Godmode: My Infinite Game Odyssey

Liam Watson entered the car and immediately noticed a strong fishy smell from the front seat. He initially thought it was coming from Andrew, who had eaten a lot of rotten fish fillets that morning. However, to his surprise, the smell was coming from the driver.

The fishy smell he had noticed the previous day in the car was also from the driver, but it was less intense than today's.

Today, the driver's foul odor was much stronger.

Liam glanced at the driver, who... felt like he could be some kind of monster.

[Warning!! The player misidentified the NPC! This NPC is not a monster! It cannot be recorded in the monster book! The NPC is in an altered state!]

[The player misidentified the NPC, and the trust level with the NPC drops significantly, and the NPC may become hostile and attack the player.]

The driver slowly took a bite of his sandwich. His eyes shifted, and he stared at Liam for a while before speaking sharply, "…Do you think I smell bad?"

Liam thought, "Yes," but hurriedly denied it, "No."

"You've been looking at me like I'm some kind of monster. Tch, damn arrogant rich people," the driver muttered darkly, then turned his head and resumed eating, no longer responding to Liam's questions.

This is troublesome.

Liam thought to himself, trying to remain composed. It seemed that getting information from this driver would be much harder now. 

He couldn't directly interrogate the driver since the system already warned him that the driver might attack him.

Liam leaned toward Lucy and whispered a few things, coaxing her into asking the driver instead.

The driver grunted but eventually answered Lucy's questions.

"Of course, the attractions in Siren Town are related to mermaids," the driver said with a creepy smile. His eyes were darting all over the place, making it hard to tell who or what he was looking at.

"Our fishing is not about catching ordinary fish. We have a special mermaid-catching event that only happens at night. And our wax museum is no ordinary wax museum. We take the mermaids we catch and turn them into wax figures we display in the museum."

"The wax museum still displays the first mermaid skeleton we ever caught."

"Catching mermaids?" Liam asked. "You catch mermaids?"

The driver ignored Liam's question.

After Lucy asked again, the driver finally responded with a knowing smile, "Yes, although the first one was a very beautiful mermaid, the ones we caught later were of lower quality and incomplete, but they were indeed mermaids."

Andrew suddenly scoffed with disdain, "A gimmick. Do you expect anyone to believe that?"

Gerald opened his mouth as if to say something but quickly closed it again, likely because he had been beaten by Andrew earlier that morning and didn't dare to argue.

However, Lucy wasn't going to let Andrew off so easily. She shot him a glare and exclaimed, "I believe it! Liam, do you?"

She turned toward Liam with an indignant look.

"Seeing is believing," Liam said calmly. "We'll find out tonight during the fishing event."

Andrew didn't argue with Lucy but couldn't resist mocking Liam, "I hope some people don't get so scared watching the fishing event that they cry and run away."

He said this with a malicious grin, his eyes glinting as he looked past Liam. "If you scream and fall off the boat, and the fishermen mistake you for a mermaid and turn you into a wax figure, don't expect us to save you."

Andrew shrugged dramatically and smirked, seemingly imagining Liam falling into the water.

Liam remembered the bet he had made with Andrew the previous night. He had gathered the specifics of the wager from Lucy that morning.

Andrew and Liam had agreed to rent two kayaks to drift overnight on the Siren Sea. Whoever couldn't take it and had to return first would be the coward, and the loser wouldn't deserve Lucy.

Lucy didn't want this bet, but Liam, playing his stubborn role, insisted on going along with it.

The midnight sea was undoubtedly terrifying in a game centered around mermaids.

Liam was certain he wouldn't enter such a dangerous situation with someone as hostile and mentally sharp as Andrew. He did not doubt that if Andrew's boat encountered his, Andrew would flip it, leaving him to drown.

Liam couldn't swim.

In a way, the mermaids, sirens, and sea demons didn't scare him as much as the water itself did.

Under no circumstances would Liam get close to the sea unless necessary.

His expression betrayed his distaste for the so-called "bet."

Andrew mocked him loudly, "Look at that, our rich little prince. What do you have other than money? You're too scared to even go on the water."

Liam nodded, genuinely happy, "I'm useless except for my money."

But that was enough to satisfy him, even if it was virtual money.

Andrew: "..."

Why did this guy look like he was being complimented?

Andrew scoffed, "So, you're not going? Does that mean you're giving up on Lucy?"

