Before the Rainstorm

Three in the afternoon, the Dream of the Ocean cruise ship.

"Her broken body will transform into the Siren King's descent, awakening the furious ocean. Then, the rainstorm will destroy everything on the island, the tides will submerge all, and every living thing on the island will be buried at the bottom of the sea."

The recording of a variety show echoed through the VIP cabin corridor.

A girl with long, wavy brunette hair walked forward barefoot. Outside the transparent glass walkway lay the sea; the calm surface was a deep gray, shifting in layers with the wind. The sky over the island was piled high with dark clouds, lightning flashing within the layers—a storm was imminent.

Eerily, in the waters near the cruise ship, about a nautical mile from the island, the sky was surprisingly clear. It was so blue that not a single wisp of cloud could be seen, as if all the gloom of the entire sea had gathered exclusively above that island.

The girl wore no shoes, and her steps on the floor were silent. Her soles were dusted with gray as she moved like a cat. A passing cleaning staff member greeted her:

"Good afternoon, Miss Tao."

Tao Shier nodded. She was wrapped in a long bath towel, her delicate skin covered in a layer of moist mist. As she walked, she used the towel to wring out her wet, wavy hair. Her clear eyes seemed preoccupied, and she walked in a hurry.

Not long ago, she had just finished a sauna and enjoyed the massage service of a supreme client. She had been soaking in a hot spring with a face mask on while catching up on a soap opera. What should have been a perfectly pleasant afternoon for her was shattered by a phone call from hundreds of kilometers away.

"Amy has lost contact."

Aivmey's voice came from the curtain in front of her.

"One doesn't need to think to know an accident occurred. I don't know what the situation is on the island right now."

Tao Shier tapped randomly on the curtain with her fingertips. The communication screen flipped, and Aivmey also saw the scene above the distant island. Sunlight could not penetrate the thick, dark clouds. The waters within hundreds of meters of the island were a deathly gray.

"An hour ago, the weather on the island was as good as it is here. It was like this by the time I finished my soak," Tao Shier said.

"Has the siren miracle already been triggered?" Aivmey realized something.

As a member of the Withered Flower family, Aivmey knew very well that Griffith's lineage guarded the siren miracle on the island because its power brought 'prosperity.' Under this 'prosperity,' family industries thrived. Even if a fool with the worst luck in the family invested in a dying industry, there was a high probability of gaining a significant fortune.

But once the miracle was triggered, this blessing would instantly flip into a curse. All previous 'prosperity' would turn into a backlash of 'decay,' and the entire Withered Flower family might suffer a heavy blow because of it.

"If nothing unexpected happened, all communication on the island has been cut off. I told Amy to transmit the encrypted status of that side to me every three hours. It's been five hours since her last encrypted file arrived."

During the conversation, Tao Shier had walked onto the deck of the VIP cabin. The deck was very quiet at three in the afternoon. On the hundreds of square meters of the VIP level, the girl was the only passenger. Rather, all the shipping staff on this level were dedicated to serving her. She was the largest investor in this cruise company, and twenty percent of the entire company's annual profits went into Tao Shier's pocket.

If she wanted to, she could step on the cruise ship like a queen conquering the sea and command everyone on board to accompany her to any part of the ocean, even the badlands thousands of nautical miles away.

One had to know that the captain's highest order to the shipping staff on this floor was to serve this girl at all costs. Even if she just crooked a finger, they would have to crawl over and work like oxen or horses.

Offending her was equivalent to offending the central union bank of Life Daybreak. The entire cruise company would be expelled and abandoned by the capital world; describing it as a total catastrophe would not be an exaggeration.

Tao Shier leaned against the railing and looked into the distance through binoculars. Water droplets fell from her wet hair, which she flicked onto her shoulder.

The sea and sky merged in the distance, and the entire island was immersed in a gray mist. Her gaze could not penetrate the gray fog barrier, as it was blocked by some power. After watching for a while, the soreness in the corners of her eyes forced her to look away.

She wondered, is this the power of a miracle?

"By the way, Aivmey, don't you think it's very strange?"

"Why does the screenwriter of the Paranormal Explorers program seem to actually know about this miracle? The description of the siren miracle is almost identical to reality, whether it's the backstory or the trigger conditions," Tao Shier said.

Aivmey: "Perhaps it's some kind of coincidence, but I suspect someone with ulterior motives sent the details of the siren miracle to the screenwriter's email as a submission, and he happened to adopt it."

"I wonder what the situation is on the island now." As Tao Shier spoke, something occurred to her, and she mentioned it casually.

"The miracle was triggered an entire day faster than we anticipated. This deviation is a bit too large; nothing like this has ever happened before."

After failing to get a response for a long time, Tao Shier looked up and found Aivmey muttering in a daze: "Knowledge has power..."

Tao Shier suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility, and her face turned pale:

"This is not good at all."

Thus, she turned around hurriedly and shouted toward the cabin, regardless of how many people could hear her:

"Everyone, take up your weapons and prepare to land on the island!"

Among the shipping staff were many members of the Dawn Agency. They had never seen the girl look so panicked and exchanged glances with each other.

In the sea about three hundred meters away from the island, a small boat was breaking through the waves and heading into the distance. The violent, surging seawater slapped against the boat, and the resulting spray shot into the sky like a series of sharp swords. Fine bolts of lightning struck the island. They saw a palm tree on the shore catch fire, the light illuminating the reefs at the water's edge and the pale outline of the coastline.

Thunder rolled down from the sky, and rain began to fall. Fully armed mercenaries stood up, unbuckling their tactical straps.

They checked the ammunition of their automatic rifles—VKG automatic rifles. As a series of rifles produced by Universal Heavy Industries twenty years ago, their notoriety was known worldwide.

For no other reason than their simple structure, top-tier reliability, and extremely low manufacturing cost. Furthermore, they were compatible with all models of ammunition. Almost any organization with some scale could establish a production line for mass manufacturing. Thus, after several generations of improvement, this rifle became a killing weapon in the hands of terrorists.

Countless impoverished people and children in wars had fallen victim to this gun. The masterpiece that the genius firearms designer was so proud of became the demon of his later years. On the day of his funeral, no one mourned him, and those who hated him dug up his grave.

Under the ravages of the storm, the waves became incredibly violent, pushing the small boat toward the shore. Soon, the boat approached within a hundred meters of the island. Dense white mist occupied their vision. The boatman steering the rudder was thin and old, his body trembling under the threat of the muzzles.

The boat reached the shore. Across a drop of several levels, the shore was covered in a layer of green vegetation and overgrown shrubs. The leader of the team, named Lone Wolf, raised a fist toward the sky. His teammates lined up around him, holding their guns to alert the surroundings.

This squad had received only one order: massacre everyone on the island.

The dark muzzle was pressed against the boatman's forehead. The old man almost pleaded: "I've already brought you here, can you let me go back? I'm just an old man..."

A grunt came from behind a tactical mask. White Snake's finger rested on the trigger, but Lone Wolf came over to stop her, shaking his head.

White Snake nodded in understanding and lowered her muzzle.

Just at the moment hope flickered like a dying candle in the old man's eyes, a wolf-tooth dagger was plunged into his neck, ending his life swiftly and neatly.

White Snake pulled out the dagger. Beneath her tactical mask, she watched the fallen boatman as the hope on his face faded into gray. Until the moment he died, the boatman was still fantasizing about returning to the island to reunite with his wife and daughter. She turned her head without a hint of pity and followed her teammates deep into the island.