Chapter 60: The Second Prophecy

After Sykes’s real body arrived at the Abyss Altar, he quickly checked the seal on the outside of the altar.
But as he had initially expected, he couldn’t see what changes had occurred to the seal.

It might be hard to believe, but although Sykes had a profound knowledge of runology and extensive research in various fields of knowledge, he knew nothing about the most important Abyss Altar of his own race.

So, Tom’s previous belief that [Sykes was the last fish to understand the abyss] was completely wrong.

From childhood to adulthood, the elders had never told Sykes anything about the abyss.
No matter how curious and eager he was about the knowledge of the abyss, he would be met with a merciless refusal.
Even Elder Laian, who had such a good temper that he could mingle with the children, would immediately turn cold when faced with this question, and seriously tell Sykes that this was not something he should inquire about.

He had only participated in a ritual once when he had just started to remember things, but because he was too young, he was left with only a vague impression, and a pungent smell that had made him uncomfortable for a long time.

The elders’ deliberate obstruction was also one of the reasons why Sykes had decided to leave home.

Later, after the merfolk clan’s accident, during the time Sykes had returned to the territory, he had once tried to study the runes on the altar with his experience in runology, but he could only understand the most superficial few sequential characters on the outer layer.

One must know that this kind of complete rune was like a long chain, connected by one small rune after another.
Even if ninety-nine percent of it was deciphered, without the last link, it was impossible to determine the full picture.

So when Tom said that the runemaster he knew had an impression of the abyss runes, Sykes didn’t believe it at all, only thinking it was a lie casually told by a down-and-out runemaster to attract customers.

How could an outsider know or even understand the runes of the Abyss Altar?

This altar, along with its runes, had stood above the abyss for an unknown number of years.
Many of the characters on it had long been lost in the long river of time.
Only the merman elders passed down the knowledge of the seal from generation to generation.
As for creatures from the outside world… absolutely impossible.

However, to say that Sykes had gained nothing from this trip seemed to be not quite right.
He discovered that a certain character he recognized had already deviated from its track.
Could this be related to the leakage of the abyss’s aura this time?
Would moving it back to its original position complete the seal?

Just as Sykes was about to reach out and try, his slender, fair hand froze in mid-air, because at this moment, he had received a signal from another consciousness.

[Don’t move!]

“Hey! Scott! Don’t go into that house!!”

Hua Yibing looked everywhere for his companion but couldn’t find him.
Instead, on the path to the lone wooden hut, he saw the other.
His figure was very close to the only building, so close that he could probably push open its door with just two more swims.

Without thinking, Huahua shouted out loud, stopping the other’s movement.

What a joke.
Even a reckless person like him knew that if something was out of the ordinary, there must be a monster.
There was only this one building on such a large plain, and this plain could also defend against those troublesome slimes.
It must be related to that house, right!

Scott, a fish who usually looked so mature and steady, why was he suddenly acting like he had lost his mind?

Hearing Hua Yibing’s shout, the other two players also turned their heads and were surprised to find that their companion was already so close to the house.
They flicked their tails and followed.

And Scott, that is, Sykes, had stopped.
He stood in front of the wooden house and looked at it from top to bottom with a faint gaze.
He could already be sure that this out-of-place hut on this plain was the place where Xavier had lived in the past.

And the reason why the slimes couldn’t come over should be… Sykes frowned fiercely, his disgust overflowing.

“Scott!” The three players had already caught up to the merman’s side.

Old Li: “Kids are always in a hurry, hahahaha!”

He didn’t blame Sykes for acting on his own, but rather heartily patted the other’s back and reminded him, “Next time, remember to call us along. After all, we’re companions. Even if we encounter danger, we can still look out for each other.”

Sykes composed his expression and looked back at the three players as if nothing had happened.
“The key clue should be in the house.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go, together!” Hua Yibing pushed his few companions from behind.

Finally arriving at the door of the house, this door was not tightly closed, but ajar, as if the owner had forgotten to close the door when they left, or had been swaggeringly invaded by an uninvited guest.

The 1234 team pushed open the door with extreme caution.
The wooden door made a creaking sound, which, combined with the empty facilities inside, looked a bit creepy.
It was still Old Li who took the lead and walked in, followed by Hua Yibing and Scott.
Yan Shuangwen observed the connection part of the door for a while and finally followed his companions.

There was nothing in the room on the first floor, as if no one had ever been there. A strange, deep purple mass, resembling a postmodern painting, comparable to abstract art, was slowly rotating on the ground, its form shifting as it turned. 

“What is this thing?” It looked a bit familiar. The merman reached out to grope it.
“A projection lamp? Isn’t this that kind of projection lamp?”

