Monster of the Sea

The climb up wasn't easy, but the mudskippers had managed it well enough—their small size made scaling the slope far simpler for them.

The muddy flats below lay far from the sea. Song Weishi picked her way along carefully, her shoes already caked in muck.

The salty sea breeze, heavy with rain, brushed her cheeks. She wiped the droplets from her face, and the world ahead gradually came into focus.

Mudskippers kept darting past her feet, their bodies slapping against the wet ground with a series of soft patter-patter sounds. They were frantic to escape, paying no mind to the two giants in their path as they charged ahead without any intention of steering clear.

The muddy ground was ringed with wooden stakes and fishing nets—this had once been some kind of aquaculture zone.

This stretch of beach didn't smell pleasant. There was a rotten stench of decaying fish and shrimp, something that shouldn't normally linger in the air.

But Song Weishi soon discovered the source of the odor. Along the mudflat near the shore lay great swaths of dead fish. They seemed freshly killed, and the warmth sped up their decay, thickening the air with an unbearable, nauseating stench.

Song Weishi felt that if she stayed any longer, she'd be marinated in the smell.

Standing on the slope, you couldn't catch a whiff of it—the hillside blocked it completely.

Among the mudskippers were a few crabs and slow-moving sea snails. The entire stretch of mud was saturated, not dried out by the daytime sun.

It squelched softly underfoot, an unpleasant sensation that reminded Song Weishi of the sludge she'd stepped on in the underground parking garage back in Xinzhao City, before they'd ever reached Huihai.

She immediately aimed her flashlight at the ground and only breathed a sigh of relief when she confirmed it was truly mud beneath her feet, not those writhing, disgusting bugs. She'd nearly developed a phobia of insects from that experience—it had been absolutely revolting.

Just thinking about that image made Song Weishi instinctively take two steps back. Her shoes, which she'd only just managed to clean, immediately kicked up a big clump of mud.

The beam of her flashlight swept across the ground, revealing a layer of white "soil" beneath—something that instantly caught her attention. It was highly unusual.

She crouched down at once to examine it. The mud her foot had dislodged came away in a clump, and she shook her shoe to drop it. The freshly exposed earth was a strange, fine white, like broken seashells on a beach, and it gave off a faint sheen.

This kind of soil, completely free of grit, resembled more than anything the belly of a devil fish. Song Weishi poked it with a stick; the substance was elastic and didn't envelop the branch.

She shot to her feet at once, grabbed Xie Yi—who was still walking ahead to inspect the beach—and bolted back toward the slope.

Around them, the mudskippers began leaping more violently. Song Weishi's foot slipped, landing in a patch of chewed-up fish flesh. Xie Yi hauled her up, and she scrambled to her feet again, sprinting forward with everything she had.

"What is it? What did you find?" Xie Yi called as she ran, still having breath to spare. Song Weishi had no doubt that if Xie Yi weren't moderating her pace, she'd be running far faster.

"There's... there's something down there..."

She forced the words out on a single strained breath. They'd only made it a few dozen meters when the ground beneath their feet began to tremble, and a tremendous rush of water sounded behind them.

Song Weishi glanced back. A massive wave was surging toward them, churning up the water in the tidal pool. A breaker slammed into her, knocking her into the sea. She knew how to swim, but what were her paltry skills against the ocean's might?

Just moments ago, the tide had been far from the shore—how had it reached them so quickly? It was like a miniature tsunami. She clamped her mouth shut in time to avoid swallowing water.

But her whole body was dragged back by the undertow, and the farther she went, the deeper the sea pulled her.

Her flashlight, attached to her gear, was ripped away the moment the wave hit. It tumbled through the water, its beam swirling wildly in every direction.

Song Weishi forced her eyes open. Something had wrapped around her ankle—ice-cold and impossibly strong—dragging her whole body down into the abyss.

Xie Yi hadn't been knocked senseless. She clung desperately to Song Weishi's hand, and the two of them were swept together toward the sea.

In the flashlight's glow, Song Weishi saw a pair of eyes—black and white, clear as day, as large as dinner plates—staring lifelessly back at her.

It was a colossal squid. Nothing like the ordinary ones the size of a human arm; this creature was as big as dozens of Song Weishis combined. She couldn't even gauge its full size—its limbs stretched out as if they had no end. A profound dread seized her.

This kind of deep-sea monster carried an unequaled sense of pressure. Its long tentacle coiled around Song Weishi, and she felt like her leg was being pulled straight off.

Both of them saw the leviathan. Xie Yi's grip tightened. Song Weishi's heart pounded wildly—she was going to die of fright before she even got eaten.

Clearly, this was why the mudskippers had been in such a panic. Any creature that laid eyes on this squid would have only one thought: flee.

Song Weishi couldn't understand how such a giant had ended up in the shallows. Its massive body required a pressure completely different from what this place offered. By all logic, its appearance here meant its death wasn't far off.

