Chapter 51: The Mysterious Ocean Aquarium (Part 8)

Chapter 51: The Mysterious Ocean Aquarium (Part 8)

For a team of demon hunters, they certainly don't need the help of cleaners. Even with only four people left, handling a B-level contaminated area is more than enough, especially without Chu Ling.

They have already completed one-third of the mission. Zhu Ning has purified one of the contamination sources, and the cleaner team is now containing the contaminated spores. Once they finish dealing with the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion, the mission will be over.

Tang Ke is highly efficient and didn't waste time regrouping the team. After confirming everyone was safe, he led them into the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion.

They have an obligation to complete the task as soon as possible; the longer the cleaners stay in the contaminated area, the more dangerous it becomes.

Earlier, Chu Ling sent a message saying she would be willing to lead the team to the director's office to search for clues later. Having someone to help is always beneficial, aiding them in understanding what exactly happened in the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion.

Tang Ke reminded her to be careful. The contaminated area outside had already been purified, and with both Chu Ling and Zhu Ning on their team, he wasn't too worried about any dangers outside the Jellyfish Pavilion.

There were more bodies in the Jellyfish Pavilion, floating face-down in the water, covered in blood. They were all tourists who hadn't managed to escape in time.

Prometheus announced, "Detected a total of 278 tourist bodies."

Tang Ke frowned. It was too many. Even experienced demon hunters like them found it hard not to react when hearing about so many victims.

Including those from the Mermaid House and the ones they had seen along the way, the death toll in this contaminated area exceeded five or six hundred.

The Jellyfish Pavilion looked much like it did at the end of the video, with shattered glass walls and several mechanical jellyfish stranded inside.

Once the mechanical jellyfish leave the water, they lose their vitality. Their mechanical tentacles appear shriveled, lying on the bottom of the pool, twitching slightly. There were no more than a few dozen mechanical jellyfish in the pool, but the video showed hundreds, if not thousands. Since they weren't inside the glass walls, they must have been in the accumulated water, which now reached above the knees.

"This place gives me the creeps," Cao Wei couldn't help but say.

Team member Liu Zhiwei added, "Me too, I keep feeling like someone is watching me from behind."

Team member Yang Shu, walking behind them, assured, "Yeah, I'm watching you. Are you guys being mentally contaminated?"

"Get lost," Cao Wei replied, "I'm not that weak."

Not like Li Nianchuan.

Tang Ke said, "Let's finish this quickly and get out. Everyone, be cautious."

They had stumbled in the Mermaid House before and wouldn't make the same mistake again. The remaining three demon hunters spread out skillfully, keeping an eye on the water while searching the Jellyfish Pavilion.

"Captain," after about two minutes, someone reported, "Come take a look."

Yang Shu turned over a body. It was a male corpse with a fist-sized hole in his chest, as if something had once inhabited his heart. Now, his chest was empty, and both the parasite and his heart were gone.

Before entering, the demon hunters had seen some tourists who had escaped. Some had collapsed just as they reached the entrance, with a mechanical tentacle writhing wildly in their chests, and were eventually shot by the staff outside.

It must have been the mechanical jellyfish. They can't survive long outside the water, and human blood serves as a source of sustenance for them.

After the glass walls collapsed, some of the dehydrated jellyfish desperately tried to burrow into human bodies, feeding on their blood to sustain themselves.

"I've found the tour guide," Cao Wei reported from the other side.

He turned over the body, which indeed belonged to the tour guide. He was wearing the aquarium's uniform—blue suit and red tie—with a small earpiece still attached to his ear.

His clothes were soaked, making the body appear swollen, as if it had tripled in size. The tour guide's face still bore the expression of disbelief from the moment of his death, and there was also a hole in his chest.

"Is this the cause of their deaths?" Cao Wei asked.

Before arriving, they had reviewed the surveillance footage, showing that the intense water pressure and the sudden collapse of the glass walls could have drowned or crushed some tourists.

Especially the tour guide, who didn't manage to escape in the final moments of the footage. But upon closer inspection, the true cause of death was difficult to determine.

Tang Ke pondered, "Find the little girl and her family."

The video's final scenes did not show the whereabouts of the little girl and her family. The little girl was very peculiar, and the key to unlocking the contamination source likely lay with them.

The three demon hunters worked efficiently, immediately setting out to find them.

Tang Ke approached the glass wall of the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion. The few remaining jellyfish inside appeared gentle and harmless, just as described in the brochures, friendly to humans and non-aggressive.

If not for the video, it would be hard to imagine that they had ultimately overturned the glass walls. This contaminated area was quite strange.

