Chapter 1
The Night Raid

The night was deep, and a crescent moon hung high in the sky, illuminating the sprawling mansion below.

High in the tower, the glass windows of a secret chamber reflected the cold moonlight. Through the heavy, dense black mosquito net, a human figure could be faintly seen lying on the bed.

A soft snore emanated from within the silken covers, a sound of tranquility and peace that hadn't been heard in this room for months.

The source of the snores could perhaps attribute his ease to the intricate geometric pattern drawn on the floor around the wooden bed—

The pattern was an octagon composed of several circles and diagonal lines. In each of the eight corners sat a slowly burning, orange-yellow candle, and around the candles were drawn strange characters unknown to this world.

Apart from the snoring, the room was silent, free from the irritating buzzing of mosquitoes—the cotton padding glued to the walls served as soundproofing, able to block out the distant noises that traveled along the walls of the ancient mansion.

"Hoo..."

The figure on the bed turned over comfortably, burying his head in the soft pillow.

He didn't notice that outside the narrow glass window, a pair of deep, black eyes had appeared at some unknown time.

Those eyes silently watched the figure on the bed, and after a long while, shifted their gaze to the candles around the wooden bed.

A gust of wind blew inexplicably from outside the window, and all the candles went out simultaneously, leaving only wisps of smoke slowly rising from the wicks.

The owner of the eyes waited quietly for a while, but the magic circle showed no reaction to the extinguished candles, remaining completely still.

So, it moved.

A pitch-black hand slowly approached the metal bars outside the glass window,

And, in the moment before contact with the bars, melted directly into a puddle of water, passing through with ease.

A ball of water tumbled over the bars, slid into the glass window, and descended along the cotton padding, leaving no trace of moisture in the process, as if the surface of the water ball had some kind of insulating layer.

Soon, the water ball landed on the wooden floor. It extended a tentacle, carefully picked up a book that had fallen to the ground, and knocked over a candle on the magic circle that had already been extinguished.

Nothing happened.

The water ball grew bolder, directly touching the magic circle with its tentacle, using the water source to erase a portion of the pattern.

Still nothing happened.

The water ball was finally sure that it was safe. It rolled back a distance, then shrank into a ball and began to tremble rapidly.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, the water ball quickly evaporated, finally disappearing completely without leaving even a water stain.

Then...

A corner of the heavy mosquito net was slowly lifted by an invisible force, or rather, an invisible hand composed of water vapor.

The water vapor, invisible to the naked eye, drilled into the mosquito net, suspended in mid-air, gazing at the silken covers that formed a human outline.

"Heh heh heh heh—"

An extremely faint sound, like the humming of boiling water, rang out in mid-air.

The water vapor slowly pulled back the blanket, its movements as gentle as a loving wife waking her husband in the morning.

Then, it saw the Asian youth lying on the bed wearing Peter's pajamas, a malicious smile on his lips, and the oversized, exaggerated scythe in his hand that was slashing toward it.

The water vapor outline clearly felt the terrifying aura attached to the scythe,

It was an unknown energy that could harm it, even split it in two.

The water vapor outline let out a shrill scream, the frantic wind directly tearing and blowing away the support mosquito net around the wooden bed, the entire room shook, and many soundproof cotton pads fell to the ground.

It retreated rapidly, but the distance between the two sides was too close, and the scythe, reflecting the cold moonlight, ultimately struck it.

"Whoosh—"

The sound of air being torn apart rose sharply and subsided suddenly.

The water vapor outline that retreated backwards slammed heavily against the wall, collapsing to the ground.

It first quickly transformed into a water ball, and then into a... mermaid.

Just like Peter had described before,

It, or rather she, had a long fish tail covered with fluorescent green, dense scales, and a human upper body with black skin, wearing two clamshells.

Compared to humans, her torso and arms appeared narrower and thinner.

Her body was emaciated, without any curves,

The fingers between her five fingers had green webbing like a duck's foot, and the webbing was covered with a layer of mucus—just like the fish tail scales.

The mucus emitted a seaweed-like smell, but not the fresh, natural kind, but a salty, fishy, rotten smell, and even holding one's breath could not stop this terrible smell from entering the nasal cavity.

And her face....

Some parts of this face seemed strangely irregular, with a flat nose bridge extending upward to a receding forehead, but the brow bone was very high, and thin and narrow.

Similarly, slender eyelids were distributed below the brow bone, and the pupils were dark and deep, like the deep sea, revealing an unsettling evil.

What was most concerning was the exaggerated distance between the two eyeballs,

Just as Peter had described, resembling an anglerfish, a flounder,

This facial structure already caused discomfort when it appeared on fish, but when replicated on humans, it induced an indescribable fear, like a maliciously distorted human-shaped doll—those with a little common sense would call this kind of instinctive revulsion the uncanny valley effect.

Overall, this mermaid was like a biologically regressed specimen, especially after Li Ang noticed the constantly trembling, pink gills growing on both sides of her neck,

He immediately associated it with the legendary Deep Ones.

Even with Li Ang's mental fortitude, after carefully scrutinizing this monster, he couldn't help but gasp.

'No wonder Peter was so frightened that he became mentally disturbed. If a human with a slightly less firm mind was kissed by such a 'mermaid' in the deep sea, they would probably be scared out of their minds on the spot, not to mention the foul breath faintly emanating from that mouthful of sharp teeth...'

The more carefully he looked, the deeper Li Ang's pity for Peter became.

He jumped out of bed, holding the scythe in both hands, and walked step by step towards the mermaid who was lying on the ground.

At this time, several players and mansion spellcasters who heard the noise in the secret chamber had arrived—John Joyce and Bob kicked open the door, and the smoker Julia walked out of the secret door in the left room,

Two spellcasters hired by the administrator walked out of the right room,

Everyone's eyes fell on the mermaid.

The mermaid had just been struck in the chest by Li Ang with a scythe, and a large amount of fluorescent green blood had splattered on the floor beside her, but in just a few seconds, the injuries where the bones and internal organs could originally be seen had almost healed.

Facing the indifferent scrutiny of the spellcasters, the mermaid did not panic at all, and slowly opened her mouth in a hoarse voice like metal scraping, "Where is my husband?"