As the split-tailed mermaids approached, the players’ faces turned ashen. At this point, they could only see humanoid shapes closing in, only outlines, no details.

These mermaids’ movements were extremely bizarre. It wasn’t a whole fishtail dragging on the ground and sliding, but rather two fishtails, like human legs, sliding on the ground. So the sound was actually “swish,” “swish,” but because the mermaids moved so quickly, it became a continuous “swish, swish.”

“What the fuck…” A man with a scar on his face gasped, “How can they have two fishtails?”

The others had also noticed. Because the thick fog blurred the details, it really did look like they were dragging two fishtails from the waist down. And the two fishtails were asymmetrical, different sizes, incredibly deformed.

Only Gu Lin saw clearly: it wasn’t two fishtails, but one fishtail, split in half from the middle for some unknown reason.

“Oh my god, there are so many!”

“Wh-what the hell are these things?!”

“…”

Shouldn’t mermaids be in the water?

Why were they on land?

Were these some kind of land-mermaids?

Su Qiao’s scalp tingled. Although she couldn’t see these monsters clearly, she could feel their threat.

Without thinking, she immediately grabbed Gu Lin and pulled him in front of her, shielding him.

Everyone else might be able to run away, but this little cub with short arms and legs wouldn’t.

The instant Gu Lin was pulled in front of Su Qiao, he saw out of the corner of his eye that a dagege nearby had also reached out to him, but because he was standing closer to Su Qiao, she had gotten to him first.

Seeing Su Qiao protecting him, the dagege visibly relaxed.

Gu Lin tilted his head and glanced at him.

The dagege was the guy Su Qiao had grabbed onto earlier when she was frightened by him.

Seeing the little dumpling looking at him, the dagege—Lin Xingchi—also looked at him, gave him a smile, and then subtly positioned himself next to Gu Lin and Su Qiao.

Just then, a terrified scream erupted from the crowd.

“Ah—”

The scream was extremely short, followed immediately by a “thud,” the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

Realizing what had happened, everyone held their breath in fear, and some players even started to cry.

Had…had a player died?

Under the cover of the thick fog, no one had seen clearly how the mermaid had attacked, nor had anyone seen which player had fallen. They hadn’t even had time to get to know each other before a player had already died.

The dead player had been standing in front of Scarface. He was still in a state of shock, not having had time to see what had happened before the player had suddenly collapsed in front of him.

“Fuck…”

Scarface was about to curse, but just as he opened his mouth, a ghastly pale face instantly appeared in front of him, less than a centimeter from his own face.

“…” Scarface abruptly shut his mouth, his pupils involuntarily constricting.

Because it was so close, he could see the face pressed against his own clearly.

The eyes on this face were only whites, the whites covered in dense, tiny fish eggs. Long, dirty hair fell down, obscuring part of the deathly pale face.

The mouth, hidden beneath the long hair, slowly split open, stretching all the way to the ears. Inside, it was pitch black, and thick, black mucus dripped out.

Scarface was scared out of his wits.

He could even feel the skin pressed against his face, emitting a chilling coldness, so cold it felt like it had just been pulled out of an ice cave.

Scarface’s lips trembled for a long time, but he was so frightened that he couldn’t even scream.

The next second, a long tongue shot out and touched his skull. Scarface could even feel the cold, slimy sensation. However, for some unknown reason, the long tongue suddenly retracted.

The mermaid in front of him also suddenly turned around and moved away with extreme speed.

It wasn’t just this mermaid. All the other mermaids that had been closing in on the players also instantly turned and retreated in the opposite direction.

Su Qiao held Gu Lin tightly, her entire body trembling uncontrollably.

Gu Lin’s little hand, with its adorable dimples, patted her hand reassuringly.

“Jiejie, don’t be scared.”

Gu Lin’s soft, childish voice comforted her.

Su Qiao was stunned. She didn’t expect such a small child to comfort her, an adult. Wasn’t he scared?

Or was it because the scene before him was beyond his comprehension, which is why he wasn’t afraid?

After a player fell, the thick, impenetrable black fog slowly dissipated, and the light gradually became clearer.

