Chapter 17 - The Vanished Mermaid (Part 10)

The men widened their eyes, their sockets red as they desperately tried to speak, looking at the doll and the magician. The doll maneuvered the magician into the room, as if using his own body, and without turning back, had the magician close the door behind them.

The room darkened, and the men whimpered in despair.

The magician removed the doll along with the magic hat, gray hair falling over and partially obscuring the magician’s face.

In the unlit room, the half-covered magician and the animated doll were eerily unsettling, especially with the electric saws hanging precariously above them, ready to drop at any moment.

The tension was palpable.

“What are you afraid of?” the doll asked, seemingly puzzled.

Both men, their mouths gagged, could only produce muffled sounds, desperately trying to communicate.

The magician pulled up a chair and sat in front of the two men, placing the magic hat on his lap, with the doll perched atop it. Moonlight streamed through the window, casting a cold, lonely glow that accentuated the room’s chill.

The doll’s red eyes narrowed contentedly, swinging his legs. “Don’t be scared. Weren’t you the ones who attacked me first?”

His heels gently tapped against the hat, creating a rhythmic, subtle sound.

“Mmmph!” The man on the right shook his head vigorously.

The doll scrutinized him, his gaze cool and meticulous, as if assessing the best spot to start cutting.

Tears and snot flowed from the two men.

“Don’t cry.” Luo Yiran pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket, swiftly shuffling and fanning them in his palm. “I’m going to ask some questions now. You’ll tell the truth, won’t you?”

The man on the right nodded eagerly.

“Mm-hmm.” Luo Yiran had the magician put earplugs on the man on the left, then removed the cloth from the mouth of the man on the right. He smiled, “You know, no one will come to save you if you scream.”

The man trembled slightly.

The doll sat back down, looking at the man on the right. “First question, did you know Water City will be flooded in four days?”

The man nodded frantically.

Luo Yiran raised an eyebrow. “What measures is Water City taking?”

The man trembled even more, his voice low, as if terrified of being overheard. “We… we have no measures. But the upper class, they do. They can live underwater…”

“Because they have the mermaid’s gift.”

The doll paused.

The man, mentally tormented for hours, didn’t wait for Luo Yiran to ask further and hurriedly continued, “The mermaid can allow people to live underwater, but… but only the upper class is eligible for the mermaid’s gift.”

“What is the gift?”

The man’s face turned pale with fear. “I don’t know… we really don’t know. We’ve never seen the mermaid!”

“But someone told me that people in Water City visit the mermaid before they turn eighteen.”

The cards in Luo Yiran’s hands spun rapidly, the magician watching with delight. In a good mood, he echoed Luo Yiran’s question to the man, “Are you lying?”

“No… no, I’m not!” The man was anxious, the electric saw above buzzing ominously, his nerves taut. “But we’re the lower class people of Water City. We’re trash. We don’t have the right to see the mermaid or receive the mermaid’s gift.”

“Moreover!” The man desperately recalled, “Moreover, not everyone can receive the mermaid’s gift. People are ranked by value, and those with higher value are more likely to receive the mermaid’s gift!”

“Hmm…” Luo Yiran’s voice was deep, as if pondering the truth of the man’s words.

The magician chuckled behind him, asking, “Do you think your partners know that the mermaid’s gift allows people to live underwater?”

Most likely, they did.

Luo Yiran glanced back at the gray-haired magician.

The magician’s bandages lifted in a smile.

Luo Yiran returned his gaze forward-there was a simple reason they hadn’t mentioned this. Task one, surviving five days, and task two, killing the mermaid, were conflicting.

Water City would be submerged in four days, and the only apparent way to survive the last day was to receive the mermaid’s gift. But Li Qi Feng and Via’s task was to kill the mermaid.

And since Li Qi Feng and Via didn’t know which task he had chosen, they naturally wouldn’t tell him.

The doll swung his little legs, asking the man, “So what are you planning to do?”

The man hesitated, then breathed heavily. “We… we have no way…”

“We’re just waiting to die…”

It was because they had no future that they had harbored ill intentions when they saw the doll and the magician, thinking to rob these outsiders and live out their remaining days in comfort.

But they had met a tough opponent…

The man suddenly felt overwhelmed, tears streaming down as his nose reddened, looking utterly pitiful.

Apart from Xia Lang, Luo Yiran disliked and was even somewhat annoyed by people crying in front of him. He frowned, “Stop crying, it’s annoying.”

The man abruptly silenced himself, his body shuddering as he tried to hold back.

“Tell me everything you know about the mermaid in Water City.” Luo Yiran raised his hand, an Ace card between his fingers, pointing at the confused and frightened man beside him, whose ears were blocked. “Don’t lie. I’ll ask him again, and if your answers don’t match…”

Luo Yiran paused, his gaze unmistakably shifting to the electric saw above the man’s head.

The man was petrified, nodding vigorously.

“Go on.”

“The mermaid…” The man’s voice was hoarse as he desperately recalled his muddled past, his words following his memories. “About the mermaid, it started twenty years ago… An old man moved to the lower class area.”

“I was in my teens then, and he seemed familiar.” The man swallowed hard, trying to remember. “But I couldn’t recall where I’d seen him before.”

“But I remember we all hated him because he had tattoos, which meant he’d killed and been to prison…”

Luo Yiran interjected, “The kind imprisoned for attempting to harm the mermaid?”

