Free Web NovelAlthough the scent of fish flesh drifting through the bubbles drew in the overwhelming majority of the merfolk and fish schools, a handful of merfolk were far more interested in Bai Liu’s raw flesh. They eagerly sank their teeth into his arms and ankles, leaving behind one grotesque ring-shaped bite mark after another.
Wang Shun watched with nearly frozen breath. “His mental value is about to drop below 20!”
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s mental value is 17, below 20. Player has triggered the (Berserk) state. Panel attributes are about to surge—]
The instant the notification ended, the corners of Bai Liu’s lips curved upward. At the same time, the panel attributes flashing red across the screen began soaring wildly—
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 7 → 151]
[Agility: 3 → 149]
[Attack: 6 → 167]
[Resistance: 2 → 166]
[Comprehensive offense and defense increased. Total panel attribute points exceed 500. Evaluated as a C-level player. Player Bai Liu’s level has risen from F(?) to C. Able to withstand attacks from merman sailors, merman wax figures, and merman larvae.]
Wang Shun stared blankly for a moment before snapping back to himself. “Right—when a player’s mental value drops below twenty, the system determines they’ve entered a state of madness and triggers the (Berserk) state. In that state, panel attributes increase explosively.”
“The lower the mental value falls, the higher the attributes climb, until the player’s potential limit is reached!”
His thoughts raced. “This is actually good for Bai Liu. At least now he can fight back against the merfolk!”
“Not necessarily.” Mu Shicheng did not look optimistic. If anything, his expression had grown even grimmer. “It’s true that a rise in panel attributes and attack power is beneficial...”
“But by this point, most players have already lost their sanity. The lower their mental value drops, the more they resemble the monsters inside the game itself. Even with higher attributes, it’s meaningless. They’ll only attack blindly like monsters, and their mental value will continue plummeting until it reaches zero.”
On the small screen, Bai Liu slowly opened his eyes.
Sharp black nails extended from his fingers. His lower body swayed softly like a fish tail. His eyes no longer contained black pupils—only cracked gray-black fissures swimming in eerie whites. His mouth split open, revealing rows of razor-sharp fangs.
He struck a merman with a backhand slash, his claws cutting the creature cleanly in half. The merman opened its mouth soundlessly in agony, gills trembling as its corpse slowly sank toward the seabed. Bai Liu watched without expression.
If not for the Siren King still clasped in his right hand, he would have looked no different from the surrounding merman monsters.
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 15. (Berserk) state intensified.]
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 151 → 351]
[Agility: 149 → 249]
[Attack: 167 → 667]
[Resistance: 166 → 966]
[Comprehensive offense and defense increased. Total panel attribute points exceed 2000. Evaluated as a B-level player. Player Bai Liu’s level has risen from C to B.]
Wang Shun was dumbfounded. “His attributes are increasing way too fast! He’s already B-level! Just how monstrous is his potential?!”
But his shock quickly turned to anxiety again. “His mental value dropped again! If he can’t stay conscious and it falls below 10, then he’s finished—”
Before Wang Shun could finish speaking, a shrill alarm exploded from Bai Liu’s screen.
[System Strong Warning: Player Bai Liu’s mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 9. (Berserk) state intensified.]
[System Strong Warning: Three minutes until the Siren King awakens. Player, please clear the game immediately!]
“Only three minutes left?! And his mental value is already at 9?!” Wang Shun felt like his emotions had been dragged through violent highs and lows by Bai Liu from start to finish. He had never experienced anything this nerve-racking.
On-screen, Bai Liu remained utterly expressionless. Beside him, the Siren King’s fish tail stirred faintly, his eyes beginning to open.
Even as a spectator, Wang Shun could barely hold himself together.
He dug his fingers hard into the space between his thumb and forefinger to force himself calm. “Bai Liu, stay conscious!!”
Under these circumstances, clearing the game felt almost impossible. But after following Bai Liu this far, Wang Shun genuinely could not bear to watch such a high-potential player die here. His eyes never left the screen for even a second.
Mu Shicheng gripped his left elbow tightly, jaw tense. He spoke slowly, heavily.
“Three minutes... If he sends the Siren King back to the seabed immediately, he should still be able to clear it. But I don’t know how much sanity Bai Liu still has left under the hallucinations and the Berserk state. Does he still remember he’s a player... and not a monster inside the game?”
The other spectators were also being driven to the edge by Bai Liu’s habit of “slamming the brakes at the final second.” Some cried out in disbelief. Others simply refused to accept that Bai Liu might truly fail here.
Everyone stared fixedly at his small screen, frantically using likes and point donations—every external method available—to try to wake Bai Liu’s consciousness.
Only a few spectators gathered in one corner continued sneering coldly, as though they had expected this outcome all along.
The system warnings continued.