Tang Ke had been on many missions and entered A-level contaminated areas over a dozen times. This was just a B-level mission, and logically, he shouldn't feel uneasy.

But years of experience and his sixth sense urged him to leave immediately. His instincts as a demon hunter made him reluctant to stay here. The other team members seemed similarly tense, a rare occurrence.

Suddenly, Tang Ke's eyes narrowed as he spotted a black object floating in the accumulated water—a professional camera.

In this era, most people use their secondary brains for photography, and only a few with high standards buy professional cameras. Cameras now compete with secondary brains, resulting in highly compact, waterproof, shockproof, and fireproof designs.

Many camera companies advertise that even if the world ends and the last human dies, their cameras can record the final moments of humanity and preserve them for decades, leaving clues for extraterrestrial civilizations.

This advertisement was somewhat exaggerated, and he had chuckled when he first saw it.

Tang Ke fished the camera out of the water, and to his surprise, it was indeed undamaged and functional, just as the advertisers claimed. When a camera is turned on, it usually displays the last photo taken.

Sure enough, it was the little girl's father's camera. Upon turning it on, a picture of the little girl's innocent smile appeared, dressed in a bright red dress, standing by the glass wall looking at the jellyfish.

The little girl's name is Lin Xiaofeng.

Lin Xiaofeng was actually very beautiful, standing out even in an age dominated by artificial beauty. If she had a natural face, she could easily become a minor celebrity.

Tang Ke asked, "What class of citizens are they?"

Prometheus responded, "Second-class citizens. Lin Xiaofeng is the descendant of an artificial person."

After the disaster, the population drastically decreased, and many artificial persons retained their reproductive capabilities. However, the offspring of artificial persons could only be second-class citizens, unable to enjoy the privileges of natural-born humans.

Tang Ke began to look through the photos left in the camera. The camera had not captured the final moment; the last photo he took was of the little girl retreating with a look of terror on her face, before she was carried away by her mother. Her father, Lin Tianqi, wasn't much of a photographer, relying purely on quantity to get good shots.

Out of hundreds of photos, one might capture something nice, which could then be edited further back home.

So after looking through a dozen or so photos, from Tang Ke's straightforward male perspective, he couldn't see any difference between them. After a while, he began to suspect his eyes were playing tricks on him.

All the photos showed the little girl standing innocently behind the glass wall, with jellyfish in the background, and some were even blurry.

Time was short, and Tang Ke skimmed through the photos quickly.

Suddenly, he paused, stopping at a particular photo. It was still the same old content: the little girl and the jellyfish, touching each other through the glass wall.

At this moment, the little girl had attracted a swarm of mechanical jellyfish, numbering in the thousands. The panoramic shot looked spectacular, worthy of being on the cover of "Wonders of Nature and Humanity."

Tang Ke paused the image, then zoomed in, and zoomed in again. With the advancement of technology, cameras could magnify without losing clarity, and professional cameras could reproduce every insignificant detail.

As the photo was enlarged, the little girl took up more and more of the frame, from a full-body shot to a half-body shot, and finally just her head.

The lighting in the aquarium was complex, and the glass wall reflected light. Under the little girl's hand, there was a blurry human face in the glass.

Tang Ke continued to enlarge the photo. He hadn't been mistaken; it was indeed a human face, very blurry, as if a transparent person had appeared in a special light.

Whose reflection was it?

The glass wall inside the aquarium could reflect human figures, possibly those of visitors or optical distortions that looked like human shadows.

Tang Ke didn't dare to jump to conclusions and re-examined the photos.

He flipped through the photos quickly. When the photos were flipped through too fast, they formed an "animation" effect, similar to how early animations were made, or how bored students would draw little characters in the corners of their textbooks, an ancient form of sequential art.

With the zoom function activated, Tang Ke quickly flipped through the photos again. This time, the shadow in the photo moved. It wasn't Tang Ke's imagination, nor was it a visitor's reflection; it was a person.

He was hiding behind the transparent glass wall, with countless jellyfish floating behind him. Were the jellyfish attracted by Lin Xiaofeng, or by this person?

He started about five meters away from Lin Xiaofeng, seemingly observing her, finding the little girl interesting.

He looked for a while, then decided to show some "miracles," granting the little girl a glory she would never experience in her life.

Then he got closer and closer to the glass wall...

Finally, his hand touched the glass, overlapping with Lin Xiaofeng's hand!

The mechanical jellyfish were drawn to him, one, two, three, and then dozens, countless mechanical jellyfish swarmed over.

Visitors marveled, "How magnificent, so beautiful."

"This is worth it."

"So cute, so soothing."

