Chapter Five

The crimson dot, symbolizing the star pirates, finally slipped off the range of the detection radar.

Though the alarm appeared to have ended, Annie only grew more urgent. She seized Lin’s hand, wasted not a word, and activated both the cockpit’s defense protocols and the emergency escape system reserved for pilots.

The screen flashed: “Escape system initializing.” Without an explanation, she threaded them through the panicked throng of uncomprehending passengers, kicked open the door at the rear of the ship marked “No Entry,” and typed the pilot’s work ID into the control panel inside.

She’d taken it from that corpse.

ID confirmed.

The automatic door slid open. Annie stepped into the escape pod, fastened the safety belt around Lin’s waist, and made a quick gesture for him not to ask questions. Then she yanked the starter—

A sluggish hum rumbled beneath them as ancient energy sources sputtered to life.

The escape pod detached from the ship’s underbelly. To be honest, it was her first time piloting such a craft in reality; her prior experience was limited to paid simulations online. Annie shoved the throttle all the way forward, and the world before them spun into a wild, tumbling blur.

A meteor streaked in a mad arc from the shattered vessel, trailing fire and lightning as it tore across the sky. The craft shook so violently it seemed liable to fall from the heavens at any moment.

Lin, already drained of all strength, reached his limit. Bracing himself with trembling hands, he doubled over and dry-heaved for a long while, nearly vomiting bile.

Minutes later, a chorus of sirens passed overhead as countless rescue vehicles flashed through the sky.

The passengers had called for help—an expensive service that would cost a fortune, only affordable to the wealthy. In the brief window before rescue arrived, several blinding jets of flame descended from above. Shells fired from the star pirates’ crafts, scarlet and searing, struck the wrecked ship behind them.

The ship’s defense system held out for a pitiful three seconds.

A thunderous explosion roared behind, smoke billowed, and flames shot skyward.

Lin glanced back, stunned, and then turned to Annie. She, however, was lost in thought over the controls, seeming utterly unmoved by the devastation.

“How many people were in there…” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Nearly a thousand,” Annie replied. “Seems he never wanted to see me again—just wanted me blown to pieces. Star pirates are truly classless; their word means nothing.”

“You’re not exactly any better,” Lin retorted, recalling the star pirate leader and inevitably thinking of himself. He had some basic understanding of this woman obsessed with procreation. “Why did he say that? What did you do to him?”

“He’s a pirate chief who treats a thousand lives as a joke—murder, arson, nothing beneath him.” Annie shot him a glance. “What could I possibly do to him? Why do you assume I’m at fault? Is the male perspective always so shamelessly biased?”

Lin tugged at his lips. “I just thought, if he gained the upper hand, maybe I could finally get rid of you.”

Annie nodded, then added, “True, you could escape me. He hates me enough to forgo the ransom from your family. But if you fell into his hands, your scales would be flayed off one by one, day after day, as leverage against your kin. He’d strangle the life from you while laughing, a fiendish extortionist. Young master, your head is emptier than I thought.”

Lin tried to reply, but the long ordeal of weakness and injury had left him so sick from her wild piloting that he was nearly half-dead with nausea.

By the time they landed, the smoke from the ship’s destruction still lingered.

Annie dug a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to him, but Lin was so ill he could barely drink without retching. She dragged him out, only to be hit full force by a tall youth—over six feet—who collapsed into her arms.

His deep blue hair tumbled over her shoulder, covering the girl’s slender frame. He leaned against Annie, gasping for breath, like a fish left dry too long and on the verge of death.

Annie gripped his hair, gathered it up, and made him meet her gaze, looking into his unfocused blue eyes. She realized the fierce merman had reached his limit. After a moment’s thought, she said, “You need a dose of medical serum.”

Lin’s eyes took a while to focus; even on the verge of death, he managed to snap back, “What I need is water. The ocean of District Eight.”

Annie shook her head. “You’re delicate, aren’t you?” With that, she pressed Lin’s shoulder and forced a bottle of water down his throat.

In her presence lately, this fish had nearly drowned more times than he’d care to admit. Liquid poured down his parched, constricted throat; dizziness made him instinctively resist, but her hand persisted. Something slick slipped between his teeth with the water.

Something…

A tendril pressed against his tightening throat as Annie deftly sent the water straight into his esophagus. She capped the bottle, returned it to her bag, withdrew her appendage, and supported the unsteady merman.

They spent several days in temporary lodgings in the Fourth District.

“Regarding the recent incident, the United Police Bureau has issued a statement, pledging a thorough investigation into the attackers…” In their cramped quarters, the projected news continued coverage of the star pirate assault. Annie turned down the volume, her attention fixed on the text scrolling across her reader.

Information on the “Azure Sea Dragon” filled the screen.

She scrolled, occasionally questioning Lin about the content. Sometimes he answered; other times, he refused. She didn’t mind and would ask again next time.

“Young master, what were you really sent to do? This starship accident doesn’t seem accidental. Any siblings? Are they trying to kill you?”

Lin, wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, looked drowsy and listless, his injuries still sapping his energy. “…Dying at my brother’s hand might be preferable to dying at yours, I suppose.”

