382 The BEST News! A fiery-haired once beauty gazed at the Abyss, clutching her slender fingers. “Come back already….” Jack was in there, no doubt fighting the powerful Noble Mermaid. All she could do was believe in him, wishing with all her heart for his safe being. It felt bad. No, it felt horrible. The feeling of helplessness was the worst ever. What would she do if he didn’t come back? Avenge him? Return to the farm? Perhaps follow in his footsteps and dive into the Abyss? “Please just come back.” As if the world had heard her prayers, bubbles suddenly rose from the dark hole, a blurry figure appearing. Blub! Blub! He was back! He was— but then the newcomer was revealed. A slender frame, a delicate tail, a face perfect enough for any man to take another glance, she was back. No, this couldn’t be. Didn’t this mean that he?!— “Oh? You seem disappointed. Were you perhaps expecting someone else?” The Mermaid playfully uttered as she approached, extending her hand toward Pumpkin Girl’s head. “Even after all that torture, even with that messed-up face of yours, he was still calling your name until the end….” Her whisper was full of longing. The end?! No bloody way! Pumpkin Girl’s knees suddenly turned weak. It was all her fault. She had come to the lake, and he had followed. If only she had waited for him at the farm, if only she were stronger, if only…
At that moment, it wasn’t just raining. It was pouring. Regret, self-blame, a piece of her soul had been taken away as he had. “You’re crying? What good will crying do? Actually, you can stay here and cry until the lake overflows for all I care, punishment for your foolishness.” The Mermaid chuckled as she waved her hand. Suddenly a blue water barrier engulfed Pumpkin Girl, sealing her from the rest of the world, restraining her there, but even then, she barely noticed it. The world returned to quiet as the Mermaid left, a broken soul remaining. Pumpkin Girl was so out of it that she barely sensed the aquatic people that soon emerged from the nearby rocks, barely noticed as they tried breaking the barrier. — Clang! Clang! Clang! — “How is that thing so strong?!” “It was made by a noble Mermaid, duh!” “Sigh. I guess we can’t bring her back to Gargan. Still, that bastard’s dead, and that’s all that matters. Let’s go back to the base already.” With one last glance at the sobbing woman, they all disappeared one by one, not noticing how the light in her eyes had changed. A few seconds later, she even began mumbling. “What would he do?” Perhaps he was dead. Perhaps his corpse had been obliterated too. No matter what had happened to him, she’d find him and bring him back, whatever it took, no matter how demonic the magic she had to use. That’s when her entire body shook, a strange dark green glow enveloping her, akin to a corrupted version of her Life Magic. [Error! Error! Problematic Parameter!] [NPC Going Haywire?! Analyzing, Recalib—] “Begone. The voice, this barrier….and this bloody world! Without him, none of it matters. So please, just shut the hell up.” She growled. That’s when she struck. She slammed her fist against the magical barrier. She slammed it so hard that the sound echoed all around, so hard that her knuckles bled, so strongly that a creaking sound was heard from her bones. Then she did it again, again, and again. She was akin to a terminator robot that couldn’t feel any ounce of pain. She did it until her hands broke and kept going until finally… — Kacha! — The prison shattered, yet she didn’t rejoice. She simply walked away, leaving a trail of blood in her way. She was going back to the surface and wouldn’t return before she had grown stronger. “Just wait for me….” Calm slowly but surely returned to the lake.
The Abyss was especially quiet and as dark as ever. It remained like that for a while, but suddenly a shadowy figure surrounded by a couple of Cleaners cautiously emerged from it, softly speaking to the creatures. 22:42
“Are you sure Gargan’s sentries are gone?”
* Affirmative Bug Wriggling *
Without hesitating, Jack rushed forward. He couldn’t wait to get the hell out of this place with— What the fuck?! Pumpkin Girl was gone, only the fragments of a flickering magical barrier remaining. That freaking Mermaid had promised she’d be there waiting for him to emerge. Had she been attacked? No, the protective barrier had been destroyed…from the inside?! Pumpkin Girl’s Soft Fists > Mermaid Magic…How?! No, knowing how didn’t matter one bit right now. The problem was the whole plan going to shit! Faked Own Death! ✔️
Negotiated with Mermaid ✔️
Riding Away In the Sunset with Pumpkin Girl 🗙
He’d be able to catch up to her right, right?! He hurriedly ran after her, cursing the system under his breath, the damn thing remaining bloody silent. Meanwhile, a certain Mermaid was praising herself for a well-done job, not knowing the evil she had unknowingly released. Her mental state was still a mess at the moment, as she went from sighing to giggling to herself while furiously blushing. “Back in the mirage, he called me cute!” The cold, calculative Mermaid that wanted to capture Jack for her own design was nowhere to be found, not that she realized herself. After all, what had seemed like only a few hours in the real world, had felt like an eternity in the mirage. Jack had slowly but surely chipped at her cold heart.
