I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH20

Chapter 20: The Soul of an Artist

The closed door was suddenly knocked on from the outside.

“Lux, it’s me,” Vincent’s voice carried through.

Seeing that Lux was going to answer it, Ruan Chen immediately scrambled with his arms and legs to break free. “Meow meow meow! (Let go of me right now!)”

Initiating a voluntary hug with him was embarrassing enough; he couldn’t let another merman see them like this.

Lux loosened his grip, and Ruan Chen seized the opportunity to shrink right back into his conch bed, poking only half of his little head out to peer toward the entryway.

When the door slid open, both Lux and Ruan Chen froze.

Vincent was far from the only one outside.

Merman soldiers were packed in rows, and even a few military officers had tagged along.

Their gazes were remarkably unified—every single one of them was staring straight toward the conch bed.

“Meow-ao! (Shit!)” Catching the eyes of so many merfolk at once made Ruan Chen’s scalp tingle with anxiety. He whipped the blanket over his head and wrapped himself up tight.

Slightly displeased, Lux shifted his stance to shield Ruan Chen behind him. He looked at Vincent. “What’s going on?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Vincent said, completely bewildered. “Just now, we all felt an incredibly pure, crystal-clear wave of energy, and we just sort of gathered here without even realizing it.”

“Yes, Admiral Lux,” a nearby officer nodded in agreement. “Adjutant Vincent and I experienced the exact same thing. I only snapped out of it to realize I had swum all the way up from my own quarters to your room.”

“Right, I was originally on the lower deck.”

“Me as well.”

Lux swept a glance over them, offering no explanation whatsoever. “Everyone return to your posts.”

The remaining merfolk took their orders and promptly dispersed.

Once they were left alone, Vincent noted Lux’s exceptionally refreshed and radiant appearance. His eyes widened suddenly. “Wait a minute, you two couldn’t have just…”

“Did you establish a mental connection with Ruan Ruan?!”

“Meow-wu? (Who’s speaking?)” Ruan Chen stealthily peeled back a corner of the blanket. “Meow meow meow? (Are they gone?)”

Immediately after, he felt Lux’s palm gently rest on top of his head.

The corners of the merman’s lips turned upward into a faint smile as he looked down at Ruan Chen. “Good boy.”

Ruan Chen swatted his hand away with a small paw. “Mew-wu. (I haven’t allowed you to pet me yet.)”

Vincent was already stammering with excitement. “He was willing to merge his mental energy with yours? That wave just now was released by Ruan Ruan?”

Over the past few days, this human had behaved like a fierce little wildcat. Vincent had genuinely thought it would take Lux at least a year or two just to earn his trust and permission.

He hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.

“Yes,” Lux replied.

“How do you feel right now?” Vincent asked expectantly.

Lux stretched his long, powerful fishtail, the muscles along his back tightening slightly before relaxing completely.

“Very comfortable,” he remarked. “The pain is entirely gone.”

It took Vincent a good long moment to let out a profound sigh of relief. “That is brilliant.”

With this, Lux’s lifelong crisis was officially resolved.

“You all felt Ruan Ruan’s mental energy just now as well?” Lux inquired.

“We did,” Vincent nodded. “It must have happened precisely at the exact moment your minds fused.”

“I have never heard of a mental fusion with a human producing such a massive, widespread effect.” Vincent pulled up his light-computer, presenting the search results for Lux to see. “Most merfolk report that the initial sensation is incredibly subtle, taking several years to completely insulate them from the effects of mental riots. Hiss… it seems the lower the compatibility, the poorer the effect.”

He blinked. “Could this be because you two are a perfect match?”

Lux looked toward Ruan Chen and gave a quiet affirmation. “Perhaps.”

Vincent marveled at the situation once more. “You truly are a merman chosen by the heavens.”

“Go issue an order to the soldiers from just now,” Lux instructed him. “Have them sign a non-disclosure agreement. No one is permitted to breathe a syllable about what transpired today.”

“Also, send an encrypted message to Major General Noyes, who is stationed back on the Ocean Planet. Tell him to keep a close eye on the Imperial Family’s movements recently.”

“Understood!” Vincent bowed his head.

A single mental fusion could trigger such a massive phenomenon. If word of this leaked out, this human would likely be coveted by other merfolk even more fiercely.

After dispatching Lux’s commands via his light-computer, Vincent looked up. “We inspected the traitor just now, but we couldn’t figure out exactly what he stole. We only found a metallic object that resembles a button.”

“I was thinking… since Ruan Ruan was the primary witness, could we bring him along to examine the scene? Perhaps he might notice something we missed.”

A mental fusion had only just concluded, and by all accounts, a human ought to be utterly exhausted afterward.

Lux looked toward Ruan Chen. The latter was clinging to the rim of the conch bed, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on them as if he were actively listening to their conversation.

He didn’t look the least bit drowsy.

“Ruan Ruan,” Lux walked closer to him. “Could you do me another favor?”

“Mew-wu?”

A few minutes later, Ruan Chen was carried into the conference room.

The corpse of that merman guard captain had already been cleared away, and the area had been scrubbed clean, leaving no lingering scent of blood.

With a quick spin of his little brain, Ruan Chen immediately deduced what they wanted from him.

With a soft “Meow-wu,” he swam behind the conference table where he had first spotted the guard captain. Looking down, he indeed discovered a light-computer terminal used for storing meeting logs.

“Meow meow meow. (Give me the item.)” Ruan Chen turned back and held out an open palm toward the two merfolk.

