Godmode: My Infinite Game Odyssey

The system gave Liam his first task, but his focus wasn't on the task. Instead, he fixated on the words "Avoid being incubated."

... Incubated?

Could those wax statues hatch them?

Liam quietly made a mental note, then turned around and saw a towering mermaid wax statue standing across from the bed. This was the largest mermaid wax statue in the room.

The statue was magnificent, holding a large, smooth mirror the size of a person. The mirror's frame was also made from wax, and the statue's graceful arms served as the mirror's support. It was the only statue in the room that wasn't staring directly at Liam.

The mermaid wax statue was smiling gently at the mirror. As Liam looked into it, his reflection appeared. The statue's arms wrapped around the mirror as though embracing Liam's reflection, making him uneasy.

The mermaid's expression, focused on the mirror, was serene. Its eyes were half-lidded, and it smiled softly as though welcoming the figure in the reflection. But in the mirror, Liam saw his reflection grinning back with a stiff, wax-like smile.

Liam remained unfazed and covered the mirror with a white cloth.

Scenes like these didn't faze him. In real life, he was involved in creating horror games and spent countless nights coming up with terrifying scenarios. A regular haunted mirror grin didn't even make him flinch anymore.

Liam recalled what Gerald had said earlier about tourists mysteriously vanishing inside the hotel, never to be found again. These mermaid wax statues probably "incubated" them.

While Liam didn't fully understand what "incubated" meant, he was sure it wasn't a good thing.

To be cautious, Liam covered all the mermaid wax statues in the room with hotel bed sheets, including the massive mirror, hoping to block the eerie and ever-present gaze of the statues. It might not help, but it was better than nothing.

Most importantly, with so many mermaid wax statues watching him, Liam couldn't sleep comfortably.

While covering the mirror, Liam's hand brushed the fishtail of the wax statue. It didn't feel like smooth, glossy wax; it had a slippery, slightly sticky texture, almost like fish skin.

He even felt the scales on the tail shift ever so slightly as if the wax statue were alive.

Liam paused for a moment, then smelled his fingers. To his surprise, there was a strong fishy odor. But when he got closer to the mermaid wax statue, there was no smell—only the usual scent of incense from the room.

Could it have been the scent from the van earlier?

Or, more likely, it was his hand that smelled like fish, which made him feel uneasy. The thought that these mermaid wax statues could "incubate" tourists was unsettling.

What exactly could they hatch?

Most likely, some disgusting fish-like creatures.

The word "incubate" reminded Liam of the film The Mermaid in the Sewers. He had watched it several times for research, and ever since, he had lost any romantic fantasies about mermaids.

Exhausted from the long journey, Liam quickly washed up and collapsed into bed, eager for rest. His stamina was depleted, and he needed sleep to recover.

A strange, dragging sound in the middle of the night woke Liam.

He opened his eyes to see that some of the white sheets covering the mermaid statues had slipped off during the night. A few statues were partially exposed, with one eye staring at him. Their expressions had subtly changed, no longer serene but filled with resentment and malice as if accusing him of covering them.

Liam noticed that the statues seemed closer than before. They were gathered around his bed as if they were about to sit down for a meal.

Especially the one holding the large mirror. When Liam groggily woke up, he noticed his feet almost touching the mirror.

Once facing the opposite direction, the giant mirror had moved to be right next to his bed.

Liam pulled his feet back and sat up, seeing his reflection in the mirror. His reflection was pale like stone, with empty, white eyes and marbled veins around his face. It gave him a stiff smile, and for a brief moment, it looked like it wasn't just a reflection.

But when he blinked, everything returned to normal, and the reflection appeared to be a mere trick of the mind.

Liam stood up, calm and steady, and covered the mermaid wax statues with the white cloth again, securing them with ropes. He tied the smaller statues in the wardrobe and locked it. He pushed the larger ones into the bathroom and locked them in there, moving swiftly as if he had done this many times before.

These statues seemed to be constrained in their movements. Before Liam fell asleep, they couldn't move. Even after he fell asleep, it seemed like they needed to break free of the sheets before approaching him.

Some of the smaller statues that weren't completely covered with sheets moved erratically inside the sheets, not approaching his bed but instead scattering away.

Once Liam figured out this pattern, he quickly maximized the constraint.

Just as he finished securing the statues and was about to lie down, he heard a door open next door, followed by the sound of soft footsteps.

Liam paused. He had reserved four adjacent rooms, and next door were Andrew and Gerald's rooms.

The door creaked open from the left—Gerald's room. Liam quietly climbed out of bed, pressed his ear to the door, and peered through the peephole.

Gerald stood in the hallway, looking around to ensure no one was there before sneaking down the hotel stairs.

Liam frowned. Why was Gerald up so late?

Just as he was about to open the door to follow him, he noticed the door handle to Gerald's room slowly turning again as though someone was following him.

Liam's heart skipped a beat. He suddenly realized what was happening. The person coming out of Gerald's room wasn't human.

The door handle to Gerald's room turned with a soft click, and Liam heard the same dragging, muffled sound he had heard earlier in his half-sleep. It was like something was dragging along the floor, walking on its knees.

But now, Liam knew what was making the sound.

A mermaid wax statue, as tall as a person, was emerging from Gerald's room. Its face was lifeless, with blank, white eyes and no expression, dragging its fish tail across the floor, leaving greasy wax stains behind on the red carpet.

It was moving like a zombie, its stiff body jerking forward. It was unable to walk properly but still headed for the stairs.

...It could leave the room on its own and open doors?

As the statue reached the stairs, it suddenly froze, its shoulder twisting unnaturally, and its head rotated 180 degrees to face the back.

Liam watched in horror as the wax on its face began to melt, revealing a grotesque, flesh-like shine beneath.

Then, it turned and began moving toward Liam's room.

Liam quickly checked that the door was securely locked and backed away, pressing himself against the door, trying to stay quiet. He wanted to know what the statue was planning.

Through the peephole, Liam saw the white eyes of the mermaid wax statue spinning rapidly as if it were peering through to find him inside.

It could see through the one-way peephole!

The white eyes kept spinning, and Liam slowly moved to the side, reaching down to grab the sheet. He planned to cover himself with it.

Meanwhile, the scene played out on the small TV screen, and the audience watching gasped, too frightened to even blink.

"Shit, that's terrifying. My sanity would be shot if I were in the game..."

"Stay calm! Stay calm! The newbie death rate is super high here!"

"The monsters in Siren Town are disgusting. It's so hard for newbies to stay sane and find weaknesses..."

Liam noticed that the newbie screens around him were all darkening. Nearly one-fifth of the screens in the "Newcomer Area" had gone dark by the end of the first night.

Only Liam's screen was left on, the only one showing the tense scene as he waited.