"Holy shit!" Wang Shun couldn't help but blurt out. "I haven't gathered any information about the god-level NPC—don't go killing yourself!"
"That wax figure will alienate you the moment you touch it. Once you're alienated, your spirit value drops, and when your spirit value falls, you'll quickly lose your sanity! At that point, you won't be able to tell what's real anymore, and then you're completely screwed!"
Wang Shun's agitated shouting drew several players from the surrounding audience.
The players shown on the mini TV in the Death Comedy division were either thrill-seekers who loved flirting with death for attention or overly cautious players who stumbled through the game by relying on all kinds of junk tactics just to survive.
Viewers wandering through this section usually enjoyed watching players pull off dangerous stunts. When they heard Wang Shun, a few of them looked up at the screen, only to see Bai Liu reaching out to touch the mermaid wax figure. They let out mildly surprised "wows."
One spectator said, eyes wide, "I've never seen someone die like this before. Touching a monster with his bare hands—what is he trying to do?"
Wang Shun also turned to the audience, pointing at Bai Liu on the screen, who was calmly touching the mermaid wax figure. There was a trace of resentment in his voice.
"I followed him all the way from the central screen. This guy was earning points insanely fast—almost a hundred in one go. And then guess what he used them to buy?"
"A hundred points?" The spectator glanced at the time record on the mini TV in shock. "It's only the second day of the game, and he already has that many points? That's impressive. So why did he end up in the Death Comedy division?"
Before the spectator could finish speaking, Bai Liu on the screen had leaned in so close that his face was almost pressed against the mermaid wax figure, tracing its features with his fingers. The spectator's expression instantly cracked.
The spectator cried out, "Well… with that kind of playstyle, it's not surprising he ended up here. But what did he buy? With a hundred points in Siren Town, you could buy plenty of useful items—the flaming torch and water bubbles together cost about that much. Those are the best items for clearing this stage."
"No." Wang Shun smiled slyly. "He didn't buy either of those.""He bought nine barrels of high-concentration alcohol."
"No way?!" The audience stared at the mini TV in disbelief, their jaws practically dropping. "Nine barrels of alcohol?! Who even buys that stuff?"
Wang Shun nodded. "If we analyze it using common sense, the flame and light intensity from alcohol are too weak. It should be completely useless against mermaid wax figures and mermaid sailors…"
As he spoke, Wang Shun leaned closer to the mini TV, confusion creeping onto his face. "What's going on? He's been touching it for so long—why hasn't he been alienated yet?"
Other viewers leaned in as well, frowning. "It's been five minutes… He should've been completely alienated by now. His spirit value should've dropped to zero…"
On the screen, Bai Liu casually brushed his fingertips over the mermaid wax figures looking down at him, as if he were a sculptor idly appreciating a piece of art rather than a player touching a monster.
There wasn't a trace of fear on his face. Instead, he muttered to himself in a daze, as though he were speaking to the wax figure.
"Sure enough, your face hasn't changed into mine. When those mermaid wax figures tried to attack and hatch me, their faces changed. You have to get close to me for that to happen—but yours hasn't changed at all. It's still the cocoon form of a mermaid wax figure."
"You can't alienate me by touch, because you already—"
Bai Liu smiled faintly.
"—Have someone else's face. You're the amulet of those sailors. You're their cocoon. You can't hatch me."
Bai Liu was holding a mermaid wax figure that bore the exact appearance of a sailor he had just seen on deck.
Up close, he noticed that the wax figures had lost much of their paint. The material looked brittle and thin, completely different from the wax figures he had seen elsewhere. When illuminated by a flashlight at close range, they were so thin they seemed almost translucent—like a shell that could be broken with a single poke, similar to a butterfly's cocoon after it has emerged.
These wax figures looked exactly like the hotel's front desk staff.
The mermaid wax figure known as [Amulet] was even more similar. In the Monster Book, the mermaid wax figure of the amulet was also labeled as [Cocoon Form].
