Chapter 31 Whispers of the Abyss (2) What kind of ending will you ultimately face...?
We have to escape.
What does it say in "The Dream Guide"?
Article 50 of the "Dream Entry Manual": When the client displays aggression and refuses to open the dream exit, the executor should first imagine and call out the name of the dreamer in their mind, explaining the need for help. The considerate, all-powerful dreamer, who cares about the well-being of employees, will soon come to the rescue.
Of course, sometimes aid may not arrive so quickly. In such cases, the mission executor must stall for a little longer to avoid being killed by the client or hiding in the depths of the dream.
If those worst-case scenarios do indeed occur, then the kind-hearted Mr. Eater can only bid you a sorrowful farewell and post a new job advertisement on the Abyss Forum...
Okay, stop jinxing.
Xia Ying stopped reminiscing, sketching in her mind a hooded monster that looked like it was wearing a tattered rag, and said to it:
Eaters! Mr. Charybdis has gone mad! Come to his rescue!
After doing all this, Xia Ying quickly looked up at the sunlight streaming down and immediately decided on her escape route.
She suddenly pushed the siren away and fled backward, but this was, after all, the sea, and the siren's dream. In terms of swimming speed, Xia Ying had no advantage at all... Of course, she had taken this into consideration.
Xia Ying crawled into the submarine entrance, turned the engine on full throttle, and steered the submarine toward the sea.
The moment Xia Ying entered the steel structure and left the seawater, she felt a sense of security rising from the bottom of her heart, like snuggling into a thick quilt after a nightmare... However, she soon realized that this sense of security was just an illusion.
Suddenly, a teeth-grinding scraping sound came from the metal exterior of the submarine. Through the small round window with thick, pressure-resistant glass, Xia Ying saw Charybdis approaching the submarine.
The siren still retains the basic form of a mermaid, but the feeling it evokes has undergone a complete transformation.
His scales turned a black that suited his ability to blend into the abyss, his nails became hard and sharp, and his tail grew thicker and larger, with bony spikes protruding from its tip. At this moment, the siren could no longer be associated with descriptions of being delicate and frail; he revealed his true form as a deep-sea monster.
The deep-sea monster gripped the submarine's hull with its claws and slammed its tail against the hull, sending violent shocks into the cockpit.
Xia Ying and the siren struggled to maintain control over the dream, trying their best to prevent the submarine from falling apart, while continuously increasing their speed in an attempt to leave the siren behind.
The submarine broke through the seawater even faster, and the hull suddenly felt lighter, and the scraping sound outside disappeared. For a few moments, Xia Ying almost thought that her method had worked.
But then, Xia Ying saw through the probe that faintly glowing, translucent tentacles, like a veil, were quietly enveloping the submarine.
This was indeed a spectacular sight at sea, but it was also a deadly hunt.
The drooping jellyfish tentacles suddenly tightened, forcefully stabbing at the hull. At first, the metal shell only showed small bumps, but with the repeated attacks of the jellyfish tentacles, several places could not withstand the pressure and suffered minor damage. However, Xia Ying still withstood this wave of attacks, and the submarine continued to advance towards the sea.
After that, silence fell again outside the submarine. The translucent tentacles disappeared from the detection mirror, and the battered submarine moved forward silently, getting very close to the surface.
The next second, the submarine finally leaped out of the sea!
But what greeted Xia Ying was not dry air and a clear sky, but a pitch-black void devoid of light.
Where is this? Are we back on land?
Xia Ying thought cautiously and did not leave the submarine immediately.
Damn it, I can't see anything. Don't they have lights in the submarine?
She suddenly remembered that she was in a dream and could create a light source with her thoughts. So she grabbed a flashlight out of thin air in the darkness, turned it on, and the beam of light suddenly shone, illuminating a part of the submarine's interior.
Xia Ying first looked into the detection mirror, and sure enough, it was pitch black.
She inspected the damaged area of the submarine again, and it appeared to be in acceptable condition, without any further damage.
Just as she raised her flashlight to check the damage to the top, the beam accidentally swept past the porthole. Xia Ying turned her head sharply and met a pair of eyes in front of the window.
Those were a pair of deep blue, almost black eyes, like a deep-sea rift. After Xia Ying noticed them, the rift expanded joyfully, swallowing up all the whites of the eyes and completely transforming into a truly empty and deep abyss.
"I really like the story of 'The Little Mermaid,' but it is, after all, a work of human imagination, full of wishful thinking about the sea."
Haiyuan spoke softly, his voice passing through the metal structure and clearly reaching Xia Ying's ears.
"If the sea were to write this story, it would probably go something like this... The mermaid fell in love with the prince at first sight, so she summoned a storm that tore their ship apart in the night, taking the prince back to the deep sea forever."
