Chapter 11: The small town of Siren

Four intense beams of light shone violently from four directions at the wax figure of the mermaid, and for a moment Bai Liu's small television screen was so much brighter than the one next to it that it was impossible to look straight at it in pure white.

The mermaid wax figure, illuminated by the intense beam of light, stiffens and lurches itself up, ready to shield its eyes.

The eyes of the wax figures were even a little hollowed out by the glare of the torchlight. They started to back away and began to curl up their bodies like poor criminals surrounded by police, shrinking into a ball right in the middle of the glare, and some of the fish wax figures even tried to bury their heads into their arms.

And Bai Liu crouched down in front of the wax figures like a great demon, smiling and saying, "I was right, you are really afraid of the light."

The onlookers in front of the small TV: "......"

The player who had just reviewed Bai Liu was so irritated by the scene that he shouted out, "No way! How can that discount projector reproduce the light of a torch 100%! It's not scientific!"

"Hey, that's hilarious, you came here looking for science? How many of the props in here are set up scientifically?"

"......emmm, I just looked at the manual for this projector and it says it's an optical projector, it's pretty chickenshit everywhere else, but it works wonders at reflecting light, it saves at least eighty percent."

"It's a bit speechless to step on random newcomers without reading the instructions given by the system itself ......"

"I couldn't resist buying three 3d projectors even as I watched ......"

The player on the small TV next to him who had just been showered with praise for picking the right prop was scrambling around, waving a torch to force back the mermaids while trying to get to the newspaper in the hot tub, looking flustered as hell.

The mermaid wax figure is still leaning over with a grim face and claws, and this player is constantly being pushed closer as if he is going to hang next, a thrilling and exciting scene.

It's a scene that could have lifted the hearts of millions, but one look at Bai Liu's side and it becomes subtly, tastelessly boring.

Bai Liu had his three projections surround the wax figure of a mermaid with torches like a police officer, while he read the newspaper by the hot tub, unhurriedly, as if he were on holiday.

And the mermaid wax figure cowered weakly, pathetically and helplessly in the middle of the circle, motionless.

The contrast is simply too great!

[347 people liked Bai Liu's TV, 355 people favorited Bai Liu's TV, 21 people charged Bai Liu's TV and 21 points were awarded to Bai Liu].

[Player Bai Liu has gained over 300 likes in under a minute and his reputation is soaring!

[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for gaining a promotional spot in the central lobby game screen edge zone position, views are rising rapidly ......]

Someone looked at Bai Liu's small TV screen in a bit of a trance: "...... I'll go, this is the first time I've seen a player from the newbie section get a promotional spot on the central gaming lobby screen, even though it's only the fringe section."

"It's like I'm ...... witnessing the rise of a new big brother star ......"

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[Siren Small Town Monster Book] Mermaid Wax Panel Refresh

[Monster Name: Mermaid Wax Figure (Nymph Status), Amulet Wax Figure (Cocoon Status)]

[Weaknesses: direct human eye contact, strong light exposure (2/3)]

[Mode of attack: Hatching]

[Player Bai Liu is only one weakness away from collecting the Monster Book on the page "Mermaid Wax", you can unlock the corresponding reward at the end of the game after collecting it]

Bai Liu had already guessed that one of the weaknesses of mermaid wax figures was their fear of light.

This is actually quite a good guess.

The driver said earlier that some big fish are caught at night because they avoid light, and since the mermaid fishing event happens to be held at night, you can imagine that big fish like mermaids are mostly light avoiding creatures too.

However, Bai Liu has not yet come to a conclusion as to whether mermaid wax figures and mermaids have anything in common regarding the avoidance of light.

So Bai Liu took a look around and found that there were hardly any wax figures of any mermaids on Siren Town during the day.

The hotel and the Siren, both of which are relatively poorly lit, are full of mermaid wax figures, and he had previously deduced that mermaid wax figures are creatures that have no sense of hearing or smell, but are extraordinarily visual and therefore have a strong perception of light.

The answer is almost right in front of you, something like a mermaid wax figure fears strong light.

Bai Liu, having deduced this, tried to pursue this weakness to the extreme of cost effectiveness he could exploit -

-How much light can force back a wax figure of a mermaid? How much influence does the glare have on the wax figures of mermaids? How long can it affect them? If a mermaid wax figure forms an encirclement, can the light directly help it to break out?

So Bai Liu did an experiment in which he deliberately lured the mermaid wax figures into an enclosure and then tried to break out using bright lights and a 3d projector.

Of course there is the possibility of failure, but Bai Liu doesn't like to shy away from doing things.

