The waves rise and fall, whispering and trembling.

Sota's voice became increasingly soft, as if he was afraid of Bai Liu in the story and didn't dare to speak loudly behind Bai Liu: "...They said that the teacher at the welfare home got very angry after not finding Xie Ta, but no one dared to say that you killed Xie Ta because they were afraid that you would kill them too."

"Also... although they are afraid of you, they are also afraid of Sheta. They think that after the fight between you two monster-like kids, you are the stronger one left, so they dare not mess with you."

"Some time after Sheta's death, something happened to the Aixin Orphanage where you worked. The investors were unwilling to continue investing and almost all of them withdrew their capital. As a result, the orphanage declined and the children disappeared one after another. No one knew whether they ran away on their own or..."

"In the end, the orphanage closed down completely. The director of the orphanage sent the rest of you who were not in trouble to this ship in the name of charity, saying that you would be taken care of by an orphanage overseas."

"Send?" Bai Liu asked calmly, "Sell, right?"

Sota sighed, "Sent to be sent is better, but it's basically the same. You're not going to some orphanage overseas, but like me, you're being sold to a coastal town called Luming County."

"That country is no longer yours. It has always been very poor. There is no so-called welfare home. You were probably bought by people there to do hard labor."

"We were not bought here to be laborers." A childish and trembling girl's voice suddenly came from the lower store, "We were bought here to be sacrificed."

Sou Tai was startled. He moved forward with great effort and tried to look down: "You are..."

"My name is Xiaokui." A thin and pretty girl, about eleven or twelve years old, raised her face from the ground and looked at them. Her face was pale and her expression could not hide her misery. "I am from Luming County."

Sota looked confused: "Then why are you on this boat with us?"

"I was a sacrifice who escaped from Luming County, but was caught again." Xiao Kui looked dejected and said in despair, "I was caught this time, and I don't know when I will have a chance to escape next time. I am going crazy from being tortured."

Bai Liu asked: "Is Luming County very poor?"

——This is quite different from what he had seen before.

The Luming County that Bai Liu saw during the Evil God Festival could be described as extravagant and prosperous. Every pedestrian on the street was well-dressed, and even the abandoned houseboats on the coast were well-maintained. It did not look like a poor county town that needed to capture people for labor.

Xiao Kui shook her head and whispered in sudden realization, "Luming County was very poor before, but now it is not poor at all."

"It was only three years ago that the shrine in Luming County began to worship the evil god, and then it began to become wealthy. Later, it became richer and richer. When I escaped, they even used silk clothes for the sacrifices."

Cang was surprised: "Silk clothes and pants? Do they treat the coolies they bought so well?"

"I told you it's not hard labor..." Xiao Kui's voice became a little weak, "It's a sacrifice."

Bai Liu was thoughtful. "What happened three years ago? Why did Luming County suddenly start worshipping evil gods?"

"I don't know the details." Xiao Kui turned half of his body upwards and looked at Bai Liu who was sleeping on the bunk above him. "I heard from my mother that everything started when fishermen who went out to sea caught the body of a young man."

"Although the corpse was that of a man, he was very handsome, with silver curly hair curled in front of him, slender and graceful arms and legs, and wearing loose outerwear. He looked like a mermaid instead of a dead person without breathing."

"My mother also went to see the body and she said she had never seen such a handsome man."

"And then?" Bai Liu asked, "What did you do with the body? Did you bury it?"

Xiao Kui shook her head in confusion: "No, at that time all the adults disagreed with burying the body. I didn't understand what was the point of keeping it outside, but my father said that the appearance of that..."

Bai Liuyu calmed down and said, "Even if it's just a corpse, I think we can squeeze out other values ​​from it, right?"

Xiao Kui hummed and continued, "The county mayor thought this was a great business opportunity. He suggested renovating the abandoned hotel in the county and turning it into a museum. Then he could make a wax statue or sculpture of it and put it in the museum for public display. At the same time, he could use the capture of the siren as a promotional point to promote Luming County and see if he could use this as a promotional point to attract tourists and make money for everyone."

"As soon as this plan was proposed, it was unanimously approved by everyone. Everyone was very grateful to the county governor for coming up with such a good idea. They said that if the museum is built, a personal statue of the county governor must be erected in front of the museum as a token of recognition."

...Originally, a poor and backward coastal town that had been fishing for generations accidentally caught a "Siren" with a strange appearance. The local mayor/county governor was inspired and proposed to make a wax statue or sculpture of the "Siren" and put it in a museum. He also used it as a selling point to vigorously promote it to attract tourists and develop the town's economy...

