Chapter 57
Xia Yi slept particularly soundly this time, with the gentle sea breeze blowing and the shade of the trees providing a comfortable environment. The sun was warming the sand around him, and most importantly, he maintained the same position throughout his sleep.
There was no waking up inexplicably finding himself lying on his back or suspended at a strange angle like an astronaut in zero gravity…
When he opened his eyes, he noticed the sun was already setting in the west. Xia Yi prepared to get up but awkwardly realized that because he had maintained the same position for a long time, his back and the back of his head had gone numb, causing waves of discomfort…
Well, there were no such troubles in the sea.
The seawater was constantly in motion, providing a floating waterbed with an added massage effect.
Xia Yi groaned silently as he rubbed his hand for a while, hesitated for a moment, then walked to the seashore without putting on any clothes.
After all, the clothes had just been washed, and if the sun went down, they wouldn’t dry. Wearing wet clothes at night would be a disaster. It was better to quickly find something to eat in the sea now.
As soon as his feet touched the water, a dolphin popped its head out, holding an empty tin can in its mouth.
Xia Yi was stunned. The dolphin cheerfully threw the can onto the shore and repeatedly dived, resurfaced, and kept biting onto things before tossing them onto the beach.
Since the waters near the island were not too shallow, about six or seven meters deep, the dolphin agilely brought up three or four shells, a fish, and even a strange-looking crab of unknown species. Finally, after circling in the water, it grinned foolishly and rubbed against Xia Yi with a playful expression.
This was great; he didn’t even need to go into the sea to find food. Xia Yi forgot all about the antics of this little fellow and graciously hugged the dolphin’s big head and patted it, then conjured up a water ball for it to play with.
Xia Yi didn’t know why the dolphin was so cheerful — perhaps it had encountered sirens, thought it had defeated a terrifyingly powerful enemy OTZ*, and couldn’t wait to share with Xia Yi and have a feast together ==
- T/N: Bowing down emoticon (O as the head, T as the arms, Z as the knees). I’m really astonished with the creativity of C-netz T__T.
Like the tin can left on the beach before, the writing on it was all in English. Xia Yi could only barely understand that it was a box of canned beef, made in the USA, seemingly military supplies.
As for the rest…
It would be quite troublesome to try to understand food labels with his average English proficiency. Before Xia Yi could wonder and ask, he saw a small transparent object washed up by the waves.
At first glance, he thought it was a jellyfish, but upon closer inspection, it took Xia Yi, a single man, a while to realize with a sudden headache.
It was too strange; people fleeing in the apocalypse still carried condoms with them, and they seemed to have been used…
This thought made Xia Yi instantly lose his desire to go into the sea!
— Actually, it’s just a container for collecting rainwater. Xia Yi, you’re overthinking it.
The island wasn’t very big. Apart from a dozen or so scattered coconut trees, there were only some dense low-lying vegetation. The coconuts hung high, and it didn’t seem to be the season when coconuts ripened.
Xia Yi’s main purpose in coming ashore was actually to find something cooked to eat.
What?
Just because he wasn’t a fire attribute ability user, he couldn’t make fire?
Of course, Xia Yi couldn’t manage such a brutal skill as starting a fire by rubbing sticks together. He only managed to use ice to reluctantly create a concave lens with a protruding center, or you could say a magnifying glass.
The well-built grill and the unused plants from before happened to fit nicely underneath. After swaying it in front of the sun for a while, finally, before the ice melted completely, a small spark appeared on the dried plants.
He had to move the plants acting as fuel a little bit, otherwise, the lack of oxygen would extinguish the spark.
After struggling for more than ten minutes, a small flame finally leapt up. During this time, Xia Yi repeatedly caught crabs trying to escape, filled the tin can with fresh water, placed it on the fire to boil.
The tin can conducted heat quickly, and soon the water boiled. Xia Yi, who had never cooked before, directly threw the crab into the boiling water — it seemed a bit cruel, but for a change of palate, Xia Yi firmly continued squatting by the fire.
But the tin can was too small, and the crab jumped out as soon as it could, scrambling to escape by the fire.
There was no other way; Xia Yi could only control the boiling water in the tin can to gather into a ball and then cover the crab with it, floating it onto the fire to continue roasting (it must be a sauna crab).
Meanwhile, he dug out the meat from the shells, refilled the tin can with water, and then put it in to boil. He poured out the water twice, and on the third try, the fresh crab soup was ready, and the crab was perfectly cooked.
