GHG chapter 8: Siren Town

Bai Liu can smell the rotten scent of fish the moment that he got in the car. He thought that the scent is from Andrew since he ate a lot of rotten fish steaks this morning, what he didn't expect was that the scent comes from the driver.

The fishy smell from yesterday was most likely coming from himself too, but compared to the scent today, it is a whole different level, the stench on the driver is much more concentrated.

Bai Liu rubs his nose, examining the driver up and down. A thought comes up as he thinks...this driver...feels like he is a monster.

【Warning!! Identification error! This NPC is not a monster! It can't be recorded in the Book of Monsters! It is metamorphosing!】

【Due to the player's wrong identification, this NPC's trust has decreased, it might turn hostile toward the player】

The driver slowly tears a part out of the sandwich in his hands, his rolling eyeballs stay on Bai Liu for a moment as he suddenly gruffed, "...do ya think the smell on me is disgusting?"

Bai Liu thought 'yes' in his head, but he instantly denies it, "no."

"You're looking at me like I'm some kinda monster. Heh, damned rich people." The driver said bitterly, turning around to finish his food and ignoring Bai Liu's questions.

Tch, it's a bit of a sticky situation. This way it would be a lot harder for Bai Liu to receive any information, and there is no way that he's going to force the driver to speak, the panel already hinted that the driver is going to be hostile toward Bai Liu.

Bai Liu's eyes twirled, and then he coaxed Lucy into asking the driver. The driver lets out a hmph, but he still decides to answer Lucy's question.

"The viewpoints of Siren Town are related to mermaids, obviously." The driver's smile can cause goosebumps, his eyeballs are twitching around in his eye sockets. there is no way to tell who he's talking to or who he's looking at, "our fishing ain't the normal type of fishing, it is hosted during nighttime. And our museum ain't the usual one either, we would make the mermaids that we fish into wax sculptures and display them in the museum. The first carcass of the mermaid we caught is in the museum."

"Catching mermaids?" Bai Liu asks, "did you guys really catch mermaids?"

The driver dismissed Bai Liu, only answering after Lucy asks him a few more times.

A profound smile appears on his face, "yep, even though only the first one is a very beautiful mermaid, the ones that are caught later are the low-quality ones with a lot of imperfections, but there are all really mermaids."

Andrew suddenly lets out a scoff, "they're just rumours, you guys aren't really believing this right?"

Jeffery opens his mouth, but shuts it again. It is not hard to tell from his gaze that he wants to talk about mermaids, but he is most likely frightened by Andrew's beatings today so he didn't dare speak. Though Lucy is different, she looks at Andrew with great dissatisfaction and cried out, "I believe it alright? What about you, Bai Liu?" She says as she turns her head toward Bai Liu in frustration.

"I'll believe what I can see," Bai Liu says plainly, "we'' know when we join the fishing activity at night."

Andrew wouldn't mock Lucy, but he's not going to hold back when it comes to Bai Liu and ridicules him word by word, "I hope someone isn't gonna use that fishing activity as an excuse to run while crying," a taunting smile appears on his face as he speaks, his gaze brushing over Bai Liu, "if you scream when you fall off the boat, the fishermen might mistake you as a mermaid and make you into a wax sculpture. Oh, poor Bai Liu."

Andrew shrugs fakely as he grins with ill intentions, it is as if he is already seeing Bai Liu being made into a wax sculpture.

Bai Liu remembers the bet that Andrew talked about where they have to prove their bravery.

He fished some of the contents of the bet out of Lucy's mouth this morning.

Andrew and Bai Liu are going to rent a canoe and drift on the ocean during the night, whoever escapes first is a coward that doesn't deserve Lucy. Lucy doesn't actually agree with this bet, but it can't be helped that Bai Liu is roleplaying as a character that agreed to it out of impulse, so he has to go.

The ocean in the middle of the night in a game that's centred around 【mermaids】 is no doubt the scariest place. Bai Liu would never go in blind with a person holding a grudge toward him. Bai Liu doesn't doubt that Andrew would flip his canoe if they bump into each other, making him fall into the ocean.

But Bai Liu doesn't know how to swim.

To some degree, mermaids or sirens are far less terrifying than the ocean itself to Bai Liu. As soon as he falls into the ocean, nothing needs to happen, the murky sea water will strangle him within a few minutes, stripping oxygen away from him and making him suffocate in the icy dark water. Bai Liu loathed dying from helplessness, he doesn't have the right to even struggle.

Bai Liu wouldn't go near the ocean if there isn't a need to. His expression sold his dismay toward this activity out, and Andrew laughs obnoxiously, "will you look at this, this is our billionaire brat, what else are you better than me except for being richer? You're too scared to even go to the ocean."

Bai Liu nods with genuine happiness, "I have nothing except for money." Having money is enough to make him satisfied, even if it's just some fake currency.

Andrew: "..."

Why does this guy look like he got complimented?

Andrew scoffs, "does that mean you're going to not go and give up Lucy?"

Bai Liu is about to slack off and tell Andrew that he's not going to this suicide activity, but the coin in front of his chest shakes, and a mission hint pops out:

【Side quest 【The Boat of True Love】activated. Please finish the bet before leaving Siren Town and win Andrew. The reward is 100 points】

Bai Liu: "..."

There are 100 points as a reward?!

His desire for money overcomes the fear of water, Bai Liu responds calmly, "no, I'll go, I'll beat you for sure."

Lucy is touched by his actions and hugs Bai Liu, "oh, babe, when you come back we have to live together and have a fun night together." Her words have obvious implications behind them. Her hand trails down between Bai Liu's legs, then throws him a flirty look.

Bai Liu removes Lucy's hand silently, he suddenly realises something.

