Mermaid Effect Chapter 1

It was a hot and humid summer.

After so many years, Rand had already become incapable of telling what specific day it was, but he could be certain that it was an abnormally hot and humid summer day.

The air was exceptionally humid and stuffy and even the fierce sea winds did not make Rand feel even a little better. A lot of salt was mixed in the wind and it blew against his skin. When he came out of the car, he was barely able to speak before his dry and clean clothes very soon became heavy and sticky, as was his hair and clothes.

"d.a.m.n it."

Rand took off his gla.s.ses and laboriously wiped his lens clean with a handkerchief.

A tiny droplet from a sea wave splashed up onto his lense, covering his lense with a smudged stain, making his lenses just as blurred as they were before even after he wiped them clean.

"Hey, you better be careful."

He remembered that crude voice. Rand narrowed his eyes and looked down below, and Luis Noah was right in the middle of advancing towards him and calling out for him. Of course, with Rand's eyesight, he can currently only see the vague shadow of Luis.

"Put on your gla.s.ses, moron!" Rand's action of squinting was really too obvious. Similarly, his overly awkward behavior also made Luis's manner of speaking become slightly cruder. "It wouldn't be nice to fall off the reef and onto your honorable head."

The coastline of the Blue Moon Coast is covered with reefs of various types. At the same time, it has been unceasingly eroded by the huge continuous sea waves. Almost all of the reefs are exceptionally slippery. If he really lost his footing and fell down, it would lead to a very troublesome situation.

And Rand... Luis's eyes fell on the little pretty boy's body: high-end custom and handmade s.h.i.+rt, Italian leather shoes.

For G.o.d's sake, does he actually know that he is here for gathering news?

Considering Rand's ident.i.ty, Luis coldly as well as hatefully put forward a reminder.

Rand knitted his brows and clumsily put his gla.s.ses back on.

Now, the impatience filling out on Luis's face became a bit clearer. He was carefully and cautiously climbing up from the other side of the reef. The camera hung around his neck occasionally knocked against the rocks.

Rand wanted to call attention to this a bit, but in the end, he remained silent.

Interacting with the other party these days has made him thoroughly aware of the other person's impatience and disdain in regards to him.

Okay then, this is understandable.

Rand was forcibly squeezed into the newspaper by Vincent Sievers, his older brother, that "big shot" of the legends. Up until that point, there had never been a journalist with experience of fewer than ten years in the entirety of the Denny's Investigative News Office. They are very proud of this— even though the circulation of this newspaper is only one-tenth what it previously had— Moreover even after it has been bought by Vincent, this kind of haughtiness still exists.

Perhaps this is why the circulation of Denny's Investigative News Office is only one-tenth of what it was before.

Of course, it is impossible for Rand to disclose an a.s.sessment of his brother in front of people. In fact, he must admit that his entering into the newspaper did indeed cause a lot of trouble for others... Just like before.

Rand's awkwardness and sluggishness have always caused him a lot of trouble in the past. In spite of him having a pretty good appearance, his black curly hair, beautiful green eyes, and pale skin makes him look more like a recently graduated college student and not a former librarian who spent five years idling away in a small town and was now a rookie journalist.

"Should we still go on with it?"

During the act of him being lost in thought, Luis had already been gasping for breath as he finally climbed onto the reef where he was. Rand looked at the other person's dusty face and opened his mouth to ask with some apprehension.

Luis gave him a tremendous eye roll.

"Continue? Are you insane? I didn't see anything under this... d.a.m.n, I should have known what kind of virtues these ignorant villagers have—Even if they saw a luminous kite they would exaggeratingly think that it's a UFO!"

"But before they provided a photo of the mermaid beforehand..."

Rand spoke in a whisper.

He and Luis did not show up at this coast for no reason. Residents from a small town near the Blue Moon Coast had recently streamed a video onto the Internet— a huge mermaid was sitting on the reef and then the instant the waves. .h.i.t, in an unfathomable movement, it jumped into the sea.

The video quality was considerably fuzzy, but it still sparked to a burst of very few discussions over the Internet (Of course, only merely "very few").

Prior to this, Denny's Investigative News was forced to relocate to a small city less than 100 kilometers away due to being unable to pay the expensive lease expenses for the costly office building. Also, the entire newspaper is being revised, adding various sensational news and even Horoscope Predictions in an effort to recover from its increasingly declining circulation.

To sum it up, two poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were sent here to conduct an investigation. 

These two poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are naturally Rand and Luis.

Luis is quite dissatisfied with this, and Rand knows that. The reef where the mermaid was on in the video is really on the part of the reef on the other end of the coast, and Rand's lamentable movement and coordination ability has forced him to stay on the level side of the reef.

