Chapter 398 "Floor 7" (4)
As the crowd continued to move along the shore, the sound coming from the front became clearer and clearer, but the sound always had a vague feeling. Although the perception of the sound became clearer and clearer, the crowd could not confirm whether they were getting closer to the source of the sound.
This situation became even more obvious after another half an hour. The surrounding environment was exactly the same as the location where they started more than an hour ago, except that the metal signboard was gone. However, the sound not only came from the front, but there seemed to be the same sound from the back. Although this incident made everyone immediately alert, they did not choose to stop or turn back, but continued to move in the direction where the sound came from.
Finally, in the second hour, everyone could clearly distinguish what the sound was. It seemed like someone was humming an unknown tune. The tune was melodious and sounded very beautiful and relaxing, but it was this feeling that made everyone feel very weird.
There were several different tones in the voice, and there were certain breathing intervals, which meant that there were multiple people singing, or it was a recording device with exceptionally good sound quality. However, all the members of the team had been using the equipment to conduct tests along the way, and they found nothing except the surrounding space. The same was true for Han Zu's equipment.
This situation needed no explanation, everyone knew that something was wrong, because based on the loudness of the sound they heard, the source of the sound and humming music should be within a few hundred meters away from them, but the equipment of both sides still did not detect anything. Logically speaking, it would be impossible to scan at this distance.
"Unknown life forms detected, quantity: 30"
"No similarities found."
However, just as everyone slowed down, took out their weapons, and continued to move forward for another 100 or 200 meters, the equipment of both sides finally detected something other than walls and water. There were quite a lot of them, and Han Zu finally observed something in the straight space. He walked in front of Gloria, stretched out his right hand to stop Gloria, and the team members following behind also stopped.
"Did you see them?"
"It's them. The device scanned something that looked like a group of sirens."
"Siren? What is that?"
Wu walked behind Han Zu and heard the conversation between the two. He didn't know what Siren was. There was no similar creature in the history of the Tigr people, so he immediately asked. While Han Zu was answering him, Xin and Hai were also using the equipment to search for the answer given by Han Zu. They said the same thing, and Han Zu did not hide anything.
"Siren is a mythical monster. Their upper bodies resemble beautiful humans, both male and female, and their lower bodies are mostly fish tails. However, in myths, their appearance is not fixed. They may not have fish features at all, or they may have certain non-human features on their faces and upper bodies, or their lower bodies may not have fish tails. However, their habits are the same. In myths, they often live on magical reefs, relying on their moving singing to attract ships on the sea, and then use their extraordinary beauty to attract ships closer. When ships are crashed by magical reefs, sirens will dive into the sea and feed on the unfortunate ones who fall into the sea. Because their appearance is partly human and partly fish tail, people often confuse them with mermaids."
"What's a mermaid?"
"A creature in mythology. They are not monsters. You can think of them as an intelligent race living in the ocean. In mythology, the descriptions of mermaids are mostly positive, but there are also a few myths that portray mermaids as a race that is equally cruel and eats humans. Perhaps because of this, most people do not think that there is a difference between sirens and mermaids."
"If they are so similar, how do you tell them apart? Maybe we are encountering mermaids?"
"Absolutely impossible. Sirens and mermaids seem indistinguishable, but in fact, the difference between the two is very large. You only need a simple understanding to distinguish them. First of all, all mermaids have human bodies and fish tails, and their upper bodies have no fish characteristics at all. Only a very small number of them can use fish tails in some way to look exactly like humans. But there are several important differences. First, mermaids are perfect in both appearance and figure. They can be distinguished from humans at a glance. Second, mermaids are a completely carnivorous race. Although they can eat vegetarian food, they cannot digest it at all. Another point is that mermaids can soak in water for their entire lives. They can breathe underwater, and they have their own language and writing, as well as a complete cultural heritage. They are a different aquatic race and can communicate with humans."
"Then I guess the Sirens are something completely different?"
"Yes, although they look very similar, sirens are not intelligent species, but a special marine creature. Like most marine animals, they can live underwater for a long time, but need to float to the surface to breathe. Unlike mermaids, they cannot leave the sea for a long time. Moreover, they are not very intelligent, cannot communicate, have no language or writing, let alone any culture. No matter how close to human appearance a sirens may be, they will have some characteristics of marine creatures, either gills, fins, or webbed fingers. Their oral structure is completely different from that of mermaids or humans, and the difference can be seen at a glance. Moreover, sirens are omnivores, they eat everything, and sirens and mermaids are completely hostile species. Once they meet, the result is only a life-and-death struggle. The difference is that sirens will eat the bodies of mermaids, but mermaids will not eat their bodies, because the blood of sirens is highly toxic, and even high-temperature cooking cannot eliminate their toxicity. The main reason is that the meat of sirens is also very woody and not tasty at all."
"Wait a minute, didn't you say they were all mythical creatures? Then, aren't these stories made up by someone? But from your tone, you seem to be very sure of the authenticity of this news. Have you ever seen these two creatures?"
Indeed, Han Zu's confident tone made not only the Tiger team, but even Gloria a little confused. Although she didn't say anything, when Xin asked this question, she was also very curious about Han Zu's answer.
"Well, I have seen some Siren entities in a laboratory and learned about some research results about Sirens, but I cannot prove the authenticity of this to you. After all, the relevant experiments are an unregistered secret, so I am not sure if you can search for relevant information."
