Chapter 38: Fairy-Tale Kingdom (5)
Shi Yuntian’s location was not difficult to determine.
Before splitting up that morning, Yu Qimiao had deliberately memorized the direction chosen by each teammate so they could reunite quickly if their bracelets were unable to contact one another.
Shi Yuntian played only warrior classes and possessed an exceptionally reckless personality, so he had immediately chosen the most chaotic area in the entire fairy-tale city—the refugee district.
“I heard the refugee district’s terrain is extremely complicated. If we charge in blindly to find him, we’ll easily get lost.”
“That is a problem.”
“I…” The beggar girl raised her hand, her bright black eyes darting between them. “I can guide you, but you must find my nightingale.”
“All right.” Su Qiong promised her, “I’ll definitely help you find it.”
“Follow me.” The beggar walked ahead and expertly slipped into a nearby alley.
The alley was extremely narrow and normally used only by stray cats.
Anyone slightly broad, such as Shi Yuntian, could easily become wedged deep inside.
“Little beggar, why do you know the refugee district so well?”
Without looking back, the girl answered gloomily, “My parents lived there. I was born and raised in the refugee district. After they died one after another, the local gang leader drove me out, so I hid beneath the bridge and lived there.”
“Was no one willing to adopt you?”
The beggar girl glanced at them with an expression that seemed to ask, Why don’t starving people simply eat meat?
“I’m dirty and I smell. Who would adopt a beggar?”
Yu Qimiao took over the conversation and said leisurely, “You’re healthy and capable of taking care of yourself. You’d be one of the most popular children in an orphanage.”
The beggar girl gave him a cold look. “Tch. You talk like you understand orphans.”
“Little beggar, that’s too much!” Lu Shufan pretended to become angry and half-jokingly corrected her. “Do you know what our guild is called? The Orphan Alliance. No one understands orphanages better than we do.”
The instant he finished speaking, the leader of the Orphan Alliance mercilessly contradicted him.
“I don’t.”
“Huh?!” Lu Shufan stared at him in astonishment.
Yu Qimiao explained, “I entered an orphanage when I was around fifteen. I stayed for roughly half a month, earned enough money, and moved out to live independently.”
Lu Shufan, who had remained in an orphanage until adulthood: “…”
Fine.
A capitalist had apparently been a capitalist even as a child.
“What about you?” Su Qiong looked curiously toward A and ERROR.
“I never stayed in one,” A answered. “Before I was sent to an orphanage, a special unit took me away.”
With A’s talent, if they had arrived even a moment later, some international organization might have smuggled in a plane to steal him away.
“Oh.” Su Qiong nodded solemnly and turned toward ERROR.
Come to think of it, ERROR rarely revealed anything about his personal life.
Even now, Su Qiong still could not determine whether he qualified to join the Orphan Alliance.
“If an orphan is defined as a natural person under eighteen without parents, then…” ERROR made a shocking declaration. “I’m not an orphan.”
“What?”
Everyone looked at him in disbelief.
For some reason, from the moment they met ERROR, they had unconsciously treated him as a member of the Orphan Alliance.
Perhaps because if ERROR had parents, they should have beaten him to death long ago. How else would he have possessed the energy to create a death game?
“What’s so surprising?” ERROR swept his gaze around them. “I know who both my parents are, and they’re still alive. It’s just that—”
He stopped halfway, clearly unwilling to continue.
Su Qiong desperately wanted to know the rest and urged him, “It’s just what?”
“We lost contact and don’t live together.” ERROR said lightly, “I support myself by writing code and charging by the character.”
“…”
If they escaped IN OFF alive, the first thing they would do was smash ERROR’s keyboard.
Moi and Qiyi also had no parents. They had lived in an orphanage for as long as they could remember.
There had once been prospective adoptive parents who tried to separate the sisters, but they refused no matter what, causing many adoption attempts to fall through.
Until entering the game, they had still been living in the orphanage.
The older players looked at the two young girls and suddenly felt powerless.
If they escaped IF, after smashing ERROR’s keyboard, the second thing they would do would be to visit the orphanage and adopt Moi and Qiyi.
But no one could make that promise.
Who could guarantee they would leave the game alive?
“We’re here.” The beggar girl emerged from the alley with her head lowered and called back, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up that subject. Can you help me find the nightingale now?”
“Coming!”
Everyone squeezed out of the alley one after another.
Even though they had prepared themselves, they were still stunned by the chaos of the refugee district.