After an ice-cold bath to cool down, it was time to eat.
The crab soup had a strong fishy smell, but having soup to drink was truly blissful.
After exerting himself for half a day, Xia Yi finally managed to pry open the crab’s shell. The meat inside was tender and delicious, making him decide to catch a lobster next time to boil in the sauna!
However, the plant resources on this island were limited. Even if he pulled them all out for firewood, they wouldn’t last a week, especially if the fire burned day and night!
But the nights were cold, and Xia Yi was unwilling to extinguish the fire. After finishing eating, he stood up, ready to go find materials to replenish the fire for the night. As he was picking out dry twigs, he suddenly heard a joyous sound:
“I’m back, and I’ve found something good!”
Could it be Abiseth*?
- The octopus in case you forgot :>
“Neros! Thomas! Come see, this is what I found when I came back. I’ve always wanted this, but the siren said it’s a human thing and shouldn’t be touched… Huh? Why is there someone on it?”
Global telepaths who heard this sound wave had a foreboding feeling, including Xia Yi.
“Regardless, now it’s mine!”
This voice sounded so cheerful it almost didn’t seem like Abiseth!
Xia Yi didn’t dwell on it. Those interesting sea creatures would just be memories from now on. Even if he encountered them, it would just be casual conversation.
What Xia Yi sighed about now was whether animals had such strong instincts; otherwise, why would they say such things, sensing that something was wrong between him and the sirens?
But he wondered if the sirens—
Xia Yi stared into the sea, lost in thought. What was missed was missed. He wouldn’t try to find the sirens.
He liked this kind of feeling, something he had once thought would never happen.
This was actually quite nice.
There was nothing more worth reminiscing and cherishing than something that wasn’t present.
In the faraway Mid-Pacific Ridge, the huge-sized dusk jellyfish suddenly contracted its tentacles, like a giant net covering the area below, happily eating something, muttering to itself:
“I’ll ignore you!”
Abiseth was indeed annoyed. It was certain that all sea creatures had heard it, but no one was paying attention to it.
The sirens could say they were busy, but what were the other sea creatures busy with?
They only had two things to do: eat and sleep.
“Siren, this is a ship! I promise you’ll like it. I know you like sinking ships as much as I do. Where do you think we should sink it?”
This topic was really brutal!
All telepaths shuddered. Even though sea monsters in legends overturned ships, even devoured humans, discussing where to put a sunken ship for better viewing and convenience was more brutal!!
Speaking of which, sea monsters did like sitting at the bow of sunken ships, gazing at the sea… wait, wasn’t that a mermaid’s hobby?
“Don’t sink it, Xia Yi likes land!”
Abiseth concluded after observing for a whole day.
Because he refused to let Xia Yi interact with other humans, going to land was out of the question, but Abiseth’s idea of the ship that Xia Yi liked could be considered.
“Huh? Xia Yi is still alive?”
Abiseth asked foolishly.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
The siren was annoyed. If Xia Yi misunderstood, then he would never have hope again.
He had to quickly explain, “He’s not one of my kind!”
“Huh? Not of the same kind? That’s great, so that means you won’t eat each other after mating?”
Xia Yi nearly choked on the remaining crab soup.
All the telepaths in the world, especially those with government or military power, woke up to write reports upon hearing the sound waves.
Their mouths twitched, thinking about how the species would eat their loved ones after mating. How brutal!
Professor Lin, who supervised the reports, saw the records and kicked the telepaths awake, including Captain Hao:
“Listen carefully, eating your loved one isn’t uncommon!”
Hey, Professor Lin, just how twisted are your tastes?
The eyes of the telepaths were filled with such incredulous astonishment.
Love you to the point of eating you, forever together… it’s too terrifying!
“Don’t analyze natural creatures from a human perspective!”
The old professor was so angry smoke seemed to come out of his seven orifices.
“Many animals exhibit this behavior. Most spiders, all praying mantises! And some female snakes will swallow the last male that mated with them and didn’t leave in time. Animal reproduction doesn’t involve love; it’s just instinct.”
“Females seek safe places to incubate their offspring, during which hunting skills decrease, and they become more afraid of being eaten by predators. In order to have enough nutrients, genetic instincts compel them to consume the males… And there are even more creatures that would die even if they didn’t consume each other, like moths. After mating, the male dies, and the female dies after laying eggs…”
“Professor, you’re lecturing too much; we need to listen to the sound waves and make records!”
Captain Hao successfully rescued all the telepaths with a single sentence, their faces turning pale.
