Doll Survival Game - Chapter 29 - The Vanished Mermaid (Part 22)

In the midst of silence, Luo Yiran suddenly lifted his head and asked, “Do you know who killed the mermaid?”

The old man remained silent.

Luo Yiran blinked gently and then asked, “So, what is the price for gaining the ability to breathe underwater?”

The old man hesitated, “…Transformation into a fish. But initially, they just felt thirsty, their memory deteriorated… I don’t know the more severe consequences, I never got the chance to see.”

The doll couldn’t see the old man’s expression; there was no light here. He simply watched the old man and asked the last two questions he wanted to know: “Do you know the mermaid’s fish tail is now with Idia?”

“And do you know that the mermaid is still alive?”

The old man was as silent as the grave.

After a long while, he slowly said, “I know the fish tail is with Idia… but I didn’t know the mermaid was still alive.”

Luo Yiran chuckled in the darkness, “Thank you, then we’ll be going.”

The old man was taken aback, “You don’t want to know anything else?”

The doll manipulated the magician to stand up, “No, that’s already plenty.”

With that, he maneuvered the puppet to open the door just enough to slip through.

The doll didn’t use the light to see the old man’s full appearance; he left the strange-smelling cabin without looking back.

Outside, Artel was already impatiently waiting. Seeing the magician emerge with the hat, he immediately ran over, “Are we done? Can we go back now?”

The doll discarded a few cards that had accidentally burned at the edges and looked at Artel, “Have you ever seen a mermaid?”

Artel was a bit puzzled, “Of course I have! And the mermaid looks a lot like me, except it doesn’t have legs, just a tail.”

“But thinking about it, the mermaid is really pitiful! Always locked up, forced to entertain others without any dignity… But it seems like it doesn’t understand what all this means…”

“Have you ever thought about helping him?” the doll suddenly asked.

Artel was stunned for a moment, “Why? Although it’s pitiful, it’s just a fish. We people of Water City all like it and are protecting it, isn’t that enough?”

The doll: “…”

The magician laughed softly, whispering to the doll, “Young master, NPCs are different from us.” Moreover, Artel wasn’t a carefully crafted NPC, so he couldn’t be as realistic and logically consistent as humans.

The doll glanced at Artel, “And yet you’re jealous of the mermaid? Do you want to be a pet?”

Artel’s eyes widened, “I don’t want that, I just want to be loved!”

There were so many things to say that the doll ended up saying nothing, maneuvering the magician to move away from Artel. Artel looked bewildered but didn’t dare to insist on getting closer, so he followed from a distance, still calling out, “Remember you promised to let me replace the mermaid!”

The doll responded with a couple of perfunctory “uh-huhs.”

With no outsiders nearby, the magician chatted with the doll, “Young master, have you figured out who killed the mermaid?”

Luo Yiran didn’t even lift an eyelid, “The old man.”

After saying this, he added, “There’s something quite important, which is not to believe everything someone says.”

He believed most of what the old man said was true, including the part about the mermaid sparing him, but the one who killed the mermaid could only be the old man.

“The person who gains the mermaid’s trust is best positioned to strike.” The doll sat inside the magic hat, “The reason is likely related to the family the old man never mentioned.”

“The phrase ‘the mermaid didn’t kill everyone, but it did kill many innocent people’ caused a significant emotional reaction in him.” The doll tilted his head, “So who were the innocent ones?”

“Young master, asking you this is really pointless,” the magician said, feeling a bit bored.

“Then let me ask you something interesting.” The doll appeared to smile as he responded, looking up at the magician, “Given that Idia, the mermaid, the underwater world staff, and the old man aren’t ordinary NPCs, they have their own thoughts and are acting, then tell me-”

“Is this story something that truly happened, or is it just fiction?”

Because even though they were acting, their emotions felt very real, and for a moment, Luo Yiran even doubted himself.

The familiar warning sounded again in his ear, and the magician chuckled helplessly, “Young master, some questions you’ll find out eventually.”

Luo Yiran raised an eyebrow slightly.

The magician brought up the mermaid, “Young master, why not talk about the mermaid? I don’t know much yet.”

Nonsense.

Luo Yiran snorted but still spoke, “The mermaid the old man mentioned is the blue-eyed one from last night. They don’t have names… Maybe because he was the only one at the beginning, so ‘mermaid’ is his name.”

The magician guided Luo Yiran to speak, “Then how did Idia come to be?”

Luo Yiran paused, glancing back at Artel, who was trailing behind with a pitiful expression, “Idia is the mermaid’s replacement.”

“Last night, when the mermaid spoke of the man who killed him, he was referring to the old man. But the mermaid lied; he didn’t kill the old man.”

The doll twirled his finger, his long lashes casting a shadow as he lowered his gaze, “What follows is just speculation, because both parties involved lied, so the possibility of confirming it is very small.”

The magician listened intently.

“When the old man saw the mermaid controlling the sea, he realized it was the mermaid who indirectly caused the death of his family. Then, seeing the mermaid’s cruelty, he decided to act against the mermaid. There might have been other triggers in between, but this was the source. Especially since before this, the old man always saw the mermaid as good, this contrast would be unbearable for him.”

