Chapter 16: Siren Town
Bai Liu had seen a highly popular item called ‘water bubble’ when purchasing items. It allowed the player to breathe and float in a bubble for two hours. It could also expel fish and keep them away. However, it cost more than 70 points and could only be used twice. This made it a consumable. From Bai Liu’s critical point of view, this item had no value except for allowing people to breathe underwater. Selling it for over 70 points was pure blackmail. Whoever bought it was paying an IQ tax to the game store.
Of course, this had nothing to do with his dislike of water and his unwillingness to jump into water. It was just because he naturally wouldn’t do such a wasteful thing, nor would he take a route with no game aesthetics.
Bai Liu looked up at the warehouse door. The door started to creak like someone was coming back to unlock the warehouse door. If he was an ordinary player then at this time, he would be very nervous and try to run out to leave the gloomy, white statues. However, Bai Liu just turned off the light of the flashlight and went into the statues to look for a dark corner. He undid his coat and wrapped his lower limbs with grey cloth on the ground, pretending to be a statue.
The eyesight of this group of amulet mermaid statues wasn’t very good. They searched for Bai Liu blankly but couldn’t find him.
The door of the warehouse shook a few times and slowly opened. Two sailors came down the stairs, holding dim yellow lamps in their hands and talking in hoarse voices.
“Count the number of statues…”
“I’ve counted them several times. There is nothing wrong…”
“After tonight, there will be four more statues here. Let’s send these four people to the museum first. The statues there have been guarding the Siren King for too long. It is time to take their amulets and go out for activities…”
“Protect the Siren King well. Don’t let him wake up and return to the water. Or else we will all…”
Two sailors were standing on the steps above the warehouse. They were carrying old-fashioned lamps as they walked straight down. In this environment that was extremely lacking in light, Bai Liu couldn’t tell if these two people were statues or real people.
They were too white, so white that they were opaque to death. The blood vessels on their faces and hands couldn’t be seen despite being so close to the light.
Sure enough. Bai Liu slightly rolled his eyes as he looked at the two sailors. However, something wasn’t quite right. The two sailors were in the form of human beings but the monster book had called them ‘merfolk sailors’. He frowned imperceptibly and his heart was filled with a bad premonition.
One of them was the sailor who had previously told Bai Liu’s group not to run around on the deck. His eyes were dead and so rigid that it seemed like they wouldn’t move. He said, “Are you sure these amulets are okay? If there is nothing then lock and fix them in place lest they be broken by shaking when the waves come. Last time, an amulet was smashed. The sailor was still in the sea and couldn’t go ashore.”
The two sailors walked up to the group of statues and started to fix them in place with chains. Bai Liu held his breath, looked at the opened warehouse door and slowly started to move closer. One of the sailors seemed to see a statue talking. He paused, frowned and turned to mutter to the statue. “You said that you just saw a tourist here?”
Bai Liu’s heart thumped. He formed fists and his expression sank.
It was a mistake. He hadn’t expected the sailors to be able to talk to their amulet statues.
It seemed this chasing battle was a must but it was much better than being on the deck. After all, there were only two sailors. Bai Liu’s brain spun quickly as he thought about the best countermeasures. His physical fitness was so poor that he would undoubtedly die during a chase. This was why he wanted to avoid a chase in the beginning. He just hadn’t expected this place to be a deadlock. He would be pursued no matter whether he left or stayed.
He couldn’t run and he couldn’t go up because there would be more sailors once he went up. Then it would be a group attack instead of a chase and he would have to jump into the sea. Bai Liu didn’t want to jump into the sea. He calmly thought about what he should do.
The sailor approached the statue and seemed to have heard something extremely funny. He laughed in a low voice that echoed through the warehouse. “I didn’t expect that a distinguished guest came here in advance. Please don’t worry. Sooner or later, you will come to this place.” As he spoke, the sailor aimed the oil lamp at every corner. The dim light hit the sailor’s chin, making the smile on the sailor’s face even more terrifying. “…Please come out quickly. The fishing activity is about to start. The merfolk are waiting for you in the sea.”
Bai Liu started brainstorming. These sailors were obviously worse than the statues. They were also monsters so what were their weaknesses?
In a few seconds, the sailor would arrive in front of Bai Liu. Bai Liu simply took out the flashlight first and aimed it at the sailor. Unfortunately, the sailor just blocked his eyes with his hand before putting it down like nothing had happened. The smile on his face became even more mysterious. “We are different from these things. We aren’t afraid of the light.”