“A projection lamp?” The thought of the Siren’s characteristic curse being mistaken for a projection lamp curse suddenly brightened his mind.

“Yes, that’s right. It should be a projection lamp,” the merman said with a serious face and affirmation.

Yan Shuangwen knocked on Hua Yibing’s head, making a solid ‘thump’ sound.
“Don’t lead the little kid astray,” Yan Shuangwen said with a straight face.

But Old Li seemed to have seen something.
“Could this be the formation that prevents the slimes from coming forward? I feel that such a complicated scene must have some use. The developers can’t possibly set up a meaningless scene.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” Huahua held his head, his tune changing extremely quickly.
“The artist’s salary is not cheap!”

This time, Old Li had guessed correctly by a fluke.
This thing was exactly the large-scale curse that the sirens had set up when they came to check on their curse target because they couldn’t stand the harassment of the slimes.
If it were any other race, they wouldn’t set up such a magic-consuming large-scale expulsion curse in a place they would never come to a second time.
But sirens were different.

The sirens’ actions could never be inferred with common sense.
As long as they were happy, anything was possible.
They were extremely willful, self-centered, and unscrupulous creatures.

The four of them carefully explored this floor again, not even sparing the edges of the floor.
But besides this curse formation, there was nothing special on the first floor.
So the players began to head to the second floor.

The second floor clearly had more of a living atmosphere than the first, but this was only in comparison.

There were no partitions between these two floors.
One floor was one whole room.
To be precise, the room on the second floor only had a few more pieces of furniture than the first floor: there was a bed made of shells, a table woven from vines, a wooden chair, and several strange alchemy items piled on a large shelf against the wall.

“My god, does anyone really live here?”
Hua Yibing thought of his own jam-packed room and simply couldn’t imagine how anyone could live in such a simple and crude place, especially since there was no internet in the other world!

Thinking of it this way, the NPCs seemed a little pitiful?

“The owner of this house should be the type who doesn’t like to interact with people,” Yan Shuangwen pondered for a while and came to such a conclusion.
He had taken psychology for a period of time and could roughly infer the original owner’s traits just by looking at the room’s furnishings and the use of the items.

While he was circling the room and analyzing these things, the 100% pure gamers had already started to rummage through the boxes and cabinets.
Huahua ran directly to the shelf, while Old Li went to the vicinity of the table.
In short, they wanted to see what they could take back with them.
They absolutely could not return empty-handed!

A certain invisible flame of fighting spirit seemed to be burning behind the two of them.

Only after seeing where Xavier lived did Sykes finally understand why the other could abandon this territory without any lingering attachment—Xavier had probably never considered the place he had lived in for several hundred years as a home, right?
If there was no sense of belonging, then naturally he could pack up and leave at any time.

Just then, Old Li suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Hey? There seems to be words on this shell? It feels the same as what I saw in the main quest before!”

Sykes heard the key words, suddenly came back to his senses, and looked at Old Li with astonishment.
His brain hadn’t reacted yet, but his body had already swum to Old Li’s side like a sharp arrow.

Indeed, on the shell-made bed that Old Li was examining, on the inner side, a few lines of words had been carved by someone in the merman’s language.
Sykes bent down to look, his fingers gently brushing over the indented words—

[Do not move the seal. Let nature take its course.—Laian 3]

[Do not move the seal. Let nature take its course.]

This sentence made Sykes, who was far away at the Abyss Altar, freeze his outstretched palm.

Was this Elder Laian’s third instruction?
It just so happened that at a critical moment, he had obtained crucial information.
This made Sykes feel as if that childish big merman had already foreseen this scene today thousands of years ago.

The lonely merman couldn’t help but look up at the sky, futilely trying to find that familiar gaze—

Am I being watched by you?

Teacher Laian?

Of course, Sykes’s search would yield no results.
He took one last look at the old and unremarkable altar, then turned and left without any hesitation.

Since it was the elder’s judgment and was related to the merfolk clan, even if the prophecy had told him to open the entrance to the abyss directly, Sykes would have done so without hesitation.
Now it was just a matter of sitting back and letting nature take its course.
Of course, he would not have any objections.

“Ella,” the silver-haired, golden-eyed, radiant merman said with a straight face.

[Yes, Master.]
And the little red sprite was, as always, at his beck and call.

“Prepare the main quest related to this to wrap up this exploration event. Don’t let the players see anything amiss. By the way, contact Tom. The closed beta… should also be over.”

[Yes, Master.]

Ella, who was staying in the exchange post, paused for a moment.
A stream of complex data seemed to flash through her inorganic, crimson eyes.

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