The moonlight lit the ruins of the pitch-black mall, filling it with a silvery white mist. The mall seemed almost alive, as if it was breathing quietly in the dark silence. The slow melody in the distance drifted toward them from an unknown direction. The ethereal tune sounded like it was almost from a dream. It was hauntingly beautiful, yet a little creepy.
Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment. Suddenly, a tear rolled down her cheek uncontrollably. She reached for her face hastily wanting to wipe it with the back of her hand. Feeling the beard on her face, she immediately snapped back to reality. When she looked around, she found Qing Jiuliu was sitting beside her. Neither of them knew how long they had been sitting. They didn't even know when they sat down themselves.
Sitting in the reverie-like mist, Qing Jiuliu's expression was as serene as a lake under the moon. Anyone who took a single glance at him now would even hold their breath rather than risk disturbing him. A tear rolled down Qing Jiuliu's cheek. It sparkled under the moonlight.
Lin Sanjiu's gaze grew cloudy once more. She turned her head and peered into the darkness. Someone was humming softly. The person was humming a melody that no one had ever heard. The melody seemed to be spun from the very emotions of the people around. As long as they were alive, it was almost as if the melody could go on forever.
While they listened in a daze, time slipped by quickly, devoid of any meaning.
"Hey, what are you two goons doing?" Irezumi smashed through the slab of concrete above them and stuck his head through, almost like a snake. He was so angry that his face had turned red, "I've waited for both of you all night, but you guys did no shit—"
The humming voice suddenly grew louder. Irezumi froze for a moment and looked over. His flushed face gradually recovered...
"Wh-what is this…" Irezumi mumbled vaguely without giving a single glance at his two candidates who were sitting on the floor. The gentle melody suddenly grew more bewitching and a little more exotic. The darkness in the ruins started to ebb as the music continued, almost as if it would soon reveal the very thing it was hiding.
Irezumi accidentally stepped on a broken steel bar. He suddenly snapped from his reverie. He looked at the two people behind him and quickly approached Qing Jiuliu as he could speak, "Hey, what are you—"
The moment he saw the latter's face, Irezumi immediately held his breath. His voice grew quiet and soon faded into oblivion. He stared blankly at Qing Jiuliu for a few seconds. It was as if the dazzling sight of the star before him had rendered him speechless. He bent down and sat on a rock right beside the two people. Then, he stared mindlessly into the darkness ahead.
No one knew what that thing was as it slowly walked out from the darkness. However, it was so beautiful that all of them couldn't help crying.
It was like the prismatic light as the sun rays reflected off the ocean. It was that wild deer leaping gracefully in the plains. It was the reason why life was worth living...
Lin Sanjiu's face was already wet with tears. Her sobs were like that of a baby who had just found her mother's embrace. She stared at the shadow which emerged from the darkness without even blinking once. The shadow circled them once and finally sat in front of Qing Jiuliu, who was sitting in the middle, and slowly reached for him.
The moment "she" touched him, it would be incompar—
"Wake up."
Lin Sanjiu was shocked by the sound of a voice which sounded from the deep recesses of her mind. When she looked at the darkness in front of her, she still felt confused. "You can't withstand such an insignificant little thing. You still need to work on your higher consciousness," the voice said coldly.
Lin Sanjiu sniffled. Her rationality which was almost swallowed by the feeling of warmth came back to her in a split second. She leaped up and before she could turn around to see what had happened, the voice in her mind warned her quietly, "Don't turn your head."
"Huh?" It was only then that Lin Sanjiu recognized that voice in her head. "Mrs. Ma-Manas! You're back! Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine," the voice chuckled.
Lin Sanjiu felt her heart beating rapidly. She forced herself to lower her eyelids. From the corner of the eyes, she noticed the shadow pausing for a moment, almost as if it had noticed her action. Lin Sanjiu took a few steps backward and questioned Mrs. Manas urgently, "What's that? Why can't I turn my head?"
"I told you not to your head but I didn't say you can't look straight." Mrs. Manas said softly with a slight chuckle, "You just have to avoid looking at the person beside you."
"What does that mean? What's wrong with Qing Jiuliu?"
