I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH11

Chapter 11: The Transformation Phase

The military briefing room.

From the moment he arrived to the moment he left after the meeting concluded, Lux keenly noticed that he was the focal point of every single officer’s attention.

Everyone wore the exact same expression—dying to ask questions but not daring to step forward.

Vincent noticed it too.

Leaning in, he lowered his voice to whisper in Lux’s ear, “It’s definitely because the royal family leaked the news about the perfect match between you and that human.”

Lux gave a quiet grunt of affirmation, entirely unfazed by the situation.

“Captain Curt,” he called out to a merman who was about to leave.

The officer turned around and saluted promptly. “Admiral Lux!”

Lux gave a slight nod, his expression indifferent. “How has your human been doing lately?”

Captain Curt hadn’t expected the Admiral to ask about that and froze for a brief second. “He—he’s doing quite well, Admiral Lux.”

“Mm.” Lux curled the corner of his mouth slightly, casting a glance at Vincent.

Vincent caught on instantly. “It’s like this: Admiral Lux wants to ask you for some advice regarding human care.”

Captain Curt had also heard the rumors in the news and nodded quickly. “Of course, Admiral Lux. Please ask whatever you need, I am entirely at your disposal.”

The on-duty mermen standing nearby all perked up their ears, covertly paying close attention to the conversation.

Lux weighed his words carefully. “When your human entered the transformation phase, did he exhibit any rejection toward you?”

“Rejection? No.” Captain Curt shook his head. “What kind of rejection do you mean?”

Lux replied, “When I bite him… he scratches me.”

Captain Curt let out a soft “Ah.” “I know what you mean. Are you saying the human is afraid of the pain when you bite him?”

Afraid of the pain?

Lux recalled the way the black-haired human looked every time he scratched him—his movements were nimble and full of life, not looking like he was in pain at all.

Lux lowered his eyes. “I am not certain.”

“It’s most likely due to pain,” Captain Curt said. “A human’s neck has a high density of nerve endings and is extremely sensitive. The pain from a bite can be very intense, which is why they resist at the beginning.”

“But there’s an easy fix for that.” He smiled. “You can try using snacks as a reward. Give him something delicious to coax him after every bite.”

That tactic would be completely useless on Ruan Chen; he would only swat the food away with a single palm before meowing aggressively at him.

Lux shook his head. “Any other methods?”

“Uh…” Captain Curt scratched his head. “My human doesn’t need me to coax him anymore, but in the past, a few snacks always did the trick.”

“Perhaps you could try using a toy to distract him?”

“…”

His last attempt at playing toys with Ruan Chen had ended with the toy being whipped away and shattered into pieces.

Curt added, “Most humans are incredibly fond of teaser wands—the kind with a little toy dangling at the end.”

Lux fell silent.

His human didn’t like them at all.

Captain Curt stammered, “Th—that doesn’t work either? Well, then maybe you could try kissing him, hugging him, and lifting him up high. That combination works like a charm on all humans!”

“Oh, I know about that. The streamer I watch always does that to his human,” Vincent chimed in, suddenly understanding.

Lux frowned. “What does that mean?”

Captain Curt explained the concept to him.

It didn’t sound particularly difficult—certainly much simpler than feeding snacks or playing with toys.

Lux nodded to indicate he understood.

On his way out of the briefing room, he remained lost in thought.

“I recall there are translation devices that allow humans to understand our speech. Where can I purchase one?” he suddenly turned to ask Vincent.

Vincent’s tail froze mid-motion. “Huh? You get those from the Human Cultivation Center. Didn’t they give you one?”

Lux answered, “No.”

Vincent had been busy finalizing the ownership paperwork back then and hadn’t expected such an oversight.

He quickly patched through to the customer service department of the West Sea Human Cultivation Center.

After inquiring, Vincent relayed regretfully, “Yours is a purebred Chinese human—only two have appeared in several centuries. The cultivation center says they haven’t been able to decipher the language belonging to your human yet.”

“How long will the research take?” He couldn’t go on without any means of communicating with his human forever.

