I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH21

Chapter 21: The Lesson

Lux carried Ruan Chen into a room that looked like a shooting range.

Ruan Chen turned his head to look around, and his previously listless face instantly lit up with excitement. “Meow meow meow! (So many guns!)”

Lux set him down, leaving Ruan Chen floating in front of a target.

“Go fetch my palm laser gun,” Lux directed Vincent.

Vincent looked surprised. “But that’s the one you use for self-defense…”

He was referring to a special weapon Lux had explicitly commissioned the military department to craft for him not long ago. It was very compact and easy to carry, yet its destructive power was on par with standard-issue weapons.

Lux met Ruan Chen’s bright, dark eyes. “He needs it more than I do.”

With less than twelve hours left before they arrived at Base X, Ruan Chen had to have a proper means of self-defense.

“Meow-ao? (What’s this?)” Curiously watching Vincent meticulously present a delicate metal box, Ruan Chen filled with anticipation.

To be treated as such a treasure and kept in a box, it had to be a remarkably awesome secret weapon.

However, when the box was opened, it revealed a mini palm gun inside.

It was tiny—a whole size smaller than the handguns he had seen on TV.

“Do you like it?” Lux looked down at him.

Ruan Chen’s expression collapsed instantly. “Meow-wu… (That’s it?)”

The scene fell into a sudden, dead silence.

Vincent remarked, “Humans generally don’t like weapons. He might be a bit scared.”

Lux pondered.

Although his human had displayed unique traits during this period, he was ultimately a human. It was only natural for him to feel frightened when facing real weapons.

Before he could tell Vincent to put the weapon away, he saw Ruan Chen kick his legs, launching himself like a little cannonball toward the nearby weapon rack. He huffed and puffed as he dragged down the largest single-shot laser cannon available, then turned to shout at them with a face full of excitement, “Meow meow-ao-ao! (I want to play with this one!)”

Vincent: “?”

Lux turned his head to cast a brief glance at Vincent.

Inexplicably, a hint of amusement could be seen in that glance, along with a subtle ‘As expected, this is just like him’ nuance.

With a highly complex expression, Vincent watched Lux swim over to Ruan Chen’s side to teach him how to operate a super-destructive weapon that even Vincent himself wouldn’t dare handle lightly.

“Grip here with your left hand.” Lux helped Ruan Chen adjust his posture. “Hold here with your right hand, then aim. Look through here, and line it up with the bullseye.”

He gently placed his palm on the nape of Ruan Chen’s neck to prevent the recoil from injuring the human’s neck.

“Mew-wu. (Piece of cake.)” Ruan Chen licked his lower lip, narrowed his eyes, and aimed.

He had loved playing with toy guns in parks since he was a kid, and he had set the highest records for several park stall owners near his neighborhood. Later, when he grew up, he participated in even more shooting sports at clubs; hitting a stationary target was absolutely nothing to him.

Seeing his small claws about to squeeze the trigger, Vincent’s heart skipped a beat. “Hey! That can’t be fired in here—”

Ruan Chen snapped his head around. “Meow-wu? (What?)”

With a click, his nail squeezed the trigger.

BOOM—

A deafening explosion rang out.

A few seconds later, all the merman soldiers in the vicinity of the shooting range felt the water currents around them vibrate slightly.

The culprit stood frozen on the spot, utterly dumbfounded.

“Meow meow meow… (Holy shit.)” Ruan Chen truly hadn’t expected this thing to be so powerful. Seeing that Lux hadn’t made any move to stop him, he had assumed it was fine to play with.

It seemed he had caused trouble.

“Mew-wu… (Sorry.)” Feeling somewhat at a loss, he obediently cradled the laser cannon and held it out to return it to the merman.

Expecting the other party to be angry, he instead saw that Lux seemed to be… smiling?

Ruan Chen tilted his head in confusion. “Meow-ao?”

He had just vaporized the entire target, and the merman was still smiling?

Could this merman have been jolted into stupidity by the shockwave just now?

Ruan Chen raised his hand and tentatively poked Lux. “Mew-wu? (Is your brain fried?)”

In the next second, his hand was caught by the merman.

Lux gently rubbed Ruan Chen’s palm. “Was it fun?”

With this massage, Ruan Chen finally realized his hand had been numbed by the shock.

He extended his other hand as well. “Meow-wu. (Rub this one too.)”

Once both of his small paws recovered, Lux brought him back to the small weapon from the beginning. “You’ve played with the one you like; now you must learn how to use this one as well.”

“Meow meow meow? (You’re not mad?)” Ruan Chen tilted his head up, letting out a breath of relief.

Lux placed the miniature palm laser gun into his hands and guided him through the operation process exactly as before.

Although he looked down on it a bit, still…

Ruan Chen cast another glance at the shattered target in the center.

It was probably better to play with this smaller one.

A few minutes passed, and Ruan Chen fired several consecutive shots at a new target with the palm gun. To his surprise, he found that this thing possessed considerable power as well, yet it had almost zero recoil, and the sound was practically negligible.

He was thoroughly delighted. “Meow-wu. (I underestimated you.)”

“Why didn’t you stop him…” Vincent felt like he needed oxygen just like a human to compose himself.

Watching Ruan Chen maintain a flawless posture while landing ten consecutive bullseyes, Lux smiled faintly. “I checked it. The energy was only at 30% and wasn’t fully charged, so nothing bad would happen.”

That weapon only unleashed its true effect when fully charged. A shot fired at 30% merely looked dramatic but carried very little actual lethality. After all, if it were truly dangerous, he wouldn’t have let Ruan Chen touch it.