It seemed to be the same kind of monster as the devil fish they'd encountered before, except this one didn't possess the devil fish's intelligence. Every action it took came from predatory instinct—hunting was in its nature. It had already secured its catch, pulling Song Weishi with effortless ease, opening its pitch-black maw to stuff the food into its mouth.

For the first time, Song Weishi felt the specter of death looming over her. The squid held her, and simply held her; even with Xie Yi pulling, it was useless. Could the fate of a cannon fodder truly never be escaped?

She had already started a new chapter after all—so why did her new life begin with death?

Song Weishi refused to accept it. She slashed at the tentacle gripping her, hacking with her blade.

Unlike the slime monster from before, this wasn't so hard to cut. After a few attempts, she managed to sever the tentacle with surprising ease.

But the severed limb still clung tightly to her ankle. Before she could swim away, another tentacle shot out and seized her foot once more.

Song Weishi watched with growing despair as the distance to the squid closed. She was starting to feel suffocated—vigorous movement in water burned through oxygen fast, and she couldn't surface. It was a dead trap; even if the squid didn't eat her, she would drown soon enough.

Suddenly, the System's voice sounded in her mind: "Host, you haven't finished the seaweed you got from the devil fish, have you?"

Song Weishi snapped back to alertness. A clump of seaweed materialized in the hand gripping her blade. Ignoring the seawater, she bit into it fiercely, her mouth flooding with the bitter, salty taste mixed with grit.

She didn't forget to shove a lump into Xie Yi's mouth as well. Fortunately, Xie Yi cooperated and didn't refuse, which saved them valuable effort.

The moment the seaweed was chewed and swallowed, she felt that sensation of being at one with the water return. The stifling blockage in her breathing cleared instantly.

She severed the squid's tentacle again, and the two of them swam away, moving through the water as easily as fish.

The eyes that had been fixed so intently on Song Weishi suddenly seemed confused. It appeared to be searching the water for something, completely overlooking the two of them. After circling in place once, its several limbs snapped together and contracted rapidly, shooting off like a rocket—plunging into the deep sea.

Song Weishi and Xie Yi couldn't tell which way was up anymore; they could only swim instinctively in the opposite direction. Fortunately, the seawater near the shore receded quickly after the squid departed.

The two of them dropped to their hands and knees, gasping for breath, too exhausted to linger. They crawled desperately back toward the slope.

Song Weishi tried to stand, but a sharp, searing pain shot through her foot. She couldn't get up at all.

She stared at her leg in shock. Her recovery ability had been so formidable before—why was it failing her now after a simple squeeze from the squid?

Xie Yi saw her lagging behind and, without a word, scooped her up and sprinted for the slope.

Song Weishi was too spent to protest. She wrapped her arms tightly around Xie Yi's neck. The priority was getting away from this place.

The seawater had scattered the stinking, rotting fish and crab meat everywhere, and the two of them reeked to high heaven.

The mudskippers cleared a wide path as Xie Yi charged up the slope without stopping, heedless of anything else.

It took her less than half the time it had taken to descend to reach the top. Once she confirmed there was no danger, she finally set Song Weishi down. The two of them collapsed onto the ground, heaving for air, soaked through by the seawater—a thoroughly bedraggled sight.

The fine drizzle falling on them slowly washed away that cold, clammy discomfort. It had been a brush with death, and yet her precognition hadn't activated at all during the ordeal.

Song Weishi propped herself up on her hands, utterly spent, and simply lay flat on the ground. Raindrops fell into her eyes as her grimy face was gradually rinsed clean.

After resting for a while, they finally recovered some strength. Song Weishi felt sensation slowly returning to her foot, and with Xie Yi's help, she got to her feet.

The shadow along the beach remained, but most of the mudskippers were now heading back, sliding down the slope with none of the urgency they'd shown before.

The rain gradually lessened. The sea had returned to calm, the tranquil waters blending into the dark night sky. Only a bright moon hung overhead, casting a shimmering, silver light across the waves. Were it not for the heart-stopping chase moments before, it would have been a scene of perfect beauty.

Song Weishi couldn't shake the image of that squid's eyes from her mind. It was absolutely terrifying—who would have thought that such a peaceful-looking place hid something so horrible and deadly?

She figured this wasn't the squid's first hunt. Why was this area so nice, yet so deserted? She suspected the beach had everything to do with it.

The food supply right below was easy to come by, but who would have guessed that beneath the sand lurked a monster of such scale? All the danger was buried in plain sight.

She counted her blessings—it was lucky she'd been here, with that seaweed in her space. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

Song Weishi took a deep breath. Below, all was still. The squid wouldn't leave the water; as long as they stayed off the beach, everyone on higher ground would be safe.

But they could never set foot in these waters again. Such a creature was beyond their power to defeat. All they could do was avoid it.

Xie Yi helped Song Weishi along, asking, "Are you all right?"

Song Weishi shook her head. "Let's go. We should head back."