Crush Them All

Every player present held a sliver of hope. Gazing at the dazzling protective barrier before them, they were certain that this high-level item would allow them to escape the Fairy Fish's Water Prison and avoid this calamity.

But just as the curtain of water crashed down, an accident occurred.

The icy, clear Water Prison landed, and the immense pressure of the water system firmly enveloped the surroundings, locking all the protective barriers that shielded the players within the cage without leaving any gaps.

"How so?"

The Mirror City players, who thought they had escaped unscathed, suddenly had their pupils contract, and the color drained from their faces. Everyone froze on the spot, their eyes filled with disbelief and astonishment.

After a few brief seconds of deathly silence, extreme despair, like an icy tide, instantly overwhelmed the minds of everyone present, pressing down so heavily that it was hard to breathe.

No one expected that their Mirror City's high-level protective items would be unable to withstand even the Fairy Fish's Water Prison confinement.

Do they have to die today?

Endless regret and remorse Entangle everyone's hearts. All the players regretted heeding the call to participate in this perilous rescue mission.

Just as the players were completely engulfed in a deathly silence of utter despair, a piercing scream, filled with extreme fear and despair, suddenly shattered the oppressive atmosphere.

"Ah, why can't I run away?"

Everyone turned to look at the sound and saw that the one who screamed was the leader of Mirror City who had brought out the high-level barrier item and led the team earlier.

He looked disheveled and his usual calm and dignified aura had vanished.

His legs went weak and he collapsed onto the Water Prison, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. His eyes were empty and blank as he stared at the Water Prison that held him captive. He muttered to himself repeatedly in a daze, his voice filled with despair and resentment.

"Why is this happening...? This is a top-tier, high-level protective item! How could it be useless? Why can't I escape...?"

The surrounding players, hearing his frantic whispers, instantly understood what was happening.

The team leader had already anticipated that the barrier items would be unable to withstand the Fairy Fish's Water Prison confinement skill and would be unable to protect everyone from escaping when the Water Prison caught up.

To save his own life, he secretly used a rarer protective item of a higher grade and with stronger defense, just to escape alone.

To his utter surprise, all his trump cards and life-saving measures proved useless. He ultimately failed to escape the Water Prison and remained trapped inside.

Despite the overwhelming disparity in strength, the ordinary players of Mirror City remained silent, though their hearts were churning with excitement. Yet, a secret sense of satisfaction welled up within them.

They wouldn't have participated in this rescue mission if they hadn't been strongly invited by the two Mirror City team leaders.

That's a level 300 Magic Beast, how could they dare to fight it?

If those two team leaders had managed to escape using their trump cards, leaving the rest of them to perish at sea, that would have been an immense injustice and a huge humiliation.

Now that everyone is trapped together, the resentment in everyone's hearts has been somewhat appeased.

If we're going to die, we'll all die together; no one will escape unscathed.

The other Mirror City tour leader stood silently to the side, his face terribly gloomy, his eyes hiding an extreme panic that no one could detect.

No one knew that he had secretly used his trump card to save his life.

It is an extremely rare and special item that can make one's body ethereal, allowing one to enter a state of nothingness and avoid all skill lock-on and physical attacks. It is an excellent escape artifact in desperate situations.

The instant the Water Prison descended, he activated the item without hesitation, thinking he could escape perfectly using his ethereal form. However, he was still precisely locked onto by the Water Prison and firmly imprisoned within.

At that moment, they fully recognized the cruel reality.

All their rare protective items and life-saving trump cards were meaningless and useless against the Fairy Fish's water-based divine skills.

This time, it's truly all over.

The clear, icy Water Prison, propelled by a powerful current, firmly bound the entire Mirror City team, hurtling rapidly toward the Fairy Fish.

They passed right in the direction Dong Hu and his group were fleeing, but did not stop at all.

It wasn't that the Fairy Fish deliberately let Dong Hu's team go; rather, although its Water Prison skill could increase its size, it still had a limited range and couldn't expand indefinitely.

Just now, Dong Hu and his group were controlled by the props, making their escape extremely slow. They were far behind the main force of Mirror City and just outside the Water Prison's range, which is how they managed to escape.

If Dong Hu knew that his group was able to escape the Fairy Fish's pursuit because the people of Mirror City used a tool on them, he wouldn't know whether to feel lucky or absurd.

In the blink of an eye, just a few minutes had passed, and the entire Mirror City player team was quickly brought to the Fairy Fish by the Water Prison.

