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Chapter 049: Meatfish
This chapter is translated by Hoenimochi, translation checked by Rin, and edited by Kikiji.
After Lu Yan got off the boat, he received a room card.
Only then did he know that the clients of the Mermaid Clubhouse were also classified by grades.
People like him who only paid 1 million for a ticket belonged to the lowest level of customers called “Grey Tail Customers,” and there were also the upwards levels of “Blue,” “Red,” and “Gold.”
There were a large number of Grey Tail Customers, who could only live in ordinary rooms. They served as a  group for comparison to give those actually rich people a sense of the disparity of experiences.
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3 million were the Blue Tails, 10 million were the Red Tails, and 50 million were the Gold Tails.
However, even the ordinary rooms were at the level of five-star hotel suites.
In the room, there was a floor made entirely of transparent glass about one meter wide. The pink sea below it could be seen rippling faintly, providing a very beautiful and moving view.
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[Ls, vbl Vszzwvydvp blal jdso bso vs nsdvasz vbl oyvla. Gde lhld kq vbl vkel akplp vss bktb, vbl sdlp obs easod qkapv yal usw Qalu Mykzp obs zkhl sd vbl taswde qzssa.]
Nw Zyd oypd’v osaakle ycswv easodkdt, cwv bl eked’v oydv vbl oyvla vs akpl wr yde olv vbl pbllvp kd vbl xkeezl sq vbl dktbv.
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Ebld bl qkapv qwple okvb vbl Ikdtqkpb, vbl pswde sq snlyd oyhlp dlhla zlqv Nw Zyd’p lyap. Nyvla, yp bkp prkakvwyz rsola vbalpbsze kdnalyple, vbkp dltyvkhl cwqq tayewyzzu pwcpkele. Rv byp yzalyeu clld y zsdt vkxl pkdnl bl’p blyae pwnb y nau.
Tsolhla — Nw Zyd qsnwple sd kv nyalqwzzu — kv oypd’v vbl pyxl pswde sq vbl snlyd oyhlp yp clqsal.
Mbl Fupvlx pyke zygkzu, [Rv’p Ylaxyke Jyu’p vkel.]
Gv pkm kd vbl yqvladssd, vbl wdkqsaxle pvyqq jdsnjle sd vbl essa kd y vkxlzu xyddla yde caswtbv ekddla.
Lu Yan’s nose was very sharp. He reacts strongly, especially to the fishy smell of aquatic animals.
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He smelled it. The waiter had the faint smell of the sea, which was masked under a fresh patchouli scent.
“Good day, sir. Since it’s your first day on Mermaid Island, we have taken it upon ourselves to bring you dinner with a map of Mermaid Island and its precautions. In addition, the buffet restaurant located on the 2nd floor is open 24 hours a day. There will be no extra charge. May I ask if you would like to dine?”
Lu Yan gave an affirmative, “Yes.”
The staff stepped forward and placed the plate on the table before bowing deeply and leaving.
There was an iron western food lid on the dinner plate. When Lu Yan lifted the lid, the red meat inside sizzled as the aroma of the oil overflowed. It was steak, garnished with a few sprigs of rosemary and served with a generous dollop of cheese and cherry sauce on the side. It looked tempting and delicious.
He smelled it, and it wasn’t normal livestock meat either, but Pollutant meat.
The meat wasn’t even processed by the Research Institute. The pollution value had already surpassed 5, which completely exceeded the standard of being safe for consumption.
Lu Yan eats Pollutants. The extra mouth that grew out of him existed especially to eat this kind of thing.
However, when the Pollutants were served in the form of food, for some reason Lu Yan did not really have any appetite.
He couldn’t help but remember the information he had seen before.
Every year, there would always be a few tourists who come to Mermaid Island and refuse to listen to the advice given. They would insist on swimming into the deep water area and eventually disappear.
“Will this be the kind of food that will be served for the next half month?”
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System replied, [The meat on this island is all pretty much the same, dear. You can choose to be a vegetarian. At least the plants are still safe~]
Lu Yan’s appetite was indeed reduced due to the contamination, but he couldn’t stop eating completely.
Therefore after settling in, Lu Yan chose to go to the restaurant on the second floor.
The restaurant was no different from some of the posh buffet restaurants he’d seen on TV.
The only difference was that there was a large performance stage in the middle of the hall. In addition to a symphony orchestra playing music, there was actually a pool of water.
A particularly beautiful red-tailed Mermaid smiled and fiddled with a harp with slender fingers.
The Mermaid had hair that curled like ocean waves and wore Greek robe-like performance clothes. A necklace of pearls and gemstones interwoven around his neck, and his lower body consisted of a red fishtail nearly two meters long. Overall the Mermaid looked charming and melancholic.
