IRM Chapter 64

The black dragon flew at an extremely fast speed, roaring through the sea of clouds. In just over three hours, it reached the vicinity of Mouvira Island.

Ji Chi sat on the black dragon’s broad neck and shoulders, looking down to find a relatively unpopulated sea area to land. This way, they wouldn’t cause too much trouble.

But they were positioned too high, and with cloud layers blocking their view, Ji Chi couldn’t immediately determine where they could safely land.

“Southeast direction, 2.3 miles, intelligent lifeform coverage rate 0.3%, probability of being discovered 0.52%.” As if seeing Ji Chi’s dilemma, Chloe suddenly spoke behind him, her tone as flat and emotionless as ever.

Ji Chi was startled. “Oh, I almost forgot about your ability.”

While directing the black dragon to fly toward the southeast sea surface, he asked Chloe curiously, “Was this ability also given to you by Phaestus? Um… like writing a program?”

Chloe sat in the hollow between two ridges of the dragon’s spine, her long hands placed properly on her stomach. “Chloe doesn’t understand what writing a program is, but the former master only gave Chloe the duty of guarding the temple. Chloe’s ability was developed from counting little fish at the bottom of the sea.”

She spoke in all seriousness, as if lying at the bottom of the sea counting little fish was some remarkable training.

Ji Chi grinned and smiled silently. “Then you’re quite impressive too.”

Caught off guard by the compliment, Chloe remained quiet for a long time before saying in a low voice. “Thank you.”

The black dragon landed steadily on the sea surface. This time, it was careful enough not to cause any disturbance.

Ji Chi glanced at Mouvira Island in the distance, now just a line, and said to Chloe, “Looks like we still have to swim the rest of the way. Oh right, can you swim?”

Chloe thought for a moment, “Chloe runs very fast.”

She meant running on the seafloor. After all, it was too much to ask for a heavy lump of metal to float and swim.

Ji Chi couldn’t help but laugh again. “It’s fine, I’ll take you swimming later. Humans don’t sink to the bottom of the sea and run around randomly.”

Chloe cherished every bit of experience in being human. She nodded solemnly. “Chloe has remembered it.”

Ji Chi waved his hand to put Nidhogg away. Before making the black dragon disappear, he specifically returned half of the eggshell he was holding to it.

The chubby little dragon cheerfully balanced the eggshell on its head, transforming into a semi-transparent stream of light. It circled around Ji Chi’s head, gently nuzzling him, leaving glimmering points of light on his eyes and brows.

Chloe deeply imprinted this scene in her core. She still wasn’t clear why she needed to do this, but later, when her gradually filling emotions became sufficient to interpret such scenes, Chloe discovered that this was the first time she understood human tenderness.

Without the black dragon’s support, as soon as Chloe fell into the sea, she sank straight down, impossible to pull back.

Ji Chi took a small sip of the mermaid potion. A wonderful feeling came from between his legs, and his lower body quickly became a slender, smooth black fish tail.

He was very familiar with the feeling of becoming a merman now, and his movements no longer had the initial awkwardness. He turned around and, with a light flick of his gauze-like tail fin, headed in the direction where Chloe was falling.

The seafloor near the mermaid city was colorful and vibrant, much prettier than the desolate waters near the temple. From time to time, small toys abandoned by merfolk after playing would appear—sometimes several large fluorescent ore stones, sometimes a few strands of seaweed braided together…

These were all things Chloe had never seen before.

She stood on the seafloor admiring them, not daring to move, afraid she might damage them. She raised her head and couldn’t help telling Ji Chi her feelings. “It’s so lively here.”

Ji Chi smiled slightly and extended his hand to her. “Come on, I’ll take you to see somewhere even livelier.”

Chloe’s hollow black eyes gazed at the beautiful merman before her. She slowly extended her ugly, deformed metal arm, and once again realized that her future would become very beautiful.

Chloe’s core felt warm and swollen. Was this what humans call hope?

