GHG chapter 2: Siren Town

Bai Liu is sleeping on his side in the very back of the van. The space is extremely restricted, it was hard to even turn his body around. A necklace fell out from his neck when he moved. His clothes are still the same as before he was logged into the game, the typical outfit of a working-class, a white T-shirt and jeans, the only different thing is the necklace hanging from his neck.

The pendant on the necklace is a coin with a hole pierced through it. As Bai Liu expects, the panel he saw before popped up when he places his hand on the coin, there isn't any new information shown on it.

This is probably something like a system.

Bai Liu put the necklace back into his shirt neatly. He's not too fond of seeing a damaged coin.

Bai Liu peeks his head out from the backseat, finding that the van has seven passenger seats and he is the only one sitting in the back, and there are four people in the front. One of them looked at Bai Liu with glee the moment he peeked out, "Bai Liu, hey, my sweetheart, you're finally awake!"

Except for Bai Liu, these people are obviously westerners judging from their features. The one that called Bai Liu sweetheart is a woman with brown wavy hair. Her eyes are hazel brown and her lips are covered with red lipstick, wearing hot pants with suspenders. As his eyes land on her, the panel pops up once again with new character information:

【Name of NPC: Lucy】

【Character Summary: This is your classmate, she really likes guys like you. Last night you two tried to have sex, but you are too shy for her passionate advances. Unsuccessful (LOL)】

Bai Liu's gaze stops at 【unsuccessful】 and 【LOL】 briefly before looking away and becomes absorbed in his thoughts.

It seems like to trigger character information to show up, it has to be 【seen】 by the player themself. Just like how the player needs to hover their cursor above an object to see its information, in this case, the player's eyes are the cursor. It seems like he at least can't lose his vision in this game.

Lucy winked at Bai Liu, "hey, babe, did I make you that tired? You fell asleep the moment you got in the car."

Whenever Bai Liu looks at Lucy, the word【unsuccessful】would pop up in his mind. Being single due to being a wage slave, he has mixed feelings about it, "..."

His single life ends painlessly for now.

He diverts the conversation in time, looking out the window to observe the progressively secluded place and asks, "where are we going? Why does it seem so remote here?"

"Seems like a coward wants to run away again," a deep voice full of mockery rings from the front. A tall man wearing tight jeans and a sports T-shirt glares at him with crossed arms. This man is so muscular that his T-shirt might burst anytime, it seems like he might be a rugby player.

He leers down at Bai Liu with his arms crossed, sneering at him, "it's too late, Bai Liu. Even if you want to run like a coward now, we're already on our way to Siren Town."

The panel pops up:

【Name of NPC: Andrew】

【Character Summary: This is your love rival. He really likes Lucy but she rejected him, which is why he is hostile toward you. You made a bet with him a while ago that you would protect Lucy in the most dangerous place. In order to prove your love for Lucy, all of you decided to drive to Siren Town. Though you broke down before getting in the car due to your wimpiness, and you refused to get in as you regretted making that bet. You only got in because he dragged you in forcefully】

Bai Liu has seen the name Siren Town more than once. Ignoring Andrew's taunts, he asks, "Siren Town, what is this place?"

Andrew is about to scorn Bai Liu, but a soft babbling cuts off Andrew's ridicule, "Siren Town, the only town in history where a carcass of a siren was found. A lot of people in history said that they have seen the silhouette of a siren, or heard the beautiful voice of sirens singing through the waves, some even said they've seen weird-looking sirens sitting on black reefs and gnawing on human corpses..."

"Jeffery! Those are just stories that Siren Town made up to attract tourists!" Andrew interrupts his rambles impatiently, but a hint of fear flashed on his features.

Bai Liu looks at the panel.

【Name of NPC: Jeffery】

【Character Summary: A huge fan of supernatural beings such as mermaids or sea monsters. After knowing you and Lucy are going to Siren Town, he requested to tag along. He is very familiar with the stories and legends of Siren Town】

Andrew says, "these people most likely fell into the ocean themself and drowned, it's just a normal occurrence."

But Jeffery quickly disagrees, "the polices had searched for a whole month, but they can't find a single corpse. Even if they really fell into the ocean, it's not normal..." a speck of excitement is shown as his voice lowers, "unless they were eaten by sirens so that the polices can't..."

Andrew finally snaps, and he strikes Jeffery's head harshly, "Shut up! You damned four-eye! All you talk about is mermaid this mermaid that! You're the one that looks like a mermaid!"

