Mermaid Feeding Rules

Boyce clenched his palm tightly, leaving a few months of tooth-shaped depressions in his palm, and the faint smell of blood dissipated.

"No...no..." The pain made Boyce's eyes flash with sobriety. He didn't mind devoting himself to research, but that didn't mean he didn't want to live.

Through a piece of glass, the mermaid was still looking at Boyce, a drop of blood slid down his fingertips.

"Tick-tock-"

The mermaid's ears seemed to move in the fish tank, and it took the lead to look away and landed on the blood on the ground. Then, it glanced at Boyce and turned to dive into the bottom of the water.

"call-"

Boyce breathed a sigh of relief, and fell directly to the ground, with undisturbed fear in his eyes.

"Really..."

After a few minutes, he rubbed his limp legs and sat on the chair to continue reading the notes.

"It's still half an hour away..."

Fortunately, it didn't appear again. Boyce looked at the fish tank from time to time while looking at his notes, but he didn't notice the blue.

When the two hours arrived, Boyce packed up and left exhausted.

Moments before the door closed, the mermaid who was lying on the glass below the ground floated up, with her face pressed against the cold glass, and her eyes fixed on the closed door.

He said softly, "Sofia—"

"Got you-"

The screeching sound of fingernails on the glass made the merman frown.

He is afraid...

Are you afraid of me?

The mermaid tilted his head, then pretend to be more docile and harmless in front of him...

—

"s-37..."

Boyce flipped through the notes and found a record of it.

"According to nearly a hundred years of records, mermaids have no special preference for human flesh, but they will not reject it."

"Other mermen we caught would target a person until they were killed, and even use their corpse as food."

"But the S-37 is different. It is hostile to the people around it, but it will only cause some non-lethal wounds to them."

…

Before Boyce went to bring it lunch, Ivey came over with a pair of little things.

is a pair of earplugs.

Boyce was a little puzzled.

"I heard that it can isolate its sound to a certain extent. I haven't tried the ones from Group C."

Boyce took the earplugs: "Thank you."

"No thanks." Ivey showed a helpless smile, "Professor Chris is not here, I should have taken care of you... That's all I can do."

"Is there an anesthesia needle?"

"Yes, why didn't I expect..." Ivey patted his forehead, "I'll get you a self-defense, the most effective anesthetic for s-37 is..."

Boyce took his words: "Tc3v9, seventy-five percent concentration, 5 ml."

"Yes, it's this one, one can make it fall."

Ivey reminded: "Don't use it unless necessary. Mermaids can easily become resistant to drugs. If you use it, remember to make a report later."

so strict? Boyce was a little surprised.

"All merman anesthesia must be recorded... Once the anesthesia fails, we are the first to die."

Aiwei talked about this with a tense expression. Once the anesthesia was out of control, with the force of the mermaid, these people in the institute could only be slaughtered.

But before this happened, the living merfolk were much more important than these people.

Boyce's anesthesia needle was approved due to the particularity of the s-37, but there were only two, and they were used for life-saving use.

—

Boyce entered the breeding room almost fully armed.

When Boyce threw the fish into the fish tank, it didn't appear, Boyce was relieved, some fortunate and a little disappointed.

After putting on the earplugs, most of Boyce's fear disappeared. After all, the top of the fish tank was sealed, and it was impossible for it to break the glass and escape from it.

After the earplugs isolate the sound, it is relatively safe through the glass. Boyce stared at the water and held his breath subconsciously. Now he can only hope that the experimental products of group C will be useful.

I didn't see it eating in the morning, Boyce didn't want to miss it in the afternoon, and after a while, I saw the scene of it swimming up from the bottom of the water.

The blue fish tail swings, light and smooth, cutting through the water.

It grabs a piece of fish, and with a gentle tear, the piece of meat becomes two halves.

Each time the laboratory prepares several hundred kilograms of fish, but it quickly cleans them up.

Boyce watched it intently and wrote a few words in the notebook.

Until it ate the last piece of meat, it looked straight at Boyce.

Are you about to start?

Boyce was a little nervous and touched the earplugs with his right hand to make sure they were still on his ears.

"Bang-bang-" Boyce felt his heart beating faster and faster, he swallowed, and his eyes still did not look away from it.

It opened its lips again, saying something.

Boyce only knew that it was talking, but it was quiet in his ears, and there was no urge to approach it in the morning.

Boyce breathed a sigh of relief, and the sweaty hands that were clenched into fists loosened a little. Those in Group C were more reliable.

It called out a few more times, and seeing that Boyce didn't respond, glanced at him before turning and leaving.

At night, perhaps knowing that Boyce couldn't hear him, this time he didn't do anything else after dinner, and dived directly into the depths.

The next day, it did not appear when feeding, probably because it was impossible to accurately grasp the time.

After eating, it lingered for a while, but did not speak.

Boyce could occasionally see it appear suddenly in front of the glass, then slap its tail and swim away.

Due to the presence of the earplugs, and the reason it never showed up when Boyce was feeding, a few days passed without incident.

Boyce had already read through the notes organized by Zooey, but he always felt that Zooey hid a part of it and didn't write it down.

There are indeed parts of his records that are biased towards mermaids, but Boyce somehow felt that his records of mermaid behavior in his later records were similar to the previous ones, and guessed that he hid part of the content.

It is normal to think about it. After all, he has different feelings for it. To some extent, the observation diary may be regarded as a special love diary by him. Naturally, he will not write too much. s things.

It banged the glass inside again.

Maybe that's what Zoe taught it.

After a week of feeding, Boyce's fear of him had disappeared, of course, making sure he couldn't get out of the tank.

