Chapter 2: The small town of Siren

Bai Liu was sleeping on his side in the last row of a van, the back seat of which was so cramped and narrow that he struggled to turn over, and when he moved he saw a necklace fall out of his shirt.

The clothes he was wearing now were no different from before he entered the game, white shirt and black trousers, typical everyday wear for a working social animal, only this necklace was an extra item.

The pendant of the necklace was a dollar coin with a hole punched in it, and Bai Liu put his hand on it to see the game panel pop up, which was the same as the one Bai Liu had seen before, with no extra information.

This should be something like a game manager.

Bai Liu put the necklace away in his shirt, he didn't really like the sight of such damaged coins.

Bai Liu poked his head out of the back of the van, a seven-passenger van with four other people in front of him apart from Bai Liu lying in the back, and as soon as he poked his head out someone looked at him in surprise: " Bai Liu, hey my sweetie, you're finally awake!"

Except for Bai Liu, all six were obviously foreign looking. The one who called out Bai Liu sweetie was a girl with curly brown hair and big waves, red lips and brown eyes, wearing hot trousers and suspenders. The moment Bai Liu saw this person, the coin on her heart popped up in a panel with the character's message.

[npc name: Lucy].

[Description: Your classmate, who likes your type of guy, is too shy to face Lucy, who is ten centimeters taller and more enthusiastic and daring than you].

Bai Liu's eyes pause subtly for a couple of seconds on [Too Shy], quickly withdrawing into thought.

This game seems to require the player to see the npc panel information themselves in order to trigger it, in the same way that playing an online game requires you to put your mouse on it in order for the information to pop up; the player's eyes are now the equivalent of the player's mouse and gamepad.

He thought for a moment, it seemed that in this game at least one could not lose one's eyesight.

Lucy scowled at Bai Liu: "Hey, baby, did I tire you out? You've slept the whole way from the car."

Bai Liu, who has been maternally single, has a slightly mixed feeling: "........."

A painless end to single life.

He digressed just in time, Bai Liu looked out the window at the increasingly remote and cold landscape and asked, "Where are we going here? Why does it look so remote?"

"Looks like some coward is trying to run away again." A sarcastic, mellow male voice came from the front, a tall man in tight jeans and a sports T hugged his chest and looked at Bai Liu with contempt. The man was so big that his top was stretched to the point of bursting, and he looked like a rugby player.

He looked at Bai Liu with a condescending hug and snorted, "Too late, Bai Liu, even if you are a coward and want to run away, we are already on our way to Siren Town."

Panel pops up.

[NPC Name: Andre].

Your rival, who loves Lucy but has been rejected by her, is hostile to you. You proved your love for Lucy by making a bet with him that you would guard her in the most dangerous place in the world, so you drove to Siren Town. You regret it and cry before you get in the car, having been forced to do so by Andre].

Bai Liu had already seen the name "Siren Town" twice in a row, and ignoring Andre's taunts to him, he inquired, "Siren Town, what is it?"

Andre grunted again and was about to open his mouth to continue his taunting when a rambling, continuous whispered chant interrupted him.

" Siren Town, the only seaside town in history where the remains of sirens have been found. Throughout history, many people have claimed they have seen Siren the Siren here, or heard the beautiful songs of the Siren mermaids on the waves, or seen these demonic looking mermaid sirens feasting on human corpses on the darkened reefs ......"

" Jeff! Those are just stories that Siren Town has made up to get tourists to go sightseeing!" Andre interrupted impatiently, though a quick, imperceptible wince flashed across his face.

A small boy with thick beer-bottle-lidded glasses cringed a little as he clutched his book to his chest, seemingly afraid of Andre, but mustered up the courage to whisper back, "Then how do you explain the mysterious disappearance of the tourists who came to Siren Town! Twelve tourists disappeared completely from Siren Town last month! The police have searched everywhere to no avail and no one has seen them leave Siren Town ......"

Bai Liu looks to the panel.

[npc name: Jeff].

[Character Bio: An ardent lover of mermaids, sea monsters and other unnatural creatures, Lucy and her group are going to Siren Town, so she volunteered to go with them and knows the legend of Siren Town well.

Andre disliked, "Most of these people just fell into the water and drowned themselves, how normal it is to drown on the beach."