The area had not yet been infected by the dirge, and its residents appeared conscious.
However, their mental state was hardly better than that of the infected. Every thug wore a bitter, resentful expression and stared fixedly toward the same location.
Su Qiong vaguely sensed an atmosphere of extreme tension and became nervous as well.
“What happened?”
Lu Shufan craned his neck. “Is it the nightingale?”
He carefully searched the surroundings but saw no trace of the bird.
Instead—
“Ah!”
Cries of pain rang out from the most densely packed part of the crowd.
Blocked outside the encirclement, Su Qiong could not see what was happening in the center. He saw only a crew-cut youth with a roguish appearance being struck—
And sent flying.
“Boss!”
The refugee district’s thugs screamed collectively.
“This is bad! Even Boss can’t defeat that monster. What do we do?”
“What else can we do? Run!”
“Run as far as you can! Don’t approach the monster. He isn’t even afraid of the nightingale!”
“Monster?”
“Nightingale?”
The players repeated the two words, sensing something ominous.
In the next moment, their premonition came true.
A powerful shout of “Who’s next?” rang out.
Shi Yuntian carried his heavy blade over his shoulder and arrogantly challenged every thug.
“Fighting one at a time is too slow. Come at me together! I haven’t had this much fun fighting in ages.”
After entering the game, tasks requiring intelligence had become increasingly common, leaving Shi Yuntian reduced to background decoration countless times.
Only after reaching the refugee district had he found where he truly belonged. He wished he could remain there and fight for three days and nights.
“Shi Yuntian!” Yu Qimiao called his name.
Shi Yuntian, who had been slaughtering everyone around him, inexplicably wilted upon hearing the guild leader’s voice.
“Why are you here?” he asked in confusion. “Do you have a quest?”
“The quest began ages ago. Didn’t you receive it?”
“No.” Shi Yuntian opened his bracelet, intending to prove that he had received nothing.
Instead, the interface prominently displayed:
Quest in progress.
Damn.
He had enjoyed fighting so much that he had forgotten to check his quest.
Shi Yuntian awkwardly cleared his throat and attempted to recover his dignity.
“We’re looking for a nightingale, right… Nightingale… Nightingale… Is that a bird?”
“Boss Shi.” Lu Shufan wore an expression of unbearable embarrassment and urgently wanted to distance himself from Shi Yuntian.
The kind guide NPC patiently answered in the tone one might use to teach a kindergarten child.
“A nightingale is a bird. It has two wings, one head, and can fly.”
Shi Yuntian finally understood. “I saw something like that earlier.”
“Really?”
The beggar girl became excited. “Where is my nightingale?”
“Don’t rush. Let me think.” Shi Yuntian scratched his head and tried to remember. “I was having a great fight with them when something with wings flew over.”
“Where is it?!” Yu Qimiao urgently demanded.
“I’m thinking!” Shi Yuntian could cut down at least ten refugee-district thugs with one swing.
Yet faced with Yu Qimiao’s questioning, he inexplicably became timid, guilt leaking into his voice.
Shi Yuntian truly disliked team battles.
But after joining the Orphan Alliance, he had benefited countless times from his companions’ clues and coasted to victory alongside them.
Although he was reckless and refused to use his brain while gaming, he still possessed a basic sense of right and wrong.
As guild leader, Yu Qimiao considered the overall situation and consistently pursued the greatest benefit for the guild.
There were members stronger than him, such as A, who had an aloof personality yet still cooperated with Yu Qimiao’s arrangements.
ERROR was unpredictable and unruly but had never openly opposed Yu Qimiao either.
Shi Yuntian knew that anyone without a brain could not survive in IF. Following Yu Qimiao’s plans generally brought only benefits.
That morning, he had agreed perfectly well to follow the plan.
But after reaching the refugee district, his desire for battle overwhelmed him, and he began hacking away without caring about anything else.
How could he have known the main quest was not to conquer the refugee district, but to find a bird?
“The bird… the bird… I remember!” Shi Yuntian racked his empty brain and finally uncovered a trace of memory. “I was busy fighting the gang leader when a bird flew over, landed on his shoulder, and started chirping.”
“And then?”
“I told it not to interrupt me while I was cutting people down, so I chased it away.”
Yu Qimiao opened his mouth but, for a moment, did not know what to say.
Lu Shufan stared at him in disbelief. “When you heard the bird singing, how did you feel? Didn’t it make you sad?”
“Why would I be sad?” Shi Yuntian answered confidently. “I was having fun fighting. What was there to be sad about?”
