chapter 28
Though the scent of roasted mermaid flesh within the water bubble lured the vast majority of mermaids and fish, a few remained more interested in Bai Liu's living flesh. With eager malice, they sank their teeth into his arms and ankles, leaving behind a series of grotesque, ring-shaped bite marks.
Wang Shun's breath nearly stopped. "His sanity is about to drop below twenty!"
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu's sanity is now 17, below 20. Player has entered (Berserk) state. Attribute panel will soon surge—]
The moment the system's announcement faded, Bai Liu's lips curled into a faint smile. Instantly, his previously red-lining attributes began to skyrocket—
[Player: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Panel)]
[Stamina: 7 → 151]
[Agility: 3 → 149]
[Attack: 6 → 167]
[Resistance: 2 → 166]
[Overall defense and attack have increased. Total attribute points exceed 500. Rated as C-rank player. Bai Liu's level rises from F(?) to C, now able to resist attacks from mermaid sailors, wax figures, and larvae.]
Wang Shun was stunned for a moment before realization dawned. "Right, when sanity drops below twenty, the player is judged to have entered a state of madness, triggering the [Berserk] state, which causes attributes to soar."
"The lower the sanity falls below twenty, the higher the attributes climb, rising to the very limits of the player's potential!"
Wang Shun's mind raced. "This is good for Bai Liu—at least now he can fight back against the mermaids!"
"Not necessarily," Mu Sicheng replied, his expression growing ever more grave. "While the attribute panel does rise, and increased attack is a boon, most players at this stage have already lost their minds. The lower the sanity, the more monstrous the player becomes. No matter how high the stats, they attack blindly, and their sanity plummets even faster with each frenzied assault, until it reaches zero."
On the small screen, Bai Liu's eyes slowly opened. Sharp claws sprouted from his hands, his lower limbs undulated like a fish's tail, and his eyes were void of pupils—only ashen cracks and unsettling whites remained, his mouth splitting to reveal fangs.
He lashed out at a mermaid, cleaving it in two with his claws. The creature's gills quivered in agony as it sank, while Bai Liu watched with a blank, inhuman gaze. Were it not for the Siren King's hand in his right, he would have been indistinguishable from the other monsters.
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu's sanity continues to fall. Current sanity: 15. (Berserk) state intensifies.]
[Player: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Panel)]
[Stamina: 151 → 351]
[Agility: 149 → 249]
[Attack: 167 → 667]
[Resistance: 166 → 966]
[Overall defense and attack have increased. Total attribute points exceed 2000. Rated as B-rank player. Bai Liu's level rises from C to B.]
Wang Shun stared, dumbfounded. "His stats are rising so fast! He's already B-rank—what kind of monstrous potential is this?"
But worry soon clouded his face. "But his sanity keeps dropping. If he can't stay lucid and falls below ten, it'll be all over—"
Before he could finish, the system's alarm blared from Bai Liu's screen:
[System Critical Warning: Player Bai Liu's sanity continues to fall. Current sanity: 9. (Berserk) state intensifies.]
[System Critical Warning: Three minutes until the Siren King awakens. Please clear the level immediately!]
"Only three minutes left! And his sanity is down to nine!" Wang Shun's nerves, already battered by Bai Liu's wild ride, had never been so frayed.
He watched Bai Liu's emotionless face, and the Siren King, whose tail and eyes were slowly opening, and felt his own composure slipping. Clutching his own hand, he forced himself to remain calm. "Bai Liu, hold on!"
Clearing the level now seemed a fantasy, but after following Bai Liu this far, Wang Shun couldn't bear to see such a promising player perish. He stared unblinking at the screen.
Mu Sicheng's right hand gripped his left elbow, jaw tight, his voice slow and heavy. "Three minutes. If he can get the Siren King to the seabed, he might still clear. But who knows, with all these hallucinations and the [Berserk] state, how much of his mind remains? Does he even remember he's a player, and not just…" a monster in the game.
