Chapter 131: The Mermaid Princess (1)

Xingwen remained unresponsive. It was as plain and indifferent as drinking a glass of cool, boiled water.

Tang Mu sighed. It was hard to say whether it was disappointment or composure. Perhaps she had long since grown accustomed to these days of frequent separation from her lover.

Others might perceive her as aloof, cold, resolute, and heartless. As time passed, she had come to accept herself as such—aloof, cold, resolute, and heartless.

But only Yan Xingwen.

He alone was the one person capable of drawing out the few fragments of tenderness she held for this world.

***

After exiting the instance, Qiao Yuan led his association members to calculate their rewards.

This included Tang Mu; she, too, had to undergo the tally.

"Remember, don't forget that the association takes a 10% cut of the points you earn." Compared to her sister An Xiaoyue, An Xiaoyue really lacked a great deal of ferocity. She clearly hated Tang Mu to the core, yet she always preferred to act with restraint, unwilling to engage in a direct confrontation.

She was someone who hid behind others, someone long accustomed to hiding.

Tang Mu ignored An Xiaoyue. She didn't bother selling any of her items, either.

She simply clicked directly to enter the next game.

This action stunned An Xiaoyue. Tang Mu actually dared to proceed without a break? Even those few S-rank players standing at the pinnacle of the pyramid wouldn't dare to take on four or five instances in a row like Tang Mu!

"Qiao Yuan, Tang Mu is entering another game!" As Qiao Yuan’s loyal lackey, An Xiaoyue naturally reported Tang Mu’s movements to him the moment they occurred.

Qiao Yuan naturally wore a look of disapproval.

"We’ve already lost two members of our association in this A-rank instance. The association has expenses; it can't afford such losses. You..."

Facing Qiao Yuan’s nagging, Tang Mu tossed him a C-rank item, [White Silk]. It was worth 320,000 points in the shop.

Qiao Yuan shut his mouth.

"I’m leaving."

Tang Mu barely even sat down before she grabbed the USB drive Qiao Yuan had given her—the one capable of precisely locating Yan Xingwen’s brainwaves—and entered the game.

"Welcome, player, to the instance 'The Mermaid Princess.' You have now entered the game five times without a break. Is this a true reflection of the motto: 'I am brave, therefore I am fearless'?"

Tang Mu, "..."

"Alright, no more nonsense. I wish you a pleasant game!"

The world turned black.

When the scene before Tang Mu’s eyes cleared, she found herself on a massive sailing ship. It was a giant treasure ship, eighteen zhang long and four point four zhang wide. The enormous sails billowed in the sea breeze, propelling the giant vessel forward.

However, the ship’s progress was far from smooth. Waves were churning, and lightning flashed and thundered. They were currently in the heart of a storm. Because the ship was constantly tilting, the cargo inside had spilled out, covering the deck.

People standing on the deck had their clothes and hair whipped by the fierce gale. They were even occasionally struck by the loose cargo, causing them excruciating pain.

"Damn it, are we going to go down this time?"

"No, we can't! We can't go down!" A middle-aged man, looking like a sailor, spat onto the deck. "We finally caught a mermaid this time; we can't let it go! One mermaid is worth ten chests of gold. It’s worth more than the entire cargo of this ship!"

Tang Mu had just regained her senses, and the NPCs were already busy pushing the plot forward.

They were truly a model of dedication.

"Besides, I heard this mermaid is the most beautiful in its entire tribe. The mermaid tribe calls it the Mermaid Princess! It’s the mermaid specifically requested by the Saudi royal family. If we can't bring it back, our whole families will die!"

"But... we're going to die right now..."

Mermaids—Sirens. An angelic face with a devilish voice. They emit a fatal song that sailors find impossible to resist, luring them close only to crush their necks and turn the prey into a meal.

To avoid being bewitched by their fatal song, sailors would seal their ears with wax to survive.

And now, there was a mermaid on their giant ship.

The mermaid had been captured, and it was summoning a storm, intending to drag everyone on the ship to their deaths.

Ha.

The opening was a dead end.

How unexpectedly expected.

"You." The captain pointed at Tang Mu. "The mermaid must be hungry. Go on, let it eat you. It will likely stop its rage and bless the ship with safety!"

Tang Mu was not the only one transported into the game. Just on the deck alone, there were over a dozen ordinary passengers dressed quite differently from the sailors. With a single glance, Tang Mu knew clearly that these people, like her, were players transported into the game.

"Why should I go?" Tang Mu had already played five games; she was no longer a novice. So, she ignored the NPC. "If you want to go, go yourself."

"Damn it." The sailor spat on the deck again. "Get one thing straight: you're just an ordinary passenger. If you dare to disobey us, we can toss you overboard in a heartbeat. Do you believe me?"

"Why waste so much breath on her?" Another sailor picked up a whip and lashed it hard against the floor.

The whip was specially made. Edged with iron wire, it sounded no different from the cracking thunder when it struck the floor.

The "bang" was enough to shatter one's eardrums.

But Tang Mu still showed no particular reaction.

Damn it, she’d met a tough nut.

The sailor cursed and, steadying himself on the undulating deck, moved step by step toward the giant iron cage holding the Mermaid Princess. With a "whoosh," he tore off the tarpaulin covering the cage.

The true appearance of the Mermaid Princess was revealed.

It was beautiful.

Beautiful, shimmering, dreamlike blue scales covered its body. Under the light, it emitted a multicolored glow. The fish tail was long—two or three times the length of its upper body. Sea-blue hair cascaded loosely over its shoulders. Its androgynous, stunning facial features made one fall in love from the very bottom of their heart just by looking.

But why was the so-called Mermaid Princess in their mouths actually male?

Tang Mu was certain she saw the mermaid’s Adam's apple.

Combined with his broad chest, sturdy abdominal muscles, and the inverted triangle physique exclusive to men, everything declared to Tang Mu the fact that the individual was a man.

Even though his temples, elbows, and the lateral lines of the fish tail were covered in incredibly beautiful fins—a fantasy creature not of Earth—nothing could change the fact that his gender was male.

Before Tang Mu could confirm further, the sailor’s whip lashed down hard onto the mermaid.

The vicious iron whip was as fierce as the merciless lightning.

In an instant, a long streak of blood appeared across the mermaid's chest down to its tail.

"Hisss!" The shrill hiss of the mermaid caused the face of this creature, which had been so beautiful a second ago, to instantly twist into a hideous snarl. It bared the sharp teeth within its maw, as if the beauty from moments before had all been a hallucination.

"When a mermaid is injured, it becomes abnormally hungry to accelerate the healing of its wounds. At such times, their craving for food transcends everything." A player huddled in the corner, trembling. He was a novice player who had only been taken into ten instances by the association. All the items he had earned had been confiscated by the association under the guise of "training." He had never accumulated a substantial fortune of his own. Now that his novice allowance had been used up, the association, seeing no more profit to be gained from him, had abandoned him to fend for himself in an A-rank instance.

He had no confidence in clearing the instance.

Therefore, he would try his best to form an alliance with a player worth teaming up with.