With a ten per cent or better chance of success in his estimation, Bai Liu would not hesitate to take a gamble.

Failure is failure, no risk is no gain, it's normal, playing games is a risky process, so is making games.

His attention, however, was currently on the softened newspaper in the sink.

Bai Liu grabbed the newspaper and used both hands to gently tear it apart at the back.

Sure enough, this is not an ordinary newspaper.

[Player Bai Liu has completed the task of separating newspapers at the hot tub, bonus 10 points]

[Charge points 21, current points balance 31, whether to buy props]

Bai Liu nodded no and continued to look down at his newspaper.

Bai Liu touched the two newspapers that were separated, the thicknesses were clearly different, one was much thinner.

He frowned slightly, clamped down on the thicker one and tore it again - and it came apart again.

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, he was almost confused by the hint that the quest was complete, there were actually newspapers stuck together underneath, if he hadn't looked twice he might have thought he had found all the information on this place.

It's a game that's quite good at pitting people.

Bai Liu tore it open seven or eight times and the sink behind him was already covered in soaked old newspapers. After making sure there were no traps between the papers, Bai Liu took a quick glance at the contents.

All the headlines in the nine old newspapers he had were full of police reports of missing tourists [search notices], and the number of missing people added up to ...... all in all a significant number.

The earliest that visitors have gone missing dates back to last year, the point in time when the Siren Wax Museum first landed.

At first, there were not many missing tourists and they were clearly accompanied by signs of property looting.

It's no big deal for one or two tourists to go missing every month from a popular tourist attraction, such a crowded place is always prone to crime, and being by the sea, it's not uncommon for people to fall overboard or be kidnapped and robbed, something that obviously has to be reported to the registry...

But from what Jeff told Bai Liu, until last month, the outside world had no idea that so many people had disappeared from the area and that tourism was still going strong instead.

It wasn't until the number of visitors and missing visitors grew, and the spookiness became more frequent, with Siren Town registering twelve missing persons last month alone, that it was reported.

If Bai Liu is not mistaken, all the previous incidents of missing tourists were suppressed by that people-loving Mayor Harris who used some tactics in order to continue developing tourism, and only broke out later when it was too much to suppress.

From the information in the newspapers, it seems that the townspeople here are really good at crime.

Bai Liu put away the newspaper and the projector and shone a torch backwards at the mermaid wax figures, which did not move, before Bai Liu emerged from the corridor and headed for the central gallery of the Siren where Lucy and the others were.

The central gallery is said to contain only one mermaid skeleton, in a tightly locked, bulletproof glass case, the immaculate one that the driver said they had caught and which started it all.

The skeleton was like a gift from the sea to Siren Town, bringing wealth but also ill fortune, but everyone only saw the wealth it brought, but no one realised that their present misfortune had also come from it.

Bai Liu stops dead in his tracks as soon as he walks in.

The central exhibition hall is a circular hall with a crystal coffin-like glass cabinet in the middle, with led dazzling white light shining from 360 degrees on the mermaid [skeleton] inside. Bai Liu rarely looks at this mermaid corpse, called [skeleton], with astonishment.

This cannot be called a skeleton, at least not by Bai Liu's standards.

Lucy looked at the mermaid in the glass case with fascination: "He's so beautiful, I've never seen such ...... perfect looks, not even computer-generated ones."

Jeff seemed to be in shock as the boy with the thick glasses looked up at the mermaid in disbelief and stood there for who knows how long.

Andre, as usual, has an absolute denial of contempt for such creatures: "You've all been duped, it's just a trick to get a fish tail sewn onto a human body and put it in a glass case to get attention ...... "

After he finished he looked at the skeleton for a moment in fascination and then added, "But it does look well made."

The body of this mermaid is immersed in a glass container, its right hand to the shoulder is white bone, the rest is life-like skin and flesh.

The sinewy lines are graceful and severe, the well-toned muscles encasing the thin bones, the deep, dark blue liquid slowly rising in bubbles that twist and float through the mermaid's long, dark brown hair, eventually nestling like a pearl in its long, light-coloured eyelashes.

His eyes are closed and his face is incredibly delicate, his long, slightly curly hair flowing over his thick, beautiful cheeks in the water, revealing a pair of ears that are very different from the norm.

Its left ear is a shell mica-textured fin, mottled in the watery waves, while its right ear is a white-bone like fin that shows through the long, wet hair.

The sinuous, curling tail of the fish resembles a bright silver-blue ribbon washed in seawater, draped over a glass cabinet, its inverted triangular scales glistening in the light, the translucent film of flesh between the fingers of the right hand, and the white-boned left hand wrapped and intertwined on the chest.