Prohibit Certain Players from Contacting the Dungeon NPC!

Chapter 1: The Misty Fishing Village

The deep seabed, devoid of any sunlight, held a giant pearl emitting a soft, white glow, nestled in a bed of seaweed.

Upon closer inspection, a small merman could be seen curled up inside the translucent, silver-white pearl. The merman appeared to be the size of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy, his eyes closed, revealing his delicate features.

"Crack, crack—"

The pearl egg swayed slightly, some debris falling off as a crack appeared on the outer shell. A pair of porcelain-white hands pushed against the shell with force, adorned with thin webbed fingers and soft, silver fins on the elbows.

The merman seemed to tire from pushing the shell, withdrawing his hand without any further movement.

So tired… So hungry…

Mu Miao huddled inside his eggshell, his slender, white hands wrapped around his icy blue tail. His emerald green eyes, like infinite life itself, held a soft, red tint in the thin eyelids, revealing a mix of innocence and seduction in every glance.

The gnawing hunger in his stomach made him very uncomfortable. Mu Miao's slender eyebrows furrowed with distress.

【Beep, beep, please complete the first step, Little Master, break the shell.】

The system's urgent voice echoed in his head, a distinct, cold robotic tone. 【You have entered the B-level instance, "Misty Fishing Village." Your identity is one of the monsters within the mist - the Bloodthirsty Merman. The current instance has not yet begun, the NPCs are in place, please start completing the NPC tasks, Little Master.】

Mu Miao: "...Oh, 001, I'm so hungry."

He really wanted to eat.

System 001 remained silent for a moment, then its voice became high-pitched. 【……I* (censored)】

Mu Miao sensed something was wrong and wanted to question him, but lacked the energy to do so, simply saying softly, "System, are you swearing at me?"

The system was given to him by his fifth brother. His brother couldn't stand Mu Miao's constant cries of hunger, and their family was poor with little food. So, his fifth brother directly gave him a system to find his own food.

But this system was too harsh. Mu Miao was scolded to tears during their first encounter.

Mu Miao had been pampered since birth. He was only prone to hunger and was otherwise very well-behaved, with his brothers and sisters showering him with affection.

Seeing Mu Miao's pitiful tears, his sixth brother beat up his fifth brother. The fifth brother had no choice but to modify the system and give him a brand new one.

001: 【No, my dear Little Master, how could I ever dare to scold you? I am so—so very fond of you.】

Its drawn-out tone didn't convey affection but a strange feeling, a feeling Mu Miao didn't know yet had a name – sarcasm.

He survived on the spiritual energy of living things, with humans being the most spiritual of all, their taste was exquisite and delicious. Mu Miao was picky, and after trying them once, he couldn't eat anything else.

Rubbing his rumbling stomach, Mu Miao swayed his tail, looking out through the broken shell. However, except for a massive eye, there was no one around.

He felt dejected and shrunk back inside.

There was no food outside, and he had no motivation to struggle.

001 was also helpless with such a precious and demanding master. He was originally assisting high-level players, who were intelligent, powerful, and ruthless. He had never encountered a delicate and soft package like this.

Oh, wait, he wasn't a soft package.

001 remembered his master's instructions, his data streams shivered, and he softened his voice to coax him, 【Little Master, just a little more effort, and there will be food once you go out.】

Ugh! What a sickening voice.

001 felt disgusted by himself.

Mu Miao also knew that there was plenty of food in the world, if not here, then elsewhere. Gathering his strength, he rammed against the eggshell wall.

Finally, he crashed through a hole big enough to pass through. Mu Miao cautiously swam out.

His upper body was that of a young man, well-proportioned and slender. Below his waist, shimmering, pale blue scales covered his beautiful tail, which swayed, emitting a soft glow, illuminating a small area of the sea.

Seeing a large pillar hanging in front of him, Mu Miao curiously circled it, reaching behind the "pillar" and encountering countless suction cups. Mu Miao exclaimed in awe, "Wow!"

It wasn't a pillar!

Looking up, Mu Miao saw the terrifying silhouette of a gigantic octopus, towering ten stories high, hidden in the darkness. Its enormous tentacles floated gracefully in the sea.

001: !!!