The keeper said that the hot water room Bai Liu was headed to was rather remote, with several broken lamps, and warned him to be careful.
He also cautioned that many mermaid wax figures were piled there at random, telling Bai Liu to watch out and avoid bumping into them.
When the keeper said this, a malicious expression flickered across his face.
Bai Liu walked between marble columns two to three people wide, positioned along the center of the corridor. On both sides, mermaid wax statues were placed at intervals, lining the passageway.
The wax figures varied in shape and size, their fishtails resting on the ground, their faces blank and expressionless. Bai Liu noticed that nearly all of them were facing the windows.
It looked as though these mermaid wax figures were trying to escape.
At the end of the corridor, the hot pool had already been opened. Scalding water spilled out, filling the passage with thick steam. Beneath the heat, the mermaid wax figures seemed to bake and soften, wax dripping slowly from their bodies, their forms shifting in movements so faint they were almost imperceptible.
Bai Liu walked through the corridor as if through a sea of mist, surrounded by mermaids swaying beneath the surface.
After only a few steps, he noticed the mermaid wax figures lining the passage begin to change. Their heads, once fixed on the windows, slowly twisted and tilted, their necks bending at unnatural angles as their expressionless faces gradually turned toward him.
Worse still, the wax figures ahead of him and behind him began inching inward from both sides, subtly closing the distance as their bodies melted more and more.
The vast, deep European-style building was dark and impenetrable. The solitary visitor's footsteps echoed softly on the smooth floor as the mermaid wax figures on either side seemed to shift their posture and expressions with every blink of Bai Liu's eyes, drawing ever closer.
A faint smile appeared on their once-blank, lifeless faces, their fishtails dragging greasy trails of melted wax across the floor.
They were so pale, so flawless, like a group of ghosts frozen in this place, able to move only with agonizing slowness.
Bai Liu silently counted the mermaid wax figures, glancing back from time to time at the ones following him to control their movement.
But there were far too many. Most of the time, as soon as he turned to watch the wax figure behind him, the one directly in front—with a compassionate smile on its face—was already impatiently reaching out, grabbing straight for his neck.
Bai Liu had already calculated their movement speed. He was forced to keep moving and turning back, deliberately using the columns to redirect them and prevent them from forming a complete encirclement.
Although the wax figures felt extremely threatening, the real problem lay in their indestructibility and sheer numbers—once they formed a siege, escape would be nearly impossible.
As the mermaid wax figures drew closer, Bai Liu noticed them slowly transforming, shifting from something closer to a dead object into something disturbingly alive.
At first, they had all looked like generic faces to Bai Liu, the mass-produced European-style features common to wax figures. But now, as they approached, their melted faces began to change—
becoming more and more like… Bai Liu.
The mermaid wax figures wore grotesquely exaggerated, eerie smiles on faces nearly identical to his own, advancing toward him with bared teeth and clawing hands.
Bai Liu finally reached what the keeper had called the hot tub. In reality, it was an old, yellowing washbasin, its faucet mottled with rust-colored stains—whether they were rust or dried blood was impossible to tell.
Above the faucet sat a rectangular iron pot used for boiling water, rattling as the water inside churned and roiled.
To the sound of rushing water, Bai Liu calmly set the newspaper he had been holding into the sink, then turned around.
Behind him stood a mass of mermaid wax figures of varying sizes and shapes. Their faces all resembled his. They were stacked in uneven rows, high and low, crowding around him so densely that they completely blocked his escape.
Their heads were lowered, the dim museum light diffusing through the steam and falling hazily over their eyeless gazes. Their mouths were stretched into strange, cracked smiles that split all the way to the corners of their jaws.
The smiles were unmistakably malicious, radiating an eerie sense of menace from their melting, distorted faces.
The mermaid wax figures stared at Bai Liu sullenly and greedily as he stood before the pool. Bai Liu met their gaze directly, feeling as though he were surrounded by dozens of versions of himself.
These things were hunting him.
Just moments ago, Bai Liu had thought that they lacked intelligence and the awareness needed to surround him. He hadn't expected that, in the blink of an eye, they would learn how to encircle him so thoroughly.
What an astonishing ability to learn—just like humans.
