The moment the notification sounded, Bai Liu's lips curled into a smile. At the same time, the red panel attributes on his status screen began to skyrocket.
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Rage Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 7 → 151]
[Agility: 3 → 149]
[Attack Power: 6 → 167]
[Resistance: 2 → 166]
[Comprehensive defense and attack power have increased. The total panel attribute points have exceeded 500. The player is rated as a C-level player. Player Bai Liu's level has increased from F (?) to C level. You can now resist the mermaid's attacks.]
Wang Shun froze for a moment before reacting. "Right! When a player's mental value drops below 20, they're judged to have entered a madness state due to critically low sanity. The Rage state activates and boosts their panel attributes. Below 20, the lower the mental value, the higher the attribute increase. It rises to the limit of the player's potential!"
He quickly analyzed the situation. "This is good for Bai Liu! At least now he can fight back against the mermaids!"
"Not necessarily." Mu Sicheng wasn't as optimistic. His expression grew more solemn. "It's true that the player's attributes increase, and the boost in attack power is beneficial."
"However, most players lose their minds at this stage. The lower the mental value, the more they resemble the monsters in the game. Even if their attributes are high, it's meaningless. They only attack like beasts. As the player descends further into madness, their mental value accelerates its decline until it reaches zero."
On the small TV, Bai Liu slowly opened his eyes.
Sharp nails extended from his fingers. His lower limbs swayed faintly like a fish's tail. The whites of his eyes were marred by spreading gray-black cracks, and the pupils had vanished entirely. Fangs protruded from the corners of his mouth.
He slashed at a mermaid with the back of his hand. His claws sliced it cleanly in two. The mermaid opened its mouth, its gills trembling in agony, before slowly sinking to the seabed.
Bai Liu stared at it expressionlessly.
If not for the Siren King still clutched in his right hand, he would have looked no different from any other mermaid monster.
[System warning: Player Bai Liu's mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 15. Rage state has intensified.]
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Rage Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 151 → 351]
[Agility: 149 → 249]
[Attack Power: 167 → 667]
[Resistance: 166 → 966]
[Comprehensive defense and attack power have increased. Total panel attribute points have exceeded 2000. The player is rated as a B-level player. Player Bai Liu's level has increased from C to B level.]
Wang Shun stared in shock. "Bai Liu's attributes are rising too fast! He's already reached B level. His potential is incredible!"
But his excitement quickly turned to worry. "However, his mental value has dropped again. If he can't stay conscious and it falls below 10, then he'll be completely finished—"
Before Wang Shun could finish speaking, a sharp alarm rang out from Bai Liu's small TV.
[Severe system warning: Player Bai Liu's mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 9. Rage state has intensified.]
[System warning: 3 minutes remain before the Siren King awakens. Please clear the instance immediately!]
"Only three minutes! His mental value is down to 9!" Wang Shun had followed Bai Liu's every rise and fall, but he had never experienced such a nerve-wracking situation.
He stared at Bai Liu's emotionless face and at the Siren King, whose eyes were slowly opening. Wang Shun's nerves were stretched taut as he watched. He pinched the web between his thumb and forefinger, barely maintaining his composure as he shouted, "Bai Liu, hold on!"
Clearing the instance might already be a fantasy at this point, but Wang Shun had followed Bai Liu all the way here. He didn't want to see such a promising player die. His eyes remained fixed on the small TV without blinking.
Mu Sicheng's right hand gripped his left elbow tightly. His jaw was set, and his voice was low and grave. "In three minutes, he could drag the Siren King to the seabed and clear the instance. I just don't know whether Bai Liu has managed to retain even a shred of sanity under the hallucinations and the Rage state. Does he still know that he's a player—and not a monster in the game?"
The other viewers were also on the verge of collapse as Bai Liu stalled at this critical moment. They shouted in disbelief, unable to accept that he might fail. They frantically liked and tipped the stream, using every method they could think of as if trying to awaken Bai Liu's consciousness through the screen.
Only the small group in the corner who had mocked Bai Liu earlier let out a few smug laughs, as though they had expected this outcome all along.
On the small TV, the system warnings continued.
[System warning: Player Bai Liu's mental value continues to decline. Current mental value: 8. Rage state has intensified.]
