Terror Underwater

He had always been attentive to Lily's mention of corpses, flowers, and treasures. She wouldn't have spoken lightly. If she did, perhaps it indicated that there truly was something hidden in the depths of this underwater world. However, their current descent was relatively shallow, and they hadn't seen anything yet.

Upon seeing Simon's gesture, Long and Millie moved cautiously, armed and continuing their descent. Simon followed behind them, his iron rod weighing heavily in his hand, making his descent easier.

All three were highly alert. Although they had just observed that the creatures on these two levels were in a state of rest, it did not mean the waters were safe. No one knew if other creatures might appear.

When the three descended another three meters and reached the twenty-seventh floor below, they stopped. This level was still populated by sea spiders. Simon quietly approached a window and looked inside, observing the walls covered in densely packed sea spiders with black and white stripes.

Countless sea spiders occupied the two floors of the building, their mass creating an eerie black and white striped appearance throughout the room. Simon couldn't help but think of the spider matriarch. He wondered if it might also be lurking somewhere among them.

Simon dared not disturb them and continued to descend slowly. Suddenly, Long, who had descended the deepest, stopped and gestured to Millie and Simon with his left hand, signaling that something was below.

Millie, less than two meters away from him, immediately halted upon seeing Long's gesture. By now, Simon had sunk to the level of the twenty-sixth floor of the building, descending more than ten meters underwater.

Approaching Long, Simon looked down and saw, about four to five meters below them, a human corpse floating in the water. The head of the corpse was missing, with a semi-transparent white flesh tentacle extending from its neck, leading deeper into the underwater depths. Hindered by visibility, they couldn't discern where exactly this tentacle led or what lay at its other end.

"What is this?"

This question arose in the minds of all three individuals. Simon recalled Lily's earlier words.

"Corpses, flowers, treasures... Could the corpse here be what Lily meant?"

Simon immediately approached the corpse below. Soon, he saw numerous blurry shapes emerging below him. As he descended, these vague figures gradually became clearer, shocking him deeply.

Beneath them lay a multitude of blurry shapes, all corpses: human corpses, sea spider corpses, water rodent beast corpses, sea lizard corpses... Simon lost count of the number of bodies. Deeper in the water below, there might be even more similar corpses. He turned to look out a nearby window. They were now on the twenty-fifth underwater floor, where he saw numerous monster corpses in the rooms, some familiar, some entirely new to him.

All these corpses shared a common feature: each had a semi-transparent, slender flesh tentacle extending from its body, stretching into the depths below. From their perspective, countless of these translucent tentacles intertwined and converged.

It was unimaginable what lay in the depths below. Each of them felt a visceral, instinctual fear of the unknown and the mysterious. Long's scalp tingled, and he dared not venture further down. He gestured urgently for the others to retreat, sensing that one more step downward might lead to irreversible calamity and encounter unimaginable terror.

Even Millie, usually so resolute, now felt the urge to retreat, confronted by the terrifying and bizarre sight of countless floating corpses and the eerie, semi-transparent flesh tentacles. She couldn't fathom what might exist deeper below, only sensing an aura of malevolent fear enveloping them, penetrating deep into their souls, instilling a profound sense of dread as if they were trapped in a nightmare.

Simon finally understood why Lily had shown such fear when mentioning corpses before. She must have witnessed the horrors beneath the water's surface. Unable to fully describe it, she simply mentioned corpses, flowers, and treasures.

"She spoke of corpses, and indeed, there are so many monster corpses. If what she said is true, could there really be treasure beneath all these bodies? Yet the current situation is too bizarre. How did so many monsters die? And where do those flesh tendrils growing from their corpses lead to?"

Long and Millie had already started ascending, and Simon could only give up. In fact, like Long and Millie, he felt a shroud of unknown fear over his heart. He vaguely felt that continuing further down might lead to unforeseen circumstances.

This unease led him to abandon further exploration downward. Even if there were valuable treasures below, nothing was more important than life itself—at least not at this moment. Although he felt some regret deep inside, now was the time to choose to let go.

"Perhaps when I become stronger, I can come down and see. But not now..." Simon thought silently, following Long and Millie as they floated upwards.

Just then, from a window on the twenty-seventh floor above, a large, basin-sized shadow suddenly jumped out, causing a rush of water.

It was a large spider with black and white stripes—a sea spider. No one knew how it had suddenly awakened and rushed out from one of the windows, blocking Millie directly above as she ascended.

The sudden event startled all three of them slightly. They weren't afraid of this sea spider itself, but rather feared alarming all the spiders, which would pose a serious problem.

Simon hurriedly accelerated upwards, while Millie reacted swiftly, thrusting her chopping knife towards the creature.

Simon wanted desperately to warn them that the sea spider's mandibles contained a paralytic neurotoxin. Though not lethal, a bite could gradually paralyze the entire body, rendering them defenseless. Unfortunately, underwater, he couldn't speak or alert the others.

Millie's strike was swift, but the sea spider was faster in water. It effortlessly dodged Millie's knife with a quick turn.

Simon quickly ascended and noticed that two more sea spiders had rushed out from the window on the twenty-seventh floor.

The situation was dire. Long signaled urgently for them to ascend quickly.

Fighting these creatures in the water would attract attention and could lead to more monsters joining in. They were not in a position of advantage.