Bai Liu stared calmly at the group. Behind him, hot water had already begun to overflow from the washbasin, but he neither looked back nor dared to. The moment he did, these things would lunge at him. He couldn't even blink.
Reaching behind him, he turned off the tap.
Bai Liu blinked once. The mermaid wax figures advanced by an inch, their faces growing increasingly grotesque. Yet Bai Liu looked at them as though he hadn't noticed anything at all. Instead, he stroked his chin thoughtfully and muttered to himself.
"Hatching… is that what this means? The closer you get to me, the more you become like me. So whatever finally hatches will probably look exactly like me. Hmm. The fishy smell on my body gets stronger whenever these mermaid wax figures approach—so I'm being affected during the hatching process too. Are those townspeople hatching as well?"
He remained unhurried, but the players gathered in front of his mini-TV were far less composed, sneering openly.
"At a time like this, he's still analyzing and putting on an act? What's he planning to do with a bunch of useless projectors—play a movie for the mermaids?"
"Tsk. A hundred spirit points wasted. I thought he'd be something special."
A sudden shout rose from the side. "The rookie player with the torch broke through! Come look!"
On a small TV screen two slots away from Bai Liu's, a male player wielded a flaming torch, waving it at the mermaid wax figures surrounding him as he shouted, "Get back! If you don't want to be burned, move!"
The mermaid wax figures gradually retreated, and cheers erupted in front of the screen.
"I told you this player had potential. He picked the right prop—one of the weaknesses of mermaid wax figures is light sensitivity. A blazing torch is perfect. It's fine, it can be recharged!"
"I like him. His force stat is solid, too. If he develops well later on, he might even make it to the Rising Star List."
"Tch, I shouldn't have spent points on that white-haired guy next door. Total waste. This is the right investment…"
The likes on Bai Liu's mini-TV dropped into the single digits. The few viewers still watching weren't there to cheer him on—they were simply waiting to witness a rookie's final struggle.
As they watched Bai Liu calmly pull out the three discounted 3D projectors from his pocket, the remaining viewers couldn't help but scoff.
"He actually brought them out? What's he planning to do?"
"Seriously, the torches next door were so effective—they drove them back instantly."
The mermaid wax figures silently closed in until their fishtails brushed against Bai Liu's toes. They stood tall, encircling him in a cramped, shadow-filled space, dozens of melting wax hands stretching out from all sides, trying to seize him like prey.
Bai Liu calmly tossed the three 3D projectors behind him, to his left, and to his right—one in each direction—then smiled and pressed the switch.
Three vivid projections of Bai Liu sprang out among the wax figures, each wearing the same smile as him. Together with the real Bai Liu, they guarded all four directions, continuing to advance steadily.
The mermaid wax figures hesitated for several seconds—then all of them froze.
The audience, however, continued to sneer.
"Even though mermaid wax figures aren't very intelligent and can't tell the difference between a real person and a projection, the eyes of a projected human can only fool them for a short time," someone scoffed. "At most ten minutes. And ten minutes isn't nearly enough to get out of there."
A spectator who had just dumped a large number of points on the torch-wielding player snorted. "And that bright flashlight he bought? Just one of those might force the mermaids back, but it's nowhere near as threatening or lethal as a flaming torch. A flashlight is basically useless."
As soon as he finished speaking, the mermaid wax figures on the screen retreated slightly, staring at the projections without moving.
The same spectator continued coolly, "Ten minutes at most. Just wait—these wax figures will realize the projections are fake soon enough."
Sure enough, it didn't take long for the mermaid wax figures to seem to realize that Bai Liu's projections were fake. They began darting restlessly around the torchlight, preparing to surge forward.
The audience member let out another contemptuous laugh. "See? Told you this would happen."
But before he could finish basking in his own analysis, he glanced back at the small TV screen—and fell silent, his expression frozen in shock.
On Bai Liu's side, the three projections mirrored his movements. Each one pulled out a powerful flashlight and aimed it at the mermaid wax figures. Then all four Bai Lius raised their torches, pointing them directly at the mermaid wax figure in the center, as if preparing to fire a cannon.
Bai Liu laughed softly.
"One isn't enough," he said. "But four should do the trick."