Bai Liu was sleeping on his side in the last row of a van. The back seat was so cramped and narrow that he could barely turn over. When he shifted slightly, something slipped out from beneath his shirt—a necklace.
The clothes he wore were no different from what he'd had on before entering the game: a white shirt and black trousers, the standard uniform of a working social animal. The only unfamiliar addition was the necklace.
Its pendant was a dollar coin with a hole punched through the center. Bai Liu touched it, and a game panel immediately popped up. It was identical to the one he had seen before, offering no additional information.
This should be something like a game manager.
He tucked the necklace back under his shirt. Bai Liu didn't like damaged coins; the sight of them made him uneasy.
Leaning forward, he poked his head out from the back of the van. It was a seven-seater, with four other passengers in front of him besides Bai Liu, who had been sprawled across the rear. The moment he surfaced, someone noticed him and exclaimed in surprise, "Bai Liu! Hey, sweetie—you're finally awake!"
Aside from Bai Liu, all six people in the van looked distinctly foreign. The one who had called him "sweetie" was a girl with curly brown hair styled in loose waves, red lips, and brown eyes. She wore hot pants and suspenders, radiating confidence and enthusiasm. The instant Bai Liu looked at her, a panel popped up over the coin at his chest.
[NPC Name: Lucy]
[Description: Your classmate, who likes your type of guy. You are too shy to face Lucy, who is ten centimeters taller than you and far more enthusiastic and daring.]
Bai Liu's gaze lingered for a brief moment on the words [too shy] before he calmly looked away, lost in thought.
It seemed that the game required the player to actively look at an NPC to trigger their information, much like hovering a mouse over a character in an online game. In this world, the player's eyes served as both the mouse and the controller.
After a moment's consideration, Bai Liu concluded that, at the very least, losing one's eyesight here probably wasn't an option.
Lucy frowned at him slightly. "Hey, baby, did I wear you out? You've been asleep the whole ride."
Bai Liu, who had been single for as long as he could remember, felt a strange mix of emotions.
"..."
A painless end to single life, he thought.
He quickly pulled himself back on track. Turning to look out the window at the increasingly desolate and chilly scenery, Bai Liu asked, "Where are we going? Why does it look so remote?"
"Sounds like someone's trying to run away again."
The sarcastic, mellow male voice came from the front. A tall man in tight jeans and a sports T-shirt crossed his arms and looked back at Bai Liu with open disdain. His build was massive—so broad that his shirt looked ready to split—like a rugby player crammed into a van.
He snorted condescendingly. "Too late, Bai Liu. Even if you're scared and want to back out, we're already on our way to Siren Town."
A panel popped up.
[NPC Name: Andre]
[Description: Your rival. He loves Lucy but was rejected by her and harbors hostility toward you. To prove your love, you made a bet with him that you would protect Lucy in the most dangerous place in the world. That is why you are heading to Siren Town. You regret your decision and cried before getting into the car, having been forced into it by Andre.]
Bai Liu had already seen the name "Siren Town" twice in quick succession. Ignoring Andre's taunts, he asked calmly, "Siren Town? What is that?"
Andre snorted, clearly about to launch into another round of mockery, when he was interrupted by a rambling, whispering chant.
"Siren Town—the only seaside town in history where the remains of sirens have ever been discovered. Over the years, countless people have claimed to see Siren there, or to hear the beautiful songs of siren mermaids drifting across the waves, or even to witness those demonic-looking merfolk feasting on human corpses atop darkened reefs…"
"Jeff!" Andre cut in impatiently. "Those are just stories Siren Town made up to trick tourists into visiting!"
Despite his harsh tone, a fleeting, almost imperceptible wince crossed Andre's face.
The speaker was a small boy with thick, beer-bottle glasses. He flinched slightly, clutching a book tightly to his chest, clearly afraid of Andre. Still, he forced himself to whisper back, "Then how do you explain the mysterious disappearances of tourists who visited Siren Town? Twelve people vanished just last month! The police searched everywhere, but found nothing. No one saw them leave the town…"
Bai Liu glanced at the panel.
[NPC Name: Jeff]
[Character Bio: An ardent enthusiast of mermaids, sea monsters, and other unnatural creatures. Lucy and her group are heading to Siren Town, so he volunteered to join them. He is well-versed in the legends surrounding the town.]
Andre scoffed. "Most of them probably just fell into the sea and drowned. People drown at the beach all the time. What's so strange about that?"
