Hi Master, Little Mermaid Will Support You! 8

Chapter 8

Through the conversation between Wen Ming and the unfamiliar man, MuMu learned that the man’s name was Xiao Jun, Wen Ming’s friend.

MuMu didn’t like Xiao Jun.

Because while Wen Ming was untangling it from the curtains, Xiao Jun kept laughing:

“Don’t clean up yet, film a short video and upload it! It’ll definitely make it onto the ‘Top Ten Demolishing Mermaids’ list! It’s hilarious!”

His prominent canine teeth, revealed as he laughed, deeply wounded the little mermaid’s pride.

MuMu was so embarrassed that as soon as Wen Ming untangled it from the curtains, it plopped back into the mermaid pool and hid underwater.

Wen Ming glanced at Xiao Jun disapprovingly.

“Ahem!”

Xiao Jun stopped laughing and said seriously, “It’s good to be lively. Your house finally doesn’t feel like a haunted house anymore.”

“Beep beep!” The home butler also squeezed into the mermaid room. “Detected that the curtains need replacing. Activating purchase function.”

The robot projected an image onto the wall: “Please select a new curtain style.”

A dazzling array of patterns scrolled across the projection.

Xiao Jun crossed his arms and leaned against the projection: “You can actually skip this step. Wen Ming will only choose plain black, white, or gray without any patterns…”

Suddenly, a small head popped up above the water for a moment, then quickly disappeared.

“?”

Xiao Jun swiped at the projection interface, returning to the previous image.

The little mermaid popped up again…

Xiao Jun had found the “toy’s” wind-up key and swiped back and forth.

The mermaid was even more responsive than the projection interface, appearing and disappearing.

“Haha, this is so fun!” Xiao Jun laughed, his canines prominent. “Wen Ming, look, the mermaid…”

“Beep beep! Style selected, purchase complete.”

Xiao Jun stared at Wen Ming in surprise as he clicked the “Confirm” button: “Did you click the wrong one?”

Wen Ming continued without hesitation.

“I was just teasing the mermaid, I didn’t expect you to actually choose it.”

Xiao Jun pointed at the curtains Wen Ming had selected: “This doesn’t match your house’s style at all!”

Ocean blue curtains with a seashell pattern… would become the only bright spot in the house.

After completing the purchase, Wen Ming didn’t close the projection, instead enlarging the image of the blue curtains and leaving it on the wall.

MuMu was coaxed out by the image, resting its chin on the edge of the pool, staring intently at the projection.

It looked at the image, Wen Ming looked at it.

Xiao Jun, as if witnessing a ghost story, stumbled sideways, grabbing the wall for support:

“Are you… in a good mood today?”

Wen Ming lowered his gaze, cleaning up the mess: “It trashed the house, how could I be in a good mood?”

Xiao Jun chuckled meaningfully and shrugged:

“You can’t see your own expression, so of course you don’t know how soft your expression is right now.”

Xiao Jun marveled: “From comrades to friends, at least ten years, and I’ve only just discovered you can have such outward emotions…”

“What did you come here for?”

Xiao Jun finally remembered the purpose of his visit: “There’s a mermaid competition this weekend. Since you’re raising a mermaid now, want to go together?”

Wen Ming didn’t even look up: “Not interested.”

“Come on, think about it. I’m afraid if you don’t participate in any social activities, you’ll rot away at home and grow mold!”

“.”

So far, Xiao Jun had never successfully persuaded Wen Ming.

After Wen Ming’s mental seascape was damaged, he became like a bottomless well.

Throwing a stone into it, there was no splash, no sound of it hitting the bottom, just swallowed by darkness, vanishing without a trace.

When others said “not interested,” it might be a polite way of declining, but with Wen Ming, it was literally “not interested.”

Xiao Jun felt a little discouraged.

“Gurgle…”

MuMu looked dejectedly at Wen Ming cleaning up the curtains, the low sound in its throat like an apology.

The mischievous little mermaid had made a mess of the house, and Wen Ming had tolerated the disruption to his peaceful life.

Perhaps ripples had already appeared at the bottom of the well…

Xiao Jun straightened his slumped shoulders: “What if your mermaid likes the mermaid competition?