The doll seemed focused on the interior of the magic hat, but his words flowed with his thoughts, “So he used the mermaid’s trust to kill it.”

“The mermaid didn’t lie about one thing; its body was divided into three parts. First is the fish tail. The fish tail is now with Idia, and Idia was at least previously part of Water City, so it’s certain that Water City took the mermaid’s tail back then. They might have researched the tail out of dissatisfaction…” The doll paused, thinking, “Here, it should be the instance’s setting. The setting is that the mermaid is hard to kill, and even when the tail is detached, it’s still alive, so Water City found Idia and attached the tail to him.”

“So Idia became the mermaid.”

Luo Yiran gradually became slightly excited, his speech quickening, “Then there’s the body, which Water City should have taken as well, but later than when the tail was found. The division might have been real, likely for experimental reasons, to study the differences in the mermaid’s upper body, which resembles a human.”

“And whether eating mermaid flesh would grant some ability.

“But the head was definitely taken by the old man.”

The doll rarely spoke in certainties; he always maintained skepticism.

The magician watched the doll with intense interest.

“The old man buried the mermaid’s head. He didn’t know the mermaid wasn’t dead; he just wanted to bury it out of his complex emotions…” The doll chuckled, “He should have thrown it into the sea. How can a creature belonging to the ocean be buried in the earth?”

“But the mermaid now only wants to destroy itself, which I didn’t expect.” The doll’s lips flattened, “If I went through all that, I’d choose to do as Idia did, drag the entire Water City to hell.”

“I can understand that.”

The magician’s voice suddenly became fragile, saying pitifully, “Don’t you feel like everything started because of myself? Even though I did nothing wrong, everything erupted from me, leading to misfortune… It’s too exhausting, living is too exhausting, so why not let myself disappear, then there’ll be no more pain.”

“…” The doll scoffed, “That might be part of the mermaid’s thoughts, but it definitely wouldn’t be yours.”

The magician’s fragile tone vanished instantly, and he cheerfully asked, “Then what does the young master think I’d do?”

“You wouldn’t just drag Water City to hell; you’d take the whole world with you.”

“Nonsense.” The magician gently denied, “Besides, there’s no whole world here. There’s only Water City.” So the people of Water City never thought of leaving when disaster struck.

The doll understood the magician’s unspoken words, frowning in disdain, “The creator of this instance has a small vision.”

The magician thought of the creator’s face, which always seemed like everyone owed him a fortune, and couldn’t help but laugh, “Young master, you’re right.”

“Have you talked enough?”

A cold, annoyed voice suddenly sounded from behind.

The doll manipulated the magician to turn in sync, then the doll smiled brightly, “Idia.”

Idia’s arrival made Artel shine like a beacon, dazzlingly radiant.

The doll recalled the old man saying the mermaid was even more beautiful than Idia, and found himself unable to imagine it.

“Your smile is disgusting,” Idia said bluntly, “And you’re still alive.”

“Because the mermaid appreciates me.” The doll had the magician stand sideways to block the wind.

Then he struggled to climb onto the edge of the hat to sit.

Idia frowned at the mention of the mermaid, guessing, “He wants to recruit you?”

The doll nodded with a deliberately innocent expression, his voice tinged with a bit of naivety, “But I didn’t agree. I want to cooperate with you.”

The magician: “Pfft.”

Idia’s frown deepened, watching the doll warily.

The doll was unabashed, looking at Idia sincerely, “The mermaid just wants to kill you, saying this sea curse is yours, that you brought the disaster… And he wants to destroy himself to end it all.”

Idia frowned.

The doll smiled, “Though you’d die if you went there, being killed by someone else is always unpleasant, right?”

Idia raised his eyes, tilting his head slightly, his gaze cold, “A lingering existence wants to kill me?”

“Lingering? He seems quite spirited.” Luo Yiran bent his leg, “That’s probably just a facade for you.”

Idia fell silent.

After a while, he looked at the smiling doll, “I don’t understand your purpose.”

The doll seemed to pause, then clasped his hands together, his face full of reverence, “I just don’t want to survive by killing Idia.”

“…”

Idia detested hypocritical people. During those times when he was powerless to resist, most who approached him were incredibly fake, saying things like it wouldn’t hurt, it wouldn’t be painful…

They treated him cruelly, then gave a bit of affection, thinking their actions were justified.

So, he looked at the hypocritical doll and got angry, Idia sneered, “Not killing me means everyone will die, including you. Are you sure?”

He just wanted to kill everyone.

The doll tilted his head slightly and suddenly asked, “Don’t you think death isn’t really revenge? Those people tortured you for years, yet you let them die without much suffering… Doesn’t it feel like you’re letting them off?”

Idia’s hand tightened slightly as he looked at the doll.

Luo Yiran stretched out his leg, letting it hang naturally, gently swinging it, “Why don’t I teach you how to truly take revenge?”

“A revenge that will make them suffer, fear, and repent.”