Adam had decided to use the userna PtsDaddy.
There was no deep philosophy behind it. He just thought it sounded cool and didn’t see any issue with it.
"It’s not like I’ll regret the na in the future."
With that settled, Adam finally took in his surroundings.
Just as expected, he stood in a swamp.
Dark, stagnant water stretched in every direction, broken only by twisted roots and half-subrged trees. A thick mist clung low to the ground, and the air carried the damp, heavy scent of rot. This was clearly the natural habitat of sirens.
Adam glanced down at himself.
His avatar was cloaked in black, the fabric casting deep shadows over his form. He pulled the hood up, letting it obscure his face almost entirely.
Then.
The murky water in front of him rippled.
Two webbed hands broke the surface.
The creature hauled itself out of the swamp, water cascading off its body. Adam got a full view of it as it rose.
Its skin was a slick, oily blue. Its limbs were slender but strong, with webbing between the digits and sharp claws at the tips of its fingers. Large, black, bead-like eyes gave it an oddly innocent appearance. Long, human-like blue hair flowed down its back, and fin-shaped ears protruded from the sides of its head.
It was completely bare.
The full body of a female-shaped creature stood exposed before him.
The siren tilted its head to the side, studying Adam with open curiosity.
And in that mont, Adam realized one crucial detail he had completely overlooked.
Adam completely disregarded the naked female looking creature standing in front of him.
I don’t have a weapon.
That realization snapped into focus instantly.
He had always relied on his common knife, but his conduit was in the real world, sealed inside his storage ring. Here, inside Essence Online, the only thing he had on him was the robe he was wearing.
Nothing else.
Adam clicked his tongue lightly.
"Guess my hands will have to do."
The siren was still staring at him with open curiosity when—
Adam vanished from its sight.
Its already wide, beady eyes expanded even further as sharp rows of teeth flashed into view, instinct screaming danger, but it was too late.
A punch landed squarely on its right cheek.
Boom!
The siren was sent flying, its body slamming into a tree before dropping hard onto the swamp floor. Mud and water splashed outward as it struggled to rise.
Adam flexed his fingers once, impressed.
"Gotta give it to the designers," he said calmly.
"That punch felt real."
He watched the creature wobble, clearly dazed.
"Even the reactions are perfect."
He didn’t dwell on it.
Adam stepped forward, intent on finishing it off, but before he could move with Rapid E again, the siren suddenly opened its mouth.
No sound ca out.
Instead.
A crushing heaviness slamd into Adam’s mind.
His vision blurred.
A powerful wave of drowsiness washed over him, as if sleep itself had been forced into his skull.
In Essence Online, the avatar’s senses were as real as those of a physical body.
They were scaled for safety, but we’re not dulled.
Pain still hurt. Pressure still crushed. And effects still worked exactly as they should.
The sudden drowsiness washing over Adam was proof of that.
The siren had activated its special talent—Lullaby G.
And this wasn’t so weak monster.
It was an unranked level 3 creature.
Compared to the mutant goblins Adam had slaughtered before, this siren was far stronger.
Its talent carried real weight, and with Lullaby in effect, Adam was exactly where it wanted him.
The siren staggered forward, still shaken from the earlier punch. Its movents were slightly off, senses dulled, but its intent was clear.
The AI was frighteningly precise, mimicking the behavior of a wounded yet dangerous predator perfectly.
At this rate, there’ll be no difference between AI and real monsters.
Adam’s mind was a ss, but there was no ti for that now.
What mattered was that he was under the effects of a sleep-type talent.
Adam forced his eyes open, his consciousness fighting to stay afloat as the siren crept closer. Its expression twisted into sothing ugly, rage, hunger and malice blended together.
If Adam hadn’t known it was artificial, he would have believed the creature truly hated him.
The siren reached striking distance.
It licked its lips.
Then its claws swung down, aiming to tear him apart.
But a faint smile curved Adam’s lips beneath the shadow of his hood.
In the next instant.
Boom!
His fist connected with the siren’s right cheek again.
The impact was monstrous.
The siren’s body spun three tis in the air, before crashing down several ters away. Its face was completely caved in, bone and flesh distorted beyond recognition.
Adam shook his hand, instinctively trying to fling the blood off his knuckles.
But before it could even splatter,
The blood dissolved into motes of light and vanished. The siren’s corpse followed, breaking apart into the sa shimring particles before disappearing completely.
"Neat," Adam said with mild approval.
The reason he’d been able to defeat the siren despite its Lullaby G talent was actually very simple.
His star power surpassed its own.
Adam’s current star power sat at 14 , while the siren, an unranked level 3 mob unit, possessed a star power of 11.
The gap was significant enough that Adam had never truly considered Siren’s Swamp to be dangerous to him in the first place.
That was why he’d chosen it.
He knew he was strong enough to handle it.
Under normal circumstances, when a martial artist’s star power exceeded that of a monster, certain effects, especially lower-tier status abilities, would fail to fully manifest. In this case, Lullaby G simply didn’t have enough authority over him to knock him out.
But the real reason went deeper than a crude "my power is greater than yours" explanation.
And although It had nothing to do with his awakened talents.
It most definitely involved his equipped talent.
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