Andrew didn't show any mercy, Bai Liu sees clearly that Jeffery's head banged on a passenger seat. He accidentally bumped into Andrew when he is still dizzy from the snap, but that enraged Andrew further. He slaps Jeffery a few more times, the blow is so hard that one of Jeffery's teeth flies out.

Jeffery doesn't say a word as he bends down to pick up his fallen tooth, throwing a dark look at Andrew that is full of malice, mouthing a few words softly.

No one else heard it, but Bai Liu picked it up since his hearings are quite good. He heard Jeffery saying 【the mermaids will tear you apart and devour you, Andrew】

Bai Liu raised a brow, but he stays silent. The relationships between these NPCs are kind of complicated.

It's suggested that Andrew's abuse toward Jeffery has been constant, and Jeffery had plotted revenge using 'mermaids'.

The driver is a local of Siren Town hired by Bai Liu. From Lucy's chats, Bai Liu finds out that he is a billionaire. He paid for the food and accommodations, and he spent a huge amount of money on the driver to hire him and also asked the driver to help him find a local motel.

The car only arrived at the mysterious Siren Town late at night. The driver described Siren Town as a fishing village that relies on catching fish and helping out with salvaging wreckages. It had always been secluded and tumbledown until the new mayor used some outside forces to attract tourists with the legend of mermaids, only then did Siren Town start to flourish.

However, there have been continuous accidents happening to tourists. These tourists don't seem to have simply fallen into the water as Andrew said, some never even got to be near the ocean, yet they vanished without a trace within the corners of Siren Town. For example, a tourist checked into the hotel one night, but they disappeared entirely the next morning. The door to the room was tightly shut, no one saw him coming out and there was still warmth lingering on the bed, but they were nowhere to be found.

Due to that, Siren Town became so quiet that it's unbelievable even during tourist seasons, and a lot of motels shut down because of business inefficiency.

Siren Town is as tumbledown as the driver said, there are curled chain-linked fences and fishnets all over the place, and the ground is scattered with seashells and sand. There are only a few motels that look decent. It is already very late at night when Bai Liu arrives, yet there are still a lot of people on the road.

These people were stepping toward the ocean in a union, but when Bai Liu's car drive in, they all stop in their tracks at the same time. Their heads tilted, leering straight at Bai Liu's car.

Suddenly being watched by so many people at the same time during nighttime, Lucy freaks out and lets out a scream, burying her head into Bai Liu's form.

But she is too tall compared to Bai Liu, her head even poked out from Bai Liu's shoulder, making it look like Bai Liu is the one hiding in her embrace.

Bai Liu, "..."

Bai Liu turns to the driver, "what are they doing going to the seaside in the middle of the night?"

The driver shakes his head, "there aren't a lot of tourists recently, the economy ain't looking good, so they have to go back to catching fish again. You wouldn't know since you've never caught any fish before, a lot of big catches are afraid of light and only active at night. That's why they're only going to the ocean at night."

The inhabitants look at Bai Liu with eerie gazes, their eyes glistening with green light like cats. Their faces have strange expressions, they appear to be smiling, but the corner of their lips are not tugged up and twitching stiffly instead.

They have fishnets and hooks in their hands, and some of them have lamps decolourised by the light in their hands. They stared at the vehicle with Bai Liu in it unmovingly, eyes following its movements. It is as if they are going to dash toward them and attack their car with their fishing gear.

"Y'all need to watch out for these guys," the driver reminds, "they lack money recently, and y'all are rich."

Since Bai Liu gave the driver a bunch of money, the driver found them the best hotel in town.

This hotel is so extravagant that it doesn't fit well into the town. It is a stylised modern five-star hotel, there is even a fountain in front of it.

There is a statue of a mermaid in the middle of it. Liveliness was chiselled on it, its glossy skin made of marble stone gleaming like it were human skin under the dim moonlight. Long hair cascades down to cover her breasts, and her tail is raised from the waters. Her eyes are lowered, resembling a merciful goddess looking down upon humans. In her hands is an ewer with fake pearls in it, the water of the fountain pouring out from it and falling into the pond beneath, making sounds like the waves of the ocean.

The driver drives around the fountain in front of the hotel until they reach the main entrance of the hotel.

Jeffery let out a cry without a warning, pointing at the mermaid statue in the fountain and saying, "she just looked at me! She just moved!"