Chapter 27.1: Siren Town
Chapter 27.1: Siren Town
This is technically two parts since a bonus ko-fi chapter is included
The monkey on Mu Sicheng’s hat suddenly opened its mouth and grinned. Its eyes flashed red as it seemed to be responding to Mu Sicheng’s suggestion to kill. It looked strange and horrifying. The audience members who had been acting superior were frightened by Mu Sicheng. They screamed and fled in all directions. In the process of escaping, some of them ran too quickly and bumped into each other. They crawled out of the viewing area of Bai Liu’s small TV in an embarrassed manner.
Mu Sicheng put on his hat and stood in the front row as if nothing had happened. He restored a bland expression and continued to look up at Bai Liu’s small TV. The surrounding audience inevitably stepped back, leaving enough viewing space for Mu Sicheng in the front row.
The audience’s normal discussion became much quieter, as if they were afraid to disturb Mu Sicheng watching Bai Liu’s small TV. Wang Shun stood behind Mu Sicheng and his expression was as complicated as his mood. For the first time, he faced Mu Sicheng’s danger.
This was why there were almost no critical spectators in the live broadcast rooms of the top gods. They were almost always full of praise. It was because the game here could kill people. If their words provoked a certain great god then the other party could kill them as simple as crushing an ant.
There were only many viewers who liked to criticize in the viewing areas for newcomers and some mild-tempered players. If they dared to do such things in Mu Sicheng’s viewing area then grass would grow on their burial mounds.
Many of the spectators who liked to criticize Bai Liu were mostly low level guild players. In fact, their game skills were very low. Many of the games were played with the guild or they directly searched the strategy guide to clear the game. Their game ability was very limited.
Instead of living precariously every day, they liked to talk drivel everywhere. These low level audience members especially disliked newcomers who were explosive and competitive. It was because these newcomers would grab their paying audience and promotion positions. They felt great malice toward newcomers who were obviously going to rise. For example, Bai Liu, for example, the original Mu Sicheng.
Wang Shun moved back next to Mu Sicheng. He might be a bit afraid of Mu Sicheng but he still wanted to stand in the front row. Facing Mu Sicheng, Wang Shun restrained his curiosity for information. He turned his head and asked quietly, “God Mu, did you really kill the audience members who scolded you?”
“How is that possible?” Mu Sicheng replied indifferently. “I’m not so idle. I just said that to scare them because they were being very annoying.”
Wang Shun sighed with relief. “Oh, it was fake.”
“Although I didn’t kill anyone, my monkey headphones likes to eat those I hate. So it really ate a few.” Mu Sicheng suddenly turned his head and looked at Bai Liu on the small TV with a slight smile.
He shrugged and didn’t defend himself that much. “Still, the main reason is that they were willing to scold me. It led to this end. I think I shouldn’t be blamed.”
Wang Shun, “……”
Bai Liu dragged the cart and got off the ship again. He was followed by a few merfolk sailors behind him but it wasn’t enough. Bai Liu still had the Siren King. Now without the blessings of the weather and the amulets, the merfolk sailors could only stay far behind Bai Liu, staring at Bai Liu with resentment and greed.
However, Bai Liu’s mind was no longer on the sailors. He was thinking it was strange. The system said that most of the monsters on land had been restricted so it gave up on using the weather to weaken him. Yet the monster book had four pages. There were the merfolk sailors and the merfolk statues. The Siren King was in Bai Liu’s hands. Meanwhile, the weakest and lowest level monster with the highest number hadn’t appeared.
They were the merfolk, or the larval form.
Bai Liu had been chased for so long on the shore and the merfolk hadn’t been seen at all. This was unreasonable. If the system wasn’t lying to him, the monsters on land had indeed been mostly restricted by him. In other words, the weakest merfolk monsters probably weren’t on the shore.
Bai Liu’s eyes slowly fell on the calm, waveless sea in front of him. The huge number of merfolk were likely to be lurking in the sea.
