He talked while driving and at the same time was biting into the fish fillet sandwich in his hand. The cross-section of the bitten fish fillet was that kind of decayed green-black color, as if it were made from moldy fish, but the driver ate it with great relish. His teeth were stained with that green-black hue, and he gave Liam White a smile so wide it seemed almost unnatural.

Chapter 8: Siren Town

From the moment Liam White got in the car, he could smell the strong fishy odor coming from the front seat. He had always thought it was from Andrew Carter, since that guy had eaten a ton of rotten fish fillets in the morning, but it turned out the smell was actually from the driver.

So the fishy smell he noticed in the car yesterday was probably also from himself, but compared to today, it was on a completely different level—the stench coming from the driver today was much, much stronger.

Liam White covered his nose, glanced at the driver, and thought to himself... This driver... he probably is a monster too.

【Warning!! Player identification error! This NPC is not a monster! Cannot be entered into the Monster Book! He is merely in an aberrant state!】

【Player identification error, this NPC’s trust in the player has dropped sharply, and may display aggressive b-e-h-a-v-i-o-r toward the player】

The driver slowly tore off another bite of his sandwich, his rolling eyeballs staring at Liam White for a while, then suddenly said in a nasty tone, "...Do you think the smell on me is disgusting?"

Liam White thought yes, but denied it flatly: "No."

"The way you look at me is like you’re looking at a monster. Hah, damn arrogant rich people," the driver said gloomily. After that, he turned away to eat and ignored Liam White's questions.

Tsk, this is a bit tricky. Now it would be much harder for Liam White to get information, and he couldn’t just force the driver to answer either—the panel had already warned that the driver might display aggressive b-e-h-a-v-i-o-r toward Liam White.

Liam White rolled his eyes, and coaxed Lucy Carter into asking the driver instead. The driver snorted, but still answered Lucy Carter's question.

"The attractions in Siren Town are of course related to mermaids," the driver said with a smile that gave people goosebumps. His eyeballs darted around in their sockets, so you couldn’t even tell who he was looking at or talking to. "Our fishing isn’t for ordinary fish. We have special mermaid-catching events, all held at night. And our museum isn’t an ordinary museum either. We turn the mermaids we catch into wax sculptures and display them in the museum. The very first mermaid skeleton we caught is still on display there."

"Mermaid-catching events?" Liam White asked, "You really caught mermaids?"

The driver ignored Liam White, and only after Lucy Carter asked again did he answer.

The driver gave a meaningful smile: "Yes. Although, except for the first one, which was a very beautiful mermaid, the ones we caught later were all inferior, low-grade, incomplete mermaids. But they were indeed mermaids."

Andrew Carter suddenly snorted disdainfully: "Just a gimmick. You guys don’t actually believe that, do you?"

Jeffrey Howard opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again. His eyes clearly showed he wanted to say there really were mermaids, but probably because he’d just been beaten up by Andrew Carter that morning, he didn’t dare speak up. But Lucy Carter was different—she looked at Andrew Carter with a very dissatisfied expression, then said loudly, "I believe it! What about you, Liam White?" As she spoke, she turned angrily to look at Liam White.

"Seeing is believing," Liam White said calmly. "We’ll know after watching the fishing event tonight."

Andrew Carter wouldn’t argue with Lucy Carter, but when it came to Liam White, he couldn’t help but mock him word by word: "I just hope some people don’t start bawling and running away during the fishing event tonight." As he spoke, a wicked, mischievous grin appeared on his face, and his gaze swept over Liam White. "If you scream and fall off the boat, and the fishermen mistake you for a mermaid and turn you into a sculpture, we definitely won’t save you. But we’ll come to the museum to see your sculpture. Oh, poor Liam White."

Andrew Carter shrugged insincerely, still smiling maliciously, as if he could already picture Liam White falling into the water and being turned into a sculpture.

Liam White thought for a moment, remembering that he and Andrew Carter had a bet tonight to prove who was braver.

He had gotten the details of this bet out of Lucy Carter earlier that morning.

Andrew Carter and Liam White were supposed to rent two canoes and drift overnight on the Siren Sea. Whoever couldn’t take it and turned back first would be the coward, and would be unworthy of Lucy Carter. Lucy Carter herself didn’t want this bet, but unfortunately, the character Liam White was playing was stubborn and insisted on going through with it.

In a horror game centered around "mermaids," the sea at midnight was undoubtedly the scariest place. Liam White would never go to such a place with someone who was both clever and clearly had no good intentions toward him, especially when he didn’t even know the full situation yet. Liam White had no doubt that if Andrew Carter encountered his boat on the sea, he would capsize it and dump him into the water.

But Liam White couldn’t swim.