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Editor’s note: naaaah, I don’t trust her
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Yang Yi had a nightmare.
In his dream, he was enjoying an intimate moment with three alluring, seductive women, feeling utterly blissful.
But suddenly, the scene changed dramatically. One of the women turned violent and bit down on his right arm, tearing off a piece of flesh and chewing it slowly, her mouth covered in blood.
Yang Yi was stunned, looking at her in disbelief, only to realise she wasn’t human but a mermaid...or perhaps a siren. She smiled sweetly, as if praising the taste of his flesh, her eyes filled with affection.[^1]
Yang Yi woke up in excruciating pain, finding himself completely naked, lying on a slippery floor.
The place was dimly lit, like a cave, with glowing, foul-smelling mucus covering the walls and floor.
His body was also coated in a thick layer of the substance. One whiff was enough to clear his head and make him forget about food for three days!
He immediately looked at his right arm. Thankfully, it was intact.
The pain came from a woman who was biting down on his arm with her sharp teeth, causing him to grimace in agony.
"Let go! Are you a dog?! Why are you biting me??" Yang Yi shouted angrily.
Hearing his voice, the woman finally let go, leaving two deep rows of teeth marks on his shoulder.
"Awake now? I thought you’d never wake up!" The woman complained, her crimson eyes dripping with seductive allure.
"I’m sitting up, aren’t I? What do you think?" Yang Yi retorted, rubbing his arm, clearly still in pain.
He studied the woman.
She had a typical Asian face, quite pretty, with a slender frame that seemed slightly malnourished, her skin a healthy tan.
She was tied up in some weird seaweed, with marks on the floor showing the effort it took for her to crawl over.
"Who are you?" Yang Yi asked, his head throbbing.
"You were under a siren’s spell. I saved your life!" She reminded him.
Upon hearing this, Yang Yi quickly checked his activity log. It was filled with warnings of enchantment. His sanity was also at a precarious level (51/100).
"Those sirens kept you alive for three days without eating you, even fattening you up! It’s a miracle!" The woman continued, looking at Yang Yi.
Yang Yi started to understand.
"I was captured by sirens...and three days have passed?"
"Exactly!"
"More than one siren?"
"Yes, there were three of them. They seem to be communal creatures, using their songs to enchant men, who then become both their mates and their food!"
Yang Yi glanced down at his body, realising he was stark naked, and suddenly felt a chill!
Not far away were his pirate clothes and a rusty flintlock pistol.
"They are mythical creatures for us, but in this world, they exist, with behaviours similar to the legends..." the woman continued, apparently very interested in the creatures.
Yang Yi, however, felt a surge of fear and quickly put on his pirate clothes, grabbing the flintlock pistol from the ground.
【Wearing the bloodstained pirate clothes, a strange chill runs through your body, sanity decreases by 1.】
His sanity was now exactly at 50, any lower, and he’d enter a state of madness.
"This mucus is disgusting! Any idea why sirens secrete it?"
"In the sea, many soft-bodied or scaleless creatures secrete mucus to protect themselves, so it’s normal for sirens to have mucus too! Also, this one glows in the dark, attracting prey, similar to the lantern of an anglerfish, and helps them display their alluring bodies to complete the hunting process..." The woman began explaining the logic behind it, mixing in her personal views as she noticed Yang Yi’s confusion.
"You’re a player, right? Why are you here?" Yang Yi suddenly asked.
There was something off about this woman; everything about her felt strange, especially those bright red eyes that sent chills down his spine, identical to the ones he saw in his nightmare.
This made Yang Yi extremely cautious. Although she seemed to have no ill intentions and appeared to be trying to help him.
"My name is Suna; I’m a passing player who was unfortunately captured by the sirens and kept as emergency food."
"But didn’t you say that sirens target men? How did you get caught?" Yang Yi asked.
Suna had her explanation ready. She wasn’t planning to tell the truth, instead pointing to a corner.
"I wasn’t alone. My companion was already eaten by the sirens. But for some reason, they didn’t eat you," Suna explained.
Yang Yi looked in the direction she indicated.
There lay a half-eaten male corpse, already decaying, with an open abdomen and missing internal organs. The face was twisted in agony, the limbs incomplete, clearly tortured before death... Near the corpse were scattered human bones, gnawed clean, a testament to the sirens’ brutality.
But did Suna really know that man? Not at all!
She was just using the corpse to fabricate a lie, making her capture seem more reasonable.
In reality, Suna had come alone, tailing Yang Yi and the sirens. She was so fascinated by them that she didn’t notice two sneaking up behind her... She originally thought there was only one siren.