Ji Chi grasped her arm, and with a powerful sweep of his fish tail, the iron weight was pulled from the seafloor with a pop, stirring up a cloud of hazy sea sand.

The mermaid race were masters of the sea. Their songs could bewitch hearts, and their bodies could perfectly merge with the ocean. Their speed in seawater could almost rival white wolves on snowy plains.

And Ji Chi’s speed was even faster. After becoming familiar with the mermaid’s swimming method, he became like a black bolt of lightning, breaking through layer after layer of waves, advancing rapidly toward Mouvira Island.

The tail’s paddling inevitably produced some bubbles that crashed clang clang against Chloe’s shell, but she didn’t mind at all. Instead, she watched everything around her intently.

Merfolk playing and laughing, grand and magnificent merchant ships, and gradually approaching before their eyes—the mermaid sea city of Mouvira Island.

Everything was so vivid and beautiful. Even the somewhat murky seawater appeared colorful in Chloe’s eyes.

They covered the distance of several miles before long. Ji Chi broke through the sea surface. The mermaid potion’s effect gradually faded. As he walked out of the sea, his legs turned inch by inch into pale skin. The cloth he had tied around his waist beforehand hung down, swaying near his knees like a skirt hem.

This was his final stubbornness as a human.

The mermaid race wouldn’t pay attention to such details. They were long accustomed to going completely naked, only leisurely putting on clothes when they reached the beach. Some with poor memory would even walk onto the street before realizing they were still bare.

Of course, no one would laugh at them. Clothing wasn’t necessary for beastmen in the first place. If it weren’t for being disliked by other races, the naturally uninhibited beastmen might never touch fabric in their entire lives.

However, even though Ji Chi had been so careful, the moment he completely emerged from the sea, he still attracted a large amount of attention. A small portion fell on his face, but more fell on Chloe behind him.

“Look! What is that?”

“Wow! So ugly! Must be a monster…”

“Yeah, yeah! Look at its hands—are those even hands? That’s so scary, right?”

The cloak on Chloe’s body had long been soaked in seawater. Although it could still cover most of her body, the long hands dangling outside were still exposed to sunlight, especially the one Ji Chi was holding.

Hearing these words, she silently tried to retract both hands under her cloak.

A flash of anger crossed Ji Chi’s eyes, but he was also helpless. Sometimes, he could accomplish many things that could be called miracles, yet he couldn’t block the endless mouths of people.

Ji Chi couldn’t rush up and teach them a lesson one by one. Holding back his frustration, he turned back to remind Chloe. “Don’t care about what they say. That’s the most useless information.”

Chloe was still trying to hide her hands. She looked up blankly. “Won’t Chloe scare them?”

Ji Chi became even angrier. He stopped in his tracks and looked at her seriously. “Humans all have dignity and pride. Whether they accept you is their business. The most important thing is that you accept yourself and care for yourself.”

Chloe seemed to understand but not quite. Looking at Ji Chi’s solemn expression made her inexplicably afraid to speak, but she still couldn’t help saying in a low voice, “But Chloe’s shell is really ugly. Chloe doesn’t like it either, but the former master only prepared this one…”

Ji Chi’s serious expression stalled: “???”

Wait, I’ve been worried all this time that you’d have appearance anxiety, and it turns out this is just your clothes?!

Chloe finally retracted her hands. With a click, she twisted off her arm, adjusted it several times to shorten it to the appropriate length, then clicked it back on.

Onlooking crowd: =口=

Chloe was satisfied as she shook her now much lighter arm. She raised her head to look at the man who had first called her a monster. The man’s expression changed, and he hid behind his female companion.

Chloe scanned up and down his body proportions, turned her head rather disdainfully, then scanned the female companion in front of him. This woman had also mocked her enthusiastically just now, but unfortunately, in Chloe’s judgment, she was also just so-so.

Her final gaze still rested on Ji Chi. She lowered her head and began clang clang clang dismantling her body again.