[System notification: There is one hour before the Siren King wakes up. Please speed up the pace and clear the instance.]
An hour. Bai Liu estimated the speed at which he could drag the Siren King while swimming. It was almost good. There was just an uncertain factor: the merfolk hiding in the sea.
The interference of the merfolk meant this time wasn’t necessarily sufficient. Still, different situations called for different actions. Bai Liu didn’t think too much. He left the cart by the seaside, kneeled down and looked at the Siren King in the cart.
The Siren King, who had shown no reaction during the chase and fight, was now flapping the fins at his ears. His chest was slightly undulating and the lustrous jade complexion showed a type of vitality. Bai Liu could feel that the Siren King was about to wake up. He placed the Siren King’s arm around his shoulder, took a deep breath and ran to the sea.
As the sea water covered his legs, Bai Liu’s legs, waist, the corners of his eyes and the bridge of his nose were all covered by small silver-green scales. Gills appeared on both sides of his face and his eyeballs shrunk to half the original size, trembling in the center of his eye sockets. He took a deep breath, held the Siren King and plunged into the boundless blue waters.
In front of the small TV, Wang Shun sighed with relief. “He is finally going into the sea. It should be cleared soon.”
“That isn’t necessarily the case.” Mu Sicheng folded his arms across his chest as if remembering something. The corners of his mouth twitched from the unbearable memories. “I thought it would be cleared soon when I dragged the siren banshee into the sea. I didn’t expect that once I swam to the sea area called Siren’s Gift, it would be densely packed with green-eyed merfolk. I was almost killed.”
“Finally, I had to buy a strong flashlight to get rid of those merfolk. It cost me more than 200 points.” Mu Sicheng was a bit depressed when he recalled it. It was one of the biggest failures in his game career.
Wang Shun was surprised. “More than 200 points? How can it be so expensive?!”
Then he seemed to react. “Bai Liu already needed to pay 250 points if he wanted to buy the flashlight previously. Then the system will definitely increase its price. Won’t it be more expensive?”
“It should be. The system’s pricing for each item is mainly based on two points. The first is based on the ‘supply and demand relationship’ of the entire market. The second is when the system evaluates the player’s demand for a certain item to determine the price. In short, if the system feels that you urgently need an item then it will set the price higher.”
Mu Sicheng watched the unknowing Bai Liu swimming in the deep sea and showed a rare gleeful smile. “Once Bai Liu swims to the sea area called Siren’s Gift, the player will be surrounded by merfolk and fall into an emergency. Then they will be slaughtered by the system. Just wait for Bai Liu to be bled. I guarantee that his flashlight will cost at least 400 points.”
Just as they were discussing this, the novice player who previously squeezed out Bai Liu’s promotion position, Mu Ke, had already entered Siren’s Gift. Mu Ke held the white bones of the siren banshee in one hand, waved his feet like a fishtail and swam toward the dark, bottomless seabed.
He should also be aware that he was about to pass the level. There was an ecstatic smile on his face that was visible to the naked eye. Wang Shun in Bai Liu’s viewing area could see other people’s small TVs but it wasn’t as clear as Bai Liu’s TV. It was blurry like frosted glass.
Even so, it was clear that Mu Ke had swam to the bottom of the sea area, Siren’s Gift.
Wang Shun looked at Mu Ke who was about to reach the bottom of the sea and couldn’t help sighing regretfully. “He is reaching the bottom of the sea while Bai Liu is still swimming… this newcomer called Mu Ke will still pass the level faster than Bai Liu. He should be the first one in this batch of newcomers to pass the level.”
“The system will give a special reward to the player who is the first to pass the level in a group of newcomers. It is a personal skill, which is very precious to a player. Bai Liu could’ve obtained it.” Wang Shun sighed.
As he talked, Wang Shun watched Bai Liu who was still ignorantly swimming in the small TV. He resented Bai Liu for failing to meet expectations and exclaimed, “Hey, Bai Liu! Who asked you to do these tricks to waste time! It is indeed a waste of time! It might save you some points but there are losses. If you had moved faster then you would be first in this batch of newcomers!”
