Horror Game

Volume 1 Central Hall-Chapter 8: Siren Town

Upon boarding the car, Chu Qiu was immediately greeted by a strong fishy odor emanating from the front seat. He had always assumed it was coming from Andre, given the man's consumption of a large quantity of rotten fish steaks that morning. However, he never expected it to originate from the driver.

The fishy smell he smelled on the bus yesterday was probably from the driver, but compared to today, it was not even in the same concentration range.

The stench from the driver today is much stronger.

Chu Qiu sized up the driver from left to right. This driver... feels like a monster too.

Warning!! Player identification error! This NPC is not a monster! It cannot be recorded in the monster book! It is merely in a state of alienation! ] (Note: The original text appears to be an incomplete or unfinished sentence, hence the translation is also incomplete. If the original text is complete, please provide the complete sentence for a more accurate translation.)

[Player identification error, the NPC's trust in the player has dropped sharply, and it may attack the player]

The driver slowly took a bite of the sandwich in his hand, his eyes darting towards Chu Qiu for a moment, and then he suddenly said in a nasty tone, "…Do you find the smell on me disgusting?"

Chu Qiuxin admitted, "Yes," but on the surface, she hastily denied it, "No."

"You look at me like I'm a monster. Hmph, damn arrogant rich guy," the driver said darkly, then turned his head to eat, ignoring Chu Qiu's questions.

Tsk, this is a bit tricky.

Chu Qiu thought to himself without fluster, "This suddenly makes it much more difficult for me to obtain information.".

Moreover, he couldn't forcefully interrogate the driver, as the panel had already indicated that the driver would attack Chu Qiu.

Chu Qiu looked at Lucy beside her, whispered a few words, and coaxed her to ask the driver.

The driver snorted, but still answered Lucy's question.

"The attractions in Thrawn Town are, of course, related to mermaids."

The driver's smile gave one the creeps, and his eyes darted around in his orbit, making it impossible to tell who he was looking at or talking to.

"Our fishing is not just catching ordinary fish; it's a special activity to catch mermaids, which only takes place at night. And our wax museum is not an ordinary one either; we will make waxworks of the mermaids we catch and display them in the wax museum."

"The first mermaid skeleton we ever caught was displayed in the wax museum."

"Mermaid fishing?" Chu Qiu asked, "Did you really catch a mermaid?"

The driver ignored Chu Qiu.

After Lucy asked again, the driver finally replied.

The driver gave a meaningful smile and said, "Yes, although the first one caught was a very beautiful mermaid, the ones caught later were inferior, low-grade, and incomplete in form, they are indeed mermaids."

Andre suddenly snorted disdainfully, "It's just a gimmick. You don't really believe it, do you?"

Jiefu opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He probably didn't dare to retort because he had just been beaten up by Andre this morning.

But Lucy was different. She looked at Andre with dissatisfied eyes and said loudly, "I believe! What about you, Chu Qiu?" As she spoke, she turned around and glared at Chu Qiu.

"Seeing is believing," Chu Qiu said coolly. "You'll know after watching the fishing activity tonight."

Andre won't argue with Lucy, but he can't wait to mock Chu Qiu word for word: "I hope some people won't cry and run away at the last minute just because they're watching a fishing event at night."

As he spoke, a wicked smile appeared on his face, and his gaze flickered past Chu Qiu. "If you fell off the boat yelling and screaming and were caught by these fishermen as a mermaid and made into a wax statue, we would definitely not save you."

Andre shrugged insincerely while laughing maliciously, as if he had already seen Chu Qiu fall into the water.

Chu Qiu recalled that he and this Andrei still had an unfulfilled bet from the night before.

He got the specific details of the bet from Lucy this morning.

Andre and Chu Qiu plan to rent two canoes and drift on the Siren Sea overnight. The first to return due to intolerance will be deemed a coward, and thus unworthy of having Lucy.

Lucy herself didn't want to have this bet, but unfortunately, the character played by Chu Qiu was fearless and insisted on coming.

In a horror game centered around "Mermaid", the sea surface at midnight is undoubtedly a terrifying place.

Chu Qiu would never allow himself to go to such a place with someone who was intelligent and clearly had ill intentions towards him when he was still unclear about the specific situation

There is no doubt that if Andre had encountered his boat on the sea, he would have capsized it, leaving him to drown in the ocean.

Chu Qiu can't swim.

To some extent, for Chu Qiu, creatures like mermaids, sirens, and sea monsters are far less terrifying than the seawater itself.

Chu Qiu won't approach the sea unless it's absolutely necessary.

Chu Qiu's expression betrayed his disdain for this so-called betting activity.

Andre laughed mockingly and presumptuously, "Look, look, this is our young master. What do you have that's better than me, other than money? You even dare not go to sea."

Chu Qiu nodded with sincere pleasure and said, "I have nothing but money."

But having money is enough to make him feel satisfied, and he is also very happy even with virtual currency.

"..." Andre replied

Why does this person have an expression as if he has been praised?

"Andre sneered, 'Doesn't your not going mean you're giving up on Lucy?'"

Just as Chu Qiu was about to have it out with Andre about his reluctance to participate in this suicidal activity, the coin on his chest vibrated, and a task prompt popped up:

"Trigger the side quest 'True Love Ship', and ask player Chu Qiu to complete the betting agreement before leaving Siren Town. Win against Andre in the betting agreement, and receive a reward of 100 points."