Under the cloak’s concealment, no one could see her movements clearly. They could only hear the sound of something breaking apart and being reassembled, making their scalps tingle wave after wave.

No one dared call her a monster anymore. Something that could be this ruthless to itself was, in a certain sense, frightening enough to command respect.

Chloe had never seen many humans and wasn’t very familiar with their body proportions. This time, finally having so many subjects, she happily tinkered for a while before finally straightening up with satisfaction.

After rough reassembly, Chloe looked much more pleasing to the eye. Her slender mechanical legs radiated metal’s unique cold gleam. Her arms had also been shortened to normal length. She had snapped off one of her six fingers and hidden it in her stomach. Her jet-black ten fingers now had a kind of mysterious beauty.

Ji Chi watched her actions expressionlessly. You’re really something.

After Chloe successfully frightened the surrounding crowd until their faces turned ashen, Ji Chi led the post-makeover her to continue walking inland. He suddenly asked, “So what do you look like under your shell? In the future, won’t it all be my…”

He pointed at his own face that Tang had adjusted.

Chloe turned her head to look at Ji Chi. “Chloe’s original core has no appearance, but the former master said that if one day Chloe could meet a very good person, Chloe could use him as a model and also live a very good life… as if having parents.”

The last sentence wasn’t said by Phaestus—it was something Chloe had privately added. She still couldn’t fully understand human emotions, but the word “parents” inexplicably made her feel very concerned and yearning.

Good heavens! Ji Chi was shocked. Just how many pits has Phaestus dug for me!

The old father with a physical age of 17.5 and psychological age of 25.5 had a string of question marks above his head ???

Chloe noticed Ji Chi’s expression and became a bit nervous, stuttering for the first time. “I-is this analogy used incorrectly…”

Ji Chi had a headache. “You’re still young…”

As he spoke, he suddenly remembered that this little cutie’s age might be several times older than all the mages in their class combined, and instantly changed his words. “You’re not used to being human yet. Humans can’t randomly acknowledge parents…”

He then thought of the players in the game who always called everyone “dad” and begged to be carried, and covered his face. “Forget it, forget it. You’ll regret it later…”

Chloe didn’t argue with him about this matter. She was sometimes quite stubborn. Some yearnings already carved into her core—she didn’t want to delete them.

Ji Chi brought Chloe to the familiar inn. The inn they had just stayed at a few days ago was still clean and tidy, but there were obviously more merchants in the hall.

They gathered together, chatting loudly.

One merchant was complaining. “The black mermaid is way too hard to find! I went to a very remote island and almost couldn’t come back, and I didn’t even see the black mermaid’s shadow.”

Seeing that the people around him weren’t listening, the merchant turned his head unhappily while saying, “Did you guys see the black mermaid? You all look like you’ve lost your souls…”

The merchant’s mouth slowly opened wide. “…That black mermaid!”

Ji Chi glanced at him coldly, “If you want to become a mermaid, I can help you chop off a leg.”

The merchant’s mouth opened wider and wider, his expression becoming increasingly ferocious. He suddenly flipped the table in anger. “You’re male? And human! You’re all deceiving me! You tricked my gold coins and almost got me killed in that remote godforsaken place!”

All the merchants in the inn looked over with unfriendly eyes. What they hated most were liars.

Very unfortunately, Ji Chi also hated human traffickers. He sneered. “Buying and selling merfolk, and you still think you’re in the right?”

The mermaid race actually also hated these merchants, but due to the sacrificial ritual, they could only let the merchants search everywhere for beautiful merfolk under the banner of satisfying the monster.

However, once the sacrificial ritual disappeared, these merchants’ days became difficult.

Ji Chi wouldn’t take them seriously at all. He walked to the innkeeper. “Three rooms, two travel meal sets, to be eaten in the hall.”

After transforming back into a human, the beastman’s hunger-resistant physical trait instantly disappeared. Ji Chi’s stomach had been curled up in hunger since coming ashore, issuing protest after protest.