Lin Sanjiu was bewildered but she opened her eyes and looked up.
The moonlight which seeped through the cracks of the building, though like a white mist which hung above the rubble, made her surroundings bright enough for her to see the thing in front of her clearly. That thing was a lot smaller than she thought. It was only the size of an adult's arm. Beneath its desiccated head, was a human-like ribcage wrapped by a swathe of dehydrated, sepia skin. The bottom half of its spine was connected to something like a fishtail.
"Th-this is a mermaid?" Lin Sanjiu was astonished. Suddenly, she heard Qing Jiuliu making a soft mutter. Apparently, her actions had interrupted that creature so the humming stopped for a while. Finally, the two other people also came to their senses.
When the hideous-looking miniature mermaid realized that the tides had turned, it turned around and dashed back into the darkness. However, now that Lin Sanjiu had seen it, she wasn't going to let it off so easily. She leaped up and immediately blocked its path.
"This should be a Special Item. You should try to convert it into a card." Mrs. Manas hinted softly and coldly.
"Special Item?"
Even though Lin Sanjiu was surprised, she activated her [Planar World] subconsciously and hit the mermaid's spine rather violently.
Bam. The mermaid disappeared into her palm.
"You caught it?" Qing Jiuliu ran up from behind her, "What's that?"
Lin Sanjiu looked at the card in her palm and immediately grimaced inwardly. As Irezumi was around, she knew she couldn't speak. In the end, hidden in her cloak, she passed the card to Qing Jiuliu and gestured for them to read it.
Irezumi immediately peered over Qing Jiuliu's shoulder. When he saw the card, he slowly started to gape at it.
[Fantasy Creatures Exhibition Specimen #12]
A world-famous fantasy author is going to have a book signing event! The organizers of the event ordered many models and fake specimens of fantasy creatures to decorate the event venue to create the sort of atmosphere the author expects. Unfortunately, the apocalypse befell on them on the day of the book signing event so, thankfully, the organizers' effort was a waste. Surprisingly, Exhibit Specimen #12, Siren, became a self-operating Special Item.
This is an honest-to-God Special Item. Just like in the legends, Specimen #12 can bewitched people with its singing. However, it can't capture people's hearts with its beauty unlike its mythological counterpart as the organizers made it extremely ugly. Consequently, that makes its ability much less effective. Any small disturbance could snap a person, bewitched by its voice, back to reality.
As this is a self-operating Special Item, Specimen #12 has a strong personal mission (?) to bewitch a drop-dead gorgeous beauty (?) due to its natural instincts (?), hoping that it can use its victim's beauty to enhance its ability. Humans that are bewitched by it would be absorbed by the Siren, just like in the author's story, and ultimately become a part of it. With beauty, Specimen #12 ability would greatly increase!
PS: To use this Special Item, please hold it tightly in your hand. The item's effectiveness and effect duration are entirely dependent on whether the user is aesthetically pleasing and exactly how beautiful the user is.
"In other words, it's all your fault! You himbo!" Irezumi said vehemently to Qing Jiuliu as he waved the card in his hand. "No wonder! I remembered that I snapped out of it once. When I walked over and saw your face, my mind started going cloudy again…"
Lin Sanjiu agreed inwardly. She did regain her senses once before but when she turned her head, she was drawn to Qing Jiuliu's face. Then, without any resistance, she was mesmerized by that tune again.
"I'm a victim here," Qing Jiuliu grumbled as he knitted his brows tightly. "I have a question. Why is there a question mark behind the word 'beauty'? What is the card trying to say?"
If Lin Sanjiu could talk, she would definitely yell at him to cut it out.
Irezumi seemed to be quite irritated by him too. He tossed the card back to Lin Sanjiu and grouched, "I thought you guys had some incredible plan or something. In the end, you two are idiots! I don't want to waste my time following you two. Get out there to find that target now! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"
For a moment, it was difficult for the two so-called idiots to accept this insult from Irezumi. However, before Qing Jiuliu could say anything, Irezumi stepped in front of him and shouted, "Give me your hand!"
