AITAMITB Chapter 46

Zhao Xiaokui’s most difficult days were the ones right after she arrived in the mermaid world.

Perhaps due to the mismatch between her body and soul, the memories she received as inheritance were fragmented. While other mermaids understood everything from birth, she seemed like someone with intellectual disabilities, not knowing anything.

In the extraordinary world, there were three commonly used languages: Divine Language, Abyssal Language, and Human Language.

Most books in the mermaid clan’s library were written in these three languages.

Ordinary mermaids could achieve simple listening, reading, and spelling through inherited skills, but what about Zhao Xiaokui? She didn’t recognize a single word.

She could only understand the mermaid language that came with her body.

But, when it comes to people, except for math problems, what can’t be figured out when pushed?

Moreover, many slate books in the mermaid world had built-in audio and visual functions. After looking at pictures and listening to voices for a while, she gradually understood the meaning.

She always felt that if she had this kind of learning spirit in her senior year of high school, she would not need to worry about her English grades.

As for the content of this batch of slate books from the Nightwalker Base, Zhao Xiaokui didn’t have high expectations.

Because slate books also had different levels, and in her opinion, this batch of slate books could almost all be classified into the lowest level.

Zhao Xiaokui roughly divided the books in the mermaid world into three categories.

The first category of slate books directly conveyed a segment of an author’s memory, with sound, text, and drawings. They could even convey the author’s experiences when facing different extraordinary creatures. The quality of these slate books was the best, but the production difficulty was also the highest, requiring a certain level of mental strength. They were very rare, even in the vast library of the mermaid clan. Zhao Xiaokui had seen them no more than a handful of times—of course, this was after excluding those sealed □□¹.

The second and third categories of slate books were similar, resembling books in human society. The second category had animated pictures and could play the author’s voice through mental fluctuations, while the third category could only be purely viewed through pictures and text.

Today’s batch of slate books belonged to the third category.

The production difficulty of these slate books was not high, and low-level extraordinary could make them. The content mostly revolved around history or travelogues, making it difficult to find useful knowledge. However, they were good as extracurricular reading.

In front of everyone, Zhao Xiaokui replicated twelve slate contents.

As for the content she sensed, there were thirty-six books.

Among these thirty-six, two-thirds left only fragmented words, almost incomprehensible.

The remaining one-third didn’t have much content either.

Paragraphs of text and pictures appeared in Zhao Xiaokui’s mind.

Soon, she gave up trying to interpret the textual content. Just as experts found the writing style of these texts familiar, Zhao Xiaokui also felt that these words were somewhat similar to the common language of humans in the mermaid world. However, after careful analysis and comparison, she discovered that these words were not, as she thought, variations of the common language. Instead, they seemed to be an entirely new language.

As for the drawings, she recognized many familiar species.

Gods with wings on their backs, demons with horns on their heads, skeletons with gleaming bones…

These were all races she had never truly encountered but had repeatedly seen in books in the mermaid world.

Unable to resist, Zhao Xiaokui couldn’t help but wonder if there was any connection between the last civilization on Earth and the mermaid world.

Or perhaps, it was the very mermaid world she had crossed into?

After all, if even soul transmigration could occur, crossing time and space shouldn’t be that strange.

Could she find traces of mermaids on Earth?

Or did mermaids still exist in this world?

Zhao Xiaokui’s thoughts became more and more chaotic.

Her feelings toward the mermaid clan were quite complex.

When she was in the deep sea, she always considered herself a human, disliking the underwater environment and even hating her fishtail. She dreamed of returning to the land, having legs, and standing under the sun.

However, when she truly became a human, she would often dream about things in the deep sea.

It’s ironic.

As a mermaid, she longed for the sun.

As a human, she yearned for the ocean again.

Humans always seem to cherish what they have lost.

She remembered the exhilaration of freely swimming with a fishtail for the first time in the sea and the joy of seeing pearls in a clamshell for the first time.

Those little, fragmented beautiful memories slowly surfaced after the pain faded away.

Setting aside the lack of sunlight she saw year-round, Zhao Xiaokui didn’t dislike the deep sea when she thought about it carefully.

It was similar to how she didn’t like human society either.

She knew Shen Zhifei must have discovered this.

