Chapter 3: You Might Not Believe It, But I Deterred the Compiler with Just a Few Words

The girl's cold, emotionless voice made Lin Lan immediately look up.

Standing at the front of the captain's cabin, which was now tilted upward, was a short-haired girl with white hair dressed in a long, white Gothic-style dress. 

She looked down at him from her elevated position.

Her skin was unnaturally pale, almost ghostly white. 

Her expression was icy, like a flawless porcelain doll. But what caught Lin Lan's attention the most were her golden eyes, which were clearly not human. 

Those eyes stared at him with curiosity, as if they could see right through him.

"Com... Compiler?" Lin Lan blurted out the name as soon as he saw the girl's appearance.

(Compiler)

He had never met her since coming to this world, but he had seen her countless times in the game he played before he crossed over.

She was the Compiler, a high-ranking flagship of the Sirens and the mastermind behind various experimental zones.

The Compiler's white face showed a hint of surprise. To her knowledge, this was the first time she had appeared before a human in this world.

How did this human know who she was?

"Warning: Experiment anomaly detected. Who... exactly are you?" The Compiler's expression turned wary.

A black, oval-shaped rig began to materialize behind her small frame, resembling a giant menacing insect. 

A transparent, curved, pale-blue energy shield also appeared around her, protecting her—just like in the game's illustrations.

"Whoa, wait a second..." Lin Lan realized he had said the wrong thing. He had successfully made the Compiler see him as a threat.

"I'm unable to find any information about you in the database. Where did you come from, and how did you end up in my experimental zone? I'm very curious," she said.

Hearing this, Lin Lan realized he had indeed entered the Mirror Sea.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that. 

He was facing a Siren, humanity's enemy, in both the game and this world. If the Compiler caught him, he might end up as a lab experiment—something far worse than death!

Cold sweat poured down his back as his mind raced. What could he say to make her let him go?

But even if she left, he would still be stranded in the middle of the ocean!

Back when he played the game, Lin Lan had often fantasized about defecting to the Sirens. But now that a real Siren was walking towards him, he felt no excitement at all.

Was he just all talk? No way. Sirens were undoubtedly the most beautiful beings in the world.

No, he shook his head vigorously. This wasn't the time to entertain such thoughts. But then, an idea struck him. He recalled a plot fragment from the game.

The Sirens had an entity called Zero, and apart from the experimental organization, there was an arbitration organization that handled combat and didn't get along with the Compiler's experimental faction.

However, the game didn't delve much into the storyline, and Lin Lan wasn't much of a lore enthusiast. He could only remember these vague details.

Seeing that the Compiler's shield was almost upon him, he blurted out, "Compiler, you can't capture me! Zero and the Arbitration Organization will come after you!"

The moment Lin Lan spoke those words, the Compiler stopped in her tracks.

"Did you just mention... Zero?"

The Compiler's small frame stood in stark contrast to the enormous rig behind her.

Strangely enough, this massive and intimidating rig seemed weightless as it hung on the Compiler's back.

The girl with white hair and golden eyes stopped moving, tilting her head as she carefully examined Lin Lan.

She couldn't understand how this human knew about the Sirens' most classified secrets, and she couldn't believe that he might be connected to the lunatics from the Arbitration Organization.

Lin Lan held his breath. Whether he would survive depended on whether the heavy news he just dropped matched the knowledge of the Sirens in this world.

Just as the two stared at each other, the eerie silence was suddenly broken by an explosion outside.

As the first explosion rang out, it was followed by the continuous sound of cannon fire and explosions, making Lin Lan's ears ache from the noise.

The sea around them was being bombarded relentlessly.

The Compiler frowned but didn't say a word. She leaped to the ship's bow where she had just arrived.

"The experimental zone is under attack by ships..."

She began to speak but quickly realized it wasn't something she should say in front of Lin Lan, so she fell silent.

"Ships attacking? Could it be that the nearby port's commander has come to our aid?" Lin Lan tried to stay calm, but his thoughts raced.

The barrage of gunfire outside continued unabated, along with the deafening roar of aircraft slicing through the air.

The intensity of the battle made the Compiler sigh deeply. After giving Lin Lan a long, meaningful look, she leaped out of the window and disappeared.

Seeing the Compiler leave, Lin Lan finally felt a wave of relief wash over him.

He swore that from now on, he would never skip the story in any game again!

