Bai Liu was oblivious to the surrounding discussions; his attention was quickly drawn elsewhere the moment he caught sight of Jeff.
Jeff was crouched furtively beneath the stairs, whispering to someone hidden in the shadows. When the conversation ended, he straightened and walked back as if nothing had happened.
Jeff had been sneaking out for most of the night—yet now, he was actually back.
From his position on the stairs, Bai Liu had a clear view. He saw Jeff followed closely by a man of the same height and build as the driver who had brought them to Siren Town earlier that day.
The two men spoke in hushed voices. Jeff passed the driver a bundle of ornate items and gave him several additional instructions.
If Bai Liu's judgment was correct, the coins Jeff handed over belonged to this world.
[You have triggered the hidden storyline: Jeff's Bloody Plot][Explore the entire storyline to earn 50 points. Current completion rate: 15%]
Bai Liu's eyes narrowed slightly. He reached into his collar, pulled out the perforated dollar coin, and pointed it toward the driver. At the same moment, a translucent panel flickered into existence, displaying the character's information.
[NPC: Driver]
Your driver—the man who transported your party to Siren Town—was hired by Jeff, who claims familiarity with the town and possesses a history of arson and robbery.
As expected, this was a character NPC with status.
Bai Liu and the driver had never interacted directly. The driver had remained in the front seat while Bai Liu sat in the last row, leaving him without a clear view of the man's face. The driver never exited the car, and Bai Liu had never obtained a frontal look—meaning he had never identified the driver's role.
He hadn't found this strange before. But now, looking back, Bai Liu realized that Jeff had deliberately kept him separated from the driver—whether by choosing to sit between them or by shrieking loudly whenever Bai Liu seemed about to step out of the car.
What exactly were these two trying to hide from him?
Based on the fragments he had uncovered, Bai Liu speculated that Jeff had hired the driver—someone with a criminal past—to carry out a task for him. The specifics remained unclear, but Bai Liu strongly suspected it involved revenge against Andre.
When they first entered the town, the driver had remarked that many residents had gone without income for a long time and warned them to be cautious.
At the time, Bai Liu had assumed it was merely a reminder. Now, it sounded more like smug arrogance—a declaration of territory, a signal that the hunt had already begun.
It was also a warning to Jeff: without the driver's cooperation and protection, Jeff could easily fall prey to the townspeople of Siren Town.
The driver, a native of this small, impoverished town, was clearly desperate for money. It wouldn't have been surprising if he had planned to rob the group himself. Judging by his obsession with money and the veiled threats he made upon entering Siren Town, he had likely taken advantage of many people before.
There was no telling what he might do if he didn't receive payment in time.
Before Jeff noticed him, Bai Liu quietly returned to his room and gently closed the door of Jeff's room that was left ajar.
Jeff hesitated briefly as he passed Andre's room, then bent down. Peering through the peephole, Bai Liu saw what Jeff had placed outside—a large piece of fish.
Not long after, a cluster of gloomy white wax mermaids gathered in front of Andre's door.
Once again, the corridor echoed with dull, grating sounds as the wax figures shifted and scraped against the floor.
To be safe, Bai Liu covered his own peephole with a white cloth to prevent the mermaids from spying inside. He shoved a cupboard against the door, hoping that if the creatures forced their way in, the noise would wake him.
His stamina was completely drained.
Once everything was in place, Bai Liu lay back on the bed and closed his eyes.
It was a dreamless night.
-----------------
The next day, Bai Liu woke to find the wardrobe door and the door to his room tightly closed—while the bathroom door stood slightly ajar.
He pushed the bathroom door open and froze.
The wax mermaids he had wrapped and bound were no longer restrained. They had torn free of their white cloths and were inching toward the door in twisted, grotesque poses. Some had already reached the handle, just one movement away from opening it.
Their frozen postures reminded Bai Liu of the game 123 Wooden Men—that moment when you suddenly turn around and catch everyone behind you, their expressions and movements half-finished, unable to fully hide themselves.
The way those cold, pale wax figures crowded behind the door, surging forward in their silent attempt to escape, was deeply unsettling.
The oppressive feeling intensified as countless pairs of inhuman eyes stared into the cramped space. Being watched by so many lifeless gazes at once was enough to make any normal person feel suffocated.
