The Fall of the Sea
While wandering the vast ocean, one would occasionally spot seagulls circling the reefs. Among them, with an extremely low probability, one might encounter unusually large gulls—massive birds exceeding two meters in size. These were what the community referred to as the Special Shop.
Users were generally advised to use the Special Shop just before advancing to the next stage. Not because of the growth of storm pearls, but because shortly after utilizing the Special Shop, one would be assaulted by countless seagulls. Naturally, some users grew curious about this phenomenon. They reasoned that since they had conducted a legitimate transaction, there must be a reason for the sudden attacks.
Thus, the explorers waged war against the seagulls. But the giant birds were no easy opponents. Their size was one issue, but every time the explorers drove them off, their numbers only grew for the next assault. The second wave, the third, the fifth, the tenth. Under the endless aerial bombardment, even the most stubborn users eventually declared surrender one by one. The highest record belonged to someone who endured 101 waves. After holding off 101 attacks over seven full days, that user finally gave up and fled to the sixth stage. There were no more challengers to the seagull war after that.
When I first read that post, I had assumed the Special Shop was merely another game element of the fifth stage, like floating debris. But now I knew better. The seagulls were summons of the Squid Princess. Unlike the foolish Golden Lord or the Lobster General, the princess had prepared for the next generation. Having fled to her mansion, the princess had no way to end the war. Fearing she might be caught if she emerged carelessly, she began fishing by other means. Therefore, the Special Shop was bait—a gimmick designed to lure new users searching for items straight into her grasp.
Because this princess was so cautious, entering her residence by ordinary means was nearly impossible. So I would make her come to me. Even if she suspected a trap, I would dangle an irresistible lure to reel her in.
“I’ve come to trade.”
I spoke to the seagull perched on the reef. It let out a gurgling sound and tilted its head.
“I’ve already heard everything from the Lobster General. No need for pointless acting.”
At my words, the seagull’s eyes changed. It straightened its posture and looked down at me. The creature twitched its eyebrows and cocked its head again.
“A subordinate of the Lobster General…? Never seen you before.”
“Of course not. I’m a summoner of the new generation.”
The seagull’s eyes widened. It scanned me up and down, trying to determine if my words were true. I took out the Clam King’s pearl.
“Look at this.”
In an instant, a massive pearl materialized atop the reef. The very act of storage would prove I was a user. The seagull clapped its wings and exclaimed in admiration.
“Ooh…”
Seizing the initiative, I approached and slapped the creature across the cheek. Smack— It rolled across the reef and looked up at me in confusion. I furrowed my brow and barked,
“You’re just a summon, yet you speak so casually? The Squid Princess and the Lobster General are my revered seniors, so I used honorifics, but it seems you lack manners.”
The seagull’s gaze wavered. It quickly bowed its head and raised its tone.
“M-my apologies. The princess did say you would come someday, but we couldn’t know when, so…”
I clicked my tongue. While the creature was still flustered, I rapidly poured out what I needed to say.
“The gate to the seafloor has already been found. Go at once and inform the princess of the deal I’m proposing.”
The seagull trembled and stared at me as if asking what on earth I meant. I deliberately let out a heavy sigh and pressed it.
“I can hear the gears turning in your head. Hurry and deliver my words to the princess! Do you not realize that by dawdling, you’re keeping the Golden Lord and the Lobster General waiting?”
The startled seagull recoiled in shock. It must have recalled hearing the term “seafloor gate” somewhere before. Only now did it grasp the gravity of the situation.
“J-just a moment! I’ll deliver the message! I’ll tell the princess right away, so please wait a little!”
I nodded.
“Don’t take too long. I’ll be waiting here.”
The seagull shot into the sky and disappeared into the distance. Watching it go, I smiled.
That one fell for the same trick again.
There were many kinds of fear in the world. Among them, FOMO was quite common. An acronym for Fear Of Missing Out, FOMO literally meant the “fear of being left out.” The terror of everyone else moving forward while you alone remained behind. The dread of everyone else knowing something you did not. The crushing fear that everyone else would escape through the seafloor gate while you alone were left behind to perish in this place forever.
That terrible fear of exclusion had drawn the Squid Princess straight to me.
Whoosh—
The princess rose from behind a massive reef. Her humanoid torso was just over a meter tall, but ten enormous squid tentacles sprouted from her back, each exceeding ten meters in length. Disliking the feeling of being looked down upon, she used her long tentacles to suspend herself three meters in the air. With her arms arrogantly crossed, she asked,
“So. You came to trade?”
“That is correct, senior.”
“Hmm… This lady is indeed your senior. So what is the offer? You said you’ve already found the seafloor gate?”
I lowered my body slightly and presented the giant pearl.
“Before that, a small gift. It is something I prepared for you, separate from the trade.”
The princess rolled her eyes toward the Clam King’s pearl. Then she snorted with laughter.
“Such a trinket means nothing to this lady. Still, your junior’s sincerity is touching, so I shall accept it.”