The innkeeper didn’t want to cause trouble. He hesitated, thinking about how to ask this troublemaker to leave.

Clatter clatter, dazzling gold coins fell from Ji Chi’s palm. He lifted his eyes—his originally alluring upturned eye corners now carried a sharp edge. “Is this enough?”

The innkeeper was startled and hurriedly scraped the gold coins into his arms, saying repeatedly, “Enough, enough, enough! Please, please! We’ll prepare it for you right away—Anna! Stop being lazy! Come over here and work!”

Ji Chi’s footsteps back paused, and he raised an eyebrow. “Your inn only has one Anna doing the work?”

The innkeeper grinned. “Of course! I’m taking her in for one gold coin a month—not to let her sit around enjoying herself.”

Ji Chi nodded and casually reminded him. “Then you’d better prepare early. In the future, the one who won’t have a chance to sit around enjoying themselves might be you.”

The innkeeper was confused. “Huh?”

Ji Chi left without explaining, sitting with Chloe in the previous corner. This time, without the concerns of being a mermaid, he could finally eat a normal hot meal.

Ji Chi was feeling somewhat gratified when the merchant from before brought people over. One of his hands was wrapped in gauze and slung across his chest. He looked rather disheveled and stared viciously at Ji Chi. “If you don’t compensate me with enough gold coins, I’m not done with you!”

The merchants he brought for backup all simultaneously snorted heavily, putting on quite the show of force.

Ji Chi took out a handkerchief and methodically wiped the table. “Why should I compensate? Isn’t bearing one’s own gains and losses the basic awareness of a merchant?”

The merchant slammed his other hand down in front of Ji Chi and roared. “You deceive me and you still have the nerve?!”

Chloe turned her head to look at both of them, made her own judgment, and said to Ji Chi. “Deceiving people is wrong. Gold coins are those shiny things from earlier, right? Chloe seems to have some too. Chloe can help you compensate.”

The merchant laughed loudly and pointed at Chloe. “Your companion is much more sensible than you! Like this—I won’t extort you. Five thousand gold coins, and we’ll call it even, how about that?”

Five thousand gold coins… to Ji Chi, it wasn’t much, but compared to Anna working herself to death as a maid for a month for just one gold coin, the price level was absurdly high—this truly wasn’t extortion, but robbery.

Chloe rummaged in her stomach. “Five thousand? Chloe has 1,502 five thousands in her stomach…”

Ji Chi immediately interrupted her unconscious flaunting of wealth. He propped his head on one hand and explained to Chloe. “We only deceived him so he couldn’t catch a mermaid.”

He quietly raised his eyes to look at Chloe, guiding her to think. “Humans have another essential ability—putting yourself in others’ shoes. Think about it: if I really were a female mermaid and accidentally ran into someone like him, I would be caught without any reason and sacrificed to the supposedly terrifying you from the rumors. Not only would he not be punished, but he would also receive a huge sum of gold coins sufficient to squander for a lifetime… Do you think that’s fair?”

The merchant seemed to catch some very frightening keywords. He frowned. “Hey! What exactly are you talking about?!”

Ji Chi ignored him and only stared at Chloe.

Chloe’s movements of rummaging for things in her cloak froze for a long time, as if slowly digesting what Ji Chi had said.

Hypothesis… hypothesis that Ji Chi really was a mermaid, hypothesis that Ji Chi didn’t have his current abilities, hypothesis that Ji Chi was really caught by the merchant, hypothesis that the monster from the rumors really would kill people…

All the hypotheses infinitely approached one answer—Ji Chi would die.

Chloe moved again. She was still continuing to rummage in her stomach, but this time, what she took out wasn’t beautiful gold coins but a huge cannon barrel, aimed straight at the merchant—

Her eyes exposed under the cloak were shockingly blood-red, her flat mechanical voice ice-cold. “You go die.”