During this process, the players of Mirror City, just like Hei Mi and others before them, used all their strength to frantically attack the Water Prison barrier.

Some people spared no expense, using all sorts of rare defensive items and explosive treasures, trying their best to break free from the confinement and escape the cage.

But all the struggles were in vain.

The crystal-clear Water Prison walls were both flexible and sturdy; no matter how many people bombarded them, not even a ripple was made.

All their valiant resistance ultimately proved futile, leaving them only to helplessly allow the Water Prison to lead them step by step toward their deaths.

From the moment the Fairy Fish burst out of the water and unleashed her Water Prison skill to the moment the entire Mirror City was captured and brought before her, only five minutes had passed.

For those five minutes, the Fairy Fish remained standing still on the surface of the water, observing coldly without making a move against the Hei Mi and their group who were already trapped.

But this deathly silence before the storm is far more agonizing than the imminent battle.

With nowhere to escape and the suffocating feeling of waiting for death, the sense of despair gradually eroded the minds of the people in Hei Mi, amplifying their despair infinitely.

Previously, Hei Mi and his group had abandoned all dignity and arrogance.

Some knelt and kowtowed repeatedly, some begged for mercy, displaying the utmost humility. Some swore solemn oaths and promised endless benefits, hoping to gain a sliver of hope for survival.

They offered countless sweet words and endless pleas, but the Fairy Fish remained indifferent and cold throughout, never sparing a glance and completely ignoring their desperate pleas.

Just now, it gave these trespassers a final warning, but these players were greedy and reckless, insisting on provoking them and completely exhausting their last chance to survive.

In the face of extreme desperation, everyone's mentality becomes completely distorted and unbalanced.

When they saw that the leader and all the members of Mirror City had met the same fate as them, being captured alive, many players who were on the verge of collapse actually showed a morbidly gleeful smile on their faces.

"It's all over... It would be best if we all died together..."

Only now did the players of Mirror City, shrouded in the Water Prison, see the Fairy Fish's true appearance.

The next second, horrified screams shattered the hazy, dreamlike atmosphere.

There is no culture of Blue Star, ghosts, gods, or demons on Earth; ordinary players are exposed to ordinary things from childhood to adulthood.

The scariest thing I've ever seen is the Fierce Beast in the game <Cloud Sea>.

Although the Fierce Beast in "Cloud Sea" are violent and Bloodthirst, they are not ugly, fierce but not cunning, and are still within the scope of people's understanding.

But the Fairy Fish's face completely overturned everyone's bottom line of perception.

The face hidden behind the exquisite fishtail and translucent fairy body was twisted and eerily distorted.

Even seasoned players who had already experienced countless life-or-death battles felt an overwhelming tremor in their hearts the moment they saw that face.

The piercing screams continued incessantly, completely igniting the violent and ferocious nature hidden beneath the Fairy Fish's gentle exterior.

The previous spying, probing, and provocations from the Rescue Alliance players had already made it impatient, but these two sudden screams completely enraged it.

With all the players here, the Fairy Fish no longer had any scruples. Its body, which was suspended in mid-air, trembled slightly, and the water mist floating around it suddenly condensed, turning into two pure white water droplets.

The two water droplets moved with incredible speed, precisely locking onto the two players who had just screamed, instantly piercing through the water mist and landing on them.

There was no earth-shattering roar, no dazzling attack effects, only two faint streaks of water flashing by.

But the next second, the health bars above the two players' heads were completely emptied. Before they could even let out a second cry of surprise, their bodies stiffened, and then they collapsed to the ground, completely lifeless.

The bustling waterside fell silent instantly.

Before this, everyone still harbored a sliver of self-deceiving wishful thinking.

They always believed the Seven-Colored Deer's words and secretly guessed that the Fairy Fish wouldn't kill them.

They will only torture and torment the players who were captured before, just like they did with the others.

In their view, as long as they can save their lives, even if they suffer physical pain and torment, there is always a chance to turn the tables and escape, which is not unacceptable.

But the bloody scene before them shattered everyone's illusions.

The Fairy Fish acted swiftly and decisively, without the slightest hesitation, delivering a fatal blow with a single gesture, leaving no chance for anyone to survive.

At this moment, everyone finally regained full consciousness.

Everything Zhou He said before was true.

The Seven-Colored Deer they trusted, the one who guided them to this place, had been deceiving them from beginning to end, pushing them step by step into this deadly predicament.

Endless regret, like an icy tide, instantly swept over the minds of everyone present, the dense remorse and despair making it hard to breathe.