Qing Jiuliu tsk-tsked as he stretched out his hand lazily. Irezumi reached for it. Smack! Qing Jiuliu yelped in pain and quickly shook his hand a few times. When he looked at his hand again, he noticed that there was a drop of blood oozing from one of his fingertips.
"This is to prevent both of you from running away. Usually, we will only do this after the candidate takes the first step to complete the trial," as Irezumi spoke, he gestured for Lin Sanjiu to show him her hand, "but, I have never seen any candidates like you two who just dawdle around and do nothing. I'm not going to wait anymore. Give me your hand! Quick!"
"I can't hide my hand now…" Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and stuck her index finger out from the black cloth. If she just showed a single finger, that man probably wouldn't notice that it was different from a male's finger, right?
Irezumi looked at her finger and frowned.
Ultimately, he didn't say anything and just pressed Lin Sanjiu's finger. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what he was holding in his hand but she took a sharp breath because of the pain. When she looked at her hand, a drop of blood slowly formed on her fingertip.
It was almost as if something had buried itself in the epidermis of her skin.
Irezumi probably had enough of the two candidates. After he pricked them with that who-knows-what, he exited the building by jumping through one of the cracks. Judging from the tone of his voice, he probably wouldn't return for some time.
"What did he inject into my skin?" Lin Sanjiu asked Mrs. Manas anxiously the moment Irezumi left.
"Don't worry. It's just a location tracker. I can easily expel that little gadget from the wound on your finger but I can't do it now. If I expel it now, he would definitely notice," Mrs. Manas said rather idly.
After hearing that, Lin Sanjiu felt slightly relieved. After her return, Mrs. Manas seemed a little more powerful than before. Consequently, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling more confident. She realized that she could finally get the answers for the many questions she had, "Mrs. Manas, how is your battle with Nüwa's higher consciousness? Didn't you say her higher consciousness and those abnormal genes were a powerful combination?"
"It's all thanks to you, really," Mrs. Manas laughed. "Your higher consciousness is much stronger than I thought, I guess it's because you are a Growth-type. I managed to subdue Nüwa's higher consciousness for now. I don't know when she will make a comeback, though. So, we still can't relax."
"Alright…" Lin Sanjiu bit her lip.
Just when she was about to ask another question, she felt Qing Jiuliu jabbing her shoulder suddenly, "Hey!"
"Huh?" Lin Sanjiu froze for a second.
"Huh? What? Give me a bottle of booze," Qing Jiuliu scratched his face. Uncaringly, he left a few red marks on the face which people could stare for ten minutes straight. "I don't want Chivas, that's not real booze…"
Lin Sanjiu figured she might as well take a few bottles out for him and store them back after he had his pick. After thinking for a while, she suddenly took out the [Fantasy Creatures Exhibition Specimen #12] card. She changed it back to its original form and threw it at Qing Jiuliu. Qing Jiuliu held a bottle of booze in one arm and caught the mermaid with his other arm rather gracelessly. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"While you indulge in your booze and tobacco, who knows when you might just suddenly die." Lin Sanjiu climbed up a rock and started climbing toward an exit. "An item that can help you survive with just your looks... That's hard to come by. You can have it. I'm not some gorgeous lady anyway."
"You looks are… passable." Qing Jiuliu sounded like he was forcing himself to console her. Ironically, it made Lin Sanjiu a little pissed. Climbing out from the ruined mall did not stop him from taking another swig of booze, "Ugh… If that's the case, I'll have to shave every day."
"Plus, you have to keep it with you even if you get yourself wasted. Don't hold it in your arms now! It's starting to sing!" Lin Sanjiu shouted at Qing Jiuliu when she felt a little groggy. The latter immediately loosened his grip on the mermaid. After he thought for a minute, he took off one of her shoelaces and tied the mermaid to his waist before stuffing it into his pocket.
After he did this, Qing Jiuliu looked up and noticed that Lin Sanjiu was still standing in the same spot.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Sanjiu turned around. He couldn't see her expression as her face was hidden by the black cloth she was wearing.
"If you think about it, that mermaid can only sing," Lin Sanjiu said softly in a puzzled tone. "Before this, we heard a whistle. Who whistled?"
