Mermaid Effect

The water level of the bluish artificial seawater dropped without Rand's knowledge—the water in the aquarium was reduced by nearly a quarter.

The large amount of free space makes the whole aquarium look a little weird.

Rand stepped forward in surprise and began to check the aquarium. In his initial thought, this situation was naturally due to a crack in the aquarium.He bent down, inspected inch by inch, looking for possible cracks, but in fact, all parts of the aquarium were intact.

Rand was so puzzled that he even knelt down behind the table to check the water supply line, and then he felt the rug under his knees feel undeservedly damp to the touch.He touched the carpet, wet his palms with fluid seeping from beneath the thick gray fibers, and then noticed that the wallpaper at the rear of the aquarium was also wet, near the surface of a low leather sofa. It was full of fine droplets of water... It felt as if during his coma, an invisible flame caused the water in the aquarium to boil and atomize and soak the nearby furniture.

It's all confusing, and...

Something doesn't feel quite right.

A few seconds later, Rand discovered where the sense of disobedience came from—he found that Munster had sunk to the bottom of the water, standing motionless on top of the already crumbled coral stones.

This is obviously very rare for it.Munster is always swimming, even when he's injured and trapped in a salad bowl, he just keeps on swimming.But now it completely lacked that amazing vitality, it suspended there feebly, its fins swaying slightly, and at the same time the scales on its body turned gray with a light green tinge.

A palpable sign of weakness.

"Oh no."

Rand was stunned for a moment, and after carefully observing Munster's state, he let out a sad low cry. He thought in horror that maybe during the short period of time when he passed out due to the damn neurological asthma, There was something wrong with Munster too, and maybe it was his struggle that caused the water in the aquarium to splash out (it's hard to explain the tiny water droplets that appear on the surface of the home, but Rand obviously didn't think so many).

Not long after, Rand took out the oxygen supply pump from the crushed coral stone. It was no longer working, and the plastic casing was covered with strange cracks and cracks (the thing seemed to have been hit by a huge shock), He wasn't sure if this was the cause of Munster's weakness, but he tried replacing the tank with a new oxygen pump and filling it with artificial seawater.

And beyond that, Rand found himself helpless against Munster's unexplained weakness.

He tried to call some veterinary hospitals in Kansas City according to the numbers recorded in the telephone yellow pages, but the doctors all said that they did not have much experience in treating unknown species of pet fish, and some suggested to him that they should be sent to the hospital quickly. Rand was irritated by the remark that diseased fish should be picked up so as not to infect other fish.He hung up the phone straight away and went back to the aquarium.

The color of Munster's body darkened at a speed visible to the naked eye. Rand stared at it sadly, and began to feel that he was going to lose it.

"Hey, come on."

He said to the weak fish.He reached in and wanted to pick it up, but he didn't know what went wrong, maybe it was the "sea water" that was prepared?He wanted to transfer Munster to another container and change the water for it. Maybe salt and clean water would make it more comfortable... Rand felt that his head was in a mess, as if a swarm of bees was buzzing inside. Call.

When his finger touched Munster, the latter moved slightly, it touched Rand's finger with its mouth, and a large translucent membrane, perhaps skin, came into contact with Rand's finger A small piece of it fell off, and under the gray skin was unsightly off-white tender flesh, and there seemed to be a trace of light blue capillaries.

Then Rand accidentally touched Munster's abdomen, and another large scale fell off along with the skin. This time Munster bounced violently, looking very painful.

Rand withdrew his hand in horror, not daring to move it again.

"Oh God, what the hell happened?"

For the first time, he felt the deep distress—the inability to communicate caused by the gap between pets and humans.

Rand sincerely hoped that Munster could tell him what went wrong in a way he could understand, but at this moment, he felt the pain of that little life but was completely helpless.

Shallow sadness filled the man's heart.

Look, those cops, those cops always bring tragedy—as if a voice spoke to him in his ear.

After that, Rand once again bite the bullet and boarded the fish forum he had logged in before. He posted a post, seeking a solution without any hope.However, when everyone recognized him quickly, he failed to get any useful reply except for a few ridicules.

When Rand returned to the aquarium for the second time, Munster had disappeared.Rand's heartbeat paused for a moment... A few seconds later, he found a new change in the "cocoon" that had kept Munster busy for a long time.

The previous entrance on the side was covered by a translucent film, and through that film, Rand vaguely saw a figure wriggling slightly inside.

It was Munster, it seemed to be busy with something, its head was shaking slowly... After a while, the translucent film turned into the same white as other parts.Rand realized at this time that as the entrance was sealed, Munster's "cocoon" became a very regular and perfect circle.

An hour ago

Washington--

"...Yes, I must admit that the search work is progressing slowly. But the reality is that we don't have a better way. Experimental subject 7371 itself is a level VIII mutant individual, and according to the information it left behind, it has a very strong possibility of transformation ...yes, the living embryo is the one... I'm sorry, but the red scale embryo is almost inactive, and the test subject 7371 is the most vital individual we have...Listen, even if it is forced to larva now The experimental individual of this level already has extremely strong protection measures, and we don't have any tools at hand to screen or identify its frequency band..."

A few minutes later, Vincent hung up on the researcher.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling that he had reached the limit of his endurance with this group of trash.The idiots were clearly petrified, useless like a flock of hens under a bright light.It's not that a more radical approach doesn't exist, it's just that they're afraid to come into direct contact with it.The massacre left by Experimental Subject 7371 when he escaped from the floating island laboratory left too deep a psychological shadow on the group of guys who should theoretically be lawless.

Thinking of this, Vincent's mood became worse than before.