“We have only one prison,” the man said. “All criminals are held there, and those who enter have tattoos, messy black line tattoos. The more they have, the worse their crimes.”

“The old man who came to the lower class area twenty years ago, you could hardly see his skin color.” The man shivered as if cold. “He was a heinous criminal, deserving of the deepest hell.”

“He shouldn’t have been released. We thought he escaped, so we reported him, but no police came to take him away. We lived in fear until…” The man paused, some of the terror in his eyes fading. “Until he found the mermaid.”

Luo Yiran stopped playing with the cards, his red eyes fixed on the man, a playful smile on his face.

The man feared Luo Yiran’s smile more than his blank expression, the terror returning to his eyes. “Then the police took him away, and I never saw him again.”

Luo Yiran’s smile faded, his brow furrowing slightly. “Is that all you know?” And in that long story, there was only one mention of the mermaid.

The man panicked. “There aren’t many stories about the mermaid…”

His voice trailed off under Luo Yiran’s red gaze. After a moment, as if grasping at a lifeline, he said, “There’s one more thing! A crazy old neighbor used to ramble about the mermaid!”

Luo Yiran smiled. “Then, please continue.”

Central Square.

The crowd watching Luo Yiran’s display panel fell silent, stunned by the sight of the two bound men and the electric saw above them, deeply shaken by Luo Yiran’s actions.

After Luo Yiran finished questioning them, casually giving them some water and food before tossing them aside, someone in Central Square finally spoke up, “He must be a psycho in real life!”

This comment drew agreement from many, breaking the strange atmosphere in the square.

The girl with the cross necklace sneaked a glance at the pale faces around her, feeling satisfied and cheerfully said to Shamate, “I knew everyone would be shocked.”

Shamate watched the screen where the doll manipulated the magician to turn on the light, then argued about not wanting lace on the pajamas, a smile tugging at his lips. “He’s smart.”

The girl nodded, then asked, “What do you mean?”

“During the day, he deliberately went to the lower class area and wandered around,” Shamate said, touching his face, feeling he might be losing makeup, so he pulled up his collar to cover half his face before continuing, “He went there to fish.”

“But those two thought they were the fishermen, not realizing they were the ones being watched.”

The girl paused, “You mean he planned to kidnap someone from the start?”

Shamate nodded, leaving out one more thing: Luo Yiran might not be a psycho in real life, at least not in others’ eyes. After all, he adhered to his own set of standards even in the game.

Like going to the lower class area during the day to lure someone to attack him, then he would conveniently capture them. It’s very likely that in reality, Luo Yiran holds himself to high moral standards, possibly even seen as a model of goodness by those around him.

“Whoa, look! Someone’s knocking on Li Qi Feng and Via’s door!”

The girl instinctively glanced at the clock in Luo Yiran’s display panel-it was past ten.

In the hotel, no one was allowed to move after ten… So, was the one knocking still human?

A few minutes earlier.

“I can’t figure it out, can’t figure it out. Which task did Luo Yiran choose, ahhh!” Via rolled around on the bed.

The two had always been partners, usually sharing a room during tasks, so this time Via had directly moved into Li Qi Feng’s room. He lay on the bed’s edge, “Uncle, isn’t it more likely he chose task one?”

“Task two is more likely. He’s bold,” Li Qi Feng said, changing into a robe. “And he seems like someone who gravitates towards danger.” At least initially, task two was directly confronting the instance boss, the danger was obvious.

Via sighed, ruffling his curly hair. “He doesn’t give any hints. If our tasks differ, we could part ways.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Li Qi Feng wiped his face. “We know that once we gather enough information, we’ll part ways even if our tasks are the same.”

They’re suspicious, and so is the doll, making it impossible to get along.

Via sat up, shaking his curly hair. “True!”

“Come wash up. There might be a tough fight tonight…”

Knock, knock, knock.

Before Li Qi Feng could finish speaking, there was a sudden knock on the door, followed by a soft, sweet female voice, “Hello, sir, room service.”

“May I come in?”

“……”

At the same time, Luo Yiran’s room was also knocked on, with the same words spoken outside his door, but the voice was that of a young man.

Luo Yiran quickly had the magician toss the two men on the floor into the wardrobe, covering them securely. Before closing it, he gently reassured them, “Be good, don’t speak, and I’ll let you go tomorrow.”

The two men blinked in confusion and fear.

The magician, doing the heavy lifting, looked at the little doll sitting on the bed in white silk pajamas. “Young master, why can’t you speak to me like that?”

The wardrobe had no gaps except for the round hole decorations on top. The doll ensured the two could breathe inside before turning to the magician, his expression turning cold as he said, “Why should I?”

The magician: “…” He really doesn’t hold back, does he?

The doll maneuvered the magician to place him on its shoulder, then approached the door. He looked through the peephole, and upon seeing clearly, his pupils dilated momentarily.

Outside the door, a golden-haired young man smiled innocently, his bright blue eyes focused on the peephole. His body appeared even more slender under a loose white gown. Smiling, he repeated, “Hello, sir, room service.”

“May I come in?”

Luo Yiran stepped back, his eyes darkening-if it wasn’t an illusion and he hadn’t seen wrong, this person looked exactly like the mermaid in the water tank during the day.