I set you up on a blind date, and you've managed to overcome all the weirdness?

The battle ended in an instant.

As the deep-sea cradle disappeared, the surrounding waters receded from their black sludge and returned to their azure blue, and the chains on the mermaid's body turned into specks of light and vanished.

"Thump," the mermaid finally couldn't hold on any longer.

The backlash from being stripped of her power, the corrosive effects of the poison, and the cost of the contract all came at once, burying her.

Her fishtail was covered with horrible cracks, and without the chains to pull her along, she fell into the abyss like a kite with a broken string.

"Oh, you can't hold on anymore?"

Lin Yan stood not far away, watching the Deep Sea Queen fall straight down, a wicked smile appearing on his lips.

He now possesses 50% of the mermaid's authority, and if he so desires, he can easily conjure a stream of water to steadily support her with a mere thought.

But he refused.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If he can miss it, then Lin Yan might as well change his name and start anew.

The power of rules is no match for the sincerity of physical action.

Lin Yan kicked his legs in the water.

The youth version of the Nine Revolutions Prison Bone Body's enhanced explosive power, combined with the assistance of the water flow, made him like a torpedo launched from the barrel, rushing to the mermaid's feet in the blink of an eye.

He spread his arms wide, bravely serving as a human cushion.

The mermaid's cold, soft, and fatally alluring body slammed solidly into Lin Yan's arms.

The two rolled around in the water twice before crashing into an invisible wall.

It seems this is the boundary here.

"cough!!!"

Lin Yan coughed exaggeratedly, and to make the performance more realistic, he even forced out a strand of stagnant blood.

Of course, his helplessness was just an illusion. Instead of letting go, he took the opportunity to hug the mermaid even tighter.

He seemed to have suffered internal injuries, collapsing onto the mermaid's exquisitely textured fish tail.

His head naturally rested on the side of the Queen's slender waist.

The scales were cool, and the waist was supple.

Unlike Lin Yan's enjoyment, the mermaid felt something strange in her lower body, instantly waking up and opening her eyes wide.

A touch of crimson purple quickly took over her ears.

For mermaids, the area where their waist and tail connect is the most sensitive spot besides their reverse scales!

Even if I accidentally wiped it myself, it would still send shivers down my spine, let alone now...

A living, breathing man not only clung to her shamelessly, but also brazenly pressed his hairy head against that sensitive area!

Lin Yan had already gotten into character and was deliberately pretending to be breathing heavily, his warm breaths sweeping across the scales.

A strange sensation instantly spread throughout the mermaid's body, like a tingling numbness from a touch.

"you!"

The mermaid had completely lost her queenly dignity; her mind was filled with panic and shame, and she lay there helplessly.

She instinctively wanted to raise her hand and use a high-pressure water jet to slice this audacious human in half.

"Let go! Get off!"

The mermaid gritted her teeth, sounding less like she was angry and more like she was enduring something.

"Hiss... Mermaid, don't move."

Lin Yan deliberately cried out in pain, but instead of rolling away, he rubbed against that spot a couple more times.

As if he might breathe his last at any moment, he said:

My back... hurts so much.

Then he comfortably buried his face in something cool and refreshing, with a texture like premium jelly.

Yes, it's a mermaid's tail. Confirmed.

Upon hearing this, the mermaid's hand, which was already halfway raised, froze in mid-air.

She looked at his back.

The clothes there had long been shredded into strips, and more than a dozen deep wounds, revealing bone, were still oozing blood.

This fragile mortal body, so fragile it would shatter at the slightest touch, stood like a city wall in front of her in that desperate situation where even she felt hopeless and certain to die, enduring it for a full thirty seconds.

They didn't retreat an inch.

The mermaid stared at the bloody, mangled back and fell silent.

The words "I'll kill you" stuck in his throat for a long time.

The mermaid's raised hand trembled slightly, but she eventually lowered it.

She did not push away the head that was resting on her fishtail.

"Only a brainless idiot like you would try to tough it out on something like that..."

The voice remained cold, but unfortunately, it had no power to harm.

She herself was unaware of how indulgent she was towards Lin Yan.

System prompt:

Your teammate "Mermaid" had her skill "Water Blade" interrupted.

The enemy unit used the skill "Feigning Pity".

[Skill Effect: Effective against tsundere characters, forcing them to soften their hearts]

Lin Yan, meanwhile, was struggling to manage her facial expression, her face buried in her fishtail.

You must not laugh, absolutely not laugh out loud.

Lin Yan couldn't help but let out a wicked grin, as if his scheme had succeeded.

However, having taken advantage of the bargains, we still need to get down to business.

Lin Yan coughed twice more, then pretended to struggle as he climbed off the mermaid.

He leaned against the invisible wall, pressed his chest, and waved the deep-sea pearl in front of the mermaid.

The mermaid looked at the bead, and an uncontrollable longing immediately filled her icy blue eyes.

Those were fragments of the rules of the Deep Dive Cradle, and even more so, the crystallization of her deprived essence.

By swallowing this bead, she can instantly recover from her injuries.

Furthermore, by leveraging the pure faith of the previous 100,000 paper dolls, the half-step advancement realm that had been forcibly interrupted can be completely stabilized!

But it's now in this man's hands.

Moreover, it was the spoils of war he had just risked his life for.

Given a mermaid's pride, to expect her to ask a mortal who just saved her life for something...

This is worse than killing her.

No, killing her wouldn't be this painful.

Killing her only requires one death, but asking Lin Yan for something every second is equivalent to killing her once.

As time ticked by, the situation began to become awkward.

Finally, the mermaid stretched out her hand to Lin Yan as if she were going to her death, her movements stiff, as if her arm had just been borrowed.

"Give me."

The voice is too soft.

She immediately added, turning up the volume, and commanded:

"That is my origin."

She regretted it as soon as she said it.

Why not add the word "please"?

No, adding it would be even more embarrassing.

Wait, is he laughing?

It must be said that the haughty bowing of the head is indeed a beautiful sight in the world.

If it were an ordinary young man, blinded by beauty, he would definitely offer himself up with both hands and express his loyalty.

But who is Lin Yan?

If you don't extract every last bit of value from the chips you have in your hands, it would be an insult to your professional ethics as a playboy!

Lin Yan not only refused to give it to him, but also pulled his hand back and stuffed the bead into his shirt pocket.

"Sister Haixiao, even brothers keep clear accounts."

Lin Yan had a mischievous smile on his face:

"I not only lost half my life for this thing, but now you've also formed a bond with me, and even forcibly separated my soul from mine."

"This is the spoils I fought my way through, and you think you can just take it for free with a simple 'give it to me'?"

The purplish-red hue on the mermaid's cheeks had just faded when she heard about the pact, and it was instantly replaced by a new one.

That scoundrel!

So that's why they made me agree to the contract in the first place—they were waiting for me here!

That's absolutely awful!

"What...what do you want?"