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 8. (Berserk) state intensified.]
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 351 → 655]
[Agility: 249 → 733]
[Attack: 367 → 1555]
[Resistance: 366 → 1776]
[Comprehensive offense and defense increased. Total panel attribute points exceed 4000. Evaluated as an A-level player. Player Bai Liu’s level has risen from B to A.]
Fish scales gradually spread across Bai Liu’s face. A dim green light glowed from his eyes beneath the seawater. Every scale radiated danger.
Dragging the Siren King behind him, Bai Liu continued sinking slowly downward. freewёbnoνel.com
The Siren King no longer drifted passively. His tail swayed gently as he stabilized himself in the water.
The instant his enormous fins unfurled, every surrounding merfolk shrieked and fled in terror.
And when the Siren King’s flawless face appeared fully on-screen, the entire audience unconsciously held its breath—not only for that terrifying beauty, but for the danger hidden beneath it.
Dark, armor-like scales now completely covered Bai Liu’s face, creeping constantly across his hands.
In stark contrast, the Siren King remained immaculate. His skin was pale and flawless, his fingers long and luminous.
Hand in hand, they drifted downward through seawater clouded with corpses and debris, their tails swaying together. The scene carried an eerie kind of serenity, like two merfolk wandering the deep sea in play.
But everyone knew this fragile harmony would shatter the instant the Siren King fully opened his eyes.
Because once he awakened, Bai Liu would almost certainly die.
“Bai Liu’s already reached A-level...” Wang Shun’s voice trembled with complicated emotions. “I really didn’t misjudge him. His potential is terrifying. In a Berserk state, he can accomplish unbelievable things.”
Mu Shicheng paused slightly at those words.
Something seemed to click into place in his mind. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at Bai Liu on the screen.
“Wait. Bai Liu knows dropping mental value triggers the Berserk state. The system tells players that the moment they enter the game.”
His tone turned certain.
“He did this deliberately.”
“He let the monsters attack him on purpose so his mental value would plummet and activate Berserk, boosting his panel attributes.”
Wang Shun froze. “Why would he do that? He should’ve been able to clear the game perfectly without pushing Berserk this far, right?”
“Yes. More than that, he didn’t even need to fight the merman monsters at all. He could’ve hidden inside the (underwater bubble), returned the Siren King to the seabed, and cleared easily.” Mu Shicheng seemed to understand everything at once. His expression shifted to disbelief.
“The reason he killed the merman corpses, wax figures, and sailors... was because they might interfere with his real objective.”
“What objective?” Wang Shun grew more confused the longer he listened. “His mental value’s at 7! What plan could he possibly still have?!”
Mu Shicheng inhaled slowly and looked up at the screen.
“Do you remember what I said earlier? Bai Liu chose the true ending route because he wanted to complete the entire Monster Book.”
“His (Monster Book of Siren Town) is almost complete. He’s only missing one entry—(Siren King’s Attack Method).”
“To obtain that entry, he has to let the Siren King awaken and attack him. But under normal circumstances, Bai Liu could never survive an attack from the Siren King.”
Wang Shun finished the thought instinctively, his voice cracking from shock.
“So he deliberately let the monsters lower his mental value, forced himself into an intensified Berserk state, and raised his attributes... all just to survive a single hit from the Siren King?!”
Even hearing himself say it aloud sounded insane.
He gestured helplessly at Mu Shicheng. “But this is a god-tier wandering NPC! To withstand an attack from something like that, you’d need S-level attributes—someone like Spades!”
“Exactly.” Mu Shicheng glanced at him. “But you’re forgetting something important.”
“Bai Liu doesn’t know he’s facing a god-tier NPC.”
“To him, this is just a normal game.”
“He calculated everything correctly except for one thing—he didn’t realize he was dealing with a bug.”
Mu Shicheng unwrapped a lollipop and bit down on it, almost marveling.
“This lunatic genuinely believes there’s a perfect clear route for this game.”
“Bai Liu is the kind of player who always chooses the optimal solution. He eliminated the merman corpses, wax figures, and sailors because he didn’t want anything interfering with him when he took the Siren King’s attack.”
“He preserved every bit of strength for that final moment.”
“You could say he pushed everything to the absolute limit—the lowest risk, the lowest point expenditure, the highest-return clear route. And from beginning to end, he never once doubted that his choice was correct.”
“His execution is nearly flawless.”
Mu Shicheng fell silent for several seconds before finally concluding:
“Even with F-level base attributes... he’s terrifying.”
“Then can he clear it or not?” Wang Shun’s heart felt lodged in his throat. “God Mu, I still don’t understand. Does Bai Liu actually have a chance?”
“I don’t know.” Mu Shicheng chewed thoughtfully on the lollipop.