“What’s so good? I’ve never eaten my own kind!”
The siren couldn’t contain its anger.
Octopus Abiseth spoke slowly, “That’s because you’ve never mated. Besides, have you ever encountered your own kind? When I said ‘good,’ I meant that Xia Yi is very kind. I really like him…”
“Abiseth, say that again!”
“I mean, look, he eats less than you, has great skills, isn’t as irritable as Gulu, or as foolish as Yuribia, and most importantly, he doesn’t fight with us for dominance. He always stays at the back and even gave me a collectible…”
Are these really considered advantages?
Suddenly, Xia Yi felt very cold.
Yeah, the sun must be setting soon.
He went to find his clothes to put on.
As for Li Shao and Annie, they were probably racking their brains, strongly suspecting if they had truly known Xia Yi.
Professor Lin in City B, along with other surviving marine researchers around the world, excitedly drew conclusions— the siren might be the only one of its kind left on Earth, and it’s probably female, given the situation.
In the world, only females would eat their mating partners. Recently, it might be the breeding season, so as a last resort, I found a merman.
We got along quite well, and surprisingly, whether due to the special taste of our species or ample food, there wasn’t any plan to eat the merman (you guys are still far from the truth…).
Finally, this merman named Xia Yi had quite good popularity (?) among sea creatures, with an addition of a sea creature with a temper never discovered before, and the frosty giant squid is actually quite foolish…
That’s a huge amount of information!
Due to the wide range of sound wave transmission, Xia Yi never thought that the siren was nearby.
His planned itinerary was to stay on this island for about half a month, without any burning material for the fire, he could go to the seabed to find some brightly colored seaweed that he dared not eat. He could easily scoop up a bunch, let them dry in the sun during the day, and then try to burn them.
Control over abilities?
He could directly freeze things into ice, so why couldn’t he directly produce steam?
Water has three forms. If he could directly generate high-temperature steam to cook food, it would save on burning materials. However, Xia Yi tried for a long time but couldn’t control it well, so he could only go to sleep in frustration.
The fire went out in the middle of the night, and Xia Yi, who woke up freezing, could only get up and jump into the sea.
It seemed like he would have to live nocturnally from now on.
He would find something to eat in the sea at night and sleep during the warm daytime. As long as there was high-temperature steam, burning materials could be saved.
It was a good idea—wait, what was that huge shadow on the sea surface in the distance?
Xia Yi gazed over in confusion.
It seemed like a prehistoric monster, with a long and massive body shaped like an inverted triangle. It hardly swayed as it swam through the sea surface, and from afar, it looked extremely terrifying.
The dolphin darted back, sticking closely to Xia Yi and shaking uncontrollably, desperately pulling him backward.
After soothing the little creature with a touch, Xia Yi decided to quickly surface to see what was going on. If it turned out to be a terrifying monster, he would have to hurry back to shore!
Anyway, dolphins were mammals, so staying on land for a while wouldn’t kill them.
The moonlight wasn’t very bright, but he could barely make out the immensely huge black shadow beyond the sea surface.
What, what on earth was that?
Even if it were Thomas, it wouldn’t be this big. It was almost the size of six or seven Thomases—there were even tentacles. Under the moonlight, a long tentacle emerged from the water and then drooped down onto the “body,” especially as it touched its belly. Moreover, there were neat, slightly raised protrusions on the flat, rhomboid-shaped body.
What on earth was this thing?
For the first time, Xia Yi felt like he needed the siren nearby—at least he could ask!
Forget it, let’s just escape!
Just as Xia Yi was about to turn and swim away…
“Hey, look at the collectible I found. Not bad, right? The siren said you would definitely like it!”
Several tentacles emerged together, nervously tapping the enormous “body.”
“Xia Yi? Xia Yi?! Are you not here?”
Xia Yi stared blankly at the approaching “monster.” The brightness of the moonlight gradually allowed him to see clearly what was in front of him, and his emotionally deficient self almost spurted blood.
Do you know what that flat, huge, rhomboid-shaped exterior was?
Do you know what those neatly raised protrusions on one side were?
They were flight decks and securely tied aircraft!
Although whoever found things in the apocalypse could claim them, Abiseth, you can’t just pick up an aircraft carrier!
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Sleepyblue’s Corner:
Please also check my other works!
What to Do When I Become a Koi and Fall into the Male God’s Bathtub[BL]
p.s. Do you have any novel pickup requests? Please feel free to type below in the comments sections or in my ko-fi page :>
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