She remembered every interaction they had, from beginning to end. She had tried murdering him so many times in the beginning, but it felt so silly now. He luckily survived every time, thanks to one thing or another, but in the end they had cooperated to clear the mirage. He had so many opportunities to get rid of her, yet he hadn’t. Slowly but surely, she had changed her mind about him. He was wise He had protected her. He wasn’t scared by her noble Status. He was just perfect! Well…if it weren’t for his insistence on returning to that one farm girl. If only she could have made her disappear without him knowing, sigh. Still, she had hope for the future. She simply needed to do her job perfectly. Then he’d be sure to reward her, right? Actually, what should she even ask for? Somehow this seemed harder than politics! But suddenly, her whole body shivered as she remembered the time he threatened to eat her. Somehow that didn’t sound that bad! She hurried back to the Palace… ━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
“Dead? He’s dead?! Great! You’ve done well, Tiara, very well!” The towering octopus had never received better news. The human-looking bastard that had destroyed the Capital was finally dead! Still, there was one thing missing. “What about the Water-Pearl?” “My Lord, it’s regrettably been destroyed in the fight.” The Mermaid replied. “No matter, as long as he’s gone. Now, there is only one thing left for us to do….” Gargan chuckled. He obviously meant the reconstruction of Mermaid City. It would be one hell of a troublesome project that would take months at the very least, if not years. “My Lord, how should we proceed with the rebuilding?” A random fish nearby asked, eager to get on with the process. All he got was a look of disdain from the “Emperor”. “Rebuilding? What rebuilding? We’re swimming to war! Prepare the weapons, and get the men ready. We’re removing the human scourge right now!” Gargan bellowed. “W-war? My Lord, shouldn’t we focus on recovering inste—”
The protesting guy never finished his sentence, a ginormous fist splitting his head open, the whole thing exploding like a crushed watermelon. “Anyone else?” The silence couldn’t have been heavier. Some clenched their fists, and many showed disgust, but they all shivered in fear. Just like that, it was decided that they were going to war. A few minutes later, the entire lake was marching to war. Fishes, Crustaceans, Mermaids, and scaled beings of all kinds, all of them! [They Are Coming!] That was the only warning the system ever gave.
Then it began, so quickly that no player got the chance to react. A few just happened to be farming on the beach at that very moment. They were happily slicing some Murlocks, not a care in the world. “Take that, you scaly freak! Give me loot!” “Hehe, these guys are easy XP!” “Yep, level 22, here I go!” But suddenly, one of them completely froze as he stared at the nearby water. Was he imagining things, or were there tons of monsters?! TONS! “G-guys, run, we gotta ru—”
There was a whistling sound. A spear flew, quickly landing in the player’s chest. -80 There was only one damage number, nothing else. That’s how the players knew they were fucked. They ran…or at least they tried. They never stood a chance, a few more “gifts” reaching them. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━ YOU DIED! ━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Their vision went dark one after the other. There was no resisting, there was no fleeing, there was only dying. The last thing they saw was the army stepping across their dead body, their bloody weapons already aimed at the distance. The sand shook. The lake water surged, overflowing.
Even the sky turned cloudy, a mighty wind raging as if a bad omen. “They dare to hunt our brethren? Today is the day of reckoning. Today humanity falls!!” Amidst the storm, a powerful voice resounded. It wasn’t just an empty declaration of war: he seriously meant it. After all, he had seen firsthand the damage that vile race could cause… Holy hell, that one was clutch! I’m not proud to admit it, but I WILL seduce a fish if the need arises…and did, actually. Her feelings are the reason she didn’t enslave me. #Great Success! ClasslessAscension
Creator’s Thought