The red light flickering in his eyes suggested he had noticed something strange while watching Bai Liu’s screen.
“There are only two possible endings for him.”
“The first is failure and death.”
“The second...” Mu Shicheng’s gaze darkened slightly. “A successful clear.”
“And if that happens, Bai Liu will break my single-player point record and become the first player ever to record a god-tier NPC in the Monster Book.”
“As you said, surviving an attack from a god-tier NPC requires S-level attributes. Right now, the only player with an S-level panel is the current number one on the total points leaderboard—(King Player) Spades.”
“If Bai Liu succeeds...” Mu Shicheng spoke quietly, almost obscurely, “then it means his Berserk-state potential can reach S-level too.”
“And he’ll become the second rookie in this game with the potential to stand at S-level.”
Wang Shun stared blankly at the screen.
“The second... S-level...”
Bai Liu continued sinking hand in hand with the Siren King.
Countless hallucinations overlapped before his eyes, layering together into chaotic swaths of color. His senses were gradually syncing with the illusions themselves.
His mind felt as though something strange were manipulating it, forcing him to experience every false sensation produced by the hallucinations.
Yet for some reason, Bai Liu found it absurdly easy to distinguish illusion from reality.
For example, one hallucination showed a pack of merfolk tearing into his body with claws and teeth. The pain felt completely real.
An ordinary person, with every sense deceived, would likely believe they had already been ripped apart alive.
But Bai Liu calmly remembered that he had locked those merfolk inside the (underwater bubble). While it wasn’t impossible for one to escape, Bai Liu chose to trust the precision of his own actions.
At a time like this, he believed himself more reliable than the hallucinations.
Relying on that almost unreasonable confidence, Bai Liu remained perfectly composed amidst the thousands of visions that would have driven anyone else insane.
He counted his own heartbeat in silence, timing the Siren King’s awakening as he slowly descended toward the seabed.
[System Strong Warning: One minute until the Siren King awakens. Countdown initiated. Player, please clear the game immediately!! 59... 58... 57...]
Wang Shun could barely breathe. “Only one minute left...”
“He’s almost reached the seabed.” Mu Shicheng stared unblinkingly at the screen.
No one in the audience dared breathe loudly anymore.
Every eye was fixed upward, locked onto Bai Liu’s screen. Even the spectators who had been talking nonstop earlier had fallen completely silent.
Everything depended on this final minute.
At last, the Siren King slowly opened his eyes.
At the exact same moment—as though he had calculated the timing perfectly—Bai Liu released the Siren King’s hand.
The Siren King floated quietly in the sea, gazing at Bai Liu.
His eyes were white as fresh snow. Not natural white, but the cold, lifeless white of marble. Pale lashes shadowed silver pupils. His long hair drifted through the water around an expressionless face of inhuman perfection.
With that almost divine beauty paired with those translucent eyes, he resembled an elf from myth or some legendary sea spirit.
Even in the darkness of the deep sea, his brilliance could not be concealed.
The audience felt dazed just looking at him, unable to bear the thought of harm touching such a creature.
[System Warning: The Siren King has awakened!! Audience members, please maintain distance from the screen! Remaining too close carries a risk of mental pollution from a god-tier NPC!]
Yet instead of retreating, the spectators moved closer as though hypnotized.
Mu Shicheng immediately noticed several people’s mental values dropping rapidly.
Wang Shun was among them.
He stared blankly at the Siren King and murmured, entranced, “So beautiful... don’t hurt him...”
As he spoke, his pupils gradually turned the same silver-white color as the Siren King’s.
Mu Shicheng calmly unwrapped a mint lollipop and placed it in his mouth—a long-duration mental stabilization item. Watching the screen, he raised an eyebrow.
“As expected of a god-tier NPC. The mental pollution can even pass through the screen.”
Most monsters polluted players through physical contact.
But a god-tier NPC was still a god-tier NPC.
Its pollution spread like radiation.
Even spectators separated by a screen couldn’t escape it.
[System Warning: A large number of spectators in Player Bai Liu’s viewing area are experiencing mental pollution and mental value decline. Protection mechanism activated. Mandatory mental cleansing in progress.]
[Pollution source detected—Siren King. Applying image blur processing. Spectators may now ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) continue viewing safely.]
A cloud of white mist descended over Bai Liu’s viewing area.
Wang Shun, still stumbling toward the screen in a daze, suddenly shivered violently. He coughed twice, and his pupils slowly returned to black.
By then, the system had already heavily pixelated the Siren King’s face on-screen.
Wang Shun stared at the blurred image with lingering fear before instinctively turning back toward Bai Liu.
Even spectators separated by a screen had nearly lost themselves.
Then what kind of monster was Bai Liu—the man who had dragged the Siren King all the way here, yet only began suffering mental contamination right before the Siren King awakened?
