Punishment Mission

[Instance mission failed. Generating punishment mission...]

[Generating punishment mission. Mission progress updated...]

[An ancient being has awakened from its dream. One of its tentacles has reached into the real world. Go and sever it!]

[Complete the mission to clear the instance and double your rewards. Failure to complete...]

"Did we really mess things up?" Lu Li looked excited, a strange gleam flashing in his eyes. He grinned. "Who knew you could do that? This is actually pretty interesting."

"Something's wrong here. In the past, even if a mission failed, as long as no one died in the instance, we'd simply get no rewards. In rare cases, the monsters might go berserk, and we'd just have to escape them. There's never been a punishment mission." Hu Wenxu had plenty of experience, but unfortunately, none of it helped with their current predicament.

"So she was a merfolk from another race, and she actually thought she could be with His Highness the Prince." The old witch gave a cold snort as she looked at the Mermaid Princess's body, now transformed into a merfolk. Her remark snapped the stunned Prince back to his senses. His face was stricken with grief as he said to the old witch, "No matter what, she saved my life, and she died because of me. I owe her that much. Don't disrespect the dead."

"Guards, give this lady a proper burial. After this is over, have a statue of her erected by the sea." The Prince issued his order, then turned to Lu Li and the others. "Let's put an end to this farce. I won't hold it against you for intercepting the carriage. Leave at once."

Their mission had already failed, and there was nothing to gain from continuing to clash with the Prince. The three of them had no choice but to leave. On the way out, Hu Wenxu suddenly swung the Coral Blade at Gao Xiaowen and demanded, "I've thought it over, and the only explanation for what went wrong in this instance is that witch. You must be one of her accomplices!"

"Or maybe you aren't even Gao Xiaowen anymore." Hu Wenxu sliced through the sleeve on Gao Xiaowen's left arm, revealing a strange pattern made of black fur beneath it. Her expression didn't change. She stepped back and calmly said, "Does it really matter whether I'm still Gao Xiaowen? We take in new things every moment, and we change every moment. Who you are today is not who you were yesterday. All I did was accelerate that change."

"The question now is how to deal with the punishment mission. And I can certainly help you with that." Gao Xiaowen got straight to the point. "My deal with the witch is over. The Mermaid Princess's fate was sealed long ago. The outcome would have been much the same with or without me."

"The witch knew all along that the Prince didn't love the Mermaid Princess. Once the Mermaid Princess decided to change her race, only two endings were possible. One was what happened: the Mermaid Princess took her own life, and the bubble of love burst. The other was for her to kill the Prince. Then she wouldn't have to die, but the bubble called love would still burst."

"My role was no more than that of a conduit, passing along the force that shattered the Mermaid Princess's dreamlike bubble." Gao Xiaowen laid everything bare, piece by piece. "Merfolk were originally human. They entered the sea in response to the call of a great being. Later, those humans split into two groups: one became the fish-tailed, human-headed merfolk, while the other turned into monstrous, fully fishlike creatures. The people living in that fishing village were hybrids of those monsters."

"Over time, the merfolk gradually abandoned their faith in that great being. But their royal family still retained certain traits—traits necessary for that great being's return. Those traits have now been activated by the Mermaid Princess's death."

"So what do we do now? Bring the Mermaid Princess back to life?" Lu Li asked with interest.

"Not necessary. That great being has only extended a tentacle. It hasn't fully awakened. It's still sleeping in the Dreamlands, and there are currently three anchors sustaining its presence in the real world."

"One is the witch's ritual altar and the offerings on it. That's the most important anchor. The second is the trait within the Mermaid Princess. I've already sent that trait to the witch. The last anchor is the group that split from the merfolk, the monsters known as Deep Ones."

"Destroying an anchor will weaken the great being's tentacle in the real world. Otherwise, if we rush straight to the witch now, the tentacle will devour us whole." Gao Xiaowen smiled. "You don't need to worry about me, either. Another great being stands behind me. We used to cooperate with the witch, but that arrangement has ended. My current mission is to become a true player, so I have to help you complete yours."

"I'll trust you for now. How much time do we have?" Hu Wenxu lowered the Coral Blade, a wild gleam in his eyes. Learning all this had sent his curiosity into overdrive.

"Three days. The great being's tentacle is still adapting to the rules of reality. After three days, it'll be able to survive in this world even without its anchors. We need to hurry to that fishing village. If we wait until the three days are up, all we can do is wait to die. We can't face a great being."

"Then let's go. We couldn't dissect the merfolk before, but now we have these Deep Ones. They should make excellent test subjects!" Hu Wenxu could hardly wait. His desire to investigate was burning hot.

"So this was supposed to be a story about the Mermaid Princess. How did it turn into a battle against an evil witch?" Lu Li complained. "The merfolk storyline has been completely abandoned. I wonder what'll happen to the Prince next. Will he live happily ever after with the neighboring kingdom's princess?"

"Could you stop thinking about useless things and get your strength back? We're going after the Deep Ones now. Those monsters are not to be underestimated." Gao Xiaowen frowned. Lu Li seemed easygoing, but he was actually difficult to control. She had received a mission from the great being behind her: to use this game to reach the Main Space. She didn't want Lu Li to ruin everything.

"Don't worry. I'll cooperate." Lu Li seemed to see Gao Xiaowen's concern. He narrowed his eyes and smiled. "I never turn down anything this interesting."

After Lu Li and the others left, their Prince managed to compose himself and headed for the port city to meet his bride. She was a beautiful young woman. At the thought of Princess Sally from the neighboring kingdom, the Prince remembered the strange little fishing village where they had first met...