“…” Vincent felt faint. “But that single shot just cost tens of millions of Blue Star coins!!”

“Deduct it from my personal account.” Lux’s single sentence completely silenced his roaring protest. “He helped me out. Letting him have some fun is his reward.”

Vincent: “Fine.”

Using a laser cannon as a toy to keep a human happy—you are truly the first to ever do this.

After playing for a few hours, the trigger on Ruan Chen’s gun suddenly failed to fire anything no matter how he squeezed it.

“Meow-ao-ao? (It’s broken.)” He turned his head to look at Lux.

“It needs to recharge.” Lux took it over to inspect it, pointing out the flashing red light on the energy indicator bar. “This is completely drained.”

Ruan Chen understood and nodded as he handed the gun back. “Mew-wu. (Fix it for me.)”

Just as he finished speaking, his stomach let out a loud rumble.

Ruan Chen looked down. “…”

Why the hell is it you again!

Ultimately unable to play a second round, he was carried back to the room by Lux to be fed.

The merman felt his little belly to confirm he was truly full and satisfied before bringing out a brand-new light-computer he had prepared. “Ruan Ruan, come here.”

“Meow-ao? (What’s this?)” Ruan Chen looked down as Lux took his hand. Within a mere instant, the light-computer merged into his wrist, transforming into a tiny blue dot.

Ruan Chen touched the blue dot, his eyes widening. “Mew-wu?! (Where did it go?)”

The moment his finger contacted the blue dot, a small floating holographic screen materialized.

“This is specially for your use. It is bound to my light-computer, and you can summon it with a single touch,” Lux explained while demonstrating how to use it through his actions.

Ruan Chen listened with half a comprehension, but he ultimately managed to learn how to summon the light-computer.

However, all the characters on it were entirely foreign, and he couldn’t read a thing.

“Meow-wu… (How am I supposed to use this?)” He suddenly experienced the profound agony of being illiterate.

Lux ruffled his black hair. “The translator is almost finished, so don’t worry.”

“Today, you only need to learn how to use the light-computer to contact me.” He tapped the voice input option. “Ruan Ruan.”

Ruan Chen looked completely bewildered.

Lux thought about it, pulled him onto his lap, and pointed to himself. “Lux.”

“Mew-wu?” Ruan Chen tilted his head.

Was he… teaching him how to speak?

“Meow-ku-wu.” Ruan Chen tried to imitate the sound, but it didn’t sound like it at all.

He pursed his lips.

“Lux.” The merman patiently repeated it at a slower pace.

“Meow-ku-ao…” Damn it, it was completely impossible to learn!

Ruan Chen began to feel flushed with embarrassment.

The merman let out a low chuckle, holding onto his squirming limbs to keep him from running away. He opened a bag of snacks, fed him a piece, and coaxed, “Good boy, take it slow. Ruan Ruan is very smart; you will definitely be able to learn it.”

“…” Having eaten the merman’s food, Ruan Chen felt a bit softened. He chewed on the snack and reluctantly tried to mimic it once more. “Meow-ku-wu.”

One teaching and one learning, they spent over an hour grinding through it.

Even after consuming two bags of snacks, Ruan Chen still couldn’t correctly produce that bizarre cadence of the merfolk language.

One last time. If I can’t say it now, I’m giving up.

The tiny shred of patience Ruan Chen possessed was completely depleted. He followed along in a tiny voice, “Meow-ku-su…”

Silence.

“Close enough,” Lux praised blindly, feeding him a final piece of dried meat. “Ruan Ruan is so smart.”

“Mew-wu? (I learned it?)” Ruan Chen’s eyes lit up. “Meow-ku-su.”

Lux acknowledged him with an “Mm” and tapped his light-computer a few times.

[Emergency contact merman has been successfully modified to “Meow-ku-su”]

“Call me one more time.” He held the light-computer toward Ruan Chen.

Ruan Chen tentatively spoke, “Meow-ku-su.”

[Calling “Meow-ku-su”…]

Instantly, Lux’s light-computer was summoned, lighting up brightly.

[“Ruan Ruan” is calling you…]

“Perfect.” He tapped to disconnect the call. “If you encounter any danger, just call me like this.”

When he finished speaking, he received no response.

Lux looked down. “Ruan Ruan?”

Ruan Chen had accidentally poked the light-computer somewhere, navigating to an unfamiliar page.

It looked remarkably like a short-video platform he used to scroll through.

“Meow-wu? (Why does this look so familiar?)” He stared at one of the videos, his brow furrowing as his small claw pressed down on it.

The video popped open.

“Meow-ao… meow-ao-wu… (Let go of me, I don’t want an injection!)”

“Mew-wu— (Holy shit!)”

On the screen, a black-haired human was pinned down on a table by several merfolk in white lab coats, crying out miserably and helplessly.

In the blink of an eye, Ruan Chen locked eyes with the tearful version of himself in the video.

Ruan Chen: “?”

What the actual fuck…

Isn’t this me?!

It was the footage of him being held down for an injection back when he first woke up!

Ruan Chen stared in disbelief at a little red heart icon beneath each video—which clearly represented likes and bookmarks—before slowly lifting his head.

“Ahem.” Lux looked uncharacteristically guilty. “Ruan Ruan, I…”

A few seconds later, Ruan Chen was thoroughly consumed by a mix of fury and embarrassment. His face flushed bright red all the way down to his neck as he roared fiercely at him, “Meow-ao-ao-ao-ao-ao! (Delete all of them right now!)”

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