Bai Liu heard the crisp tap of marble striking the door.
The doorknob turned twice.
Although the door was locked, the knob gave a brittle metallic groan under the forceful twisting of the mermaid wax figure outside, as though it might snap off at any moment.
It wanted in.
Those dead-white eyes searched Bai Liu’s room. Seemingly finding no one inside, it appeared to leave the doorway. The doorknob stopped moving, and the corridor outside fell silent, as if the thing had gone.
But Bai Liu continued holding his breath.
He remembered the heavy scraping sound it made whenever it moved. If he hadn’t heard that sound, then something was wrong.
The mermaid wax figure had not left.
It was still standing quietly outside his door.
“It’s bluffing,” Bai Liu thought. “Trying to lure me out.”
He glanced sideways and saw that the peephole, which had just returned to the color of the carpet, had once again become a bulging white eyeball.
Sure enough, it was still there.
After waiting a while longer, the thing seemed unwilling to give up. The doorknob suddenly twisted outward into a warped, broken shape, hanging loose as if about to fall from the door.
The mermaid wax figure was about to break in.
In front of Bai Liu’s small theater screen, several kind-hearted viewers had already shut their eyes, unable to keep watching.
“It’s rare to see a seeded player... sigh. What a pity.”
“The main problem is that Siren Town is disgusting. This isn’t novice-dungeon difficulty at all. Throwing a newcomer in here is basically murder.”
Bai Liu’s mind raced, but his breathing slowed.
The game had told him very clearly: these ghosts and monsters had weaknesses. Players could use those weaknesses to escape. That meant the way out of this deadlock was to find whatever restriction governed this thing’s movements.
Bai Liu closed his eyes and reviewed every scene from check-in to now.
As long as this was a game, it had a solution.
An unsolvable game was the trashiest kind.
After years of making horror games, Bai Liu was certain something somewhere had already hinted at the mermaid wax figure’s weakness.
What was it?
With immense calm, he began sorting through every time he had encountered the mermaid wax figures.
The first time was by the fountain outside the hotel. Jeff had cried out that he saw the mermaid wax figure move. That movement had been silent and subtle, just a slow turn as it followed the car. But the wax figure had not been looking directly at them. It had been looking into the water.
The second time was in the hotel lobby. A massive number of mermaid wax figures stared directly at them, yet did not move.
The third time was inside the hotel room. Apart from the giant mermaid holding the mirror, every wax figure had been looking directly at Bai Liu. After he fell asleep, they began to move. The mirror mermaid moved the fastest. But the moment Bai Liu woke up, all the wax figures stopped.
Clearly, however, Bai Liu being conscious was not the condition restricting them. The mermaid wax figure outside was already trying to break through the door while he was awake.
The game would not create an impossible situation.
There had to be something on him that could restrict it.
It was not something in the room, nor something belonging to the hotel. It had to be something Bai Liu himself brought. The items in the hotel and the room could not restrict the wax figures’ movement; the fact that this one had freely entered and left Jeff’s room proved that.
What was it?
Mirror.
Water.
Sleep.
Direct gaze.
Bai Liu understood.
He abruptly stood, pulled open the door, and looked the mermaid wax figure directly in the eyes.
The wax figure stood so close that, from Bai Liu’s perspective, its dead face seemed almost pasted against the tip of his nose. One hand still rested on Bai Liu’s doorknob, while its pure white, pupil-less eyes were angled down and to the right through the peephole.
That was exactly where Bai Liu had been hiding.
No wonder it had insisted on coming in.
It had seen him.
The wax figure froze.
Its fishtail had already touched the tips of Bai Liu’s toes. At the final instant before entering his room, it stopped completely in front of the door.
Bai Liu let out a quiet breath.
As expected, the weakness that prevented it from moving was direct human eye contact.
The crowd in front of Bai Liu’s small theater screen was stunned.
“Holy shit! How did he figure that out?! He didn’t hesitate at all when he opened the door!”
“A normal new player wouldn’t think of it. {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} And even if they did, they wouldn’t dare open the door. They’d only dare look through the peephole, but that would still be certain death. At this distance, looking through a reflective medium like a peephole can only partially restrict the mermaid wax figure’s movement—just enough for it to still break the door down.”
“Damn, when he stared that mermaid wax figure down just now, I got goosebumps.”
“What’s his name? This newcomer is seriously impressive...”
The crowd gradually gathered around Bai Liu’s small theater.