He can't even take basic photos, as for gathering news...

Alright, it's unlikely that the reef will open its mouth and start talking to him.

Rand couldn't help but feel that his breathing had become even more laborious when he thought of the strange stares and whispers he was about to face after returning to the newspaper.

Well, of course, coming back empty-handed wouldn't bring any substantial harm to him. "That person" bought the newspaper after all and he is his little brother. However, this does not prevent other people's strange att.i.tude towards Rand, and Rand loathes this a bit.

He even finds himself beginning to reminisce about those elderly ladies in the small town library who chatted endlessly and even the elderly ladies who brought knitting wool into the reading room to knit wool sweaters.

"Maybe... eh... Maybe just stay for a while and might be able to find other discoveries."

Rand insipidly said.

At this moment, Luis had already taken off his shoes and dumped out the sand in his shoes, intending to go to the parking lot. After hearing his words, Luis turned his head to give him a callous smile, his disgust practically almost overflowing on his face.

"If you'd like to, of course, you can."

Soon after he said that he then gave the recorder, pen, and camera to Rand, and he drove away in his old worn-out Ford.

Quite obviously, he did not intend to continue gathering news with Rand.

Rand frowned and stared at the empty parking lot, leaving only his car. Another strong wind blew, and he looked back at the gray sea surface and the gigantic waves. Suddenly there was an illusion that he was the only one in the world.

He was silent for a while, quietly returning to the side of the reef where he was before and he attempted to climb down.

Without Luis's presence, he felt that he might not be so nervous and that being less nervous would mean that his movements might not be so stiff, allowing him to reach the bottom of the reef.

He did accomplish it too, although he cut open his hand from sh.e.l.lfish on the reef. Rand looked at the cut on the palm of his had that was incessantly pouring out blood. He helplessly let out a bitter laugh and then sat weakly on the huge reef.

There is still a distance of five or six meters from reaching sea level. Even the waves can only be crash here occasionally. Additionally, this side of the reef also became particularly smooth due to the erosion of the waves.

Rand hesitantly looked at the other side of the reef and thought about it approaching it or not. He has already overestimated his physical strength once and did not want to make a wrong judgment a second time.

However, that mermaid—if it really does exist—was inconceivably effortless when it climbed the reef.

Even if he had already verified that the video had been forged, Rand still felt it was quite fascinating.

The wind was still moist, his wound ached a bit, but after the things that made him feel nervous faded away, the long-lost feeling of relaxation returned to Rand's body.

The waves rhythmically crashed to the sh.o.r.e, the climate on the Blue Moon Coast is too terrible. Even the seagulls are not willing to come out. The waves and fog are gray. The boundary between the sky and the sea mixed together, and the dull sun is suspended in the sky and gradually sets as if its body was weighted down. Rand stayed on the reef until dark and just as Luis said, there was truly nothing here.

Rand finally decided to go back after he got his long overdue alone time, however, at this moment he came to a sudden unfavorable realization. The darkness of the reef itself together with the dim light of the night practically mixed so to say. If he wants to go back on top of it, he would have no choice but to blindly grope around in the dark to climb.

"This is really bad."

Rand smiled bitterly and felt apprehensive.

He sincerely determined that he really is not suitable for gathering news.

But staying on the reef for the whole night in the darkness is not a wise decision. Rand heard the sound of the waves growing stronger and stronger, the tide will be rising here soon.

He subconsciously took out his cell phone and switched on the flashlight, pointing it toward the side of the reef to try to see the reef's indentations and protrusions.

It was at this time that in some indentation of the reef something had suddenly shone a reflection of light arousing Rand's attention.

At first, he thought it was a pond of stagnant water, or something else, but after illumining it several times, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The circular, two points of fluorescence definitely couldn't be created by stagnant water. Furthermore, he is also familiar with the kind of reflection of light... It was more like the reflection of a cat's two pupils when the cat is accidentally photographed in the dark.

Rand felt that his heartbeat quicken in a split-second.

He stayed here for the entire afternoon but was never aware of any creature behind him.

"Who's there?"

In his horror, he even stupidly asked.

(TN: Here with kind of a new project? I say kind of because I'm not officially picking it up, it's definitely up for grabs for any translator to continue it. I'll mostly be treating this one as a teaser that I'll update on no set schedule whatsoever. Think like every two weeks or so (the beginning chapters I will try to get out quicker, however, but expect it to be pretty erratic or slow), overall just pretty loose. The premises of this story is super cool, I do have a soft spot for mermaids. I've thought about picking it up, but not doing my usual of intensively researching and double-checking everything, but relying more heavily on just straight MTL. I'd honestly hate to do that on such a cool story though. Anyways whether you want to just MTL it or pick it up to translate, I'll be happy either way~)