Free Web NovelAlthough Bai Liu had known his plan had a chance of succeeding, even he had to admit that the final outcome far exceeded his expectations.
The items in this game clearly carried enhancement effects. The combustion produced by those barrels of high-proof alcohol was far more intense than any alcohol fire Bai Liu had seen in reality. The high-intensity flashlight from earlier had been the same—bright enough to nearly blind someone outright.
As dawn slowly broke over the sea and daylight spread across the horizon, the nocturnal merfolk, fearful of light, gradually slipped beneath the water and disappeared without a trace.
Only after confirming that no merfolk remained nearby did Bai Liu finally lower his gaze and open his system panel.
He hadn’t had time to check it earlier. He’d been too busy grilling fish—no, fighting merfolk.
But the moment he saw the information displayed on the panel, his eyes narrowed slightly.
[Side Quest — Jeff’s Bloody Conspiracy: Completion Rate 90%]
Andre was already dead.
The driver had also been burned alive by Bai Liu himself.
Yet the quest still remained incomplete.
There was still ten percent left.
How exactly was the final portion of [Jeff’s Bloody Conspiracy] supposed to be cleared?
[Current Points Balance: 684. Would you like to purchase items?]
Bai Liu stared silently at the suddenly inflated number.
Then he opened the detailed breakdown and discovered that more than five hundred points had come from [Tips].
In other words, after everything that had happened throughout the night, over eighty percent of his earnings had not come from the game system itself, but from the so-called audience outside the game.
Bai Liu fell into thought.
To put it another way, earning points from the audience was both easier and more profitable than earning them from the game.
That wasn’t a particularly reasonable design choice.
If rewards from outside the game outweighed rewards within the game itself, players would inevitably begin optimizing for the audience instead of the gameplay. They would abandon efficient clears in favor of flashy gimmicks designed to attract viewers and earn tips—or worse, stop seriously playing altogether and focus entirely on entertainment value.
Especially in a game where points could directly purchase items.
If viewer tips alone provided enough points, a player could theoretically brute-force every stage with purchased equipment, completely bypassing the intended gameplay experience.
Bai Liu would never design a game like that.
And he didn’t think this system would, either.
That meant there had to be some form of in-game reward capable of balancing the internal and external reward structures—something valuable enough to make players prioritize game progress over audience approval.
The coin spun repeatedly between Bai Liu’s fingers.
Every mission reward in this game had been distributed immediately upon completion.
Except for one thing.
The Monster Book.
Rewards like this—collection-type rewards that required full completion and could only be claimed after clearing the game—usually carried extraordinary weight.
And now, after seeing how easily audience points could be earned, Bai Liu realized he had still underestimated the importance of the Monster Book.
The final reward attached to it was probably not only massive, but uniquely valuable—the kind of thing that couldn’t simply be purchased with points.
Only something like that could properly balance the game’s internal and external reward systems.
Bai Liu slowly flipped through the Monster Book, pausing briefly on each completed page before his gaze finally settled on the partially unlocked entry for the [Siren King].
[《Siren Town Monster Book》— Siren King (2/4)]
[Monster Name: Siren King]
[Weakness: None currently known. (Players are not required to investigate this monster’s weakness.)]
[Attack Method: ??? (Unknown. Requires exploration.)]
[Note: This is a wandering God-level NPC with an extremely high danger rating. Players are advised to explore cautiously.]
Attack method... requires exploration.
Based on the previous entries, attack methods were only recorded after the monster successfully attacked the player—and the player survived.
But against something on the level of the Siren King, Bai Liu strongly suspected that if it attacked him once, he would simply die on the spot.
Still...
Knowing there was such an enormous reward dangling in front of him and choosing to walk away from it?
That simply wasn’t Bai Liu’s style.
If Bai Liu had understood just how absurdly dangerous this NPC truly was—or heard the countless horror stories surrounding this bug-like existence—he might have reconsidered.
After all, the thing game developers feared most was bugs.
A bug existed outside the logic of the game itself. It ignored rules, balance, and structure.
Players could strategize against bosses.
They could not strategize against bugs.
Unfortunately, Bai Liu knew none of that.
Not only did he fail to understand the danger, he had already mentally categorized the Siren King as a hidden final boss.
And in Bai Liu’s eyes, hidden bosses existed for one reason only:
To drop extremely lucrative rewards.
As far as he was concerned, every boss had a countermeasure. If the game created it, then the game must also contain a method to defeat it.
Bai Liu stared at the entry for a while longer before lightly clicking his ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ tongue shut.
Then he closed the Monster Book and opened the game shop.
[I want to purchase an item.]
[Does the player require any items? There is currently a discount promotion on Underwater Bubbles. Would the player like to purchase one?]
Bai Liu glanced at the listing.
As expected, the price of [Underwater Bubble] in 《Siren Town》 had already dropped from seventy points to forty.
