Chapter 23: Talking

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Norman selected the system face and asked the little mermaid again, “Really like it?”

An Jin continued to point at the system face.

Norman pressed the OK button, and the next second, An Jin’s beautiful features became featureless, the kind of looks that would be forgotten after one look on the street.
The system simultaneously generated a matching parental face, which was forked out by Norman.

An Jin looked at the mirror image and laughed happily.

This face was too secure whether he was looking for a job or shopping.

Norman saw the little mermaid looking at the image in the mirror and smiling happily, and suspected even more that mermaid’s aesthetics were different from humans.
He looked through the body type panel and could not find the mermaid image.

An Jin’s heart jumped when he saw it.
He didn’t want to change his body type! He glanced at Norman’s bulging muscles and thought he couldn’t give Norman a free hand.
He had been a mermaid for many days, and he still occasionally froze when he woke up, so if his body suddenly changed and he looked down and saw his bulging muscles, he was afraid he would feel out of place.

He pointed to his feet, and then looked down and pointed to Norman’s feet.

As he pointed, he made a few happy “aahs” and looked at Norman with shining eyes.
He looked happy because they were in the same shape.

Norman saw that he looked happy and did not dislike his legs as much as his black hair, so he dismissed the idea of changing his body type.
He opened the panel and pressed the leave button, and the system popped up a prompt.

[Please choose the destination, where you or the child will be offline.]

Norman subconsciously looked at the little mermaid.
The little mermaid had actually managed to enter the holographic world?

No matter which two-person peer mode was chosen, the system defaulted to the location where the person who had entered the holographic world was last offline as the destination.

This kind of alert pops up, indicating that both people have entered the holographic world, and the location of the next line was not the same.

The person who entered the holographic world for the first time would jump directly to the setup room.
When the setup image was finished, the system would pop up a confirmation pop-up box and the person had to press [OK] before entering.

If you entered the setup room for ten minutes without operation, a selection box to enter or exit would also pop up.
The countdown would end in sixty seconds without operation, and you would be automatically disconnected.
He originally guessed that the little mermaid would go into the setup room, and no operation timeout would automatically send him offline.

Then he thought it was fun to turn into a human form and shared the fun “game” of wearing a helmet with him.

He did not expect the little mermaid to successfully enter the holographic world.
He looked thoughtful.
Had he unintentionally pressed the button? Or maybe, not unintentionally?

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An Jin looked at the word “child” and the corners of his mouth twitched, but not out of nervousness about the system alert.

Norman both knew and did not know that he had entered the holographic world, and he had two ways to respond.

Now that Norman knew, his plan to learn the language and walk step by step would have to change.

After all, it was not hard to know he’d been in the holographic world and then investigate what happened to him.

He was not afraid that Norman would find out that he spoke interstellar language since it was still very raw; he sounded like a beginner at first hearing.

As for walking, after entering the holographic world, the tail became legs, and there was originally an adaptation process.
Whether he had entered the holographic world or not, he just looked like he was going to fall down, it was reasonable.

Norman’s conjecture and observation did not match.
He became curious about the little mermaid and chose the little mermaid’s location.

Instantly, the two men’s surroundings changed and suddenly they appeared in front of the tavern.

The round table by the tavern window was surrounded by three people.
One person directly opposite the door saw Norman and An Jin, froze and touched his companion with his elbow.
“Eh, that’s team leader Tang, right?”

“Did I see it? He’s actually holding a young man?”

“Couldn’t be a real-life mate, right?”

“Impossible! He is cold and paralyzed, how can he find a mate?!”

The short-haired man immediately put out his cigarette and stood up.
“I’ll go over there, our boss has been looking for him for days.”

An Jin sat on Norman’s arm, almost at the same height as Norman.
He was a little uncomfortable for a while, but soon realized the advantage of being taller: it gave a better view.
He turned his head to look around, and when he saw the tavern sign, he reflexively said, “Ah ah aaah…”

“…” An Jin went silent.
Oh no, he seemed to have developed a bad habit.

Only after pooh-poohing did he realize that he was now a human being! He blushed slightly and looked at Norman with embarrassment.

Norman was very familiar with the newcomer area, so he immediately knew that the tavern was some distance from the initial point.
He looked in the direction of the initial point and was thinking about how the little mermaid had gotten here when he heard the little mermaid’s yucky voice expressing his dislike.

“Don’t like this tavern?” Norman asked.

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He just asked casually, not expecting the little mermaid to answer.
He guessed that the little mermaid had something to do with the tavern from the initial point to here.

Judging from the little mermaid’s attitude, he probably had an unpleasant experience.
He took a step, ready to go to the tavern to ask about the situation, when a teenage voice suddenly sounded in his ears, clear and soft.

An Jin spoke very slowly, “Not like that.”

Norman jerked his eyes away from the tavern and looked at the teenager.
“An An?”

An Jin’s eyes fell on his mouth, his face thoughtful, as if he was studying something.

“What’s wrong?” Norman stared hard at the teenager.
He even suspected that he had just hallucinated.

Although the little mermaid was now a teenager, the essence was a mermaid!

How can a mermaid speak interstellar?!

An Jin opened his mouth.
“Ahn?”