Bai Liu calmly closed the bathroom door.
He no longer bothered tying the wax figures up.
There was no point anymore.
They were breaking free faster and faster. Without discovering a new weakness to restrain them, repeatedly covering and binding them was nothing more than a temporary, inefficient solution—one that only seemed to accelerate their ability to escape.
The moment Bai Liu opened the door to his room, a new message appeared on the panel.
[Player Bai Liu has completed the main quest: Stay in the hotel overnight without being alienated.][Reward: 20 points][Current balance: 23 points. Props available for purchase. Would the player like to buy?]
Bai Liu opened the shop. He was so poor that he could count the items he could afford on one hand.
After some consideration, he purchased a high-powered searchlight torch for 15 points, leaving him with 8 points. He paused briefly.
…Did they sell 3D holographic projection devices?
[Yes. Price: 4 points each. Special offer: 3 for 8 points. Would the player like to purchase three?]
Bai Liu nodded without hesitation.
[Yes!]
As a social animal perpetually short on money, there were two words Bai Liu could never resist: discount and sale.
Naturally, he immediately unpacked the 3D projectors and started testing them.
The quality of these discounted items was surprisingly good. Bai Liu recorded his own portrait, and the projection that appeared was vivid and lifelike—realistic colors, clear details, and an almost unsettling sense of presence, especially in the dark. At a glance, it was nearly indistinguishable from a real person.
Bai Liu was extremely satisfied with his purchase.
Unfortunately, his viewers were not.
In this game, it was tradition: once a newcomer gained attention, popularity, and likes, the audience would begin demanding something in return.
A group of people gathered around the small screen, pointing and sighing.
"Is this newcomer seriously trying to use a projector as a fake human-eye trick to fool the mermaid wax figures? It's clearly written in the Monster Book—you have to see straight through a human eye. A projector might fool them for a moment, but it won't last."
"I can't believe I once bought that discounted projector. It looks flashy, but it's completely useless! Otherwise, it wouldn't be a stagnant item; no one would buy even for a single point. What was this newbie thinking?"
"…Yeah. That projector was on sale when I first entered the game, and after all these years, it's still on sale…"
"Damn it—23 points! That's clearly the highest point total in the newbie zone so far, and he wasted all of it without buying a single useful item. Are you out of your mind?!"
Suddenly, someone shouted in excitement in front of another small screen. "Over here! There's a newbie who bought the Flaming Torch! This thing kills mermaids—he's solid!"
The crowd immediately abandoned Bai Liu's screen and swarmed toward the newcomer who had chosen the "correct" prop, many of them nodding in approval.
"Yeah, that's the standard item for clearing this level. Smart move."
"The Flaming Torch can be used three times. If he handles it well, he might be the only newcomer in this batch to make it through."
-----------------
Bai Liu's mini-TV once again had only a handful of viewers in front of it.
[34 people are watching Bai Liu's mini-TV; 167 people have left.][50 people unfavorited Bai Liu's TV; 44 people canceled their likes; 17 people downvoted Bai Liu's TV; no one tipped Bai Liu.]
After testing his props, Bai Liu left his room and went to Jeff's room to wake him up.
Jeff had clearly slept poorly the night before. His face was pale, and heavy dark circles hung beneath his round-rimmed glasses.
The number of mermaid wax figures in Jeff's room—judging by Bai Liu's visual estimate—was roughly the same as in his own.
Unlike the wax figures in Bai Liu's room, which he had sealed inside the bathroom, these figures stood quietly in place. Bai Liu wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the wax figures in Jeff's room looked more realistic than his—and their faces seemed to be faintly resembling Jeff's…
Each mermaid wax figure bore a translucent flush beneath its pale, waxy surface. Their eyes looked as though they might move within their sockets at any moment, and their expressions were gentle and natural, like fish that had absorbed enough water for the scales on their tails to fully stretch.
A faint fishy smell lingered in the room.
Bai Liu then went to Lucy's and Andre's rooms to observe them as well. After careful comparison, he confirmed his suspicion: the mermaid wax figures in these rooms were indeed closer to human skin tone than those in his own—both in texture and in color.
More disturbingly, they were beginning to resemble the people staying in the rooms.