113: The third layer of the abyss! Is this sea full of tentacles?

The storm caused by the "Spiritual Qi leakage" event in the real world was merely fodder for conversation over tea for the players of "Virtual World."

Body getting stronger? Great.

Air getting sweeter? Nice.

But compared to piloting Gundams, slaughtering gods and demons, and colonizing other worlds in the game, these were as bland as a pre-meal appetizer.

Under the brilliant leadership of the "Fourth Calamity Construction Group," The Second Layer of the Abyss—once a lava Hell—had been transformed into a massive energy base filled with industrial exhaust and cyberpunk style in just half a month.

Countless demons wore safety helmets and chanted "one, two, three" as they performed glorious 996 labor under the whips (and magic crystal bones) of player supervisors.

The entire Second Layer had been thoroughly squeezed of its last drop of utility.

The players were starting to get bored.

"Brother Qiang, we mined another three million tons of obsidian today. The warehouse is almost overflowing."

"Wang Wei mentioned that the power generation efficiency of the Flame Demon boiler workers is too high; our energy reserves have been in an overflow state for three consecutive days."

"The new players are starting to complain. They say we've caught all the mobs to put them to work, so they can't even pick up a quest."

In the temporary headquarters of the Black Iron Energy Sub-factory, Li Qiang listened to his subordinate's report and irritably propped his feet up on the table.

Colonization and construction were far less exciting than exploration and combat.

Those demon laborers were now more obedient than the players, never daring to stray from instructions or ask for time off in lieu of overtime. The entire map was peaceful, with no challenge to speak of.

"Damn, this game is feeling more and more like a workplace simulator." Li Qiang spat out his cigarette butt. "Where's Old Wang? Tell him to stop his research and find a way to a new map, fast!"

"Reporting, Brother Qiang! Wang Wei is right outside. He says he has a major discovery!"

Before the words could fade, Wang Wei pushed the door open. His mechanical prosthetic eye flickered with an excited red light, and he held a freshly drawn, messy geological map in his hand.

"Brother Qiang, I found it!"

"We've dug through the Second Layer!"

Wang Wei spread the map on the table, pointing to a massive black hole labeled "Unknown Abyss."

"While we were conducting geological surveys of the Second Layer to find more mineral veins, the drill rig broke through a highly unstable spatial barrier at the deepest part of the core."

"Below... it's empty."

"And according to sonar feedback, there's water down there—lots and lots of water."

Li Qiang's eyes instantly lit up.

A new map!

Half an hour later.

An elite exploration team, composed of core members from major guilds like Li Qiang, Wang Wei, and Lin Xiaowan, assembled at the geothermal core at the very bottom of The Second Layer of the Abyss.

This place had been hollowed out by players, forming an underground cavity comparable to a giant stadium.

In the very center of the cavity, a massive vertical rift over a hundred meters in diameter, bottomless and radiating an ominous aura, stood before them.

A "sea breeze," mixing a thick stench of fish, rust, and the rot of some unknown creature, howled up from the rift, making everyone instinctively cover their noses.

【System Prompt: You have discovered the entrance to the unknown area 'Sea of Putrefaction'.】

【Warning: The environment ahead is extremely harsh, containing multiple lethal characteristics such as 'Strong Acid Corrosion', 'Ultra-high Water Pressure', and 'Mental Pollution'. Please explore with caution.】

"This smell..."

Li Qiang felt like his nose hairs were being singed by the stench. "It's like the sewers of ten thousand seafood markets that haven't been cleaned, with a million years' worth of stinky salted fish marinating inside."

Lin Xiaowan turned pale; she already regretted following them.

Only Wang Wei, far from being repulsed, took out an air sampler and greedily analyzed its components, muttering to himself: "High concentrations of sulfides, ammonia... and an organic acid molecular structure I've never seen before... Simply wonderful! This is a brand-new ecosystem!"

Madman.

The same word popped into everyone's mind.

"Let's go! Let's head down and take a look!"

Li Qiang's curiosity had overridden his disgust for the stench. Taking the lead, he activated his mecha's short-range flight mode and slowly descended along the rock walls of the rift.

The others followed closely behind.