Vincent rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure. I’ll send another message to ask for you.”

“Mm.” Lux nodded. “Tell the West Sea Center that I will cover whatever research funds they require. Have them produce the translator before we return from Base X if at all possible.”

Tsk tsk, here it begins, Vincent thought. The first step of raising a human: spending fortunes on him.

Vincent smiled and passed the message along to the customer service agent. “Understood.”

Midnight.

Ruan Chen had a dream.

He dreamed that a golden merman was fighting against a massive horde of tentacle monsters that had human upper bodies and giant octopus lower halves.

In the dream, the merman was exceptionally heroic. With a casual sweep of his tail fin, he could slice off several tentacles or even sever the monsters completely in half.

The monsters were no match for him at all, letting out continuous wails under his onslaught.

Just as Ruan Chen was thoroughly enjoying the exhilarating feeling of controlling the currents and tearing through enemies, the golden merman suddenly let out a long, resonant cry.

Immediately following that, the merman abruptly reached out and seized the head of the monster in front of him.

With a sharp crunch sound.

Pale-gold, razor-sharp claws pierced into the creature’s flesh as effortlessly as slicing through tofu.

Hiss, hiss——

The tentacle monster struggled frantically.

But the merman didn’t give it any chance to turn the tables.

Exerting a sudden burst of strength, he actually crushed the monster’s head into pieces entirely with his bare hand!

The sheer bloodiness of that final frame was so overwhelming that Ruan Chen’s mind went blank, and he suddenly snapped awake.

This golden merman… wasn’t he…

The very same guy who was just playing toys with him yesterday?!

A cold sweat broke out all over Ruan Chen. He snapped his eyes open, locking right onto Lux’s familiar golden pupils.

“Meow, meow, meow, awoooo!!” Terrified out of his wits, he scrambled backward, frantically flailing his limbs in the water as if he were flying, desperate to retreat as far away as possible.

Wait a second…

In the water?

He was in the water?!

Ruan Chen lifted his hands to cover his nose and mouth.

Where was his oxygen mask?!

In a panic, his hands scrambled all over his face. Then, his fingers brushed against a strange, soft structure near the side of his jaw that definitely shouldn’t belong to him.

Gills!

He had grown gills on his face!

AAAAHHHHH——!

Ruan Chen meowed frantically, his eyes wide with pure terror.

Lux hurriedly pulled him into his arms, smoothing down his hair to soothe him. “Good boy, don’t be afraid. You can breathe underwater now.”

“Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow! (I mutated!)” Ruan Chen shouted at him with wide eyes.

Unable to understand a word, Lux still did his best to stroke the human’s black hair using the methods he had recently learned from the forums.

Upon returning from his meeting, he had found his human acting rather unusual. The furniture prepared for him had been turned completely upside down, and the Pacific saury toy had suffered the worst damage, with its inner stuffing entirely ripped out.

The human had been lying on the floor, breathing rapidly, looking as though he were trapped in a severe nightmare.

Vincent, who was highly experienced in observing humans online, took a look and suggested that the human might have entered his transformation phase early.

Pressed against Lux’s chest, the scent radiating from the merman brought Ruan Chen a sense of stability, and his emotions slowly began to settle down.

After a few seconds, he shakily raised his hand once more to feel the area near the base of his ear on the side of his face.

The texture of the gills was remarkably clear.

It wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t a hallucination.

He really had… grown gills.

Ruan Chen’s mouth puckered, and a quiet whimper escaped him.

What was he supposed to do now…

He tilted his head back, looking up at Lux with tear-filled eyes.

Suddenly, Ruan Chen noticed that Lux also had gills behind his ears.

His expression froze.

Hold on a minute.

Why would he mysteriously grow gills out of nowhere?

In this bizarre world, the only creature he had close contact with who possessed gills…

Wasn’t it the exact stinky goldfish standing right in front of him?!

“Meow-awooo-uuu! (It’s you! You made me grow gills!)”

Having identified the culprit, Ruan Chen glared at Lux with absolute fury.

