"Damn!" Wang Shun couldn't help but curse. "I haven't even collected any data on the god-level NPC yet—don't get yourself killed now!"
"If you touch those wax figures, you'll be mutated. Once you're mutated, your sanity drops, and when it gets too low, you'll lose your grip on reality. You won't be able to tell what's real and what's not, and you'll be dead before you know it!"
Wang Shun's agitated voice drew a few other player-spectators over.
On the "Death Comedy" channel, the players featured were either thrill-seekers courting death for the sake of spectacle, or hapless souls who didn't mean to, but played so poorly that their every move was a disaster.
The audience here loved watching these players' creative ways of dying, but even they were surprised when they saw Bai Liu on the screen reaching out to touch a mermaid wax figure. "Wow," one of them exclaimed.
A spectator, wide-eyed, said, "That's a first—I've never seen someone try to get themselves killed like this, just going up and touching a monster. What's he thinking?"
Wang Shun, exasperated, turned to them and pointed at Bai Liu on the screen, his tone full of frustrated admiration. "I've been following him since the central screen. He racks up points fast—almost a hundred in no time. And do you know what he spent them on?"
"A hundred points?" The spectator was surprised, glancing at the in-game timer. "It's only the second day and he's already got a hundred? That's impressive. How'd he end up in the Death Comedy section?"
Before the words were out, Bai Liu on the little TV was already pressing his face close to the mermaid wax figure, tracing its patterns with his fingers. The spectator's expression cracked.
He laughed helplessly. "Well, with moves like that, no wonder he's here… So what did he buy? With a hundred points in Siren Town, you could get a lot—Blazing Torch and Underwater Breather together are about a hundred, and those are the best tools for clearing the game."
"No, he bought neither," Wang Shun replied, voice heavy. "He bought nine barrels of high-concentration alcohol."
"You're kidding!" The spectator stared at the screen, dumbfounded. "…Nine barrels of alcohol? No one ever buys that stuff!"
Wang Shun nodded. "Logically, the flame and light from burning alcohol are too weak to affect the mermaid wax figures or the merfolk sailors…"
But as he spoke, he leaned in, puzzled. "Wait, he's been touching them for ages—why hasn't he started mutating?"
Other spectators frowned and crowded closer. "It's been five minutes… He should be fully mutated by now, sanity at zero…"
Bai Liu, his expression calm, traced the upturned faces of the mermaid wax figures with his fingertips, as if he were a sculptor admiring his own work, not a player toying with monsters. There was not a hint of fear on his face; he even murmured to himself, as if conversing with the statues:
"As I thought, your face hasn't changed to look like mine. When the other mermaid wax figures tried to attack and hatch me, their faces would shift to resemble mine, but yours hasn't changed at all. You're still in the cocoon state, unable to mutate me by touch, because you've already—"
Bai Liu smiled. "—taken on someone else's face. You're the sailors' amulet, their cocoon. You can't hatch me anymore."
The mermaid wax figure beneath Bai Liu's hand had the exact same face as one of the sailors he'd seen on deck.
Up close, Bai Liu noticed the wax surface was peeling, the material brittle and thin—unlike any other wax figure he'd seen. Under the flashlight, they looked almost translucent, as if a single poke would shatter them, like the empty shell left after a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis.
These figures resembled the "amulet" mermaid wax figure at the hotel front desk, which the monster book called the "cocoon state."
If Bai Liu was right, this entire hold of mermaid wax figures were the sailors' amulets—their cocoons. And cocoons have no attack power, because when a mermaid wax figure transforms from pupa to cocoon, it means the creature inside has already emerged, leaving only an empty shell.
The sailors roaming the ship were the monsters trapped inside the wax figures.
["Siren Town Monster Book" updated—Merfolk Sailor (3/4)]
[Monster Name: Merfolk Sailor (Butterfly State)]
[Weakness: ??? (To be discovered)]
[Attack Method: ??? (To be discovered)]
Wang Shun and the spectator were stunned.
Wang Shun leaned over the little TV, staring at the newly updated monster book in disbelief. "…I've watched so many Siren Town clears, and never realized these were harmless. Even Shepherd, the record-holder for highest points in this dungeon, never figured out these were cocoons, not pupae."
"Usually, you get chased up here by the amulets, triggering a merfolk sailor pursuit and unlocking this page of the monster book, right?"
"How did Bai Liu know he didn't need to hide from the wax figures below? And how did he unlock the third page of the monster book so easily, so early?"
The spectator was equally dumbfounded. "Damn! Is he going to complete the Siren Town monster book? That's insane—the last one to do that was Shepherd, right?"
"Impossible!" Wang Shun snapped out of it, immediately denying it. He pushed up his glasses, now looking at Bai Liu with a mix of admiration and regret.
He sighed and shook his head. "He's unlucky. The second page of his monster book is the roaming NPC."
"The Siren King has no weakness. To complete that page, you have to discover its attack method, which means letting it awaken and attack you. But that bug-level NPC kills instantly—no one survives."
"What?! He triggered the roaming NPC too?!" The spectator shouted, now looking at Bai Liu with awe. "I've never seen a player survive after triggering the roaming NPC—everyone else tries to quit the game. And he's still playing, not even panicking?"
"Ignorance is bliss," Wang Shun chuckled. "He's a rookie."
Their excited conversation drew a crowd of onlookers.
News that Bai Liu had triggered a god-level roaming NPC and unlocked three pages of the monster book on the first day brought a flood of viewers.
The Death Comedy audience loved players like Bai Liu, who walked the razor's edge.
"He's got guts!"
"Love it—he's reckless but never dies. That's my kind of player."
"Don't back down, just go for it! Bai… what's his name again? Let me check…"
…
[205 new likes for Bai Liu's little TV, 200 new bookmarks, 35 people charged points—Bai Liu gains 35 points]
[297 people are watching Bai Liu's little TV]
[Congratulations, Player Bai Liu is a hit in the Death Comedy section and has earned the title "Death Comedian." Please continue to amuse your audience with your witty gameplay and spectacular deaths!]
…
After realizing the sailors were the true monsters, Bai Liu stopped climbing. If he was right, the sailor who lured him down here was waiting at the door. If he went up now, he'd trigger a dramatic deck chase.
If a player didn't know the wax figures in the hold were harmless, they'd likely panic and flee, only to be ambushed and trapped—a deadly situation.
Such inelegant game design, Bai Liu thought with some boredom. The obvious solution to a chase was to jump into the sea.
But he didn't like the water.