The gamemaster spoke, "I guess I wasn't completely wrong."
Zhihao wanted to interrogate him further; Questioning what he meant by that, but before he could do so—the system dinged again.
[Side story: The curse of the Sirens.]
Zhihao's screen turned black.
[Welcome to Atlantis!]
"..."
[Atlantis used to be a prosperous, beautiful nation lost somewhere in the history of this world. It was an island isolated from the rest of the world ruled by a generous king who loved his people; Atlan. The people of this country never suffered; Why would they if their King was born to a god and a human? When Atlan's son was born a mortal—he was heartbroken as he himself would never die, but his son would have to—one day—leave this realm. But he was a demi-god and so he was unwilling to accept this fate. He decided to go against the heavens, and for about the next 20 years, he searched nonstop to find a way to keep his son alive, until one day he finally got what he was looking for. It was a mermaid's heart; if he could get to feed a mermaid's heart to his son, his son would be granted eternal life.
He sent out his best men to go find a mermaid and they soon returned with one, but unfortunately, this mermaid was a demi-god herself, she was related to the King by blood and so Atlan was reluctant to kill her but when his son begged him for the mermaid's heart that could grant him eternal life, the King who valued his son's life more, sacrificed this distant half relative of his. But the mermaid who was filled with anger and resentment cursed the King's beloved nation and son. Overnight, The entire island was submerged underwater and its citizens became blood-thirsty sirens who roamed the ocean below. When Atlan's son saw that his appearance had changed from a young handsome prince into that resembling a monster, he lashed out at his father and killed King Atlan; Riping his heart out to please the demi-god mermaid, seeking her forgiveness in order to restore the land and its people however she was not satisfied with his sacrifice, on the contrary, she was more angered and so she bestowed upon him another curse; If after another ten thousand years, he wanted to continue being an immortal and being able to keep his human appearance, he'll have to rip out his son's heart in the future and eat it and if he didn't do so, his own son would rip out his heart in turn and ascend his throne. Atlan's son was selfish, greedy and a man with no morals. When his health started deteriorating, he found a young fair maiden and fooled her into marriage. When his wife gave birth to his son, on the child's 1st birthday, he ripped out his heart and ate it, hence granted eternal life, but it seemed that the wife was pregnant with another child. If this unborn child was a girl, he'll have no issue with it, but if it was born a boy, the child would without fail—under the curse—kill him and ascend his throne. His mother, Atlan's wife who had transformed into an adult siren could not keep on watching his son become a slave to greed and so she told the young maiden the truth and helped her run away. The young lady was a pitiful character who had no one to rely on and was killed by the people on the accusations of being a witch right after she safely gave birth to her second son. The son had now grown up to be Captain Wilburt and is destined to take the life of his father and put an end to this century-long curse.]
Zhihao frowned, "Gamemaster, I think we need to have a serious talk about your story writing skills."
"He was a king. I wasn't entirely wrong." It was natural for the gamemaster to not be able to remember the story completely word-to-word and to only be able to recall bits and pieces of it. In his memory, he had only recalled the part about the man being a king and not about the crucial detail of demi-gods being involved, and anyhow, he had only written the drafts of the story, it was later developed by different people due to which the original stories had undergone major changes which made them unrecognizable.
[Additional mission unlocked: Help Captain Wilburt defeat his father.]
A thought crossed through Zhihao's mind; if this story had these secret missions and hidden storylines, was it not possible for the other levels to have the same? But he did not have time to think about it further as the Siren king who was infuriated by his son's unwillingness—maliciously attacked the small group.
Captain Wilburt who was stunned on the spot was a millisecond close to getting his heart pierced out by his father's claws, but thankfully, Zhihao summoned his rare spiritual sword, Shuang to chop down the creature's arm that launched straight for the man's heart. Although outside the cultivation genre, the sword had no spiritual usage—a sword was still a sword and it had an amazingly sharp blade that could cut almost every living creature in half with a swing.
Zhihao shouted at the stunned man who refused to move, "Captain Wilburt, Hold yourself together."
The Siren king didn't seem to have seen that attack coming, but although he was unprepared, he still didn't fuss over the amputated arm cause he had a secret trick up his sleeves as well. Zhihao watched in horror as the arm that had been completely removed from the creature's body, in an unsettling manner had grown back in under a minute. This was a bad omen. With such fast regenerative abilities and superhuman strength, how could they beat the thing? And even if they didn't plan on killing it, how could they say that it won't kill them?
Their chances of winning were bleak.
"Captain Wilburt, We'll help you from the sidelines, Please defeat this..." Zhihao wanted to say monster, but how could he say that and disrespectfully call the man's father a monster? This was confusing. On one hand, Zhihao still believed that the creature before them was nowhere near something that deserved their respect or empathy, but for Captain Wilburt; it was an all different story entirely.
Captain Wilburt had seemed to make up his mind as he spoke to his father that was revealed to be a horrifying creature, "I won't forgive you." His hand gripped tighter onto the axe that was stained with the blood of a countless number of Sirens, "You can go die and plead God to have mercy on your vile soul."
Zhihao saw the fire in Captain Wilburt's eyes and was pleased with the man's judgment; To accept and overcome all this in such a short span of time—the man was certainly deserving of being the hero of this story.
With Captain Wilburt's determination, Zhihao and the Gamemaster now saw a ray of hope, maybe they could beat this creature after all.
"Insolent child! Just who do you think you're talking to?", The Siren King roared.
Captain Wilburt didn't bother responding and straight out charged at the creature. Zhihao sighed; At least inform us before you attack, how are we to cover your ass?