That’s why she hoped Zhao Xiaokui would enter the entertainment industry and supported her becoming a Nightwalker.

She was making efforts to make Zhao Xiaokui like this world.

Making efforts to connect Zhao Xiaokui with this world.

With a gentle, subtle approach, she wove a net, pulling Zhao Xiaokui, who was drifting, into the world.

Thinking of Shen Zhifei, a smile involuntarily appeared on Zhao Xiaokui’s lips.

Little did Shen Zhifei know, she was the biggest anchor for Zhao Xiaokui, preventing her ship from being blown away in the storms.

Without her, Zhao Xiaokui would have been lost in her memories long ago when devouring souls.

Zhao Xiaokui had a good night’s sleep.

The news of discovering text and information in the slate quickly spread through various layers in a very short time and reached the Nightwalker headquarters.

The slates, once considered useless collectibles, finally saw the light of day.

Many people became excited because of this news.

This aligns perfectly with Zhao Xiaokui’s intentions.

In the past, given her cautious and skeptical nature, she would never have revealed her uniqueness to the Nightwalkers.

Perhaps, after completely understanding the Nightwalkers and having certain cards in hand, she might subtly expose what she knew without leaving traces, but not now.

Her lifespan was long, and she had plenty of time to spare.

However, Shen Zhifei couldn’t afford to wait.

Whether it was a telepath or a star seer, she knew very little about them, let alone the methods of cultivation.

Although the mermaid clan’s library had many books, most of them were historical records or personal travelogues. Very few delved into cultivation knowledge, and most were only suitable for mermaids or certain specific races.

She could only provide Shen Zhifei with some general methods to enhance mental strength.

These methods had no restrictions, meaning that the cultivation speed wouldn’t be particularly fast.

Unlike her with awakened bloodlines, Shen Zhifei, even without advancing, could still have a long lifespan solely due to innate bloodlines.

As an ordinary human, even if becoming an extraordinary, Shen Zhifei’s life would only be a little over a hundred years.

For mermaids who easily lived for thousands of years, this was not even a fraction.

Besides Shen Zhifei, the positive impression the Nightwalkers left on Zhao Xiaokui was also an essential reason.

Especially Su Mingyue, Zhao Xiaokui could sense that the care was entirely genuine, treating her like a junior.

Her biggest weakness was others’ kindness.

Even if this kindness wasn’t much, she was willing to give it a try.

Considering the potential danger of slate books, the ones translated by Zhao Xiaokui in the first batch were quickly divided and sent to several major cities.

With numerous cities and many Nightwalker bases in the vast territory of Huaxia, except for the S City Nightwalker Base, which discovered them and retained the largest piece, only a few larger bases received a portion.

The current role of these slate books was only one: to be used as testing instruments.

Over the years, they had discovered countless slate books. If only Zhao Xiaokui could see the contents, how long would it take to replicate them all?

In case Zhao Xiaokui had a headache or fever and encountered any problems, wouldn’t their research come to an end?

Every extraordinary who wasn’t on a mission was called back to the headquarters, queuing up for testing.

“I think this Zhao Xiaokui is a lucky charm. When we caught Wang Yan before, if it weren’t for her, he would have escaped. She’s only been at the base for a short time, and she already discovered such a big secret.”

The speaker was Gou Rixin. As he stood in line, he chatted with others, casually mentioning that Zhao Xiaokui discovered the secret of the slate books. He inexplicably felt a sense of pride.

He was one of the first people, apart from Lin Bai and Su Mingyue, to meet Zhao Xiaokui.

He even had snacks with Zhao Xiaokui!

Wang Junwu, who was also called back for testing, agreed wholeheartedly.

However, at the same time, he also had some concerns, “Those old folks from the research institute won’t snatch people from us, right? We finally pulled Zhao Xiaokui in, and I want her to go on missions with us…”

After witnessing Zhao Xiaokui’s combat capabilities, Wang Junwu couldn’t bear to leave such a highly skilled and perceptive talent at the base.

Wouldn’t that be a waste?

“It’s hard to say.”

Among the Nightwalkers in the entire S City base, most of the extraordinaries had already undergone testing. So far, not a single person had seen anything other than a vortex; there was no glimpse of the words from the slate books.