The further down they went, the dimmer the light became and the thicker the stench grew. Wet, moss-like purple-black biological films began to appear on the surrounding rock walls, writhing slightly.

After they had descended for several thousand meters, a strange, dark purple "sea level" finally appeared at the edge of their vision.

It was a truly boundless, deathly silent underground ocean.

There wasn't a single ripple on the surface; it was as calm as a giant purple mirror. Within the seawater, massive, mountain-like shadows could be seen moving slowly.

The exploration team landed cautiously on the only narrow coast near the rift entrance, which was composed of black reefs.

"Sizzle—"

As soon as a player's mecha foot touched the water on the shore, the thick alloy armor immediately emitted white smoke and was corroded into a large hole at a visible rate.

"Holy shit! This water is concentrated sulfuric acid!" the player cried out, jumping back onto the dry rock.

Wang Wei scanned it with his detector, and the reading startled even him: "The acidity exceeds that of aqua regia... Conventional metallic and non-metallic Materials won't last even ten minutes in this environment."

Just as everyone was marvelling at the harsh environment,

A sudden change occurred.

"Splash—!"

A loud crash echoed.

The sea surface beneath the players closest to the shore exploded without warning.

Dozens of thick, slimy, greyish-white tentacles covered in suckers and barbs shot out of the water like arrows, lunging toward the players on the shore with lightning speed!

"Watch out!"

Li Qiang reacted the fastest. His chainsword roared to life as he hacked down at a tentacle swinging toward him!

However, the expected scene of flesh and blood flying didn't happen.

The chainsword struck the tentacle as if hitting extremely tough rubber; far from cutting it, the blade was tightly entangled, and the massive force nearly dragged his weapon into the water.

The other players who were slightly slower to react weren't so lucky.

They were instantly bound tightly by tentacles and hoisted high into the air.

Something bizarre happened.

The captured players didn't scream.

"Heh... hehe..."

A warrior, bundled up like a zongzi by the tentacles, suddenly began to laugh softly.

"Haha... Hahahaha! So many stars... so beautiful... I can see the end of the Universe now..."

Another mage began to dance and gesticulate in mid-air, muttering to himself as if performing some sacred ritual.

【System Prompt: Player 'Iron-Headed Kid' has suffered unknown mental pollution. Sanity has dropped to zero, entering a state of 'Permanent Madness'.】

【System Prompt: Player 'Fireball Cult Leader' has fallen into 'Severe Hallucination' and has begun attacking friendly units.】

Then, under everyone's horrified gaze, those maddened players were slowly and mercilessly dragged into that dark purple, silent ocean by the tentacles, without even making a splash.

In the friend list, their names instantly turned grey.

Then, after a short delay, they lit up again, showing that they had respawned at the distant Second Layer Respawn Point.

The entire exploration team fell into a deathly silence.

"What... what kind of ghost attack is this?!"

"An instant kill? We don't even know how they died!"

Li Qiang finally managed to break free from the tentacle's entanglement, a layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Just now, the moment his chainsword was entangled, a seductive, genderless, eerie whisper had also echoed in his mind.

The voice told him that if he gave up resisting, he could see the truth of the Universe and obtain eternal life.

If not for the iron will he had honed through countless life-and-death situations, he would likely have been the one dragged underwater just now.

"It's a mental attack!" Wang Wei's voice rang out in the communication channel, tinged with gravity. "These creatures, or perhaps the ocean itself, can emit high-intensity mental pollution! Our Will attributes aren't high enough; we can't withstand it at all!"

Before he could finish, more tentacles shot out from the water!

This time, their targets were no longer limited to players; they began to frantically lash and slam against the narrow reef beneath the players' feet.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The entire coast shook violently, and countless rocks tumbled into the sea, instantly corroded into nothingness.

"They're trying to drive us into the water!"

"No! We're too vulnerable here! Retreat back up first!"

Li Qiang made a split-second decision and issued the order to retreat.

However, just as they were preparing to take flight, dense, tumor-like giant bubbles suddenly surfaced on the sea.

