Two men holding hands in an abandoned ship filled with blood-thirsty sirens; Totally normal.
They carefully got out of the engine room and walked up the stairs. The Siren's enchantment melody could still be heard, proving that they were not walking unnoticed. Thank god these sirens were a bit face-shy if not, then wouldn't they pop up like the ghosts in horror movies. However, Zhihao was curious about what a Siren looked that, he couldn't be blamed for wanting to put a face to the name but a few minutes later, Zhihao regretted his wish; It was better not to see that hideous creature.
Right in front of them was a Siren happily chomping on someone's corpse. The creature didn't seem to realize their presence as it did not show any signs of running away.
One look at its face and Zhihao wanted to log out of the game immediately.
Just what in the hell was this creature?!
The Siren had translucent scaly skin—ashen grey, Pure black eyes, and sticky hair. Its hands and mouth were covered in blood; such a messy eater. Its fingers were unusually long and the nails extremely sharp, Zhihao could vaguely guess how easy it was for them to rip out a person's heart. It had a fish's tail; not at all beautiful or shiny like a mermaid's. The most unsightly thing was their wide mouth that could swallow a whole human head with ease and inside this mouth was its sharp 263 teeth; Just one bite and whatever it bit would become mincemeat. Zhihao also noticed that in its throat was a glowing green heart faintly visible due to its translucent skin.
"Careful." The gamemaster warned him.
Zhihao was too scared to take his eyes off the creature, fearing that the second he looks away, the creature would jump on him, but the moment he heard the gamemaster, he was made aware that this wasn't the Siren that was singing.
Everything happened in a flash; A siren that silently hid in the dark corner lunged at them with a blood-curdling growl which caused the other siren to also notice the newcomers. The gamemaster pulled Zhihao behind them and, with a dagger; he directly stabbed the heart of the siren that threw itself at them with an open mouth. The other siren sneaked past the gamemaster and attacked Zhihao but instead of Zhihao's throat, it caught hold of Zhihao's arm, "Ahhhhh!" Zhihao screamed from the shock and the gamemaster sliced the Siren's neck in the next second.
Zhihao's health status depleted by twenty percent.
The gamemaster sighed, "Activate the moon goddess spellbook."
"No!" This time Zhihao who was still shaken from the situation sternly declined and took the initiative to grab the man's hand first, "A big mouth like that won't scare me."
The gamemaster didn't respond and just kept on walking.
They took another turn down the passage and this time what they met with was a tail that had no body on top of it. This certainly shocked Zhihao who thought that they were the only ones here, but compared to him, The gamemaster didn't show a change in expression.
"Good!" The gamemaster mumbled as he took the walkie talkie that he had previously picked up from a dead corpse. He pushed a button on top of it and spoke, "Can anyone hear me? There are two survivors down here above the engine room. Over."
The speaker of the walkie talkie came to life, "Copy. I'll come to pick you up. Stay there. Over."
"Roger that."
Zhihao, "Who was that?"
"Help." The gamemaster replied, "He's the guy who is going to help us stay alive."
"Huh?"
"He's a character that is made to help the players. In normal conditions, a player would get to meet him at the end of the second day, but since I already know the existence of such a character, I called him here beforehand."
Zhihao, "Ah! That's awesome. I like the way you think."
"Don't praise me yet. Look in front."
Just as Zhihao turned his head, he saw many glowing pairs of eyes glaring straight at them. The melody seemed to get stronger, but thankfully the gamemaster was still holding on to him hence, the enchantment had no effect on him, "Didn't you say we could avoid fighting a horde of them together."
"If we waited, the numbers wouldn't have been stopped at this."
Zhihao used his empty hand to firmly grip the Silver sharp dagger and took a defensive stature whereas, the gamemaster just acted like his normal self; cool and calm.
The sirens saw that the enchantment had no effect on the two players so they decided to straightforwardly attack them. When the first siren pounced at the gamemaster, the man swiftly sliced its throat in half and the creature's head slid off from its body. He gracefully tilted his body to the side, avoiding the second siren and aiming for the third's neck. The forth Siren seemed to want to attack him from the side, but the gamemaster threw the dagger aimed straight through its throat. The man then swiftly moved around; ducked, and tilted his way toward the dagger that was stuck in the sirens throat, grabbed it, and with a single slice; cut down three more sirens.
Impressive.
Weirdly enough no Sirens seemed to attack Zhihao, this was not because of their unwillingness to do so, but because every Siren that tried was already cut down by the gamemaster. Although Zhihao had firmly stated his unwillingness to be protected, at this moment he was glad that he didn't have to fight those vicious creatures.
But it seems Zhihao's odd luck had run out. None of the two noticed a siren that sneaked up from behind them. It didn't throw itself at them like the other siren's; It silently sneaked up behind Zhihao and licked his cheek with its long snack-like tongue.
"Oh fuckkkkk!" Zhihao yelled in shock
"Shhh... Now don't be so rude. Be good and I'll spare your life."
"..."
The Siren spoke!
The freaking siren actually knew how to speak?!
