Maid Miss

Lu Li looked at the dark green cube in the box held by the Witch. Although the color was different, the sensation it gave off was nearly identical to a module. Hu Wenxu and Gao Xiaowen, standing to the side, also had their attention captured by the module. Artificial Extraction of modules—if one could master this, it would be of immense benefit to their own strength.

Nowadays, players simply had to make do with whatever modules they managed to obtain. At most, they would trade with others or buy some from the shop, relying on their own imagination to combine them into skills. These skills often had significant structural flaws. Not everyone had the same harvest as Lu Li did in his first dungeon; most players only received the guaranteed 200 game points for their first dungeon, and with the potential for a completion draw, they would get at most three or four modules. Trying to form a skill was extremely difficult.

Coupled with the difficulty of trading on the forums, most novices just combined whatever they had for their first skill, forcibly stitching things together into some sort of chimera. This situation would only improve after a few dungeons once they had more modules, but even for people like Hu Wenxu, there was a desperate shortage of modules.

The Witch put the green module away. Seeing the inquisitive looks from the group, she bluntly revealed the secret within: "I used that thing to absorb certain factors, then extracted those specific elements and combined them into a fixed form. This requires an extremely high level of alchemy, mysticism, and spellcraft. If you want to learn it, provided you have the corresponding talent, it would still take at least ten years of study to have any possibility of success."

Upon hearing this, the group immediately lost interest. What they, as players, needed was time. A dungeon run took at most ten days or half a month; where would they find the time to study for ten years? With that kind of time, they would be better off figuring out how to complete their missions and clear the dungeon.

"Let's go! We need to pick up something first, and then we shall go see that little mermaid who has become infatuated with a human..." The Witch sighed, and to Lu Li's surprise, he could actually detect a hint of frustration and resignation in her tone.

The Witch walked in front, and Xu Haoran immediately followed. His sense of self was fading more and more; he had now essentially become a thrall to the Witch. As soon as they stepped outside the perimeter of the Witch's cabin, the sky turned completely black. Starlight shimmered above, as if portending something.

Walking toward the seaside, the tracks left by the black-furred monster during the day were still visible. Not far away, there were some fresh marks, likely from Hu Wenxu's mission to lure a monster to the shore. Lu Li understood; these must have been left when he completed his task. It appeared to be a massive monster as well.

Before long, the group arrived at the beach. The Witch walked onto a reef alone, her hoarse voice chanting an ancient incantation. The tides surged, and broken bones were washed onto the beach by the waves. It felt as if some terrible disaster was brewing beneath the sea. Dark clouds obscured the stars, and a gale brought the stench of the tide. The monster from beneath the sea slowly revealed its form.

It had a glossy, black, tar-like body, lacking a fixed state like an amoeba, constantly writhing. From time to time, yellow-green, pustule-like eyes would open on its surface, flashing with a faint, dim light, but these eyes would soon dissolve and regenerate elsewhere. As this monster rose from the sea, it was accompanied by a nauseating odor. Its massive body crushed the bones and reefs on the beach as it stood before the Witch. The monster, possessing no visible vocal organs, continuously emitted a terrifying, mocking cry: "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"

Just looking at this monster was enough to drive one mad. An ordinary person would be scared out of their wits upon seeing it, their SAN values plummeting. It could be said that this was the most disgusting of monsters; its very existence was a sin.

The Witch stood before the monster, her mouth never ceasing the chanting of the mysterious, ancient spell. The monster's amorphous body was constrained by a mysterious power, constantly twisting, deforming, and shrinking, until it finally landed before the Witch, transforming into a green-haired girl wearing a maid outfit. The maid stood before the Witch, expressionless.

The dark clouds in the sky slowly dispersed, revealing the starry night. However, the attention of those present was focused entirely on the maid the monster had become. Hu Wenxu was covered in cold sweat, yet he displayed a fervent desire to study her. Gao Xiaowen, meanwhile, looked as if she had given up on everything, even though cold sweat was also seeping from her forehead.

Xu Haoran had already fallen into a state of collapse. He had originally possessed cracks in his psyche, and now, having been subjected to the visual pollution of that monster, his mind had long since become like a sieve. Thus, he could only lift his head to look at the calm-faced Witch, immersing himself in fanatical love to ensure he wouldn't immediately self-destruct.

"Let's go... to complete the final missing piece of myself..." The Witch's voice was like a sigh. She looked at her increasingly perfect body, then at the people around her. She knew that fate could not be avoided after all; the conditions had all been met, and there was no escaping it now.

Our maid miss obeyed the Witch's command and jumped into the ocean. A ship appeared beneath her feet. She looked at the group with a calm expression, and they boarded the vessel one by one. Even though Xu Haoran was reluctant, he followed the Witch onto the ship. Lu Li stepped onto the fleshy hull, glanced at the still-indifferent maid, and wondered how he would escape if Hu Wenxu, with his anatomical obsessions, managed to anger her and capsize the boat.

Once everyone was aboard, the ship began to move automatically. Beneath the water, it seemed as if countless tentacles were swaying, keeping the ship's speed quite high. Fortunately, none of the people on this boat were ordinary—or rather, no normal person would have boarded it in the first place. Those who could board were already close to being candidates for a mental asylum.

In the dead of night, the fleshy little boat continued to forge ahead. Lu Li and the others had already given the map to the maid. The Witch stood at the bow, staring at the calm sea, lost in thought. Looking at that perfect, unfamiliar face reflected in the water, she revealed a cold smile. Ever since inheriting the Witch's power, although she had been unwilling—a thousand times unwilling—as each trigger arrived, she had finally stepped onto this path.

And this time, all the conditions had been met. Touching the green, module-like object slowly merging into her body beneath her wizard's robe, she could feel the changes in her soul. She was becoming less of herself, less human, bit by bit. Remembering something, the Witch turned around and looked at Lu Li, who was staring curiously into the water. For some reason, she said to him: "No coincidence is truly a coincidence; every accident is an inevitability. On you..."

The Witch suddenly stopped speaking, turned away, her face filled with gloom...