No wonder the side quest [Ship of True Love] was worth a hundred points—the danger level was far higher than that of several other quests.
Andre couldn't control his appetite and reached for the sandwich in the driver's hand. "Give me a bite!"
He grabbed it and stuffed it straight into his mouth, devouring it with no regard for manners. He chewed messily, then, after a few moments, beat his chest and swallowed it down.
The driver didn't try to snatch the sandwich back. Instead, he simply looked at Andre—bent over and eating—with a pitying expression, as if feeding an animal. "Eat, my boy, eat. You're starving. You haven't eaten much, have you? Enjoy your dinner."
Bai Liu glanced at the scene and said calmly, "This is his second dinner tonight."The first meal was the one he'd stolen from Jeff.
Jeff, who had been robbed of his dinner, stirred at these words and lowered his head to cover his face. The gill-like patterns on his ears surfaced again, seeming to flare open for a moment in anger, his teeth turning sharp and thin like a shark's.
But the grotesque change lasted only an instant. When Bai Liu looked over, Jeff had already lowered his head meekly, covering his face as though nothing had happened. Only the faint gleam at the corner of his eyes lingered, eerily reflected in the rear-view mirror and fixed on Bai Liu's face.
[Jeff's Bloody Plot: 50% progress on branch]
Bai Liu frowned almost imperceptibly—why had the progress of this task increased just now? And why had it gone up again?
Jeff should have already decided to make a move against Andre earlier, which would explain the first increase. But what had triggered it this time?
-----------------
When Bai Liu arrived at the port, he remembered that the driver's trust level toward him was very low. Considering Jeff's bloody plot, the driver was likely involved as well. Bai Liu decided he needed to raise his standing with this important NPC.
So when he got out of the car, he slipped the driver some money under the pretense of a tip. The driver glanced sullenly at the remaining money still in Bai Liu's pouch—money that hadn't been given to him—before finally cracking a grim smile. After checking the tip Bai Liu had handed over, he waved them off. "I wish you all a good time."
[Jeff's Bloody Plot — 80% Progress on Branch]
Bai Liu thought wryly that the townspeople here were practically bandits, their eyes glowing green at the sight of money.
As if he hadn't noticed the driver's greedy stare at the pouch in his pocket, Bai Liu opened it wide for him to see and put on his usual smile. "We will."
The place for watching the mermaid fishing was a massive ship.
The enormous vessel slowly left the port under the cover of night. The deck was crowded with sailors moving back and forth in silence, while beneath the ship, several smaller boats clung to its sides, packed with fishermen who looked more like fish than people.
Bai Liu and the others boarded after darkness had fully fallen. From the moment they stepped onto the deck, the fishermen in the boats below had been staring at them expressionlessly.
There was an essential difference between the sailors on deck and the fishermen below. Most notably, the sailors still looked human rather than fish-like. Their faces bore no strange patterns, and there was no fishy stench clinging to their bodies. Aside from their unnaturally pale complexions, they resembled the hotel's front desk clerk, who was said to have albinism.
Bai Liu observed that, despite the ship's immense size, there weren't many people aboard. He couldn't understand why they would send out such a heavily laden vessel for fishing—it was a complete waste.
And there was something else wrong with the ship.
Bai Liu had noticed it the moment he stepped on board: the ship's draft was far too deep. There had to be something extremely heavy hidden within it.
The sailors moved about with blank expressions, as though Bai Liu and the others didn't exist. Occasionally, however, Bai Liu would spot a few sailors lurking in dark corners, watching their group with strange eyes. They would whisper to the sailor beside them, then break into satisfied, unsettling smiles.
This ship was abnormal.
In the middle of the night, the sea was eerily calm. The searchlight at the bow illuminated only a small patch of water, while beyond it, darkness seemed ready to swallow the giant vessel whole. From time to time, the sound of waves lapping against the hull echoed on both sides. The sailors carried out their duties with mechanical precision, and the fishermen in the smaller boats spread out their nets.
The ship sailed deeper into the night.
Lucy stood beside Bai Liu, wrapped tightly in her cloak. Her lipstick-darkened lips had turned purple from the cold wind. She huddled closer to him for warmth. "Why is it so cold? I just asked around—they said that to catch mermaids, the ship has to sail to the sea where the first mermaid was caught. Apparently, that's the only place where mermaids can be caught. They call that area Siren's Gift. It sounds like it has some kind of legend behind it."
Bai Liu tilted his head. "Siren's Gift?"
