"Let him go!"
The player held on with a death grip. Even if Kim Jihun wished to let go - the player didn't! Whatever had lapped onto the player was too strong, pulling them towards the water.
The player gazed up at them, still holding on, whimpering, "don't... don't let it take me. Don't- Don't…"
The surrounding water rapidly filled with crimson, but he clung on, letting out long, trembling sobs as he was being torn to shreds and eaten alive beneath the surface.
Thanh Van cursed as he held onto Kim Jihun's robes, the fabric near tearing, soles digging into the rotting wood. There was no fucking way he was going to pull the player and whatever clung to him up with Kim Jihun! No way in hell was he going down with the two either - but he still had unsettled business with CEO Kim!
"LET GO!" Thanh Van screeched, his hold slowly slipping.
A tentacle darted out of the water beside them then. It crashed into the pier with a terrifying THWACK. It squirmed and wriggled like a giant, barbed snake searching for prey, and Thanh Van cursed the hideous freak of nature!
"LET GO, OR I WILL!" Thanh Van howled as the tentacle reared like a cobra. It was dark green. The round tip unfurled into a flat pad, revealing a round mouth lined with teeth.
Fuck this! Thanh Van would kick Kim Jihun into the ocean if the man didn't let go right now!
"Don't…" The player watched them, stupefied with fear and pain.
"… I'm sorry." Kim Jihun mumbled in a daze. "So sorry."
The player's gaze bored into Kim Jihun's, painfully aware that there was no way they could save him. But he gripped on. It was all that he could do.
The tentacle lurched forward when -
Crack!
The tug of war broke off, the sudden shift in force sending Kim Jihun and Thanh Van back into a tangled mess.
An inhuman screech erupted from the tentacle. A fishing knife had sunk into the gaping mouth, brutally stabbing and hacking at it repeatedly.
Viscous yellow liquid sprayed over them. The pad-like tip fell to the ground, twitching and hissing, while the bloody stump quickly darted below the water.
Thanh Van groaned, his head nearly splitting from the pain. He had crashed head first into one of the wooden polls holding the pier up, Kim Jihun's weight pressing down on him.
Through his blurry haze of pain, he could spot the mountainous outline of Kruger looming ahead. The sergeant clasped a fishing knife in his hand, chest trembling from the rush of adrenaline that pumped through his veins like molten lava.
The pad-like appendix squirmed in pain by his feet, and Kruger spat, kicking the bloody thing back into the depths it came from.
Thanh Van would have smiled if not for the pain that thrummed through his entire body. Immortality didn't save one from pain - and Kim Jihun was one big pain in the ass right about now!
"Get off." Thanh Van pushed at Kim Jihun's broad shoulders, but the man wouldn't move. "I said, get off-"
"Shhh… Don't… move…" Kim Jihun was deathly still, and Thanh Van strained his neck, peering over the man's shoulder, his entire body freezing in place - fuck.
Another tentacle had slithered over the pier. Its barbed teeth scraped against the wooden planks, sniffing over the pool of blood by Kim Jihun's feet.
The player they had tried to rescue rested over Kim Jihun's chest, fingers still locked in a death grip around Kim Jihun's wrist, eyes glassy and vacant as they peered into nothing. He looked almost peaceful from his waist up, and Thanh Van preferred to remember him that way.
The player's body had ripped in two. His intestines slowly pooled at Kim Jihun's shoes, and the tentacle squirmed closer at the squelching sound.
Thanh Van hurried to snake his arm around Kim Jihun's waist, trying to pry the dead man's fingers off the man's wrist as quietly as possible.
Kim Jihun had stopped breathing, his heart rapping wildly in his chest. The tentacle slithered between his spread legs, the pad-like appendix latching onto the bloody organs, ripping into the soft tissue.
The pungent scent of blood was suffocating as the remains were slowly ripped apart before their eyes and consumed.
Squelch.
Squelch.
Each bite and tug pulled at the player's body, and inch by inch Kim Jihun was dragged forward on the slippery pier.
Squelch.
Squelch.
Thanh Van cursed in his heart as only the index finger had loosened from the death grip. If this kept going, Kim Jihun would be next on the monster's menu!
On their left, the situation was not any better.
Tens of tentacles had raised from the water on all sides of the pier, all honed in on the sergeant who had hacked one of its arms off. The mouths on the pad-like appendixes quivered in anger, the teeth stained with blood under the eerie moonlight.
Kruger's hold over the fishing knife tightened, knuckles cracking.
The tentacle before Kim Jihun had grown impatient. The barbed teeth latched onto the dead player's back, trying to pull the entire torso into the water.
Thanh Van would have laughed from all the adrenaline pumping thorugh his veins - if his hands were not shaking so much as he tried to pry open the fucking middle finger and thumb that still circled Kim Jihun's wrist like a death sentence!
The tentacle pulled back, seething when Kim Jihun resisted the pull. It curled its body off the pier, ready to drag the body down to the ocean.
Kim Jihun prayed silently in his heart, bracing for the impact.
Thanh Van clawed and scratched at the fingers. The thumb was almost giving in -
The tentacles around Kruger dived towards him, their gaping mouths wide open to rip him apart-
Bong!
The church bells rang out then, the distant hum echoing throughout the island.
Bong!
The tentacles screeched, curling back at the sound. They darted back into the depths of the ocean-
Crack!
Thanh Van broke the hand of the dead just as the body disappeared into the water with the tentacle.
Kim Jihun let out a strangled breath as the ocean before them calmed.
Deathly silence fell as all players struggled to breath.
Then the air sizzled and cracked.
The peace broke as the system came to life.
[Time is up. Quarantine ensues now. Breaking quarantine and getting caught by the plague doctors will result in immediate punishment.]