Since Bai Liu rushed to the central screen’s strong promotion position after falling, Mu Ke was ranked one spot higher than Bai Liu in the ‘single player strongly recommended promotion position’ by the system.
Compare Mu Ke’s happy appearance at almost clearing the instance with Bai Liu dragging the Siren King forward gently like he was sleepwalking in the sea. It seemed Mu Ke had firmly stepped on Bai Liu’s head and Wang Shun shook his head. It was like seeing his own talented child who was so fond of playing that he couldn’t even beat the ordinary child next door in an examination. He felt helpless and suffocated.
Mu Sicheng’s attitude was completely different. He just looked at Mu Ke next door and spoke indifferently, “Who will be the first newcomer? It still isn’t easy to say.”
However, most of the people watching Mu Ke’s small TV had the same views as Wang Shun, especially those who were driven out of Bai Liu’s small TV viewing area by Mu Sicheng. Most of them went to Mu Ke’s small TV viewing area.
This group of spectators didn’t remember what they suffered. The moment they changed positions, they proudly ridiculed Bai Liu.
“Oh, this Bai Liu is in the strongly recommended position but he can’t beat other newcomers. What is the point of these fancy moves? The moment Mu Ke clears the level and gets the skill reward given by the system, his rapid development will soon leave the idiot Bai Liu behind.”
“I don’t know why God Mu is protecting such a useless newcomer. If he isn’t first place then he won’t get the skill reward and will soon die in the game. I don’t know why he is still struggling.”
Some normal-minded audience members nearby looked at these viewers prattling on self-importantly in a dumbfounded manner.
There were 100 newcomers in one batch and only the first one could get the skill reward given by the system. The probability of one in a hundred was said by these people as if those who had no skills deserved to die miserably in the game.
Many players present had no skills and their faces didn’t look very good.
One audience member was really tired of listening to them. It was estimated that his own strength was pretty good. He scoffed and retorted impatiently, “If you say that someone with no skills will die then show your skills. Otherwise, I will kill you on the spot and you really will die without a skill.”
So many skilled players gathered to point fingers at others. How funny. Since when were skilled players so weak?
Sure enough, the group of spectators who had been laughing loudly, their voices as loud as trumpets, suddenly stopped. Some of the loudest ones shrank back with red faces as they hid the game manager in their hands. They obviously didn’t want to show their so-called skills.
The audience member who just scolded them laughed angrily. It was as he thought. There was no one here with skills. They were shameless enough to say that others would die without skills. Then why were these unskilled spectators with loose tongues still alive?
The audience member who scolded them didn’t find it interesting. It wasn’t possible to kill people in the central hall. He just said this to scare some of them. It was meaningless to talk to them so he kept watching Mu Ke’s small TV.
Just as he spoke, Mu Ke was diving down and green eyes lit up at the bottom of the sea like fireflies. At first, it was just one or two. Then it seemed to light up densely with green fluorescence. It took some time for Mu Ke’s gaze to adapt to what these things were. He instantly got goose bumps and the hairs on his back stood up.
Thousands of merfolk corpses were at the bottom of the sea. Their heads were raised and they were staring straight at Mu Ke. Most of their bodies and faces were rotten, their white rotten meat being eaten by black fish. Their entire face and bodies were eaten by these finger-sized fish and some parts only had white bones and a pair of flashing green eyes exposed.
All around Mu Ke were merfolk green eyes, lighting up the dark seabed like ghost fire.
It could no longer be called the seabed. The seabed was full of black, rotting fish in a number large enough to make the scalp numb. The sand at the bottom of the sea couldn’t be seen at all. Only the eggs of the fish wriggled on the bottom of the sea. The visual effect was similar to black maggots. There were glowing green eyes submerged in the black maggots.
This scene was so shocking that even the audience members in front of Mu Ke’s small TV had to take a few steps back, their scalps numb.