The moonlight lit the ruins of the pitch-black mall, filling it with a silvery white mist. The mall seemed almost alive, as if it was breathing quietly in the dark silence. The slow melody in the distance drifted toward them from an unknown direction. The ethereal tune sounded like it was almost from a dream. It was hauntingly beautiful, yet a little creepy.
Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment. Suddenly, a tear rolled down her cheek uncontrollably. She reached for her face hastily wanting to wipe it with the back of her hand. Feeling the beard on her face, she immediately snapped back to reality. When she looked around, she found Qing Jiuliu was sitting beside her. Neither of them knew how long they had been sitting. They didn't even know when they sat down themselves.
Sitting in the reverie-like mist, Qing Jiuliu's expression was as serene as a lake under the moon. Anyone who took a single glance at him now would even hold their breath rather than risk disturbing him. A tear rolled down Qing Jiuliu's cheek. It sparkled under the moonlight.
Lin Sanjiu's gaze grew cloudy once more. She turned her head and peered into the darkness. Someone was humming softly. The person was humming a melody that no one had ever heard. The melody seemed to be spun from the very emotions of the people around. As long as they were alive, it was almost as if the melody could go on forever.
While they listened in a daze, time slipped by quickly, devoid of any meaning.
"Hey, what are you two goons doing?" Irezumi smashed through the slab of concrete above them and stuck his head through, almost like a snake. He was so angry that his face had turned red, "I've waited for both of you all night, but you guys did no shit—"
The humming voice suddenly grew louder. Irezumi froze for a moment and looked over. His flushed face gradually recovered...
"Wh-what is this…" Irezumi mumbled vaguely without giving a single glance at his two candidates who were sitting on the floor. The gentle melody suddenly grew more bewitching and a little more exotic. The darkness in the ruins started to ebb as the music continued, almost as if it would soon reveal the very thing it was hiding.
Irezumi accidentally stepped on a broken steel bar. He suddenly snapped from his reverie. He looked at the two people behind him and quickly approached Qing Jiuliu as he could speak, "Hey, what are you—"
The moment he saw the latter's face, Irezumi immediately held his breath. His voice grew quiet and soon faded into oblivion. He stared blankly at Qing Jiuliu for a few seconds. It was as if the dazzling sight of the star before him had rendered him speechless. He bent down and sat on a rock right beside the two people. Then, he stared mindlessly into the darkness ahead.
No one knew what that thing was as it slowly walked out from the darkness. However, it was so beautiful that all of them couldn't help crying.
It was like the prismatic light as the sun rays reflected off the ocean. It was that wild deer leaping gracefully in the plains. It was the reason why life was worth living...
Lin Sanjiu's face was already wet with tears. Her sobs were like that of a baby who had just found her mother's embrace. She stared at the shadow which emerged from the darkness without even blinking once. The shadow circled them once and finally sat in front of Qing Jiuliu, who was sitting in the middle, and slowly reached for him.
The moment "she" touched him, it would be incompar—
"Wake up."
Lin Sanjiu was shocked by the sound of a voice which sounded from the deep recesses of her mind. When she looked at the darkness in front of her, she still felt confused. "You can't withstand such an insignificant little thing. You still need to work on your higher consciousness," the voice said coldly.
Lin Sanjiu sniffled. Her rationality which was almost swallowed by the feeling of warmth came back to her in a split second. She leaped up and before she could turn around to see what had happened, the voice in her mind warned her quietly, "Don't turn your head."
"Huh?" It was only then that Lin Sanjiu recognized that voice in her head. "Mrs. Ma-Manas! You're back! Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine," the voice chuckled.
Lin Sanjiu felt her heart beating rapidly. She forced herself to lower her eyelids. From the corner of the eyes, she noticed the shadow pausing for a moment, almost as if it had noticed her action. Lin Sanjiu took a few steps backward and questioned Mrs. Manas urgently, "What's that? Why can't I turn my head?"
"I told you not to your head but I didn't say you can't look straight." Mrs. Manas said softly with a slight chuckle, "You just have to avoid looking at the person beside you."
"What does that mean? What's wrong with Qing Jiuliu?"