Jeff shook his head, his voice growing lower, darker—and faintly excited. "The police have been conducting recovery operations for a month and haven't found a single body. Even if they fell into the sea, that's not normal…" He swallowed, then whispered, "Unless sirens ate their bodies—so there was nothing left for the police to recover."
That was the last straw.
Andre snapped. He swung his arm and struck Jeff hard on the head. "Shut up, you fucking four-eyes! All you ever talk about is mermaids and fish! I think you look like a damn mermaid!"
The blow sent Jeff's head slamming into the edge of the seat before he lurched back into Andre. Enraged, Andre struck him again—once, twice—until a tooth flew from Jeff's mouth.
Jeff didn't cry out. He lowered his head in silence, picked up the fallen tooth, then slowly looked up at Andre. His expression was subtle, but the hatred in his eyes was unmistakable. His lips moved, forming words so softly that no one else noticed.
But Bai Liu heard it clearly.
"The mermaid will tear you apart and swallow you, Andre."
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow but said nothing. These NPC relationships were… unexpectedly complicated.
It seemed Andre had been bullying Jeff for quite some time—and Jeff, in turn, appeared to be nurturing a very particular kind of revenge, centered around the so-called "mermaids."
The driver was a local from Siren Town, someone Bai Liu had hired himself. From Lucy's conversation, Bai Liu learned that "he" was also supposed to be a wealthy young man—one who had paid for all their food, accommodations, and even hired the driver to help locate a suitable hotel.
The van drove late into the night before finally reaching the mysterious Siren Town. Along the way, the driver explained that Siren Town had long survived on fishing and salvaging shipwrecks. Isolated and impoverished for years, it only began to attract attention after a new mayor started spreading rumors of mermaids to lure tourists.
For instance, the driver said, one guest who checked into a hotel there had vanished by the next morning. The door was still locked from the inside. No one had seen him leave.
The bed was still warm—but the person was gone.
As a result of the tourist disappearances, Siren Town was unusually desolate even during what should have been peak season. Many hotels and hostels had shut down due to poor business.
The town itself was in visible disrepair. Broken fences and discarded fishing nets lay scattered everywhere, and the ground was littered with dried shells, seaweed, and patches of mud. Only a handful of hotels and guesthouses still looked reasonably well-kept. By the time Bai Liu's group arrived, it was already late at night—yet the streets were still crowded with people.
The townsfolk were all heading toward the beach at the same steady pace. However, the moment Bai Liu's car drove into town, they stopped in unison. Heads tilted. Eyes lifted. Every gaze was fixed on the van.
Lucy shuddered under the weight of so many stares. She let out a soft squeal and instinctively shrank into Bai Liu's arms.
Unfortunately, she was much taller than he was, so her head peeked over his shoulder, making it look less like she was hiding behind him and more like Bai Liu had retreated into her embrace.
Bai Liu: "..."
Turning to the driver, Bai Liu asked quietly, "It's midnight. What are all these people doing at the beach?"
The driver shook his head. "Tourists don't come much anymore. Business is bad, so they've gone back to fishing to make a living. Have you ever fished before? A lot of valuable fish are afraid of bright light—they only come out at night. That's why they head out to sea after dark."
The townspeople watched Bai Liu with unsettling expressions. Their eyes reflected a cat-like green glow in the darkness, and their faces seemed frozen in half-smiles—lips twitching stiffly instead of curving naturally.
They carried nets and hooks in their hands; some held oil lamps that cast a greasy, yellow light. Their eyes followed the van as it passed, tracking it closely, as though they were ready to pounce with their fishing gear at any moment.
"You'd better be careful around these folks," the driver warned. "They're short on money these days—and you lot look rich."
Because of Bai Liu's wealth, the driver brought them to the best hotel in the area.
It was a modern, luxurious five-star hotel—so extravagant that it looked completely out of place in the dilapidated town. A fountain pool stood at the entrance.
At its center was a limestone statue of a mermaid, mounted on a base of pale, cold-white wax.
The mermaid looked eerily lifelike. Her smooth skin gleamed almost like real flesh beneath the dim moonlight. Long hair cascaded down to conceal her ample chest, while her fish tail rose elegantly from the pool. Her eyes were lowered, her expression gentle and compassionate. In her hands, she held a water jug filled with imitation mica pearls, from which water spilled into the pool below, producing a sound like rolling waves.
The driver steered around the fountain and pulled the van up to the hotel's front entrance.
Suddenly, Jeff cried out. He pointed at the mermaid statue and shouted, "She just looked at me! She moved—she definitely moved!"