Lux knew that humans newly entering their transformation phase experienced volatile mood swings. He comforted in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid. The newly purchased toys have arrived. Shall I play with you in a moment?”

“Meow, meow, meow, meow! (Stop trying to coax me, it was definitely you!)”

Ruan Chen’s fury flared up instantly.

Lux recalled the advice Captain Curt had given him yesterday about kissing, hugging, and lifting high.

He tried supporting Ruan Chen and lifting him up in the air, hoping it would improve his mood. “Good boy.”

Lifting me this far away, is he afraid of me?

“Meow, meow, meow, awoooo! (Put me down this instant or see if I don’t kill you!)”

Lifting him high didn’t work, and the previous hug had been ineffective as well.

Lux pondered for a few seconds, pulled Ruan Chen back into his embrace, and leaned his head down.

Watching the merman’s face draw closer and closer to his own.

Before Lux’s lips could even press against his forehead, Ruan Chen tilted his head up and clamped his teeth down in a vicious bite right onto the merman’s chin.

“Meow-awooo! (Die, you stinky goldfish!)”

“Meow-awooo-ooo! (Making me grow gills and now trying to kiss me, get lost!)“

Lux let out a sharp “Tsk” and caught Ruan Chen by the jaw. “Let go.”

“Mee. (No.)“

The bite carried quite a bit of force, though it wasn’t enough to actually injure him, but this had crossed a line of principle.

Lux applied a fraction of pressure with his fingers, pinching Ruan Chen’s jaw to force him to open his mouth.

“This is the transformation phase, it is not harmful to your body,” he tried to reason with Ruan Chen. “Only with this can you breathe underwater.”

The gills on the side of the human’s face near the base of his ears were very small, looking just as delicate and compact as his features. They opened and closed slightly with his breathing, practically unnoticeable unless one looked very closely.

Ruan Chen couldn’t understand a word he was saying, but the pressure on his jaw forced him to open his mouth with a slight wince of pain.

Calming down slightly, Ruan Chen recalled his dream from just now—where this merman could easily crush someone’s head with his bare hand—and yesterday’s incident where the merman shattered a toy with a single swipe of his tail.

The merman wasn’t gentle and harmless at all like he appeared on the surface.

As his anger receded, a belated wave of fear washed over Ruan Chen.

If he truly infuriated him, would the merman twist his head off with a single hand as well?

He had just taken a bite out of the guy.

Ruan Chen carefully observed the merman’s expression.

His brow was furrowed tightly, looking exceptionally stern.

Was it too late for him to apologize now?

The terrifying scenes from his dream felt as though they were unfolding right before his eyes. Ruan Chen covered his gills and trembled slightly.

He raised his hand to gently rub the teeth marks on the merman’s chin, adopting a thoroughly pitiful and pathetic facade. “Mee-uuu…” (I’m sorry…)

The tiny paws tickled him immensely as they rubbed against him. Lux raised an eyebrow. “It did not hurt. I am not angry with you.”

He couldn’t understand the words, but during the brief pause in the merman’s speech, a hint of sharp fangs was exposed. Ruan Chen caught sight of them, his eyes widening as he began to tremble even harder.

Why is he so difficult to coax?

Lux lowered his eyes to lock gazes with him for a moment before unpacking a brand new toy.

It was a small merman plush doll.

The tiny merman plush was stuffed into Ruan Chen’s arms. He looked down and saw the gills on the side of the toy’s face; wrinkling his nose, he didn’t dare to cause any more trouble.

“Meow, meow, meow, meow… (I am no longer pure…)”

He reached up again to touch his newly grown gills.

“Meow-uuu… (It’s so ugly…)” Ruan Chen’s face was written all over with sheer disgust.

Stroking his hair, Lux thought to himself that the transformation phase would last for a year or two. If the human kept throwing tantrums like this the entire time, coaxing him was truly going to be a highly technical skill.

What a fragile, spoiled little thing.

Lux used his optical computer to contact the nearest human hospital, saying in a low, slightly helpless voice, “Be good. I will buy you new toys after we finish the checkup.”

“Mee-uuu. (I’m going into self-isolation.)“

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