Cute? Soothing? The transparent figure inside the glass wall smiled, a smile from a higher life form, as if mocking lower life forms.

More mechanical jellyfish came, soft-bodied creatures pressing against the glass wall, and the man also approached the glass, examining the little girl through it. They were only ten centimeters apart, as if their faces were touching.

Finally, Lin Xiaofeng saw his reflection in the flowing water.

A face suddenly appeared in front of her!

That's why Lin Xiaofeng stepped back, as if she had seen a monster. She wasn't scared by the mechanical jellyfish; she was terrified by the person inside.

There was someone in the aquarium, a transparent person! He was watching her!

He reached out his hand from inside the glass wall, pushing it down.

Such a thick wall, under tons of pressure, would require tons of force to push down without using weapons.

Apart from a high-level ability user, Tang Ke couldn't think of anyone else who could do it. An ability user capable of pushing down the glass wall was in the aquarium. Where was he now? Was he still on the scene?

Tang Ke suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. This person was transparent, meaning he could be right behind Tang Ke without him knowing.

Right... behind him? He seemed to understand where the discomfort in entering the jellyfish exhibit came from.

Bang!

A muffled sound came from behind him.

...

Bang!

Zhu Ning shot the lock of the curator's office, leaving Li Nianchuan speechless, "Isn't that a bit too rough?"

If no one was around, Zhu Ning could use a universal key, but with so many people watching, she had no choice. She glanced back at him, "Can you find the key?"

Li Nianchuan: "..."

He was speechless.

Xu Meng had a headache; she felt like a kindergarten teacher leading a group of children on an adventure, and things were getting out of control.

With Chu Ling's help and everyone's desire to go to the curator's office, they worked efficiently, collecting the contaminated spores in record time, completing the task in just fifteen minutes.

After fifteen minutes, they went to the curator's office. Once the contaminated area was purified, it turned into an ordinary aquarium, though a ruined one. But they found their way.

The curator's office was above the exhibition hall. On their way, they passed several intact exhibits.

They displayed many creatures Zhu Ning had never seen before. They followed Fang Ying's orders, trying to preserve the scientific value of these creatures as much as possible.

"Come in," said Zhu Ning.

She pushed open the door to the director's office, and Chu Ling led the way in, having formed a certain tacit understanding with Zhu Ning. One person took the lead, one brought up the rear, protecting Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan in the middle.

After Chu Ling entered, Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng followed closely behind. Zhu Ning was about to follow but suddenly stopped.

Here it comes again, those eyes, someone is watching her from behind.

She had felt this gaze before when they encountered the mermaids; it felt very much like an illusion, but Zhu Ning knew it wasn't.

Zhu Ning turned back for a glance, the corridor was empty. This was the staff area, and there wasn't even a single corpse on the ground.

What was watching her? Were there other creatures here that she couldn't see?

"What are you doing?" Li Nianchuan asked, "Why aren't you coming in?"

Zhu Ning: "I feel like someone is watching me."

"Someone?" Li Nianchuan poked his head out and scanned the corridor, "Who's there?"

He trusted Zhu Ning a lot. When they were in the sewers, Zhu Ning quickly realized there were fish people, and he firmly believed that Zhu Ning could sense things he couldn't see.

Zhu Ning glanced at the corridor again, and the feeling of being watched suddenly disappeared. Nothing was there. Did it hide? Or was it really an illusion?

Ever since Prometheus entered her mind, the system seemed to be malfunctioning, barely noticeable.

Previously, when Zhu Ning entered contaminated areas, her mental state would show a decline due to pollution.

This time, something was very wrong. She had been beaten up so badly in the Mermaid House, but the system remained silent, not even indicating any issues with her health.

Is the system broken? Can the danger prediction still work?

Zhu Ning had long anticipated such a day, knowing that one day she would lose the protection of the system. She just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Zhu Ning tilted her head, "Let's go in first."

The most important thing was to get out of the contaminated area as soon as possible; she didn't want to stay here a minute longer. After Li Nianchuan went in, Zhu Ning followed.

The first thing Zhu Ning did upon entering was to find where the oxygen tanks were. The last time she was trapped underwater, what she needed most was an oxygen tank, so this time she wanted to be prepared.

A whole row of oxygen tanks was placed right by the entrance, suggesting that the director was quite afraid of death. The director's office was luxuriously decorated, clearly the workspace of a wealthy person.

The floor of the director's office was transparent, with marine life swimming beneath it.

At first glance, the large desk seemed to be "floating" in the sea. This wasn't just a desk; it was the throne of a marine dominator, incredibly extravagant.