If Bai Liu's guess was correct, then every mermaid wax figure in this warehouse was an amulet belonging to the sailors aboard the ship. They were all cocoons, and the cocoons could not attack.
Because once a mermaid wax figure changes from [Pupa] to [Cocoon], it means the creature inside has already transformed and escaped, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
The sailors walking on the ship were the real monsters—the ones that had emerged from these wax figures.
[Siren Town Monster Book Refresh — Mermaid Sailor (3/4)]
[Monster Name: Mermaid Sailor (Butterfly Status)]
[Weakness: ????? (to be explored)]
[Attack Method: ????? (to be explored)]
Wang Shun and the audience gathered in front of the mini TV were completely stunned.
Leaning close to the screen, Wang Shun stared at the newly refreshed monster book and said in disbelief, "…I've watched Siren Town clearance videos countless times, but I never realized there was no need to hide here at all. Even God Mu, the highest point holder in this single-player instance, never noticed that this place is a cocoon rather than a chrysalis."
"Normally, don't players have to be chased by these amulets to trigger a mermaid sailor pursuit and unlock this page of the monster book?"
"How did Bai Liu know that the wax figures down below could be ignored? And how did he clear the third page of the monster book so easily—and this early?"
The spectator beside him was equally dumbfounded. "Holy shit! He's not planning to collect all the monster book entries in Siren Town to clear the stage, is he? That's insane. The last person who completed the full Siren Town monster book was God Mu, right?"
"No way!" Wang Shun snapped back to his senses and immediately denied it. He pushed up his glasses, finally looking at Bai Liu with a complicated mix of admiration and regret.
Wang Shun sighed and shook his head. "He's unlucky. The monster book entry that appeared on the second page is a wandering god-level NPC."
"The Siren King has no weaknesses. To collect the Siren King's page of the monster book, players have to explore its attack methods. And to do that, you have to awaken the Siren King and let it attack you. But once that bug-level NPC attacks, the player is guaranteed to die."
"What?!" The audience cried out in shock, looking up at Bai Liu with awe. "He even triggered a roaming NPC? This is the first time I've seen a player encounter one and still stay in the game! Everyone else who triggered it tried to quit immediately. And this guy is just… continuing to play? Is he not scared at all?"
"The ignorant don't know fear." Wang Shun laughed. "He's a newcomer."
The loud, excited discussion between the two quickly attracted more spectators.
News that Bai Liu had encountered a wandering god-level NPC—and refreshed three pages of the monster book on the very first day—spread rapidly, drawing in waves of viewers.
Audiences in the Death Comedy section adored Bai Liu's unconventional playstyle.
"Now that's how you play!"
"Exactly, exactly! I love watching him go completely insane and still not die!"
"Don't be a coward—just do it! Go, Bai—wait, what's happening? Let me see—"
[205 new users liked Bai Liu's mini-TV]
[200 new users favorited Bai Liu's mini-TV]
[35 users tipped Bai Liu's mini-TV]
[Player Bai Liu gained 35 points]
[297 viewers currently watching Bai Liu's mini-TV]
[Congratulations to Player Bai Liu! You've gone viral in the Death Comedy Zone and earned the title: Death Comedian~ Please continue to entertain players who've come to watch you die with your witty gameplay~]
-----------------
After realizing that the sailor was a monster, Bai Liu stopped moving forward.
If his guess was correct, the sailor was guarding the warehouse door that had lured him inside. Advancing any further would immediately alert the sailors to his infiltration, triggering an intense chase across the deck.
And for players who didn't know that the wax figures in the lower warehouse were harmless, most would panic while fleeing and end up being ambushed from both sides—a situation with almost no chance of survival.
What an ugly piece of game design, Bai Liu thought with mild amusement. It was actually very easy to figure out a way to break this chase sequence.
All you had to do was jump into the sea.
But Bai Liu didn't like the sea.