Apart from the different location and background, the direction and development are exactly the same as "Siren Town", even the sculpture of the mayor/county governor in front of the museum is exactly the same.

But judging from the situation at the evil god festival where Bai Liu was previously present, Luming County did not take this path for some reason.

Or to be more precise, the original version of "Siren Town" should be this "Evil God Festival·Houseboat".

So the first game copy that Bai Liu should have encountered in this world line was originally supposed to be this "Evil God Festival·Boathouse", but for some reason, at the last minute, Bai Liu changed the landing copy and let the simpler "Siren Town" which was farther away from Bai Liu's location land in this world line.

It was not until now, in the playoffs, that Bai Liu assigned the "Evil God Festival: Boat House" copy to him.

Bai Liu glanced sideways and looked down at Xiao Kui who was lying on the floor below him: "You didn't do this in the end, did you?"

"How do you know?" Xiao Kui looked up in surprise. "Originally, the county museum was about to start construction, but something unexpected happened the night before the start of construction. Everyone changed their minds overnight and decided not to build the museum but the shrine instead."

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and said, "Did many of you have a dream?"

Xiao Kui was completely shocked. She tried her best to look up to see Bai Liu's face and said excitedly, "How do you know? Are you also a sacrifice who ran away from Luming County?!"

Bai Liu said calmly: "I am not, but I have heard about the situation in your county."

To change the collective mindset overnight, Bai Liu must have personally participated. According to the rules of the game, Bai Liu cannot directly interfere with reality. So there is only one possibility -

——Bai Liu entered these people's dreams, seduced them, and made Luming County develop along the game path he wanted.

Xiao Kui's voice became depressed: "...That's right, this incident is very famous. People from other counties should have heard of it, the incident of the spirit entering the dream in Luming County."

"Dreaming?" Bai Liu asked, "What's going on?"

Xiao Kui paused and said, "The day before the groundbreaking ceremony for the museum, many people went there to watch the body of the siren that was to be put in. That night, everyone who had watched the siren during the day had the same dream again."

"They dreamed of a god with an air of immortality and wearing a white hunting robe. The god's face could not be seen clearly. He sat high up in the sky above the coast of Luming County, looking down at everyone with a smile. He said, 'I feel your evil desire for money. As a reward for you capturing the evil god, I can play a game with you. I will give you two choices.'"

"The first option is that I don't interfere with your choice. You follow your own path and become a standard tourist town. Some people get rich and leave this remote town. Then the remaining fishermen continue to work hard at sea fishing, and the fewer and fewer tourists will die here together with this slowly declining small county."

"At the same time, you will also be affected by the remains of the old evil god, which you call the Siren, and become half-human and half-ghost."

"The second option is that I grant you the qualification to become my believers."

"You will build a shrine for me in Luming County and offer sacrifices to me every year. I will choose the sacrifices that I like best and then fulfill a wish that is equivalent to the sacrifices you offer."

Xiao Kui's voice became hoarse: "Everyone chose the second one."

"They kneel down in their dreams, Lord Evil God, what is the sacrifice?"

"The evil god smiled and answered them, saying, the sacrifice I want is human suffering. The purer and more extreme the suffering, the more valuable it is to me, and the more valuable the wishes you can make will be."

"They then bowed down again, raised their heads, and asked devoutly, 'Lord Evil God, what are you? How should we worship you?'"

"The evil god smiled and answered them, saying, my incarnation around you is the corpse of the sea monster you captured."

"He is the embodiment of evil and the carrier of desire. Once you see him, your flesh will be filled with greedy desires and the sin of losing your humanity. As a result, your soul will be squeezed out of your body and become a piece of paper that I can easily get."

"——So you must enshrine the corpse in a shrine of the highest standard, kneel before Him day and night, torture the sacrifice, and offer it to Him, allowing Him to choose from the thousands of different kinds of suffering in this world."

"If He is willing to rise from death and accept the pain of this sacrifice, then I will come and fulfill your wish."

"If He is unwilling to accept the pain of this sacrifice, then it means that the pain of your sacrifice is not good enough to wake Him up."

"The evil god smiled happily. He said, 'Then you should intensify the torture on the sacrifice until the old evil god is willing to open his eyes again, look at this mortal world, and step down from the high throne to accept this extreme pain.'"