Liam was about to tell Andrew he wasn't interested in this reckless activity when his coin suddenly vibrated. A task prompt popped up:

[Triggered side mission "The Ship of True Love," please complete the bet with Andrew before leaving Siren Town. Win the bet to earn 100 points.]

Liam: "..."

The reward was 100 points! 

His desire for money immediately outweighed his fear of water. Liam responded calmly, "No, I'm going. And I'm going to win."

Lucy touched and hugged Liam. "Oh, darling, when you return, we'll have to live together and spend a pleasant night."

Liam silently removed Lucy's hand.

The driver turned his head, "Why don't you all visit our wax museum first? The mermaid fishing event only happens at night."

Everyone agreed.

The driver drove the car in a winding path, bypassing a beach. 

Liam saw many dried remains on the beach. 

The driver said that this was where they caught the mermaids. The remains were broken-up pieces of mermaid corpses, some so fragmented they were discarded on the sand.

Liam saw large fishtails, bleached skulls scattered across the beach, and a few drying nets.

Fishermen were out cleaning up the bones and nets. As they looked up, they locked eyes with Liam and his group. Liam had never noticed the appearance of the town's residents at night, but now, in the daylight…

The townspeople looked incredibly odd, with a strange resemblance to the driver, though even more unsettling and inhuman.

Their sclera was unnaturally white, while their pupils were tiny, like soybeans, drifting aimlessly in their sockets.

Their eyes were far apart, almost like they were positioned near their ears, resembling catfish.

They also had grayish-black marble-like patterns around their eyes, spreading down their necks. As they walked under the sun, their movements were unnervingly slow, and their feet seemed to be itching, rubbing against the sand repeatedly.

If Liam wasn't mistaken, some green scales were growing on their feet, which were neither fully attached nor completely falling off.

They gave Liam's car a slow, vacant smile, like children who had smelled food.

Lucy was also startled by their appearance. She muttered quietly, "They look so weird."

These townspeople looked far stranger than the driver. Compared to humans, they resembled… some strange deep-sea fish.

The driver swallowed the last bite of his fishy sandwich, revealing a set of black teeth smeared with fish paste as he smiled, "Is that so? We all look like this around here, probably because we eat all kinds of fish. Not very healthy, huh?"

Liam squinted. He thought the townspeople did resemble monsters, but then he stopped himself.

The driver had made a misidentification.

Although the driver and the townspeople were inhuman, the driver could not be recorded in the Monster Book, and these strange-looking townspeople might not fit the monster criteria either. If they were triggered to hate him, it could spell trouble.

But Liam wasn't naïve enough to think these odd-looking townspeople weren't monsters.

There were two possibilities for them not being classified as monsters:

1. They genuinely weren't monsters.

2. They might not meet the criteria for the Monster Book.

Siren Town had a unique setting where things could hatch or mutate. Mermaids could hatch, and Andrew had been mutated that morning. Liam suspected these townspeople might be transforming, explaining their bizarre appearance.

Liam didn't know the outcome of these states. He suspected they might be monsters, but he needed to confirm.

Liam's gaze slowly shifted to Andrew, sitting in front of him. 

He hadn't been unable to save Andrew the night before.

However, for him, Andrew, as an NPC with hostile intent, was far more valuable dead than alive.

Andrew stared at the driver greedily licking the fish meat off his fingers, his hunger intensifying. He swallowed nervously, scratching his itchy jawline.

Then, he looked at Liam through the rearview mirror with a resentful gaze.

Liam, being so wealthy, why wouldn't he let Andrew eat a few fish fillets? He was so hungry now that he could barely control the urge to snatch food from the driver's hand.

But the driver ate fast. Before Andrew could act, the driver had already finished, looking content as he rubbed his stomach.

Watching the driver savor the fish, Andrew's mind wandered back to the fish fillet's smooth, tempting taste. His saliva increased, and his throat involuntarily swallowed. He'd never had such delicious fish.

No, not just the fish fillets; every dish here was irresistible.

The driver sighed contentedly, "Ah, so delicious. Only the fish in Siren Town taste like this."

Lucy praised, "Yes, I've never had fish this good. So fresh."

"No, no, it's not about freshness. The secret to Siren Town's fish is never about freshness. Fresh fish doesn't taste good. It needs to rot, undergo pickling, and be specially treated to taste good," the driver's smile turned eerie. "You're eating a very special kind of fish here. A fish that doesn't exist anywhere else. Siren Town's unique fish."

Lucy asked curiously, "What kind of fish?"

The driver grinned, "Mermaids."