Mu Ke turned around and ran, opening the item store while running away. The merfolk behind him rushed toward him from the bottom of the sea. The surging school of black fish surrounded Mu Ke like flies.
A closer look at these small fish showed that even though they were only the size of a thumb, their teeth were extremely sharp. Mu Ke just spun around and half his arm was bitten off. He screamed silently at the bottom of the sea. The bitten part of his right arm left a long blood trail in the water, attracting more merfolk and schools of fish.
The audience was attracted by this exciting sight and yelled anxiously, “Buy items! Hurry up! Buy items to push back these monsters or you will die!”
Mu Ke used his remaining hand to hold the skeleton of the siren banshee, preventing the fish and merfolk from sweeping it away. Then he opened the game store in a panicked manner, ready to buy items to restrain these rampant monsters. The fish in the deep sea were generally photophobic and it was the same for the merfolk. He quickly made a decision.
[I need a strong flashlight!]
[It will cost 417 points. Thank you for your patronage.]
Mu Ke was completely stunned and asked with disbelief. [How many points?]
[It will cost 417 points. Thank you for your patronage.]
Mu Ke didn’t have so many points. He was dumbfounded but quickly calmed down. He didn’t need the strong flashlight to push back the fish. The water bubble also had this feature.
It was just that in front of so many merfolk, the water bubble was likely to be damaged by the fish. Even so, Mu Ke couldn’t help it. He could only make a bet. He gritted his teeth and said.
[I need a water bubble!]
[It will cost 322 points. Thank you for your patronage.]
Mu Ke almost couldn’t take a breath. He was almost killed by the system under the sea. He didn’t have so many points!
The price of this water bubble was previously reduced to 40 points. Now it was more than 8 times higher! This was just taking advantage of his misfortune!
However, arguing with the system was useless. Mu Ke could only check his own items in a panicked and desperate manner. The fire torch was still usable but he was underwater and a fire couldn’t be started at all. He had bought the water bubble twice but he had used almost all of it for the True Love Ship task. He only had half an hour left for one water bubble.
It was just that half an hour of the water bubble was definitely not enough for him to pass the level. He couldn’t even dive to the bottom of the sea in half an hour.
The worst thing was that his points had been consumed by buying various items…
Mu Ke was in despair when he remembered that he could ask the audience members to reward him with points. Therefore, the audience in front of Mu Ke’s small TV saw Mu Ke begging everyone to charge him. He looked embarrassed and pitiful while his eyes were full of the crazy desire to survive.
He was crying while escaping but his tears soon merged with the sea and they weren’t seen by anyone. The audience members who had predicted his boundless future and used him to pull down Bai Liu were speechless.
Meanwhile, Bai Liu was swimming to Siren’s Gift. Wang Shun could vaguely see the situation on Mu Ke’s side. Seeing Bai Liu swimming in the dark, he inevitably opened the game manager with some worry to check his points balance.
He was a bit afraid that Bai Liu would be in the same situation and wanted to help by giving a few more points.
Mu Sicheng saw Wang Shun’s action and said, “Don’t worry, this guy has over 3,000 points. It doesn’t matter how high the price. Even if one flashlight costs 400 points, he can buy it.
Even so, Mu Sicheng couldn’t help clicking on his points balance. He checked it and then raised his head, letting out a long sigh of relief. If all of them charged him, Bai Liu would definitely get enough to clear the instance.
It wasn’t just Wang Shun and Mu Sicheng. Due to the movements on Mu Ke’s small TV, many viewers of Bai Liu’s small TV had seen it. They all checked on their points wallet to check the balance, whispering to each other.
“If Bai Liu doesn’t have enough points to buy items, I can charge 10 points.”
“There are three or four points on my side. It should be enough.”
“I-I should be able to charge one point. I previously charged too much QAQ.”
Mu Sicheng was a bit curious watching the scene where many viewers said they wanted to give Bai Liu money. He turned his head to gaze at Bai Liu who was still swimming in the sea and raised his eyebrows. This guy was quite popular with the audience. So many people were willing to spend money on him and didn’t want him to die.