Luckily, when he was bored, he had watched some of Teacher Qiqizi's videos about the Azure World's story on Bilibili. 

If not for those videos, he might not have remembered those details and would have been in real trouble today.

If he ever had the chance, Lin Lan vowed to like, comment, and subscribe to every one of Qiqizi's videos!

'You're my savior!'

Come to think of it, he had actually managed to drive away the Compiler with just a few words. Could this be considered an unprecedented achievement among humans?

Well, Lin Lan knew the real reason the Compiler retreated was because of the unknown force that broke into the Mirror Sea.

He recalled the Compiler mentioning that the experimental zone was under attack. 

She must have hesitated after he brought up Zero and the Arbitration Organization, and then someone happened to invade the Mirror Sea, which made her abandon the idea of capturing him.

But in reality, Lin Lan knew how powerful the Compiler was. 

Despite looking like a harmless little girl who claimed to be just a high-ranking Siren managing the experimental zone, her combat ability was anything but weak.

In the game, she was classified as a rare submarine carrier, uniquely equipped with heavy armor and a terrifyingly high shield value.

As the mastermind behind the Sirens' experimental organization, the Compiler could control the entire experimental zone, which was like controlling half a world's worth of systems.

Even in the game, she was a final boss-level character in certain events.

Just those few seconds of staring down the Compiler had drenched Lin Lan's back in cold sweat, making him feel as though his soul had been laid bare.

He had a strong premonition that after what he had just said, the Compiler would not easily let him go.

However, the Compiler had always been one to avoid direct confrontation, preferring to hide herself within the Mirror Sea and the fog it created.

In this world, there was no information about the Compiler in the Red Leaf Naval Academy's Siren database.

Lin Lan figured the Compiler wouldn't reveal her identity to the world just to capture an ordinary person like him.

But even though he had successfully made the Compiler retreat, the real threat was far from over.

During the standoff with the Compiler, the passenger ship had severely tilted and was slowly beginning to sink!

"My ship is taking on water rapidly!" "One of our warships is sinking!"

For some reason, Lin Lan suddenly remembered a voice broadcast from a naval battle game he had played, which echoed in his mind.

He couldn't afford to dwell on the Compiler any longer. He had to figure out what was happening outside.

Clumsily, he climbed to a higher point in the captain's cabin to get a better view of the situation.

The thick clouds in the sky had begun to disperse, revealing the sea below. The Siren pawns that had aimed their cannons at them were now mostly wreckage.

In the sky, large formations of carrier-based fighter planes were mopping up the remaining Siren aircraft.

Under the sea breeze, one Siren aircraft after another, trailing black smoke, was shot down and fell into the ocean.

So, who on earth could have broken into the Mirror Sea to rescue them?

A huge question mark loomed in Lin Lan's mind. This was the first time he had heard of Sirens using the Mirror Sea in this world.

Humanity in this world still knew too little about the Sirens.

Standing on the passenger ship that was now almost completely tilted to a near ninety-degree angle, Lin Lan looked out at the distant sea and saw several blurry figures moving towards the ship, seemingly walking on the waves.

Only ship girls could move on the surface of the sea.

The deck of the passenger ship was already crowded with people, and some passengers had fallen into the water, crying out in despair.

"Mom! I—cough, cough..."

"Help me! I can't swim! Please, save me!"

Through the sea breeze, the agonized cries of the passengers who had fallen into the water reached Lin Lan's ears.

As the ship continued to sink and capsize, more passengers fell into the sea, their screams filling the air.

The scene was like a living nightmare.

Lin Lan clenched his fists, watching the horror unfold with a growing sense of hopelessness.

He had tried his best to avoid the Sirens, but in the end, he hadn't been able to save everyone—and now, even his own life was at risk.

Given the ship's severe tilt and the constant influx of water, it was only a matter of time before a whirlpool formed, dragging everything around it to the bottom of the sea.

Even if the ship girls arrived in time, what could they do to stop such an irreversible disaster?

Unless a large battleship-type ship girl arrived—someone with the power to change the course of events.

But there were very few records of large battleship ship girls in this world. Most of them were on the front lines fighting the Sirens or guarding major cities.

Lin Lan's only hope was that one of the ship girls coming to their aid was an aircraft carrier who could use her planes to rescue as many passengers as possible.

But how many lucky souls could be saved from this entire ship?

Just as Lin Lan closed his eyes, unwilling to watch the passengers drown or the ship continue to sink, something happened that no one expected.