Fellow Failures!

Night fell.

It began to rain heavily over North Ridge City again.

The Fishman walked through the rain in a raincoat, weaving through the bustling streets. "It's raining... I used to hate rainy days. Now, it's the opposite..."

Wang Haonan walked beside him beneath an umbrella. "Number 002, what were you before this?"

The Fishman looked at Wang Haonan. "What time are you referring to?"

"Before you became a Fishman."

"Before becoming a Fishman, I was just an ordinary college student. I'd never been good at studying since childhood. Getting into that third-rate university was already difficult enough."

"From elementary school onward, not a single teacher, parent, or classmate ever thought highly of me."

"But it was fine. I got used to it. Ever since my parents divorced, life had already been terrible."

"Later, my father remarried and had another child. My younger brother did well in school and was better than me in every way."

"Compared to him, I was completely worthless."

"But fortunately, I still had Big Yellow. He was a dog I adopted when I was eleven, and he stayed with me for eight whole years."

"Like me, he didn't have a good life either, because my younger brother hated dogs."

"Whenever I looked at Big Yellow, I always had this illusion that we were alike. We huddled together for warmth, licked each other's wounds, and kept each other company until now."

"Though life wasn't ideal, it was still bearable."

"Until one day, when I was hanging up my quilt at school, I hung it beside a girl's bedsheet."

"That girl threw my quilt away on the spot, then tore into me on the school confession wall. It was obviously a public drying rack. I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen to reason at all."

"She said having my quilt beside her bedsheet made her sick."

"I... was angry. Really angry. I didn't think much at the time and slapped her."

"Afterward, she twisted the whole story and posted it online. Then I got cyberbullied."

"I kept trying to explain myself, but nobody paid attention. Everyone was accusing me. Every voice was cursing me."

"After that, the school couldn't withstand the pressure and called me in for a talk. First, they wanted me to apologize. Second, they wanted me to pay compensation."

"I didn't think I was wrong, so I refused to apologize and refused to compensate her. The school expelled me..."

"When I got home, my parents blamed me too. The whole world was denying me. I could barely breathe, so I took Big Yellow out for a walk."

"It rained that day, so I decided to take Big Yellow home. But before we got there, a group of people blocked our way."

"They were sent by that girl's boyfriend. It was fine if they beat me... but they beat my dog to death."

"I fought them with everything I had, then got beaten until I was a complete wreck. I lay beneath the pouring rain. At that moment, I wanted to die... but I didn't want to die either. It was torment. It was agony..."

"That was when someone came up to me and said..."

"Kid, do you want to live?"

"Who that person was—you can probably guess even if I don't tell you."

"Later, I killed every last one of those people who murdered Big Yellow."

Wang Haonan stopped. "You... killed people?"

The Fishman turned around. "That's right. I cried as I chopped them into pieces, but I didn't feel the slightest bit sick or remorseful."

"There wasn't any guilt in my heart, either. I don't know why I cried. I just couldn't stop the tears."

"My memories of that day are already blurry. I only remember apologizing over and over, but I think... the people I was apologizing to weren't them."

Wang Haonan fell silent.

"Maybe... you were right."

"If I'd had your courage back then... heh."

"Do you know why Lord Aus asked me to think of a color, and why green was the first color that came to mind?"

"Because my wife cheated on me."

"That day, I came home and saw my cousin and my wife naked in each other's arms. No wonder he always came over to visit..."

"I had several cousins, but he was the only one I was close to. People called me Wang Laoshi. Very few people were close to me."

"He was the only one who regularly kept in touch with me. I was quite touched by it."

"But even before that, I'd vaguely noticed something. I... didn't want to face it. I was scared, so I kept avoiding it."

"Until I caught them in the act that day, I knew I couldn't keep lying to myself anymore..."

"But in the end, I still chose to run away. I didn't dare hit him, and I didn't dare question my wife."

"She didn't mention divorce, and neither did I. We just carried on like that, both understanding without saying a word..."

"My silence made the two of them even bolder. Sometimes, they didn't even bother hiding it from me. That was the first time..."

"I wanted to kill someone."

"I went to the kitchen, picked up a knife, then put it down again. I was afraid. I didn't dare, because I was a coward."

"I wanted a divorce, but I didn't know what I'd have left afterward. My father-in-law had paid the down payment on the apartment, and the deed was in my wife's name."

"I saved money my whole life. Half went toward the bride price, and the other half went toward the mortgage."

"If we divorced, I'd leave with nothing."

"I was already over forty. I'd repaired air conditioners my whole life, and my health was bad. I didn't have many years left anyway..."

"At the time, I thought, this is how my life will be..."

At that, both of them fell silent.

"The first time someone bullies you, they're testing you. The second time is their choice. The third time means you deserve it." Raven let out a cold laugh.

"Don't you humans always say it? Explode in silence, or perish in silence."

"The rules of the world have never changed. When you are weak, even breathing is a mistake."

"Accordingly, you are now incredibly powerful."

"Isn't the answer already obvious?"

Upon hearing Raven's words, Wang Haonan and the Fishman's gazes suddenly sharpened.

"Yeah..."

"We've been reborn."

"The first thing we should do after being reborn is settle some scores."

Inside an apartment.

A man and a woman were tangled together in bed. "Wang Laoshi's been pretty obedient these past few days. He hasn't even come home, giving us the place to ourselves."

"You bastard, wouldn't you do the same whether he was here or not? Mm-hmm~"

Click.

At that moment, the bedroom door suddenly opened.

"Hmm?"

The man turned around, but there was no one behind him.

"Who is it? Wang Haonan?"

There was no response. The door closed again.

The man frowned. "Not Old Wang? Then who was it?"

"Oh, forget about it. Let's continue," the woman said seductively.

But at that moment, a kitchen knife suddenly floated into the air!

Splat!

"Argh!!"

The man's eyes flew wide open as the kitchen knife chopped directly into his neck!

"Ah... argh..."

Splat! Splat!

Blood gushed out like a fountain, spraying the woman's face. The man quickly collapsed from excessive blood loss.

The woman sat frozen on the bed. Amid the spraying blood, a vague outline appeared in the air.

"Who... who's there?!"

"A ghost!!"

The kitchen knife floated up again, then hacked straight toward the woman's forehead!

Boom!

Inside a university.

In the women's dormitory, rain hammered endlessly against the windows, while lightning occasionally streaked across the sky.

Drip.

Drip.

A strange set of footsteps echoed through the corridor. Drip, drip—like some wet marine creature.

"Woo... woo... woo... woooah..."

An eerie, hoarse sobbing echoed through the hallway.

"What... was that sound?"

A female student sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Which idiot is wailing like a ghost in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

"Woo... woooah!"

"Did you hear it? Did you hear—"

"—that?!"

Boom!

Lightning flashed, and a Fishman appeared on the ceiling of the girls' dormitory without warning!

That night, a female student died mysteriously in her dorm room.

Number 002: Deep One (Weeping Fishman)