One wall was adorned with various certificates of honor and photos of events and collaborations. Director Bao Ruiming, with his gray hair, looked like a kind old man in the photos.

As Li Nianchuan had said, if you only looked at the news, the director seemed to be a great philanthropist.

"I found it!" Li Nianchuan shouted, "The mermaid files."

Li Nianchuan seemed as excited as if he were on an adventure. He held up a file folder. A whole row of documents was placed on the bookshelf by the desk, and Li Nianchuan had pulled this one out.

Zhu Ning responded, "Really? What's inside?"

Li Nianchuan opened the file, read for a minute, and then said disappointedly, "It's all nonsense."

The information showed that mermaids were simple, harmless creatures who loved humans.

Zhu Ning wasn't surprised; after all, if she were the villain, she wouldn't write down her plans and leave them on the bookshelf.

Xu Meng: "There are purchase orders over here."

Files could be faked, but purchase orders couldn't. Faking these would cause significant trouble for the finance department.

Chu Ling leaned over to take a look but couldn't make sense of it, "I don't understand."

It was mostly fish and shrimp, likely purchased specifically to feed the fish. As an outsider, Chu Ling didn't recognize many of the fish species.

Xu Meng: "Wait a moment."

She found the monthly purchase orders for the aquarium over the past year, compared them horizontally, and analyzed for about three minutes.

"In the past six months, they've been buying a lot of raw meat, thirty tons more each month."

Thirty tons more each month?

Zhu Ning frowned, stopping to examine the documents with Xu Meng. Every day, the aquarium staff would tally the number of creatures in the facility.

Over the past six months, no new exhibition animals had been acquired, yet the amount of feed purchased had increased. What were they feeding? What new species had been introduced?

Had the appetite of the creatures they were already feeding grown larger? Or... was something reproducing? Where were these creatures being kept?

Mechanical jellyfish couldn't eat that much. Their size was fixed, and their reproductive capacity was low; this amount of food was too much for mechanical jellyfish.

Assuming it wasn't mechanical jellyfish but another creature unknown to Zhu Ning.

If these creatures required thirty tons more food each month, starting with thirty tons in the first month, sixty tons in the second, and ninety tons in the third, it would be hard for them to go unnoticed.

It seemed the director was keeping them somewhere without fear of discovery. Was there a secret venue in the aquarium?

That didn't seem plausible.

The source of contamination in the Mermaid House and the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion might have similar reasons. The mermaids, confined within glass walls as performance animals, harbored some form of "resentment."

But why these creatures? Were they also trapped?

Why did the contamination source erupt now? Zhu Ning wondered, why was it that little girl? What made her different?

"Did you find anything?" Li Nianchuan asked.

Zhu Ning: "Don't talk to me for now."

She needed to confirm her suspicions. Zhu Ning opened Lin Xiaofeng's social media again, this time carefully examining the account of "Baby Xiaofeng."

From the information displayed, the Lin family seemed harmonious, with loving parents and Lin Xiaofeng as the envied little princess.

Lin Xiaofeng was truly very beautiful. Although in the wasteland world it might not seem so exaggerated, in Zhu Ning's eyes, she was already exquisitely beautiful.

Zhu Ning paused for a moment, then suddenly asked Prometheus, "Has she had plastic surgery?"

It wasn't that Zhu Ning was biased; from the data, Lin Xiaofeng's parents looked quite ordinary, and they were both artificial humans. Artificial humans do not experience genetic mutations; their genes are fixed. To be frank, Lin Xiaofeng's parents couldn't have given birth to such a beautiful child.

Prometheus: "Searching for Lin Xiaofeng's medical records."

In the wasteland world, people are transparent before artificial intelligence, which has the legal right to access medical networks.

"No records of plastic surgery found for Lin Xiaofeng."

The Federation prohibits minors from undergoing plastic surgery.

The lead was cut off? Zhu Ning asked again, "Can you find any suspicious transaction records of her parents?"

After about thirty seconds, Prometheus said, "There are five suspicious transaction records, transferred from an encrypted account, currently cracking the account password... successful."

"The account is named Guanglinmin, primarily dealing in gene agents, and has been listed as a top fugitive by the Security Bureau."

Zhu Ning's mind buzzed. Lin Xiaofeng's parents had been buying gene agents all along?

Zhu Ning closed her eyes. The technology in the wasteland world was a hundred times more advanced than in her world, yet progress didn't make the world better.

Zhu Ning asked, "What are the main components of beauty-enhancing gene agents?"

"Mermaids." The answer was unsurprising; mermaid genes were the raw materials for making beauty agents.

Zhu Ning pondered for a moment and asked, "When was their first purchase?"

"Five years ago," Prometheus replied.

