Novel23 Chapter 284 - 277: Confronting the Abyss Lord
Chapter 284 - 277: Confronting the Abyss Lord
As a mechanical voice sounded from a corner of the sunken ship on the seafloor, a message from the Eye of the World flashed before Shi Ming’s eyes.
[Celestial Net Guard!]
[Danger Level: ★★★]
[Skills: Death Ray, Celestial Net Descent, Ultimate Art]
[A creation of the No. 001 King-level Wandering Ship, an unstable experimental product lost on the seafloor, and a cleaner of Celestial Net bugs.]
???
’What’s with this three-part title?’
’A three-star danger level. Looks like it’s pretty tough.’
The moment the red eyes lit up, Shi Ming keenly sensed immense danger. In a flash, the Celestial Net Guard’s laser eyes, which pulsed like a breathing light, flared to their brightest. A scorching laser beam shot out from one of the guard’s eyes.
"Black Tortoise Shield!"
BANG!
The scorching ray of light instantly vaporized the seawater in the silent depths, and a torrent of bubbles began to gurgle upwards! The water in its path wasn’t parted but directly evaporated, creating a momentary steam tunnel that ionized countless turbulent bubbles, producing the SIZZLE of electrical arcs.
’So *this* is what "technology three or four stories high" means.’
’This must be the "Death Ray" the Eye of the World mentioned.’
The Death Ray was powerful enough to kill any A-rank sea beast. But when it hit Shi Ming, his defense blocked half of it perfectly, sending up clouds of scorching steam from his body, while the other half was reflected back. With a BANG, it blew one of the robot’s heads clean off.
FIZZ! Sparks flared in the deep sea, only to be extinguished a moment later.
The rest of the ray struck the corroded metal of the shipwreck. Its residual energy instantly liquefied the metal, blasting a wide, molten-edged hole straight through the massive hull.
[Severely damaged.]
[Alert. Alert. Alert.]
The headless robot let out a whirring alarm, as if calling for help, while the other one entered a state of analysis. In that brief window, Shi Ming’s attack arrived. Streaks of white light descended into the deep sea, and with a CRACK, both the damaged and the intact Celestial Net Guards were frozen solid.
The ice was incredibly cold and hard, anchoring itself to the seabed. For a time, not even the immense deep-sea pressure could erode or dissolve it.
*Huuu...* Shi Ming withdrew his Great Cold.
’These things are no joke!’
’They’ve been down here for so many years and still have power?’ Shi Ming’s curiosity flared as he gazed at the robots frozen in the ice.
’Celestial Net...’
’No. 001 King-level Wandering Ship...’
’And this "four or five stories high" technology...’
’What’s the connection between these three things? Also, the six great King-level Wandering Ships on the Endless Ocean all have names, and their locations are mostly fixed and traceable. But as for the mysterious No. 001 King-level Wandering Ship... even with my clearance as a Twelve-Star Honorary Knight, I couldn’t find a single shred of intelligence on it. Its name is a mystery. All I know is that it’s out at sea, performing a unique mission.’
’Yet no one has ever seen it.’
’Everything about it is shrouded in secrecy.’
’And another thing—why did these robots, lost here for so many years, not even bother with the B-rank sea beast camped out on this ship, yet try to kill *me* on sight?’
’A debug operation?’
’And what was that about detecting a non-human?’
’You can’t just deny I’m human because one of my stats broke the limit, can you?’
There were too many secrets and no leads. Shi Ming had no time to dwell on it, because another message flashed before his eyes.
[Although your attack was clean and decisive.]
[But the Eye of the World must remind you: the moment you used the Black Tortoise Shield, the Abyss Lord, 137 nautical miles away, sensed your presence. It has never forgotten the powerful skill that withstood its attack, caused it immense pain, and cost it a malignant tentacle.]
[But this time, its rage is unimaginable. This is not just because you severed its tentacle; the greater reason is that humans used the Extremely Evil Sanctuary, desecrating its very essence!]
[The movements of a Holy Hall-level Sea Beast are difficult to track with 100% accuracy. After all, the Eye of the World is only in its second stage; it is not and cannot be omniscient. It can only detect that its malignant tentacles are already on their way and has calculated that they will arrive here within 10 minutes.]
[The Eye of the World is analyzing the combat strength of both parties and quickly generating a win-rate analysis:]
[One Malignant Tentacle vs. You: 95% Win Rate]
[Ten Malignant Tentacles vs. You: 53% Win Rate]
[One Hundred Malignant Tentacles vs. You: 11% Win Rate]
[The Abyss Lord possesses a total of 1,069 malignant tentacles. It is difficult to ascertain how many it has committed to this attack.]
[Recommendation: Strategic withdrawal.]
Fuck!
The Eye of the World’s information scrolled by in a flash, and Shi Ming read it all in an instant.
