I, a Merman, Raise Children with In-Game Purchases
Raws Title: 我，人鱼，氪金养崽
Author: 苏词里
Link: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5157696
Status: 77 chapters (Completed)
Tags: Gaming, creature main characters, child-raising, sweet
The Story:
This is a short, sweet story about our MC, a merman from the abyss. He was invincible in the lowest level of something called the Abyss. Later, he rescued a human and ended up going to the human world. The human is a rich man and MC is adopted into the human’s family as his grandson. After escaping from the endless fighting of the Abyss, he just wants to be a salted fish by staying at home and playing games.
The game he plays is an extremely sophisticated game and based on the Abyss where the MC once lived. He encounters some cute children/cubs and starts raising them. Along the way, he meets the ML, the designer of the game who once accidentally entered the real Abyss and based the game off it.
Main Characters:
MC – Jian Chi. After all his years of fighting at the bottom of the abyss, Jian Chi is extremely lazy in the human world. He doesn’t want to do anything so his adopted parents and brother try everything possible to get him out of the house. However, he just wants to stay at home and play the game that is based on the Abyss. Of course, while others regard the game as a fighting game, Jian Chi treats it as a lifestyle game. He doesn’t care about spending money and initially attracts attention by spending a huge amount of money to buy a huge amount of land on one floor of the Abyss to make his home. It is to the point where he reached the highest recharge amount and found it wasn’t enough, so he asked the game developers to make it unlimited.
He encounters a merman child and starts raising the child because he is reminded of his own childhood. Then he ends up saving other children and raising them. As a merman from the abyss, he is naive about some aspects of the human world but it is cute. Of course, he is also extremely strong and those who try to attack him for his money end up getting robbed instead. However, if you ever try to harm his cubs then be warned, he won’t go easy on you.
ML: Wen Que. Our ML accidentally entered the real Abyss with a friend and spent some time surviving there before finally escaping. Of course, he wasn’t entirely unscathed. He ended up being experimented on and getting the genes of a dragon. Thus, after returning to the human world, he often experiences bouts of irritability that can only be solved by fighting. He developed the Abyss-based game and uses it to resolve his need for fighting. Then he comes across Jian Chi and finds that his irritability is soothed when around Jian Chi. What starts out as curiosity soon turns into liking. He is your typical cold-type ML but he is extremely sweet to Jian Chi and the cubs. He shows no jealousy at all toward the cubs, unlike some MLs in other stories.
The Romance:
The romance is extremely cute and easy-going. They first meet in the real world where Jian Chi attends a party at Wen Que’s house. He ends up getting extremely drunk from just a few sips of alcohol and ends up wondering where his tail is gone and trying to show take off his pants to show his tail to Wen Que. Of course, Wen Que doesn’t take it seriously at first and is trying to stop this person from what seems to be drunk advances.
Later, his friend who went to the Abyss with him is curious about Jian Chi and ends up meeting. This leads to Jian Chi and Wen Que’s encounter in the game where they eventually get closer. Wen Que is the only one who can often get Jian Chi out of the house using tricks. There are times in the real world where Jian Chi accidentally talks about being a merman but Wen Que thinks he is talking about the game character (where he is also a merman). It isn’t until Jian Chi gets drunk and transforms his tail that they discover Jian Chi is an actual merman. Of course, Wen Que ends up touching Jian Chi’s tail several times, which is extremely sensitive.
Wen Que easily accepts his feelings toward Jian Chi and pursues Jian Chi first. He does several things where Jian Chi doesn’t understand. This lasts until Wen Que and Jian Chi build an amusement park in the game and ride the Ferris Wheel alone. Jian Chi suspects things and after searching on the Internet, he quickly figures it out. He is unsure about his feelings at first but soon realizes that he likes Wen Que. They easily get together and their relationship is extremely sweet. The second half of the novel focuses more on their relationship and less on the child-raising. Their relationship also becomes popular online because they end up on the hot search for the silliest things. For example, Jian Chi jumped into the sea and Wen Que jumped after him. Of course, it is easy for them to survive with their bloodlines but when it was photographed, people thought they were doing something stupid for love until it was eventually clarified.
Side Characters:
There is a wide range of side characters in the novels who are extremely distinctive. I can’t not mention the cute children/cubs. There are two main ones, the merman and half-elf. They are the main children raised by Jian Chi and the story goes into the most detail about them. Others show up later on in the story but it isn’t as detailed. Both the merman and half-elf have sad backstories until they meet Jian Chi and then they are extremely spoiled.
There is also Wen Que’s friend who went to the Abyss with him. This friend is extremely friendly and the one who facilitated the meeting between Jian Chi and Wen Que in the game. He loves the children and is always jealous of how much they love Jian Chi. He often buys them gifts and plays with them to get their favor. He is like a second uncle.
There is also Jian Chi’s adopted family. They don’t show up that often but when they do, it is extremely cute. When Jian Chi was first back and adopted, everyone in the wealthy circle was expecting drama with the family. However, there was none of that. They really care for Jian Chi and are worried about him staying in the house all the time. They are always using cute excuses to try to get him outside. Naturally, they are extremely happy when he starts going out more often due to Wen Que. Of course, they realize why once the relationship is eventually revealed. Jian Chi’s adopted brother is an overprotective brother but his parents are still happy about the relationship.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, this is a really good, light sweet read. I wish there was more backstory/explanation about the Abyss. There isn’t really much explanation about it and it feels like it was just there to justify some settings in the story. In addition, I wish there were a bit more extras. The pace of the ending of the story felt fine but the last extra made it feel a bit rushed. Still, this is a good novel to read when in the mood for fluff and child-raising with some sweet romance.