The Merfolk’s bath

 

When Bai Ling woke again, he was already bound in a straitjacket.

He looked down. A rusty iron muzzle pressed hard against the bridge of his nose, the metal straps binding him so tightly he could barely breathe, so he tilted his head back slightly and rested it against the wall. The occasional vibrations of the vehicle told him he was being transported, racing against time, to the execution ground.

The supervisor was sitting opposite him, puffing on a cigarette. His sticky gaze slid down Bai Ling’s long, delicate neck and into his collar, making the supervisor’s heart itch.

Such high-class goods. Wouldn’t it be a waste for him to just die? Why don’t I get a free taste…

Once the thought took root, he couldn’t push it down.

This armored vehicle was large, divided into two sections. In the other compartment sat a group of Omegas destined to be presented to the Emperor. The supervisor made an excuse to send all the guards into the other section, then bolted the door.

With a click, he unlocked Bai Ling’s muzzle. He undid his own belt buckle, pressed his gun to the back of Bai Ling’s head, and ordered impatiently, “Kneel.”

“‘Safe Travels,’ right, you little bitch? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I saw it.”

Bai Ling didn’t move. His cold, gray eyes drifted upward.

That single glance made the supervisor’s heart stutter.

The supervisor suppressed his sudden uneasiness and sneered, “Hmph. Don’t think that restriction ring can save you a second time. This is a magnetic storm zone. There’s no signal at all.”

Bai Ling seemed not to hear him at all. “Three.”

The supervisor maliciously jabbed the gun against the undeveloped gland on the back of his neck. “Didn’t your officers in the army teach you to obey orders?”

“Two.”

The supervisor frowned. “What the hell are you muttering about?”

“One.” Bai Ling’s eyes were a barren wasteland. He hooked the corner of his lip and pronounced, “Your time of death.”

Almost instantaneously, accompanied by an earth-shattering vibration, the heavy armored vehicle, which had been traveling at full speed, slammed abruptly into a massive boulder. It flew sideways for five hundred meters, rolling repeatedly in a thunderous cloud of dust until it crashed against the far side of the wasteland and clanged to a halt.

The armored vehicle was built to last and could withstand a crash, but an ordinary hybrid body could not endure that kind of G-force impact.

The supervisor lay on the floor, clutching his heart tightly as a trickle of dark blood overflowed from his mouth. Through his bloodshot vision, he watched the Omega use a shard of glass to easily slice through the straps of the straitjacket. The Omega walked over to him, bent down, and pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his breast pocket.

Click~ A flame flared.

In the deathly silence, the sound of the lighter striking made one’s nerves jump.

Those long, slender fingers held a simple cigar. The orange-red glow brightened and dimmed, illuminating that exquisite, cold face in the uncertain darkness.

It was a sight that made one’s blood run cold.

The supervisor clung to his last shred of hope, pleading, “Save… save me… I can guarantee… you won’t die…”

Bai Ling smiled. “This is a magnetic storm zone. There’s no signal.”

After speaking, he stepped on the man’s shoulder. With a Tsss, he crushed the cigarette butt out on the Alpha’s honor badge.

Bai Ling stepped over his body and pushed open the door. A glance into the adjacent compartment revealed an even worse hellscape, with bodies strewn everywhere.

He calmly moved through the scattered debris, searching for something. Then suddenly lifted the head of a white-haired Omega and studied it.

This one’s good. Similar height and build.

Bai Ling quickly removed the Omega’s restriction ring and fastened his own onto the corpse. He lit up the ring’s screen, which displayed the other’s information:

[Bai Ling: 19 years old]

Bai Ling’s pupils constricted. What a coincidence.

A similar name, the same age, and the same hair color…

He scrolled down. Only their species bloodline was different. The deceased was a Great Tit, while he was a Peregrine Falcon.

But white hair was common among avian bloodlines, and homophones weren’t strange.

Crash—

A sheet of bulletproof glass, shattered into a spiderweb, fell to the floor.

Bai Ling snapped his head toward the sound and found a pair of eyes staring at him from within the pile of bodies.

North said, “…You continue. I didn’t see anything.”

But he still couldn’t escape the fate of being dragged out by Bai Ling.

North was the “weak and docile” type of Omega currently in vogue. Paired with his red eyes, he looked just like a little white rabbit. He followed behind Bai Ling, watching as the other man cleanly finished off the supervisor, and asked curiously:

“Are you also being sent to the Imperial Palace to be a pet?”

Bai Ling slowly mulled over the words “Imperial Palace.” He had originally planned to follow the route from his past life: fight a bloody battle, hijack a ship, escape, and then spend ten years building his strength and assembling a revolutionary army to overthrow the Tyrant Emperor.

But now, a simpler, more direct path seemed to have presented itself—

Enter the palace with a false identity. Skip straight to capturing the King.

“Giving Christopher Kaide a surprise… that can work too,” Bai Ling said slowly.

“You actually dare to say his name!” North said, shocked. He quickly looked left and right, and only after confirming everyone else was dead did he let out a breath of relief. “He is our Divine Savior Emperor… what’s that phrase… oh, The Great King.”

Bai Ling flicked the blood from the tip of his blade and nonchalantly replied, “If you sprinkle some dog food on the throne, even a dog would govern the country better than him.”

North replied without thinking, “Oh, that wouldn’t work. TGK probably isn’t used to eating dog food.”

Bai Ling gave him a second look. “There’s always a learning process.”

North froze for a second, then burst out laughing. He actively stood up and offered his hand.

