SMA Chapter 66 – Surface Coexistence

Chapter 66

 

Upon hearing Abiseth’s roar, Xiao Yi was momentarily puzzled. 

 

Where were they now in relation to the aircraft carrier?

 

The storm had ceased, and the carrier was drifting calmly on the sea, so stable that no abnormality could be felt. Xiao Yi attempted to climb the stairs to get a clear view of the surroundings. 

 

However, while he could manage to move on level ground, lifting his legs brought an excruciating feeling due to his sore muscles.

 

This reminded him of a time three years ago when he was shooting on a mountain. The next day; walking was fine, but climbing stairs was out of the question. 

 

The intense pain was far from pleasant, especially this time, not just in his legs, but also in his waist…

 

Xiao Yi bowed his head again with difficulty.

 

Siren lay motionless on the cold ground, faint traces of blood on his pale silver hair. Apart from that, there seemed to be nothing visibly wrong with him. The abrasions on his elbows didn’t seem severe, and the scattered scales on his fish tail only oozed a little blood.

 

Xiao Yi didn’t have the strength to move him. What was worse, the feeling of hunger was particularly pronounced.

 

He could only staggeringly push open door after door along the corridor.

 

Siren watched his retreating figure without expression, but his eyes were filled with melancholy.

 

The only reason Siren hadn’t lost control was because Xiao Yi was going inside rather than outside. Otherwise, even with injuries to his back, he would have followed.

 

Perhaps it was colder on the sea at night, and the temperature regulation system on the carrier had failed again. Those American soldiers, fearing accidents, didn’t have time to escape. So Xiao Yi was lucky. 

 

In a similarly empty room, he found a dozen neatly arranged military beddings, consisting of blankets and mattresses.

 

Scattered on the floor was an iron bucket filled with water. From its appearance, it seemed to be for cleaning the ship, mopping the floor, and such. At the bottom, there was a hook that could be securely placed in a specially protruding corner of the wall. 

 

There were always things on a ship that couldn’t be moved, or things that could be fixed to prevent them from rolling around in storms or attacks.

 

Now the water in the bucket was half gone, unknown whether it has spilled or evaporated.

 

Xiao Yi didn’t want to get too close because even if it was rainwater or freshwater, if left for a long time, it would develop a strange smell.

 

If this was a living space, there must be food. Xiao Yi surveyed the room for a long time. There were no cabinets or portholes. Finally, he reached under one of the beddings and felt two rectangular flat boxes.

 

The English on top indicated one was beef, and the other was dehydrated vegetables.

 

Xiao Yi flipped through two more sets of blankets and found a box of vacuum-packed compressed biscuits.

 

Changed two months ago, Xiao Yi wouldn’t even look at this kind of food, but now it was like finding a treasure. The one thing not lacking in the ocean was fish, so if he stumbled upon canned sardines and dehydrated scallops, that would truly be revolting.

 

Now, forget military compressed biscuits, Xiao Yi missed french fries, potato chips, and even KFC’s vegetable soup, purely made with MSG. No, he longed even for dry bread.

 

But a new problem arose. Perhaps the American soldiers had special tools for opening cans, or maybe they used guns, or combat knives to pry them open? 

 

It was probably those multi-functional military knives that were once sold all over Taobao, like knife blades… but Xiao Yi didn’t have anything sharp, not even clothes. Ice blades conjured by his ability couldn’t open military cans.

 

Military rations, the more advanced ones, included tin foil and some other things. If correctly opened, they could automatically heat up. The slices of cans could be used as cookware or even as utensils instead of bowls. It was very convenient and saved on military supplies. 

 

Of course, domestic technology wasn’t advanced enough yet. Few people actually bothered to study how to eat American military rations. It was a basic course in the Navy SEALs.

 

Xiao Yi originally wanted to wrap himself in one of the blankets, but the smell was unbearable. It made sense; after the apocalypse, just having saliva to drink on the open sea was good enough, let alone bathing.

 

So, in the end, he stepped out of the room and went back to the first room he entered to get the military uniform from the coat rack. After shaking off the dust, he found the clothes were too big. Just barely wrapping himself in them, Xiao Yi began to shiver from the cold. His feet were weak, and if his fever continued without finding medicine, it would be deadly.

 

If he could live, even with his personality, Xiao Yi didn’t want to die.

 

He returned to Siren’s side, placed the canned food on the ground, and then struggled to open the packaging of the compressed biscuits. This wasn’t the kind bought at a supermarket; there were no perforations on the vacuum packaging.

 

Just as Xiao Yi was sweating profusely, a cold hand reached out and grabbed the packaging.

 

Siren’s fingers had an extra joint, and his movements were extremely agile. Before Xiao Yi could see clearly, he smelled a sesame fragrance.

 

The packaging of the compressed biscuits had already torn open a gap.

 

Xiao Yi stared blankly as Siren lay there motionless. With his webbed hand, he deftly picked up the canned food. He held it up to his eyes, curious, and shook it.

 

There must be something inside; that was Siren’s preliminary judgment.

 

There were only recessed English letters on the military rations, no pictures. It wasn’t a product needing promotion. As long as you could distinguish them, it was enough—although even with pictures, Siren had probably never seen a creature like a cow in his life == or recognized it.