Zhihao's brain couldn't comprehend the situation so like a coward who cared for his life he activated the moon goddess spellbook.
The book opened with a flash of bright light and sucked Zhihao inside it.
"..."
The Siren caught the book, "Looks like our dear friend likes to hide."
[An old Siren detected: Sirens who are young do not have a brain but when they reach a certain age; cognitive development is seen in them. These Sirens are harder to handle as they have a thicker neck that well-protects their heart and some of them can even speak human language. A player is recommended to stay away from these types of sirens.]
"Let him go!" The gamemaster by the time that Zhihao had been sucked into the book and been captured by the old siren, had finished slaughtering the horde of young sirens.
"Oh my lord, who do we have here? It's quite rude of you to just murder my people and demand I give back your friend." The siren had a smooth yet creepy voice; one that could put you in a trance, one which you'll never be able to wake up from.
"If you don't return him I'll-"
"You'll what? Kill me? You seem to be smart, haven't you already realized how helpless you are at the moment? You still dare to speak so proudly?"
The gamemaster seemed to know how futile talking with this creature would be so he grabbed the dagger and lunged forward to attack its throat but the creature was too smart and fast; It dodged the attack and moved aside.
"hehehe... You don't still believe you have a chance against me, do you?" The Siren giggled mockingly.
"I don't have a chance." The gamemaster changed the direction of his attack but the siren still managed to avoid it, "But I'm not letting you get away with him." He attacked once again and the Siren slipped away once again.
"I like your persistence. Just who is this to you? A friend?" The siren dodged once again as it continued speaking, "Maybe family?" The gamemaster tried striking it again, "Ah! A lover perhaps?"
The gamemaster swung his Dagger, "Why should I tell you?"
"You are indeed right but... hehehe... I think it's most likely the last option." As the siren said this, It opened its wide mouth and swallowed the book whole.
Wasn't the moon goddess spellbook supposed to save me?!
Zhihao was stupefied. The protection the system talked about wasn't a shield or some equipment but it was actually being sucked inside the book. Zhihao was now safe for the moment as he saw that he had been swallowed by the siren but his health status had remained unchanged. This was bad. He couldn't do anything. If he were to deactivate the moon goddess spellbook, he'll still be inside its stomach so the best option now was to wait patiently for the gamemaster to come and rescue him.
The gamemaster on the other hand didn't seem to see this coming as he just stood there in shock.
"There. Now your lover is in my belly." The Siren spoke wickedly, rubbing her stomach; She was proud and happy with her action but what happened next, even she could not foresee.
As the siren felt a sharp pain—it looked down, only to find that its tail and its upper body had been divided in half. A white liquid, presumably the sirens blood oozed out and without a single second to even realize what was happening, its heart was crushed and it died an unsightly death.
"Hope I'm not late." It was the man who had previously been contacted by the gamemaster.
"Just almost." The gamemaster smiled, quite pleased with the man's cruel way of killing the creature.
Zhihao deactivated the moon goddess spellbook and instantly sprang at the gamemaster, clinging onto the man like a monkey, whining, "That was so scary."
"I don't seem to recognize you two. Where are you from?" The new game character spoke.
"We snuck inside the ship." The gamemaster answered.
"Eh? Why would you do that?"
"..."
Zhihao, "Free travel."
"You certainly have some rotten luck to have chosen this cursed ship." The new character spoke, "I'm Wilburt. The captain of this ship. Nice to meet you."
"Ah! Yes! I'm Mastermo and this is..."
"The gamemaster."
"Good to know you, Mr. Mastermo and Mr. Gamemaster."
Thankfully the man was just a game character that ran on codes so he did not have a brain of his own to question how fake those two names were.
"When are you going to get down?"
Only now did Mastermo realize that he was still clinging onto the gamemaster. With an embarrassed face, he apologized and stopped himself.
"Gamemaster, Why was this man able to kill that siren so easily?"
"Let the system explain."
[New character: Captain Wilburt. This man, who is blessed with immense luck is the only survivor in this ship. He had managed to save himself by carving himself out from the belly of the sirens. He used to cut them in half but soon found out that it was not enough to kill the creatures so he further discovered their weakness and started to crush their hearts. He had evolved into developing inhuman strength and can crush a sirens throat with his bare hands.]
When Zhihao read this, he had this uncanny feeling that something was not sitting right with this story.
Aren't sirens well known to kill their prey slowly by biting its neck and devouring its organs? Then why did the system just say that the man had survived by carving himself out from the stomach of the sirens? Unless...
Zhihao glanced at the gamemaster for answers.
"He is a half breed." The gamemaster confirmed, "He doesn't know it yet."
Zhihao glanced back at the man who only had an axe in his hand; his hands that resembled that of a siren instead of a human. The hand that wielded that axe in order to slice all the sirens in half. He felt pity for the man. To be born to one of those creatures and having to kill them without knowing the truth, it was pitiful indeed.
"Gamemaster, I think you have a really cruel mind. To create such characters, Just what kind of a life have you been living?"