“Hello, my name is North.”

Half an hour later, as the only two survivors, they were picked up by the arriving Palace Chamberlain and taken onto a ship. Just as Bai Ling had expected, the Chamberlain was in a hurry to report back to the Emperor and did not conduct another strict identity check. He just scanned the ID on their restriction rings and rushed the process.

At that moment, the Chamberlain had no idea that this one time he had slacked off on the job, he had just personally delivered the most ferocious revolutionary leader in the Empire’s history straight into the enemy’s camp.

It was like releasing a bird of prey into a flock of doves.

Six hours later, the ship began to enter the orbit of the Imperial Capital Planet.

The planet was famous for its romantic pink color. It was encircled by rings like Saturn and, from a distance, looked exactly like a sweet, strawberry-flavored Alpenliebe milk candy, successfully capturing North’s heart.

He pressed himself against the window, his face full of yearning.

“It’s so beautiful! The history books say this planet is the Empire’s first foothold. The handsome merfolk led the human survivors and established a floating nation on the sea. Every evening, a golden wind blows past the white spire in the center of the ocean—”

“That’s not wind. It’s an electromagnetic pheromone tide. It’s toxic, harmful, and affects the central nervous system control,” Bai Ling mercilessly interrupted his fantasy.

“I know. But it’s nice to listen to fairy tales sometimes,” North lazily stretched and stood up.

The ship landed, and they entered the palace through an underground tunnel.

The sound of trickling water gradually reached their ears, and then their view suddenly opened up.

A tall atrium extended all the way to the top floor. In the very center stood a giant, 6-meter-diameter cylindrical glass column. It ran through the entire tower from top to bottom, but it was currently covered in a layer of plastic sheeting, looking dilapidated.

North excitedly tugged on Bai Ling’s sleeve. “Could that be the legendary crystal fish tank built by the Merfolk Empire?”

Bai Ling looked up and finally said, “Yes.”

He also knew that ten years ago, during the reign of the Merfolk Dynasty, this tank had been sparkling, tranquil, and magnificent.

“Will there be gentle and beautiful merfolk inside?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“First, this group of merfolk are a ‘Polluted Species.’ They evolved extremely strong anti-nuclear waste and anti-decomposition genes. Theoretically, it’s impossible for them to be beautiful; they probably look more like demons. Second—”

Bai Ling paused, looking up again at the high-tech ‘bath’ that symbolized the artistic culmination of the previous Merfolk Dynasty. “They had very bad tempers, but they were all killed by someone with an even worse temper.”

North shut his mouth. He knew that the “someone with an even worse temper” was the tyrant Kaide.

To help them adapt to the new planet’s rotation and gravity, the Chamberlain gave them a day off.

In the capsule dormitory, North yawned as he looked at his new roommate sleeping opposite him.

Bai Ling was skillfully pulling the pillowcase off his pillow and spreading it beneath himself.

North asked kindly, “Is your differentiation period coming soon? I have some internal inhibitor sticks. Do you want one? They’re for sensitive skin, much better than using a piece of cloth.”

Bai Ling clearly stiffened. “No need.” He immediately pulled the curtain shut.

North assumed he was just shy, didn’t think much of it, and relaxed into sleep.

However, three hours later, someone stood up in the darkness and moved silently toward a specific location.

—The Merfolk’s bath.

Little Theater:

Yu Chen: I don’t mind your little bird claws dirtying my desk. After all, you’ll be cleaning it up in other ways later, won’t you?

Bai Ling: No, I’ll make it even dirtier.

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Author’s note:

Hello everyone, it’s your long-time-no-see Big Cod.

Asking for bookmarks in the front row (waves little handkerchief~) All of the shou's injuries will be healed later, don’t worry, just dive in! He has a mature gong to pamper him! There’s plenty of sugar!

The gong will appear in the next chapter, go rub his abs!

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M1zushi: Hello everyone! I hope everyone enjoys this new novel I picked up!!

It has Omegaverse + Interstellar + Warfare + Strong couple and sweet pampering + crazy in mind, restrained in action ML x crazy in action, restrained in mind MC + a fun wordbuilding with a bunch of cute critters and some Cthulhu level monsters + dystopian society and overthrowing the status quo~~

Please read the tags, some parts are gory and author took full creativity on this story’s setting, some scenes make your hair stand on their ends, if you like H. P. Lovecraft, you’ll like this story. It’s all fun and games until a merman goes crazy and … but I guess you’ll have to read it to know what happens! The body horror/Cthulhu parts of the story stuck more to my mind bcs I was shocked to see such high-level  descriptions on a danmei that I thought would be cute and shit, but don’t think it’s all horror! Most of the story is our couple distributing dog food to the whole empire~~ they’re made for each other, freak x freak, if MC is an arsonist, ML is the fire/lighter? I wouldn’t say it’s a slow burn, trying not to spoil it too much, it’s more like a spark that erupted into a volcano 🙂 (or warm milk that boiled over the years wink wink)

Btw talking about plot and in-universe politics, my pet peeve is that ML would always be an emperor/king and MC would marry him and retain the status-quo + some minor QoL laws that didn’t really shake the government. But fear not dear reader! Our dear Mad White Falcon is not afraid of change and he’ll change the empire, whether it likes it or not~~

Author also likes to use many books to set a solid worldbuilding, so you may see some parts of Marx’s the capital, Nietzsche’s philosophy on some character’s viewpoints or Engels’ view on gender class. If you like Nier Automata, you’ll surely like this novel <3