It was late at night, and a crescent moon hung high in the sky, illuminating the mansions below.

High in the tower, the glass windows of the secret room reflected the cold moonlight, and faintly, through the heavy and dense black mosquito net, a figure could be seen lying on the bed.

A slight snoring came from the silk bedding, a quiet and peaceful sound that had not been heard in the room for months.

The snoring owner was able to relax so easily, perhaps thanks to the intricate geometric patterns painted on the ground around the wooden bed—

The motif is octagonal in shape, composed of several circles and diagonal lines, and a slow-burning orange candle is placed in each of the eight corners, and some strange words are drawn around the candle that have never been seen in this world.

Except for the snoring, the room was silent, with no deafening mosquitoes buzzing – the cotton mats glued to the walls provided sound insulation to block out the distant sounds that ran along the walls of the old mansion.

"Whew..."

The figure lying on the bed turned over comfortably and buried its head in the soft pillow,

He didn't notice at all that outside the narrow glass window, a pair of dark eyes appeared at some point.

The eyes stared silently at the figure on the bed, and it took a long time to look away and focus on the candles around the wooden bed.

A breeze blew inexplicably from the window, and all the candles were extinguished, leaving only a wisp of smoke rising from the wick.

The owner of the eyes waited quietly for a while, but the magic array did not react at all to the extinguishing of the candle, and there was no wave.

So, it moved.

A pitch-black palm slowly approached the metal fence outside the glass window,

At the moment when it was about to make contact with the fence, it melted directly into a puddle of clear water, and easily passed through.

A ball of water, tumbling over the fence, slid into the glass window, and descended all the way down the cotton mat, leaving no water stains in the process, as if the water balloon had some kind of barrier on its surface.

Soon, the water ball landed on the wooden floor, and it stretched out a tentacle and carefully rolled up a book that had fallen to the ground, knocking down the extinguished candle on the magic circle.

Nothing happened.

The water balloon plucked up its courage and directly touched the magic circle with its tentacles, erasing part of the pattern with the water source.

Still nothing happened.

The water balloon was finally safe to do, only to see it roll backwards and retreat some distance, then curl up and begin to tremble rapidly.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, the water balloon quickly evaporated and finally disappeared completely, leaving no water stains.

Then...

The corner of the heavy mosquito net was slowly lifted by an invisible force, or an invisible hand composed of water vapor.

The water vapor, invisible to the naked eye, burrowed into the mosquito net, suspended in mid-air, staring at the silk bedding that towered out of the silhouette of a human figure.

"Ho-ho-ho-"

An extremely faint sound like the humming of boiling water sounded in mid-air,

Vapor slowly pulled the quilt open, as soft as a loving wife waking up her husband in the morning.

Then it saw a young Asian man lying on the bed in Peter's same pajamas, with a wicked smile on his lips, and the exaggeratedly large scythe in his hand that slashed at it.

The silhouette of the water vapor clearly felt the terrifying aura attached to the sickle,

It was an unknown energy that could hurt it, even split it in two.

The contours of the water vapor let out a terrible scream, and the frantic wind directly tore the mosquito nets around the wooden bed and blew them away, and the whole room was shaken, and many soundproof cotton pads fell to the ground.

It retreated sharply, but the distance between the two sides was so close that the scythe reflecting the cold moonlight finally slashed at it.

"Whew-"

The sound of breaking the air suddenly rose and died down,

The receding silhouette of the vapor slammed into the wall and collapsed to the ground.

It quickly turned into a water balloon, then into a ... Merman.

As Peter described earlier,

It, or her, had a long, fishtail covered in dense fluorescent green scales, and a dark-skinned human upper body wearing two shells.

Compared to humans, her torso and arms appear more narrow and thin,

The body is shriveled and undulating,

Between the fingers, there is a green film like duck webs, and a layer of mucus is attached to the film - like fishtail scales.

The slime emitted a seaweed-like scent, but not a fresh, natural smell, but a salty, sticky smell that resembled the decaying stench of sea creatures, and even holding your breath couldn't stop the horrible smell from burrowing into your nose.

And her face ....

The face seems to be irregular and bizarre in places, with a flat nose bridge that extends upwards into a receding forehead, but the brow bone is high and elongated and narrow.

The same slender eyelids are distributed under the brow bone, and the pupils are dark and deep, revealing a disturbing evil feeling like the deep sea.

The most concerning thing is the exaggerated eye distance between the two eyeballs.

As Peter describes, he looks like an anglerfish, a flounder,

The presence of this facial structure in fish can already cause discomfort, and the reproduction of this structure in humans induces an indescribable fear, like a maliciously distorted humanoid doll – an instinct-based revulsion that a little common sense would call the uncanny valley effect.

Overall, the mermaid was a biodegraded specimen, especially after Leon noticed the quivering, pink gills growing on either side of her neck.

It was immediately linked to the legendary Deep Diver.

Even with Li Ang's psychological quality, after carefully examining this monster, he couldn't help but gasp,

'No wonder Peter would have been frightened into a state of insanity, for if he was kissed by such a 'mermaid' in the deep sea, a human with a slightly less determined mind would have lost his mind on the spot, not to mention the foul smell that came out of his fangs..."

The more closely he looked at it, the deeper Leon's pity for Peter became.

He leapt out of bed, scythe in both hands, and walked towards the mermaid who had collapsed to the ground.

At this point, several players and the Mansion Spellcaster who heard the sound of the Chamber of Secrets had already arrived - John Joyce and Bob kicked the door open, and Julia the Smoker walked out of the secret door in the room on the left.

Two spellcasters hired by the Archon walked out of the room on the right.

Everyone's eyes fell on the mermaid.

The mermaid had just been slashed in the chest by Li Ang's sickle, and a large amount of fluorescent green blood was splashed on the floor beside him, but in just a few seconds, the injuries that could have seen the internal organs of the bones had almost healed.

In the face of the indifferent scrutiny of the spellcasters, the mermaid did not panic, and slowly said in a hoarse voice like metal rubbing: "What about my husband? ”