Sweet Hunting Ground [GB] - Chapter 6.1

Chapter 6: Welcome, Miss Ani.

This serum is for healing him.

But he was too weak and reacted too strongly to the medicine. As the liquid in the syringe flowed into his body, his slender fingers instinctively curled tight, his knuckles turning pale, and the winding blue veins faintly rose. A few thin scales emerged—

And quickly vanished.

His hand was trembling. Half a month ago, when Ani had collected his bl00d and tasted the flavor of merman bl00d, he had also trembled like this… She lowered her eyes, gazing at his slightly trembling fingertips, then suddenly pressed her other hand against his palm.

Lin’s body stiffened for a moment.

Ani’s warm palm pressed in, touching his skin directly.

Lin, however, resisted even more. He immediately abandoned his cooperative attitude and tried to pull back the back of his hand with a needle mark—but couldn’t. Ani firmly gripped his hand, her joints immediately shifting into the form of a mature female merman, overpowering his fingers.

It was as if a true kin was trying to hold him back.

Her nails were a faint pink, gleaming with a healthy yet cold luster. Without looking at him, Ani injected the entire serum, feeling the tension in his arm’s muscles and the pulse surging beneath his veins.

After injecting, Ani snapped the used syringe, wrapped it up with a plastic bag, and looked up at him: “My enrollment date is September 8th. Before that, we need to get to Zone Eight early.”

Lin said nothing.

Ani stepped half a foot closer, “Let’s go back to where you should be teaching, teacher.”

Those deep blue pupils contracted for a moment. When he looked up, his gaze collided with Ani’s. He was clearly provoked by that title.

He seemed to dislike being called ‘teacher’ by Ani.

A few days later, Ani took him away from Zone Four.

This time, there were no more unexpected incidents, only that they had to pay a huge sum of money when entering Zone Eight, leaving Ani staring blankly at her dwindling balance for an entire day.

Not even the fresh air and abundant sunshine of Zone Eight could cheer her up. With a gloomy air, Ani recalculated her balance again, glancing at Lin who was basking in the sun by the car window.

He was sleeping very quietly.

After watching him for a few seconds, Lin suddenly opened his eyes and gave her a sidelong glance, silently asking, “What is it?”

She handed him a StarNet watch.

Lin’s eyes widened in slight surprise. Taking the watch, he found various monitoring programs inside. He chuckled lowly, clearly having expected this, “A new means of control?”

“Yeah. Teacher’s identity is more complicated than I thought. I can’t help but worry.”

Lin felt extremely uncomfortable being called that again and closed his eyes, “Judging from the Star Pirates’ search attitude towards me, it’s clear my family doesn’t care much about someone like me. As for being an heir… it’s just talks.”

“Three hundred million…”

“If you’ve seen Blue Ocean University, you’d know that to its investors, three hundred million is just a drop in the bucket.”

Looks like Lin’s status in the Blue Ocean Dragon family is rather delicate. Ani stared at his profile for a moment, recalling the melodramatic scenarios humans had ingrained in her mind. She said, “That amount is already astronomical. Teacher, don’t take off this watch. And don’t say anything that might ruin our ‘relationship’—you’ll die.”

“Do we even have a relationship?”

“Humans or mermen, don’t they all stress that love is necessary to…” Ani, with her sweet and obedient face, was about to spout some shocking words when a announcement about entering Blue Ocean University sounded in the car, drowning out the rest of her sentence.

Blue Ocean University… is it that big?

Ani froze for a moment, then leaned toward Lin’s side to look out the window.

Unlike the chaotic and dark Zone Three, the outside world was bright and clean. Patrol drones flew by in orderly squadrons. The number of cyborgs in sight had visibly decreased, and the Joint Police insignia could be seen everywhere.

Suddenly, a snow-white seagull flew past in front of her.

Ani’s gaze was drawn to it. As the seagull swept past, the vehicle suddenly entered a cross-sea track. Numerous other aerial tracks merged in, crossing the ocean in an orderly manner—

A deep, rich blue flooded into view, crashing into the world, filling the heavens and earth.

Sprays of waves flew past, and countless shadows of creatures swam beneath the unpolluted sea surface. Ani stared at the shimmering water for a long time before noticing the warm breath by her ear.

When she had suddenly leaned over, Lin had instinctively retreated. But the narrow space and Ani’s casual hand pressing on his leg gave him the illusion of being unable to move.

“…It’s beautiful, right?” he said. “Only here on Blue Ocean Star can people breathe without damaging their bodies. The so-called premium oxygen is free here.”

This place was clearly one of the cradles of interstellar humanity, but it wasn’t a fully habitable planet.

“Type-1 humans were born here,” he said in a low voice. “A massive species that spread across countless star systems—like locusts, consuming and destroying everything in their path. They’ve taken too much, and abandoned just as much… Of all the remnants of this former homeworld, only the current territory of the mermen remains relatively pure.”

“Technically speaking, mermen are an evolved branch of humanity,” Ani said, pressing against the glass window and gazing at the ocean below. “Why do you sound like you have no sympathy for them?”

“…We’ve even evolved reproductive isolation, can you really still call that the same species?” Lin wasn’t sure why he was talking to the little monster about this. As soon as he finished his sentence, he covered his face with his hand as if he couldn’t bear it anymore. “I’ve already exceeded my conversation quota with you. Can I go sit back down now?”

“Oh.” Ani nodded. “Okay, teacher.”

“…”