This was better than him. Due to his personal skill, Mu Sicheng had an extreme relationship with the audience. There were many players who either liked him or hated him, thinking he was immoral.
Like Mu Ke, Bai Liu saw the green eyes at the bottom of the sea not long after entering this sea area. Wang Shun immediately held his breath. He looked even more nervous than Bai Liu on the small TV. His fists were on his chest while the charging interface was opened in front of him. Wang Shun whispered, “Buy items, buy items! If you wait until the group of monsters below are awakened then it will be too late!”
Mu Sicheng told him, “You don’t need to be so nervous. He can’t die in a short amount of time.” However, Mu Sicheng’s eyes were also stuck to Bai Liu’s small TV and didn’t move away. He held the game manager in his hand, prepared to open the charging interface at any time.
Almost all the audience members held their breaths. Some people had already placed their hands on the charging button. They were just waiting for Bai Liu to open the item store to press down to charge Bai Liu.
Yet when Bai Liu saw the terrifying schools of fish and merfolk at the bottom of the scene, he just raised his eyebrow slightly. There was no surprise as he continued swimming down without any haste.
The audience’s breathing stopped. They watched Bai Liu slowly use the Siren King to tease the merfolk and schools of fish, angering these monsters to chase Bai Liu with Bai Liu fleeing.
Unfortunately, Bai Liu’s underwater movement was very unskilled. He was a pure novice, swimming while kicking. He didn’t move fast in the sea and was about to be caught and torn apart by the fish and merfolk behind him.
“Bai Liu, what are you doing? Bai Liu!!!” Wang Shun broke down and shouted. “Why are you provoking the monsters?”
The other audience members were also going crazy and screamed, “Ahhh!!! Buy items quickly! Bai Liu!”
“Fuck! Bai Liu, don’t play around at this time! Come out and Brother will accompany you to play slowly!”
“He was going to clear the instance! Bai Liu will become my psychological shadow if he dies!”
“Ahhhhh I’m afraid to look! Is he going to be caught and eaten?”
“My mentality is collapsing. If Bai Liu dies here then I will never watch the small TV of a newcomer again!”
Wang Shun didn’t dare look away from the screen. He stared at it, sweat dripping down his forehead and into his eyes. Even so, he didn’t dare to blink. It was because on the small TV, the merfolk and fish had already touched Bai Liu’s feet!
Even the always smiling Mu Sicheng didn’t have much of a smile on his face at this moment. Both arms were folded over his chest and his right index finger kept tapping his left arm. He was in a rare upset mood. “Bai Liu, what are you doing?”
Bai Liu glanced back calmly and confirmed that almost all the merfolk and fish were behind him. His legs opened wide and he moved through the sea like a sea rabbit, opening up a distance from the monsters behind him.
However, this distance was quickly overtaken. The merfolk had white eyes and hideous, rotten faces. Their skin floated in the sea in a half-flaky state. They made a hunting cry on the dark sea bottom and opened their bloody mouths at Bai Liu. The sharp teeth fish swept out from the merfolk’s ragged, black throats and rushed toward Bai Liu like a black rope.
At this critical juncture, Bai Liu had the leisure to think about the origin of these merfolk corpses. The merfolk obviously had another form on land.
Then they changed back to the form of a corpse after arriving at the bottom of Siren’s Gift. This indicated that his speculation was correct. The bottom of this sea area could make these things return to their original form. The only thing missing was the Siren King in his hand. As long as he returned the Siren King, these things should become real corpses.
As a merfolk attacked him, Bai Liu awkwardly moved to the side but half his palm was still bitten off. The bitten area of the palm left a blood trail in the sea.
[System warning: Due to being attacked by the guard monsters, the merfolk corpses, the player Bai Liu is in a state of alienation. Your mental value is continuing to decline. It is currently at 41.]
[System warning: There are only 21 minutes before the Siren King wakes up. Please clear the game quickly!]
Proofreader: Purichan