Free Web NovelAndre looked at Bai Liu with eyes that shone openly with gluttonous hunger.
He let out a hoarse chuckle.
“I’m still not full. If any merfolk come to flip my boat in the middle of the night, I’ll drag them up, bite them to death, and eat until I’m satisfied.”
He was clearly talking about biting merfolk to death.
Yet his eyes never left Bai Liu’s neck.
As though the throat he wanted to tear open didn’t belong to some merfolk at all.
It belonged to Bai Liu.
Bai Liu’s thoughts had begun to slow.
This was clearly the effect of his decreasing Mental Value.
Only now did he realize something.
If Andre’s scent was already tempting enough that Bai Liu had briefly wanted to bite him, then to Andre—whose alienation level was obviously much higher—Bai Liu must smell like an even richer delicacy.
Andre wanted to eat him.
But Bai Liu’s physical strength, intelligence, and reaction speed had all dropped drastically.
Every attribute on his panel was flashing red.
His Mental Value was hovering on the verge of sixty.
If Bai Liu were forced to spend the entire night at sea facing a fully alienated monster like Andre, he would undoubtedly die.
There had to be a way.
Some method to deal with Andre.
But every piece of information in Bai Liu’s mind seemed hidden behind a translucent veil.
He could vaguely see the outlines of his plans, but he couldn’t grasp them clearly.
He dimly remembered having prepared a way to deal with Andre.
But he couldn’t remember what it was.
Bai Liu blinked again.
His body swayed faintly.
Then he whispered, “Okay.”
***
In front of the Small TV, everyone’s hearts clenched the moment they saw Bai Liu stagger.
Wang Shun had followed Bai Liu all this way and knew he was an exceptionally talented player.
He had watched many people play through Siren Town before, but he had never felt this tense.
Staring fixedly at the screen, he held his breath.
“He’s being alienated. His Mental Value is about to fall below sixty. He’s almost at the point of hallucinating.”
By now, a large crowd of players had gathered around Wang Shun.
The player who had been watching beside him earlier spoke in a complicated tone.
“A Mental Value of sixty...”
“That’s the Gate of Life and Death.”
Sixty Mental Value was the boundary between reality and illusion.
Above sixty, players only had to fight monsters.
Below sixty, they also had to fight their own hallucinations.
And that was far more difficult than fighting monsters.
A monster’s weaknesses could be explored, learned, and exploited.
But hallucinations were born from the player’s own mind.
No one knew where the weakness of their own hallucination lay. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Worse still, no one could reliably distinguish hallucination from reality once they had fallen into it.
Players with high Mental Value held an immense advantage in the game.
That was precisely why Bai Liu had drawn so much attention earlier.
Conversely, players who were easily frightened or mentally polluted by monsters could see their Mental Value drop below sixty very quickly.
From that point onward, most players’ mortality rate rose sharply.
Many had even been frightened to death by their own hallucinations.
Thus, among players, the sixty-point threshold was known as the [Gate of Life and Death].
The audience sighed regretfully.
“He’s already done well. Holding out this long before being polluted below sixty isn’t bad.”
“Without items to cleanse Mental Value, it’ll only keep falling. I think he’s hanging by a thread.”
“Siren Town might have a fifty-percent clear rate, but for rookies who don’t know the strategy, the survival rate is less than one percent.”
“Weren’t there rookies who cleared it in the last batch?”
“Heh. Out of the hundred rookies in the last Siren Town batch, only one cleared it. And when he came out, his Mental Value was at twenty-five. He went insane the moment he cleared the game. What’s the point?”
“This rookie will probably start raving soon too.”
...
The sailors aboard the ship seemed eager to watch a good show.
They prepared two small boats for Andre and Bai Liu, then ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) lowered them into the dark sea.
Bai Liu stood woodenly by the railing, looking somewhat dazed.
He even specifically asked the sailors for an extra quilt, saying he might get cold during the night.
The sailor looked at him mockingly.
Then he placed two or three thick quilts into Bai Liu’s small boat and said meaningfully:
“I wish you sweet dreams tonight, Mr. Bai.”
He smiled.
“If you wake up, that is.”
Bai Liu smiled back.
“I will.”
***
Many small boats clung to the sides of the larger ship.
The fishermen aboard them looked like deep-sea fish.