The bubbles burst, and out crawled countless [Rotten Murlocs] with fish heads and human bodies holding bone forks, as well as [Indescribable Horrors]—writhing masses haphazardly stitched together from corpses and eyeballs.

They made "gurgling" sounds as they charged fearlessly toward the players.

"Damn it! Fight them!"

The battle erupted instantly.

The players tried to use conventional physical attacks against these monsters, but they soon discovered in despair that hacking them with swords was like cutting into cotton, dealing negligible damage. Those fleshy monsters even seemed to multiply the more they were cut, splitting into smaller individuals.

The entire scene turned into a disgusting, chaotic, and inefficient war of attrition.

"Don't use physical attacks!"

Wang Wei, through his high-speed camera, finally analyzed the monsters' weaknesses.

"They are soft-bodied organisms, and their tissues are mostly composed of high-water-content acidic mucus! Use fire! Use electricity! Roast them dry!"

A fire mage heard this and immediately hurled a massive fireball at a murloc charging toward him.

"Boom!"

The fireball exploded on the murloc, which instantly let out a shrill scream. The layer of slimy mucus on its body rapidly evaporated under the high temperature, revealing the shriveled flesh beneath, and then its entire body caught fire, emitting... the fragrance of charred protein?

"Holy crap! It works!"

"Wait... this smell... why does it smell like grilled squid?" A foodie player instinctively swallowed his saliva.

"What grilled squid! That's a grilled murloc!"

"Stop talking! Quick! Where are the lifestyle players? Did you bring grills and cumin? I feel like this is edible!"

"Are you crazy?! You'd dare eat this thing?!"

"What are you afraid of! It's just a game! As long as the System doesn't say it's toxic, then it's a top-tier ingredient!"

In an instant, the tone of the battlefield shifted from a Lovecraftian horror film to a late-night seafood stall.

The players were no longer afraid; their eyes flashed with a green light, as if they weren't seeing monsters but plates of walking teppanyaki and spicy crawfish.

However, the temptation of food couldn't solve the fundamental problem.

The monsters seemed endless, crawling out of the sea in a steady stream. And the reef the players relied on for footing had begun to collapse in large sections under the constant battering of the tentacles.

"No! The Gundams can't go underwater! We're just sitting ducks here! We must retreat!"

Li Qiang split a giant crab that was trying to ambush him in two (noticing it was full of roe) and then roared at Wang Wei.

"Retreat back up the rift first! We'll formulate a new tactic!"

Half an hour later.

The battered exploration team finally retreated back to the underground cavity of The Second Layer of the Abyss.

The casualties were heavy.

Although there were no "deaths" in the true sense, almost everyone had experienced their Sanity dropping to zero and the terror of mental derangement. Several players were still squatting in corners, muttering to themselves about the philosophical question of "why one plus one equals three."

Everyone was silent, the atmosphere oppressive to the extreme.

This was the first time since they entered "Virtual World" that they had been driven back by a new map during the exploration phase.

"Damn it."

Li Qiang slammed his fist into the ground.

He looked down at the dark purple ocean radiating endless malice, his eyes filled with unwillingness and rage.

He turned his head and stared fixedly at Wang Wei, who was repairing his mecha.

"Old Wang."

His voice was cold and resolute.

"Our Gundams are useless."

"Build me a ship! The biggest kind!"

"It needs to be able to submerge! It needs to withstand this damn acid water! And it needs to be fitted with all our strongest cannons!"

He paused, took a deep breath, and stated his ultimate goal in a near-roar.

"I'm going to... boil this crappy sea dry!"

Wang Wei looked up and slowly pushed up his oil-stained glasses.

In his eyes flickered a light even more crazed than Li Qiang's.

From his breast pocket, he pulled out a messy blueprint—drawn at some unknown time—covered in complex energy circuits and anti-physics structures.

At the center of the blueprint was a hideous creation that fused alien technology, celestial runes, and abyssal biological features, looking like a deep-sea behemoth.

"A ship?"

The corner of Wang Wei's mouth curled into a smile that was confident to the point of arrogance.

"No, Brother Qiang. Times have changed."

"What we need is something that can conquer the Abyss, and even the sea of stars..."

"A Star-Destroyer Class Deep-Dive Carrier!"