Lin Sanjiu was bewildered but she opened her eyes and looked up.
The moonlight which seeped through the cracks of the building, though like a white mist which hung above the rubble, made her surroundings bright enough for her to see the thing in front of her clearly. That thing was a lot smaller than she thought. It was only the size of an adult's arm. Beneath its desiccated head, was a human-like ribcage wrapped by a swathe of dehydrated, sepia skin. The bottom half of its spine was connected to something like a fishtail.
"Th-this is a mermaid?" Lin Sanjiu was astonished. Suddenly, she heard Qing Jiuliu making a soft mutter. Apparently, her actions had interrupted that creature so the humming stopped for a while. Finally, the two other people also came to their senses.
When the hideous-looking miniature mermaid realized that the tides had turned, it turned around and dashed back into the darkness. However, now that Lin Sanjiu had seen it, she wasn't going to let it off so easily. She leaped up and immediately blocked its path.
"This should be a Special Item. You should try to convert it into a card." Mrs. Manas hinted softly and coldly.
"Special Item?"
Even though Lin Sanjiu was surprised, she activated her [Planar World] subconsciously and hit the mermaid's spine rather violently.
Bam. The mermaid disappeared into her palm.
"You caught it?" Qing Jiuliu ran up from behind her, "What's that?"
Lin Sanjiu looked at the card in her palm and immediately grimaced inwardly. As Irezumi was around, she knew she couldn't speak. In the end, hidden in her cloak, she passed the card to Qing Jiuliu and gestured for them to read it.
Irezumi immediately peered over Qing Jiuliu's shoulder. When he saw the card, he slowly started to gape at it.
[Fantasy Creatures Exhibition Specimen #12]
A world-famous fantasy author is going to have a book signing event! The organizers of the event ordered many models and fake specimens of fantasy creatures to decorate the event venue to create the sort of atmosphere the author expects. Unfortunately, the apocalypse befell on them on the day of the book signing event so, thankfully, the organizers' effort was a waste. Surprisingly, Exhibit Specimen #12, Siren, became a self-operating Special Item.
This is an honest-to-God Special Item. Just like in the legends, Specimen #12 can bewitched people with its singing. However, it can't capture people's hearts with its beauty unlike its mythological counterpart as the organizers made it extremely ugly. Consequently, that makes its ability much less effective. Any small disturbance could snap a person, bewitched by its voice, back to reality.
As this is a self-operating Special Item, Specimen #12 has a strong personal mission (?) to bewitch a drop-dead gorgeous beauty (?) due to its natural instincts (?), hoping that it can use its victim's beauty to enhance its ability. Humans that are bewitched by it would be absorbed by the Siren, just like in the author's story, and ultimately become a part of it. With beauty, Specimen #12 ability would greatly increase!
PS: To use this Special Item, please hold it tightly in your hand. The item's effectiveness and effect duration are entirely dependent on whether the user is aesthetically pleasing and exactly how beautiful the user is.
"In other words, it's all your fault! You himbo!" Irezumi said vehemently to Qing Jiuliu as he waved the card in his hand. "No wonder! I remembered that I snapped out of it once. When I walked over and saw your face, my mind started going cloudy again…"
Lin Sanjiu agreed inwardly. She did regain her senses once before but when she turned her head, she was drawn to Qing Jiuliu's face. Then, without any resistance, she was mesmerized by that tune again.
"I'm a victim here," Qing Jiuliu grumbled as he knitted his brows tightly. "I have a question. Why is there a question mark behind the word 'beauty'? What is the card trying to say?"
If Lin Sanjiu could talk, she would definitely yell at him to cut it out.
Irezumi seemed to be quite irritated by him too. He tossed the card back to Lin Sanjiu and grouched, "I thought you guys had some incredible plan or something. In the end, you two are idiots! I don't want to waste my time following you two. Get out there to find that target now! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"
For a moment, it was difficult for the two so-called idiots to accept this insult from Irezumi. However, before Qing Jiuliu could say anything, Irezumi stepped in front of him and shouted, "Give me your hand!"