As for the corpse, it was already there when Yang Yi arrived.
After Yang Yi showed up, the man seemed to lose his value and was eaten by the sirens...so Suna had no idea who the poor guy was or where he had come from.
After hearing Suna’s story, Yang Yi partially believed her but remained on guard.
"You said three days had passed, but why don’t I feel hungry?" Yang Yi asked.
He checked his status and found that, aside from low sanity, everything else was nearly full.
Suna then pointed to another corner.
There was a large sailfish, a fierce marine creature with an upper jaw as sharp as a spear. It was dead, with bite marks on its body.
It seemed that during his unconsciousness, Yang Yi had survived by being fed the sailfish.
But what about water?
"Don’t I need to drink water?" Yang Yi had no memory of the past three days, feeling dazed and unreal.
Meanwhile, Suna was getting anxious.
"Can you untie me first? In half an hour, the sirens will be back! I don’t want to miss this chance!" Suna urged.
So far, she was still bound, only able to move like a caterpillar.
She had observed the sirens for three days, figured out their habits, and then crawled over to try and wake Yang Yi.
However, Yang Yi’s gaze was complicated.
The woman was smart and seemed to have no ill intentions.
But the more she appeared harmless, the more wary Yang Yi became, sensing something unusual about her!
She was too calm!
If someone else were tied up, with their life hanging by a thread, could they really speak so smoothly?
And she had appeared in his nightmare!
The nightmare foretold this woman would point a gun at his head, intending to kill him!
For this reason, Yang Yi was conflicted, unsure whether to save her.
But he couldn’t bring himself to kill a woman who seemed to have some goodwill towards him...
After thinking for a while, Yang Yi finally made a decision.
He felt the woman was hiding something from him, so he decided to test her, regardless of the outcome!
Yang Yi’s gaze turned cold as he pointed the dark muzzle of the gun at her, threatening her.
"Woman, give me three reasons not to kill you!"
Suna’s pupils contracted sharply, as if she couldn’t understand Yang Yi’s thought process.
"What are you talking about? Did the sirens eat your brain?"
"I have a gun in my hand!" Yang Yi replied with a smile, waving the gun like a rogue. He raised a finger on his other hand, reminding her. "That’s your first sentence. You have two more, so make them count!"
The black muzzle of the gun was silent, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
After a dozen seconds, Suna’s face showed some panic — a mix of regret and frustration.
She spoke quickly, "I can give you all the resources and equipment I have, including the food on my ship!"
Yang Yi shook his head, "Not enough. If I kill you, all of that will naturally be mine."
Suna’s breathing quickened, her eyes darting around. After a dozen more seconds, she revealed her secret.
"I... I can give you my navigational chart, so you can sail more safely!"
"Navigational chart?"
"My ship is called the Astrologer; it can chart the nearby seas."
"So that’s it..." Yang Yi’s smile was chilling.
"You lured me here, didn’t you?"
He calmly reached into the inner pocket of his pirate shirt and pulled out a blueprint.
"You probably haven’t seen this before, right? This is a ship blueprint. You can get it by killing the owner of a special ship and dismantling it. So, tell me, why shouldn’t I just kill you and take your ship’s abilities for myself?"
Suna’s face turned pale. This was the first time she had heard of a ship blueprint.
And she knew Yang Yi wasn’t lying. That pirate ship...had indeed been taken down by him!
Finally, she showed a look of resentment; her face was no longer calm, and she spat venomously at Yang Yi.
"You’re greedy, despicable, and shameless! Go ahead, shoot me! I’ll curse you from the depths of hell!" With that, she closed her eyes, waiting for Yang Yi to pull the trigger.
"You’ve got some guts. Fine, I’ll grant your wish," Yang Yi replied coldly.
Suna trembled slightly.
But after waiting for a long time, she neither felt pain nor heard a gunshot.
She opened her eyes to see Yang Yi approaching with a sharp, broken bone he had found in the pile of skeletons.
"Hand over half of your ship’s supplies and provide a month’s worth of sea charts, and I’ll save you," Yang Yi said seriously.
Suna’s expression first showed surprise, then turned to anger. She realised Yang Yi was deliberately trying to deceive her!
Furious and humiliated, she snapped, "What if I refuse?"
"I have a gun; you don’t have a choice!" Yang Yi shook the gun again, taking on the stance of a victor.
Suna, powerless in the situation, had no choice but to comply.
Notes
[^1]: Aww ⤶ -Simply