Annie gave a flat, mechanical laugh, glancing at him again. “Really? Who knows, maybe you’d die of pleasure with me.”

Lin buried his head in the blanket, refusing to respond.

“This ‘Cosmic Live-Streamed Hunting Game’—what is it?” Annie tapped through the information. “Seems all the big players of Azure Star are preparing for it. Is it that important?”

“Very important.” Annie thought he’d clam up, but Lin actually answered. “It’s about the allocation of critical resources. Behind this broadcast is the Free Alliance. Don’t be fooled by the live-streaming; the profits involved are unimaginable.”

The Free Alliance—a behemoth spanning several star systems.

“The Azure Dragon family funds Azure University,” Annie murmured as she scrolled, “so the university is eligible to select contestants and will represent the Azure Dragon family in the tournament, becoming Starsea Warriors?”

“Warriors,” Lin echoed softly, “just another word for desperado.”

Annie continued, “Mermen bloodlines have the highest overall abilities in the system. The university selects only the elite. Online, merman warriors are famed for their strength and brutality.”

But Lin was anything but proud. “No matter how strong, in the end, they’re all corpses.”

Annie suddenly asked, “Are warriors chosen by merit?”

Lin scoffed, remembering that this little monster before him was a so-called ‘top student.’ The words caught in his throat, but just then, the usual sounds began in the next room—a man’s loud, enthusiastic moans.

Their cheap lodging was in the Fourth District’s notorious red-light area.

Their neighbor was a streetwalker, and every night at this hour, his business rang out with impressive regularity.

Lin gritted his teeth, finally tearing the blanket with his nails in frustration. “I already gave you money! Why are we staying in a place like this?”

Annie blinked, glanced at the blanket, then cocked her head, trying to gauge his expression. “Well… The Fourth District is dangerous lately. Many places have been attacked by star pirates. Zero-Thirteen wants me dead. Here, it’s harder to find us—safer.”

She added after a moment’s thought, “Even though you’d like to kill me too, you’ve got a chip in your brain. That should keep you in check.”

Lin took a deep breath, trying to block it all out, but the iron bed next door began clanging, shaking the bookshelf against the wall until several old yellow discs tumbled to the floor.

The two sat in silence.

Annie studied Lin on the sofa. His features were striking, his deep blue hair messy and unkempt, falling across the blanket. For someone born to privilege, he seemed unable to breathe in such a place, his face perpetually sickly, brow furrowed in misery, as if suffering beyond endurance.

Weren’t mermen supposed to be fierce and powerful? Why was he so different?

Annie found herself pondering. Ever since she’d dragged him from the wreckage in that abandoned building, she’d never seen a merman at his peak; perhaps the stories online were all exaggeration.

Lin averted his gaze, shrinking deeper into the blanket. Before he could curl up completely, a cold hand brushed his forehead: Annie.

He looked at her, his eyes a mix of resentment and hatred—though mostly, he just disliked her.

Annie, familiar with his physical data, quickly determined he was still in a state of feverish dehydration. She pulled a medical serum from her bag, tore open the packaging, and uncapped the syringe.

Something silver flashed briefly in the bag.

Lin’s eyesight was sharp; he immediately noticed Annie’s student bag was now bulkier. Annie checked the serum’s instructions, followed his gaze, and casually said, “Lifted it from Zero-Thirteen.”

She unzipped the bag to reveal a silver laser gun—worth half a merman on the black market.

It had ended up in her hands; in the end, Zero-Thirteen had neglected it.

Finishing her introduction, she noticed Lin’s gaze hadn’t left the gun. She pulled it out and offered it to him. “Want to try? Careful, I haven’t had time to—”

Before she could finish, Lin snatched the gun, pointed it at Annie’s chest, and pulled the trigger.

A photon beam blazed, brilliant enough to flood the entire room with light, illuminating the alley, turning the dim red-light district into sudden daylight.

Daylight faded.

The laser tore through Annie’s chest, flesh and blood reduced to nothing, revealing writhing pink mucus beneath. The wound quickly began knitting itself together, so fast it took his breath away.

Annie’s words faltered. She smiled. “I haven’t fully mastered what Zero-Thirteen taught me, but handling this gun shouldn’t be a problem.”

Lin stared at her, his chest heaving.

Annie half-knelt, gripped his hand, and pressed the gun to her neck, the same spot she’d fired at Zero-Thirteen on the ship. She guided his trembling finger. “Here. Try it.”

The blue-haired merman stared at her, motionless, then hurled the weapon back into her arms. “Just kill me, why don’t you.”

“No, you promised to cooperate with me,” Annie said. “I checked the procreation lock. Mermen only open themselves to those of their own kind whom they like. You mate in water, and your species does not intermarry, making research into your fertility a real challenge.”

She flicked the syringe, continuing, “Don’t I seem enough like your kind? Is my performance not convincing enough?” There was a touch of confusion in her tone.

Her chest wound writhed a moment longer, then healed completely. She had managed to simulate nearly all of the mutant’s near-immortal regeneration.

Annie reached out, lifting Lin’s chin. The weak merman’s eyes blazed with undisguised hatred and coldness, but she ignored it, injected the medical serum into his vein, and said nothing more.