Qing Jiuliu tsk-tsked as he stretched out his hand lazily. Irezumi reached for it. Smack! Qing Jiuliu yelped in pain and quickly shook his hand a few times. When he looked at his hand again, he noticed that there was a drop of blood oozing from one of his fingertips.
"This is to prevent both of you from running away. Usually, we will only do this after the candidate takes the first step to complete the trial," as Irezumi spoke, he gestured for Lin Sanjiu to show him her hand, "but, I have never seen any candidates like you two who just dawdle around and do nothing. I'm not going to wait anymore. Give me your hand! Quick!"
"I can't hide my hand now…" Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and stuck her index finger out from the black cloth. If she just showed a single finger, that man probably wouldn't notice that it was different from a male's finger, right?
Irezumi looked at her finger and frowned.
Ultimately, he didn't say anything and just pressed Lin Sanjiu's finger. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what he was holding in his hand but she took a sharp breath because of the pain. When she looked at her hand, a drop of blood slowly formed on her fingertip.
It was almost as if something had buried itself in the epidermis of her skin.
Irezumi probably had enough of the two candidates. After he pricked them with that who-knows-what, he exited the building by jumping through one of the cracks. Judging from the tone of his voice, he probably wouldn't return for some time.
"What did he inject into my skin?" Lin Sanjiu asked Mrs. Manas anxiously the moment Irezumi left.
"Don't worry. It's just a location tracker. I can easily expel that little gadget from the wound on your finger but I can't do it now. If I expel it now, he would definitely notice," Mrs. Manas said rather idly.
After hearing that, Lin Sanjiu felt slightly relieved. After her return, Mrs. Manas seemed a little more powerful than before. Consequently, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling more confident. She realized that she could finally get the answers for the many questions she had, "Mrs. Manas, how is your battle with Nüwa's higher consciousness? Didn't you say her higher consciousness and those abnormal genes were a powerful combination?"
"It's all thanks to you, really," Mrs. Manas laughed. "Your higher consciousness is much stronger than I thought, I guess it's because you are a Growth-type. I managed to subdue Nüwa's higher consciousness for now. I don't know when she will make a comeback, though. So, we still can't relax."
"Alright…" Lin Sanjiu bit her lip.
Just when she was about to ask another question, she felt Qing Jiuliu jabbing her shoulder suddenly, "Hey!"
"Huh?" Lin Sanjiu froze for a second.
"Huh? What? Give me a bottle of booze," Qing Jiuliu scratched his face. Uncaringly, he left a few red marks on the face which people could stare for ten minutes straight. "I don't want Chivas, that's not real booze…"
Lin Sanjiu figured she might as well take a few bottles out for him and store them back after he had his pick. After thinking for a while, she suddenly took out the [Fantasy Creatures Exhibition Specimen #12] card. She changed it back to its original form and threw it at Qing Jiuliu. Qing Jiuliu held a bottle of booze in one arm and caught the mermaid with his other arm rather gracelessly. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"While you indulge in your booze and tobacco, who knows when you might just suddenly die." Lin Sanjiu climbed up a rock and started climbing toward an exit. "An item that can help you survive with just your looks... That's hard to come by. You can have it. I'm not some gorgeous lady anyway."
"You looks are… passable." Qing Jiuliu sounded like he was forcing himself to console her. Ironically, it made Lin Sanjiu a little pissed. Climbing out from the ruined mall did not stop him from taking another swig of booze, "Ugh… If that's the case, I'll have to shave every day."
"Plus, you have to keep it with you even if you get yourself wasted. Don't hold it in your arms now! It's starting to sing!" Lin Sanjiu shouted at Qing Jiuliu when she felt a little groggy. The latter immediately loosened his grip on the mermaid. After he thought for a minute, he took off one of her shoelaces and tied the mermaid to his waist before stuffing it into his pocket.
After he did this, Qing Jiuliu looked up and noticed that Lin Sanjiu was still standing in the same spot.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Sanjiu turned around. He couldn't see her expression as her face was hidden by the black cloth she was wearing.
"If you think about it, that mermaid can only sing," Lin Sanjiu said softly in a puzzled tone. "Before this, we heard a whistle. Who whistled?"