He made a simple gesture, and a security guard standing at the door left without a sound.That was a capable kid, and Vincent knew that soon he would get a new batch of blood to handle this time.

Although the problem is still there.

"Someone from the Ministry of Defense wants to talk to you..."

Caroline quietly passed the phone from across the room.

"They want to talk about this incident."

Vincent twitched the corner of his mouth, and only those closest to him could understand that this was his way of showing contempt.He didn't give Caroline an answer immediately, and his eyes fell on the nameplate on the other side of the table - Deep White Biotechnology, next to it was the company's emblem, a double-faced mermaid with two tails and four arms.

For a moment, he suddenly felt tired, and the terrifying mermaid turned its head and opened its mouth towards him like a living thing, and then showed a ferocious smile.

……

"Tell them I'll call back later." After a moment of silence, Vincent declined the call.

Caroline gazed worriedly into his pale face.

"Are you uncomfortable?"

She asked.

Vincent frowned, and was about to answer her "everything is fine", when the transparent cold hit him.

Vincent gritted his teeth, remained calm with terrifying self-control and shook his head at the others.

As if they had received a silent message, except for Caroline, all the security personnel in the room also withdrew.

As the metal doors closed, the huge, stylistically sci-fi office grew even more silent.

"Vincent?!"

Caroline immediately understood what had happened, she ran to Vincent's desk in a panic, opened the drawer and began to search.

But Vincent couldn't feel all of this anymore, he blinked, and the symptoms that had already appeared before became a little more serious.

The table is twisting like dancing grass, the ceiling is gradually beginning to deform, and the most important thing is those images, oh, those images, whizzing towards him like locusts——

blue water...

bright red blood...

Fragmented corpses...

Icy water brushed off his scales...

Almost everything is pleasant, including the satisfying sense of pleasure after a kill.

A few seconds later, however, a chaotic panic overwhelmed him.Something terribly terrible, terribly painful, happened.

The strong emotion that seems to crush the heart is more "fresh" than the previous "memory", but it is also because it is too "fresh", the emotion is like an electric current flowing through Vincent's nerves, Causes a hellish torment.

Just a little bit, Vincent was going to merge into the consciousness in that hallucination, and completely mixed with it.

[Go away——]

Vincent screamed at the moment when his mind almost collapsed.

Although that was just his screaming in consciousness.

【I'm just me】

【You can't influence me! 】

Get the hell out of my head!

Just like when it came, the tsunami of consciousness was instantly driven back by Vincent.

He climbed ashore from the sea of ​​illusion and returned to the real reality.

At the same time, Caroline finally took out the potion from the drawer. She squatted beside Vincent and rolled up his sleeves, then fiercely stabbed the potion on the body that had started to twitch.

As the golden medicinal liquid was injected into the blood vessel, the hallucination disappeared.

Of course, the huge side effect of the medicine, the pain did not disappear.In the great pain, Vincent was paralyzed on the chair like a dead person, dripping with sweat, and his body convulsed slightly unconsciously.

His body has no strength now, not even a finger can move according to his consciousness.

From his current angle, he could just see a group photo on the table.

Tall and handsome, the blond young man, like the reincarnation of Apollo, happily hugged the young man in his arms. The young man had fair ivory-like skin and light golden curly hair, and there seemed to be a hint of distress in his eyes.

Vincent stared at the two people in the photo, and took a slow and deep breath.

When the pain eased a little, Caroline rushed over. She held Vincent's face and asked tremblingly.

"Are you synced?"

It took Vincent a moment to get his eyes on the woman in front of him.

He nodded very weakly.

After getting an affirmative answer, Caroline knelt down on the ground in an instant, her face turned pale with panic.

"This non-triggered mental synchronization... It started to re-seep, right? When did it start?" Her eyes sparkled, "Why didn't you tell me?"

……

After a long time, Vincent's extremely weak voice sounded faintly.

"After running away from it," he said, "I can't control it, Caroline, it's changing..."

At this moment, a special beep sounded for emergency contact from the communicator on the desk.

Vincent is too weak, and Caroline is in a state of extreme confusion, and neither of them pays attention to it.

After three beeps, the contacts were automatically projected onto the metal curtain wall of the office.

A thin, skeleton-like researcher with black eye circles appeared in front of Vincent and Caroline with fanatical gaze.

"Call, call the headquarters... This is the North Pole SIREN-II base... I am the left-behind staff, Georgian Lee, and I am now reporting an emergency to you, requesting communication encryption..."

Theoretically, the image should be extremely smooth and clear, but at this time, I don’t know why it seems intermittent. From time to time, the image will be covered by the mosaic caused by the communication delay. There is a kind of distortion and ferocity that is difficult to describe in words.

Caroline looked at the picture, her heart started beating wildly uncontrollably.

As the "encryption complete" report from the mechanical tablet fell, Georgian Li's voice seemed to be cut into pieces by a gust of wind, and was thrown intermittently into this deathly quiet office thousands of miles away.

"... 5 minutes ago... test subject 7928, test subject 9036, and test subject 9877 remained in the SIREN-II spare petri dish... the behavior of cocooning appeared...the base was therefore attacked by...extreme infrasonic waves...request...for help ..."

Before he even finished his last word, the whole picture froze suddenly.

The hoarse voice stopped abruptly, and the office fell into a deathly silence for an instant, until a few seconds later, the sweet mechanical sound sounded again.

"Communication was interrupted due to a signal problem, we are working hard to fix it for you, please wait."

However, both Vincent and Caroline knew clearly in their hearts that this signal would most likely never appear in front of them again.