Chapter 56
“Stop talking about this mermaid!” Assistant Xu interrupted. “It didn’t sign up for the audition.”
The judges and photographer expressed their disappointment: “It’s not too late to sign up! It’s a natural!”
Assistant Xu pushed the scooter closer to MuMu, his tone firm: “Don’t even think about it, it doesn’t want to be a spokesperson…”
“Awoo!?” It’s not too late to sign up, really? MuMu clasped its claws together and blinked at Assistant Xu hopefully:
“Woo~” Master’s colleague, you’re the best, please sign me up?
Assistant Xu froze, then asked hesitantly: “So you came here not to play with other mermaids, but to audition?”
MuMu nodded, its tail swishing back and forth.
“…I understand.”
Assistant Xu turned to the judges: “My apologies, I misunderstood. Would you mind auditioning this mermaid?”
“No problem.” The judges opened new score sheets. “Where’s its owner?”
“!” The blue mermaid’s ears perked up, its gaze fixed on them.
As if the word “owner” held more allure than even the tastiest dried fish.
The photographer, observing this, adjusted her baseball cap, her eyes gleaming with inspiration.
The judges, receiving no answer, looked at Assistant Xu: “Where’s its owner?”
Assistant Xu’s expression was serious: “You’re better off not knowing.”
The Admiral wouldn’t want them to think MuMu was getting special treatment.
“Right here.”
The photographer pointed her camera at MuMu and said loudly: “Its owner is right beside me!”
Everyone turned to look.
The judges were curious, Assistant Xu surprised, but neither reaction compared to MuMu’s.
MuMu, which had been lounging by the pool, instantly sat up straight, its eyes sparkling with anticipation:
Master, come quickly, I’ve been waiting for you!
“Click.”
The photographer snapped a picture. There was no one beside her.
MuMu looked around, its tail fin drooping in disappointment: “Awoo.” How could you trick a mermaid?
“I’m sorry, little mermaid, your expression was too captivating, I couldn’t resist.”
The photographer apologized, then rushed to the judges: “Why bother with further auditions? This is it! This picture is perfect for the endorsement!”
“Cameraman, are you in a hurry to leave?”
“There are many other mermaids waiting, we might find a more suitable one.”
“Suit yourselves.” The photographer sent the picture to their optical brains. “This is my masterpiece for the year, regardless.”
“?”
The most “picky” photographer in the interstellar world, satisfied with a single picture?
The judges waited for the picture to load—
The mermaid’s tail was submerged in the water, its upper body leaning forward slightly, a joyful expression on its face, as if welcoming someone.
MuMu, in its haste to get to the company that morning, had its hair styled simply.
This everyday look instantly drew the viewers in, making them feel like the mermaid, with its adoring gaze, was their own.
The judges were momentarily speechless:
“I just want to buy it everything it wants, all my star coins belong to it!”
“It’s like a spell, if this is printed on the packaging, sales will skyrocket.”
“And it perfectly fits the new trend started by the masked streamer, mermaids love you too.”
“Yes, other mermaids look at their owners like meal tickets, but this one’s gaze is unique!”
Assistant Xu adjusted his glasses: “Please score it, there are other mermaids waiting, we’ll compare the scores after all auditions are complete.”
“Okay.”
After all the auditions, MuMu was the only one with a perfect score.
Assistant Xu, gripping the scooter, was in a daze:
The Admiral asked me to take MuMu… somewhere, right? How did it end up with a Wen Corp endorsement?
“Assistant Xu, please inform the mermaid’s owner.” A judge handed him the paperwork. “And please relay our decision to the Admiral, he has the final say.”
“No trouble at all.” It’s the same person.
Assistant Xu glanced at the time, puzzled:
There are no scheduled business trips, what’s the Admiral doing, why isn’t he back at the company yet?
“Rumble!”
“Beep beep, daily weather reminder, thunderstorm approaching, avoid using your mental seascape… beep beep, incoming call!”
Professor Yin looked at his optical brain and answered: “Yes?”
“Professor, the equipment you ordered has arrived… but…”
Professor Yin’s right eye twitched, and he stopped his experiment: “But?”
The hesitant voice continued: “But the energy source is broken, it’s unusable.”
Professor Yin gripped the test tube in his hand, his voice low:
“Tsk, they must have sabotaged it…”
After failing to retrieve 55, he had ordered a mermaid scent tracker, planning to locate the Jiao Ren clan’s territory based on 55’s location on Ocean Star.
It seemed that device had alerted those protecting the Jiao Ren, and they had destroyed it.
“Sabotage? Really?”
The person on the other end scratched their head: “The energy source could have been damaged by the lightning, or maybe during transport, did you purchase insurance, Professor?”
“Shut up!”
Professor Yin took a deep breath: “Wait for me there, I’m coming over.”
He ended the call, cursing angrily: “Damn it, my most competent subordinate was arrested by Wen Ming, and the rest are incompetent…”
“Rumble!”
“Crash!”
A clap of thunder, followed by the sound of shattering glass.
Professor Yin felt a sharp pain in his hand, and the test tube he was holding shattered.
Not just the test tube, but the windows, the vase on the windowsill, the surveillance camera… everything made of glass in the room had broken after the thunderclap.
A mental seascape attack. Professor Yin’s back went cold.
Shattering all the glass in the room without targeting him directly required a powerful mental seascape and precise control.