He made an imitation of Norman’s mouth, and the words he uttered were not quite in tune, somewhere between interstellar ah and an.

It was completely different from the language of the mermaid.

Norman’s pupils shuddered slightly.
It was really the little mermaid talking, and he was learning to talk like him!

He knew that the little mermaid’s intelligence was very high, and he would imitate his movements, but he did not expect that the little mermaid could also learn interstellar language.

Could… Norman’s sight fell on the teenager’s face.

Since the little mermaid was now in human form, could he now learn to speak? Or, was it because they are in human form that he could speak interstellar?

In mermaid form, the little mermaid never spoke interstellar.

“An An,” he called softly.

An Jin looked at his mouth carefully and imitated it again, “An An.”

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Norman was amazed at how fast the little mermaid was learning the language.
He said with a serious look, “An An is your name.”

An Jin’s heart moved slightly, Norman’s reaction was even better than he thought, he seemed only surprised and not scared because the non-human creature could talk.

It was as if he quickly accepted this fact and was teaching him seriously.

He let Norman into the holographic world with him, just to let Norman know that he spoke interstellar when he was in human form in the holographic world, as a way to observe Norman’s reaction.

If Norman did not panic, and did not invite people to study him, he would slowly show the ability to speak in reality as well.

This way Norman had a process of acceptance, and would not suddenly hear a mermaid speak and be too shocked.

If Norman’s reaction was not favorable to him, he would continue to pretend not to speak in reality.

He had two forms in the holographic world and the real world.
Human and mermaid construction was not the same; the human form would talk, the mermaid would not talk—it made perfect sense.

He was amused by Norman’s reaction, and thinking that Norman might know that he had spoken when he first entered the holographic world, his eyes curled.
“I know.” He pointed to himself.
“An An!”

Norman flinched slightly; the little mermaid wasn’t just learning to speak like him, but could already say some words.

“How clever,” Norman quipped, “who did you learn interstellar from?”

An Jin didn’t answer, but parroted, “Really from Min.”

The young man’s serious repetition was inexplicably cute, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of Norman’s mouth.

The head of the tavern stood in the doorway, froze, and rubbed his eyes, sure that the person holding the teenager at the door, with a smile on his face, was Team Leader Tang.
He secretly sighed.
He did not expect the fierce man, who was silent and unsmiling, and fought cold-bloodedly and ruthlessly like a robot, to have such a warm side.

He walked up to the two.
“Team Leader Tang, is this your son?”

An Jin’s eyes rounded and his eyes fell fiercely on the head of the tavern.
What son! He is not a son!

The system prompt didn’t even say he was a son, only a child.

Norman thought that the little mermaid saw the stranger and had become wary, and raised his hand and rubbed the top of the teenager’s head.
“Do not be afraid.”

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He did not deny the words of the head.
Explaining that this teenager was a mermaid would be more surprising and cause unnecessary trouble.
He was not yet sure whether the little mermaid behaving this way was special or a common phenomenon.

He asked, “Something wrong?”

Inch said, “There’s a bounty posted downtown for the Mercurial Howler.
Our boss wants to take the order and wants you to lead it.”

“I’m not available today,” replied Norman. 

“It’s okay to be late.
It’s been two weeks, and the previous ones have failed.
I’m afraid only you can lead the team.”

Norman pondered for a moment.
“I’ll contact you when I’m free.”

This was a promise to lead the team! The eyes of the head lit up, and he quickly said, “Thank you team leader Tang.
I will not bother you.
I will go talk to the boss.”

Norman nodded his head, and the head went to the door and left quickly.

An Jin listened to the conversation between the two men with some surprise and some curiosity.
It seemed that Norman was very strong in the holographic world, but he only understood that the other party wanted to ask Norman’s help.
As to what they wanted him to do, he did not understand.
He frowned, thinking that only watching cartoons to learn the language was too limited.

Soon his frown relaxed.
He would be free to go into the holographic world to listen to people chat, so his vocabulary would certainly increase quickly! He wiggled his feet, poked Norman’s arm, and pointed to the ground, signaling Norman to put him down.

Norman put the teenager on the ground and held his hand on the teenager’s shoulder, seeing that the teenager was standing firmly before moving away completely.

An Jin smiled at Norman and slowly took a step, as if he was afraid of falling down, stepping firmly on the first step before following it.
After ten or so steps, he picked up the pace, and in a short while, he was walking naturally.

He looked back at Norman and pointed across the street to the food court, with an expectant face.
“Eat!”

Norman saw that he looked like he had a craving, his eyes flashed with a smile.
“Go ahead, find a store you like.”

He had some questions he wanted to ask the teenager.

An Jin walked towards the food court.
Norman followed behind the teenager and silently observed him.
He was unperturbed on the surface, but inwardly he was not calm; the little mermaid’s performance was really shocking.

Even the walking and talking ability of human beginners could not compare to the little mermaid.
He originally thought that the little mermaid’s IQ was equivalent to that of a five-year-old human, but now it seemed to be much more than that.

An Jin walked to the entrance of a restaurant and stopped, looking straight at the braised fish at the table near the entrance.
He looked like he couldn’t walk away from the food.