[168 people are watching player Bai Liu’s small theater. Player Bai Liu has achieved the ‘Novice Hundred-Man Kill’ achievement.]
[102 people liked Bai Liu’s small theater, 143 people bookmarked Bai Liu’s small theater, 3 people charged Bai Liu’s small theater. Player Bai Liu has gained 3 points.]
On the small theater screen, Bai Liu’s expression remained calm and indifferent, as if he didn’t think he had done anything extraordinary.
In truth, deducing that [Human Eyes] could restrict the mermaid wax figure’s movement was very simple.
After Bai Liu fell asleep, the wax figures began to move. After he woke up, they stopped instantly. The only difference between those two states was that his eyes were open.
That meant [Human Sight] could restrict the mermaid wax figures’ movement.
But there was a trap.
Looking at them through mirror-like objects only weakened part of their movement speed. To stop them completely, one had to look at them directly.
Because under the gaze of human eyes, there were still two types of wax figures that could move: the fountain wax figure at the hotel entrance, and the mirror mermaid wax figure in the room.
The mermaid wax figure in the fountain outside the hotel had been looking into the water, which meant people were looking at it [Directly] through the water. Although that restricted it from moving quickly, it could still move or turn slowly, which was why it had managed to turn at the entrance.
As for the wax figures in the room, the mirror mermaid moved fastest. That was also because the mirror mermaid looked into a mirror, and humans were looking at the wax figure [Directly] through the mirror. The restriction was limited, so the mirror mermaid moved the fastest.
Just now, the mermaid had been looking at Bai Liu through the peephole, so it could move. If Bai Liu had simply looked back at it through the peephole, the mermaid wax figure would have been somewhat restricted, but it should still have been able to move.
At such close range, a peephole was absolutely not enough to stop it from breaking down the door. Once it entered and pinned the player beneath the door, the condition of [Direct Human Eye Contact] would be lost.
Then the player would be finished.
That said, in a situation like this, very few newcomer players would have the courage to open the door and face the mermaid wax figure head-on.
Most players would panic. Even if they deduced the condition of [Direct Human Eye Contact], they would not dare verify it.
Only someone like Bai Liu, who valued money more than his own life, could possess this kind of calm audacity: even without being one hundred percent certain his theory was right, he was still willing to test it.
[Updating the ‘Siren Town Monster Book’ Mermaid Wax Figure Panel]
[Monster Name: Mermaid Wax Figure (Pupa state), Amulet Wax Figure (Cocoon state)]
[Weakness: Direct Human Eye Contact (1/3)]
[Attack Method: Hatching]
The mermaid wax figure’s eyes were lowered, its head tilted slightly down and to the right, the corners of its mouth lifted in the faint suggestion of a smile. Its fishtail was graceful, its body pure white and flawless. Its posture carried an indescribable sense of secret beauty and divinity.
Once frozen in place, the chilling possessiveness around it vanished. It became an exquisitely beautiful wax figure, standing silently before a stranger’s door at midnight by the sea.
[Player Bai Liu received 3 points from audience charging, unlocking the Game Item Shop]
[Points too low to purchase any items. Player, please keep up the good work!]
Bai Liu understood the 3 points from player charging well enough. It probably meant the viewers had tipped him.
As for the newly unlocked item shop, every item was displayed in black and white, marked with [Unable to Purchase].
He glanced through it quickly. The shop sold everything from daily necessities to weapons, along with many strange items such as [Perfectly Intact Heart] and [Love at First Sight Potion]. Naturally, the prices for those bizarre goods were terrifyingly high.
Only now did Bai Liu truly understand the sentence he had heard upon entering the game:
[Points can buy everything you want.]
Bai Liu closed the item shop and stared at the motionless mermaid wax figure before him.
For now, the thing indeed could not move.
But Bai Liu could not stay awake all night staring it down. More importantly, after this incident, he had a new understanding of its destructive power.
His gaze moved to the stainless-steel doorknob hanging crookedly from his door, nearly torn off.
Judging from the behavior of the wax figures in his room earlier, although this thing possessed tremendous destructive strength, it seemed to rely entirely on sight to locate targets.
Or rather, it was sensitive only to visual stimuli.
Once covered by a white cloth, it had no way to locate Bai Liu, even when they were in the same room.
In other words, the mermaid wax figures seemed to lack senses such as hearing or smell.