You might not be social, but you can’t stop your mermaid from making friends!”

He switched the projection to a promotional video for the mermaid competition.

‘Want to exchange tips on raising mermaids? Want to showcase your mermaid’s unique skills? The Mermaid Competition is the best platform!’

The video showed exciting clips of mermaids competing.

Wen Ming and MuMu didn’t react at all.

Xiao Jun’s heart sank: Could it be that appealing to the mermaid won’t work either?

‘No registration threshold, all interstellar humans are welcome to participate. Participate and receive a mermaid toy souvenir.

The mermaid family that wins first place will receive a prize of 100,000 star coins!’

“Awoo!” MuMu suddenly rolled excitedly in the water.

There’s hope!

Xiao Jun’s eyes lit up, and he urged: “Little mermaid, you really want to go, don’t you? You can even get a toy.”

“Awoo!” There’s a prize, must go, strive for first place!

“See, Wen Ming? Take your mermaid with you?”

“Awoo, awoo!” Let’s go, Master, it’s time to improve our lives!

Wen Ming sighed helplessly: “At the Mermaid Center?”

“Yes!” Xiao Jun pumped his fists in victory.

MuMu also waved its small fists, eager to try.

“This mermaid is really interesting.” Xiao Jun chuckled. “It responds to every word I say, acting like it can understand…”

Wen Ming didn’t comment: “MuMu is very smart. On the day it came home, it remembered its new name after hearing it only a few times.”

“Really? Even high-grade mermaids trained at the Mermaid Center need at least three days of specialized training to remember their names.”

Xiao Jun called out doubtfully: “MuMu? MuMu!”

MuMu didn’t even spare him a glance.

Wen Ming: “It only responds to me.”

“Pfft!” Xiao Jun waved his hand. “You’re overthinking it. Mermaids, as long as you feed them, they’ll treat everyone the same. I’ll show you—”

He scooped some fish food with a mermaid bowl, approached the pool, and softened his voice:

“MuMu, come and eat!”

The mermaid still didn’t respond.

When Xiao Jun was only an arm’s length away, it suddenly turned hostile, baring its teeth and lunging…

“Holy crap, it’s fierce!” Xiao Jun jumped back in fright.

“It’s just trying to scare you.” Wen Ming pointed out, taking the mermaid bowl from his hand. “But if you drop the fish food, it will actually bite you.”

Xiao Jun shamelessly moved away from the pool: “It has a much stronger personality than my mermaid.”

He left a flyer for the mermaid competition: “It has the specific time and rules. See you then. My daughter’s kindergarten is about to let out, so I’ll be going!”

MuMu leaned against the side of the pool, raised a hand, and waved goodbye.

“Mm-hmm, goodbye!”

Xiao Jun waved back and walked out of the mermaid room. A few seconds later, he abruptly returned, staring at the mermaid pool in horror—

Just like any normal mermaid, MuMu was staring blankly into space, its eyes vacant.

Wen Ming: “Something else?”

“…No.”

Xiao Jun rubbed his eyes and left, muttering to himself, “I must be seeing things. I’m too tired lately…”

…

As night fell, a figure stealthily surfaced in the mermaid pool.

It held its breath, making sure there was no movement outside the door before retrieving the flyer.

For the prize money, it needed to understand the rules and prepare in advance!

Under the light of the twin blue moons outside the window, MuMu focused its gaze—

“…”

Right, it couldn’t read.

MuMu put the flyer back and practiced forward rolls in the pool, comforting itself:

It’s okay, it definitely has no fewer skills than other mermaids! Besides…

MuMu curled up and touched its smooth tail.

The scar repair ointment had worked wonders. The damaged scales had fallen off, and new ones had grown in their place.

“My tail is healed!” MuMu stretched happily. “Now I can transform…”

Dark ripples spread through the water as the mermaid’s body began to undergo an astonishing transformation…

Its body elongated, the scales on its tail thickened and hardened, forming a shield-like protection.

Webbing grew between its fingers, and its once blunt nails instantly grew to over ten centimeters long, their tips sharp, their edges gleaming with a cold, silver light.