His companions: “…”
They should have left him alone.
“Shi Yuntian didn’t see where the nightingale went. Does that mean we’ve lost the trail?”
“No.” Su Qiong raised his head. “I think the nightingale is probably still nearby.”
“The fairy-tale city is enormous. Why would it remain here?”
“Because the nightingale’s target isn’t the entire city,” ERROR said.
Su Qiong nodded. “Right.”
At first, Su Qiong had also believed the nightingale’s dirge was intended to shroud the entire city in sorrow and despair.
Only after seeing the cemetery and the refugee district did he understand that the nightingale had specific targets.
Otherwise, why had the hospital been infected while the area immediately outside remained unaffected?
Every place the nightingale visited was somewhere the beggar girl had once suffered injustice and shed sorrowful tears.
If Su Qiong’s deduction was correct, the nightingale truly was dead.
But it wished to use its final song to create a world where the beggar girl would never be hurt again.
If that was right, the final key was the beggar girl herself.
No wonder the quest triggered by ERROR differed from those received by the other players.
Only he had encountered the quest’s central figure.
“Little beggar, after leaving the refugee district, did you live beneath the bridge the entire time?”
“Mm.” The beggar girl wrapped her arms around herself. “I had nowhere else to go. Winter was too cold, and hiding under the bridge was a little warmer. After the nightingale began accompanying me, I was very happy.”
“I understand.” Su Qiong extended his hand toward her. “Let’s return to the bridge. Your nightingale should have gone home.”
“Really?” The beggar girl seemed doubtful, but Su Qiong’s voice was too gentle, so she still reached out.
Before touching Su Qiong’s pale, clean hand, she paused.
Her own hand was filthy, with dirt beneath her fingernails, forming a sharp contrast with his.
Uneasily, she withdrew it and scrubbed it hard against her clothes.
The other players noticed the movement and remembered that Su Qiong was a code with a fear of dirt.
He must be forcing himself to hold the beggar’s hand solely to complete the quest.
“Su Qiong, I…” Yu Qimiao began.
But Su Qiong bent down voluntarily and took the girl’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
His palm was soft and warm.
The beggar girl experienced a feeling she had never known before. Her nose stung, and she nearly cried.
She had never been loved.
No one had ever held her hand like this.
“Are you tired? We can walk more slowly.” Su Qiong’s voice was especially pleasant and sweet.
“I’m not tired.” The beggar girl shook her head. “I want to find my nightingale quickly.”
Su Qiong paused for several seconds before softly saying, “All right.”
Five minutes later, they returned to the bridge and saw the legendary nightingale from a distance.
It lay at the entrance, precisely where the beggar girl had originally pointed.
Its breathing was weak, yet it continued singing a faint and incomparably sorrowful melody.
Scenes flashed before the nightingale’s eyes, showing traces of its life with the beggar.
From this day onward, it would no longer be able to sing for the girl.
She would be alone in the world.
The other players heard the song but did not dare approach, afraid their minds would be controlled.
Unafraid, Su Qiong led the beggar girl to the nightingale and said quietly, “It can’t bear to leave you, so it refuses to acknowledge its own death.”
“It isn’t dead. We promised to stay together forever and ever.” Tears fell from the girl’s eyes and seeped into the nightingale’s feathers, just as they had during that snowy winter.
“It needs to go to another world,” Su Qiong reminded her.
The girl lifted the nightingale into her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Her tears washed the dirt from her face, revealing beautiful features beneath.
The nightingale nestled against her as its cries became increasingly sorrowful, making even Su Qiong feel miserable.
He could not bear it, but he had to make the truth clear.
“It’s in pain.”
The girl suddenly awakened and looked at the nightingale in her arms.
It should already have died, yet it continued refusing to stop singing.
The bird was incredibly weak. Every cry caused it unimaginable pain.
The girl gradually stopped crying and forced herself to look strong. She covered the nightingale’s eyes.
“Go to sleep. Go to sleep. This time, I’ll sing you a lullaby.”
Even with its eyes covered, the nightingale gave two more mournful cries.
“She’ll have a wonderful life,” Su Qiong told the bird. “If there’s another life, fly to her window again.”
Hearing Su Qiong’s voice, the nightingale suddenly saw a beautiful scene unfold before its eyes.
At last, its cries became quieter and quieter.
Within the wonderful dream woven for it, the nightingale died completely.
The girl wiped away her tears and buried the bird among the winter jasmine, scattering flower seeds over the grave.
