Andre gazed at Bai Liu with a hunger so naked, it was as if he were eyeing a feast.
He let out a hoarse chuckle. "I'm not yet sated. If a mermaid dares overturn my boat in the dead of night, I'll drag it aboard and tear it apart with my teeth until I've had my fill."
Though he spoke of devouring mermaids, his gaze lingered on Bai Liu's throat, as if it were not the mermaid's neck he longed to bite, but Bai Liu's.
Bai Liu's thoughts began to slow, the unmistakable effect of his dwindling sanity. Only now did he realize how intoxicating his own scent must be to Andre, whose transformation was far more advanced. For a fleeting moment, Bai Liu himself had felt the urge to bite Andre. In Andre's eyes, he must appear as the most exquisite delicacy.
Andre wanted to consume him.
But Bai Liu's strength, intellect, and reflexes were all rapidly deteriorating. Every attribute on his status panel was flashing red; his sanity hovered perilously at the edge of sixty. If he were forced to spend the night at sea, pitted against a monster like Andre who had completed his transformation, he would surely perish.
There had to be a way—some method to counter Andre.
Yet Bai Liu's mind felt shrouded in a translucent veil. He could vaguely discern possible solutions, but could not grasp them. He seemed to recall having prepared a contingency for Andre, but the memory eluded him.
He blinked, swayed unsteadily, and murmured his assent.
The group watching from the small television felt their hearts clench at the sight of Bai Liu's faltering stance.
Wang Shun, who had accompanied Bai Liu thus far, knew him to be a gifted player. He had witnessed many attempts at Siren Town, but never had he seen a player so tightly wound.
Holding his breath, Wang Shun stared without blinking. "He's been corrupted. His sanity is about to drop below sixty—he'll soon start hallucinating."
A crowd of players had gathered around Wang Shun. One, who had been standing with him all along, spoke with a complicated tone. "Sixty sanity points—the threshold between life and death."
Sixty was the boundary between reality and illusion. Above it, you fought monsters; below it, you battled your own mind.
And that was far more treacherous.
A monster's weakness could be discovered, its patterns traced. But hallucinations were born of oneself—their vulnerabilities unknowable, their boundaries between real and unreal forever shifting.
Players with high sanity enjoyed a tremendous advantage, which was why Bai Liu had drawn so much attention. Those prone to fear or mental contamination would see their sanity plummet below sixty, and from then on, the mortality rate soared. Many were literally frightened to death by their own hallucinations. Thus, the sixty-point threshold was known among players as the "Gate of Life and Death."
The audience sighed in regret.
"He's done well—lasted this long before dropping below sixty."
"Without a sanity-cleansing item, his value will only fall. He's hanging by a thread."
"Siren Town claims a fifty percent clearance rate, but for newcomers without a guide, survival is less than one percent."
"Didn't some newbies clear it last time?"
"Heh, the only one out of a hundred who made it through last time left the game with just twenty-five sanity points—came out insane. What's the point?"
"This one will probably lose his mind soon enough."
The sailors on the ship watched with a kind of cruel anticipation. They had prepared two small boats for Andre and Bai Liu, setting them adrift in the deep sea.
Bai Liu seemed dazed, standing woodenly by the rail. He even asked the sailors for an extra blanket, claiming he might get cold at night.
The sailors sneered, piling two or three thick blankets onto his boat. One of them said with a meaningful smile, "Sweet dreams, Mr. Bai. If you live to see the morning."
Bai Liu simply smiled. "I will."
Small boats clustered on either side of the ship, each occupied by fishermen with the eerie features of deep-sea fish.
They bore a strange resemblance to Andre. In the gloom, the only light came from a single lamp on each boat, casting a dim glow over the fishermen's faces. Their eyes glimmered with a ghostly green.
Though the boats rocked with the waves, the fishermen stood unnaturally still, staring fixedly at Bai Liu as he clutched his blanket. The gills at their ears fluttered, emitting a faint, predatory tremor.
On a nearby boat, Andre stood, drool trailing from his lips, his eyes aglow with the same spectral green. He rasped, "Bai Liu, take your foolish blanket and sleep forever beneath the sea."
The great ship slowly pulled away. A sailor told them they would be retrieved in the morning.
Bai Liu surveyed his surroundings. Besides Andre, many fishermen remained, their boats circling closer with the sound of oars slicing through water.
Even in his foggy state, Bai Liu knew with chilling clarity: as the weakest "larva" here, he would not last half an hour among these ravenous fishermen before being torn to shreds.
And with Andre eyeing him like a predator, Bai Liu was utterly alone on the midnight sea.
Though still corrupted, leaping into the water was no escape. His transformation was only beginning—he could breathe through his mouth and nose, but the gills at his ears were useless. Whether he could survive underwater was uncertain.
Even if he could, he would never outswim the fully transformed fishermen and Andre. To jump was merely to choose between dying above or below the waves.
He still had the "True Love's Ship" quest. In these dire straits, with his sanity on the brink, he had to survive the night and outlast Andre.
It was all but impossible.
Wang Shun slowly set down his pen, sighing with genuine regret. "What a pity. The best item for this bet is the Water Bubble. It repels fish, and two of them, used three times, would see you through till dawn. Pricey, yes—one hundred forty points—but effective. If Bai Liu hadn't squandered his points, this would have been easy."
The player beside him nodded in agreement, arms crossed, shaking his head. "A rookie mistake. Bai Liu has his moments, but mostly he blunders about. Typical for a beginner."
"Well, this is the end of the line."
The last few scattered spectators began to drift away.
Just then, Andre's boat lurched violently. Something—or rather, some mermaid—vaulted aboard, baring razor-sharp teeth in a savage grin as it lunged at Andre.
The departing audience froze in their tracks.
Wang Shun pushed up his glasses, leaning in. "What's going on?! Weren't the fishermen and Andre supposed to attack the player? Why are they turning on Andre?!"
The mermaid on Andre's boat was ferocious, flipping out of the water and catching him off guard. It sank its teeth into his neck with brutal force.
Andre let out a bloodcurdling scream, his gills quivering in agony.
Fetid, black blood sprayed across the boat, splattering into the sea and merging with the darkness.
The stench of blood filled the air, and the fishermen all let out guttural, hungry noises, their eyes swiveling toward Andre's boat.
The scent of prey drew them irresistibly. The boats that had been closing in on Bai Liu now veered toward Andre.
A sickening chorus of chewing began. Starving merfolk swarmed Andre's boat. He tried to leap into the sea, but was seized by the ankle, dragged down beneath a writhing mass of mermaids.
Andre raised a hand, uttering a muffled, desperate wail, before he was utterly consumed by the ravenous horde.