Book 1: Chapter 2: Mist |
Looking down at the rusty, dense metal mesh beneath his feet, Leo sat down with a thud, trying to regain his strength while analyzing his current situation.
First of all, he couldn’t swim and didn’t dare to go into the water; secondly, his body was that of a little girl, so even if he could enter the water, he wouldn’t be able to swim to the opposite shore. More crucially, there was no shore on the other side—if he swam over, he would have to start climbing, and even the top of the cliff curved inward… Overall, this place was basically a natural prison; there was no way to escape by water.
Was he going to be trapped here until he died?
Leo stared into space for a while, feeling as if his future was bleak; he thought he might as well just jump into the water to restart.
Not long after, a white bird soaring past suddenly caught his attention.
This bird was quite large, comparable to a pelican, but its appearance resembled that of a seagull. It dove sharply into the lake, and a moment later, it emerged with a fish in its beak, looking quite agile.
Watching its lively demeanor inspired and encouraged Leo; he thought that since there were fish in this lake, maybe he could find a way to catch one and solve his food problem.
But just as he began to consider this possibility, a much larger shadow quietly surfaced from beneath the water.
It was a fish, a huge fish—at least five to six meters long; it would be fair to call it a water monster. It suddenly leapt out of the water, its purplish-red body creating a violent splash.
On the metal platform, Leo sat there in shock, the optimism he had just felt evaporating instantly.
What the hell was that thing!
If he wasn’t mistaken, that fish’s head had surely split open, right? The central protrusion that resembled a lamprey was its mouth, wasn’t it?
Was that really a fish? Even in a different world, that fish looked far from normal!
It was like something that had grown up after drinking nuclear waste!
Wait a minute… Could the ghastly scene of skeletal remains scattered throughout this underwater base be related to these terrifying fish monsters?
The image of the fish monster’s head splitting played repeatedly in his mind, and Leo suddenly felt that this water platform wasn’t as safe as he had thought. He stood up, intending to move away from the platform’s edge, when he noticed a line extending in the center of the lake, rippling outwards on both sides.
It was a fish!
That fish was coming!
The creature slicing through the surface of the water was the back fin of the monster. But as it got closer, it appeared to have a fleshy crest.
It was incredibly fast. Before Leo could react, it burst up from the water and landed heavily on the platform, causing the soccer field-sized surface to tremble slightly.
“Holy shit!!”
At that moment, Leo finally got a good look at it. It wasn’t a purplish-red fish; most of its scales had fallen off, exposing writhing flesh and tumors, giving it that hue. Its pectoral fins had morphed into short appendages with hooked claws, its eyes were grayish-white and murky, connected by a fleshy thread hanging loosely outside the eye socket. Inside, countless fine tentacles writhed like swaying sea anemones.
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Leo would never have believed such terrifying fish could exist in the world.
It was utterly bizarre, disgusting, and grotesque!
But now was not the time to ponder its aesthetics; he almost sprang toward a side door tunnel leading to the underwater facility and quickly turned to shut the door—luckily, the door was still intact and had a basic mechanical locking mechanism.
After locking the door, Leo dashed down to the lower level, where he soon heard loud banging sounds above, clearly coming from the frustrated fish monster venting its frustration on the metal door after a failed hunt.
He stood trembling in the safety passage on the lower level, listening for a while until the noise ceased without any sign of the door being breached. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief, feeling as if he had just returned from the brink of death.
At this moment, looking around at the eerily quiet and dark environment, he suddenly found it much more palatable.
In any case, he was definitely not going back outside! There was no path out there, but a lake full of monsters. He didn’t want to be caught off guard and ambushed by a water monster one day; that was too terrifying.
Of course, there might also be monsters within the facility, but based on his observations and deductions, this place had been destroyed for at least several decades. Many papers had decayed to the point that they crumbled into dust at a mere touch. Even if there had been monsters in the past, they would either have starved or left; no matter what, it had to be safer than the water platform.
Moreover, the fact that the original owner had been able to stay in this facility for so long was another form of reassurance regarding safety…
Okay, the original owner might have been exceptional. But how exactly they were exceptional wasn’t something he could see for now.
Leo then descended the spiral staircase of the safety passage back down. Unlike the ascent, during the descent, he took a quick peek at the interiors of other floors. Although he didn’t find anything of significance, he also didn’t uncover any potential danger.
After a few minutes, he returned to the ninth underground level.
However, at this point, the stairs didn’t end.
With a glimmer of hope, he continued down, arriving at the entrance to the tenth underground level.
Carefully peering into the entrance for a moment, the sight that greeted him made Leo slightly surprised: “Huh…?”
Similar to the upper floors, this level was also teeming with fluorescent vines, but unlike before, a whitish mist enveloped everything inside, giving the room a hazy appearance.
Why was there mist?
He became wary and picked up an unknown hard fragment from the ground, tossing it into the fog.
The next second, the clear sound of metal clattering echoed in the room. Leo perked up his ears to listen carefully, but apart from the echoes, there was no other sound—everything was steeped in a deathly silence.
Hesitating for a moment, his gaze turned towards the stairwell below. That was the path to the eleventh underground level, but there was a closed metal door blocking his descent.
Moreover, he noticed that the stairwell in front of the metal door was littered with skeletal remains; at least eight or nine intact human skulls were present, and there were obvious claw marks on the walls.
This couldn’t help but conjure images in Leo’s mind—monsters pouring in from the outside, forcing the people in the base to flee to deeper underwater facilities. Some people, in order to survive, had closed the safety passage, leaving others outside…
What a terrifying and tragic thing; fortunately, that had happened many years ago… he thought quietly, then turned around and, after a brief hesitation, walked straight into the mist.
…
Contrary to his expectations, as he stepped into this layer, the mist didn’t feel particularly special; it was neither damp nor cold.
Leo slowly progressed inside for a while when suddenly, a wave of drowsiness washed over him.
This is… am I too tired… or is it the fog…? This thought crossed his mind, and then he knelt down, leaning against a sturdy main stem of a glowing vine, and fell into a deep sleep.
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