The seeds absorbed her tears and seemed to gain magic, immediately taking root and blooming into beautiful flowers.
The blossoms released a rich fragrance, as though spreading happiness throughout the entire city.
“Thank you for helping me find the nightingale. My wish has been fulfilled.” The girl pulled her hand away, suppressing her reluctance as she said goodbye to Su Qiong and the others.
“Your wish has been fulfilled, but the nightingale’s hasn’t.” Su Qiong stubbornly said, “I always keep my promises.”
“Exactly,” Yu Qimiao agreed.
“That’s how our Little Pastry is~”
“Can you walk with us a little farther?”
The girl turned back toward the bridge. Nothing remained there that she cared about.
From now on, she truly had no attachments.
“All right.”
That evening, Su Qiong brought the girl back to the inn and entrusted her to the couple who owned it.
“She’s the most adorable girl in the fairy-tale city. If you let her work here, customers will definitely keep coming.”
The innkeeper clearly did not believe him. “She’s so young. What can she possibly do?”
“I-I can do anything. I can clean, wash dishes, and take care of guests…” The girl lowered her head and tightly gripped the hem of her clothes, looking nervous.
“Darling, let’s take her in,” the kindhearted innkeeper’s wife said. “Even if customers never come, at least we’ll have someone to talk to.”
The innkeeper reluctantly said, “Fine. But let’s make this clear. If you don’t attract customers, you won’t receive any wages.”
“In other words, if you bring in customers, you’ll be paid.” The innkeeper’s wife called the girl over. “Sweet girl, let’s bathe you and find you some clean clothes. Do you have a name? If not, I can call you…”
After washing and dressing the girl, they brought her out again.
The innkeeper’s jaw nearly dropped.
Those travelers had not been exaggerating.
The girl truly was exceptionally adorable.
Feeling embarrassed, the innkeeper stubbornly muttered, “What use is being cute if she can’t attract customers?”
The moment he finished, chirping sounded outside and drew the attention of passing travelers.
“Look! There’s a newly hatched nightingale on the windowsill of that inn.”
“Its song is beautiful. Shall we stay here tonight?”
“Falling asleep while listening to a nightingale sounds so romantic.”
The nightingale!
Hearing the cry, the girl immediately ran toward the window.
Sure enough, a newly hatched nightingale without feathers sat there, opening its mouth wide and begging for food.
Its voice was deeply familiar.
It had accompanied her through countless cold nights.
“Baby nightingales are so ugly,” Shi Yuntian remarked, completely ruining the atmosphere. “It doesn’t even have feathers.”
“Shut up,” Yu Qimiao said. “You’re grown, and you don’t have any hair either.”
“How do you know I don’t?”
“Stop! Boss Shi, watch what you say.”
“Hahahaha!”
Bright laughter spread throughout the inn.
[System: Congratulations. You have completed the Nightingale quest and received point rewards.]
[As the first players to complete the quest, you have received a clearance item: The Princess’s Glass Slipper.]
“A-a glass slipper?”
The predominantly male Orphan Alliance stared at it in enormous confusion.
Even Moi and Qiyi had passed the age of dreaming about glass slippers.
Only Su Qiong, who adored sparkling objects and elaborate clothing, showed obvious envy.
“Wow! The princess’s glass slipper is so beautiful!”
He lowered his head and looked at the ordinary traveling shoes on his feet.
He became depressed.
“There’s no point looking. It won’t fit you.”
Su Qiong was still a boy, and his frame was larger than a woman’s.
To wear the princess’s glass slipper, he would have to imitate the wicked stepsisters in the story and cut away part of his foot.
The image was far too bloody. Su Qiong certainly would not agree.
“Mm.” Su Qiong became even sadder.
Yu Qimiao hurriedly comforted him. “After we leave this instance, I’ll exchange for two beautiful outfits for you.”
“Really?!” Su Qiong’s mood instantly improved. He threw himself at Yu Qimiao and hugged him. “Yu Qimiao, you’re so good to me!”
“I’ve always been good to you.”
Heaven and earth could testify.
Throughout the entire game of IF, Yu Qimiao had schemed against players, instance NPCs, and even the system.
The only person he had never calculated against was Su Qiong.
Su Qiong swallowed the promise Yu Qimiao had fed him and happily anticipated his new clothes.
It was strange.
When Yu Qimiao had first given him things, Su Qiong had still worried about “giving something in return.”
Now, he could no longer be bothered to calculate.