"Yeah." Lucy pulled her cloak tighter, shivering. "God, it's freezing. I feel like I'm heading into a hell full of ghosts—the only place that could be this cold and windy."
Bai Liu didn't feel cold. But a sudden thought crossed his mind, and he flicked a coin toward Lucy.
[NPC Name: Lucy (Alienation)]
Bai Liu reached out and took Lucy's hand. Her skin was cold and slick, like freshly hardened wax.
Lucy smiled at him. She probably meant to frown, but the muscles of her face were stiff, corpse-like, twisting her expression into something uncanny—like an abstract painting by Picasso.
Her voice turned dry and hoarse, tinged with an inexplicable eagerness. "Your hands are so warm. Can I kiss you?"
Bai Liu refused. "No." He offered a reason after a pause. "There are too many people here."
Lucy wasn't cold because of the wind.
She was lowering her own body temperature.
Jeff, who had appeared beside Bai Liu at some point, stared out at the sea with rapture and murmured, "Yes—Siren's Gift. Legend says this stretch of sea is a gift from the Siren King, one that can bring the dead back to life."
"When tourists accidentally fall into the water and drown in this area, the Siren King grants them the power of rebirth. They return to the world as mermaids, and that's why fishermen can catch mermaids here."
Bai Liu wondered why this sea continued to produce mermaids when the Siren King had already been fished out and put on display in the wax museum.
And it was precisely after the Siren King was captured and brought ashore that this area of the sea began producing mermaids endlessly…
The so-called return of the dead as mermaids wasn't a tale of divine blessing at all—it sounded more like a cult myth born of a curse.
Bai Liu mentally supplied the rest of the story: the dead transformed into mermaids, were fished up, sealed in marble, and made into wax figures for tourists to gawk at. The townspeople ate them, and eventually, something went wrong with the mermaid wax figures. One by one, tourists in the town began to disappear…
This wasn't a gift from a siren.
It was the mermaids' revenge.
A sailor suddenly approached and said, "We're about to enter the Siren's Gift area. Please don't walk around the ship. We won't be responsible for anything that happens."
With that, the sailor left. Bai Liu noticed all the sailors heading toward the bottom of the ship, and the deck was abruptly emptied.
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes and circled the deck a few times, pretending to wander as he casually fell in behind one of the sailors.
All the sailors descended into the lowest cabin—the cargo hold. One by one, they climbed down the wooden ladder with blank expressions, then emerged again, accompanied by faint whispers:
"My… no problem."
"…Make sure these things are fine."
"A few broke earlier, but that's fine. Once the four that arrived tonight are eaten, there'll be new ones to replace them."
The sailors seemed to be inspecting something extremely important. After they finished checking, they filed out one by one.
Bai Liu hid in a corner, eyes half-lidded, thinking that the bottom compartment really was carrying something heavy—heavy and important. He had a vague idea of what it might be, but he still didn't understand why they had brought it out to sea.
After all the sailors had left, the last one seemed to forget to lock the hold before leaving.
The lock dangled loosely from the door of the cargo hold, swaying back and forth with the rhythm of the waves, as if whispering to the player—come explore me… come explore me…
Bai Liu opened the door and descended a long, narrow wooden staircase. It creaked and rattled beneath his feet, leading down into the dim hold. No lights burned on either side, and the structure resembled an underground cellar.
He switched on his flashlight and shone it downward. Even though he had expected it, Bai Liu still felt his breath hitch.
The warehouse was packed with mermaid wax figures.
They were crammed into every inch of the space, leaving almost no room to stand. All of them were pale white. And all of them raised their heads at the same time, white eyes fixed directly on Bai Liu.
He noticed that there were significantly more wax figures clustered around the staircase where he stood.
The mermaid wax figures gathered together like a school of fish catching the scent of bait. Two of them had already climbed partway up the stairs toward Bai Liu, only to recoil when the flashlight beam swept over them.
But the flashlight could illuminate only a limited area. In the parts of the warehouse swallowed by darkness, the sound of bodies scraping and dragging across the floor continued unceasingly. More and more mermaid wax figures gathered at the base of the stairs, heads lifted, staring at Bai Liu like fish waiting to snap at a hook.
Yet Bai Liu didn't retreat.
He stared back at their faces for a long moment. Then, without warning, he lowered the flashlight, stepped down, and reached out, intending to touch the wax figures.
Wang Shun, watching from the mini TV: "!!!"