Count Vail stood on the second floor of his casino, gazing down at the gamblers hunched over the green tables. He let out a slow sigh.
"If hell exists, I imagine it's on the very deepest level."
Behind him, the burly Old Tang rolled his eyes.
Ever since the white mermaid had been snatched by people from the Doom Lab during the last auction, his boss had been spouting cryptic, sentimental nonsense like this.
Then Count Vail froze. His cane tapped sharply on the floor as he turned his eyes toward the casino entrance.
A woman stood there.
She was slender, dressed in nothing but a thin white dress. Her long, wet black hair clung to her back as she stood quietly at the entrance of the noisy, chaotic casino, a figure entirely out of place. She looked fragile.
But her fragility made her striking. There was an ethereal, otherworldly beauty about her.
"Where did she come from?" Count Vail murmured.
Old Tang noticed her too. It was obvious this woman didn't belong here. He was about to call for security to escort her out.
"Wait," Count Vail stopped him.
His gaze was locked on the woman in the white dress. She hadn't made a sound, hadn't moved, but something about her arrested his attention.
She didn't look like a banshee. She looked like a lost angel who had wandered into the wrong place.
Her appearance reminded him of the white mermaid that had once belonged to him. They were completely different, yet shared something intangible—an air of belonging to a different world, like fairies from legend or children's stories.
It was drizzling outside.
The woman's wet hair clung to her pale skin, and the rain had tinted her already faintly bluish skin with a soft, misty sheen.
She was dressed so thinly, so delicately. A woman like that wouldn't survive long in the slums.
As if sensing his gaze, the woman suddenly raised her head. She looked directly at Count Vail. Her pale gray eyes shimmered with moisture, as if she had just cried.
"Invite her in for a cup of coffee," Count Vail said quietly.
Something in those eyes moved him. There was sadness in them, profound and silent. It was the look of someone burdened by fate, powerless to change it.
He felt a strange ache in his limbs.
Old Tang stared at him in disbelief."Are you... being kind?"
The Count Vail he knew wasn't like this. On a normal day, he would have already approached the woman, coaxed her into signing some shady contract, and taken full advantage.
But now, Vail turned away from the window and smiled faintly.
"My pleasure."