It was no wonder why the side task True Love Ship gave 100 points. The danger was much higher than other tasks. Andre really couldn’t control his appetite and reached out to grab the sandwich in the driver’s hand. “Give me a bite!”
The sandwich in the driver’s hand was stuffed into his mouth and gobbled up. He ate in an extremely rude manner. After chewing, he beat on his chest while swallowing. However, the driver didn’t try to grab it back. His compassionate eyes looked like he was feeding an animal as he watched Andre who was hunched over to eat. “Eat my child, eat. You are so hungry and didn’t eat much, right? Enjoy your dinner.”
Bai Liu took a look and said, “This is his second dinner tonight.” The first meal was grabbed from Jeff.
Jeff had been robbed of his dinner and he moved slightly when he heard this. There were also gill-like patterns behind his ears. Jeff’s gills seemed to grow out of anger for a moment and his teeth became sharp and dense like a shark.
Such a creepy scene occurred for only a moment. As Bai Liu watched, Jeff lowered his head timidly and covered his face like nothing happened. It was just that his eyes remained strangely on Bai Liu’s face reflected in the rearview mirror.
[Jeff’s bloody conspiracy – 50% progress.]
Bai Liu frowned. Why did the task progress go up before and why did it go up again now? Jeff should’ve done something to Andre last night. So why did it increase this time?
Bai Liu and the others arrived at the port. As he got off the van, he remembered that the driver had an extremely low trust in him. He remembered how the driver was likely involved in Jeff’s bloody conspiracy and wanted to raise the trust of the driver, an important NPC. So as he got out of the car, he handed the driver some money in the name of a tip. The driver looked down at the money in the wallet that Bai Liu hadn’t given him with a deep gaze before finally smiling. He kissed the tip Bai Liu gave him and waved. “Have a good time.”
[Jeff’s bloody conspiracy – 80% progress.]
The townspeople here did indeed have the attribute of a robber. They saw the money and their eyes were green with greed. Bai Liu didn’t seem to see the driver’s greedy gaze on the banknotes in his pocket. He showed it generously to the driver while making his usual smile. “We will.”
The place to watch the merfolk fishing activity was on a ship that would slowly leave the port at night. On the deck, silent sailors came and went. Some of the boats next to the ship contained fishermen who looked like fish. Bai Liu and the others got on the ship after it was completely dark. The fishermen on the boats below kept staring straight at Bai Liu’s group on the deck.
There was a fundamental difference between the sailors on this deck and the fishermen on the boats. The most important thing was that these sailors looked human instead of like fish. They didn’t have any strange patterns on their faces or a fishy smell on their bodies. They just had pale skin that was very similar to the front desk employee of the hotel who said he had albinism.
Bai Liu paid attention and observed that there weren’t many people on this huge ship. He didn’t know why it was necessary to use a ship with such a large carrying capacity. It was too wasteful.
Moreover, there was something wrong with this ship. Bai Liu had noticed it when he got on the ship. The draft of the ship’s hull was too deep in the water. There was definitely something heavy on the ship.
The sailors walked around the ship with expressionless faces like they hadn’t seen Bai Liu’s group. Occasionally, Bai Liu would find a few sailors standing in a dark corner and watching Bai Liu’s group with strange eyes. They would whisper to the other sailors and then make a weird, satisfied smile.
The ship left.
Late at night, the surface of the sea was calm. The light from the bow searchlight could only illuminate a small area of the sea. Other than that, there was a darkness that seemed able to swallow this huge ship. There was the occasional sound of waves passing by on both sides of the ship. The sailors distributed their work in an orderly manner while the fishermen in the boats laid out their fishing nets.
The ship sailed deeper into the night.
Lucy was standing next to Bai Liu in a cloak. Her lips underneath her lipstick were purple and she huddled next to Bai Liu to keep warm. “Why is it so cold? Bai Liu, I just asked them. They said they want to steer the ship to the place where the first merman was caught. It is only from that place that merfolk can be caught. They call that sea area Siren’s Gift and it seems to be a legend.”
Bai Liu wondered, “Siren’s Gift?”