The gamemaster, "Mastermo, attack from the right!"
"Got it!" Zhihao shared a look of understanding and with his sword—Shuang in hand, he charged at the creature from the right side while the gamemaster attacked it from the left side.
Although the three had combined forces, the creature was far more powerful than what they had initially imagined—the fight was definitely not going to be easy.
With a swing of the sword, Zhihao chomped down the creature's right hand once again while the gamemaster chained up its left hand from the opposite side and Captain Wilburt tried to hack at the creature's chest from the front, but before it could pierce through its skin—the axe was caught by something, It was a hand. This hand had not existed a minute ago, but now it had conveniently grown out of the creature's chest and stopped the axe from piercing it.
The creature was quick to retaliate as it broke through the chains on its left hand and caught hold of the Gamemaster's throat; choking him. Zhihao was also not late to react as he immediately cut down the creature's left hand and freed the gamemaster. However, it had seemed to be a trick as the creature's real motive was to have his right hand attack Captain Wilburt.
Zhihao was not the kind of person who'd jump in front of the bullet for anyone. He activated the moon goddess spellbook and before the hand could touch the man's chest, he sucked Captain Wilburt inside it. This was another use of the moon goddess spellbook that Zhihao had come to know upon deeper inspection of the book, but this was only a temporary resolve as Captain Wilburt was thrown out of the book after a minute.
"Gamemaster, How do we attack it?"
"The voice!" Captain Wilburt exclaimed.
"Huh?"
"It... Wants to help." Captain Wilburt had stopped attacking the creature and wordlessly closed his eyes, "Help us." It was a command yet a plea as well but it seemed to work. A second later, from the shadows emerged Sirens, All adult sirens who seemed to form a barrier together. They moved in slowly with glaring eyes.
"My people! You're finally here." It was Siren King, who spoke, "Rip them apart and bring me his heart. This is an order."
Things didn't seem to be looking so good, but a minute passed and nothing happened.
"What are you doing?" The siren king questioned in disbelief as he saw that none of the sirens heeded his command and on the contrary, their eyes weren't fixed at Captain Wilburt at all but were actually glaring at their king.
The gamemaster stepped back from the fight as he understood the situation and informed Zhihao, "We are no longer needed."
Zhihao wasn't eager to keep on fighting the creature relentlessly so he was more than happy to listen to the Gamemaster and stepped back from the fight as well.
Captain Wilburt lunged forward and as if his movement was a signal—the sirens who were only glaring from the side sprang at the Creature and surrounded it with no escape. Not much could be seen from then on, only the screaming and cursing of the Siren King could be heard and a moment later, Captain Wilburt came out from the crowd; A red bleeding heart in his hand.
"Weirdly... He still has a human heart." He sounded disheartened as he chuckled mockingly. The curse was now completed and the Siren king was being eaten alive by that herd of sirens who chomped on any piece of meat they could find on his body.
The one who called himself the god of sirens had finally died a deservingly cruel death.
[Congratulations to The Gamemaster and Mastermo on successfully clearing the I-ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead. Hurray! Great compatibility is shown by both the players!]
[All level missions cleared]
Zhihao was stunned, "Ah! That's it...?"
"Why? Did you want to keep fighting?" the Gamemaster asked in a mocking manner.
"Of course not!"
[Total T-points gained: +1050]
"Hey!"
"hmm?"
"I suddenly remembered something."
[Player health status refilled]
[Skills gained: +Master of survival]
[Surprise rewards gained: +Enchantment breaking crystal]
"What is it?"
"You promised to tell me your name if we won."
[Logging out of the I -ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead.]
"..."
"Hey! Don't you dare go back on your word!"
[Preparing for transmigration in...]
[3]
[2]
"Bu Hui*"
[1]
Zhihao was thrown out of the level.
He didn't dare take out his VR headset as he kept on recalling the final word uttered by the Gamemaster; "Bu Hui".
That was definitely not his name.....?
It could very well be a fake name but that was the only name Zhihao could now call the Gamemaster, in all honesty; Calling him Gamemaster every now and then was quite odd and Zhihao just couldn't bring himself to get comfortable with it.
*Bu Hui: meaning 'will not (happen, act, etc.)'
Just as the game ended, the sleepless comment section once again came back to life with great vigor.
[Did... Did... Did we just witness something earthshaking??]
[kjsdhfugflgfa]
[Oh my god! This was so worth me sacrificing my sleep.]
[Supporting Mastermo all the way!]
[Demonmagiclover? Come get your man, he is being stolen away.]
[Shit! It's morning already (T-T) I have school!!]
[Is nobody going to talk about how hot the gamemaster is??]
[COOOOL]
[I think the gamemaster is also a secret Mastermo fan \(^o^)/ ]
[I'm jumping ships!!]
[Humph! Imma stay loyal to BBtrash.]
[We are so well fed haha!]
[The gamemaster approves! Mastermo is the only one worth winning that prize.]
[I..... Kinda don't want to see him killing the gamemaster tho. (>o<)]
[My hubby is so hot while fighting those monsters!!]
[Why are you all so chill?? We just freaking saw the gamemaster!!]
[I'm still mad at a certain somebody who made our momo cry.]
[I'm gonna barf cause of you dilulus]
[Mastermo, Please get some rest]
[Let's make this trending.]
[I wish the newly formed couple a happy married life.]
[That was intense..... (o_o)]
[Shit! I think I'm in love]
[As expected of my idol.]
[Ngl but the sirens song was actually pretty good.]
[I can't sleep anymore]
[Why are you kids still awake?]