Nan Song sat on the edge of the rusty iron roof, his indigo-colored tentacle-like hair swaying gently in the breeze, like some deep-sea creature exploring unfamiliar waters.

She subconsciously wrapped her fingers around a strand of "hair", and the tip of the tentacle curled up sensitively, giving her a subtle electric touch.

Three weeks ago, this was just a beautiful head of teal hair.

And now, the two of them seemed to have fallen into a sea city forgotten by time.

The humid air was filled with a mixture of salty and rotten smells, like the breath of some deep-sea monster.

The crooked gray-brown houses stood like rows of rotten teeth, poking unevenly into the lead-gray sky.

The walls were covered with dark green mold, which moved strangely in the dim light, like living things.

The streets were filled with sticky black water, reflecting the distorted outlines of the window frames.

A faint whimpering sound came from the distance, and it was hard to tell whether it was the sea breeze blowing through the dilapidated eaves or something else sobbing softly.

Ma Tuan stepped on a piece of soaked wooden board, and suddenly there was a "crunching" sound under his feet - the sound was too crisp and seemed particularly harsh in the dead silence.

Nansong suddenly grabbed his arm and they both froze in place.

They saw the reflection in the accumulated water suddenly distorted for a moment, as if countless tiny black shadows emerged from the cracks in the bricks and quickly disappeared.

"It's changed again..."

Ma Tuan's voice was stuck in his throat. He looked up at the sky, where ash-like flocs were falling, turning into sticky threads when they landed on his skin.

Nan Song's pupils trembled slightly. They had just been fleeing in another city, and in the blink of an eye they were thrown into this nightmare filled with the sweet smell of decay.

There was a rustling sound in the darkness, like countless wet tentacles wriggling behind the wall.

The entire sea city was breathing slowly, and every crack was oozing a fishy and salty liquid.

The two of them took a half step back at the same time, standing back to back, but they heard the accumulated water beneath their feet suddenly ripple - something was floating up from the unfathomable bottom of the water.

"When do you think our life will end?"

Her voice seemed to come from far away, with an underwater echo.

The iron roof beneath me glowed orange in the setting sun, and the antenna towers of the city in the distance slanted up into the sky like discarded toys.

Nan Song pulled the collar of his sweatshirt. The cuffs of this sweatshirt, which had been worn by who knows who for how many years, were already frayed. However, compared with the changes in his body, these unknown wear and tear were not worth mentioning.

Ma Tuan lay beside her, his breathing mixed with a strange, wet noise.

Half of his face was hidden under the cracked ceramic mask, and the fine fish scales on the exposed skin shone like mother-of-pearl in the twilight.

Translucent webs grew between his fingers, and his nails became sharp and curved, leaving a few white scratches every time he scratched the iron roof unconsciously.

"I recently read the book again,"

Nansong continued, his eyes fixed on an apartment building with dark windows in the distance.

"I secretly looked inside other people's homes again, but the time didn't seem to match."

She raised her hand, and her tentacle-like hair parted automatically, revealing her eyes, which were also beginning to change—her irises expanded to almost fill the entire eye sockets, and her pupils were as slender as fish.

Through these eyes, she can see more.

For example, yesterday, when she peeked into the house on the third floor, she clearly saw two versions of the hostess in the living room at the same time:

One was cooking, the other was sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper. But when she blinked, only the one reading the newspaper was left, the fire on the stove was still burning, and the soup in the pot had dried up and was smoking.

Ma Tuan didn't answer immediately.

He slowly raised his hand and stared at the new webbed fingers, the membrane appearing a sickly pink in the sunset.

When he tried to bend his fingers, the webbed fingers were stretched to the point of being almost transparent, revealing the purplish-blue veins underneath.

"Last night,"

He finally spoke, his voice hoarse as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.

"I dreamt I was at the bottom of the ocean. It wasn't a nightmare, but... it was quiet. I could breathe."

His fingers unconsciously touched his neck, where three tiny gill slits had already appeared.

Nan Song turned her head, and her tentacle-like hair automatically parted, allowing her to see Ma Tuan's face clearly.

The half of the face exposed under the mask is completely covered with scales, and strange wrinkles appear at the corners of the mouth, as if they are transforming into the structure of gills.

She suddenly remembered that afternoon a week ago when they were looking for clues in the abandoned swimming pool, but Ma Tuan stayed underwater for a full seven minutes before floating up. He said with a confused look on his face that he had just held his breath.

"Not just time,"

Nansong said softly, the hair on his tentacles curling slightly due to anxiety.

"The space is wrong too.

The day before yesterday, I went to a convenience store and when I opened the door, I found that it had become a hardware store.

The owner is still the same owner, but he insists it has always been a hardware store.

A gust of wind blew by, bringing with it the smell of a distant garbage incineration plant.

Nansong's tentacles and hairs sensitively captured the subtle chemical changes in the air and stood up unconsciously.

She could taste the air—the acrid smell of burning metal and plastic, and a hint of... the salty smell of seawater?

Ma Tuan suddenly sat up, his eyes widening beneath his mask. "Did you see that?" he pointed into the distance.

Nansong followed his finger and saw two blurry figures on the roof of a blue apartment building three blocks away.

Even from such a distance, her mutated eyesight could see clearly - it was clearly them.

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