The data had become too large, and Su Qiong’s mental capacity was limited. He could no longer work it out.
“Before that, we need to leave this instance quickly.” Yu Qimiao opened the map. “Today I obtained a guide to the countryside region. The boss isn’t Little Red Riding Hood or Grandmother Wolf, but the hunter pursuing them. As long as we set a trap and drive the hunter out of the village, the task will be completed.”
“The fairy-tale world has six regions. We possess guides for three, and we’ve cleared the city. That leaves the palace and the ocean.”
“We need the assistance of other players for the palace. So only one remains…”
“The Little Mermaid!” Su Qiong exclaimed.
“Su Qiong, don’t imagine mermaids too beautifully.” Lu Shufan thought of various horrifying legends concerning mermaids and secretly sighed.
Sometimes, ideals were destined to collide with reality.
“How about we choose a region with a guide tomorrow and rest for a day, then challenge the unknown ocean instance the day after?”
“All right!” Every member agreed.
“Perhaps while we rest, someone will obtain a guide to the ocean region,” Yu Qimiao said.
The players who had been filled with fighting spirit moments earlier: “…”
Entering instances with someone who relied on guides was certainly safe, but it removed much of the excitement of exploration.
Forget it.
Everyone helplessly thought: their lives mattered more.
The next day, the entire Orphan Alliance selected the forest region because Su Qiong wanted to see squirrels.
Holding the guide, Yu Qimiao led them through the quest in twenty minutes.
They spent the remaining twenty-three hours and forty minutes catching squirrels for Su Qiong.
Several elite players chased rabbits around for an entire day.
By the third day, they still had not received a guide to the ocean region.
Xi Huaiji, the leader of Extremity, proactively contacted Yu Qimiao and said she had sent four groups of players into the ocean instance, all of whom had been completely wiped out.
“It seems this instance is quite difficult.” Yu Qimiao asked for everyone’s opinion. “Should we wait another day?”
Four days remained in Circle Two.
Aside from the final instance, the ocean was the only region they lacked a guide for.
They could comfortably wait for another group to clear it and provide them with information.
“Go!” Shi Yuntian answered without hesitation. “I prefer instances without guides.”
“Let’s go.” Lu Shufan recalled the previous day’s battle. “Playing an instance with a guide is boring. Even chasing rabbits was more exciting.”
“Su Qiong?” Yu Qimiao asked.
“I want to go too.” Su Qiong remembered his responsibility. “In an instance without a guide, I can trigger more clues.”
“All right.” Yu Qimiao did not insist on the cautious strategy.
With a guild full of experts, remaining cautious was impossible anyway.
However, before making the choice, he specifically instructed Moi and Qiyi that one twin had to remain in a region with a guide.
“The difficulty of the instance is unknown. It would be dangerous for both of you to enter together. I’ve already spoken to Xi Huaiji. Once we obtain the guide, she’ll escort the remaining sister through.”
“All right.”
Moi and Qiyi communicated silently for a while. In the end, Moi stepped forward to enter the instance with them.
“Yu Qimiao,” Lu Shufan suddenly said, “you’re becoming more and more like the leader of a gaming guild.”
“I wasn’t before?”
“How should I put it? Back in Gangan Village, you were responsible, but it felt like you mostly considered your own interests and ignored anything unrelated to you. Later, you began taking greater care of Su Qiong. Now, you divide your attention among every member of the team. You’re practically a divine team captain.”
“Mm-hm.” Moi nodded in agreement.
“I’m merely fulfilling the responsibilities of my position.”
“Stop being stubborn. You clearly enjoy fighting beside us.”
“I…” Yu Qimiao prepared to deny it.
Su Qiong raised his face and stared at him with shining eyes.
“Wow! You’re amazing!”
Yu Qimiao swallowed his original words.
“Yes. I’m amazing.”
Yu Qimiao resigned himself to the truth.
That was right.
He simply enjoyed acting as the mother of the entire team.
Six players and Su Qiong entered the ocean region together.
Once again, they realized that IF possessed extraordinary realism.
The so-called ocean region was truly an endless sea. As far as they could see, water stretched without limit, without even an island in the middle.
Shi Yuntian drew his sword and looked around blankly.
“What do we do now? Drink all the water?”
“Only you could think of that.”
Su Qiong actually considered the suggestion seriously.
“If we could really drink it all, that would count as a solution.”
If the ocean ceased to exist, the ocean instance would naturally collapse.
The premise was that the few of them could somehow drink an endless sea dry.