Chu Qiu: "..."

The reward points are actually as many as one hundred!

The desire for money instantly overcame the fear of water, and Chu Qiu calmly replied, "No, I'll go. And I'm determined to win over you."

Lucy hugged Chu Qiu emotionally and said, "Oh, baby, after you come back, we must live together and spend a pleasant night."

Chu Qiu silently released Lucy's hand.

The driver turned his head and said, "You can visit our wax museum during the day. The mermaid catching activity only starts at night."

Everyone in the group agreed.

The driver drove the car in a zigzag pattern, detouring around the back of a beach.

Chu Qiu saw many sun-dried remains on that beach.

The driver said this was where mermaids were caught, and those remains were fragmented mermaid remains that had been caught. Some were so fragmented that they were discarded on the beach.

Chu Qiu indeed saw many large fish tail bones and some white skulls scattered haphazardly on the beach, with several nets being dried next to them.

Some fishermen came out to collect the bones and nets, and looked up to meet Chu Qiu and his companions. Chu Qiu hadn't noticed the appearance of these townspeople the night before, but now, seeing them in the daytime

The appearance of these townspeople is very bizarre, bearing a strange resemblance to the driver, but they are even more bizarre and inhuman than the driver.

Their eye whites are extremely white, to the point of being abnormal, while their pupils are only the size of soybeans, wandering aimlessly in their eye sockets.

The distance between the eyes is very wide, and the eyes seem to be located on both sides of the face, next to the ears, much like the catfish in Chu Qiu's impression.

They also had grayish-black marble-like patterns around their eyes, which extended from their eyes to their necks. When they walked under the sun, their movements were extremely slow, and their instep seemed to be itching as they repeatedly rubbed against the sand.

If Chu Qiu wasn't mistaken, there seemed to be some green scales on the instep of their feet that were about to fall off but hadn't quite fallen off yet.

They smiled at Chu Qiu's passing car, a stunned and silly grin akin to a child smelling food.

Lucy was also startled by the appearance of these fishermen, and she muttered softly, "They look so strange."

The appearance of these fishermen is much stranger than that of drivers. Compared to humans, these fishermen resemble more like some kind of peculiar deep-sea fish.

The driver swallowed the last bite of the sandwich, which emitted a strong fishy smell, and smiled with a set of black teeth covered in fish paste. "Really? We all look like this here. Maybe it's because we eat all kinds of fish, which isn't very healthy."

Chu Qiu squinted. He felt that these townspeople also resembled monsters, but he stopped himself halfway through his thought.

The driver made a recognition error.

Although the townspeople and the driver are clearly inhuman, the driver cannot be recorded in the "Monster Book". There is a certain probability that the townspeople, who resemble the driver, do not conform to the game's monster setting. If they have triggered so much hatred among the townspeople, it is not a joke.

But Chu Qiu was not foolish enough to actually think that these peculiar-looking townspeople were not monsters.

There are two possibilities why it's not a monster:

The first kind: really not.

The second possibility is that it may not meet certain criteria determined by the monster book.

This "Siren Town" has a very peculiar setting, where [incubation] and [alienation] can occur. The mermaid waxworks can incubate, while Andre was in a state of alienation in the morning. Chu Qiu felt that these townspeople seemed to be in some kind of transformation state as well, which made them appear so odd and incoherent.

As for the outcomes of these two states, Chu Qiu had no idea. He speculated that they might be monsters, but he needed to verify it.

Chu Qiu slowly shifted his gaze to Andre, who was sitting in front of him.

Actually, he wasn't unable to save Andre last night.

But for him, an NPC like Andre, who posed a certain level of aggression, was worth more dead than alive.

Andre watched the driver sucking his finger with a hint of fish meat left on it with relish, and his appetite rose uncontrollably. His eyes glazed over as he swallowed saliva, and then he scratched his itchy cheek restlessly.

Subsequently, he glared at Chu Qiu, who was seated behind him, with a venomous gaze through the rearview mirror of the car.

Chu Qiu is so wealthy, why isn't he allowed to eat enough fish steaks? He is so hungry that he can't control himself from snatching the food in the driver's hand and eating it.

But the driver ate so fast that before Andre could even move, he had already finished eating and was rubbing his belly in a look of satisfaction.

Watching the driver lick the fish scraps from the corner of his mouth with a look of satisfaction, Andre once again recalled the moist, smooth, and irresistible taste of that fish steak. Saliva kept secreting from his mouth, and his throat involuntarily rolled. He had never eaten such a delicious fish steak before.

No, it's not just the fish steaks. All the fish here are cooked to perfection, leaving him with a delicious taste that he can't stop eating.

The driver sighed contentedly, "It's really delicious. Only the fish from Siren Town can be this tasty."

Lucy also praised, "Yes, I've never eaten such delicious fish before. It's so fresh."

"No, it's not freshness. The secret to the deliciousness of the fish in Siren Town has never been freshness. In fact, this kind of fish is not delicious when eaten fresh. It needs to be rotten and then undergo certain pickling and special processing to become delicious." The smile on the driver's face turned eerie. "What you are eating is a very special kind of fish, a fish that is not found anywhere else, a unique fish to Siren Town."

Lucy asked curiously, "What kind of fish?"

Driver: "Mermaid."