His voice carried a hint of amusement: "Xia Ying, I forgot to tell you, there's no land in today's dream."
Xia Ying's eyes widened.
The sudden weight of the ocean current crushed the submarine, sending seawater surging into its interior. Along with this came clusters of strong, thick octopus tentacles. Some of these tentacles clung firmly to the inside of the submarine with suckers, while others deftly broke apart the metal shell, probing the soft, warm flesh inside like sucking on an oyster.
Xia Ying tried her best to dodge in the cramped cabin, but more and more tentacles crawled in, and she was inevitably captured by them, wrapped up and dragged towards the abyss.
At this critical moment, a voice abruptly interrupted the scene.
"Wait, wait, Charybdis, this part wasn't written into our deal!"
A spectacular explosion resounded in the water, severing the wrists and feet that were gripping Xia Ying. The turbulent seawater swept her along, and they were thrown far away by the shockwave.
Then, a tattered piece of cloth wrapped around Xia Ying. She looked up, dizzy and disoriented, and saw nothingness hidden under the hood.
Xia Ying sat up and yanked the opening of her hood into a ball: "Savior my foot! You're too slow!!!"
Despite the diner's verbal pleas for mercy, the tattered cloth draped over his body inflated like a balloon, causing Xia Ying to loosen her grip.
On the other side, Charybdis, who had almost transformed into a giant deep-sea whirlpool, was also slowly moving over, while the Eater continued to expand, expanding endlessly. The cloth he used to cover his essence had become as wide as the night sky, obscuring this dream world that contained nothing but the ocean itself.
Charybdis and the Eater collided, the two incomprehensible behemoths devouring each other, and Xia Ying nervously observed the situation.
In the stalemate, the predator expanded its body once more, then opened its enormous mouth and swallowed the ocean and the sirens together.
The Devourer had grown so large that it filled every corner of the dream, and as it devoured everything, Xia Ying was sucked into its belly as well.
Inside the enormous body of the eater, she once again experienced that chilling feeling of being squeezed by slippery internal organs. Fortunately, this feeling did not last long, and Xia Ying was soon vomited up again.
The diner muttered under his breath, still shaken, "That was close, I almost couldn't resist swallowing it."
...Did you secretly say something scary?
Xia Ying touched the hard ground where she was lying, then looked up at the blue sky above her head, feeling a sense of relief at surviving the ordeal.
Anyway, we're finally back on land.
A soft groan came from beside her, and Xia Ying realized that Charybdis had also been vomited on next to her.
She quickly got up, created some distance, and watched the other person's every move warily.
Mr. Siren has transformed back into his mermaid form. He slowly awoke, his eyes filled with innocent confusion. He struggled to prop himself up with his slender arms, his hair cascading down his snow-white back. His skin and scales shimmered in the sunlight, making him appear incredibly beautiful.
"...Every move he made was carefully designed!"
The diner took two steps back as if he had seen something terrifying, and was greatly shocked.
"Could ordinary abyssal creatures do these things? Charybdis, are you possessed by some strange thing?!"
The beautiful siren shifted her gaze to the tattered rag, her expression changing drastically: "What are you doing here?"
“I’m here to stop you from causing a workplace injury to my excellent employee, and of course, I need to charge you a penalty.” The man said, pulling a ledger from his hood. “Charybdis, given that you violated the clause ‘No coercion or harm to the delegate,’ please pay me ten times the penalty…”
The siren rubbed her temples: "Just how out of control was I when you arrived?"
"That's pretty much it." The Eater coldly filled in a large sum in the penalty column. "Even that super terrifying true form was seen, so stop pretending to be weak, really..."
He suddenly stopped writing: "Wait, are you still in your courtship phase?"
The siren nodded silently.
"Courtship... Sirens are indeed more dangerous during courtship than usual..." Cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the nonexistent eater. "Um, I think I almost forgot about that..."
Xia Ying stood up, grabbed the tattered hood by the collar of her clothes, and looked down at him, saying, "So you knew there was a risk, yet you still threw me here to carry out this commission?"
The hooded monster was sweating even more profusely: "I-I'm sorry, it was just a momentary lapse in attention..."
Xia Ying snatched the paper and pen from his hand without any hesitation.
Xia Ying added a few more zeros to the amount of the breach of contract and slammed it back onto the hood.
"Please transfer the compensation to my account as soon as possible, thank you!"
"I will do everything I can to make up for my mistakes, whether it's compensation or something else. In addition, I will sign a supplementary agreement to relinquish half of my control over the dream and ensure your safety as much as possible."
After saying this, the siren looked up at Xia Ying pitifully and whispered.
"As long as... as long as doing this will make you willing to see me again."