The rest of the audience was equally distraught, some screaming, some in disbelief that Bai Liu might actually fail. They watched, desperate, liking and donating in a last-ditch effort to rouse his consciousness.
Only a few in a dark corner, those who had always mocked Bai Liu, sneered as if they'd foreseen this outcome.
The system continued its warnings:
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu's sanity continues to fall. Current sanity: 8. (Berserk) state intensifies.]
[Player: Bai Liu (Berserk Attribute Panel)]
[Stamina: 351 → 655]
[Agility: 249 → 733]
[Attack: 367 → 1555]
[Resistance: 366 → 1776]
[Overall defense and attack have increased. Total attribute points exceed 4000. Rated as A-rank player. Bai Liu's level rises from B to A.]
Bai Liu's face was now almost entirely covered in scales, his eyes glowing a deep green in the water, each scale radiating danger. He dragged the Siren King, sinking ever deeper.
The Siren King, once limp and drifting, now began to move with grace, his tail swaying to maintain balance in the water.
As the Siren King's vast fins unfurled, every mermaid around Bai Liu shrieked and scattered. The King's flawless visage appeared on the screen, and all held their breath, awed by the beauty—and the peril—behind it.
Bai Liu's face was armored in black, gleaming scales, his hands bristling with new growth, while the Siren King's features remained pure and unblemished, his fingers long and pale. Hand in hand, they drifted through water thick with dust and corpses, their tails swaying, an eerie, carefree tableau—like two merfolk at play in the abyss.
But this harmony would shatter the moment the Siren King opened his eyes.
For when the King awoke, Bai Liu's death was certain.
"Bai Liu's reached A-rank," Wang Shun murmured, torn between hope and dread. "I was right about him—his potential is immense. In Berserk, he can accomplish anything."
Mu Sicheng, himself an A-rank, paused, as if reminded of something. He narrowed his eyes. "Wait—Bai Liu knows that dropping sanity below twenty triggers Berserk. The system warns every player of this at the start—"
Watching Bai Liu's slow descent, Mu Sicheng's tone grew certain. "He's deliberately using this, letting the monsters attack him, dropping his sanity to trigger Berserk and boost his stats!"
Wang Shun faltered. "But why? He could clear the level without going Berserk."
"Exactly. He could have ignored the mermaids, hidden in the [Water Bubble], and sent the Siren King to the seabed with ease." Mu Sicheng's voice was tinged with disbelief. "He's exterminating the mermaids because they might interfere with his plan."
"What plan?" Wang Shun was bewildered. "His sanity's at seven—what plan could he possibly have?"
"He's intentionally dropped his sanity to this level." Mu Sicheng exhaled, eyes fixed on the screen. "Remember, I said Bai Liu was aiming to complete the monster manual by taking the true end? He's almost finished—only one entry remains: [The Siren King's Attack]. To complete it, he must let the King awaken and attack him. But in a normal state, he couldn't survive it, so—"
"So he let the mermaids attack him, dropped his sanity, triggered Berserk, and raised his stats to survive a single attack from the Siren King?!" Wang Shun blurted, stunned by his own words.
He gestured helplessly at Mu Sicheng, stammering, "But that's a god-tier NPC! To survive even one attack, you'd need S-rank stats, like Spade!"
"Exactly." Mu Sicheng looked at Wang Shun. "But you forget—Bai Liu doesn't know he's facing a god-tier NPC. He thinks this is just a normal game."
"He's guessed everything—except that he's up against a bug." Mu Sicheng unwrapped a lollipop, marveling. "This madman must believe there's a perfect way to clear the game."
"Bai Liu is clearly a player who always seeks the optimal solution. He's eliminated every threat—mermaid corpses, wax figures, sailors—so nothing can interfere when he faces the Siren King. He's minimized risk, minimized point expenditure, maximized reward, and never once doubted his path. With F-rank stats, his execution is nearly flawless—truly…"
Mu Sicheng paused, recalling Bai Liu's entire run, and found only one word: "Terrifying."