[Player Name: Bai Liu (Rage Attribute Bonus Panel)]
[Physical Strength: 351 → 655]
[Agility: 249 → 733]
[Attack Power: 667 → 1555]
[Resistance: 966 → 1776]
[Comprehensive defense and attack power have increased. Total panel attribute points have exceeded 4000. The player is rated as an A-level player. Player Bai Liu's level has increased from B to A level.]
Bai Liu's face gradually became covered in fish scales, and his eyes emitted a dark green glow beneath the sea. Every scale radiated danger as he dragged the Siren King downward, slowly sinking.
The Siren King shifted from being passively dragged and suspended in the water to balancing himself with his tail. The moment his fins unfurled, all the surrounding mermaids screamed and fled in terror.
The Siren King's flawless face appeared on the small TV. Everyone held their breath at the sight of such beauty—and the danger hidden behind it.
Bai Liu's face was now covered in dark, armor-like scales. More scales continued spreading across his hands.
In contrast, the Siren King's face was pure and pristine, his fingers long and elegant.
They held hands amid drifting corpses and murky seawater, their tails swaying as they descended. Strangely, they looked almost carefree—like two mermen playing at the seabed.
Yet this fragile harmony would be shattered in blood the moment the Siren King opened his eyes.
Because once he awakened, Bai Liu would undoubtedly die.
"Bai Liu has been promoted to A level." Wang Shun felt both complicated and nervous. "I didn't misjudge him. He truly has potential. There's a lot of room for him to grow. If he enters the Rage state, he can really accomplish incredible things."
Mu Sicheng, himself an A-level player, narrowed his eyes as if recalling something. "Wait—Bai Liu knows he can enter the Rage state by lowering his mental value. The system would've warned him at the start that dropping below 20 would trigger Rage."
He stared at Bai Liu slowly sinking on the small TV and spoke with certainty. "Bai Liu did this deliberately. He let the monsters attack him so his mental value would drop and activate the Rage state. That way, his panel attributes would skyrocket."
Wang Shun frowned in confusion. "But why? He could've cleared the level without strengthening himself through Rage."
"Yes. Not only that—he didn't even need to deal with the mermaid monsters. He could've hidden in the water bubble, sent the Siren King to the seabed, and cleared the level safely." Mu Sicheng paused, realization dawning on him. "…The reason he insisted on killing all the monsters is that they might interfere with his final plan."
"What plan?" Wang Shun grew even more confused. "His mental value is only 7 right now. What plan could he possibly have?"
"Bai Liu deliberately lowered it to that number." Mu Sicheng took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on Bai Liu's screen.
"Do you remember when I said Bai Liu chose the true ending to complete the Monster Book? He's nearly finished the Siren Town Monster Book. Only one entry is missing—the Siren King's attack method. To obtain it, he has to let the Siren King wake up and attack him."
"Under normal circumstances, Bai Liu wouldn't be able to withstand that attack. So—"
"So he let the mermaids attack him, lowered his mental value, forced himself into the Rage state, boosted his attributes—and prepared to take a hit from the Siren King?" Wang Shun finished the sentence, but his expression froze as soon as he heard himself say it.
He stammered in disbelief. "B-But that's a god-level NPC! To survive an attack from a god-level NPC, you'd need at least an S-level attribute panel—like Spades!"
"Yes." Mu Sicheng looked at him steadily. "You forgot something important. Bai Liu doesn't know he's facing a god-level NPC. To him, this is just a normal game."
"He calculated everything—except one detail. He doesn't realize he's dealing with a bug." Mu Sicheng unwrapped a lollipop and placed it in his mouth. "This lunatic genuinely believes there's a perfect way to clear the game."
"Bai Liu is the type of player who always chooses the optimal solution. He eliminated the mermaid sailors, the statues, and the monsters to prevent them from interfering when he takes the Siren King's attack. He conserved all his energy for this final moment."
"You could say he pushed everything to the extreme. Minimum risk. Lowest cost. Highest reward. From start to finish, he never once doubted that he had chosen the best solution. His execution has been nearly flawless. And yet his base attribute panel was only F level. That's just—"
Mu Sicheng fell silent for a few seconds as he recalled Bai Liu's performance throughout the instance. Then he summed it up in one word. "Terrifying."
"Can Bai Liu actually clear the instance?" Wang Shun's heart pounded violently. "God Mu, I don't understand. Is he likely to succeed or not?"
"I don't know." Mu Sicheng bit down on the lollipop absentmindedly.