“I was joking,” Shi Yuntian said awkwardly. “What do we do next?”
Su Qiong crouched at the shore and touched the water, triggering a system prompt.
[System: A beautiful mermaid tribe lives in the deepest reaches of the sea. The mermaid chief has decided to hold a celebration tonight and select the most beautiful young mermaid as the tribe’s next leader.]
[Quest: Select a mermaid, help her participate in the celebration, and make her the chief.]
“So the task wants us to invest in a candidate?”
“The problem is that the mermaids live deep beneath the ocean. How are we supposed to reach them?”
Shi Yuntian carelessly jumped into the water.
“Our bodies must have been strengthened. Water won’t affect us.”
The moment he submerged himself, he choked on several mouthfuls.
The experiment proved that the players’ bodies had not been strengthened.
Finding a way to reach the seabed became their first major problem.
The system had not prepared any transportation.
No wonder the ocean instance had defeated so many players.
“I have an idea.” After saying that, Su Qiong looked toward Lu Shufan. “You don’t have to use my method.”
Then Su Qiong took out his all-purpose coffin.
Lu Shufan: “…”
Why was he still holding a grudge?
“I’m willing! Of course I’m willing! I was the first person to ride in your coffin!” Lu Shufan hurriedly expressed his approval.
ERROR glared at him, leaving Lu Shufan feeling innocent.
—What did I say wrong this time?
“Your coffin is so small. Can it hold all of us?” Moi asked worriedly.
“Yes.” Su Qiong enthusiastically promoted his item. “It looks a little ugly, but it’s extremely useful.”
The coffin shed silent tears.
Its ugly appearance was precisely why its master had transformed it into a wand.
In truth, anyone who scanned Su Qiong’s coffin would discover it was a spatial item with an almost limitless interior, large enough to hold at least five million players.
Su Qiong led everyone inside.
Using the coffin’s natural weight, they sank into the depths of the ocean.
The mermaids’ home was surrounded by a water-repelling barrier similar to the legendary Dragon Palace, allowing free movement inside.
Using his bandages to sense nearby auras, Su Qiong successfully found the mermaids’ location and landed safely.
After overcoming the first obstacle, they climbed out of the coffin and gained a much deeper appreciation for the diversity of species.
The system had not lied.
This place truly was inhabited by “mermaids.”
However, IF’s understanding of mermaids differed from the traditional image. They did not possess human upper bodies, fish tails, and long hair resembling seaweed.
Most of the merfolk here had fish heads and walked on human legs.
Others possessed fish heads and fish tails, with only a pair of human arms.
Even stranger were those divided vertically down the middle—half fish and half human.
Finding a normal-looking mermaid among them was harder than reaching the heavens.
Yet when the merfolk greeted one another, they sincerely praised each other’s beauty, making it extremely difficult for the players to determine the tribe’s definition of “beautiful.”
There were vast numbers of merfolk, at least several thousand by a rough estimate.
Selecting one “beautiful” fish from among them would not be easy.
Furthermore, their chosen candidate had to participate in the celebration and gain everyone’s recognition before becoming chief.
Faced with the strangely shaped fish before him, Su Qiong could not determine the standard of beauty.
“First, I need to confirm something.” He stiffly turned toward the others. “Do humans truly like mermaids?”
Some possessed sharp teeth and vicious expressions, with appearances that were genuinely explosive.
Why had humans lost their senses and turned such creatures into dreamlike figures of admiration?
“There may be a slight misunderstanding here.” Lu Shufan patted his forehead. “The mermaids we like have incomparably beautiful faces and sparkling tails.”
“That’s right,” Moi agreed. “Like the mermaid princess who turns into sea foam.”
“Like this?” Su Qiong picked up a twig and drew a simple fish on the ground, replacing its head with a human one.
“No. The entire upper body is human.”
“Like this?” Su Qiong made some adjustments, drawing a human body with fish fins.
“It has arms,” Yu Qimiao corrected him again.
“Forget it. I’ll draw one for you.”
After considerable effort, Su Qiong finally understood the correct form of a “mermaid” and simultaneously received a system prompt.
“It says a mermaid like that truly exists in the ocean. She hides in its deepest depths and rarely reveals herself. Even when she appears, she conceals her form.”
“She’s extremely cautious.”
“That isn’t the reason,” Su Qiong said. “She’s known as the ugliest mermaid in the ocean. She hides her appearance because she’s afraid of frightening everyone.”
Everyone: “???”