Just glancing at the Mermaid provoked the crotches of many wealthy businessmen to swell up.
[Red Tail Mermaid, E-level pollutant, pollution value 300. Under manipulation.]
[Ability: Enchantment.]
[Mutational course: Mermaidization, Beautification.]
Lu Yan was a little surprised. “Being beautiful is actually a mutational course?”
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[Being offensively beautiful can also bring harm to people. Want to try becoming beautiful without pain? Mermaid Island Plastic Surgery Center is here for you.]
Lu Yan picked up his plate and began to fill it with vegetables, fruits, and eggs.
If one didn’t eat meat, they could only rely on fatty fruits and eggs with high protein content to maintain their nutritional intake.
Fortunately, the supplies on Mermaid Island were indeed abundant.
Lu Yan asked, “What do you mean by being manipulated?”
[I mean it literally.]
“Who is manipulating it?”
[The big boss behind the scenes, the black-hearted businessman, the streetlight capitalist.]1
“Is he the boss of the Mermaid Clubhouse?” Lu Yan thought for a moment and asked.
[Don’t ask. As a rule, I can’t spoil anything.]
A staff member approached Lu Yan and inquired softly, “Sir, I see that you haven’t even chosen your main meal. Do you need me to give you a recommendation?”
Lu Yan responded, “No need. I am a Han Buddhist. I am currently devoting myself to the practice of spiritual development, and only eat a vegetarian diet.”
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The waiter’s expression was very surprised. “So you are a master. Excuse us for our offense… But master, we still have many upcoming Mermaid performances here… It may break your rules and regulations. How about you…?”
He has been working on Mermaid Island for several years, and this was the first time he has encountered a Buddhist.
Lu Yan put his hands together. “Don’t worry, I don’t have that kind of worldly desire. Flesh and body are just organic matter, the product of delusional egoism.”
The waiter, “……”
Not many people came to the restaurant to eat tonight.
As Lu Yan was eating, the chair opposite him was pulled away.
“Hello, my name is Shang Zhou.” The young man opposite smiled at him. “I’m a travel vlogger.”
Shang Zhou was quite good-looking.
He asked, “Did you also come because you won the Little Sweet Potato lottery?”
In his eyes, Lu Yan didn’t look like a rich man so he shouldn’t have been able to pay the 1 million entry fee.
Little did he know that the other party had just bought a school district house that cost almost 30 million plus tax.
“No,” Lu Yan thought for a moment and asked, “There’s still a lottery draw? What’s the quota?”
“Yeah. There’s a total of 20 quotas. At that time, tens of thousands of people shared the post and I was lucky enough to win the lottery,” Shang Zhou spoke on one side while turning on his mobile phone on the other. But then, he “Huh”-ed for a moment. “The lottery has been deleted. Maybe it’s because the event has already ended. Can I add your contact information? I also came here alone. We can hang out together.”
The System said indifferently, [He’s gay. Also, tens of thousands of shares were all from a water army,2 and only 20 living people were selected.]
[These living people include both males and females. They are all, without exception, good-looking and come from unfortunate families. Either their parents died, or they value boys over girls, or they had cut ties with their original families and their parents don’t care about them. The real goal is simple — so it will be easy to deal with after death by just giving some money.]
Lu Yan didn’t really add friends, but he still agreed.
Mermaid Island was a bit weird and his strength alone was still too weak, so he needed a few sources of information.
On top of that, Shang Zhou’s appearance matched the System’s background introduction. In Lu Yan’s eyes, he had already become a fish on the chopping block.
After making an appointment to “visit Mermaid Island together tomorrow,” the two bid farewell politely.
The second floor was a restaurant, and the third floor offered a variety of wellness programs, including foot-soaking, ear-picking, massages, and other services.
After Lu Yan finished his meal, he couldn’t help going to the third floor for a stroll. He came out refreshed.
“The master here has really good skills,” he said. “It’s comparable to the old Chinese medicine doctor in our hospital’s Rehabilitation Department.”
Additionally, their attitudes were warm, the private room was also very spacious, and the experience was first-class.
The System was shocked. [You seem to really be here to travel?]
Lu Yan felt that since that 1 million was spent, it was not a big problem to enjoy himself occasionally.
Grey Tail guests were prohibited from entering the clubhouse from the 4th floor upwards — unless Lu Yan chose to pay 2 million to upgrade immediately.
[The 4th floor is the casino. The 5th floor gives the opportunity to have sex with the Mermaids, and there are others for those who don’t want Mermaids. The 6th floor houses the presidential suites for Gold Tail visitors. The 7th floor is the headquarters of the clubhouse.]
