Laid-off data analyst Canon Greene would risk anything for cash — even his life. When a craving for quick money drags him into a live-streamed survival game called Siren’s Hollow, he wakes in the back of a van, tethered to a HUD and auditioning for an audience that can tip his fate in dollars and votes. Siren’s Hollow is a seaside tourism trap built on one thing the town refuses to speak of: the Siren King — a drowned god turned spectacle, then sealed in glass. Now, waxen mermaids stalk hotel corridors, townsfolk wobble between human and fish, and the game’s rules bend like tidewater: stare and they freeze; flash a light and they flinch; burn them and something worse might hatch. Canon has no skills worth a salary, but he has a peculiar blend of cold logic, appetite for risk, and an obsession with turning fifty bucks into five thousand. From first-night door-barrages to a midnight hunt at sea, Canon guesses at weaknesses, rigs broken tech for survival, and wins a following — until the Hall announces a godlike NPC awakening and the price of failure becomes permanent. Betrayals, auctions on arcane goods, and a mayor with a smile like a contract book will force Canon to decide: use the game to get rich, or stop the machinery that feeds on tourists. A fast, dark, playful adventure for readers who like adrenaline, live-audience chaos, mythic monsters, and a protagonist who treats survival like a ledger. Expect sick reversals, messy alliances, and the smell of salt and burnt wax.