A different, older staff member nodded and gestured for Neville to follow him.

The walk to the restroom felt like an eternity. But Neville tried to keep his movements natural. The sea creatures that they passed by pressed their bodies against their barriers.

They sent waves of worried inquiry, so much so that Neville felt that he was going deaf from the noise of the sea creatures, plus the noise of the crowd. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Hang on. Just hang on. I’m almost there.

The restroom door slid open.

"I’ll be right outside if you need anything, sir," the staff member said, and then Neville was alone.

He barely managed to lock and close the door before reaching the sink. He could see that his scales finally crawled all the way to his face.

"Shelly!" Neville hissed, staring at his reflection in horror. "What do I do?!"

His face was a map of silver and black, iridescent patterns covering his cheeks, his forehead, and curling around his ears.

[Okay, don’t panic, host—] Shelly said. [Actually, you know what, go ahead and panic. This is pretty bad.]

"NOT HELPING."

[Right, right. Okay.] Shelly tried to ease Neville’s outburst. [Now, put on the moisturizer you purchased from the System Mall.]

While doing so, a notification flashed in front of Neville.

[Hidden Quest: Escape Alive! — COMPLETE

Congratulations!

Current Favorability: 21% ▲

Job Title: Personal Secretary to CEO

Target: Grayson Maxwell

Reward:

2,143,520 reward points

Transformation Pill Upgraded! (You can turn into human form 24 hours from now on~)

Cons: should be taken every 1st and 15th of the month.]

"It was a hidden quest?! Never mind that." Neville snapped, pulling the moisturizer from his inventory, and took off his clothes. "Is this really the right one?!"

Shelly, the small pink fairy with bright animated eyes, materialized in the corner of his vision. She drifted closer, examining his skin with interest.

[Huh. That is a lot of scales.]

"SHELLY."

[Okay, okay!] The fairy sniffed at a droplet of water still clinging to Neville’s shoulder. [Yep, that’s definitely because of the ocean water. Like I said, the moisturizer will calm it down—just give it a minute or two to absorb.]

Neville slathered it across his scales, rubbing the cream desperately into his skin.

Slowly, the scales gradually fade, leaving an ordinary, well-taken care of human skin.

"Why didn’t you warn me about this?" Neville said, pointing at Shelly. "You said I needed real ocean water for the full moon transformation, but you never mentioned this could happen from just a regular exposure to ocean water!"

[I did tell you, host.] Shelly said defensively. [When we went over the mermaid physiology section during your first full moon. Remember?]

Neville stared at her, wordless.

[...Did I not tell you about that?]

"Would I be like this if YOU DID?!"

[Host. When there’s a problem, there’s a manual. You just have to read it.] Shelly transformed into a teacher outfit with glasses. [If I remember correctly, you had quite a lot of things that you unlocked a lot of lectures before that the system literally had to put a menu under the name ’Documentation.’ Have you never tried reading any of it?]

"Reading and getting thrown to that black hell hole again? Am I dumb or what?"

[Your choice, host.] Shelly shrugged as she transformed back to her fairy form and said, [Either way, you can always ask me to search your problems quickly. That’s why I’m here.]

Neville rolled his eyes when he heard a knock from the outside.

"Sir? Are you alright in there?"

It was the staff.

"I’m fine!" Neville called back, his voice cracking slightly as he hurriedly put on his sweater. "Just—give me a moment!"

Neville quickly checked his reflection.

The scales were gone, his skin returning to its normal pale shade.

He looked human again.

Neville closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Another knock.

"Sir?"

"Coming!" Neville took one last look in the mirror and opened the door.

The staff member waited outside with a neutral expression. "Sir, I’ve brought you a change of clothes."

He held out a stack of fabric. By the looks of it, it was aquarium merchandise.

There was a t-shirt printed with a cartoon silver fish, matching sweatpants, and—

Neville’s face heated as he touched the underwear.

How did they even know his size? Was it because of the robots? This was getting too freaky; there was a limit to what a robot should be allowed to measure.

"We, ah, have all sorts of merch." The man’s composure finally cracked into embarrassment. "Here’s a pheromone patch for omegas, sir. Standard protocol."

Neville took the bundle without comment. The pheromone patch he would apply would definitely come from the system mall since this wasn’t effective to him anymore.

"Thank you."

"Mr. Maxwell is waiting in the corridor outside."

"I understand," he said, and retreated into the restroom to change.

○●○●

Grayson stood rooted in place, his silver eyes tracking Neville as he was being led toward the restrooms until they disappeared around a corner lined with holographic coral displays.

The Azure Depths Aquarium staff swarmed around him like panicked fish, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of apologies and explanations.

"Sir, we’ve contacted our maintenance division—"

"The damage assessment will take approximately—"

"Please allow us to comp your tickets and—"

This was not how this day was supposed to go.

The aquarium’s main corridor stretched before him, curved walls displaying the endless blue of artificial ocean habitats.

Families wandered past, children pressing their faces against the glass to watch schools of genetically modified fish swim in perfect synchronization.

A beta couple held hands as they pointed at a particularly large fish.

Grayson watched them with something approaching envy.

They made it look so easy.

He pulled up his light brain, the holographic interface materializing in front of him, and found Bryan Stewart’s contact.

His thumb hovered over the call button for a long moment before he finally pressed it.

The connection was established almost immediately.

[General.] Bryan Stewart’s voice was smoothly answered. [How’s Operation: Romance going?]

"Everything is wrong," Grayson said flatly.

A pause. Then—

[WHAT?!]