Soon, the queue reached their spot.

Wang Junwu underwent the test first. He put down the slate, and shook his head, “Can’t see anything, just a pitch-black vortex.”

Then came the other members of his squad.

Their answers were all the same, and visible disappointment appeared on the faces of the researchers conducting the tests.

Wang Junwu and Zhang Hongyi’s squad were the two strongest squads in the entire S City base. Even their extraordinaries couldn’t see the contents inside. Was there really anyone who could see the contents?

After Wang Junwu, it was Zhang Hongyi’s squad.

Zhang Hongyi didn’t hold high expectations for himself, and as he expected, he couldn’t see anything.

Lin Bai stepped forward, gently placing his forehead against the slate.

As an extraordinary whose brain domain had evolved, people had the highest expectations for him. Seeing him not lifting his head for quite some time, hopeful glimmers appeared in their eyes.

After a few minutes, Lin Bai raised his head, facing everyone’s gaze. He rubbed his temples and shook his head, saying, “No, I can see some fragments in the vortex, but it’s too blurry; I can’t record anything.”

“Oh,” someone sighed deeply.

However, someone else was quite optimistic, “Seeing a bit is still seeing. It means there’s not entirely no hope.”

Following Lin Bai was Hong Ying.

After Hong Ying stuck to the slate and quickly separated from it, a researcher instinctively said, “Next.”

Hong Ying said, “Wait.”

The researcher asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Give me a piece of paper, can you?”

Hearing Hong Ying’s request, someone immediately brought over paper and a pen. She sat aside, and under the gaze of several people, she wrote down a segment of text she remembered.

“Is this okay?”

Someone compared it with a copy of the document Zhao Xiaokui had written. A researcher slapped his thigh and cheered, “It’s the same, it’s the same. Someone recognized it.”

“Hurry, give me a pen, give me a pen! I see something too!” On the other side, Gou Rixin was also clamoring for a pen.

Lin Bai cast a skeptical look at him.

“What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen a handsome guy before?” Despite Lin Bai not seeing anything inside, Gou Rixin, who saw something, felt a bit proud. He loudly called out, “Quick, give me paper and a pen, or I might forget what I saw later!”

When Zhao Xiaokui copied the contents of the slate books, whether it was writing or drawing, it was almost identical to the original.

Facing completely unfamiliar characters, Hong Ying could only rely on her extraordinary brain to memorize a section. The written text looked awkward, more like drawing.

As for Gou Rixin, he was completely scribbling symbols like a sorcerer.

If it weren’t for his symbols matching the original manuscript, the researchers would have thought he was fooling around.

“How about that? Am I amazing, bro?” After confirming, Gou Rixin wore a smug expression and showed off to Lin Bai, “I told you, bro is the chosen one. How could I only have a small extraordinary ability like smell? There must be other opportunities waiting for me. Haha, Bai, rest assured, when I soar to the sky, I won’t forget you.”

Lin Bai’s face turned stern as he pushed Gou Rixin’s hand off his shoulder. He wasn’t very keen on talking to this humanoid husky; he always felt like his intelligence would be contaminated.

The appearance of Gou Rixin and Hong Ying seemed to set a good precedent, and later on, more people could recognize the characters inside the slate books.

However, among these extraordinaries, their abilities varied greatly. Besides discovering that they were all extraordinary with unique abilities, no other common points could be found.

On this matter, Zhao Xiaokui had her speculation.

Looking at history, the extinction of ancient civilizations was a thorough obliteration. After disappearing for countless years, modern human ancestors, Homo sapiens, evolved from chimpanzees and began walking on the Earth.

From this, it could be inferred that the ancient human civilization and modern human civilization, although both were civilizations predominantly composed of humanoid races, might not have much connection between them.

This could also explain why most people saw a vortex in the contents of the slate books.

Similar to a string of 0s and 1s forming a binary code, ordinary people might see it as a series of unintelligible numbers, but programmers could recognize it as code and even interpret it using computer language.

She wasn’t familiar with others who could decipher the slate books, but she knew about Hong Ying.

Her extraordinary ability fundamentally originated from a demon of the abyss called the Shadowless Demon.

And the Shadowless Demon was a creature mentioned in the records of the ancient civilization.