“What does he mean?” Vincent asked, completely lost.

Lux pondered for a moment. “Give him the metallic object you mentioned.”

The metallic piece had been sealed inside a small evidence bag. Vincent extracted it and placed it directly into the human’s palm.

Ruan Chen held the small square block between his fingers and turned it over to inspect it.

Why can’t I find a port or a connector?

But structurally speaking, this definitely looked like a flash drive.

He shifted his gaze back down to the light-computer beneath the conference table.

The technology of this world was advanced beyond his wildest dreams. He stared at it for a while but couldn’t quite fathom how this small block was supposed to interface with a device that consisted entirely of a single floating holographic screen.

Ruan Chen rolled the small square between his fingers, racking his brain to recall the spy thrillers he had watched in the past.

To avoid detection, this sort of gear probably wouldn’t be designed to look so obvious, right?

“Mew-wu.” He glanced at Lux and Vincent.

And looking at them… it seemed the merfolk had absolutely no clue what this was used for either?

Such an obvious external drive…

“Meow-ao!” A sudden flash of insight hit Ruan Chen.

Could it be that because the technology in this world was too advanced, these merfolk simply didn’t recognize this relic?

When even computers had been reduced to a single floating screen, who would have ever seen a USB flash drive?

It was just like if he were to look at an artifact from thousands of years ago—he probably wouldn’t have the faintest idea what it was used for either.

Holding the small square, Ruan Chen called out to Lux, “Meow meow meow meow meow… (Do you guys know what a computer is?)”

Halfway through his sentence, he remembered they couldn’t understand each other.

“Meow-ao. (Damn it.)” Frustrated, Ruan Chen tugged at a handful of his own hair.

“What does Ruan Ruan want?” Lux activated his light-computer, pulling up a drawing interface. “Draw it and tell me.”

Ruan Chen’s eyes lit up, and he quickly pressed his finger onto the screen.

Within moments, a severely lopsided, crooked sketch of a laptop appeared on the display.

Lux and Vincent leaned in closer, staring intently at the two distorted boxes on the screen.

Vincent: “…What on earth is this?”

“It looks like a book.”

“I think it’s a piece of dried meat. Is he hungry for snacks again?”

They completely failed to recognize it.

Ruan, the Soul of an Artist, Chen violently slapped away the small snack Lux was handing him. He glared at them, his eyes wide with exasperation. “Meow meow meow-ao-ao!? (I drew it so clearly and you still can’t tell?!)”

Ultimately, they forwarded Ruan Chen’s masterpiece to the security department. Only after analyzing it did the specialists manage to identify it. “This is… an ancient device from Old Earth known as a ‘computer.’ However, as for its exact functionality… there is no longer any verifiable record.”

Ruan Chen pointed directly at the reconstructed image of the computer that had popped up on the screen. “Meow meow meow-ao! (That’s it, that’s the one!)”

Vincent looked back and forth between the distorted boxes Ruan Chen had drawn and the actual computer in the picture. “…”

How the hell did anyone extrapolate that from this.

Sensing the undisguised judgment on his face, Ruan Chen leveled a death stare right at Vincent.

“Ahem.” Vincent rubbed his nose.

Immediately after, he watched Lux gently stroke the top of Ruan Chen’s head, murmuring softly to comfort him, “Ruan Ruan’s drawing is actually quite accurate.”

“Mew-wu. (Exactly, thank you!)”

Vincent: “???”

Excuse me, but am I the one who’s blind, or are you?

Holding the metallic square, Lux instantly deciphered Ruan Chen’s meaning. “He came to steal the minutes of the meeting. He stored the data inside this object.”

Having found the correct direction, the technical soldiers quickly bypassed the encryption on the small square and retrieved the stored logs.

Fortunately, the guard captain hadn’t managed to transmit the data yet. The technicians immediately purged the files.

“He truly is incredibly intelligent,” Vincent marveled once the matter was resolved. “Furthermore, it seems he has retained a substantial amount of knowledge regarding Old Earth.”

“Was this really discovered by the human?” The technical soldier standing behind them wore a face full of wonder. No one had used such an archaic method to store information for thousands of years. If they hadn’t received a hint, they truly would never have guessed what this piece of metal was meant for.

Lux replied, “Yes, he discovered it.”

Though he couldn’t understand the words, Ruan Chen knew they were praising him.

“Meow meow meow-wu… (It’s nothing, really…)” Ruan Chen’s small face flushed slightly, and he waved his hands in a grand display of modesty. “Meow-ao-ao. (There’s no need to worship me so much.)”

Having finished his humble routine, something else suddenly crossed his mind. He reached out and tugged at the hem of Lux’s uniform. “Meow meow. (Hey, you.)”

“Hm?” Lux leaned down and captured his small paw. “What do you want?”

“Meow meow meow-wu… (I helped you out just now.)” Ruan Chen’s eyes shone brilliantly as he dragged Lux along, swimming back into their quarters.

He pointed a finger toward the combat simulator and tilted his head up, seizing the opportunity to negotiate terms. “Meow-ao-ao, meow meow meow. (Can you let me play with this a few more times?)”

Lux gazed into those watery, pitch-black eyes and suddenly let out a very soft chuckle.

He bent down and swept Ruan Chen up into his arms. “That thing is boring.”

“Meow-wu! (Cheapskate!)” Ruan Chen squirmed, refusing to let himself be carried while staring longingly at his “gaming pod.”

Lux gave the soft skin at the nape of his neck a gentle squeeze. “Come on. Let’s go take you to handle a real gun.”

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