Xia Ying did not answer. The hope in the siren's eyes dimmed, gradually replaced by sadness.
"Exactly! It's mainly Charybdis's fault!"
Seeing the focus shift, the customer instantly bounced back from a flat, guilty state to a ball, fanning the flames.
"Shouldn't he be punished? How could he lose control just because our succubus is so cute?!"
Upon hearing the word "succubus," Charybdis's eyes flickered, and he subconsciously looked at Xia Ying behind the eater.
Forgot about that.
Xia Ying's gaze tightened immediately upon seeing the sea monster, her mind racing.
What will Charybdis do? Will he reveal his human identity to the diner? How will the diner react upon learning this?
Or perhaps, he might use this to threaten me? Or...?
But the siren simply averted her gaze.
“I’m sorry, Miss Succubus.” He lowered his head. “It seems there won’t be many more opportunities to apologize in the future.”
The dream began to churn; this was the ruler of this place opening a passage for them to leave.
The sky instantly turned from clear to overcast, and a storm was lurking behind the clouds, a sign that the dream was about to worsen.
Just as the drinker was about to pull Xia Ying towards the passage in the air, Xia Ying suddenly stopped and whispered a few words in his ear.
"Have you thought it through?" the diner asked in surprise. "If you're willing, I have no objection... Charybdis is very trustworthy, and most importantly, he's very wealthy (whispering). I don't want to lose such a big client."
So Xia Ying let go of his hand, turned back to the sorrowful siren, bent down and asked him.
Can you keep your word?
The siren raised her face and stared at her blankly.
"And the answer?"
The siren's expression turned panicked: "I...I can swear to the supreme laws of Cocytus."
"That's good." Xia Ying nodded. "Also, I need your unconditional help to accomplish something that won't harm yourself... If you agree, I'll tell you what it is later."
The siren's face finally cleared, revealing the sun: "I agree!"
She turned and left, returning to the Eater's side. The Eater wrapped her up in a rag and flew towards the dream passage.
A strong wind howled, and the first raindrop fell onto the sea, creating a whirlpool.
Xia Ying glanced back at that moment, and the siren left behind watched her from afar. Then she jumped into the dark sea, splashing up waves.
They left the dream of Charybdis.
Xia Ying and the Su Zhe walked through the dream corridor together. On the outside of the corridor were countless dream cocoons of abyssal creatures. They were different in size and shape, and they operated on their own, like strange celestial bodies that were independent of each other.
“This is quite an interesting scene, isn’t it?” said the Eater. “No two abyssal creatures can have exactly the same dream. Some dreams are boring, some are dazzling, and some… look delicious.”
He slowed his pace and turned around gently: "Xia Ying, this is my well-intentioned advice. Even if you think it's profitable, don't always provoke the desires of the creatures of the abyss."
“The Demon Lord said something similar to me,” Xia Ying said calmly. “However, thank you for your suggestion.”
"I bet you won't listen."
The diner seemed to smile, and a viscous, strange substance oozed from under his hood, pushing Xia Ying towards a dream cocoon.
"Then let me see what kind of ending awaits you."
Xia Ying fell into her own dream.
####
She woke up.
The dragon lay on its side beside her, propping its head up with its hand, its long, deep red hair cascading down, its gaze lowered.
"You've been having a lot of dreams lately."
"Hmm." Xia Ying looked at him. "It's probably because of too much pressure."
The dragon chuckled softly and slowly sat up.
His movements suddenly stopped, and his sharp gaze turned towards the outside of the dragon's cave.
Where the dragon looked, a bird-like creature was flying in. It skimmed over the lava pool, darted into the dragon's nest, and circled above the cave.
Xia Ying then realized that it was not a bird or any other creature, but a roll of parchment.
Flying parchment?
The dragon stretched out its hand, and the parchment obediently fell into its grasp. Then, a cluster of dragonfire rose up, igniting the parchment, and a black invitation with gold lettering gradually emerged from the flames and ashes.
Fafnir glanced at it and scoffed, "It's that time of year again."
The invitation, its mission accomplished, was casually tossed aside by the dragon. Curious about its contents, Xia Ying used the wind to stop it, then pinched a corner of the card and read its contents:
Your Majesty, the Crimson-Crowned King
Thirty days from now, we cordially invite you to attend the King of the Rings Conference to discuss important matters. This conference concerns several issues, including border defense and agreements on border exchanges, which urgently require your joint discussion and decision-making.
We look forward to your arrival as scheduled.
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Author's Note: Siren Bro: "The Little Mermaid" is anthropocentric.
The author thinks that the part where Siren chases the submarine is currently the scariest part of this lighthearted web novel...
9.23 Correct typos
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