He shattered the ice—which was already unstable from the high pressure—with a single punch and quickly stored the headless Celestial Net Guard. But as he moved to grab the second one, the robot still trapped in the ice became an intangible entity and passed through the frozen shell. A shimmering celestial net then descended from above, instantly blanketing the entire shipwreck and the surrounding water, intent on catching Shi Ming in its snare.
A piercing electronic voice sounded.
"Cannot be destroyed. Initiating capture protocol."
"Celestial Net Descent."
’It can turn into a stream of data?’
’Interesting!’
’But I don’t have time to waste on you. A zero-entropy weapon counters all flashy tricks! Including silicon-based constructs like you!’
*SHING!* He drew the Great Cold once more. The descending net didn’t seem to be a physical object, but a web composed entirely of data; freezing the seawater solid couldn’t stop it from contracting. The robot’s body, however, had solidified again. Shi Ming prepared to destroy the root of the problem. It was a necessary evil, even if it meant severely diminishing the robot’s research value.
The blade flashed with light.
Endless walls of ice formed in an instant. Shi Ming weaved through them, his Great Cold striking with precision, plunging unerringly into the robot’s core. A frigid chill erupted from within.
The intact robot tried to activate its "Ultimate Art" skill at the last second, but the attack forcefully tore it to pieces, stopping the sequence. Shi Ming instantly collected the fragments and stowed them in his inventory.
’Ultimate Art? Sounds like a self-destruct skill.’
’As if I’d let you pull that off.’
’I hope I can still piece it back together.’
With the source of the trouble eliminated, the data-stream Celestial Net in the water above vanished without a trace. The entire battle had taken less than three seconds—a clean, decisive engagement.
Shi Ming looked at the sunken ship.
He suspected it was an auxiliary vessel for the No. 001 King-level Wandering Ship, dating back to the dawn of the Wandering Era. Now, it had completely decayed, its secrets lost to time. Only the two technologically advanced robots had survived.
Shi Ming activated "Third Law" with his full power, destroying the strange sunken ship with a single strike.
The giant ship disintegrated into tiny fragments.
He did this to prevent any surviving data transmitters or recording devices on the ship from preserving a record of the battle. The allegiance of No. 001 was unknown; if it took notice of him, or if it one day salvaged this wreck and found clues leading back to him, it could spell more trouble.
Shi Ming found it hard to feel good about a faction that was so quick to [ERADICATE]. His principle was to eliminate any and all preventable trouble.
With that taken care of, he cranked the Sun-shooter to maximum power and shot through the depths of the Sea of Boiling.
Next up was still a game of cat and mouse.
...
...
...
At the edge of the Sea of Boiling, the Grand Conveyance had already been activated.
Meanwhile, Shi Ming was still hurtling through the depths.
He was about 137 nautical miles from the center of the Sea of Boiling. It would take the malignant tentacles about ten minutes to arrive, a speed not much different from the Sun-shooter’s own.
This game of cat and mouse would end with the mouse escaping.
...
The deep sea was unimaginably silent.
*ZING—*
Shi Ming suddenly felt it—a strange sensation descending without any warning. An evil, terrifying, and indescribable corruption was rising up from behind him. In that instant, the impenetrable darkness of the deep sea condensed into something tangible, so thick it seemed to flow.
An unspeakable shadow fell directly over the Sun-shooter.
Shi Ming turned his head to the side.
His gaze swept far behind him, locking onto a shadow that seemed both distant and right on top of him.
It was a twisted mass, bearing down on him like a dark storm cloud. The immense pressure was instantly suffocating, and it carried with it an unstoppable corruption. Just a single glance made him feel as if countless insects were wriggling and straining, trying to burrow into his body through every pore and orifice.
It was an eye, 300 meters wide and wreathed in countless malignant tentacles, that regarded everything with cold indifference.
WHOOSH~
The eye had locked onto its prey.
The eye’s pupil twitched. From within it, thousands of malignant tentacles spawned and writhed, instantly expanding the 300-meter silhouette to over a thousand meters. This chaotic, complex mass of tentacles was studded with a dense constellation of miniature pupils, each one looking like a tiny, collapsed nebula.
Chaotic, grotesque, and evil!
Shi Ming froze.
Damn it!
’This isn’t just the tentacles! The main body is here!’
[Unbelievable!]
[This was no estimation error by the Eye of the World! The Abyss Lord, in its ultimate fury, dispatched 1,000 malignant tentacles and then, at the last moment, used a special method to manifest its main body directly!]
[Your body should be undergoing corruption, but thanks to the Nine-Headed Dragon Pattern, you are barely resisting its corrosive influence.]
[In three seconds, its giant eye will make... intimate contact with you.]
[Shi Ming vs. Abyss Lord: Win Rate...]
[0.1%?]
Shi Ming took a lamp out of his inventory.