Han Zu was right. While he was explaining to everyone the difference between Sirens and mermaids, Hai had been using his device to search the Tongyu network. Indeed, apart from the mythological stories, he did not find any information related to Sirens.
But Hai believed that what Han Zu said was true, because although he had never seen the creature called Siren, he had seen mermaids, but in his impression, that was not the name for them.
In the living environment and history of the Tig people, there are also many unique creatures and races that are regarded as myths or urban legends. So although the things Han Zu said are novel, they are not surprising. In Hai’s past missions, he was sent to an isolated star system located in the void area to perform a mission. On one of the planets with an ocean in this star system, he had seen this species called mermaids. They can indeed communicate with each other through language, and they also have their own cities on the seabed. But perhaps because they are in an isolated galaxy, the level of civilization of this race is very low, basically equivalent to the primitive people on the seabed, and the way they call themselves is also human. Apart from this, they have exactly the same characteristics as the mermaids mentioned by Han Zu.
However, this is not what Wu is concerned about.
"Wait a minute, how do you know that Siren meat is very tough and not tasty? Did you..."
"Yes, I have eaten Siren, well... at least part of it."
"I suppose their poison has no effect on you?"
“It’s totally useless.”
This news was not good for the Tig team. A guy who had no aversion to eating a similar-looking race often had, or must have, cannibalism experience. In any civilization that the Tigs found and learned about, such existences were basically extremely dangerous, especially when the guy in front of them was a powerful hunter, then it was very likely that there were other hunters among his "hunting" targets. In the Tigs' cognition, the hunter race, at least in the Tigs' experience, had never had cannibalism. The hunter in front of them seemed to be different than they had imagined.
"I suggest you grab your weapons and get ready for battle. If those things in front are indeed sirens, we must kill them if we want to pass through that location safely. If these guys encounter other creatures, they will never stop attacking unless they die."
"Will they use any powerful abilities?"
"Their singing can interfere with the thinking and operation of the brain. You can think of it as a brainwashing device that needs to be in effect continuously. Once you get close to their attack range, they will attack immediately. Sirens can create some ice cones to attack at medium distances, and can also release a kind of sound waves to paralyze the movements of other creatures. Some sirens can also spray venom through special oral structures, but other than that, their only attack methods are biting and dragging creatures into the water to drown. Their bodies are relatively strong, they don't feel pain, and they don't have fear, but the degree of coordination between them is not high, and their efficiency is very low."
"It sounds like these creatures are easy to deal with, but judging from your expression, it seems that this time it won't be that easy?"
"There are too many of them. Sirens usually appear in groups to hunt, but their number never exceeds single digits. But now there are thirty of them. It doesn't seem normal no matter how you think about it. Moreover, although the space here is strange, it is an indoor swimming pool after all. The water can be seen to the bottom at a glance, and there are no reefs. Of course, these sirens that only appear in the deep sea should not appear here."
"Speaking of the environment, I suggest you look around."
Gloria suddenly approached Han Zu and patted him twice, then asked him to immediately observe the surrounding environment. The Tige team and Han Zu, who had been concentrating on the conversation, changed their sight and looked around. It would have been fine if they hadn't looked, but they were all stunned when they saw it.
“Wow~~Wow~~”
Where is the endless indoor swimming pool around here? The surrounding scene suddenly turned into an endless sea with surging waves. The sound of the surging waves immediately reached everyone's ears. Their current location suddenly turned into an old multi-sail cargo ship with a well-structured structure. Not to mention them, even Gloria didn't notice how this change happened. From beginning to end, they didn't move a single step, except just now.
"Anomalous biological activity detected. Count: 50."
Not only that, the equipment not only did not detect any changes in the environment, but instead discovered more abnormal creatures. Using the equipment to scan again, everyone quickly confirmed that a large number of abnormal creatures were moving towards the location of the cargo ship. By scanning them, it was determined that these things were also the creatures called Sirens.
"boom!"
Soon, with a loud bang, the whole ship began to shake violently. After inspection, it was found that they had hit a reef that did not exist a few seconds ago. The bottom of the ship was damaged but not pierced, and there was no leakage for the time being. However, the sound of the collision did not seem to attract the attention of the Sirens. They did not start to attack the ship, but directly passed over the ship and returned to other places.
“They swam away.”
"I tried to use the equipment to scan here again, but I didn't find any land nearby."
"Can you locate our exact position?"
"It still doesn't work. It looks like we are still trapped in this place, and the space we can move in is even smaller. But it's not without its benefits. At least we don't have to worry about food now. This sea fish has a huge number of fish schools."
"But there is no water source here. The ship is empty. There is nothing on it. Now I know why those traitors transformed themselves into mechanical creatures."
But Wu seemed to have discovered something else.
"But the boat was not drifting on its own just now. The equipment scanned that the boat had obvious changes in direction. Someone must have been changing the direction of the boat, but we are all here. Who is driving the boat?"
There might be other people on the ship besides them, but the equipment just now did not detect anything other than the sirens swimming around and the schools of fish in the sea. No matter how they thought about it, it didn't seem right.
"Han Zu, did you find anything?"
"No, there is no one in the captain's room, and there is no one at the rudder position, but I did scan it before, and it is obvious that someone has changed the position of the rudder."
"I think we should go up and take a look."
"agree."
However, just as everyone was grabbing the railings and ropes and moving towards the upper rudder, the shaking of the surrounding waves suddenly disappeared. Looking again, the environment around them had changed dramatically again. They suddenly appeared in an environment similar to a castle corridor. The sudden change made everyone nervous.
"Damn it..."