A faint red light flickered in his eyes as he stared at the screen. "There are only two outcomes. First, he fails and dies."
"The second… he succeeds."
"If he succeeds, he'll break my single-player points record and become the first player to obtain a god-level NPC monster page. As you said, resisting a god-level NPC requires an S-level attribute panel. Right now, only Spades—ranked first on the overall leaderboard—has S-level attributes."
Mu Sicheng's expression grew unreadable. "If Bai Liu pulls this off, it means his Rage-state potential can reach S level. That would make him the second player in this game with the potential to become S-level."
Wang Shun stared at Bai Liu on the screen and repeated softly, "The second S-level player…"
Bai Liu and the Siren King continued descending hand in hand.
Before Bai Liu's eyes, countless hallucinations overlapped so densely that they blended into chaotic colors. His senses began syncing with the illusions. It was as if something had seized control of his brain, fabricating corresponding sensory experiences for every false image.
Even so, for reasons he couldn't explain, Bai Liu could still distinguish illusion from reality.
In the hallucinations, he saw himself being bitten and torn apart by mermaids. He felt the pain vividly. His senses were completely deceived. An ordinary person might have believed they were truly being killed.
But Bai Liu calmly remembered that most of the mermaids were trapped inside the water bubble. It wasn't impossible that a few had slipped out to attack him—but at this moment, he chose to trust himself.
After all, he believed his plan was more reliable than the illusions.
With inexplicable self-confidence, Bai Liu remained motionless amid thousands of maddening visions. He maintained an eerie calm, using the rhythm of his heartbeat to calculate the time remaining until the Siren King's awakening.
He continued sinking.
[System warning: 1 minute remaining before the Siren King awakens. Countdown initiated. Please clear the game quickly! 59… 58… 57…]
Wang Shun could barely breathe. "Only one minute…"
"He's almost at the seabed," Mu Sicheng said, eyes locked on the screen.
The audience fell completely silent. They held their breath, eyes glued to the screen. Even the viewers who had mocked Bai Liu earlier were staring intently.
Everything depended on this one minute.
The Siren King slowly opened his eyes.
At that exact moment, as if he had anticipated it, Bai Liu released the Siren King's hand.
The Siren King floated silently in the water, staring at Bai Liu. His eyes were pure white, like freshly fallen snow—an unnatural, marble-like white. Pale lashes veiled his silver pupils, and his long hair drifted around his expressionless face.
His breathtaking beauty, combined with those blank white eyes, made him resemble a legendary fairy or some mythical being. He shone radiantly at the bottom of the sea.
The audience was dazzled and bewitched. Faced with such divinity, they felt reluctant to harm him.
[System warning: The Siren King has awakened! Please stay away from the small TV screen! There is a risk of spiritual contamination from the god-level NPC if you get too close!]
Viewers in Bai Liu's area began drifting toward the screen as if entranced. Mu Sicheng quickly noticed several of them experiencing a rapid drop in mental value.
Beside him, Wang Shun had also been affected. He stared at the Siren King in a daze. "He's so beautiful… Don't hurt him."
As he spoke, his pupils turned the same silvery white as the Siren King's.
Mu Sicheng calmly took out a mint-flavored lollipop—a long-lasting item used to stabilize mental value. He stared at the screen and raised an eyebrow. "Wow. A god-level NPC indeed. The mental contamination effect can penetrate through the screen."
Most monsters required physical contact to cause pollution. But a god-level NPC truly deserved the title. Its contamination method was closer to radiation. There was no hiding behind a screen.
[System warning: A large number of viewers in player Bai Liu's viewing area have been contaminated. Mental values are decreasing. Protection mechanism activated. All mental values cleansed.]
[Pollution source detected: Siren King. Image blurring applied. Players may safely continue viewing.]
A burst of white mist spread through the viewing area. Wang Shun, who had been walking toward the screen in a trance, suddenly snapped back to his senses. He coughed twice, his pupils returning to black.
On the small TV, the Siren King's face was now blurred by a system mosaic.
Wang Shun stared at the censored image with lingering fear before instinctively shifting his gaze to Bai Liu.
The viewers had been so heavily affected—even across a screen.
Yet Bai Liu had dragged the Siren King all the way down to the seabed, enduring the awakening at point-blank range. His mental value had certainly been impacted, and it was still falling.
Just what kind of monster… was Bai Liu?