These were the sharpest weapons of a deep-sea predator.

After leaving the ocean, it had hidden its hunting form, and with its injured tail, it had been unable to transform.

Having not used it for so long, its movements as it flexed its claws were slightly stiff.

MuMu looked around. A thin membrane covered its eyes in its hunting form, greatly enhancing its vision. Even in the darkness, it could clearly see the contents of the mermaid competition flyer.

“Don’t worry, Master, I’m really useful!”

“Beep beep.”

The home butler detected unusual movement in the pool and entered the mermaid room, its camera scanning—

The blue mermaid’s body had returned to normal, its breathing even, its sleeping face innocent and harmless.

The home butler’s green indicator light blinked: “Beep beep, no abnormalities.”

MuMu, pretending to be asleep, yawned and quickly drifted off, murmuring in its sleep:

“One hundred thousand star coins, hehe, Master, you can spend it all. With me, you won’t have to live a hard life anymore…”

“Professor Yin, the registration list for the Mermaid Competition has been sent to your optical brain.”

“Received, thank you for your hard work.”

The man addressed as “Professor,” dressed in a white lab coat, smiled gently at his subordinate on the virtual screen of his optical brain.

But after ending the call, the smile vanished as if it were an illusion, and Professor Yin’s expression became blank.

He wasn’t interested in the list, glancing at it briefly before continuing his work.

“Hmm?”

He opened the optical brain screen again and clicked on one of the registration photos—

A blue mermaid gnawing on dried fish, its eyes wide as if startled by the camera flash.

A well-cared-for mermaid, full of spirit.

Professor Yin couldn’t connect it to the thin, listless, and inconspicuous mermaid in his memory…

“Number 55?”

This mermaid’s performance in all assessments had been extremely mediocre, not worth his time, and had been abandoned by the laboratory.

Professor Yin shifted his attention back to the ancient book in his hand.

The ancient book was written by humans before the interstellar era, in a language long lost.

So far, Professor Yin had managed to decipher a part of it:

‘Record of a mysterious species from the deep sea – the Jiao Ren.

A ferocious underwater hunter with claws that can cut through iron like mud, its combat ability far surpasses that of combat species like the Zerg and beastmen.

They…’

Professor Yin had once believed that Number 55 was a Jiao Ren.

After all, Number 55 was the only one in the laboratory caught from Ocean Star, and ordinary mermaids didn’t have the ability to survive independently in the ocean.

But…

Professor Yin’s gaze once again locked onto Number 55 on the optical brain screen.

A ferocious underwater hunter…?

He shook his head: “It must just be an ordinary mermaid that was illegally abandoned.”

Time passed, and his deciphering work finally made some progress:

‘…They possess intelligence and can disguise themselves as mermaids.

Therefore, the biggest difference between Jiao Ren and mermaids is not their appearance, but whether they yearn for the ocean and possess the instinct to hunt live prey.’

“Dis, guise.” Professor Yin enunciated each word, his eyes dark.

Perhaps a Jiao Ren, disguised as a mermaid, had fooled everyone in the laboratory…

When he called his subordinate, he once again became the gentle and polite Professor Yin:

“To match the underwater scenery, let’s put some live fish in the aquarium for the Mermaid Competition.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Don’t eat anything you’re not supposed to, understand?” Wen Ming repeated his warning for the umpteenth time.

MuMu stared down at the aquarium, its mind elsewhere…

“MuMu.” Wen Ming’s voice cooled.

MuMu quickly tore its gaze away from the “mermaid sanctuary” and assumed an attentive posture in the water.

Obedient fish.jpg

“The stones, the seaweed… in the tank, none of it is edible.” Wen Ming shook the snack bag in his hand. “If you’re hungry, ask me for snacks.”

MuMu, who had a history of eating cleaning pearls:

“Awoo!” I wouldn’t eat anything random!

The little mermaid’s face was full of excitement, its fins trembling, eager to dive into the aquarium.

Wen Ming sighed softly: “Go ahead and play.”

“Splash!” Only joyful splashes remained on the water’s surface.

The Mermaid Competition was about to begin…