[In addition, the 4th floor will be open to all visitors for the last few days. That’s why Mermaid Island was built near the Ao Nan administrative district.]
Lu Yan didn’t pay the money to upgrade but instead chose to go back to sleep.
Before he’d left, he slipped a piece of paper into the crack of the door, out of sight from the outside. Now that the door has just been opened, the white piece of paper fell off. The only thing on it was a clear, visible crease.
Good. No one had been in his room.
The bed was a spring mattress from Simmons3, and it was very comfortable to sleep in. But Lu Yan was suspicious. He had a persistent feeling that there was someone in the room. The wardrobe was opened several times, and he even checked under the bed. But it was all empty.
He asked the System, “Is anyone there?”
[Not at the moment.]
“That means there will be in the future?”
[Probably.]
Because of this,  Lu Yan lay down from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am without falling asleep. His hands were covered under the quilt, and he held the C-class psionic weapon, “Poison Fang,” tightly in both hands.
At 3:20, everything was silent.
The tourists who’d headed down to the beach to have a barbecue all one by one walked back to their rooms to sleep. Lu Yan hasn’t fallen asleep yet, and the sound of tidal waves churned in his ears.
It was at this moment that he heard the impact of something slamming against the glass.
Lu Yan opened his eyes and got up. The motion sensor light by the bedside automatically turned on and a blanket of warm light was cast over the room.
He looked towards the source of the sound.
On the transparent glass floor, a frog’s webbed palm was strenuously tapping on the glass.
This evoked some bad memories for him.
But Lu Yan was already someone who has experienced the bigger world. He picked up his dagger, walked up to the glass floor, and looked down from above.
A terrifyingly ugly fish face was pressed up against the glass. No emotion could be seen from its dull, lifeless eyes, but from the incessant tapping of its hand, it can be seen  that it was somewhat anxious.
This Osta was a little different from the Osta in K City. It has no teeth, and its head resembles that of an anglerfish,  having grown out a fin ray from which hung a round light-emitting device that gave off a faint blue light.
Its fish head was broad, while its body was small, resembling a frog. There were also several knife wounds on this Osta’s body as if pieces of flesh had been dug out of thin air. Some places were already rotting and giving off a smell.
It was a scene that ordinary people wouldn’t dream of even in nightmares.
After seeing Lu Yan, the Osta opened his mouth wide, revealing his oral cavity — it was empty, with no teeth or even a tongue.
He simply wanted to show that he was harmless, but he didn’t know how terrifyingly ugly his actions were with that face.
Thankfully Lu Yan has already gained a lot of experience, so no fluctuations appeared in his heart at this sight.
[Breeding Meatfish. One of the distorted people who still retained their sanity and remained on Mermaid Island. Also part of the last batch of lucky tourists who came to travel.]
The System sighed, [He smells the “fish” on you. He came here to ask you to go with him and leave Mermaid Island. They can push you out of this surrounding sea. As for the follow-up, there is no guarantee.]
“They?”
[Over the past few decades, there were probably hundreds of such Meatfish.] The System said, [The meat eaten by the Grey Tail tourists is also cut from these Ostae. After eating, some of them will awaken to become Enlighteneds, and these lucky ones will be selected to become Meatfish. Enlighteneds have healthier bodies and don’t die as easily. That streetlight capitalist does things with a bit of a bad taste — their mutation degrees are kept from reaching 100 and therefore be completely reduced to Pollutants without emotion and sanity.]
[These Meatfish have also tried to escape, but in the end, they will all be led back by the sirens’ singing. Some are lucky enough to get out, but they will also be swallowed up by Pollutants on the seabed.]
[So, these Meatfish united to help others out of this fate. Unfortunately, not everyone will appreciate it.]
Almost as soon as the System finished speaking, a scream rang out from a nearby guest room—
“Help!! There are monsters!!!”
The author has something to say:
To explain the streetlight capitalist:
I found several versions on the Internet, and the original words were Lenin’s: “For the sake of profit, capitalists will sell the rope to hang themselves.”
Some people said that “capitalists should hang on streetlights with ropes,” and so came the term, “streetlight capitalists.”
The word “streetlight capitalist” used in this article is simply the source of all evil, the boss behind the Mermaid Clubhouse. Over. (Desperate to survive)
Bonus: [Tang Xun’an’s Diary of Chasing His Wife]
(Small theatre, for pure entertainment, please do not substitute the text)
Today, I received a message from the liaison officer that Lu Yan went to the Mermaid Clubhouse.
The liaison reassured me that he just made the same mistake men all over the world make and that, of course, I should choose to forgive him.
I do not understand.
Are fishtails really better looking than dragon tails?