The Depths of Desire
Recent events had been nothing but a relentless battlefield. Right after encountering the fishmen in El Dorado came the cruise, the Stormy Strait, the Shell Castle, and finally the Golden Lord himself. There simply hadn't been time to reflect on everything that had happened. Now that a moment of calm had arrived, it was time to analyze the situation.
Why is the Golden Lord chasing me?
The Fruit of Good and Evil. He had called me a thief, and the only thing I'd taken from El Dorado was that fruit. Yet something about it didn't add up. He had mobilized an absurd number of troops just to capture me, even going so far as to raise the sunken city itself from the ocean floor. Was there truly a reason to go to such lengths?
What exactly is the Fruit of Good and Evil?
A growth material that grants stat increases, skills, or Soul Engravings. That was all. Would something like that hold such immense value to an existence commanding an army of that scale?
Or does it have another purpose? And why is it even called the Fruit of Good and Evil in the first place?
The Fruit of Good and Evil—what was it, really? Apples, grapes, figs—many candidates existed, yet the Bible never specified its exact form. Regardless of appearance, it had always symbolized desire and original sin. Those who consumed it could step beyond the world God had ordained.
Come to think of it… in the original story, it was the Serpent of Eden who tempted Eve into eating the fruit…
The Serpent of Eden. The Serpent of Paradise.
Heaven's Snake?
I pulled out the snake bracelet. When all the Fruits of Good and Evil had been harvested upon conquering the maze, the snakes on the bracelet had lowered their heads and fallen silent. Their purpose fulfilled, they had remained stored away in the warehouse ever since.
Come to think of it… it originally belonged to the snake.
Death's Cat had said the bracelet was taken from the snake. To wield its true power, Heaven's Snake—or its influence—had to be nearby. An item that manipulated the power of desire.
When I examined the bracelet again, every snake's eyes glowed a vivid crimson, their tongues flicking hungrily.
The power of desire was active in this world.
A sudden chill ran down my spine. An unpleasant suspicion I had no desire to entertain began to slowly consume me.
Mingming had been in charge of disassembling and reassembling floating debris. Her goal was to mass-produce bombs. Against the colossal fishman, chemical weapons were the most effective immediate solution.
Park Seona and the leopard beastmen had been conducting artillery drills. Previously, I'd noted that zombies had poor eyesight and were ill-suited for ranged combat. These beastmen were the exact opposite. As natural-born marksmen of the feline family, once they received proper training, they quickly formed a formidable artillery unit.
My role was to explore the trench. The mass of tentacles inside the flask that kept calling "Appa" wasn't referring to me. The child had sensed its kin in Stage 5 and awakened from its deep slumber. It had simply developed a strong affinity for me because I had protected the flask.
Originally, we had planned to use the octopuses as shields to drive back the Golden Lord, but that was little more than a gamble. So instead, I intended to visit them and formally request their aid. Since the creature from the plains had offered it with goodwill, the tentacles wouldn't attack me without reason. That was the calculation.
Crack—
I flattened White Stone into a thin layer and wrapped it around my entire body. Over that, I donned the special suit Mingming had made, then equipped the [Diving Kit] from the random box. As Mingming finished the final checks, she warned me.
"The suit I gave you should hold up to two thousand meters. But I haven't tested anything beyond that."
"It'll be fine."
More than anything, I trusted the White Stone. This mineral had withstood a patron's mental assault. Among everything I possessed, it was undoubtedly the most superior material.
"I'll be back."
Splash—
I sank slowly into the deep sea. The light from the surface grew distant.
Do you know the defining trait of the deep sea? It is the place where light cannot reach. There is the mixed layer where sunlight maintains a constant temperature, the thermocline where temperature gradually drops, and finally the region where no light from the sky penetrates at all—what we call the deep sea.
Even in the deep sea, if there is a light source, light should spread. But here, that common sense did not apply. Even when light was shone, the darkness refused to recede, as though black fog filled the water. That was why this place was called the Dark Trench.
There were many theories about why light failed to spread here. Mingming's theory was that the octopuses had sprayed ink—enough to cover part of the sea. If that were true, just how enormous must these octopuses be?
I checked the kit on my arm.
[464m]
It displayed my current depth.
Soon I'll reach the true deep sea.
Once the sky's light vanished completely, a tentacle emerged from the flask attached to my chest. It spun around me playfully.
"Appa. Appa."
Does this thing not feel the water pressure?