"Does Bai Liu have a chance to clear?" Wang Shun's heart was in his throat. "Shepherd God, do you think he'll make it?"
"I don't know." Mu Sicheng chewed his lollipop, distracted, his eyes flickering with red light as he watched Bai Liu. "There are two outcomes: failure and death, or success and victory."
"If he succeeds, he'll break my solo points record and become the first player to record a god-tier NPC in the monster manual."
"And as you said, to survive a god-tier NPC's attack, you need S-rank stats. Only Spade, the King, has that."
Mu Sicheng's gaze darkened. "If Bai Liu manages it, it means his Berserk potential can reach S-rank. He'd be the second newcomer with that possibility."
Wang Shun echoed, "The second S-rank?"
Hand in hand, Bai Liu and the Siren King drifted downward, visions overlapping before Bai Liu's eyes, so dense they became shifting blocks of color, his senses blurring with hallucination.
It was as if his mind were being manipulated, his senses responding to every illusion.
Yet, somehow, Bai Liu could always discern reality from hallucination.
Even as he saw himself torn apart by mermaids, feeling the pain, he remembered he'd locked them all in the [Water Bubble]. Perhaps one had escaped, but he chose to trust his own actions—at such a moment, he believed in himself more than the illusion.
With this inexplicable confidence, Bai Liu remained motionless amid a thousand maddening visions, counting his heartbeats to track the Siren King's awakening, sinking ever deeper.
[System Critical Warning: One minute until the Siren King awakens. Countdown commencing. Please clear the level! 59…58…57…]
Wang Shun could barely breathe. "Only a minute left."
"Almost at the seabed," Mu Sicheng murmured, eyes fixed on the screen.
The entire audience held their breath, eyes glued to the screen—even the habitual critics were silent, transfixed.
Bai Liu's fate would be decided in this final minute.
At last, the Siren King's eyes slowly opened.
At that very moment, as if anticipating it, Bai Liu released his hand.
The Siren King floated serenely, gazing at Bai Liu with eyes as pure as new-fallen snow, so white they seemed carved from marble, silver lashes veiling his iridescent pupils, long hair drifting around his expressionless, breathtaking face.
That face, paired with such unearthly eyes, was like a creature from myth, a beauty that dazzled even in the abyss.
The audience, entranced by that divine visage, found themselves unable to strike.
[System Warning: The Siren King has awakened! Viewers, step away from the screen! Prolonged exposure may result in mental contamination from a god-tier NPC!]
The audience in Bai Liu's viewing area, as if bewitched, drifted closer to the screen. Mu Sicheng, ever perceptive, noticed their sanity values plummeting.
Wang Shun was among the first to succumb, gazing at the Siren King in a daze. "So beautiful… don't hurt him."
As he spoke, his eyes mirrored the Siren King's silvery-white.
Mu Sicheng popped a mint lollipop into his mouth—a long-acting item to stabilize sanity—and raised an eyebrow at the screen. "Wow, worthy of a god-tier NPC. The mental contamination even leaks through the screen."
Most monsters in the game contaminate by [contact], but a god-tier NPC contaminates by [radiation]—not even a screen can shield the players.
[System Warning: Mass sanity contamination detected in Bai Liu's viewing area. Activating protection protocol: forced mass sanity restoration.]
[Contamination source detected—Siren King. Applying image blur. Players may continue watching safely.]
A white mist descended over Bai Liu's viewing area. Wang Shun, still stumbling toward the screen, shuddered, coughed, and his eyes returned to black.
On the screen, the Siren King's face was now pixelated, and Wang Shun, still shaken, found his gaze drawn to Bai Liu.
If even the audience, separated by a screen, was so affected, what kind of monster was Bai Liu, who had dragged the Siren King all this way, only now beginning to lose sanity as the King awakened?