If they had listened to Zhou He and hadn't come looking for the Fairy Fish, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

Now that I think about it carefully, Zhou He had absolutely no reason to deceive them from beginning to end.

As the core representative of the Dragon Nation in <Cloud Sea>, Zhou He has always acted with integrity, uprightness, and composure, and has never done anything despicable. He also never easily gives up on the life of any Dragon Nation player.

Moreover, the life and death of players in the game <Cloud Sea> are closely related to the anomalies of the Black Fog in the Real World. The fall of a large number of high-level players will inevitably exacerbate the disaster crisis in reality.

For both public and private reasons, Zhou He had no reason to abandon the players who had been captured by the Fairy Fish.

It seems that his efforts to stop them from finding the Fairy Fish were not an exaggeration; he must have possessed accurate information that was unknown to others.

Of all the players present, the Lion King of the Ferocious Lion Sect felt the most intense regret.

He may not trust Zhou He, but why doesn't he trust the people in his own power base?

Dong Hu told them that the legend of the Fairy Fish was released by the Seven-Colored Deer, but he didn't believe it and even took the people into custody.

Despair and guilt overwhelmed him. A player from the Ferocious Lion Sect turned pale, his eyes bloodshot, and he clenched his fists tightly, muttering to himself with endless regret.

"So Dong Hu and the others didn't betray us after all. What he said was true. The rumor about the Fairy Fish really was spread by the Seven-Colored Deer."

This belated realization struck like a heavy boulder into the hearts of all the Ferocious Lion Sect members, intensifying their deepest and most piercing regret.

"Didn't you insist that Zhou He was a liar? Didn't you say that his efforts to prevent us from coming to rescue people were a conspiracy against us, aimed at secretly weakening the foundation and strength of all our forces?!"

In their extreme anger, everyone suddenly remembered.

Back then, Hei Mi was very certain that Zhou He's decision to prevent them from coming was a conspiracy by the Dragon Nation.

What about now?

How do you explain the current situation?

In an instant, everyone's angry gaze turned towards Hei Mi.

Hei Mi's regret was no less than anyone else's. Facing the murderous glares that filled the room, he felt a chill run down his spine. His back was instantly soaked with cold sweat, his legs went weak, and he subconsciously shrank back.

"I... I... I was just guessing."

These four seemingly casual words instantly ignited the pent-up anger in everyone.

"Just a random guess? You dare to say something so casually, and expect so many of us to die with you?"

The white youth was the first to rush forward, grabbing the Hei Mi by the collar and saying menacingly.

Among everyone present, he was the most unique. As a genius nurtured by a top family and the future core successor, he originally had a bright future ahead of him.

But because of Hei Mi's baseless speculation and seductive lies, he was trapped in a deadly situation, his life's work and promising future hanging by a thread, and he might even perish here.

How could he accept this?

Actually, everyone had their own selfish motives when they chose to believe Hei Mi, but now they need someone to take the blame so they can vent their frustrations.

Hei Mi, who had been the loudest shouter before, became the target of everyone's venting.

The Fairy Fish watched the humans killing each other with a blank expression.

It's not here to watch the show; it's here to kill.

Having broken the rules by killing those two people, the Fairy Fish is now fearless.

Killing a group of people is the same as killing one person.

Anyway, it's no longer a Neutral Magic Beast.

With her killing intent firmly in mind, the Fairy Fish coldly swept her gaze across the floating Water Prison on both sides, gently swayed her jade tail, and suddenly activated her will.

Buzz--

The two azure Water Prison trembled simultaneously, their walls churning with icy water that rapidly contracted inward at a visible speed.

Just moments ago, the players were scattered and dodging in the Water Prison, each leaving themselves some space. But as the water area narrowed, they were forced to push and shove each other into a tight huddle, their shoulders pressed against each other, their hands and feet nowhere to go, the cramped space making it hard to breathe.

But the Water Prison continued to shrink relentlessly, with the icy water relentlessly pressing inward, rapidly reducing the space available for survival.

Everyone present instantly understood the Fairy Fish's plan: it intended to crush them alive in this tiny Water Prison, killing them all.

Fear gripped everyone's hearts instantly. Some people's legs went weak and they knelt in the water, their voices trembling as they pleaded, "Please, have mercy and spare us! We will never dare to offend you again, and we will never set foot here again. We will give you everything we have, just please spare our lives!"

As the air in the Water Prison grew thinner, many people turned pale from the pressure and their health bars plummeted.

Just then, a casual voice came from not far away.

"Tsk tsk, that's too tragic."