 

【What’s this?】

 

【Food.】

 

Xiao Yi understood very clearly. When talking to sea creatures like Siren, one must keep it simple!

 

This was good; Xiao Yi wouldn’t have been able to explain anything complex anyway.

 

【Swallow it directly?】

 

Siren was suspicious. 

 

This thing was so hard; he probably couldn’t even bite it with his teeth. 

 

How did humans eat it?

 

【Not…】

 

Xiao Yi had already torn open all the packaging of the compressed biscuits, revealing a square piece that looked more like a brick—no, it looked more like a hard, wooden biscuit. 

 

After struggling for a while, he managed to break off a small, fragmented piece from the corner. When he was about to put it in his mouth, Xiao Yi suddenly thought that Siren might also have been hungry for days.

 

So, Siren looked at Xiao Yi with a complex expression as he handed the strangely scented piece to his mouth.

 

It should be edible, but this smell didn’t seem like food! 

 

(He had never smelled sesame before)

 

Siren hesitated, and Xiao Yi felt a bit puzzled.

 

The previous experience was simply a nightmare, one Xiao Yi didn’t want to recall. He used to like this mermaid, the otherworldly nature of his non-human appearance always intrigued him. 

 

But the problem was, he had never thought about doing anything with Siren, not even once… 

 

The sudden turn of events left him feeling like the world was in chaos. He didn’t know what to do or say. The only thing he could think of was to leave Siren and find a quiet place to stay.

 

If it weren’t for Siren looking off, Xiao Yi would have barricaded himself in one of the rooms again.

 

His fear didn’t stem from physical harm but from the confusion of not knowing what to do when things were too close. Xiao Yi’s world was constructed subjectively by himself; he didn’t care if others were actually in that position. This fixed pattern was forcibly shattered, and the impact and influence on him were the most severe.

 

Touching the red line on his healed neck, Xiao Yi felt dizzy. He didn’t dare to speculate on Siren’s thoughts now. 

 

Maybe if the merman was starving, he might actually eat him. After all, things that Xiao Yi couldn’t imagine had already happened.

 

But he didn’t have the strength to go fishing or gather shells.

 

【This is something humans eat… it needs to be chewed…】

 

Xiao Yi thought for a while and could only say so briefly.

 

If it were someone else, no, even if it were another sea creature, Siren would never eat it. Human food was truly a miraculous existence, especially the first impression upon tasting it.

 

Very hard, very rough, too small to apply force, very difficult to chew.

 

Why was something so unappetizing and tough, like the dry meat of island lizards, considered food?

 

Siren didn’t dare to spit it out because Xiao Yi was watching him. From Xiao Yi’s expression, it seemed like he was eating it happily… 

 

Human tastes were indeed very strange…

 

After opening the rectangular flat box of dehydrated vegetables, Siren was baffled.

 

Those colorful thin slices didn’t look like anything he knew. Xiao Yi carefully poured them all onto the lid, then filled the can with fresh water, and began soaking the slices. The water quickly boiled as the canned materials conducted heat well. After a while, the fragrance of vegetable soup permeated the air.

 

Watching Siren eat slowly, Xiao Yi felt he might choke. After all, even a normal person who hadn’t eaten compressed biscuits before would be blocked for a while before catching their breath.

 

Xiao Yi wrapped the outside of the canned food box with ice. When the soup cooled a little, he drank half of it, then leaned over, trying to feed Siren.

 

Such actions couldn’t let the soup spill out. Xiao Yi was sweating profusely, and Siren couldn’t refuse. The smell was better than what he had eaten before, but it was still strange.

 

Siren swallowed it down with a feeling that he would definitely vomit.

 

With his eyes closed, he was determined to get better quickly. 

 

Otherwise, he had had enough of human food!

 

Xiao Yi didn’t have the strength to move elsewhere. Leaning against the metal wall of the corridor, he felt dizzy, half-dreaming and half-awake. Siren watched him without moving, and Xiao Yi began to feel a bit scared. 

 

He realized that when Xiao Yi did these things, he wasn’t expressing negative hatred or happiness. He had almost no emotions, as if he were the Abyssal Sea after all, appearing deep and cold, but upon closer inspection, he realized there was nothing there.

 

Siren’s initial affection for him was because of Xiao Yi’s spiritual waves, but now he felt uneasy because he seemed more alike.

 

Xiao Yi wasn’t like the Abyssal Sea; he wouldn’t stay in one place forever. The ancestors of mermaids often slaughtered all passing ships in a sea area to get a human. 

 

Some mermaids even tracked down ports and created extremely terrifying ghost legends, turning bustling ports into death realms overnight. In the ignorant era, infrasound could destroy many things. They were angry gods, and they wouldn’t stop until they got their so-called sacrifice.

 

As long as he could keep Xiao Yi, Siren could do anything.

 

Due to the lack of water, Siren’s pale silver fishtail curled slightly. With his eyes closed, he pondered.

 

Got it, take Xiao Yi to the side of Volcus.

 

That way, Xiao Yi would never leave him.

 

The Bermuda was in a fierce discussion with the other sea creatures about who would replace Siren’s position. 

 

Suddenly, it felt danger.

 

Strange, could something want to eat it?