Jeff, however, was defiant: "The police have been organising a recovery for a month now and haven't recovered a single body, even if they did fall into the sea, that's not normal ......" he said, his tone low and dark, with a hint of excitement, and "Unless their bodies were eaten by Siren, so that the police can't recover them either ......"

Andre finally got angry and smacked Jeff on the head: "Shut up! You fucking four-eyed boy! All day long you're a mermaid and a fish! I think you look like a mermaid!"

Andre hit him so hard that Bai Liu could clearly see Jeff's head hit the edge of the seat and then dizzily hit Andre. This angered Andre so much that he slapped Jeff several times, causing one of his teeth to fly out.

Jeff was silent as he looked down and picked up his teeth, then looked at Andre with a very subtle look of dark hatred and mouthed the words very softly.

None of the others heard, but Bai Liu, who has always had good hearing, heard Jeff say, "The mermaid will surely tear you apart and swallow you, Andre".

Bai Liu raised his eyebrows slightly, but said nothing, this NPC character relationship is really a bit complicated.

It seems that Andre has been beating up on Jeff for more than a day or two, and that this Jeff seems to have a plan of revenge in mind with the 'mermaid'.

The driver is a local from Siren, whom Bai Liu paid to drive the car. From Lucy's conversation, Bai Liu discovers that he is also a wealthy young man, and that he has paid for all the food and accommodation for the group, as well as the driver, who he has asked to help him find a local hotel.

The car drove late into the night before reaching the mysterious town of Siren. The driver described Siren as a town that lived on fishing and helping to salvage shipwrecks, and had always been isolated and run down until the new mayor found a way to attract tourists with rumours of mermaids.

For example, one visitor who checked into the hotel that night was gone the next morning, the door was closed and no one saw him go out, the bed was still warm, but he was just The bed was still warm, but the person was gone.

As a result, Siren Town was incredibly desolate during the tourist season because of the missing tourists, and a number of hotels and hostels were closed because of poor business practices.

Siren Town was indeed in a state of disrepair, with flying fences and fishing nets everywhere, dried shells and seaweed and mud on the ground, and only a few hotels and hostels with decent décor. It was late at night when Bai Liu arrived, but there were still many pedestrians on the road.

The pedestrians were heading towards the beach at the same pace, but as soon as Bai Liu and his team drove in, the townspeople, who were going to the beach, stopped in unison, their heads tilted and their eyes looked straight at Bai Liu's car.

Lucy shuddered at the prospect of being watched by so many people in the middle of the night, and she squealed softly, shrinking into Bai Liu's arms.

But she is so much taller than Bai Liu that she peeks over Bai Liu's shoulder and looks as if Bai Liu has retreated into her arms.

Bai Liu: "......"

Bai Liu turned to the driver and asked, "It's midnight, what are these people doing on the beach?"

The driver shook his head, "Not many people come to visit these days, the economy is in the doldrums, so they have to go back to fishing for a living. You don't know if you've ever fished, many of the valuable fish are afraid of the glare and only come out at night, that's why they go to sea at night."

The townspeople looked at Bai Liu with very strange eyes, eyes that glowed cat-like green in the night, and a strange expression on their faces, as if they were smiling, but instead of the corners of their mouths rising completely, they were stiffening and generally twitching ~ at the corners of their mouths.

They also had nets and hooks in their hands, some with emulsified oil lamps, and they stared at the car with Bai Liu in it, their eyes moving with it as if they were ready to attack it with their fishing gear.

"You guys need to be careful with these guys." The driver warned, "They're short of money these days, and you guys are rich."

Due to Bai Liu's wealth, the driver arranged for the group to be taken to the best hotel in the area.

The hotel is a very modern and luxurious five-star hotel, so luxurious that it is a little out of place in the whole town, and there is actually a fountain pool at the entrance.

The fountain pool contains a statue of a mermaid made of limestone on a base of white cold wax.

The wax figure of a mermaid is lifelike, her lustrous skin glistening almost human in the dull moonlight, her long hair falling to cover her ample breasts, her fish tail standing in the pool. Her eyes are downcast, her expression compassionate, and in her hands she holds up a water jug in which some false mica pearls are scattered, and from which a fountain pours down into the pool, making a sound like waves.

The driver bypassed the fountain pool in front of the hotel and drove the car all the way to the front entrance of the hotel.

Jeff suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the wax figure of a mermaid in front of the hotel and shouting, "She just looked at me! She just moved!"