Lin Xiaofeng was only ten years old, meaning she started receiving gene agent injections at the age of five.

Her father, Lin Tianqi, was an adventure blogger, but his account's earnings were mediocre, barely enough to get by. After having a daughter, the family's expenses increased.

He even felt at times that his wife and daughter were holding back his career development. If it weren't for this money pit, his career could have advanced further, and he wouldn't be in his current state.

One day, Lin Tianqi suddenly realized something: he couldn't make it, but his daughter could. He began to focus on operating his daughter's social media account.

Because it was illegal under Federation law, he bought gene agents from the black market.

"Gene agents come in many types. In layman's terms, if you don't like something, you can change it—make it prettier, whiter..." Dr. Fu's words echoed in Zhu Ning's ears.

They didn't like how their daughter looked.

They didn't like her nose, so they changed it.

They didn't like her eyes, so they changed them.

They didn't like her chin, so they changed it.

But the aesthetic trends changed every year. This year, large double eyelids were in vogue; next year, small double eyelids would be popular. Lin Xiaofeng was like a motionless sculpture, while her parents wielded their chisels, altering her features at will.

Zhu Ning felt numb. Lin Xiaofeng received her first gene agent injection at the age of five. At that age, she already remembered things, including what she originally looked like. But she couldn't decide what she would look like in the future.

Every day, she looked in the mirror, seeing herself become more beautiful but also more unfamiliar. Her appearance was not even consistent.

Because Lin Tianqi kept up with the trends, which changed, she worked hard to keep up, chasing a wave that she could never catch.

But her parents were still unsatisfied. Lin Xiaofeng's account didn't gain popularity no matter how hard Lin Tianqi tried.

"What's wrong with you?" Lin Tianqi shouted. "Smile! Be more innocent! Don't look like a bitter woman!"

"Do you know how much I've spent on you? I've invested everything I have in you!"

"You have such good conditions, why aren't you smiling?"

Her mother watched worriedly, always hesitating to speak, wanting to say something but unable to voice it. Lin Xiaofeng was locked in her room, practicing her smile in front of the mirror over and over again.

She needed a perfect smile to satisfy her father. She had to be innocent, harmless, and healing, just like the mechanical jellyfish.

The jellyfish in the Mechanical Oceanarium were her kindred spirits. They were all artificial creations, made to be harmless, forever trapped behind transparent glass walls for people to admire.

Flashes of light went off, and countless people showed amazement and happiness in front of them.

Lin Xiaofeng saw herself as another mechanical jellyfish, except she lived on land, separated from her kind.

She seemed to have found her place, becoming more compliant with her parents' arrangements and working harder to practice that smile.

Innocent, harmless, healing, and innocent.

Lin Xiaofeng's smile had become muscle memory. As soon as her father's shutter clicked, she could adjust her expression in a second.

Her father would show a more satisfied expression, her mother would breathe a sigh of relief, and the people around them would praise, "What a cute little girl."

"How warm and healing."

Looking in the mirror, she saw only a beautiful face; she couldn't find herself anymore.

The praise from others wasn't directed at her; when they looked at her, they weren't seeing her, but her face. Her soul was gradually becoming transparent, trapped behind that beautiful face, like a mermaid trapped behind a glass wall.

Zhu Ning seemed to empathize with Lin Xiaofeng, experiencing her joys and sorrows. This might be the reason for the formation of the B-level contaminated area.

Zhu Ning was just about to share the clue with the others when her bracelet vibrated. Static crackled through the channel, and on the other end, another team could be heard. A loud bang echoed from their side, as if they were battling some creature.

"Enemies!" The communication was unstable, the shout mixed with static. Cao Wei yelled, "The enemies are transparent!"

True to form, the demon hunter conveyed the message succinctly and accurately. Li Nianchuan hadn't yet processed what "transparent" meant.

Zhu Ning immediately understood. The gaze she had sensed before wasn't an illusion; someone really was watching her, though she couldn't see them.

The sudden addition of thirty tons of feed must have been for these transparent creatures. They were openly kept in the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion, undetected because of their transparency.

The amount of feed was enormous. For most creatures, the energy required and the energy they can exert are balanced. Consuming so much indicated that the transparent beings were extremely powerful.

Chu Ling and Xu Meng both understood. Chu Ling, a combat specialist, immediately entered battle mode.

"Tang Ke and the others are in danger," Zhu Ning shouted. If the transparent beings were still in the jellyfish pavilion, it meant they were facing something very difficult to control.

Not only Tang Ke's group, but Zhu Ning's side was also in peril. With invisible enemies, they had no way of knowing the exact location of their foes!