A tentacle stretched out and touched the pearl. It vanished into storage.
As I thought, she still has storage…
I had beaten the princess and thoroughly searched her mansion, yet I could never find her treasure vault. Now the reason was clear. The Squid Princess still retained the authority to store items.
So the plan to raid her vault has failed…
“Then here is my formal proposal.”
“Speak.”
“The Golden Lord and the Lobster General demand half of your treasures in exchange for saving you.”
“What?!”
A powerful wave crashed around us. She was clearly displeased. Yet I met her gaze calmly.
“You do not fear this lady.”
“That is because you need me, Princess. To open the seafloor gate, I must be present.”
“You are needed…?”
After weighing my words, the princess soon understood my meaning and smiled.
“In other words, the one holding the initiative is not those two, but you. Since our combined forces are too large to all escape at once, you intend to side with whichever offers the greater reward. Is that it?”
I grinned.
“Something like that.”
“How audacious. Yet clever.”
Now that she had fallen into the misunderstanding I wanted, it was time to get to the main point.
“Princess, do you see the Ghost Shaman here?”
“Yes. You have quite a capable subordinate.”
“She is my wife.”
The Squid Princess flinched in surprise, but Patel reacted even more strongly. I ignored both reactions and continued.
“My wife is a skilled Ghost Shaman, yet she cannot fully realize her potential due to a lack of ghost energy. If you can resolve this issue, I promise to prioritize your forces over the others.”
The princess stroked her chin.
“A shortage of ghost energy…? She does not seem lacking at all, but greed is indeed endless.”
She then retrieved eleven items related to ghost energy from her vault and displayed them.
“If you stand with this lady, I shall grant you six of them—half. That will be more than enough.”
I first asked the princess for a moment.
“Princess, please excuse me briefly.”
Then I leaned toward Patel and asked quietly,
“What do you think? Can it be done?”
“It can. Absolutely! My word, how is this possible? Relics I have only read about in history books, all gathered in one place…? I am beginning to wonder about the princess’s origins.”
I was slightly surprised by Patel’s reaction. I had expected the princess’s items to help, but not to this degree. While the plan to completely loot her vault had been scrapped, this alone was already worthwhile.
“Good. That will do.”
At the same time, I expanded my Domain around us. The sudden activation made the princess flinch.
“What… is the meaning of this?”
“I told one small lie. My apologies.”
“Don’t tell me—you were already recruited by the other two?”
“Not that. It is about the seafloor gate. You cannot pass through it. Think logically. You have already lost your qualifications as a summoner, have you not? The gate will not respond to you.”
“What…?”
The princess read the certainty in my tone and froze. Denial spread across her face.
“That… cannot be…”
I did not miss the opening. I stepped forward and stored all of the princess’s items. In an instant, the eleven treasures became mine.
“Y-you bastard! Do not lie!”
Yet the princess was far more concerned about the seafloor gate than the loss of her items. If she could not escape, the treasures were meaningless. Nothing mattered more to her than the gate.
“Why are you angry? It is the truth. There is no way to save you. The moment you fled, your future was already decided.”
“That cannot be!”
“It can. You are a traitor to the world, after all.”
At my words, zombies began to appear. Giant arms erupted from the reef, and deep-sea zombies surged beneath the churning waves. Zombies also manifested on the bodies of the seagulls circling overhead. A horrific scene of carnage unfolded. Beneath the rain of falling seagulls, the Squid Princess did not even attempt to attack. Instead, she asked in a dazed voice,
“You… have already surpassed the power this lady possessed… Let me ask one thing, junior. What stage… is this?”
“The fifth stage.”
“Haha… Ahahaha! Aaaah!”
She screamed at the sky, likely crying out toward her twin sister—the other princess who had become a sponsor and escaped this world.
She will commit suicide. At least this time I managed to secure some items.
It had been the same before. When she reached her mental limit, she cursed her twin and took her own life. That was why I had not expected to loot her treasures last time. Items stored in her vault could not be taken unless she herself retrieved them.
“So you… you have branded this lady a traitor to the world after all. Congratulations! You have won in the end.”
With those words, the princess died. She drove all ten of her tentacles into her own heart, completely destroying it.
I surveyed the now-calm scene and asked Patel,
“Patel, will these items alone be enough for ghost energy?”
“They will be sufficient.”
In the Duplicated World, I had turned the princess into ghost essence for Patel to absorb. The old users had been summoners, so there had been no incentive to turn them into zombies. Yet the princess’s final words contained something strange—she had spoken as though she had never intended to betray anyone. If I turned her into a zombie and questioned her, something useful might come out.
Anyway, all the business here is finally finished.
Next. If the fourth stage was “evolution” and the fifth was “items,” then the theme of the sixth stage was “transcendence.” Both summoners and their summons had transcended into something else there. It was time to go and find out why, among all those possibilities, I had become a Zombie Summoner.