Meanwhile, displayed directly beside it in the trending items section was the [High-Concentration Alcohol] Bai Liu had purchased earlier.
Its price had risen from nine points per barrel to nearly thirteen.
Seeing the fluctuation, Bai Liu smiled.
His hypothesis had been correct.
A player’s gameplay directly influenced audience purchasing preferences, creating market shifts similar to livestream product sales.
As long as someone discovered a cheaper alternative capable of producing the same effect, players would naturally flock toward the more cost-effective option—causing item prices to fluctuate accordingly.
And because 《Siren Town》 likely had a relatively small player population, market changes occurred especially quickly.
For example, during the [Siren Wax Museum] stage earlier, the standard solution should have been using the consumable item [Blazing Torch].
Instead, Bai Liu had used permanent items like the 3D projector and high-intensity flashlight to clear the stage more efficiently while achieving even better results.
Faced with similar prices, players would naturally prefer reusable permanent items over consumables.
As a result, the price of [Blazing Torch] fell while the price of projectors rose.
This time, Bai Liu had intentionally repeated the same strategy.
The entire point had been to wait until the price of [Underwater Bubble] dropped.
That way, he could save the difference. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Bai Liu smiled faintly.
[I would like to purchase one Underwater Bubble.]
[Purchase successful. 40 points deducted. Thank you for your patronage.]
Meanwhile, Wang Shun had rushed all the way from the Death Comedy Zone to the Single Player Zone. Standing before Bai Liu’s television screen, he frowned in confusion.
After confirming that Bai Liu had indeed purchased an Underwater Bubble, his confusion only deepened.
“...Why is he buying another Underwater Bubble?”
“As far as I remember, most of the later stages in 《Siren Town》 are land-based pursuit sequences. There aren’t many situations where you’d actually need one...”
The player beside him immediately offered a perfectly reasonable analysis.
“Well, Bai Liu has plenty of points now, and he probably doesn’t know the later sections are mostly land maps. He’s likely just buying insurance. It’s only forty points anyway.”
“He has over six hundred points now. Spending forty for an emergency lifesaving item isn’t expensive. Compared to alcohol, it’s definitely the safer option.”
But after watching Bai Liu this entire time, Wang Shun had already developed a clear understanding of his spending habits.
Bai Liu only spent points where absolutely necessary.
Earlier, he had willingly risked using alcohol—a high-risk, low-cost strategy—instead of purchasing the far safer but more expensive Underwater Bubble.
Yet now, supposedly for “safety,” he was suddenly willing to spend extra points on insurance?
For some reason, Wang Shun simply couldn’t believe it.
An absurd thought slowly surfaced in his mind.
What if Bai Liu had deliberately manipulated the market price from the very beginning... and had only purchased the Underwater Bubble now because he had been waiting for the discount?
Wang Shun unconsciously muttered the thought aloud.
The nearby player overheard him and immediately scoffed.
“Have you become some kind of blind fanboy for Bai Liu? Manipulating market prices? Come on.”
“He’s just a newcomer who hasn’t even cleared one game yet. Sure, I admit he’s pretty skilled, but talking about market manipulation is way overboard.”
The player’s tone carried obvious dismissal.
“I think he just got traumatized after nearly dying all night. The moment he had enough points, he immediately bought something that could save his life.”
“As for the alcohol thing? That was mostly just gambling on mechanics.”
He curled his lips disdainfully.
“It’s nothing that special. And somehow that was enough to push him into the Single Player recommendation rankings.”
The jealousy in his expression was impossible to hide.
To him, Bai Liu’s success had come less from genuine skill and more from opportunistic luck.
Similar discussions were already exploding across the forums.
At first, the majority of players had praised Bai Liu’s alcohol strategy.
But after the initial excitement faded, more and more people began mocking him for relying on gimmicks and risky shortcuts.
Most comments shared the same sour undertone:
I could’ve done that too.
[What’s so amazing about this strategy? I thought of it ages ago. If there’s a safer solution available, why would I deliberately choose the higher-risk option?]
[Sigh. Just another attention-seeker. It’s not like the Death Comedy Zone lacks players like this.]
[LMAO. He bought nine barrels of alcohol, used four, and still has five left. What, is he planning to raise merfolk now? And for all the people bragging about how much money he “saved,” let me do the math for you: eighty-one points total. That’s actually eleven points MORE expensive than the original price of an Underwater Bubble.]
[People are seriously overhyping him. Some of you praise him with your eyes closed. Aside from the visual spectacle, this strategy was honestly pointless.]
[And the funniest part? The second he earned points from clearing the stage, he immediately rushed to buy an Underwater Bubble. Isn’t that basically admitting he got scared? Even he knows alcohol isn’t reliable and that Underwater Bubbles are safer. If he’s really that capable, let’s see him keep using alcohol once he reaches the land sections. The merfolk wax statues don’t burn at all.]