...Wait, 【The Boat of True Love】is not what he's thinking of right? After playing on the boat does that mean he has to play with Lucy in bed...

This kind of Western game would often make these kinds of plot points where the main character gets the girl before the ending, in a way it could be rewarding. But as a game designer, Bai Liu has always thought that this kind of reward is not very appealing, the reward he gives is usually a huge amount of money, this is probably also why the games he made are quite gory.

He just wants to reject that reward right now.

...Not only does he have to risk drowning in the ocean, but he also has to risk being taken advantage of by Lucy when he comes back too. This doubled danger gives Bai Liu a suffocating feeling, but he doesn't dare become out of character to break up with Lucy and tell her that he might never be able to do it, it might lower the trust of the characters toward him.

The driver's trust in Bai Liu had already lowered a while ago.

Clearly, there is a lot of information that is hidden within the characters. If he does anything out of character or something wrong, he might be hated by these characters and lose key information.

But does it really mean that he has to do 【The Boat of True Love】with Lucy?

Bai falls deep in thought -- Whatever, he'll figure it out by then. He didn't succeed the first time anyway, it's only normal if he doesn't succeed the second time, even if it's successful he can just pretend that he's not successful...

Bai Liu accepts the fact that he has erectile dysfunction in this game setting, looking at Lucy as if he's looking at his bestie (no), thinking that Lucy is suddenly not that much of a bother.

The driver turns his head, "y'all can go check out our museum during the day, the fishing activity only happens at night."

They all agreed on a union. The driver then drives around the beach. Bai Liu sees a lot of dried carcasses on the beach, the driver said that this is the place where they capture mermaids, these are the damaged carcasses, and some of them are too mutilated so they are discarded on the beach. The ones that are not too damaged are waxed and made into wax sculptures and statues, they're then displayed in the museum.

Bai Liu has seen the bones of fishtails and pale human skulls, and these things are scattered around the beach with a few nets that are put out to dry beside them. Fishermen are there to collect these bones and nets, lifting their heads to meet Bai Liu's gaze. Bai Liu never got a good look at them during the night, looking at them now during the day...

Their features are very weird, sharing similarities with the driver, but far more bizarre than his face.

Their scleras are so white that it's not normal, it is the kind of white that is not translucent. Their irises are as small as a yellow bean, moving around their eye sockets aimlessly. The space between their eyes is so wide that it is as if they grew near their ears, just like how Bai Liu remembers catfishes.

Around their eyes are grey patterns that resemble marble stones, speaking out from their eyes to their necks. Their movements are sluggish under the sunlight, the back of their foot rubs against the sand as if they are itching. If Bai Liu is not mistaken, the back of their foot seems to have green scales that are about to fall off.

They collectively look toward Bai Liu's car, grinning dumbly like children that smelled food.

Lucy seems startled by the fishermen, speaking softly, "they look so weird."

These fishermen are so much freakier than the driver. Instead of looking like a human, these fishermen look more like,..some kind of strange deep-sea fish.

The driver allows the last bit of the sandwich with a rotten scent, showing his black teeth that have the remains of the fish when he smiles, "really? We all look like this. Probably because we eat all kinda fishes and it ain't too healthy."

Bai Liu narrows his eyes, he thinks that these locals look like monsters too. Though he quickly stops himself.

He already identified the driver wrongly.

The driver and the locals all don't look human, but the driver isn't being recorded in the 【Book of Monsters】, so these locals should be just like the driver where they have something that doesn't match the monster settings of the game. If he accidentally triggered the hostility of this many locals, it really wouldn't be funny.

But Bai Liu is not so dumb that he really thinks these weird-looking locals are not monsters.

There are two theories about them not being monsters.

The first theory: they're really not monsters.

The second theory: they haven't fulfilled a certain condition in the Book of Monsters that makes them a monster.

There is something about the settings of 《Siren Town》 that's interesting, being 【hatched】and【metamorphosed】. The mermaid statues can hatch, and Andrew is in the state of being metamorphosed in the morning. Bai Liu thinks that the locals seem to be in a state of some kind of change, which is what causes them to look so strange.

And Bai Liu needs to know the results of these two states, he guesses that it turns them into monsters, but he needs to verify it.

Bai Liu slowly shifts his gaze toward Andrew who is sitting in front of him.

It's not that he can't save Andrew last night.

But to him, Andrew is an NPC that has hostility toward him, his death benefits him more than being alive.

Andrew looks at the driver sucking the remnants of the fish off his fingers, gulping as he stares intently. He scratches his jaws with irritation, and his desire to eat continues to surge. He glares at Bai Liu from the rear mirror with malice.

Why won't Bai Liu let him eat just a few more fish steaks when he's so rich? He's so hungry that he almost can't control himself from snatching the driver's food when he saw him eating. But the driver is eating too quickly, he is already rubbing his stomach in satisfaction before he could even do anything.

Andrew's Adam's apple rolled up and down as he looks at the driver licking the corner of his lips with delight, the saliva keeps secreting in his mouth. He thinks of the smooth texture of the fish again, he had never eaten any fish steak that tastes this amazing.

No, not just the fish steaks, all of the fish has a taste so delicious that he can't stop himself from eating.

The driver lets out a satisfied sigh, "Delicious, only the fishes in Siren Town are this good."

Lucy compliments, "yeah, I've never eaten any fish that tastes this good, they're like super fresh."

"No, not fresh, there's a secret that makes Siren Town's fish tasty, these kinda fish ain't even good when they're fresh. It needs to be fermented and processed to be this good." The smile on the driver's face starts becoming eerie, "the fishes y'all ate are special, it ain't gonna be in any other places, only in Siren Town."

Lucy asks out of curiosity, "what kind of fish is that?"

The driver says, "mermaids."