As far as he knew, neither he, the Marshal, nor Wen Ming in his current state could do that.
But Admiral Wen, before his mental seascape was damaged…
“Wen…”
He had just spoken when the scattered energy particles suddenly converged, forming an arrow that shot towards him at high speed.
Professor Yin activated his mental seascape to defend, but it was like paper, easily pierced.
“Ugh…”
He groaned in pain, blood trickling from his nose.
During his previous mental seascape clash with Wen Ming, although he hadn’t been able to gain the upper hand, he hadn’t been defeated so easily.
Had Wen Ming’s mental seascape truly recovered to its peak?
“Did it soothe you?”
Professor Yin muttered, his voice rising with each word:
“Don’t tell me you brought 55 back from Ocean Star? Jiao Ren belong in the ocean, you’re violating interstellar law!”
“Rumble!”
Another clap of thunder, and a surge of even more powerful energy poured in through the window, crushing him.
【—】
Professor Yin’s senses shut down. The world turned gray and white, and he vaguely felt a tree collapsing within him.
“Help… me…”
He lost consciousness, then was shaken awake.
“Professor, I waited for you, but you didn’t come, why did you faint?” It was his new, “incompetent” subordinate.
Professor Yin’s head throbbed: “Quickly, check the surveillance footage.”
“But the cameras are broken.” The subordinate lifted him up, sensing the abnormality in his mental seascape. “I’ll take you to the hospital, your mental seascape has collapsed.”
“…What?”
Professor Yin checked his mental seascape in disbelief. It was a wasteland, the few remaining energy particles lashing out uncontrollably.
He had coughed up blood after his mental seascape clash with Wen Ming during the Soothing Competition, but that had been a treatable injury.
This was different, irreversible.
The agonizing pain would be with him forever.
Professor Yin coughed up another mouthful of blood, his voice filled with despair: “Wen Ming, you might as well have killed me, why torture me like this…”
His subordinate’s ears caught a key word: “Wen Ming? Admiral Wen?”
“It was him, he destroyed my mental seascape.”
“Professor, are you having delusions of persecution? Admiral Wen’s mental seascape is also damaged, how could he possibly hurt you? Yours must have collapsed from the thunderstorm!”
The subordinate shook his head and sighed: “You underestimated the lightning…”
“You!”
Professor Yin coughed up more blood and fainted.
…
“Wen Ming, you were too impulsive!”
The Marshal pulled Wen Ming away: “I said we only needed to destroy the equipment, why did you attack Professor Yin?”
“If we don’t stop him, he’ll continue to threaten the Jiao Ren.”
“I know, but you know how ruthless he is, if you killed him, the mermaids still trapped in the lab would be in grave danger!
We have to find the lab’s location first, we can’t rush this.”
Wen Ming didn’t comment: “I didn’t kill him, I just destroyed his mental seascape.”
“You, you mean, you crippled him?”
“Yes.” Wen Ming’s eyelashes cast shadows on his cheeks. “Worse than mine.”
The Marshal shivered.
Energy was difficult to control during thunderstorms, everyone avoided using their mental seascapes, and yet Wen Ming had ignored the weather and crippled someone in a matter of seconds.
“Your mental seascape has recovered?”
Wen Ming’s answer was vague: “It’s been more stable recently.”
The Marshal stared at him, a suspicion forming in her mind, but she didn’t press further.
More than status, wealth, or past glory, interstellar humans valued their mental seascapes.
If Wen Ming’s mental seascape had recovered to this extent, she could rest assured leaving the rare species under his protection.
“How is MuMu? Changing from a mermaid to a Jiao Ren, a different identity, is it adapting well?” The Marshal asked.
“No change, it still sleeps in the mermaid pool.”
“Of course, it’s an aquatic creature.” The Marshal pondered, then asked, puzzled, “Where else would it sleep?”
Wen Ming paused: “It’s nothing.”
The Marshal raised an eyebrow: “I’m not asking about its habits. It was raised indoors, is it resistant to human contact now?”
“No,” Wen Ming answered without hesitation.
“So certain?” The Marshal was still concerned. “It’s fine with you, but what about other humans?”
“MuMu gets along with everyone, humans, mermaids, Jiao Ren.”
“A social butterfly?”
The Marshal couldn’t imagine such an extroverted little mermaid.
Wen Ming opened his optical brain and listened to the voice message from MuMu:
‘Awoo, roar!’
Wen Ming smiled faintly: “Want to visit my company?”
“What for?”
“MuMu is there.” Wen Ming explained. “It’s probably made friends with many of the employees by now.”
“Really?”
Ten minutes later, at Wen Corporation.
The Marshal, staring at the scene before her, exclaimed: “Really!?”
The little mermaid, sitting in its scooter, was surrounded by Wen Corporation employees.
“Wow, it’s our company mascot!”
“It was already adorable in the StarNet Circle pictures, but it’s even cuter in real life!”
“Mascot, come visit us more often, seeing you makes me want to work overtime!”
“Awoo, gurgle!” Thank you for your love, don’t crowd, everyone will get an autograph!
The little mermaid, speaking in its unintelligible language, somehow managed to control the crowd.
They formed a line, someone even providing an ink pad.
MuMu took the paper and pressed its ink-stained claw onto it:
“Awoo!” Okay, next!
Marshal: “…Wen Ming, I’m leaving this rare species in your capable hands.”