At this point, the “swish, swish” sounds no longer approached, but instead quickly receded as the fog dissipated. They retreated faster than the fog dispersed, always remaining shrouded in the mist, making it impossible to see their appearances clearly.

In just a few minutes, the town, which had been enveloped in fog, revealed its true appearance.

It was an unremarkable town. The streets were clean, and the buildings were old-fashioned but had been carefully renovated, so they didn’t look too dilapidated.

The streets were lifeless, the shops closed, and not a single person was in sight.

Everyone couldn’t imagine that this place had just been crowded with “two-tailed mermaids.”

Needless to say, everyone knew that they were temporarily out of danger.

But it had come at the cost of a player’s life.

It was likely that as long as a player died, some mechanism would be triggered, causing the fog to dissipate, and those mermaids seemed to only be able to stay in the thick fog. When the fog dissipated, they would also retreat.

At this point, everyone’s gaze fell on the player lying stiffly on the ground.

It was a thin male player. The skin on his face had already turned black, making it impossible to see his original appearance.

Everyone was shocked. How could he have turned into this state in such a short time?

And what was even more astonishing was that his brain was visibly shrinking, gradually becoming shriveled.

Looking closely, you could see a small, dark hole on his forehead, with a small amount of thick, black liquid flowing out.

Had his…brain been sucked out?

Thinking of this possibility, everyone’s faces became heavy, and no one spoke for a moment.

Scarface, who had seen this scene clearly, looked even worse.

He raised his hand and touched his forehead, the same spot as the dead player’s. The mermaid’s long tongue had touched his forehead earlier. If he’d been just a little bit slower, his brains would have been sucked out too.

Scarface wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His brain was still reeling, and his limbs were still weak.

Livestream:

[Tsk, this batch of players is a bit weak.]

[+1, if it weren’t for the cub, I’d have left already.]

[The cub is the most stable one in the whole group. His expression hasn’t even changed, and he’s comforting jiejie. Now I know he was serious when he said he wanted to eat fish!]

[It’s not that they’re weak. It’s a hell-mode start. Someone had to die to repel the fog and the mermaids. It just depends on who the unlucky one is.]

[Did you guys not notice? Those mermaids were constantly going around the cub, barely getting close to him. Sure enough, the cub isn’t an ordinary cub!]

A person had died just over ten minutes into the game, and they had to survive here for three days to clear it, or obtain pearls formed from mermaid tears.

But when the mermaids appeared just now, apart from Gu Lin and Scarface, who had a two-second face-to-face with a mermaid, the others hadn’t even seen the mermaids’ faces clearly.

Scarface opened his mouth, but then abruptly closed it.

The mermaid’s eyeballs were white and covered in disgusting fish eggs or whatever. Could they really cry? If they couldn’t cry, how would they get the pearls formed from mermaid tears?

The possibility of obtaining pearls was slim. Not to mention whether the mermaid’s white eyeballs could cry, even if they could, these monsters with excessive attack power that didn’t give people time to react weren’t suitable for a head-on confrontation.

So, the only remaining way to clear the game was to survive for three days.

Just now, a player died, and that caused the black fog to dissipate, and the mermaids also retreated.

There were now nine players left. Over the next three days, he had to use the other eight players to buy himself time to survive.

Scarface secretly schemed.

Gu Lin was also calculating his own little schemes. Unlike Scarface, who was setting his sights on the other players, Gu Lin was thinking that the mermaid’s eyeballs were white, so were they the little pearls?

But how would he get them?

Did he have to pluck them out?

9527: …No, those are not the little pearls.

Gu Lin then became a little distressed. The mermaids were so tall, and he was so small, with such short arms. He wouldn’t be able to reach them at all!

Hmm… He had it! He knew how to climb trees.

Couldn’t he just climb the mermaids like he climbed trees to reach them?

He was super good at climbing trees!

9527: …Yes, yes, little streamer, you’re such a clever little egg.

It’s just that the prerequisite might be that the other party has to be a dead mermaid to let you climb on its head like a tree without reacting.

Just as the players were lost in their own thoughts and remained silent, a group of people emerged from a corner not far away.

When they saw this group of people, the players’ expressions all changed.