Boyce has been keeping track of quite a few things this week, including his food preferences—as if no one had thought about it before.

In the past week, except for the first morning it gave Boyce a big fright, there was a gradual progression of its appearance over the next few days.

The first afternoon and evening Boyce hadn't seen him except when he was eating, and the next day he began to occasionally cross the glass that appeared in the rearing room while Boyce was looking at his notes, like Jean Iss can adjust his mentality.

Until now, he was able to read across from it without changing his face, turning a blind eye to its pounding on the glass.

Boyce even had the illusion that he was giving himself time to adjust to it, but... how could it be.

"Sofia—"

It touched its ear with its hand and motioned Boyce to remove the earplugs.

It was impossible, Boyce guessed its intent.

As long as he takes off the earplugs, it is very likely that he will be controlled by its sound, and what will happen at that time is uncertain.

Putting down the notebook, which had been turned over and over, Boyce approached the glass for the first time when it appeared.

He walked close to the glass and found that he was the same height as it exposed the glass.

Boyce's breath fell on the glass, condensing a layer of white water mist, blocking its face, he reached out to wipe the blur, and then put his hand on the glass, printing two fingerprints.

It was the first time Boyce looked at it so seriously. When they first met, they were far apart, and he concentrated all his energy on looking at it.

It moved its body, adjusted its posture, face to face, and its hands were pressed against Boyce through the glass, like the inside and outside of a mirror.

"Sofia—" It said again, looking at Boyce, Boyce actually saw a trace of anticipation in its eyes, as if it was waiting for his response.

Boyce looked away and landed on its tongue. Unlike humans, its tongue is very thin and red, but it is very tough. Today's fish has a lot of thorns and is extremely hard. It looks like it. Boyce was a little worried that it would be scratched by the fishbone, but later found that the fishbone couldn't cut its skin at all...

Accompanying it to stand face to face for a while, Boyce looked away, took out the record booklet again and wrote a few words.

After writing, Boyce looked at the time on his wrist. Two hours had come.

Seeing that it hasn't done anything to itself, Boyce tapped the glass, and it quickly tapped twice on the glass in response.

Although he knew it couldn't understand, Boyce said, "I should go." Then he packed up and went back to rest.

I happened to meet Matthew from Group D in the corridor.

Matthew smiled at Boyce, looking happy: "What a coincidence, I was about to find you."

"What's up?"

Boyce and Matthew are not familiar with each other, they are just nodding acquaintances. It should not be a personal matter for him to come to him.

Is the official word because of it?

"No need to feed s-37 tomorrow."

"Are you going to do an experiment?"

Matthew nodded: "To test it in advance, the food for tomorrow has been arranged."

"You can come and help too."

"Olier only let me observe s-37, can I go too?" Boyce was a little surprised.

"sure."

Oriel naturally knew that Boyce would participate in the experiment, but he didn't stop him. He always had to give some favors to make Boyce willingly stay in the breeding room.

Boyce saw the test site the next day.

The test aid prepared by group d was a six-meter great white shark that had been hungry for several days.

Having dealt with mermaids for decades, the experimenters of the institute are very aware of the cunning of this creature, especially after a mermaid's camouflage strength once injured most of the people in the laboratory.

Before the experiment, they will first evaluate the strength of the mermaid.

The experimenters left the laboratory and continued to observe through surveillance.

Boyce's eyes fell on the screen. Overall, the mermaid had the upper hand, but there were a few more wounds on his body.

After a few minutes, the shark stopped fighting back and stiffened.

It didn't let go, but sent it after destroying the shark's brain with its claws. Boyce's eyes fell on its nails, and he subconsciously looked away.

In addition to monitoring, the model of the mermaid has been constructed on the electronic screen in the laboratory, and the parameters are perfected according to the captured data.

Matthew pressed the last command, and the merman's data was displayed on the screen.

"The data is controllable."

Cyril glanced at the data with a hint of complexity on his face: "It's healthy."

Before Boyce could understand what he meant, he heard him say, "Let's start."

The water level in the fish tank quickly dropped, and after an hour, the whole picture was revealed under the light.

Some small algae are attached to the glass wall of the fish tank, and many fish bones are accumulated at the bottom of the fish tank. The complete skeleton of the shark that has just been put in is on the top.

After the tank was drained, he was forced to lie on the bottom, his blue tail undulating slightly with his breathing, and his fins clinging to his body after losing water.

It seems to know the location of the surveillance, its eyes are looking at the surveillance, Boyce almost has the illusion that he is looking at it.

Boyce once again remembered the words in Zoe's notebook: "I always feel that he has an intelligence quotient no less than that of a human being and can understand what we are saying. He just doesn't speak our language, that's all."

Boyce subconsciously avoided its gaze through the monitor, and his heart tightened, giving birth to an inexplicable feeling.

On the other side, group d has successfully injected the anesthesia needle into its body.

Its body capable of fighting sharks became limp, baring its teeth helplessly as several researchers approached, bound by black ropes and carried on a stretcher.

Boyce put on a sterile suit and followed Group D into the laboratory.

The mermaid was tightly bound to the test bench, with her wrists and tails shackled and unable to move.

After approaching, Boyce could smell the blood on its body. It also paid a lot to kill the shark. There were wounds several centimeters thick on the chest and tail of the fish. Boyce felt its gaze. Pausing on himself, lips parted—

Because it is very weak now and can't hurt anyone, no one in the laboratory wears earplugs, there is no glass barrier, its voice is no longer intermittent, and Boyce can hear what it is saying for the first time.

"Sofia—"