"From the sea?" Lin Yuan froze, then immediately realized the crucial point:
"Those merchants aren't human?"
"Yes, they're 'Sunken Folk.'" Zhang Da nodded.
Sunken Folk-Lin Yuan had heard Lilia mention the term before.
It was an extremely diverse category, encompassing players who had lost their minds after being washed by seawater and turned into bizarre beings, intelligent races native to the ocean, and certain bizarre beings that were difficult to classify.
Broadly speaking, everything that could move on this sea, other than humans and sea beasts, could be placed in the category of Sunken Folk.
Lilia and Little Black could be considered Sunken Folk.
Crawlers were Sunken Folk too.
Taking a more extreme view, even Lin Yuan could conceivably count as one.
Generally speaking, however, the vast majority of Sunken Folk were unfriendly toward humans, so Lin Yuan had not initially considered that possibility.
"What kind of Sunken Folk are these merchants? Ocean natives? Or bizarre beings?"
"Neither. They're Sunken Folk transformed from humans."
Zhang Da shook his head and said:
"If you hadn't saved us, we probably would've become some of them."
"That's right. I heard you lose all your memories after transforming. It sounds terrifying. Would I still be me then?" another fisherman chimed in.
"Have you forgotten? Just a few days ago, we met the Sunken Folk that Old Wang from the neighboring island had turned into. He was completely different from before. Never mind his memories-even his personality had changed completely!"
"Exactly. It's terrifying. I certainly don't want to become one of the Sunken Folk!"
The others all spoke at once, leaving Lin Yuan increasingly puzzled.
When humans fell into this bizarre sea and were washed by its waters, they did indeed become Sunken Folk.
But those were all mindless monsters.
For example, the Skeleton Pirates