Their appearances were similar to Andre’s current state, only more advanced.
In the dark night, each small boat had only a single dim lamp.
Under that murky glow, the fishermen’s eyes shone with an eerie green light.
They stood motionless on the boats swaying with the waves, staring straight at Bai Liu as he climbed aboard clutching his quilts.
The gills beside their ears trembled faintly, producing a fine vibrating sound.
As though they had just spotted prey.
Meanwhile, Andre stood on another small boat not far from Bai Liu.
Saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth.
His eyes emitted the same unsettling green glow as the fishermen’s.
In a low hiss, he said:
“Bai Liu, take your stupid quilts and sleep at the bottom of the sea.”
The large ship slowly sailed away.
A sailor informed them that the ship would return to pick them up the next morning.
Bai Liu looked around.
Aside from Andre, many fishermen on the nearby boats had not left with the ship.
Instead, with the slow sound of oars dipping into water, they gradually drew closer, surrounding Bai Liu.
Even though Bai Liu’s head felt heavy and dizzy, one fact remained perfectly clear:
as the weakest “larva” here, spending the night with these clearly starving fishermen meant he would likely be torn apart and swallowed within half an hour.
And that was without even counting Andre, who hovered nearby like a tiger watching its prey.
On the midnight sea, Bai Liu was utterly isolated.
No help was coming.
Although he had already entered an alienated state, jumping into the sea was still not a good option.
He was only in the early stage of alienation.
He could still feel his nose and mouth breathing normally, but the gills beside his ears did not seem functional yet.
Whether he could actually breathe underwater remained unknown.
And even if he could, Bai Liu certainly couldn’t outswim the highly alienated fishermen and Andre.
Jumping into the sea would only change where he died. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Underwater, or above it.
Bai Liu also still had the [True Love’s Boat] quest.
In a situation where survival already seemed nearly impossible, he had to endure the entire night and win the bet against Andre while his Mental Value hovered on the edge of collapse.
It was practically an impossible task.
***
Wang Shun slowly lowered the pen he had been using to take notes.
With genuine regret, he sighed.
“What a pity. The best item for winning this bet is [Underwater Bubble].”
“That item can repel schools of fish. If he bought two and used them properly, he could last until dawn. It’s expensive—one hundred and forty points total—but it works.”
“If Bai Liu hadn’t wasted his points earlier, getting through this part would’ve been simple.”
The player who had been watching with him nodded, arms crossed, and shook his head helplessly.
“He’s still a rookie after all. It’s normal not to know the proper strategy.”
“Although Bai Liu occasionally shows flashes of brilliance, most of the time he’s just reckless.”
“A common rookie problem.”
“Sigh. This is where it ends.”
The remaining scattered audience members were already preparing to leave.
At that moment—
Andre’s small boat suddenly rocked violently.
A person—
No.
A merfolk flipped up from beneath the water and landed on the boat.
Opening its sharp maw, it lunged straight at Andre with a hideous grin.
The audience members who had been about to leave froze in place.
Wang Shun pushed up his glasses and lunged closer to the screen.
“What’s going on?!”
“Aren’t the fishermen and Andre supposed to enter the water and start attacking the player?”
“Why are these fishermen attacking Andre?!”
The merfolk on Andre’s boat was terrifyingly ferocious.
It had sprung up from below the surface and boarded Andre’s defenseless boat in an instant.
Then it sank its teeth viciously into Andre’s neck.
Andre immediately let out a piercing scream of agony.
The gills on both sides of his head trembled violently from pain.
Foul black blood sprayed across the boat, some of it splashing into the sea and dissolving into the pitch-dark waves.
The scent of blood instantly spread through the surrounding waters.
A strange gurgling sound emerged from the throats of all the fishermen, like creatures swallowing saliva.
Their eyes slowly shifted toward Andre’s boat.
The scent of blood around Andre had become an irresistible lure.
The small boats that had originally been closing in on Bai Liu began changing direction.
One after another, they converged on Andre.
Then came the chilling sound of chewing.
Andre’s boat was instantly covered in starving merfolk.
In panic, he tried to jump into the sea, but his ankles were quickly seized.
More and more merfolk piled onto the small boat.
Andre raised one hand and let out a muffled, agonized whimper.
Then he was completely swallowed beneath the mass of biting merfolk.