Otherwise, with Bai Liu sharing a room with so many of them, locating him by his breathing alone should have been easy. They could have twisted Bai Liu’s head off like a doorknob without needing to struggle out from under the white cloth to find him.
With the strength to twist off a doorknob by hand, they should not still be trapped in the bathroom and wardrobe, unable to get out.
...What a nuisance.
And there were so many of them.
Keeping them around was a real burden.
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes slightly, malice stirring faintly in his heart.
There was now a motionless wax figure standing right in front of him, completely at his mercy. Could he perform a few experiments on it to test its true weaknesses?
For example, roasting it with fire.
Or smashing it with a club to see whether it could be killed or broken.
[Reminder: If a player directly attacks this monster and the monster does not die, it will cause the monster’s hatred value to remain on the player for a long time. It will continue to attack the player, lowering the player’s survival rate.]
Bai Liu touched his chin thoughtfully.
Then he smiled.
A harmless little dimple appeared on his right cheek.
“Direct attacks make it hold a grudge and retaliate, right...” Bai Liu murmured to himself. “Then if it has an accident all on its own, it can’t blame me.”
Bai Liu repeated his old trick.
He wrapped the mermaid wax figure in a bedsheet, tied the opening at the bottom with rope, and then, with ill intent, placed it at the entrance to the hotel staircase.
When the mermaid wax figures could not see, they moved aimlessly, like headless flies.
Bai Liu placed this one there specifically so it would fall down the stairs by itself.
Under the premise of hatred values, Bai Liu had no intention of actively smashing these wax figures. If he could destroy them completely, that would be fine. But if he failed, he would clearly bring trouble upon himself.
However, the sheer number of mermaid wax figures remained a significant hidden danger.
Bai Liu only had one pair of eyes.
If this turned into a “red light, green light” situation where he was surrounded by wax figures from all sides, then he was done for. A human’s horizontal field of vision was, at most, 188 degrees. Bai Liu could not grow eyes in the back of his head to watch every mermaid wax figure at once.
Bai Liu preferred cost-effective solutions.
Although the game said players could use weaknesses to escape monsters, he wanted to know whether there was a way to destroy these wax figures directly.
Or rather, whether these wax figures had any other fatal weakness.
He would not actively strike or smash the mermaid wax figure himself. The risk was too high, and he could not afford it.
After all, no one knew what kind of thing might crawl out if this pupa or cocoon broke open.
But if the mermaid wax figure fell down the stairs because of its own poor vision, that had nothing to do with him.
Bai Liu merely wanted to conduct a small experiment to verify whether this thing could be smashed.
Then he retreated back into the room.
Sure enough, before long, the mermaid wax figure began moving again.
Bai Liu watched thoughtfully.
Technically, he was still looking at the wax figure now. But because its head was covered by the white cloth, it did not know Bai Liu was watching it, so it began to move on its own.
This proved that [Direct Human Eye Contact] was not simply an objective condition.
The mermaid wax figure had to subjectively feel that it was being watched in order to stop moving.
There had been so many wax figures in Bai Liu’s room that he could not possibly look at them all at once. Yet previously, the moment he woke up—before he even had time to look around—they had all stopped moving on their own.
Therefore, as long as the mermaid wax figure [Thinks] it is being watched, it will stop moving.
For these things to possess this degree of self-awareness, they were indeed living beings.
Living beings with a certain level of intelligence, though their intelligence did not seem particularly high.
The mermaid wax figure at the staircase struggled a few times.
The moment it slid to the edge of the steps, it tumbled down wrapped in the white cloth, rolling with a series of dull thumps and sharp clatters. A huge cloud of dust rose around it.
Bai Liu stood at the top of the stairs and looked down.
He brushed the dust from his hands and clicked his tongue with faint regret.
Below, the mermaid wax figure lay completely intact, only slightly curled up. There was not even a crack in the marble.
...As expected.
It can’t be broken.
Physical attacks are ineffective.
Bai Liu did not realize that his villainous behavior had already left the players in front of the small theater staring wide-eyed in shock.
“Is this guy really a newcomer? Wrapping their heads in sheets and throwing mermaid wax figures down the stairs... Was this newcomer a kidnapper or a terrorist before coming here?”
“I was nervous and scared for him just now, but now I’m starting to pity the mermaid wax figure that knocked on his door. It fell so hard its tail is sticking up. How tragic...”
“...Does this guy really understand that he’s a player?”
“Other players are trying to survive the monsters. He’s different. He straight-up doesn’t want the monsters to survive.”
