Free Web NovelFour blinding beams of light erupted from four different directions at once, slamming into the mermaid wax figures.
For an instant, Bai Liu’s screen became the brightest display in the entire viewing hall—so bright it was almost painful to look at directly.
Under the harsh glare, the wax figures jerked stiffly backward, raising trembling hands to shield their eyes.
The flashlight beams seemed to stun them completely. One after another, the creatures curled inward and recoiled toward the center of the light like criminals cornered by police spotlights. Some even buried their heads in their arms.
Crouching before them like a smiling demon king, Bai Liu tilted his head slightly.
“So I guessed right after all,” he said lightly. “You really are afraid of light.” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
The audience watching in front of the screen fell silent.
“...”
The player who had been loudly criticizing Bai Liu moments ago flushed red all the way to his ears.
“That’s impossible!” he snapped. “How could a cheap discounted projector reproduce a high-intensity flashlight at nearly full brightness?! That makes no sense!”
Someone nearby burst out laughing.
“You came into a supernatural death game looking for science?”
“...Actually...” another viewer muttered awkwardly while checking the item manual. “This projector specializes in optical reflection. It’s useless in most situations, but apparently it preserves around eighty percent of the original light intensity...”
Another person clicked their tongue.
“Mocking a newcomer without even reading the item descriptions first. That’s embarrassing.”
“...I kind of want to buy three projectors now.”
Meanwhile, on the screen beside Bai Liu’s, the player everyone had been praising earlier was in complete chaos.
He swung his blazing torch wildly to force back the wax figures while desperately trying to read the newspaper in the hot-water room. His movements were frantic, and every second looked like a brush with death.
The wax figures closed in around him with twisted smiles and clawing hands. The entire scene was tense enough to make viewers hold their breath.
And yet—
the moment they glanced back at Bai Liu’s screen, the atmosphere became strangely ridiculous.
Three projected versions of Bai Liu stood around the wax figures holding flashlights like a police raid team, while the real Bai Liu calmly stood beside the sink reading newspapers at his leisure.
The mermaid wax figures huddled helplessly in the center of the light.
Weak.
Pitiful.
Utterly defeated.
The contrast was absurd.
[347 users liked Bai Liu’s screen.
355 users bookmarked Bai Liu’s screen.
21 users tipped Bai Liu’s stream.
Player Bai Liu has earned 21 points.]
[Player Bai Liu has exceeded 300 likes within one minute. Reputation rising rapidly.]
[Congratulations, Player Bai Liu.
You have received a promotion slot and entered the edge display area of the Central Hall viewing screens. Current viewership is rapidly increasing...]
One viewer stared blankly at Bai Liu’s screen.
“...Holy shit. This is the first time I’ve seen a newcomer from the rookie zone promoted to the Central Hall display screens.”
Another swallowed slowly.
“I think we might be watching the rise of a future top player...”
[“Siren Town Monster Book” updated.]
[Monster Name: Mermaid Wax Figure (Pupal Form) / Amulet Wax Figure (Cocoon Form)]
[Weaknesses: Direct human gaze, intense light exposure (2/3)]
[Attack Method: Incubation]
[Player Bai Liu has nearly completed the Mermaid Wax Figure entry.
Collecting all weaknesses will unlock additional rewards upon game completion.]
Bai Liu had already suspected that strong light was one of the wax figures’ weaknesses.
The conclusion itself wasn’t difficult to reach.
Earlier, the driver had mentioned that large fish only surfaced at night to avoid sunlight. Since the mermaid-catching ritual also took place at night, Bai Liu naturally inferred that mermaids were likely creatures that feared light.
What he hadn’t confirmed was whether the wax figures inherited the same weakness.
So he observed.
During the daytime, there were almost no wax figures displayed in the streets of Siren Town.
Meanwhile, dimly lit places like the hotel and the wax museum contained large numbers of them.
Combined with his earlier deductions—that these creatures possessed neither hearing nor smell, but extremely sharp visual sensitivity—the answer became obvious.
The wax figures feared intense light.
After reaching that conclusion, Bai Liu immediately began calculating the most cost-effective way to exploit it.
How much light was necessary?
How many wax figures could it suppress at once?
How long would the effect last?
If he became surrounded, could concentrated light create an opening large enough for escape?
So he tested it.
He deliberately allowed the wax figures to encircle him before using the flashlights and projectors to break the formation.
Of course, the plan could have failed.
But Bai Liu had never liked playing cautiously.
As long as the success rate exceeded ten percent, he considered the gamble worthwhile.
Failure was normal.
Risk and reward had always gone hand in hand.
That applied equally to games—
and to the people who played them.
Still, Bai Liu’s attention remained fixed on the soaked newspaper in the basin.
He grasped the damp pages with both hands and carefully tore them apart.
The paper separated cleanly.
Just as he expected.
This wasn’t an ordinary newspaper.
[Player Bai Liu has completed the task: Separate the newspaper hidden in the hot-water pool.]
[Reward obtained: 10 points.]
[Current points: 31.
Would you like to purchase an item?]
Bai Liu selected “No” and °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° lowered his gaze back to the newspaper.
Something felt off.
The thickness of the separated sheets wasn’t the same.
One section was noticeably thicker.
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes slightly before tearing it again.
Another hidden layer separated from the page.
His brows lifted.
The system notification had almost tricked him into stopping early.
Several layers of newspaper had been pasted together.
If he hadn’t checked carefully, he would have assumed he’d already uncovered all the information hidden here.
This game really enjoyed setting traps for people.
Bai Liu continued tearing the papers apart one layer at a time until soggy newspaper fragments filled the sink completely.
Only after confirming there were no more hidden pages did he finally skim through the contents.
Every headline was the same:
[MISSING TOURISTS]
There were nine newspapers total.
Together, the listed disappearances added up to a disturbingly large number.
The earliest reports dated back to the previous year—
the exact year the Siren Wax Museum had been established.
At first, only a few tourists vanished, and most cases appeared connected to robbery. In a crowded tourist destination, one or two disappearances each month wouldn’t attract much attention.
Especially in a coastal town.
Drowning.
Kidnapping.
Robbery.
None of it seemed unusual.
But according to Jeff, the outside world hadn’t learned about the true scale of the disappearances until recently. Up until last month, tourism in Siren Town had still been aggressively promoted.
Only after the missing-person cases increased dramatically—and stranger incidents began surfacing one after another—did the story finally explode publicly.
Twelve disappearances had been officially recorded in the past month alone.
If Bai Liu’s guess was correct, Mayor Harris had been suppressing the incidents for a long time in order to protect the town’s tourism industry.
But eventually, the situation became impossible to hide.
From these reports alone, one thing was already clear:
the people of Siren Town were frighteningly skilled at covering up crimes.