At over five hundred meters, the pressure should have been immense. I was protected by three layers, so I was fine. But the small tentacle darted about as if completely unaffected.
Maybe it has some kind of skill.
To secure visibility, I activated the blue light on the kit attached to my head. Visibility was roughly one meter—practically nothing—but the light was for mental stability. I continued descending, cutting through the darkness.
[700m]
[800m]
[900m]
This is the perfect environment to lose your mind.
I had expected it, but being surrounded by pitch-black space with limited physical freedom exerted considerable mental pressure. Without the kit and the small tentacle, I might have suffered severe anxiety.
Yet while I felt that pressure, the tentacle only grew more energetic. It would vanish into the darkness and return, climb up my body, or stick to my helmet.
"Appa! Appa!"
To distract myself from the unease, I reached out and played with it lightly. Focusing on the creature did help.
Then, suddenly, a will I had never felt before began to transmit directly into my mind. A voice echoed inside my head.
[Who are you?]
I checked the kit.
[2782m]
While I had been distracted, I had descended to an absurd depth.
I tried to answer, then hesitated. This was the deep sea. How was the small tentacle speaking to me?
Shhh— shhh—
I couldn't see it, but I felt something enormous passing nearby. The sensation reverberated from all directions. Yet I wasn't afraid. Its movements seemed protective, keeping the currents from affecting me.
[Who are you… to be carrying Isabel's child…? She should be sealed in another world…]
"Appa! Appa!"
Tentacles emerged from every direction in my field of vision and gently stroked the small tentacle.
[We thought we had lost and would never see it again…]
A brief silence. The dense darkness made it feel even more hollow.
[Ah… So it has begun again? Then you must be the new climbers. As for me… yes, I have been replicated… Truly, that is the fate of the defeated!]
A mad laugh shook the sea. I tried to extract as much information as possible from his incomprehensible muttering.
Death's Cat called us the new riders. Then this one… is from a previous cycle?
Suddenly, something massive wrapped around my entire body. Looking down, I saw tentacles.
[It seems you have not yet mastered communication through will. Nor do you appear to be an aquatic creature capable of underwater speech. For now, let us ascend.]
He pulled me upward. We moved at an incredible speed, yet the water pressure did not crush me. It was a strange sensation.
As we left the dark depths, his form gradually came into view.
It was not an octopus monster. His appearance closely resembled the raincoat child I had seen in the maze. A form close to human, yet countless tentacles poured from his entire body, filling the world. His size felt like facing a massive mountain.
So this is the true form of the octopus monsters…?
As he headed toward the surface, he tilted his head.
[Hmm…? Why is the Golden Lord pursuing you? He should have been in deep slumber… Haha! Someone must have stimulated his desire and seized control of his mind. But how… Have you earned the hatred of a being connected to desire?]
When I nodded, he laughed again, loud enough to make the sea tremble.
Kahahahaha—
[Judging by your presence here, you must be a summoner between Stages 4 and 6. Yet you have already incurred the wrath of such a lofty existence? Indeed… Indeed. There must have been a reason Isabel entrusted our child to you.]
I could feel joy in his will. Perhaps he had been waiting a long time for someone to converse with.
As we rose toward the surface, he released me.
[I would like to speak longer, but it seems the Golden Lord will not wait for us.]
He gently pushed the small tentacle toward me.
[This child appears to have broken our laws and chosen to follow you. If Isabel did not give it a name, she must have meant for me to do so. The name is… Siling. In our tongue, it means 'hope.']
After one final caress of the small tentacle, he turned and began descending back into the depths.
"Appa! Appa!"
[Farewell… little one.]
Once he vanished, an eerie silence fell. I began swimming upward.
So… it was real after all.
Putting his words together, I felt as though I had glimpsed part of a hidden truth. But more importantly, one thing had become certain.
The reason the Golden Lord had awakened was likely the power of Heaven's Snake acting upon the bracelet. But that raised a condition. How had the snake's power been activated?
Although Death's Cat was absent, I was still under the protection of her company and the System. Heaven's Snake, who had tried to violate that, had clearly been disciplined. Therefore, the possibility that Heaven's Snake itself had entered my Stage 5 and interfered was virtually nonexistent.
A method to bypass the System and interfere with my domain. I didn't need to look far. Proof of such a phenomenon was already around me, wasn't it?
Just now, three suspects had emerged who could be the masterminds behind all these events.
There were three possibilities. One of them, two of them, or all of them.