Their weakness wasn’t light. The response to strong light was the same as a human. Bai Liu’s brain spun quickly. He quickly lowered his flashlight, picked up the barrel behind him and threw it. The barrel hit the sailor and it was like hitting hard stone. It scattered into a pile of wood fragments.
The two sailors had the same hard bodies as the merfolk statues but they didn’t have the same weaknesses.
In the dim warehouse, the sailor looked directly at Bai Liu. He reached out to grab Bai Liu’s wrist while giving him a strange smile. The sailor’s teeth were thin and sharp. “Come on, guest. Let’s go and watch the fishing under the sea.”
Bai Liu slowly narrowed his eyes. The sailor seemed to have no weaknesses but he wasn’t a monster with no weaknesses like the Siren King. After all, the system didn’t inform Bai Liu that it was a monster with no weaknesses. The players should be able to resist with what they had on hand or he wouldn’t be able to play.
Yet the sailor was unmoved by force or persuasion. Both physical and optical attacks were invalid. This shouldn’t be the case. According to Bai Liu’s previous inference, the merfolk sailors and merfolk should be photophobic or they wouldn’t only come out at night. Bai Liu didn’t think his inference was wrong. After all, he had verified that the merfolk statues were afraid of strong light. It was just that these two sailors weren’t afraid of the strong visual intensity…
There was something concealing their weakness… the front desk employee said earlier that the amulet could help them resist injury.
Bai Liu’s mind turned. He searched for the sailor’s statue and found that there was a slight crack on top of one of the statues, as if it had been smashed on the head from the wine barrel. The expression of the statue had changed from friendly to pained. His hands were in front of his eyes like light had directly hit it.
Bai Liu’s eyes narrowed and he kicked out, his eyes locked on the sailor’s amulet statue behind him. He turned around and kicked the face of the merfolk statue. The statue fell to the ground like a ceramic thunderbolt. Rotten black blood flowed out from it. The sailor holding Bai Liu’s wrist gave a shrill scream like a high frequency cry. It was like some type of fish and it made Bai Liu’s ears hurt.
The sailor was a broken exoskeleton. He started to crack and drop lime-like flakes, exposing his body inside.
Since he started, he had to carry it through to the end. Bai Liu pulled at the other sailor’s statue, grabbing his head and directly knocking the statue to his knees. The sailors’ bodies were so powerful while the amulet statues were as brittle as egg shells. No wonder why they had to be protected in the warehouse.
Both sailors screamed and the pure white color on their faces turned blue-black. Their eyes migrated to the sides and eventually grew on their temples. The sailors’ bodies gave off a strong fishy smell. The lower body formed a mottled fishtail like an eel and their teeth became serrated. They lay on the ground before moving their hands. They acted like a gecko and quickly attacked Bai Liu. Bai Liu turned on the flashlight and aimed it straight at them. The sailors, who had been unresponsive previously, shuddered at the light and gave out a sharper cry.
After breaking the amulets that protected them, the bright light was effective.
Bai Liu stood on the stairs and backed up slowly, pointing his flashlight at the two sailors who were constantly moving on the ground like geckos. The sailors crouched on the ground, shrinking back from the light and hissing unwillingly as they tried to get close to Bai Liu. Bai Liu withdrew from the warehouse with his back to the door and then quickly closed the door without locking it.
After closing the warehouse door, Bai Liu could still hear the sound of the tails dragging on the ground in the warehouse. It was like a bunch of snakes were raised below and something slammed against the warehouse door.
[Siren Town Monster Book has refreshed – Merfolk Sailor (3/4)]
[Monster Name: Merfolk Sailor (Butterfly State)]
[Weaknesses: Fear of bright light, amulet (2/3)]
[Attack method: Biting and scratching (there is a certain probability of triggering the alienation state after being scratched)]
Bai Liu calmly straightened his collar and walked out from the warehouse stairs. Lucy caught Bai Liu in an instant. She grabbed his arm and wondered, “Where did you go? They said they are about to start fishing.”
“We are already in that sea area.” Lucy said with a smile. There were fish-scale lines on her face and her eyes were scary in the darkness. The hand that grasped Bai Liu had a strange roughness. Bai Liu felt it and calmly removed Lucy’s hand. “Really?”
“Yes.” Lucy laughed hoarsely. “The merfolk are coming.”
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