A warm breeze rippled across the ocean's surface, stirring gentle waves. Beneath them, colorful fish swam leisurely in the tranquil water.
It was peaceful and serene—like a dream.
Yet Lansi floated in the ocean, panting heavily, utterly exhausted. To him, this was no dream. It was a nightmare.
The lukewarm water lapped gently against his body. As he leaned up, he saw the blue depths of the sea stretching endlessly around him.
Then, something strange happened. A white fin, soft and graceful like a lotus petal, curled around his upper body.
Lansi coughed out a lonely bubble.
He could breathe freely now, the obstruction in his lungs gone.
But a new problem arose.
How was he supposed to turn over?
Now a fish—or rather, a mermaid—Lansi struggled to flip himself. His tail, nearly two meters long, made the effort clumsy. The force of his movements was uneven, leaving him drifting with the current.
At one point, he collided with a fish swimming by.
The fish looked at him in confusion, then smacked Lansi in the face with its tail and darted away like it had seen a ghost.
"..." Lansi said.
Left alone once more, he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to recall how this bizarre situation had started.
He had only been a mermaid for less than an hour.
An hour ago, Lansi had woken up in a layer of white film—soft, sticky, and oddly like candy. He had vivid memories of boarding a cruise ship, the Queen Mary, having earned his vacation through hard work.
He'd partied with coworkers the night before and stumbled back to his cabin, drunk and satisfied. He collapsed onto the soft bed, ready to continue the festivities in the morning.
But when he opened his eyes again...
What was that white film?
Was this some kind of prank?
He tried tearing through the squishy film, but the moment he did, saltwater surged in.
What the hell?
Holding his breath, he clawed his way out of the membrane and burst into the open sea, gasping.
He was nearly the first fish in history to choke on seawater.
And where were his legs?!
They were gone. In their place was a shimmering tail.
A mermaid's tail.
The kind seen only in myths.
At first, he panicked. But the moment he looked down, he was... mesmerized.
The scales glistened as they crawled up from his waist. His short hair had turned long and silver-white, drifting gently in the current. His nails had sharpened, and soft webbing stretched between his fingers.
Lansi still thought he might be dreaming. He tried to speak—but only strange, chirping sounds emerged.
"Yi—Ya—"
He grabbed his throat in horror.
This was real.
He really had turned into a mermaid.
But he was missing one vital feature: a mermaid's legendary voice.
Lansi was terrified.
He tried swimming, but his body didn't cooperate. His muscles refused his commands. Flailing, he slammed into a rock, and pain shot through him.
He wanted to cry—but hesitated. What if mermaid tears really turned into pearls?
Determined to stay calm, Lansi sank lower into the sea, his back brushing against a rock. He reached for it—and saw white eggshells resting on top.
...Was this where he'd been born?
Reluctantly, he dragged himself toward the shell. He sat beside it, dejected and confused.
Why had he come out of an egg?
When he touched the shell, it crumbled into dust and scattered.
"..." Lansi said again.
Great. Now there was no proof.
He sat there, stunned. The sea whispered around him, filled with creatures he didn't recognize.
Who was he now?
If he had just been born, shouldn't he be a fingerling? A baby fish?
Then why was he in adult form already? Where were the other mermaids?
Even video games gave tutorials.
He waited for help—for hours. But no one came. Hunger finally forced him to move.
He needed food.
Half an hour later, Lansi lay on the sandy seafloor, on the verge of tears.
Why couldn't he catch a scallop?!
Back on land, he was an athlete. But here, he was useless.
The fish swam just beyond his reach. Whenever he lunged, they darted away like he moved in slow motion.
He set his sights on scallops, only to discover a horrifying truth:
Scallops can run.
One scallop spat water at him with a mocking Gadagada, circled him, and floated away.
"..."
Defeated, Lansi sat in the sand, crying quietly. Hunger gnawed at him. A strange instinct whispered that if he didn't eat soon, something bad would happen.
"Ya—Zi—" he cried.
Half-mad, he hugged his tail and debated eating seaweed.
Before he could, the sand beneath him shifted. Vibrations rocked his body.
All around, fish burst from their hiding places and fled.
Lansi straightened, tail tucking beneath him. He stared at the seafloor as a crack opened. Bubbles escaped from the fissure.
An underwater volcano?
Then, a massive black tentacle emerged from the crack. It was rough, lined with suckers of every size.
Lansi blinked, unsure if hunger was making him hallucinate.
More tentacles followed, probing the ground as if searching for something. One slithered toward the rock where his egg had been—
But it paused.
Suddenly, the water turned heavy, oppressive. Lansi held his breath, frozen in fear.
Then, just as quickly, the pressure vanished. The tentacles stopped moving.
Lansi let out a long breath, realizing—too late—that he should have escaped.
As he turned to swim away, he felt something tugging on his tail.
Looking down, he saw a small tentacle wrapped around it.
He coughed out a bubble.
Play dead?
But before he could act, the giant tentacle rushed toward him with terrifying speed.
Something cold sliced across his waist—
And everything went black.
Before passing out, he had one final thought:
That octopus was massive.
Lansi awoke on what felt like a giant reed bed.
It was, in fact, a massive sea anemone nestled atop a rock.
He could see clearly now—mermaid eyesight, apparently. But he felt a chill.
He was at the bottom of the ocean.
The soft anemone cradled him gently, lacking any poisonous thorns.
Surrounding him was a white ring of coral bones, like a cage. He couldn't swim past it.
Was he food storage for that octopus?
While Lansi questioned his very existence, far above the ocean, scientists in a lab stared pale-faced at their instruments.
The room was filled with confusion and rising panic.
On the screen, the report was clear:
An earthquake had occurred at the Nade Ocean Trench.