“Yes.” Lucy wrapped her cloak tighter around her and shivered. “God, it’s too cold. I feel like I’m heading to a hell full of ghosts. That is the only reason why there can be such a cold wind.”
Bai Liu didn’t feel cold. He suddenly thought of something and swept his coin over Lucy.
[NPC name: Lucy (alienated)]
Bai Liu reached out and touched Lucy’s hand. Her skin was cold and hard. It felt like human skin covering stone. Lucy looked at Bai Liu and smiled. She seemed to want to squeeze her brow but the muscles of her face were as stiff as a corpse. This made her expression very strange, like an abstract figure painting by Picasso.
Her voice also became dry and hoarse while containing an inexplicable eagerness, “Are you going to kiss me?”
Bai Liu declined before giving himself an explanation, “There are too many people here.”
Lucy was cold from the wind and her body temperature was dropping.
Then Jeff abruptly appeared next to Bai Liu. He stared at the sea in front of him with a fanatical gaze and whispered, “Yes, Siren’s Gift. Legend has it that this sea area is a gift from the Siren King and can restore life. If tourists accidentally fall off the boat and drown to death, the Siren King will give them the ability to recover. They will return to the world as merfolk… that’s why fishermen can catch merfolk here.”
Bai Liu thought, ‘The Siren King has already been caught and kept in the museum. Why is this sea area still producing merfolk?’
It was from the time when the Siren Sing was caught that the sea area started producing merfolk. In addition, dead people turned into merfolk and returned to the world. This didn’t sound like the story of a god’s blessing. It was more like a cult’s myth about a curse.
Bai Liu added a creepy follow up to this story in his heart. The deceased turned into merfolk would be caught and made into statues for visitors to see while others were directly made into food. The townspeople ate them and these merfolk statues finally started to move. The tourists in the town disappeared one after another…
It wasn’t like a gift. It was more like the merman’s revenge.
A sailor suddenly came over and spoke to them. “We are going to the Siren’s Gift sea area. Please don’t walk around the ship or we won’t be responsible for what happens to you.” After that, Bai Liu found that all the sailors were going below deck. There were no sailors left on the deck.
Bai Liu’s eyes narrowed and he circled the boat a few times before pretending to inadvertently follow one of the sailors.
The sailor went down to the lowest area which was the warehouse. These soldiers moved down the wooden ladder to the cabin one by one without any emotion on their faces. Then they came out one by one, accompanied by some whispers.
“No… no problem.”
“…We must make sure these things have no problems.”
“There were a few broken ones before but it doesn’t matter. After the four people who came here tonight are eaten, we will have new ones to put in.”
The sailors seemed to be checking for something important and were doing it one by one.
Bai Liu hid in a corner and narrowed his eyes. As expected, there was something in the warehouse that was very heavy and important. Bai Liu vaguely guessed what it was but he didn’t know why the sailors brought them along while fishing.
All the sailors left and the last sailor seemed to forget to lock the cabin as he left. The lock was just hanging down from the door while swaying back and forth due to the waves. It seemed to be saying to Bai Liu, ‘Come and explore me~ come and explore me~’.
Bai Liu opened the door and went down. There was a low narrow staircase that creaked and went all the way down to a dark basement. There was no light and the entire structure looked like a cellar. Bai Liu didn’t go down and instead turned on the flashlight to see if the things at the bottom were what he expected.
He turned on the flashlight and looked down. It was as he expected but Bai Liu’s breath still felt suffocated.
The warehouse was full of all types of merfolk statues. These statues were densely packed together in the bottom warehouse. At a glance, there was almost no empty place. They were all statues and these statues had turned their heads in the same direction. They turned their heads and their white eyes stared directly at Bai Liu. Bai Liu found that there were significantly more statues on the stairs where he was standing. These merfolk statues were like schools of fish swarming at the smell of fish food. Two of them had already walked up the stairs to where Bai Liu was located. Then they were stunned by the flashlight and retreated.
However, the light of the flashlight could only illuminate one place. In the darkness of the warehouse that wasn’t lit up, there was the rustling sound of stones rubbing against the ground. More and more statues gradually gathered at the stairs where Bai Liu was located, staring up at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu
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